Zulu dance performance
The African ladies serving their traditional meals
Zulu costume
Friday, Sept 22
Today the plant celebrating hnkl friendship day. Since the national heritage day falls on this coming Sunday they decided to combine the 2. Lucky for us that we got to be part of it. I was planning to do a day tour on one of the weekends while we were here but this turned out to be way way better! The festivities started at noon and kept going. People were in their traditional costumes and for lunch each group made traditional meals from their culture. Here I learned that there are 4 distinct ethnic groups. First are the Afrikaners who are the whites, their ancestors are the dutch that came from the Netherlands or the English that came from the UK. Second group were the Blacks who are the indigenous people here, between them are about 9 major tribes including the famous zulu tribe. Third were the Colored, they are all with mixed descents including Asians. If you are a product of a inter-racial marriage then you automatically become a colored person. Third group are the Indians from India. There were 4 food booths that made a multi-course meal for lunch. I am copying the menus below this so I can remember the interesting menue and names of dishes. Well, our colleagues thought that since we are visitors they would give us a meal ticket for the Afrikan meal, since according to them was the most western style of food. The other extreme was the menu from the blacks which included, ox tripe, tendons, meat from a cow’s head and worms!!! Even the afrkaners can’t eat this stuff! Federico and I decided that we wanted to try them all. When would we get this opportunity again?! I told Federico that he must try the worms because another colleague of our has always bragged that he ate monkey meat when he did an audit in china. I think worms will top that!
It was such a fun day. It was set under a huge tent in a big grassy area of the plant. Each group came up to talk about their culture and either did some traditional dance or song. And their costumes, especially the blacks!! I have read that the south African tribes have the most colorful tribal costumes and this was so true. I took so many pictures and still couldn’t get over the excitement of so many beautiful faces and costumes. The day before I asked manie, the head of ops, that it would be wonderful if he could arrange for a group shot of everyone in costume with me and Fedi. One reason is that I could send it to our big boss in germany who likes to post pics like this on our board in the office. The other reason is that it would be an awesome momento for me. They did organize a group shot for us and before they took the picture Fedi decided that he wanted to make a short speech! He introduced himself and explained that he was half german and half argentinian. The ofcourse I had to say something so I explained my heritage and that I now live in the US. Then I felt compelled to add that I’ve always wanted to come to south Africa and is now so excited to be here! Everyone clapped for us, it was so fun
As mentioned we noticed that people tend to segregate themselves so that the whites sit at separate tables and the blacks do the same. Well, we played the ignorant foreigner card and decided to sit with the blacks. Fedi and I basically got up 3 times to get different samples of meals and each time we would go to a black table and asked if we could sit with them. Each time we were welcomed very warmly.People already knew about the 2 of us coming from corporate so we got some special treatment, they all wanted us to try their food. The Indian food was so good and the Indian ladies were telling to just take a sample from the platter with my fingers, so I did. They had meat samosas that was really spicy and delicious. It was already into the afternoon and Fedi had gone back to the office to send out an email to our big boss. I started talking to these 2 young black girls that work in the office. One was zulu and the other was soni. The zulu girl introduced herself as soneni. I commented that her earings were lovely and very colorful. She then asked me how long I will be here because she will bring a pair for me as a gift. I was a little surprised at her offer since we had just met but she insisted as a gesture of friendship. Wow, and all I did was complimented her on her pretty earrings. I cant picture someone back home doing the same! Soneni and Suyi were so curious about my job and how cool it was to travel all over the world. They wanted to know how they can get to do my job so I gave them some career advice. They were very young and saucy, it was very cute. Soneni mentioned that the way of dress from her zulu tribe is too revealing for hnkl dress code. Apparently they are used to wearing minimal clothing!
By this time I lost any shyness and was asking everyone about their costume and they were all very proud to show and explain to me. It was a nice party.
This was one of the best experiences so far. Federico and I agreed that this was even better than doing a tour because you are also hanging out with the locals.
Today the plant celebrating hnkl friendship day. Since the national heritage day falls on this coming Sunday they decided to combine the 2. Lucky for us that we got to be part of it. I was planning to do a day tour on one of the weekends while we were here but this turned out to be way way better! The festivities started at noon and kept going. People were in their traditional costumes and for lunch each group made traditional meals from their culture. Here I learned that there are 4 distinct ethnic groups. First are the Afrikaners who are the whites, their ancestors are the dutch that came from the Netherlands or the English that came from the UK. Second group were the Blacks who are the indigenous people here, between them are about 9 major tribes including the famous zulu tribe. Third were the Colored, they are all with mixed descents including Asians. If you are a product of a inter-racial marriage then you automatically become a colored person. Third group are the Indians from India. There were 4 food booths that made a multi-course meal for lunch. I am copying the menus below this so I can remember the interesting menue and names of dishes. Well, our colleagues thought that since we are visitors they would give us a meal ticket for the Afrikan meal, since according to them was the most western style of food. The other extreme was the menu from the blacks which included, ox tripe, tendons, meat from a cow’s head and worms!!! Even the afrkaners can’t eat this stuff! Federico and I decided that we wanted to try them all. When would we get this opportunity again?! I told Federico that he must try the worms because another colleague of our has always bragged that he ate monkey meat when he did an audit in china. I think worms will top that!
It was such a fun day. It was set under a huge tent in a big grassy area of the plant. Each group came up to talk about their culture and either did some traditional dance or song. And their costumes, especially the blacks!! I have read that the south African tribes have the most colorful tribal costumes and this was so true. I took so many pictures and still couldn’t get over the excitement of so many beautiful faces and costumes. The day before I asked manie, the head of ops, that it would be wonderful if he could arrange for a group shot of everyone in costume with me and Fedi. One reason is that I could send it to our big boss in germany who likes to post pics like this on our board in the office. The other reason is that it would be an awesome momento for me. They did organize a group shot for us and before they took the picture Fedi decided that he wanted to make a short speech! He introduced himself and explained that he was half german and half argentinian. The ofcourse I had to say something so I explained my heritage and that I now live in the US. Then I felt compelled to add that I’ve always wanted to come to south Africa and is now so excited to be here! Everyone clapped for us, it was so fun
As mentioned we noticed that people tend to segregate themselves so that the whites sit at separate tables and the blacks do the same. Well, we played the ignorant foreigner card and decided to sit with the blacks. Fedi and I basically got up 3 times to get different samples of meals and each time we would go to a black table and asked if we could sit with them. Each time we were welcomed very warmly.People already knew about the 2 of us coming from corporate so we got some special treatment, they all wanted us to try their food. The Indian food was so good and the Indian ladies were telling to just take a sample from the platter with my fingers, so I did. They had meat samosas that was really spicy and delicious. It was already into the afternoon and Fedi had gone back to the office to send out an email to our big boss. I started talking to these 2 young black girls that work in the office. One was zulu and the other was soni. The zulu girl introduced herself as soneni. I commented that her earings were lovely and very colorful. She then asked me how long I will be here because she will bring a pair for me as a gift. I was a little surprised at her offer since we had just met but she insisted as a gesture of friendship. Wow, and all I did was complimented her on her pretty earrings. I cant picture someone back home doing the same! Soneni and Suyi were so curious about my job and how cool it was to travel all over the world. They wanted to know how they can get to do my job so I gave them some career advice. They were very young and saucy, it was very cute. Soneni mentioned that the way of dress from her zulu tribe is too revealing for hnkl dress code. Apparently they are used to wearing minimal clothing!
By this time I lost any shyness and was asking everyone about their costume and they were all very proud to show and explain to me. It was a nice party.
This was one of the best experiences so far. Federico and I agreed that this was even better than doing a tour because you are also hanging out with the locals.
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