You say it's your birthday

Today is the 76th birthday of my host father, John Monyeki. In honor of the day, here's a little more about my host parents.

Papa, as I've mentioned before, is fairly sick. He has adult on-set diabetes, high blood pressure, and arthritis. His kidneys sometimes bother him, but it's not diagnosed. Despite this, he says that he's not goingto complain about his health any more because it will get him no where. He continues to go to meetings several times a week for his induna duties, and leads Sunday services at the African Methodist Episcopalian Church. But he has started skipping Saturday funerals because he knows that he can't walk as far as he used to. He returned from three weeks in Hammonskral at the hospital about as new as a 76 year-old can be.

He cooks for himself occassionaly without complaint unlike any other South African male I know. He enjoys to eat one type of food for about two months, and then switches to something new. When I arrived at site, he was in a cabbage kick (with bogobe) and he switched to mazaban (a kind of boiled potato dish with onions and tomatoes or carrots) with bogobe.

He loves watching and listening to the news (except in English) and discusses local news with me when no one else is around. His favorite phrase: 'fuck 'em.'

Mma is my co-conspirator. Usually I do my best faces and impersonate people (especially Papa) for her benefit and mutual laughter. She especially enjoys my terminally cute moments.

She is the cooker and cleaner of the household (like all the gogos I know) but leaves work for her granddaughters to do when they visit.

TV and radio do not entice her, but she loves to talk and visits neighbors and relatives as often as she can. I'm afraid of what she tells them because she's convinced that when I leave and go back to America, that I will take her with me. She's even growing out her hair so that she can impress everyone there. She does not speak English and I don't think that she will enjoy the hustle and bustle of an American day. My least favorite thought is that she thinks that I will buy her plane ticket.

The final member of my immediate host family is Lefie, our cat. Papa ignores him but keeps Lefie around because he is good at catching bugs, lizards, birds, and large rodents. Mma enjoys pestering him and getting him to lash out and try to bite and scratch her. I scratch his ears occassionally making me his favorite person (he follows me almost every where including the pit toilet).