Catching Up

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008. We had another Mascato performance at Pelican Bay Hotel this evening. Joel & I had a blast winging it for the most part! WEEEEE! I’ve heard Mascato perform most of these traditional songs before, but I’ve never performed them myself. I especially enjoyed the Damara (the language with clicks in it) and movement pieces. Joel stood directly behind me and every time we successfully made it through a piece, we’d low-five each other. Hahaha… I also kept turning around to give Joel one of my “let’s do this” grins at which he’d return with his wide-eyed “uh… here goes nothing” facial expression. Hahaha… I wonder if the audience could tell that we’ve never done these songs before. But still… I danced, I sang, I dressed like a Mascato… heehee… I must’ve at least looked the part. ;-p Winging it was SOOO FUN!!! Gotta keep this up fo sho!

Friday, July 4th, 2008. After my usual bout at Sunshine Kids, Aunty J picked me up and we strolled around town for a bit to run some errands. She then took me to visit a friend of hers named, Aunty Meata, who is a very skilled seamstress here in Walvis Bay. She is currently busy with sewing graduation dresses for many girls who are going to the Matric Farewell (equivalent to high school graduation banquet). After looking at all her projects, I must say that she is very good at what she does. Haha… and I kept getting the hint from her that she wanted to sew my wedding dress. She kept giving me bridal magazines to look through. Oy vey… and I haven’t even made any wedding plans yet, so I was like… “Uh ok… I’ll keep it in mind. Thanks for the offer.” =p Haha…
After picking up Garth from work that evening, we bumped into Dolfie in town and gave him a lift home. He literally lives a few doors down from Garth’s house. We had to cut our catching up short though because the combi (mini-van) was waiting for Garth & I to take us to the Mascato rehearsal in Swakop.
At the rehearsal, we were greeted by Nigel. YAY! He has arrived! He stayed for a short bit and then left to take a nappy nap – catching up from jet lag no doubt.
The Mascato rehearsal was pretty productive. We sang all Karl Jenkins music in preparation for the musical. I dig Jenkins music. Things are starting to sound promising.
Wow. It was so great to sing in front of Scott again. I missed him and his conducting. I couldn’t seem to wipe off the grin on my face throughout the entire rehearsal. Looking forward to the next rehearsals.

Saturday, July 5th, 2008. Had another Mascato rehearsal this afternoon. You guessed it… more Karl Jenkins music. At one point in the rehearsal everyone started glazing over… haha… Scoot said that everyone seemed to be going through Karl Jenkins overload. We had a quick break then went back at it. Mascato is known to have a lot of long practices… especially so depending on the magnitude of the performances. This musical is going to be a huge sponsored event, so it’s no surprise that Mrs. Venter and Mascato are working so hard. I am sooooo sad that I’m going to miss the actual spectacle. =( Sigh… but at least I get to experience the behind-the-scenes making of this musical with them.
Garth & I went to visit his dad, Titus, after the rehearsal. His birthday was on July 1st, so we came to see how he was doing.
Then we got dropped off at the Taxi Rank to catch a cab back to Walvis Bay. Before doing so however, Garth took me to a nearby kepana spot (where they sell street food like braai meat and vetkoeks – aka fat cakes… aka deep fried bread balls… mmm) ‘cause he knew how much I enjoy it. Anyone who plans to visit Namibia must get the kepana experience. The food is cooked in front of you and you eat with your fingers. It’s so uber scrumptious. But yes, one should be careful as well. Sometimes the food could have sat out all day as well, so make sure to check for that before downing your vleis (meat). For me, I’ve had no probs thus far so Ima gonna keep enjoying kepana.
Now the taxi experience itself is another story. Cabbies at the taxi rank fight for their customers. They’ll pull you this way and that towards their individual cabs. They are very persistent and would often get into arguments with each other. When there are four passengers to a cab, only then will they depart. Sometimes the cabby will get one of his buddies to sit in his cab as a pretend passenger just to get the cab filled faster. When there are three people in, the buddy would get out and help the cabby find a fourth passenger. Haha… it’s a dog eat dog world at the taxi rank, I guess.

Sunday, July 6th, 2008. We made another trip out to Swakop again. This time the Mascatos had to get fitted for the musical costumes. I got to see some of the sketches and they look really cool already. I looked for the Oracle’s costume sketch (which is Garth’s role) and was surprised to see a very feminine Greek goddess-esque dress. I gave the designer a “what the?” look and she said that she wasn’t aware that the Oracle was going to be played by both a male and a female (aka Romancia). Well, back to the planning board for Garth’s costume it looks like.
After the fitting the bunch of us Walvis Bayers went out for some more kepana!!! YAY! Oh my goodness, I just can’t have enough. I told the group about my previous kepana experiences and Melissa & Rozain from Mascato just shook their heads. They guaranteed me that the place where we were going to get it today was the best in town. “Nay man! Firebar is the best!” they say. Ooo… my mouth was watering in anticipation. Well, we got there and saw the lady cooking up some freshly marinated steaks. OMGOSH… it smelled so good. We all bought our vetkoeks and Dollar, Garth & I shared a honkin steak. We ripped off a piece of our vetkoeks, spooned on a dollop of chilli onion sauce and wolfed it down with a piece of steak. MMMMM… that bite was soo delicious. Freshness makes all the difference yo. The deep fried fat cake was fluffy and the meat was juicy. (Sorry to all the vegetarians reading this post). Indeed Melissa and Rozain were right. Firebar kepana is the best! And it’s located right by MYO! Now I know where and how to get it on my own. ;-p
On the way back to Walvis Bay, we passed by a family who’s car had veered off the side of the road and was stuck in the sanded. They were struggling, so our combi of 10 MasKoko peeps came to the rescue! At the scene of the incident, I saw that it was an Asian family! Cool! Haha… everyone was like, “Let’s Michelle talk to theml.” But lo and behold they are from Korea and I don’t speak a lick of Korean. Anyway, the macho men gathered up their strength and worked together in pushing the car out of the sand. Sound familiar, anyone? If you’re thinking Dina Koloi, then BINGO for you! Hahaha… the whole time, us girls cheered on the sidelines by singing Dina Koloi which is a song frequently sung by Mascato about a car that had to be pushed because it was so old. Haha… though this car wasn’t old, the fact that Mascato men were pushing the car was funny enough for me. A Kodak moment. =DWhen we all finally got back to Walvis Bay, Garth & I wanted to chillax and enjoy a nice quiet evening together before he has to start another work week tomorrow. So we thought how about a movie? We rented the movie Faith Like Potatoes. It’s a true inspirational story that took place in Africa. We heard a lot of good reviews about it so we thought it would be a good choice for the evening.