So my Aunt
Zanne had arranged for me to come to the farm with some other people who live
in Pretoria. They had a son and daughter just a year of two younger than me and
they’d all met on their European tour last year. Domonique and Kénan came to
pick me up around 1 o’clock and we drove to their house near Irene Mall. Once
there I met their mother Lidia and waited for their father Mark to come home so
we could start our journey towards the farm. Though Mark’s BMW was very
luxurious-looking and could speed up like nobody’s business, I can attest to
the absolute horrible seats in the back. Not only do I probably have bruises on
my backside, by the time we got to the farm I wasn’t sure whether my legs still
worked or not (they were that numb from sitting). When we got there, Gogga was
acting very shy and cute and actually let me carry him around a bit so he could
hide his face in my neck. We ate a dinner of random things and chilled around
the house. Mark joked that they just couldn’t get me to shut up the whole drive
over. What can I say, I don’t talk that much if I don’t know you… I’d be sharing
a room with Zandri and Saskia, Mark and Lidia were taking the guestroom,
Domonique was is Saskia’s room and Kénan was in AJ’s room. At one point all the
girls were chatting about marriage in Zandri’s room. Domonique said she was
still too young to get married at 21 years old. Then she looked over at me and
said I was getting that age… I’m not even two year older and apparently I’m
going on ancient and it’s tragic that I’m still single… I just lifted my
eyebrows at this and kept my mouth shut…
The next
morning we all dragged ourselves out of bed and went to church, there was some
kind of Easter convention going on… Oh joy. The grown-ups had said they wanted
to go to church three times that weekend… Anyways, the singing went on so long
that I really wanted to sit down towards the end. I can say that the church’s
rock band has an amazing singer amongst them, though I couldn’t quite tell who
it was from the back of the room. People came up during the service to tell
everyone about the heavenly visions they’d just had about the church’s future
and basically all went a bit cuckoo’s in my opinion. I don’t mean this in a bad
way, but so many goings-on isn’t what I’m used to… The sermon ran late and then
we had communion which also took forever. Later we got some coffee and a snack
from the church catering before we went home. Burgert and Mark started with the
braai almost immediately, everyone being starving and all. The kids played
cricket while we were waiting and then the girls all helped in the kitchen. After
we ate, we all chilled around the house and later in the evening the older kids
all went to Spur for a snack, just to do something. We took Mark’s BMW and it
was apparently the first time Mark had entrusted Domonique with his car. We
went to Spur and ordered a few random things and generally had a good time. We
took some pictures and left. When we got to the car though, there was glass
everywhere. Luckily it seemed to be from a different vehicle. I think Domonique
might have had a mini heart attack. We stopped at KFC for ice-cream before
driving home. When we got back to the farm, Domonique and Kénan told their
parent’s the story of the glass and let the sweat for a minute before telling
them that the car was fine.
From left to right: Zandri, Domonique, Saskia, Me and Kénan.
Saturday
morning we all slept late. We had a little shooting match in the backyard. I
didn’t win, but at least I didn’t lose either. The loser having to jump into
the pool, which was not particularly warm at this time of year. Against all
expectations Burgert lost horribly, not even shooting inside the circle.
Domonique won with a perfect Bull’s-eye. Burgert, AJ and Gogga jumped iWe went
to the ‘Melkkan’ for lunch. A beautiful little place just outside of Welkom,
where everything is made of tin. You just went into the little building and
took whatever you wanted. Afterwards you wrote down what you took in the ‘gewetenboek’
(means translate to ‘book of conscience’). We ordered food, but it was taking
quite a while so all the girls went exploring with a camera close at hand. When
the food finally arrived, we were all famished and the food was delicious. Then
we went on to the go-carts. I lost horribly. I blame my car. It took ages to
speed up again after going past a bend. AJ begged me for a picture with my
instant camera, and if AJ got one Gogga needed one too. Both the pictures
looked adorable. After the grown-ups raced and Gogga raced on the kiddies
track, we went back home for dinner in the form of bran muffins. Mark and
Burgert went to church again but the rest stayed home to chill and chat. The
bran muffins disappeared at a spectacular rate, something that Saskia was
vocally surprised about. But we were ten people, five of which were male and
typically have bottomless pits for stomachs. After dinner we dragged some mattresses
to the television room and all watched a movie or two.
Target Practice
We went to
church again. This time with Kénan going up to the stage to tell everyone he
had a vision for the church’s future. Afterwards we went home, where Zanne had
lamb rousting in the oven. Kénan liked the lamb so much that he had four
helpings and actually finished it. Malva pudding for desert and we were all so
full we had to be rolled away from the table. Watched another movie or two and
had a lazy afternoon in general.
I’d be
driving back with Wynand, Rynette and Diets on Monday morning. There was no
chance in hell that I was going to subject my behind to another three hours in
that uncomfortable BMW. Before we met up
with them though, everyone had a long praying session… It took so long in fact
that Zanne was almost too late with dropping me off. Once in Diets’ massive
(and comfortable) Range Rover, we made for Pretoria in record time (during which Wynand took a nap). I stayed
over at Rynette’s place and Diets took me to Tukkies early the next morning.
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Wynand napping in the car
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