Culture 101 Ladies Night

On Friday Jeff was flying some doctors up to the Tuli block, so he was going to be gone for two nights. I had already planned to have a "ladies Night" at my house, just dinner in the garden and a chick flick. Well, three of my friends bailed and it was only going to be Nicole and Diane, but that was fine too. In the afternoon I went to my friend Hazel's house, she's the young lady that had a baby in Dec. He's one month old now. Anyway, I had a children's illustrated bible I wanted to give Lefa (the baby), and I added a magazine for Hazel, a bible, and a little bible study on marriage. In the meantime her friend Lesedi dropped by to show her a funeral program. She had just found out that her boyfriend, who was living in South Africa, had died in a car accident. After some time I went to excuse myself and Lesedi asked if I could drop her at home, which was just a few streets down. As we were talking by the car, they both lamented at how they wanted to do something tonight. So I said "well I was having some ladies for dinner, would you like to come." They agreed happily and Lesedi was very happy that I was making lasagne as she wanted to learn how to cook it.

So about 4:30, through rush hour traffic, I came back to collect Hazel and Lesedi. Hazel asked if her older sister could come, and I had to accept, but in the end she decided not to. But then Hazel comes walking out with her baby and her 10 year old sister. I thought to myself, "what is going on?" Well, 10 year old sister was coming as babysitter. So I relented and we went to pick up Lesedi. When I got there here comes Lesedi and some other girl about her age, well it's her cousin Mammi. I chided myself, I've lived here 7 years and I should have known that if I invited Lesedi and Hazel that it wouldn't just be them. So finally we made it back to my place and I put everyone to work making lasagna or setting the table outside. The weather was great. I went to take a picture of the artist and their table and they decided that we should have a photo shout on the lawn, so we all took turns putting on Mammi's hip sunglasses and posing for photos.

Little sister was true to her job, she held the baby, played with him, fed him. They put him on a blanket in the grass and then inside and little sister barely said a word. Nicole and Diane showed up with salad and rolls and we had a really nice dinner in the garden. I was surprised that the Batswana liked Lasagna so much, but there you have it. Lesedi is studying to be a Lawyer and was quite engaging and Mammi was studying Human resource in S.A. After dinner we moved in doors and I put the DVD in. Most Batswana ladies that I know, don't really like watching videos but this was a musical so it was okay(Bollywood film, Bride and Prejudice). Well, about 30 minutes into the movie, Hazel's mom phones and says, it's time for her and baby to come home. I knew this would happen, luckily I had already seen the video, so I quickly took her home,not wanting Lesedi and Mammi to miss out, I let them stay. As we were leaving, Mammi hands Hazel 20 pula so that she could pick up a prepaid cellphone card while we are out as if we had all the time in the world. So I finally get back and I suggest we have desert and then Hazel calls and can't find her key, can I go look in the car for it. I couldn't find it either. Finally the video was finished and Nicole and I took Lesedi and Mammi home, and they all liked the video very much and I was glad that Lesedi's mind was put off of her boyfriend's death for a few hours. But I must say I was quite tired after the whole event.

So Ladies Night turned out somewhat different than I had expected.