Fun With South Africans

The title really should read, "Fun with FRIENDS," but I wanted to spark Marietjie's interest and have her read one of my posts. :) Reading, Marietjie?

One of the brightest highlights of my week is Sunday evening at the Van Straatens'. After evening service at church each Sunday a group of friends from my old Bible study traipses on over to Anton and Marietjie's to chat, laugh and eat. I soak up every minute of these evenings because I know they won't go on forever...college students and seminary guys/couples must part ways eventually as God continues to direct their steps. Some nights the talk is focused, serious and refreshing, other nights the talk is simply silly but refreshing in a different way.

Last night was one of those extra silly nights. :) LOVED it.

When I arrived at the Van Straatens' last night, only Anton, Marietjie and my friend Andrew were there at that point. Anton took the opportunity to start drilling me with questions that he insisted were necessary I answer for both their theological implications and for what he would deem the level of my "pioneering spirit." He proceeded to ask me (in a tone that said why haven't you thought of THIS before, silly???) what in the WORLD I would do if Jesus returned while I was on a mission in space? When Marietjie overheard the question as she was preparing coffee in the kitchen, she let out a woop and came bounding over to Anton and me, congratulating herself on having previously thought of the same thing and scoring a point in the "Hayley Shouldn't Be an Astronaut Vs. Hayley Should Be an Astronaut" game. Marietjie went on to mimic me floating around in the space station and watching helplessly as Jesus glided past the window, having no opportunity to go and meet Him in the sky. I retorted that He would probably just pick me up on the way down to the atmosphere, wouldn't He? No, Anton said, the likelihood of being in the right part of the galaxy while on a futuristic space mission at the time of Jesus' return is slim at best. All hope would be lost for me. :(

hahaha. :)

Still reading, Marietjie?

Anton's next question: "Let's say that scientists discover a planet in another galaxy that has an atmosphere, water, greenery, everything you could need to support life. NASA wants you and one other person to go scope the place out and do some experiments on it."--at this point I'm going, "Cool, cool!"--"Ok, now, it is a three to five year journey TO the planet, and a three to five year journey back."--Now I'm giggling and saying, "Well, I'd have to think about it....but YES of course! How cool would that be?!"--As he steadily holds my gaze with a laugh in his eye, Anton strikes again: "It would probably simply be a ONE WAY journey, though."--At this point I double over laughing along with the three South Africans in my midst. As we're recovering from our laughter, one more fun-to-be-with South African, Lonngren, walks through the front door.

While I continue my conversation with Anton in the living room, Lonngren sits down to tea and cupcakes with Andrew and Marietjie at the kitchen table. The background noises of my conversation were so pleasant. I loved the sound of the three of them with their quick jibber-jabber back and forth in their native tonge, Afrikaanse, every minute or so erupting in uncontrollable laughter.

All the while, the craziness of the conversation with Anton continues. I thought I might turn the conversation toward a more serious tone by noting that the journey to Mars, which NASA is actually trying to prepare for right now, is a six to ten year round-trip journey. Expecting him to make a few remarks on that fact, I was again surprised as Anton pressed the issue of the possibility of a totally livable but empty planet on which I might have to spend the rest of my life. Hahahahaha!

Two more lovable friends arrived soon after, Molly and Amanda. The house was bustling with friendship.

I moved to the kitchen table and as I sat down, I chuckled on the inside as I noted the amount of empty cupcake wrappers that were lying (neatly folded into quarters) on the corner of the table in between the boys. Molly picked up one of the cupcakes (my sister, Heather, was very generous in letting us bake her fashion-forward Sprinkles cupcakes while she was with us and then letting me take some to Anton and Marietjie's...thanks Heather! People loved them!) and began to eat. Lonngren decided to be very helpful and pointed out to Molly that the cupcake decorations, shown here,


were in all actuality completely edible, despite the fact that they looked completely plastic. Anton also picked up a cupcake and walked behind me with it, and a few seconds later, the top of the cupcake came whistling between Marietjie and my shoulders, frisbee style, right on target on the cupcake plate. That sight made me giggle and the memory of the cupcake frisbee made me chuckle every time I thought about it today. Upon my inquisition as to why Anton would disregard the best part of the Sprinkles cupcake (the cinnamon cream cheese frosting), Anton blatantly explained, "I hate frosting." Enough said. :) Marietjie grabbed the decoration, I grabbed the top of the cupcake and we both had a nice treat.

Lonngren proceeded to point out that not only were the cupcake decorations completely edible, but they also looked like buttons that would detonate a bomb when pressed. After pressing one of the decorations, he made that classic bomb sound that I seriously believe boys and ONLY boys can make: "--" Well, never mind, I was going to try to write the sound of the noise, but I think its impossible. You all know what I'm talking about, don't you?

I told Lonngren, "Those are fashionable Sprinkles dots, thank you very much."

Molly, slightly giggling, at this point pipes up with a "You were serious when you said the dots were edible, right? Oh, whew, good, because they do really feel like plastic."

Next, Anton re-enters the house (note: I don't believe anyone knew that he had even left the house. One minute he was next to us, the next he was walking through the door.) balancing a cup of coffee on a Marie Calendars pie box. Apparently one of his neighbors had given him some extra pie. Yum. As he was deciding whether or not he was going to share the pie with his guests, he asked me if I would consider the one way ticket to the empty livable planet if I could go with John and Patricia MacArthur and Marietjie. I said yes of course, thinking it would get me some pie. It didn't. :) (Just kidding. Anton ended up offering it to everyone.)

Our group decided to move to the living room so that we could all sit down. Sadly, at this time Molly had to leave. We missed her.

The conversation was pretty scattered. Amanda began by telling us a silly story of an encounter that her family, and especially her grandma, had with the guy who played the dad in Seventh Heaven. I told the story of my mom's poor/hilarious encounter with Candice Bergen. Lonngren told the story of his encounter with the handsome and talented Mr. South Africa (Wow, South Africa has a male beauty pageant? Anyone who knows anything about it please inform me!! :).

Marietjie told us how BADLY she wants to win the pumpkin carving contest at the SCV Reformation Day party this week. She asked for outstanding ideas about what she should carve. It seems like everyone had their two cents to say on this. I know I had mine. So many people were talking over each other, but all the while I heard Andrew's voice in the background, going, "Marietjie, Marietjie, you know what you should do? You should duhduhduhduhduhduhduh......" I don't know what he said, there were so many people talking. All I know is that suddenly the conversation went silent just in time for Marietjie and me to look at Andrew as he was finishing up the last two words of his brilliant idea for carving a pumpkin. After he said his last word, he nodded his head down and raised his eyebrows confidently like, "THAT'S what you should do, and you know it. Aren't I the smart-smart here?" Marietjie and I cracked up. Loved it.

Somehow the conversation drifted to Daylight Savings Time. I think people were wondering why it didn't end yesterday, or something. Lonngren started getting confused about this whole Daylight Savings Time thing, afterall, he's only been in the states for a few months and South Africa doesn't have such a practice. Finally, he just asked the blunt question: "Ok, what IS Daylight Savings Time?" We started giggling at how far back we could go to answer that question, how detailed and how extravagant we could be in our explanations. Anton got out of his chair and picked up one of the decorative wicker balls that surrounded a glowing candle, the centerpiece of the coffeetable. He said, "Ok, Lonngren, this is the Earth." Andrew went to the coffee table and pointed to the candle, saying, "And this is the Sun. Now the Earth revolves around the Sun." Lonngren got up, took his cell phone out of his pocket, made it revolve around Anton's Earth, and said, "And this is a spaceship." Anton goes, "That's Hayley!" And of course Marietjie pipes up, "It's Halley's Comet!" So silly.

I think that's the gist of the good times. Do you see why I love these evenings?

Yay, Marietjie! Now you can comment!