Jugendtag 2007

Thankfully, I survived the weekend without getting any serious injuries this time, except for a swollen, sprained finger. This youth day felt strange and out of sorts compared to previous years, and I suppose that had a lot to do with the fact that this year it took place closer to home instead of the "farmlands". For that reason, I only took part in the festivities from Saturday morning onwards, instead of Friday night. I had the option to join just about everyone for a pre-party in Hatfield, but chose to have an early nigth in instead. I did regret it a bit since I hate to miss a party and catch up with old friends, but at least I was fresh and well-rested on Saturday for the long day ahead. Blegh.

We missed the opening church service, having strolled in to the Pretoria Deutsche Schule just after 9 in the morning. Considering I was wide awake, I was jolted out of my daydream in the carpark when someone called out my name from a passing car. I couldnt see who it was but waved anyway, only to find out later that it was Andre. There was a huge tent pitched outside where most of the people were already settled in. We waited outside for Ingrid and Rudi to arrive with our new blue team rugby shirts. I was quite impressed with our new gear, the blue really made us stand out in the crowd (though we did get a bit of confused with the Kirchdorf youth, who had lighter blue tops).

After the service ended, we quickly gathered the troops for a quick song practice during the tea and cake break. First two attempts of our song "Mutig und Stark" sounded somewhat awful (and my voice sounded croaky - oh dear) but eventually we got it right and were ready to rock despite our jitters. Sonja and I made one quick run to the cake and tea stands before we lined up to sing; I was starving since I hadnt eaten much that day.

Our turn was finally up and we entered the tent with some cheers from our JHB crowd. I was trembling with fear but managed to control my stage fright and sang to the best of my ability. We all did. I think we sounded quite good actually. I thought it was quite funny that one of the other youths sang "Ablaze" for which we got rave reviews last year. So I wonder if anyone else will sing "Mutig and Stark" next year. We seem to set the precedent.

While we waited for the rest of the youths to finish their songs and the rest of the folk songs, we caught up with random friends until the next break. Lunch consisted of deformed wors, potato salad and string beans. Not too bad a meal (all of it is provided free by the host congregation), but unfortunately, when I got back to our table, I realised my beans were frozen and starting to melt on my plate. I wonder if the mothers had noticed that they were dishing out frozen beans. I pushed them to one side and ate the rest of my food as fast as possible before it drowned in defrosting beans. I had a good laugh when I looked up and saw a man that looked exactly like Mick Jagger, sans the lips. Looks like we have all sorts of weird characters around here.

After lunch we all assembled in the sports fields and got ready for the Polonaize. There were so many of us and it was nice to see a huge support crowd of parents and other relatives. Since Ingrid had gone to the car to fetch some stuff, I danced with Rudi and almost got my arms pulled from its sockets by Matt and Rudi as they dragged me across the field. It was good fun though, doing the formations on the field. To my relief, we did not have to do the volkdans after that as the brass band didnt have the sheet music for it. Phew!

Soon we kicked off with the sports. I was a bit surprised and a bit nervous to find out that I was in the ball-uebern-struck team as well as volleyball. Im scared of playing the former as I always end up getting hurt, it really is a vicious game. And that's how I hurt my left ring finger, twice. We drew our first match and lost the next two by huge margins - none of us were really concerned about that as we did not want to play any further matches. Yes, we all really hate this game.

This time the boys did quite well in volleyball, having won 2 out of 3 matches. But unfortunately they did not go through to the next round (I still dont understand the point system). Weasel managed to sprain his foot once again. I do not know what is it with that boy and his feet; he has no balance whatsoever. After that, it was time for tautzien (spelling?) aka tug-of-war. I was so proud of the boys as they won their first round and narrowly lost the second round to some dodgy umpire decision - we think they should have won, but we are still proud of them.

Volleyball was next for us, while the boys played touch rugby. We seemed to relaxed and did not win a single match this time - quite disappointing since we were defending champions. But I guess we were just there to have fun. The boys went through to the semis for touch, but after losing several men due to injuries (lol) they lost in the end. No matter, it was a result to be proud of. When the announcer mentioned that us girls made it to the semis for ball-uebern-struck, we all thought it was a sick joke. How could it have been possible? We had drawn one game and lost two??!!! But it was true. We had made it. Our next crisis was to find all our players as three went AWOL. We honestly didnt expect it. So I rounded a few extras and we poached a girl from another youth.

We did not want to go through to the finals (not really, we were tired, sunburnt and hungry) so we tried hard, but definitely not our best. In the end we did alright, yet I managed to hurt my finger once more. We lost, but it we werent disappointed at all. I must say that our support crowd was amazing. Heinz Kruse, one of our congregation member, has been to every single jugendtag for as long as I can remember, and has always cheered us on. He deserves a big thank you.

When that was done, my stomach was already begging for McDonalds, but we waited till Uwe was done with his matches. His team took most honours that day by winning volleyball, ball-uebern-struck and tautzien. I think their girls won too. Impressive results!

Finally we made it to McDs and all gathered about 5 tables together and ate to our hearts' content. Hmmm, it felt so good. After that we went to Rudi's place to bath and get ready for the party, slowly, but surely. How 12 people managed to bath in record time (and with enough water) still amazes me. We were all exhausted, but still had a good time at the party back at the school. Booze was cheap (R6 a drink!), and welcome to block out the cold. For some reason we all assembled outside. Only a few couples were dancing round and round inside. I waited till almost the end and danced with Rudi, the maestro. I was quite tense in the beginning, as always, but managed to loosen up after a few songs. Unfortunately, I did not stick with the bet I made with Sonja (to dance with THE man) : ( Im soooo chicken.

Most of our die-hard party goers from the previous night were ready to pass out, so it was only Sonja, Ferdi, me, Werner and a drunk Matt that went to Herr Gunters in Hatfield after the party ended. There were several other youth members there too, but not enough. We sat and drank for another hour then woke Rudi up at 2am so he could let us in. Hahahaha.

I didnt get much sleep on those inflatable mattrasses (as the night progressed, mine deflated) so I was more than willing to go home immediately when we woke up, rather than go to church for a record long service. After we dropped Matt off there, Ferdi and I went back to JHB. We got home just after 9am. I didnt even bother undressing or unpacking. I climbed into bed and slept well into the afternoon, and woke up to the wonderful smells of Weasel's cooking. He refused to feed me, but eventually coaxed him into sharing with me.

I said that this was definitely my last year in partaking in Jugendtag, but after having so much fun, how can I possibly not return for another round next year??!!! Only time will tell...

Here is one pic, but I will definitely post more during the week. Otherwise check my facebook profile...

Now let me go back to nursing my injuries and cold. Brrrrrrrr.