6 months ago, my inlaws and 300 other nearest and dearest descended upon my parent's quiet home in the east of Pretoria. My inlaws travelled all the way from the battlefields region of KZN for umembeso - the second part of my four part wedding. I'll explain the four part thing another time.
It was a vibrant, colourful, and
extremely loud event which shook up the conservative leafy-green gated estate where my parents reside. 100 Zulus, 100 Pedis, 2 goats, 1 sheep and 200 of everyone else in between celebrated in song and dance all dressed in their finest traditional garb. The neighbours peered curiously from behind their dobermans and pitbulls whilst the caretaker added up the fines as we broke every rule in the estate's bible.
On that momentous occasion, all my uncles, aunts, and various elders gave me the same two pieces of advice. "Respect your husband, and take care of your mother in law." Taking care of your elder in my culture means cook for them, clean after them and watch your mouth. This can be tricky when like me you have an obsession with long, glossy, pimped out nails. For an acrylic soldier such as myself, gloves are not always practical (or makoti-like) when taking care of one's elders, resulting in some collateral damage.
For two weeks out of my 3 week "festive break", I took care of my parents, my mother-in-law (Ma), my granny, my Gogo (granny in law),and my cousins, and I respected my husband!
If you don't believe me, see attached "Exhibit A". Note how the thumb nail has sheared off completely leaving a ghastly stompie behind. If you look closely you can observe that the red colour on the index and swearing fingers are "fire red" and "hot-blooded red" instead of the original "Hollywood red" on the rest. If you are a "top-coat comrade", your trained eye will pick up that the two nails are repair work and were recently rouged.
The defense rests, your honour.
No comments:
Post a Comment