The scene at the blackjack table was a little strange. I sat down next to a guy about my age, maybe a little older, with an African National Congress track jacket and a scar on his face. He proceed to lay bets all over the table, including several on my hand. He bet with me--more than I bet myself--on my hand, as well as on little circles with an "S" in them. Those bets only payed off if I received a pair from the dealer; more if it was the same suit. So on any given hand, I had 25 rand in play, and he had more than 200--much of which was on MY hand. And then he was playing a couple of hands on his own, and betting on the hands of the people at the other end of the table. At every other casino I've ever been to, this kind of thing is unheard of. It's nice to know that he had faith in me, a complete stranger, but why on earth anyone would play those bets is beyond me. Then, when I made a mistake and hit when I shouldn't have and lost a hand, he snarled at me. Dude, don't bet on me! I don't know you, and you don't know me!
So I won a few rand, picked up my chips, and headed over to the bar area where the Brazil-North Korea game was on. The plucky subjects of despotic rule somehow played the mighty Brazilians to a standstill until the great Brazilian defender Maicon overlapped the midfielder, received a ball in the box near the baseline, and curled in a goal from an impossible angle. Rather than describe it, I'll provide video here...incredible...best goal of the Cup so far (until Landon Donovan)...
Right around that point, Bill and I struck up a conversation with a Zulu couple. She works for Nedbank, and he is "self-employed." When we probed further into what that meant, he said he is in the "bidding" business. Well, usually you bid to get business. He didn't elaborate further, and we were left to speculate that it was something sketchy related to South Africa's BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) policies.
We got them to teach us a few Zulu words:
- Sawubona = hello
- Ngabonga = thank you
- Yebo = yes
- Xha = no
- Mabele = breasts
- Ipuongo = butt
- Ingozi = danger
Then I asked them to demonstrate the clicks that we had heard about and that are so distinctive in their language. They proceeded to say the word "Axhoxho." What it means is not important. What is important is that the "xh" indicates a click from the middle of their mouth. They have four main clicks, which represent four new consonant sounds that are above and beyond those common to western languages. And then they say the vowel sound immediately afterwards. It sounds like you say, "Acoco," but the c's are clicks. Bill and I are both pretty good with languages--especially Bill--but we were physically incapable of repeating the sound they spoke to us. Fascinating. Other "xh" words like "xha," above, and "Xhosa," Nelson Mandela's tribe's name, also require clicks to make the consonant sound.
We enjoyed speaking Zulu as much as possible, though we shied away from the "xh" sounds and stuck with words we could say. Here's Bill inadvertently caught on camera (I didn't realize I had it in video mode), saying "yebo" at the USA-Slovenia game a few days later (sorry, Bill, I had to)...
After the game, our new Zulu friends weren't up for blackjack, but we returned to the tables for a few hours of playing. Bill treaded water and I won a few bucks. Along the way, we met a fun group of people (some of whom are pictured below) from the US, Canada, Kenya, and South Africa. We went to the casino's nightclub for a little while after gambling and got back to our room by 3:00 am. Good times!
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