Robindcr8l

Polenta, she is indeed lovely! That last pic of her was odd, though, how she was sitting on 2 cushions while the interviewer was on only one. It made her look like an Amazon next to him! LOL

You mentioned TV from the Basque country in Spain. I had never heard of the Basque until I moved to Idaho. Here in Boise, we have the largest Basque population in the world outside of Spain. They came out here many years ago as sheepherders. Now they are a huge influence in Boise culture! In two weeks, one of my closest friends is marrying a Basque man and I am so looking forward to the wedding! It will be my first Basque wedding to attend, and I am told they are quite festive! My friend wanted something small and intimate, but it would be unheard of in their culture, so her mother-in-law has taken over the planning and arrangements! It is a welcome thing, since my friend would be overwhelmed if her future M-I-L wasn't doing most of the work. The Basque women get together and make all of the food and decorations. The reception is at the Basque Center in downtown Boise, as all Basque weddings are! I am going to the hall the day before to assist with the decorating and preparations! My friend who is marrying this Basque man, actually met him when she was the maid of honor for her best friend who married his brother! So apparently a Basque wedding is a good place to meet a date! LOL

belladonnis

I love her voice. I wish I could understand her!
This is off the subject but, I read all of your posts every day but I have no idea what you guys look like. I have a picture of all of you in my head. I just wonder how close I am!

polenta

I think Joan Rivers is a very active woman who describes fashion and things, isn't she? I remember she is very nice and has got a lot of "energy". I wish I could get to their age the way these two ladies look!!!!
I'm 1,60m (rather short) a little overweight, fair complexion and blue eyes. My hair is kind of straight and it used to be light brown and now it still is owing to coloring LOL.
I am not planning to have any cosmetic surgery ......LOL LOL LOL LOL
I'm not a diva like Joan Rivers or Mirtha Legrand.

polenta

Robin, there are also many Basque descendants in Uruguay but here most people are mixed: Italian, Basque, Spanish, French, Swiss, Russian, Polish, etc. Spanish speakers can't understand Basque language. It's absolutely different. I hope you have a good time at the wedding and tell us later what it was like. Are you looking for "your significant other" too?

Robindcr8l

Ha, Polenta, one NEVER knows! Oddly, I recently broke up with my boyfriend of 4 years. My friends of course, are eager to set me up already, although I'm content alone for now. So my friend and her Basque fiance start telling me about his cousin who is my age, divorced, not dating. They tell me he is so funny, and very bright, and his sense of humor reminds them of me and they are sure we are the perfect match. He is a teacher at a high school where I know someone else who teaches. So I ask my other friend who teaches with him if he knows this man and what he thinks of him. His wife says, "Robin, we have been telling you for the past few years that if you weren't dating Mike, this would be the perfect man for you!!" So now my curiosity is piqued and I am maybe looking forward to this wedding for more reasons than just learning more about the Basque culture and their festive weddings!

polenta

so... good luck!!!

marius

Robin, can't *wait* to hear about the Basque wedding, and, um, any *other* things you want to share about it!

marius

And, Polenta, I watched the Mirtha Legrand youtube video ... 82 years old?
Wow! She is quite lovely! Didn't understand one word she said though .... LOL!

NADIA

Marius,I tried to find more sights were you can hear more afrikaans sounds,but that was almost impossible.Found one small one,but I'll still keep look for others:
http://www.liveandlearnlanguages.com/afrikaans-video.html
My internet keeps switching off with the heavy rain weather we have today,so I hope this whole message gets through.You asked about the veggies and fruit we have,but as far as the ones go that you mentioned,they are the same ones that we use.With the friut we also have Pupaya's and Figs,Mango's and Nectarines aswell as Appricots and pomegranats.Veggies ,we have Raddishes which is all I can think of at this moment.I'm not very good with the names of the veggies and fruit,but I love cooking,alot!
Okay,animals.We don't have animals coming into town,but if you take any of the roads going out of Windhoek,there is alot of farms,and the antelope walks around freely.On the farms you can see animals like gizelles and kudu's.We have a Wildlife Farm(Okapuka Ranch)about 30 Km outside of windhoek where you will see animals like Lions and small jackals and all the antelopes,giraffes,zebra's,wild dogs,warthogs,ostriches and so on.But to see all the big African game you have to go to our Wildlife parks in the north(Etosha Park),which is about 4 to 5 hours drive away.

NADIA

O,I almost forgot about the KFC.They serve mash potatoes and gravy and all these new twisters and zinger meals.We also get these small buckets of chicken,corn,cheese and mashed potatoes.Is it the same where you are?
Nando's is also a chicken take away,but all their chicken gets grilled,and you get these peta breads and wraps with your chicken,much more healthy compared to KFC.Steers is a take Away with Burgers,only burgers,but they build these three story ones and it takes you a week just to eat one.Love'em.

marius

Nadia - thanks for answering my questions. Seems like we have all the same fruits and veggies you have. I'm always wondering what fruits and veggies the world has that I've never tasted. I remember when someone introduced me to Kiwi Fruit. It was astonishing! They are delicious.

About KFC, you said "cheese and mashed potatoes." We don't have that. The burger you described sounds yummy ... a week to eat one. Ha ha!
Thanks for the website with Afrikaans words. Very interesting.
Now I have a question about farms with gazelles and kudu's. Are these animals wild and just happen to wander through the farms or do people raise them to eat? Sorry for silly question but I don't know much about African animals.

And one more animal question. When people in the USA started building towns, most wild animals moved away but a lot of them stayed in the towns because ... where there are people there is food. Two night animals that lots of people see are raccoons and possums. They like to dig through trash and eat your left-overs. I lived in the middle of a big city 1,000,000 people and even there we saw possums quite a bit. They're animals with pouches like kangaroos and they can hang from a tree by their tails. In the winter, some people get mice in their homes - even in the middle of the city. We've caught a few; I'm not fond of them. In the summer the animals we might see in our yard are: frogs, toads, lizards, rabbits, squirrels, birds and moles. When I lived in the country sometimes snakes got in the house too. That never bothered me because they weren't poisonous and they didn't stink. Just startled you. I like all these animals, except for the mice because mice can carry diseases that are bad for people. And some people don't like moles because they ruin your grass.

When I visited a friend in Arizona, I was surprised to see that lizards got inside the house. My friend said it happens all the time. They lizards didn't bother anyone. So, that was what I was trying to imagine - what kind of animals people where you live might see in their yards or homes. Are there monkey's in the trees or something? Everyone here has heard of zebra, elephants ... all the big wild animals but I keep thinking there should be little ones too. I tried to find African animals on the Internet and the only little ones listed were shrews, squirrels and moles. There was one rabbit listed but it didn't sound like it would live in town. Okay - enough about animals. : )

marius

Well - no, one more story. About 30 years ago this TV show, "Ripley's Believe it or Not" featured a moneky that showed up at a farm near where I lived. No one knows where the moneky came from, maybe it escapaed from a zoo. But that monky loved the pigs at the farm. It would ride on the pigs and groom them, and the pigs seemed to like the monkey too. I think the monkey lived at that farm about ten years and then it died or something. People would drive by all the time to watch the moneky riding on the pigs. It was quite funny and charming.

maddyjean08

May be off topic: the Basque make delicious food, I've heard.

polenta

Food off topic???? Never, it's the center of life. LOL

maddyjean08

Ditto to that. I live to eat. The thing is I have a high matabalism so it's really not a problem!

polenta

Lucky you!!!

maddyjean08

I'm just lucky my father had it. I'm unlucky I can't really eat sugar. When my dad was little, he had such a sugar problem that he wasn't aloud to eat bread. If he would eat bread he would be freaking out, just because of the small amount of sugar.

NADIA

Hey Marius,sorry for the late answer,been a along time since I looked in this forum.We don't have animals coming into town,you have to go on the road to see gazelle's,and no they are Wild.On some of the farms you will find a lost gazelle or zebra or even a kudu that was raised by the owner and then they are tame,but most of them are still wild animals.
Other than that,no other big wild animals comes into town.Small animals we have some field mice and chipmunks aswell as squirils in the river beds and field areas around the houses.We also have alot of mongooses and gecko's.I have a small Gecko who has made my porche his home(Sweat little guy).At the night times you will see alot of bats and they love to make their homes inside your roof area,but they don't bother you.Hope that gives you an idea.

marius

Thanks, Nadia! It was the small animals I really wanted to know about. That is cute that you have a gecko who lives on your porch. We have bats at our house too. I love when they come out at night because I like how they look when they fly. It's much different than a bird.

When I saw that you have mongooses, I did a search because I wasn't sure what they are. I typed in "mongoose Windhoek Namibia" and found a story about a woman who rescues and saves injured birds. She lives in Windhoek, I think. Anyway, the story was part of the website below.

http://www.namibian.com.na/news-articles/top-stories/

That website is interesting. There is one place you can click on the menu bar across the top that says "Oshiwambo." Everything under that title is in a language I don't recognize. Do you know that language? Didn't seem to be Afrikaans, but what do I know.

And, thanks again for answering my many questions! : )

marius

Nadia, it occured to me I could search the internet for oshiwamgo. I did, so if any are interested, here's info on that language. : )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oshiwambo_language