Moyo

All week the South African students have been talking about taking us out to a restaurant called Moyo. Yesterday one of the guys made a reservation for about 20 people total; all of the guys (there's only a handful of us) and whichever of the girls showed interest in going.

Moyo is a famous restaurant located out in the winelands. It's about 15 minutes drive outside of Stellenbosch, located in the countryside. South African Philip got access to the school's small shuttle bus and we got there in two trips. I still can't get used to the left side driving, especially with traffic circles! Our reservation was for 8pm (20:00 as they call it). The sun sets around 6 or 7 here, so it was already dark, and when we got to the restaurant you could see all the stars! It's cool, because they have different constellations than what we get in the north. There's no North Star or Big Dipper, instead their main constellation is the Southern Cross. Luckily for us it was such a clear night, it made it really cool!

Moyo is all outdoors. It's hard to describe, but the tables are set up on platforms built in the trees. Down on the ground set up in little tents is a buffet full of traditional South African foods. Clinton and Alma told us that we had to try at least a little bit of everything. They said that the best part was the sauces though. When you get your meat you have a choice of lots of different sauces to put on it. While we were eating some singers came to our table and sang to us in Xosha (one of South Africa's 11 official languages. It's the clicking language!) Then they painted our faces with little patterns in white paint. As Clinton put it, "ja it's touristy, but if this is touristy then I guess I'm touristy, because I love it!" It was by far the most expensive meal we've had yet, in fact it's probably the most expensive meal we'll eat here, but it was definitely worth it. It was a little bit chilly being outside (it was around 40 degrees F last night) but the servers brought us lots of blankets to wrap up in at our table. I tried most things. There was a lot of different types of bok (antelope), and lots of differently cooked vegetables and fish. My favorite thing was lamb with saffron sauce. Everything I ate was delicious. There was a whole tent for dessert, and it was awesome! I can't remember the names of some of the things I ate, but everything was so good!

After dinner we went down to the ground and sat around a fire pit for an hour or so. The waiters brought some couches for us to sit on, and more blankets. The fire was really hot and felt great! We were out for probably two and a half hours enjoying dinner. The South Africans like to take their time doing things, which I think is great. There's not so much rushing around, especially when having a meal. They take time to enjoy all of it, which is something we don't do much in the US. We didn't get back from dinner until 10:30 at night. I think everyone had at least three plates of food. You have to or you'll miss out on somethings!