Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Assignment - The Last Time I Laughed Really Hard - Vuvuzela




This may seem like a very strange title for a post, but keep reading and I will explain. The Vuvuzela is a type of trumpet that is used by our ardent sports fans in this country. It was originally a traditional instrument, whose origins date back to ancient Africa when a Kudu horn was used to summon villagers to important events. It has been converted to bright coloured plastic, and is sold all over the place. It now appears at rugby matches, cricket matches and especially soccer matches. In fact, they became such a problem at rugby matches that they were banned in one of the biggest stadiums in the country for a while. Can you imagine sitting next to someone wielding one of these things ..... not? Let me elaborate. The call of the vuvuzela sounds much like the trumpeting of an enraged elephant with a sore throat. It is LOUD, and after about 30 seconds, it is ANNOYING!

Anyway, I digress. In a moment of madness about 2 years ago, I bought my husband one of these instruments of torture as a joke - a blue one. To be honest, I didn't expect that he would really use it. I thought he'd blow it a couple of times and then it would be discarded to the back of the cupboard. I obviously didn't know him very well! David's vuvuzela gets hauled out of the cupboard regularly. The kids think it's wonderful fun, and he blasts it at the TV during rugby matches, at the dogs, at the kids, at me ....


Every now and again David takes it into his head to wake the kids in the morning with the dreaded vuvuzela. He marches down the passage and into each kid's room blowing it violently. Even Michael who is 18 still thinks it's funny. Last week he decided to do the wake-up drill again - but now of course we have Simmi. I wasn't sure how she would react to this awful noise, so I followed behind them (Simmi was crawling behind David as he walked down the passage). David blew the vuvuzela, and Simmi wasn't phased at all. In fact, she carried on following him and crawled into each kid's bedroom shouting her latest word which is "Hey!" over and over again in this giant voice. It was so cute and funny I felt weak with laughter. She made sure she went into each room and shouted at each child before crawling back down the passage after David and the vuvuzela.


So here's to keeping with South African tradition (no matter how annoying) - and having a good laugh into the bargin!

5 comments:

Elizabeth Byler Younts said...

how adorable! isn't it funny to learn the reactions of different kids to things. i love the laughter that kids bring. :-)

Diane said...

Sweet story! And I just read the post below as well... I'm so sorry. I've checked in nearly daily since you posted that Simmi might be leaving you. My heart hurts for you. Sending you happy thoughts and the hope that beautiful little Simmi gets what she needs... and what she deserves.

Debbie said...

I can't imagine being woken up by that. Might be traumatic!

KatBouska said...

Oh my gosh we USED to have one of those!!! I remember now...when I was little. No idea where it came from, but we had so much fun with it.

I could totally see myself getting one for the fam with the same intention you had. And then regretting it for years to come. :)

Mike and Katie said...

That is hilarious! It's so funny that he uses it to wake up the kids and Simmi's reaction.