potjie festival 2008

michael and i spent labor day weekend at the potjie (small pot in afrikaans) festival. it was a great time! on our way to rusk, texas, we drove through austin and stopped to pick up andre. andre is a fellow south african and long time friend of our friend greg. he lives in london but had been working in austin the week prior to the festival. we were able to get to know him (pretty quickly i might add, those south africans are friendly!) and give him the opportunity to hang out with greg and sascha all weekend.

we arrived just after 3pm on saturday and set to putting up the tents. well, michael, greg and andre put up the tents while sascha and i supervised. our tiny tent went up rather quickly and after the air mattress was nice and firm, michael went off to help andre and greg with their tent. their tent was much roomier and the boys joked about it all weekend. i mean, their tent was bigger, but we got to cuddle. :) can you guess who the winner was in that hot, sticky, humid environment? yeah...

we walked all over the koa visiting people and michael had plenty of time to speak afrikaans to people and reminisce about the good ol' days. i know he had a great time and it was so fun to see his eyes light up. i think he even slept with a smile on his face. he also got to eat several south african treats like biltong (like beef jerky but "10 times better" in michael's words) and boerewors (farmer's sausage made from beef and pork). he also purchased something called a skottel, a portable wok kind of cooking gadget which cooks with a butane canister. it also comes with different cooking gadgets like a grill and griddle. it super cool and even has a carrying case. i know it will definitely come in handy.

unfortunately, because this potjie was spread over the labor day weekend, the potjiekos (small pot of food, think of a super-long-time simmered stew) competition and tasting was on sunday evening after we left. the first festival we attended had the potjiekos on saturday and michael almost cried the food was so good and reminiscent of home. mom and i usually make one on christmas eve, but michael and i have decided to make one sooner just to make up for missing the deliciousness.

now...on to the pictures

michael airing the mattress in our tent.

andre the camper helping greg put together the tent.

greg finally getting down to helping after messing around at the car for awhile :)
final touches...

andre, michael and greg

greg and michael just having purchased a total of 8 lbs of biltong.

everyone sunday morning after a delicious homemade breakfast of whataburger taquitos. :)

andre
happy husband.