When we arrived at our permanent site we were told that we would be given new names but our host father forgot and never named us. We were secretly totally ok with this because we think the whole naming thing is a little weird and we decided that we would just use the names Kimberly and Tony. Tony is easy enough to say/remember and Kimberly is actually the capital of the Northern Cape Province (where we live!) so it doesn't get much easier than that!
Most people were ok with this but SOME people thought it was totally unacceptable. "You are living in Bothithong - you must have Tswana name...you MUST." We were able to politely explain to most that we were never given a Tswana name in Bothithong and were fine with using Kimberly and Tony. Some still would not have it, so on a taxi ride to town one day the woman sitting in front of us turned around to ask who we were, where we were from, etc... At some point she got bored and decided to end our conversation but shortly after she turned around she whipped her head back and said "You are Tato (me), You are Tebogo (tony)!!"...as if she'd recieved some vision from God or a subliminal message from some unknown source informing her that the two Americans behind her were "Tato and Tebogo!!!!" After her outburst she turned around and didn't say a word the entire rest of the taxi ride. We kind of just laughed it off...ha, ha, crazy lady on the taxi.
That is, until a few days later when we started to hear people in the village yell "Tato...Tebogo!" as we walked to the shop. Apparently word had gotten out and we decided to just go with it. Sure, whatever, we didn't really need/want names but now that they've been given to us we'll just use them if people ask for our Tswana names.
ALSO, apparently some people also heard that our names in Marapyane were Mpho and Lebogang. I MAYBE told one or two people in passing that we had those names in our training village...but that was obviously enough to get a whole group of people calling us Mpho and Lebogang.
So now we had a group of people that called us Kimberly and Tony, a group that called us Mpho and Lebogang, and a group that called us Tato and Tebogo.
BUT IT DOESN"T END THERE!
The other day we got a knock on our door and found a group of about 5 or 6 kids standing there. They came to say hello and also inform us that we must both change our names immediately. Tato and Tebogo were not good names. As it turns out, the oldest daughter of the family we stay with is Tato and there can't be two Tatos in the same family so they decided that Kerabo would be my new name. Tony was told that there was already a Tebogo that lived on this side of the village and that this was grounds to start a name brawl and that Tebogo #1 would probably "hit him and maybe stab him (insert jabbing/shanking motion)" because he had the same name. Fairly sure that Tony's life was not in danger, we tried to convince them that Tony was just going to keep Tebogo. They insisted that he would "for sure get stabbed," and Tony finally relented and allowed them to give him a new name. After much discussion they settled on Malafats (which is, coincidentally, the name of our host family's dog).
So now we each have four names; for me - Kimberly, Mpho, Tato, and Kerabo and for Tony - Tony, Lebogang, Tebogo, and Malafats. We've gotten used to answering to all 4
In other news - We found something else to keep us busy :
Please enjoy these totally dumb ringtones created in garage band. :)The first was created by us to use when our friends Lauren and Andy (who we're super couple-gay for) call. The next was their retaliation against us for creating such a horribly obnoxious ringtone involving their names.
This is the beginning of the Great Garage Band War of '09.
Love you all!!
Kim and Tony
