14 minute read
My 1st ARTSA Experience
We It all starts on a Monday evening, about half past 6. It was sunny, snowy, hot and cold with a hint of sand in the air.
You know, the basic weather for Walvis Bay – all four seasons.
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I just finished my “jobbingly” duties at work and finished it with a smile… sort of. I finally got time to start with my packing, which I over did. Packing as if it were three women travelling together.
Over excitement and joy filled me as the bus finally showed up and I jumped out of my second story window, which left a happy facial imprint onto the tar pavement. My loving leg threw my luggage out of the window while I ran to catch them like an American football player towards the bus.
As I finally find myself on my feet, after that hard encounter with the bus side that was “rondeled” to the brim. I finally got to use my Tetris skills to pack my luggage into the bus. We were finally off to Swakopmund and with a start of a new adventure to Artsa 2023.
As we finally left the town of Walvis Bay, we were off to Swakopmund and there is where we picked up our loving friend PJ whom will soon be a Walvis Bay member after he signs his transfer form. We, the now almost completed #wolfgang shot our way through to Windhoek.
As we almost left Swakop, Byron and I realized that none of the other tablers had packed any “REFRESHMENTS”. We were disappointed in our fellow members, so disappointed that we have taken them to a service station and forced them to buy some refreshments.
We hit the road with a few knobel hits on the back of the bus seats. It was a long journey of almost 6 hours of going to Windhoek - a journey we wished would not have ended #wolfgang.
We had a pit stop in Usakos, where we had a bathroom break and biltong fest. Joppie made a friend that he would never lose and keep close to his heart – a stone statue known as “Grandma Outsteen”
We finally arrived in Windhoek on our way to the to-be area chairman, Eduard Gous’ house and he willingly but unwillingly housesat for us, before we embarked on our very long journey.
While we were there socializing, Joppie found his own personalized swimming pool that was built for him. It was two feet deep and was less than a meter across but fit him like a glove.
After Mono and myself farted everyone to bed, we finally got a well-deserved nights rest for about 3 to 4 hours so we can get our final member of our #wolfgang to complete our crew for the journey.
We slowly made our way out of the town with our “rondeled” bus and Eduard’s very plain boring bus that we graced with a Walvis Bay 36 sticker so that it can feel like a part of the crew.
At the road block near end of Windhoek, we picked up a very mighty and super social friend Ernst who has a very big big BIG heart. And so the #wolfgang was completed for our trip to finally truly begin our journey.
So our journey commenced to the Botswana border to transit via the bottom road in Botswana towards the Skilpadshek border post. As we adventured our way to Botswana, we crossed the plains of Namibia where we went through cattle country Gobabis where we played a bit of knobel as we travelled through the town and threw a now known as Gobabis Julie of 3-3-1. When I finally put my left foot in and my right foot out for the first time in Botswana and I felt a bit of pride, it was all washed away after I discovered the size of the spiders and the creepy crawlies in Botswana. What kept me alive was the sight of how flat the country was with no sight of mountains, hills or any obese people to add verticality.
We kept to the very narrow path with faded lines on the road as if the road was wearing sunglasses. At least we kept to the speed limits of the road because the popo know knows. At least that wasn’t difficult with the amount of living steaks in our way. We finally made it to the Skilpadshek border post after a long, amazing journey filled with jokes and joy.
As we made our way to the border, Ernst decided to make a joke and asked “what word does Y-E-S spell?” and confidently I replied with a “yes” to which he responded with a question of what word does E-Y-E-S spell and I replied a yearn “eeyees”. So finally, after that long laugh we got our passports stamped at the border and finally made our way through to the town of Modimolle. As we passed the border our fellow wolf gang members tummies started growling and we wanted to stop at a KFC or service station for a bite to eat but the women felt unhappy with the decision we came upon and decided to drive 220km because they yearned for McDonalds.
Me, myself and I, being afraid for my life, quickly got dressed in my pink pug onesie to protect myself from the rest of the wolf gangs sharp teeth and watering mouths, bellies full of hunger for my delicious booty. After a long 2-hour drive, with one tin of pringles and five bite marks, we finally made it to McDonalds.
It took us about an hour to figure out the amazing but complicated ordering machines inside McDonalds that bestowed us with magical square light boxes we could touch and decide what we wanted to bite instead of myself.
My favourite moments of ordering takeout on this journey was that Monolito du Toit always ordered first but got his meals last. As our bellies were filled and my bite wounds healed, we finally made it to the gates of our venue Weesgerus holiday Resort at 11h30pm. Not a single person had an SA sim card and all reserve workers were already off. We were all fatigued and filled with jealousy. We struggled for about half an hour at the gates after our friendly neighbourhood Casper opened the gates for us and we got to tackle our beds with joy. The next morning was a Wednesday morning, we decided to take it nice and chill so we can spare our thoughts and creativity and rondels for the start of Artsa 2023. The only adventure we had for this Wednesday, was going to Modi mall to buy ourselves SA sim cards and a lot of braai meat like true Namibians.
We made our way back to our venue as we started to set up for a nice Namibian braai as Eduards bus rolls up to the venue from Pretoria where they went for mall outing and to our surprise they got braai meat as well, we had enough meat to feed almost everyone at Artsa. We had an outstanding braai with everyone playing knobble and having lekker chats for about 4-5 hours with over 40 braai broodtjies and it was “lekker lekker”.
The Thursday morning came and we were all excited for the start of our new Artsa meeting phase and we started that with a bang – a fourth Assco bang. It was a slow and hard journey to get to the bus, let alone getting the bus started. For some of us were babalas and the other were just not morning people. It took us awhile, a spin and a turn of a bus wheel to make it in time to the 4th Assco meeting but we were still late. As we rocked up like the legends we are - 36! I wanted to start my morning fresh by pasting a few stickers on a few cars. As I finished up my car number 14 for our Artsa trip, we as a Walvis Bay community group took our best military knowledge to heart and tried to stay out of the sight of the Sergeant-in-arms. The meeting went swimmingly with Werner Swanepoel while he was sitting with a fat smile, because this is finally his last Assco meeting. The meeting was slow but educational with a few nice jokes in between. Like the two ouks at the bar were wearing their hats that caught the Sergeant’s attention.
Time flew by with the 4th Assco meeting and we quickly got to the bus and I slapped two more stickers on our fellow tablers metal moving boxes. We got home safely just after stopping at KFC where Mono stood at the back of the line, always waiting. Those desperately clinging to life decided to take a power nap afraid of their babalas in preparation in for what was coming tonight. The rest of us that survived, strong and going, played a bit of knobbel next to Joppie’s swimming pool/firepit. As we just started enjoying the sweet sound of dice falling on the table our watches reminded us that it was time for the Artsa hoer and boer themed party. The conveners of this party took it to their best interest to ensure that there is a dress code for each gender but clearly all men were too in touch with their feminine side that they decided to go as a hoer and not a boer. I decided to wear my comfy pink pug onesie “Puggsie”. Everyone else decided to go wearing their best ladies attire and as I looked at this creativeness of hoere, I decided to add a touch to my look and I got a unibrow just for myself. We stormed for the bus with full excitement for what awaits us at the festival grounds known as the Hardcore Hut. As we made the wheels on the bus go round and round we stopped outside this wonderful party, we paused, we analysed and we engaged with a fun and full packed night of adventure more hoer-ish than boer-ish. Our first stop was a pitstop at the bathroom to empty ourselves for the fellowship waiting for us. We made our way to the bar to get our drinks and just started mingling and socializing with every table crossing our paths.
We came across this banner twice the size of our bus and we vowed to raid this banner under any means necessary. So the night continues, glasses drinking themselves, wallets running dry for no reason. They called us to the stage for the opening of the Artsa meeting, it started slow but ended up with excitement, joy, hoere and boere. As the intro got extremely amazing, well done Bosveld, we went to continue our socializing and fellowship with our esteemed well hearted tablers on the dance floor, bar counter and everywhere else. As the night grew old, I got onto the phone with my loving leg and in that moment Leigh and Joppie decided to raid the banner set up for the photo ops. It started with Joppie cutting the lower right side rope and Byron giving him a step to get to the top leg, however, Leigh unknowingly pulled the banner to make a quick dash towards the bus but the other two corners were separately connected to the tree branches but with the help from Spidey and Joppie, they managed to set Leigh free into the wild. Running up and down like a stormer trying to get away from a Bluebull. Later into the night the prince of Dubai gave his respect and my bedtime, and we slowly made our way to the bus with our hard earned raided items.
The Friday morning came in with a soft breeze and sore throat, luckily for me and not with a babalas like the rest. We scraped together what little we had of ourselves to get ready for the start of the days forums. As me, myself and I, the responsible treasures that I am, came late for the financial forms but rocked up just in time for the start of the constitutional forms. We moved through the constitutional budget and branding quickly but also slowly with the questions that build up with the constitutional form as the CVC forms came up, we went through the responsibilities of a chairmen and vice chairmen. It motivated me to one day want to become a chairman or a vice chairman. “CONTINUE ON
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As I got that motivation in my head, Mr. President got really excited to suck on a cancer stick and wanted to get the forums over and done with. I seconded that motion and left with a skip, a slide, a fart and a glide towards the bus to get ready for our food tables.
As we packed the bus (our loving legs) we fortunately bought enough food just for ourselves and not for the whole of Artsa. We went as a group to set up the food tables where we had pap and sous, Namibian style. Oxtail pot and another pot I wasn’t involved in enough to remember. Unfortunately, I fell victim to an illness unknown to my head, shoulders, knees and toes. So, I did a bit of socializing and corner sitting for the food tables. Time flew past very quickly for this Friday and soon thereafter everybody started enjoying themselves. As the night grew a bit late, by late I mean 10 pm. We started packing our food stall and the bus and I felt a bit under the weather and ran for the back of the bathroom. I brought up my previous meal in a conversation with the back wall of the bathroom. As I was busy with the very interesting story with the wall, another tabler walked past and he walked by with a comment ‘Oh, is this where the professionals hang?’ and he started a conversation with the wall next to me. We made our way back to our esteemed living quarters and called it an early night by about 10:30 (to the disgust and disappointment from Leigh).
Saturday came and it was time to get dressed in my suit and tie. I live for my suit and tie. We made our way to the Rtsa AGM, babalas and all. We came to the entrance of the hall with all our delegates, signing in to the registration except for myself that forgot something like a registration exists. The AGM started with a professional and civic tradition and went smoothly, so smoothly that if you want to know what happens, you should have been there.
As we moved out of the hall after Werner continuously yearned for the sucking of his cancer stick. We went outside and smoked half a packet of camel at once with the motivation of our esteemed IPP of 2023/2024. We made our way to the venue where we slept to get well afternoon rest because some of our esteemed members wants to go GROOT tonight. Time always flies by when you want to rest, as the sun starts to near the horizon, we jumped into the bus almost like the hoer and boer night and we were off to get our party on. We got there to the party and aggressively jumped through the bus’ windows and got to the bar to start socializing with the bartenders hoping the bartenders were drunk enough to recognize us. We met a lot of our friends from the previous nights but by our surprise there was always someone you haven’t met throughout the Artsa. I took it to myself to move between our Namibian area members just to make sure they are all well and alive, for some of us, not only myself was also starting to get sick. As I moved with and between our members, I met a 41’er that stuck to my heart with his motivation and his sight of round table that broadened my idea and perception of our loving community. I moved to the stage where Leigh, Joppie, Byron, Mark and a few other friends that my memory blurred out for some odd reason, were chilling and enjoying the music. In excitement, Joppie tried and successfully motivated me to go on stage and throw my groovy moves (down on the floor). It was fun and painful because I was sick, however, a Zambian friend truly enjoyed the sight of me being “kak mal.” As I got off the stage, which the ladies circle chased me off with love and respect, we started taking all our Namibian sheep to our busses so we can say goodbye to the final party night of Artsa 2023. With a few of us that had a lot of bar bons left, they decided to grace our Walvis bus with enough drinks and booze for the road back because we couldn’t do it the right way on the road here.
Saturday was called a night.
Sunday came and we slept a bit in but we woke up to go support our esteemed new area chairman Eduard Gous at his first Assco meeting but we were also excited to see the hand-over from our IPP to our new president. We got to the first Assco too early in the morning around about 9, feeling babalas and a bit sick. As we sat in our peanut gallery chairs our heart-warming sight of Werner came walking in to disturb Louis with his meeting and his sock handover. That went swimmingly and not just because of his sweaty pink socks. We made our way after the hand-over out of the first Assco meeting because they had to start the whole meeting over again after Werner’s quick hello and goodbye.
So we made our way to the Rooibok Hall to get ourselves a bit to eat before we go home to relax for the last remainder of this trip. As we drove home, we drove past a nice restaurant called (correct me if I’m wrong) Dors Land where we felt obliged to get a beer, a pizza and connect to the Wi-Fi so we could play on the TV Baby Shark. We ended off our last time playing a bit of knobel, and I was making a new friend Wolfie the sheep. So the time flew by and we found ourselves starting to pack, me packing my tears because they refused to take Wolfie with us back home. Some of us went to bed to rest before we hit the road, others like myself that packed so, so many things was kept busy with packing for around about 3 hours. As I looked at my watch, it hit 11 pm, I jumped into the shower then jumped out of the shower. Grabbed my bags and ran for the bus because we started packing at 11:30 so we could leave at 12 am.
So Monday started at 12 am midnight, like always. We were on the road yet still waiting for the boring other bus that had few to nothing rondels on it. We exited the gates of our venue where we stayed and I passed out because of all the big energy I used from the big adventure. I came to my senses at around 4 in the morning just before the Botswana border post, Eduard’s bus decided it would be fun and adventurous to drive “wydsbeen” over a dead bird, to our surprise wasn’t dead. W
The bird decided to look up as the bus approached and gave a loving kiss to the intercooler’s pipe. So our new adventure started with backyards mechanics starring Byron and Andre. With their friendly tools, a coat hanger, a rope and a lot of cable ties and to top it off, a hint of Stick like Shit. Because of the intercooler being damaged, our turbo couldn’t work to its full potential or at all depending on how you looked at it. It increased our adventure with about 4 hours.
That was disappointing and sad for the Windhoekers because they had to put up with our Walvis spirit. The rest of the road flew by like we wished the bird did earlier and we found ourselves safe back on Namibian soil and we were greeted with a bit of rainfall in Gobabis, which Byron got over excited for and decided to test his drift on the wet tar road. With absolutely no excitement, I strapped myself for dear life. As we dropped off our esteemed friends from Windhoek, we slowly and by slowly I meant picked up the bloody pace to get to Walvis in our homes with our loving legs while we were busy ignoring the fact that our GPS was more excited to get to Gaborone and back than us.
In conclusion my experience of this Artsa 2023 was an eye opener towards Round Table for this fellowship is strong, the love is uncountable and the “gees” always GROOT. For I cannot see myself with a better bunch of LEKKER people than Round Table in my life. This trip has motivated me to start my own projects and to achieve them by the end of 2023.
Thank you Round table and most importantly, thank you Walvis Bay 36 for being the family that I was looking for my whole life.
By Danie Bachman
