Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8 Changing travel plans was one thing. Entering an airport in a strange country with a wet backpack that smelled like dead possum was a whole other story. "Welcome to South Africa!" a flight attendant chirped. "Thank you!" Hoping the aroma wasn't too noticeable, Amy raced out the door of the 767 and into the bustle of OR Tambo International Airport. A day ago she wouldn't have dreamed they'd be here. But the library trip had set them straight. "You'd better be right about this," Nellie muttered, grumpy after the uncomfortable night's sleep. "Who farted?" Dan asked.

改变旅行计划是一回事。 进入一个陌生国家的机场，背着一个闻起来像死负鼠的湿背包，完全是另一回事。 “欢迎来到南非！”一名空乘说。 “谢谢你!”希望香气不会太明显，艾米冲出767的门，冲进了熙攘的坦博国际机场。 一天前，她做梦也想不到他们会在这里。 但图书馆之旅让他们澄清了错误。 “这件事你最好是对的，"耐莉咕哝着说，一夜不舒服的睡眠过后，她的脾气变得暴躁起来。 “谁放屁?”丹问道。

"It's our clothes," Amy said. "Our clothes farted?" Dan asked. "I don't know them, ladies and gentlemen," Nellie said under her breath, "never saw them in my life…" Dan began sprinting off toward a sign that said CHECK YOUR E-MAIL/SURF THE WEB HERE! "Nellie, I'm going to use your MasterCard, okay?" "Sure, just call me Cash Machine Gomez!" Nellie took Amy's arm. "Tell me again why you decided to come here? I remember it was smart, and I remember making the decoy reservations to Peoria, but we did it when I was in a state of almost-asleepness." Amy pulled from her pocket a copy of the sheet music she had found in the library: "Marching to Pretoria." "It's a traditional song, performed by choruses all over the world," Amy continued. "Including the Harvard Glee Club. That's what Uncle Alistair was trying to tell us— the real lyric is Pretoria. In South Africa. It's much more likely Irina knew the lyrics to the original. She was telling us to go

“是我们的衣服，”艾米说。 “我们的衣服放屁了？”丹问道。 “我不认识他们，女士们，先生们，”内莉低声说，“我这辈子都没见过他们……”丹开始向一个写着“在这里检查你的电子邮件/上网”的牌子跑去！“内莉，我要用你的万事达信用卡，好吗？”“当然，叫我自动取款机戈麦斯就行了！”内利抓住艾米的胳膊。 “再告诉我一遍你为什么决定来这里？” 我记得这很聪明，我记得我在皮奥里亚做了诱饵预订，但我们是在我几乎睡着的状态下做的。” 艾米从口袋里掏出一张她在图书馆找到的乐谱：“向比勒陀利亚进军。” “这是一首传统歌曲，世界各地的合唱都在演唱，”艾米继续说道。 “包括哈佛合唱团。 这就是阿利斯泰尔叔叔想告诉我们的——真正的歌词是比勒陀利亚。 在南非。更有可能的是伊琳娜知道原著的歌词。 她叫我们走

here." Nellie was keeping an eye on Dan, who was scrolling through a screen dense with text. "Don't rack up too many minutes, little dude. I'm not rich, especially when you make me buy decoy tickets. And I'm about to buy you phones." "Arrrghhhh!" Dan cried out, bouncing away from the computer. "No, no, no, no, no!" Amy nearly leaped into the air. She and Nellie bolted toward the web station. "What, Dan?" Amy called out. "What happened?" Dan sighed. "Just checked the listserv. No fresh red snapper in South Africa. Saladin's going to kill me." If there was anything worse than waiting for a pet carrier to appear, it was waiting for a pet carrier to appear while being lectured by a big sister about the history of South Africa. And Nellie was off buying cell phones and renting a car, so Dan was trapped.

在这里。”内莉一直盯着丹，丹正在屏幕上滚动着密密的文字。 “别浪费太多时间，小家伙。 我并不富有，尤其是你让我买诱饵票的时候。 我打算给你们买手机。” “Arrrghhhh !”丹大叫一声，从电脑旁跳开了。 “不，不，不，不，不！”艾米几乎跳到了空中。 她和内莉奔向网站。 “什么,丹?”艾米喊道。 “发生什么事了?”丹叹了口气。 “我刚查了一下邮件列表。 南非没有新鲜的红鲷鱼。 萨拉丁会杀了我的。” 如果说有什么比等待宠物车出现更糟糕的话，那就是在等待宠物车出现的同时，一个姐姐正在给你讲南非的历史。 内莉去买手机和租车了，所以丹被困住了。

"'…As gold and diamond deposits were found,'" Amy read from a pamphlet," 'more and more English miners flooded into the Transvaal region, which was controlled by the Dutch. Tensions over this eventually led to the Boer War.' Dan, that's when 'Marching to Pretoria' was written— it was all about the Boer War!" "Hey," Dan said, "any country that sings about hairy pigs can't be all bad." Amy groaned. "Not that kind of boar!" "Oh… Bore War!" Dan said. "That's so you, Amy. What'd they do, read history to each other until one side went 'GAAHHH!' and surrendered?" "B-o-e-r," Amy said. "It's the Dutch word for farmer. Most of the original seventeenth-century settlers were Dutch, German, and French Huguenot farmers and cattle herders. They also became known as Afrikaners." Dan's eyes started to glaze, and he ran right into an older man dressed in a shabby jacket and ripped pants. "Sorry," he squeaked, bouncing quickly away.

“随着金矿和钻石矿藏的发现，”艾米从一本小册子上读到，“越来越多的英国矿工涌入了荷兰人控制的德兰士瓦地区。 这种紧张关系最终导致了布尔战争。丹，《向比勒陀利亚进军》就是那时候写的——写的都是布尔战争！”“嘿，”丹说，“任何歌颂毛猪的国家都不可能一无是处。” 艾米呻吟着。“不是那种野猪！”“哦……无聊的战争！”丹说。 “这就是你，艾米。他们做了什么，给对方读历史，直到其中一方发出“啊啊啊啊！”’然后投降了？”“B-o-e-r，”艾米说。 “这是荷兰语中农民的意思。 17世纪的移民大多是荷兰、德国和法国的胡格诺派农民和牧牛人。 他们也被称为阿非利卡人。” 丹的目光开始呆滞起来，他迎面撞上了一个穿着破旧夹克和破裤子的老人。 “对不起。”他尖叫着，迅速跳开了。

The man was giving him a quizzical smile. His skin was dark brown, with a curved scar running along his jawline, and his gray-green eyes seemed to dance in the fluorescent light. "Do you need a car service?" he asked. "Or can spirited young people like yourselves navigate South Africa on your own?" He handed Dan a postcard. "Uh, no thanks," Dan said. "Keep it anyway," the man said. "Just in case! You never know when you will need Slimgaard!" As the man left, Amy walked over. "What was that about?" she asked, an eye still on the conveyor belt. Dan glanced at the card:

那人给了他一个奇怪的微笑。 他的皮肤是深褐色的，下巴上有一道弯曲的伤疤，他灰绿色的眼睛在荧光灯下似乎在跳舞。 “你需要汽车服务吗？”他问。 “或者像你们这样精神抖擞的年轻人能独自在南非生活吗？”他递给丹一张明信片。 “呃，不用了，谢谢，”丹说。 “不管怎样，留着吧，”那人说。 “以防万一！”你永远不知道什么时候会需要斯利姆加德！”当那人离开时，艾米走了过来。 “那是怎么回事？”她问道，眼睛仍然盯着传送带。 丹瞥了一眼卡片：

"'The hope of mankind'?" Amy said. "A limo service with a handwritten card?" Dan flipped it over. The other side had an image of a tall African man holding a shield, with what looked like an encyclopedia entry underneath: Shaka, 1787–1828. Founder of Zulu Nation. Son of a Zulu tribal king and a woman, Nandi, from another kraal. His birth was considered shameful; his name means "intestinal parasite." Shaka and Nandi were exiled, only to be abused by other local tribes. At 16, Shaka turned his rage on an attacking leopard and killed it single-handedly. With brawn and cunning, he rose to power, fueled by vengeance. Shaka scorned tribal war tactics of the time, spear-throwing from long distances, and perfected close combat with short, large-bladed spears. His famed "buffalo horn" attack strategy helped build a military force that overtook local tribes and created one of the most powerful kingdoms ever known. Although many modern historians decry his violence, Shaka is considered the father of the united Zulu nation and a hero to South Africans. "Cool," Dan murmured to himself, staring at the image of Shaka. "Woo-hoo— look! Saladin's here!" Amy was now running over to the baggage claim conveyor belt. In a moment, she was walking back with the

“‘人类的希望’？”艾米说。 “带手写卡片的豪华轿车服务？”丹把它翻过来。 另一面是一个拿着盾牌的高个子非洲人的形象，下面有一个看起来像百科全书的条目：Shaka， 1787-1828。 祖鲁民族的创始人。祖鲁部落国王和另一个部落的女人南迪的儿子。 他的出身被认为是可耻的；他的名字的意思是“肠道寄生虫”。 Shaka和Nandi被流放，只会受到其他当地部落的虐待。 16岁时，沙卡将怒火发泄在一只攻击他的豹子身上，并以一己之力将其杀死。 凭借强壮和狡猾，他在复仇的驱使下获得了权力。 沙卡蔑视当时的部落战争战术，从很远的距离投掷长矛，并用短而大刃的长矛完善近距离战斗。 他著名的“水牛角”进攻策略帮助建立了一支超越当地部落的军事力量，并创建了有史以来最强大的王国之一。 尽管许多现代历史学家谴责他的暴力行为，但沙卡被认为是统一的祖鲁民族之父，是南非人的英雄。 “酷，”丹盯着沙卡的形象喃喃自语。 “吼——看!萨拉丁在这里!”艾米正跑向行李提取处的传送带。 不一会儿，她就拿着