Hello, Tyren, and welcome back! This week, we thought to extend your Still In Touch into a full page as we delve deep into your time at Orlando Pirates and some of the interesting experiences you had there. To start things off, there was a story you were sharing in last week’s edition, only for space to get the better of us. So, turning out for the Buccaneers, you were off to play a night game away against Manning Rangers and your roommate was Jimmy Tau. Take it away!
I think we were supposed to be in the bus by 18h00, leaving for the stadium. So, I was in the room preparing to be in the bus by 18h00. Then, around 17h30, Jimmy said, “No, you must go to Room what-what, you must go take a bath there and then you go to the bus.” I said, “No, man, it’s fine, I’m going to bath in our room and then I’m going to go to the bus.” At the time, I didn’t know why he said I should go to that particular room to bath and then we can go to the bus. So, he left 15 minutes earlier. I still showered in our room and then I went through to the bus. At around 17h50 when I get into the bus, I see everybody is in the bus already. I’m the last one! I’m thinking to myself, “No, man, I can’t be late because it’s 17h50 and we’re supposed to be in the bus at 18h00.” The team manager at the time was Phil Setshedi, so as I walked into the bus, he came to me and said, “Come, let’s go to this room because you must go and wash there.” I said, “No, Mr Manager, I already took a shower in my own room.” Because I didn’t know what he was talking about, ha, ha, ha. He said, “No, man, come, let’s go there quickly.” So, I went with him to this room and, as I walked into the room, I saw that my jersey was the only jersey that was still lying on the bed. Then I looked into the bathroom, there’s this one guy in the bathroom, and there’s water there, dirty water. He then tells me, “No, you must go bath.” I say, “No, man. I don’t know about these things and I didn’t come here for these things, so please respect me. If this is what you do and believe in, I’ll respect you for doing these things and believing in these things, but please, don’t expect me to just do stuff I’m not used to and I don’t know anything about.” You know, we were still arguing and arguing and arguing, so eventually he said that, “Okay, maybe not today, maybe next time.” I said, “No, it’s fine, but don’t expect me to do stuff I don’t know about.” Then they gave me my jersey, so I took my jersey and went through to the bus. When I went to the stadium and put the jersey on, the jersey was heavy hey. And it was a little bit wet. So, I don’t know what they did to the jersey, but the jersey was heavy and wet. But only afterwards when I started playing, I realised what they were doing and stuff like that. For me, the main thing was, I said, “It’s fine, I don’t mind if you want to do that, just respect me and I will respect you.” You know, even the players used to understand this is who I am, so don’t expect me to do these things.
Talk about standing your ground.
