Tears as housemates get messages from home

THERE was hardly a dry eye in the house (my house as well as Biggie’s!).

This weekend’s messages from home brought almost all the housemates to an emotional breaking point, as support from their friends and families provided the final fuel to push them through the last three weeks of the game. First things first though, Itai is this week’s Head of House.Friday’s HoH task was almost designed for Itai to win. Itai’s smarts saw him answer the most riddle questions correctly. Biggie read out a series of riddles, allowing the housemates two minutes to work out the answer before moving on to the next riddle. Questions like: What can you catch but not throw? (a cold) and what kind of coat can only be put on when wet? (a coat of paint).This is Itai’s second stint as HoH. As one of the more serpent-like housemates, it will be interesting to see if he reciprocates and saves Eddie should his name pop up for eviction on tonight’s dreaded weekly nomination show. At the time of going to press, Itai had yet to find out that current HoH Eddie had saved him from possible eviction, replacing him with Kevin. Will he show some loyalty towards Eddie? We’ll just have to wait and see. Don’t forget to watch tonight’s nomination show, live on Channel 198 and on Channel 102 at 20h00.HAIRY STUFFBack to this weekend in the house: the housemates got their hair done. Eddie in particular changed his hairstyle – relaxing it and shaving into a funky Mohawk with cool patterns shaved in on the sides. Mzamo got her usual peacock do – she looks funky, Leonel undid his dreads, got a trim and is now sporting a bit of an Afro. Itai’s head remains suspiciously hair-free and shiny, while Kev just freshened up his signature hairstyle. They spent much of Friday afternoon in the pool, I seriously wished I could join ’em as they sipped on cocktails and splashed around in the tiny pool before spending the night drinking and dancing up a storm in the garden. KLEPTO TIMESaturday morning started off with a celeb guest. I almost feel sorry for some of these celeb houseguests, having to enter the house so early in the morning, when all the housemates are still groggy and sleeping off the night before. This week’s guest was Collo, of the Kenyan group the Kleptomaniax. Eddy and Kev were the first housemates to greet him as he entered the house to one of Kleptomaniax songs playing in the background. Kleptomaniax – a corruption of the English word, ‘kleptomaniacs’ which means habitual thieves is a rap group made up of three guys. Their music interest started when they were still in high school where they wrote songs and competed with fellow students and schools in variety shows, slowly establishing themselves in the music industry. They are known for tracks such as ‘Freak It’, ‘Haree’, ‘Maniax Anthem’ and ‘Tundelee’.Collo seemed pretty down to earth. Teasing Emma about missing his fellow countryman and evicted housemate – Emma’s ‘hubby’ – Jeremy, hinting to Mzamo that perhaps drinking from dusk till dawn is going overboard, throwing out some freestyle rhymes with Kevin and Itai and even cooking a stew for the housemates. He engaged the housemates in some pretty interesting conversations, mostly about music. Caught one between him and Mzamo talking about the lack of international music in the house. He asked if they could play a little Jay Z and Mzamo complained that they never got to listen to much international music, only getting to hear some Kanye West through songs on Keri Hilson’s album. Collo also seemed pretty humble, because someone said they should play his album again and he actually said, ‘No, we’ve listened to that already.’ Refreshing -to find an un-self-promoting musician! HOME VOICES Wondering when they would receive their messages from home had the housemates on edge all weekend. The video messages came through on Saturday afternoon, while Collo was still in the house. Almost all the housemates cried, with some completely breaking down into sobs and others just silently shedding a tear or two. Eddie’s message was from his mom, younger brother Talla and niece Blanche, as well as Namibia’s own Kwaito Superstar Gazza, who said he was already planning Eddie’s victory party. As soon as they told him that Namibia was behind him 100%, tears just started falling down his face.All the housemates, except for Itai and Mzamo cried, with Leonel, in typical dramatic fashion – falling down to his knees while sobbing loudly. Emma also tjanked like a baby, while Nkenna sat silently crying for some time afterwards, with Mzamo trying to comfort her. Geraldine got a message from her twin sister, who she’s spoken of in the house often and missed a lot -so it came as no surprise that she also cried. Og! I tell you. I was almost (kinda) in tears too. Poor Kevin, who because of a particularly cruel Molotov cocktail thrown by Elizabeth was not allowed to receive a video message from home, walked out into the garden and let out a loud scream of disappointment and frustration, saying ‘thank you Elizabeth, thank you Elizabeth’. Elizabeth chose to throw the Molotov cocktail at Kevin, she said, to make him stronger, promising to get word to his family on his behalf.The house was pretty low after that and poor old Collo didn’t really know what to do with himself. Thankfully, the weekly arena games managed to lift the housemates’ spirits a little. This week they were rolling around in some big bubble balls and shooting each other with soft balls. Later, DJ Waxy entertained like he always does. I love the music he plays but that b*&$%y guy who raps or drones or whatever over the mic is just too annoying for me. We want to listen to the music dude, not your running commentary.The guys and gals seemed to love it though – as they shook what their mamas gave ’em on the lawn. Geraldine seems to be coming out of her shell, finally – with like, only three weeks of the game left! Seems her role as the saucy seductress Scarlet in last week’s task has left its mark. MOVES … AND MOVESUsually a teetotaller, she’s been sipping on cocktails along with the rest of the housemates and seems to be getting more comfortable with Leonel around. They danced together, quite sexily actually…Emma and Kevin, who have both lost their partners to eviction, also seem to be pretty sexy and playful with one another. They are pretty close as friends, watching them booty shaking and bumping to DJ Waxy’s sounds though, one might think more. Mzamo was – for once – wearing proper clothes and looked quite hot too, in a tiny beige skirt and top. I love Nkenna but can someone please tell her to throw away those faded pink 3/4 sweatpants and awful, unladylike strops she wears! Her role as Mrs Vinnie showed that she actually has quite a hot little body – but it is sooo not being shown to its best advantage in those pants and shoes. Eish! SERPENT COURT The night ended off on a rather interesting note, with a Serpentry Court of sorts. I’m not sure whose idea it was, but the housemates decided that it was time to come clean about all the gossiping, alliance manoeuvring and hard feelings within their midst. Kevin told Nkenna that he had nominated her and put Itai on the spot, when he pushed Nkenna to reveal who had told her. Itai as usual tried to deny it, but had to settle for talking his way out of the situation rather. Emma confronted Nkenna about putting her up against Jeremy, Leonel told Eddie he had no hard feelings about his Molotov cocktail bed sheet prank and spoke openly about his fling with Mzamo and his love for Geraldine. He spoke as though he had a feeling he’d be leaving this Sunday and said he wanted there to be no hard feelings between him and any of the housemates. To me, it seems pretty likely that Leonel would have been the one chatting to Ike on the eviction stage last night, but as you know – at the time of going to press, the eviction results are not yet available. So, see tomorrow’s newspaper for an interview with the evicted housemates and remember to watch tonight’s nomination show at 20h00 and vote to keep your favourites in the house.•You can watch Big Brother Africa 24 hours a day on DStv channel 198. The daily show, live nominations and eviction shows will be broadcast on M-Net Africa (DStv channel 102). Africa Magic (DStv channel 107) will broadcast all repeats.