Day 59: Little Nuggets of Goodness

Whatta week with that feedback workshop! I will say, things improved on day 3 and 4. But the whole thing was still crazy, especially because I had to go by foot, train, and carpool to get to it at the crack of dawn every morning. One of my supervisors took pity on me and kindly offered to let me stay at her place so I wouldn’t have to deal with transport. I took her up on it after two morning of waking up before the sun.

So on Wednesday after the workshop, I go home with Nana to her house in Hout Bay. But first, she asks me if I’d like to see Chapman’s Peak. I’m not sure what that is, but it sounds lovely, so of course I would like to see it. We drive along a picturesque coastline on the side of mountains. I can feel excitement rise up in me that overtakes the stress of workshopping. As we drive along, Nana asks me what kind of food I miss most. Without missing a beat, I reply, “Mexican.” I of course have no expectation that we will be getting Mexican food, so it is much to my surprise when she says that, then, is what we will be having for dinner tonight. Little fireworks go off in my brain, and my stomach. They also go off in my heart because that is SO nice of her. We go to Woolies (Woolworth’s) before going back to the house and stock up on “tortilla” chips, “tortillas,” Mexican seasoning, burrito fixings, and stuff for me make my famous guacamole with. And by my famous guac, I mean Beth’s mom’s recipe (thanks Beth).

We go back to her house and the first family members I meet are the three dogs, all rescues. One is wearing a cone of shame, haha. I then meet her preteen daughters and later her husband comes home. We cook dinner and eat together, and even have molva pudding for dessert. I cannot even tell you house nice it is to be in a home with a family, and such an incredibly sweet family at that (and good looking as well). The next morning we all have breakfast together before heading off to school, work, and workshopping. The whole experience was such a welcome blessing and time of respite in a completely hectic week. Very thankful for the Davies family for inviting me into their home. Davies family, hm, maybe they’re distant relatives of the Davis family or something.

Anyway, I’m back in the office on Friday. It is probably the happiest I’ve been to be going into the office ever. I love going out and doing trainings and workshops and things, but the normalcy feels so nice after being out for almost two weeks. I check my overflowing inbox and discover an invitation to a party that will be held that evening. The Why Poverty crew won a prestigious Teddy award at a huge German film festival and they want to celebrate. I ask my supervisor heading up the WP evaluation if she’ll be going tonight. When she says yes, I RSVP and then get a response that I can bring a friend along if I’d like. Perfect. Of course I would like to share free food and booze with a friend.

I run home from work that evening, change, grab Cailey, and then head to the party. It is held in their fantastic offices which are in a house, not too far from my apartment, with a wraparound porch on the top floor. We eat and drink and mingle, and eat, and drink, drink, eat, mingle, and drink. This is everything I wanted to do with my Friday evening, especially after the chaotic week. I am again overwhelmed with a sense of thankfulness. And a sense that God is giving me little nuggets of goodness in the midst of stress to keep me going. Love.

After being at the party for awhile, my supervisor is leaving to go to another party at which her friend’s husband is DJing. She invites us to come with. Being ones to not miss such an opportunity, we go with.  After mistakenly walking into a very decked out gay bar, we get to the right place; The Piano Man I think its called. We go in and sit. It isn’t quite what I had in mind - all these people are my parents’ age or maybe a little younger. But it’s a good time anyway, good food and fun. The only thing missing was a piano player at the beautiful, shiny, baby grand piano they had sitting in there. Shame we couldn’t fly Kyle in.

As that winds down, I get word of another party about to wind up. I have a friend who has a friend who does promotion work here and he’s got a party going at a club called Casa Blanca tonight. Once again, not an opportunity to miss, so I meet up with the group and we cab on over to Casa Blanca. Let me just skip to telling you about my favorite part of the night – representatives from the Cape Town Pole Dancing Academy or Studio or something like that were there with portable poles. And yes I feel bad that this party had some women objectification issues, but this wasn’t like strip club pole dancing. It was like art. And they were wearing plenty of clothes. Oh and they would make sure to give their boyfriends big sloppy kisses before dancing, just to make that clear to everybody. Anyway, it was so cool, like Cirque du Solei. So I’m just standing there, mesmerized by these pole artists, until they pack up their portable poles and go home. Then its our turn to dance the night away, except on the ground.

Saturday, I do schoolwork all day after restocking my fridge at Pick n Pay. I’m finally making headway on my Haiti data analysis, which is very exciting! But also not so exciting when I want to go do fun things in Cape Town on the weekend… At least I had a nice dinner at the Waterfront with Alison and Robyn.

Sunday morning, I get up and go to church at Central Methodist Mission. I’m not sure I’ve taken time to talk about this church on my blog. I walked past it on my way to work for awhile before finally going in, and I wasn’t too sure about it the first two times I went (one being the weirdest Ash Wednesday service ever). But the first time I heard the regular pastor give a real sermon, I was hooked. The guy is brilliant. The church cares a LOT about social justice issues and is always getting into current issues in the country – violence against women, gay rights, labor issues. The music can be a little hit or miss, but I’m happy there. You can’t have it all, right? (Unless you’re Servant Church ;)

Anyway, after church, I finally go to the beaches at Clifton with Alison and Robyn. Its gorgeous there, but the water is also FREEZING. Seriously, I can barely put my feet in for five minutes because it is literally painful… and then you go numb. But today has been probably the hottest day since I’ve been here, and the wind wasn’t bad – the most perfect beach day. Alison and Robyn go into the water and completely submerge themselves several times. I want to do the same, but am too much of a wuss. The first time I try, I can’t go in past my calves. The second time, I go into my knees and put some water in my hair so I can try Alison’s Sun In before running back out. (I want to be blonder!) Then, the third time I go in, I get in almost up to my bum before I want to get back out. Before I turn around to run out, I see this huge swell coming in that turns into a wave taller than me! Oh crud. I turn around and start running, but its no use. The wave catches up and completely bowls me over; and I’m in shallow enough water that I don’t really go all the way under, I just kinda get knocked onto my knees and looks like a big loser. I look around and it seems as though no one saw. Well that’s good. And at this point, I’m wet enough to just suck it up and go for a swim. So I do. But only for about 2 minutes before my arms start hurting so bad I have to run out again. I will admit though, it was very refreshing once I was back on the sand and had feeling in my legs again.

This week is shaping up to be another stressful one at the office, I’m responsible for writing up the strategic plan we workshopped on last week. And I don’t know what I’m doing. Guess I’ll give it the ol’ college try. 

P.S. - My new roommate Biva moved in today. And get this, she graduated from UT last year! Isn't that nuts? 1014 is now officially Longhorn country. Moo.