Day 102: "We Are The Girls"

My weekend was so incredible that I’ve spent the day today in that funk you get after you go on a really good vacation. Christy came back in from Joburg on the good ol’ Intercape bus Friday morning. Love that bus. I make sure to stock up the day before on food and drink, so when I get home from work we have a leisurely evening baking chicken and veggies while having cocktails and getting ready. Too bad my cooking skills are a nightmare, I keep trying to pull it out of the oven too soon and almost give us salmonella. We survive dinner and head out to my fave spot, Club 31 of course. We’re on a mission to mac on boys so all sorts of shenanigans ensue. My favorite is when Christy tells a German boy that he needs to take social responsibility for the holocaust (something about owning your whiteness) and as he storms off another guy comes up to her and says, “My girlfriend and I think you’re cute.” HAHA. Meanwhile, I have no idea where she is and am getting this Dutch boy’s name (not number) so I can find him on Facebook (oops, still need to do that), and am then intercepted by a British boy who says he can help me find Christy, or something like that, while thrusting a bottle of Grey Goose into my arms. Thank you? We find Christy by the bathroom and I decide its time to split, we do have a big day tomorrow after all.

I have planned a very promising wine tasting day in Franschhoek, the best wine valley ever, for Alison, Christy, Biva, and me. Alison found a driver for us named Lemon (!), who agreed to take us around for the entire day for R 800. Pretty darn good. I printed tons of maps and directions and phone numbers of wine farms to be over-prepared for navigation so even a child (or drunk person) could do it.

We’re meant to leave at 9:30 so we can get to the first wine farm, Boschendal, as I’ve booked a 10:30 cellar tour. We do pretty well getting ready I think, all things considered. But then Christy gets distracted by tiny pizzas on the way to the atm and buys one for everybody. It’s a nice surprise, but we get to our first wine farm a little later and miss the cellar tour. Oops, guess we’ll just have to start drinking! They give us a list of wines to select from and we each get six glasses. This place makes an amazing blend of chardonnay and pinot noir, it was one of the most interesting wines I’ve ever had! And we’re all very taken with a white blend called Le Bouquet, which we end up buying three bottles of. Then its time for the 11:30 cellar tour! We learn on the tour that we’re at the second oldest winery in South Africa – founded in 1685. We see the place where they crush all the grapes and about what they do with grape skins and things like that. At the end of the tour, we go to this place called the wine library we’re the wine makers sit around and drink wine surrounded by all their fantastic creations. I find myself wishing very hard that I had a wine library. Maybe someday.

Next we find Lemon and head to the next winery for our lunch reservation. I found a place online that does gourmet picnics on their beautiful grounds. You should seriously check out their menu, the amount and variety of delicious food they give you is unreal (www.solmsdelta.co.za). And you get a bottle of wine per two people on the picnic. As we pull into the farm, some guys in the lane look at us. Just then, Christy pops her head out the window and chirps, “We’re here!!” I nearly die laughing. Then we get to the restaurant and there are our beautiful baskets waiting for us with my name on them. I’m so proud! We pick a bottle of sav blanc and rose’ to accompany us and then we’re told to follow the person carrying off our baskets. She leads us to a trailer attached to the back of a tractor and sticks our baskets on it. I nearly lose it, WE’RE GOING ON A HAY RIDE! And its in the most BEAUTIFUL PLACE IN THE WORLD. Seriously. There are majestic mountains and grapevines turning a shade of gold in autumn, drenched in sunlight. The lawns are green and the weather is perfect. The tractor pulls us through the fields and past a pond covered in lilies, then over a bridge to a grassy knoll. You can hear a creek rushing by. We pick a nice spot on the grass under a big oak tree and spread out our blankets. I could cry I’m so happy. We all look at each other knowingly, this really is a special day. Then we pig out and drink lots of wine.

We end up staying at Solms Delta much longer than I anticipated, because it is much better than anyone could’ve anticipated. We explore the paths through the forest, play in the stream, lay in the sun on our picnic blankets, smell some flowers. I think everyone looks like magical fairies here, its so beautiful its surreal. I wonder out loud when an elf is going to pop out of a bush and grant us three wishes. But sometime around 2:30, the tractor comes back to get us.

The next winery on the list is La Motte. When we drive up the lane at this wine farm, we are greeted by a large, fabulous fountain – a woman holding a wine cup that is forever overflowing. I wish I had that cup. We stop and take pictures with her and then head to the tasting room. It also takes more time than I expected as, again, we’re having such a marvelous time, and the tasting here is 8 wines. We actually don’t make it out until after 4:30 when most of the wineries cease tastings.  So we can’t really continue on after that but are more than content with the amazing day we have had. To end the tour, we drive into Franschhoek and take pictures at the monument and do a little exploring around town. Christy buys a box of macaroons for everyone at a coffee shop.

Then we drive back into town for dinner. Lemon plays us his American playlist, which has a lot of Chris Brown on it, while Christy and Biva fall asleep. I stare out the window and watch the sky change dramatic colors over the mountains and vineyards. I am happy.

We have Lemon drop us off at Arnold’s on Kloof. Love that place. They have a special called “Stew 4 U 2.” It’s a potjie which is like Afrikaans (I think) stew. I pronounce is pot-jee and Biva almost falls out of her chair laughing at me because its actually pronounced poy-gee (hard G). She tries to tell the waiter and I cut her off and yell, “NO BIVA don’t tell him!!” because I’m embarrassed. Anyway, the Stew 4 U 2 is two bowls with pasta/potato-y things in them and a little pot of beef stew that comes with a bottle of wine for R 119. Alison and I split it and it is delicious. My little Biva gets a steak and Chrsity goes for kudu. Good stuff all around, and great company. I have LOVED wine touring with these ladies. We literally laughed the entire day, even at the end when we are all tired and hungry and ready to pass out in a ditch somewhere. Still laughing. I love it.

By 10:00 we’re all in bed where we should be. Christy and I sleep for 10 hours before waking up to go to church. I get up and feel like I’m healed, it’s the greatest feeling. After church we run home, make cheese & tomato sandwiches, throw on some hiker clothes and grab Alison to go climb Table Mountain. I haven’t climbed it since February, and I’ve been dying to go up the backside on the Skeleton Gorge trail that starts in the Kirstenbosch botanical gardens. The gardens are SO beautiful. We get distracted for a bit in the “smell me” garden because I looove smelling plants. So we smell all kinds of shrubs for good luck and then start up the trail. Literally up. Its just up, up, up stairs forever. At least its in a beautiful magic forest.

After climbing for awhile, we come to this exquisite waterfall. I’m so thankful to see it because, besides being stunningly beautiful, it gives me an excuse to rest for a minute. Then we’re off again, up, up. It’s a very rain foresty climate, thick, lush vegetation and tons of moisture. We finally make it to this point where they can’t even make you climb stairs anymore because its too steep, so you just have to climb ladders. We climb a few ladders and then the trail becomes a waterfall. This makes me SO happy. Its so cool to climb up the cascade for awhile before getting back onto a real trail again. Before we know it, we’re already on top of Table!

Turns out there is a ton of stuff up there I had no idea about. We play around in this reservoir for awhile, its like a strange desert of random rock formations. One of them looks like a skeleton boat, so we climb inside and take pictures. Then Christy tells us some story about when she was driving around with her friend and all their dogs and she got really excited and exclaimed, “We are the girls!” Alison and I laugh at this, but also agree that it makes perfect sense. The rest of the day, we run around saying, “We ARE the girls!!”

Next we come upon this random museum that’s just sitting up on top of the mountain. No one is in it, there’s just a bunch of stuff they used to work on the city’s water system. The reservoirs up there are very old but still in use by the city today. After leaving the museum we start on the trek to the other side of the mountain where we can catch the cable car to take us down.  Table Mountain looks pretty flat on top when you look at it from the city bowl side. If you see it from Camps Bay though, you can see the 12 Apostles that really make up the top – in other words, it ain’t flat at all. So we basically end up climbing two more mountains before finally making it over to the cable car. We’re rewarded with ice cream! And beer! And a bunch of tourists that we feel better than because we’re all sweaty and worked to get here, unlike all these people that just waltzed up in the cable car.

Again, we’ve spent the whole day laughing, and its magic.

We get down from Table around 5-6ish, shower, then go check out this Italian place Alison and I have been curious about on Kloof. It is delicious! We order a bottle of wine and end up not even being able to finish it. Go figure.

This was probably one of my favorite weekends in Cape Town, it was absolutely perfect. We are the girls!

Day: (My Numbering is All Off) Actual 97 - Final Evaluation

Its so hard to get out of bed in the morning on foggy, chilling days like today. I just want to stay snuggled up under my duvet for another few hours, dreaming about somebody bringing me a hot breakfast in bed or something. Biva and I found a heater, like a big serious heater on wheels, in our apartment recently and have been using it to heat up our bedroom. Best find ever.

Yesterday was much of the same weather, so likewise I get up and drag myself to work in the gloom. I put on a little extra makeup because I’m having my final evaluation of how I did at my field placement this semester for UT. I don’t finish up work for two more weeks, but my supervisor, Nana, is leaving tomorrow to have an operation and will be out the rest of my time in the office.  So we get all the documents ready and doodle around in the boardroom with my laptop all set up, waiting for my UT field liaison to Skype in for my evaluation.  She does and we all sit and reflect together on my time at Southern Hemisphere and in South Africa generally. I have really loved this field placement. They have given me fantastic learning opportunities and the ladies that I work with have been such role-models for me in many ways. They’re smart, ambitious, great at their work, and have wonderful children and husbands as well. Confession: we talk about kids and home/family stuff so much around here that I actually think it would be really nice to have them someday. Like, its something I really want to do. 

Anyway, its been a cool journey here. I did so much in my internship, and did so much outside of it as well and learned a lot about myself as a person and professional. During the evaluation, I enjoy reflecting on that with Nana and my liaison. (They also tend to praise the intern a bit in these social work evaluations, so I like that part too.)

I feel really emotional afterwards. All that formal reflection, woof. And I’m really going to miss Nana. I went to her house for the weekend this past weekend and spent time with her awesome family. We had yummy dinners and lazy days and took a trip to the beach. One of their dogs, Hercules, stole my bra off the bed I was sleeping in and it was so confusing the next day when we looked for it everywhere and couldn’t find it! She came into work the day after and said she had found it in the yard, haha. I’m really thankful for her taking care of me at work and outside of work. She lent me a sleeping bag for my safari so that’s good collateral to make sure we’ll see each other again before I leave.

I come home from work and want to just sink into my couch. Instead, I go out to dinner in Camp’s Bay for a friend’s last night while it pours down rain. I feel like pouting. I get a plate of sushi off the sushi carousel and order a Makers on the rocks (only R 28!!). Then I discover that we are next to a bar that has a (self-proclaimed) world-famous karaoke night on Tuesdays. WE MUST GO. So after dinner, everyone heads to the karaoke bar and we stay out way too late singing and dancing. I decide on singing “A Thousand Miles,” that cheesy Vanessa Carlton song, and “Independent Women” because it’s the greatest. When you finish singing, the host pours a shot of some green apple stuff down your throat, great for your vocal chords. I think my favorite part of the night was hearing Ethan belt out his rendition of “Summer of ’69.” I will admit, it is a pretty epic karaoke Tuesday, and a great way to break the emotional funk.

But yea, so two more weeks of work here and then I’m off for my safari! I’m really excited!! Everything is just about in order with my preparations. I’m also very excited because Christy is coming to visit again this weekend and we + Alison are going on an all day wine adventure in Franschhoek! Including a romantic picnic lunch J Can’t wait. 

97: Lift Loathing

Guess who’s fresh from the beauty salon, lookin’ all stylish? Me! I finally took the plunge and called the salon a few buildings down from mine this morning to book an appointment. The salon is called Pink and its in an apt building next to mine called Hip-Hop Plaza. I frequently walk by Hip-Hop Plaza and wonder why I don’t live there. I mean, its called Hip-Hop Plaza, and for no apparent reason really. There must be something cool going on in there.

Anyway, I get to my hair appointment and am asked if I would like tea or coffee. This is off to a good start! I order tea and am then whisked back to the hair washing area where I am seated in a leather lounger with my head tipped into a sink and my feet propped up on an ottoman. Then I proceed to get a 30 minute hair wash/scalp massage. I wonder if I have died and gone to heaven. Next I am shown to my chair, given a tray of tea, milk, sugar, and two biscuits. The stylist chats me up about what I’m doing here since I’m clearly not from here while combing all the rats out of my hair and giving me a trim. She pays very close attention to detail while cutting my hair and then gives me a fabulous blowout. She even does a little bit more trimming after I’m dry and explains that she cut my hair in some interesting way to try and eliminate the horror of the ends I walked in with (haven’t gotten a cut since Nov). I think I love her. 

I chose today to go in because on Tuesdays and Thursdays they have a 25% discount for students. My total comes out to R 235, I pay her R 260 and she is floored that I don’t want change (apparently they don’t tip their stylists much/at all here). I hope she’ll just accept it as a cultural token thing and walk away from the best hairwash/cut/style of my life paying $28. WINNING.

When I get home, Biva and Justine are chilling about the apartment. I laugh and point out to them how funny it is that Justine has the loudest talking voice on the planet and Biva the quietest. I have to ask Biva to repeat herself no less than 43 times a day because I never can hear her. Justine is going to toast and English muffin, but for some reason, half of the muffin won’t go into the right side of the toaster. She looks in and low and behold there is a MELTED TOY CAR in our toaster!! I come running over to see and about die laughing. I got a red Hot Wheels toy in my Cheerios last week and stuck it on top of the microwave along with one I had gotten before that. I guess it rolled into the toaster when we weren’t around and then one of us toasted something in one side without noticing a CAR was stuck in the other. Justine spend 10 minutes prying the car out and seemingly annihilates our toaster. We decide to try it out again anyway, just to make sure it really is broken. No telling how much Connect would charge us if we broke something… Turns out it works! You just have to toast one thing, on the side that isn’t busted up, at a time.

I am content and go upstairs to watch a movie with Alison. Its some French movie. Oh and it turns out it isn’t even a movie, it’s a collection of short films set in Paris that are all just plain weird. We’re not even entertained. Well, I really liked one actually, about two mimes who meet in jail and fall in love. Ah Paris! Then I get a phone call… Its Justine and apparently somehow the toaster blew a fuse or something and now none of the plugs in our apartment work. GREAT. Now everything might just go back in the fridge (again) if we don’t get someone out to fix whatever is going on ASAP. Ha, stupid Hot Wheels car.

On the way back down to my room, I nearly have a heart attack in the lift. The other day, while I was at a workshop with my supervisor helping a children’s rights non-profit here in town develop tools for their M&E system, the headline of a copy the Cape Times sitting on a table caught my eye. Something about a lift breaking and free-falling THREE stories in Parliament with a bunch of people in it!! Whhaaat! My mind rushed back to conversations I’d had with my friends in the creepy, horrifying lifts in our building. They would always comment that they were scared the lift would break and fall, especially that one time we got stuck in it after going to Robben Island. But I would say, “Nah guys, elevators have safety mechanisms that would keep it from falling. It won’t happen.” Just then, any illusions I had about safety mechanisms were shattered as I read one woman’s account of what happened given as she lay in a hospital bed with knee and back injuries. So flash forward to me in the lift now – as I’m going down, it goes two floors, then slows down and gives a big lurch. I remember what Justine said once about the elevator safety position for if it drops – you get in the corner in a squat and brace yourself against the walls. At the lurch I jump back into the corner and prepare the brace myself. Then it starts moving semi-normally again and I re-punch my floor and make it safely back. But I almost cry because that was terrifying. Stupid African lifts and their non-existent safety measures!

Anyway, some other random things going on lately… The Cape Town Jazz Festival was last weekend. I didn’t get tickets because apparently you have to get them WAY in advance and they’re pricey. Oops. So I settle for going to the free J fest concert in Greenmarket Square on Wednesday after work. That was a great success. I also happened upon a Desmond and the Tutus show at the Assembly Saturday night. They’re some local rock bank that was a smashing show, one of my favorite nights here. Sad thing is, I’m running out of nights to go out – 4 weekends left before I hit the road on my safari. Gotta make em count! Oh and the other sad thing is that its got very fallish/wintery here! Its cold and gets dark so early that I can’t hike after work. I barely have time to do anything after work besides scurry home out of the dark and cold. That’s a bummer. But whatever, Cape Town still rules! Loving life here so much! 

Day 90: Weirdest Easter Ever.

For the Easter weekend, I made plans to go visit my friend, let’s call her Louise (I’m just gonna keep this anonymous), at her internship site near Johannesburg. Louise interns at an AIDS orphanage/poverty alleviation village in a rural area. I have been wanting to get out of the city and see a little more of the country and volunteering at this place sounded right up my alley.

I’m set to fly out of CT Wednesday evening, but I have a big day ahead of me first. I wake up early and go to Home Affairs for the third time (the charm right?) and FINALLY get my visa application submitted (good thing too, bc my visa runs out after 90 days). I figured out that if you go right when they (usually) open at 7:30, you can get out of there in under an hour, which is a miracle. When picturing home affairs, think of a huge, miserable, African DMV. Horrific. I somehow do it just right this morning and the only hiccup is waiting for the cashier who showed up an hour late for work to take my payment. All well and good though; I get that checked off the list and I’m out of there in time to be punctual for SPA DAY.

Southern Hemisphere has designated today company retreat! And we all meet up at the oh-so-fabulous One & Only hotel at the Waterfront for a morning of pampering. After my full-body massage, I lounge in the whirlpool, go for a steam, go for a sauna, and punctuate all my heat fun with a splash in the ice crusher fountain. Its supposed to be good for circulation. I just like getting crushed ice thrown on me after nearly melting in the sauna and steam room. Heaven! Afterward, we all go to the hotel’s restaurant and have excellent meals that are as pretty as they are tasty. I have a sumptuous pepper crusted tuna steak and vino. I am convinced that I am the luckiest social work intern in the history of social work interns. Spa day and nice lunch on the company tab? Yes sir.

We float on out of the hotel sometime in the midafternoon and I run a few errands before taking the MyCiti Bus to the airport. When going to the airport and not lugging a million pounds of luggage, I highly recommend the MyCiti Bus. Only R 50! Everything goes smoothly and I catch my flight. I am very pleased with my day thus far! This has got to be a good sign right?

Soon I’m in Joburg, or somewhere on the outskirts of it at the “other” airport, Lansaria, waiting for my ride to come get me. I panic a little bit when I learn Louise and Dolores were unable to come with the driver, but its ok. I contact him and he says he’s on his way… but there’s bad traffic. At 10:00 at night? Um ok. I sit in the small waiting area and eat some nasty potato chips, like cheesy bbq flavor, I got out of vending machine. Time goes by and it looks like the airport is shutting down, where the heck is this guy? Finally, around midnight, he shows up with his buddies. We’re off in his car that may fall apart at any moment blasting really ridiculous hip-hop. He refuses my offer of some chips. It’s a long, dark car ride. We drop his friend off in some township and then go stop at a petrol station so he can go chat up the cashier. I’m REALLY losing my patience. I munch on a nasty chip and sulk. Finally mr. chauffer is back and gets me to where I’m going. My back is bothering me and I’m very ready for bed. I am greeted by Louise and Dolores, and much to my delight, TWO KITTENS! Yay! One of them, named Puppy (yes, a kitten named Puppy) sleeps with me in the front room. I love Puppy!

The next day, I am afforded the luxury of sleeping in until Louise and Dolores get home from litter duty. That is what they spend most of their time doing while I’m there, organizing kids to pick up litter around the village and orphanage two times a day. Very exciting stuff. Louise shows me around after. I’m happy to meet all of the precious and very sweet children. She tells me some of their stories which are heartbreaking. AIDS is rampant here and its destruction is everywhere. Many of the kids themselves are HIV positive, contracting the virus from their mothers or rape. Its great that this place is here to take them in, care for them, and give them a good education at the school they built. It was started by a white family who traded in a nice life to come do this difficult work under difficult circumstances.

I’m having fun, but by the end of the day, my back feels terrible. I think I’ve thrown it out. Judging by the way I can’t move anymore, I have definitely thrown it out. Ugh why!? So there is a lot of bed rest in my future. I can’t let the whole trip be a bust though, so I sneak in some (painful, laborious) ventures out of bed. The next day, for example, we all accompany the kids to the cemetery that is a decent walk away. I find this to be a very fitting activity for Good Friday. As I watch children tend to their parents’ and family members’ graves. This makes the AIDS crisis very real to me.  I pray that they will know the meaning of Jesus’ death and subsequent resurrection – that we can have hope even in the face of death. I throw a stone in the wishing pile and wish good things for these sweet kids. Then I lumber back to my bed to rest my back. That afternoon Louise takes the third kitten in our house, Louie, to the vet. Louie was taken away from his mom too early by some genius and then it ended up in the guesthouse. Louise looooves taking care of it, while I find the thing to be quite awful. It meows constantly and staggers around like a drunk when it walks. It can’t poop and is useless. We try giving it a laxative, and then a kitty-enema (don’t ask) when that didn’t work. It still won’t poo and its belly looks like its going to burst. Louise takes it to the vet to try and get its bowls fixed while I lay in bed all afternoon and only slightly less useless.

Saturday is more of the same – litter duty and such. I asked why they have to pick up litter everyday, twice a day and why not two times a week or something. To that, I was told it gets very dirty, very fast here and I wouldn’t want to see it if litter wasn’t done everyday twice a day. I then queried why they don’t teach people to throw stuff into litter bins or something then. That idea was quickly dismissed… okay.

My one venture out of the guesthouse is today is to the deck where all the kids are making Easter chocolates. They melt down big bars and reform them into smaller ones for the egg hunt that will be taking place on Monday so the chocolate goes further. I can’t stick around long and go back to my sad room. At least I have puppy.

Then its Sunday!! EASTER SUNDAY! I love Easter! Very important holiday to me. Little did I know before I came here though, that the people who run this place are actually Buddhist so they do not care about Easter. Except for the hunting eggs part, which doesn’t happen until Easter Monday. I find this to be a very strange twist to my Easter trip. I also find it strange that they don’t really do weekends here, so the girls are off in the morning again on trash duty. However, something goes wrong on the way to organizing the clean up crew. Ahh how to I even go into this next bit…

Louise asks D what has been up lately, as Dolores has been acting a little weird, standoffish. This prompts Dolores to burst into tears and say that Louise and I have been so terribly mean to her. And apparently she has been going around telling the people that run the place that we are mean and horrible to her. Next thing I know, a little girl comes up to me in bed and says, “The leader would like to see you.” Ok, she didn’t really say “the leader” but I’m trying to keep a little anonymity here, and she may as well have said that. Great. This is bound to be splendid. I have no idea what’s going on, I’m just here for the weekend to learn and try to be helpful. And to celebrate Easter for Christ’s sake! (get it?) At this point, I’m bent over like Quasimodo when I walk. I suspect I’m scaring all the dogs and small children as I walk up to the powwow circle that has formed on the lawn consisting of Louise, Dolores, The Leader, and her two daughters… as well as an assortment of annoying dogs. We finally get the dogs cleared out and council begins.

A brief attempts at explaining the situation from either side are made and then shut down by the leader. I swear to you, I am not making this up, instead of listening to what the two sides have to say, she looks at me and says, “We can’t go any further until I know her pen code.” One of her daughters magically produces a pad and paper and asks me what my birthday is. “August 22nd,” I say, and when I figure this is going to be some kind of astrology game, I add, “I’m a Leo! Or actually I guess I’m on the cusp or something.” They shut me up quickly, this is NOT astrology, this is my pin code! They do some sort of math and produce my pin code to the leader who has an AHA moment. I am the one to blame for all the trouble that has been caused because my personality type is that of a defiant hunter! Or I think it was a dominate hunter, but it may as well be defiant, or devastating or something. She then precedes to explain my personality to everyone: I am a very organized control freak who must have everything go my way. I will be tortured everyday of my life by this. I have a very acute bullshit meter, which also tortures me. I am very judgmental – I scan the room when I walk in and size everyone up. I completely lack compassion because I am always too busy to notice anyone’s feelings. Oh and I am snobbish. I think I’m better than everyone else.

I wish I was making up the fact that this person who I have met once for five seconds to ask if I could use her toilet was saying all of this to a group of people who also, for the most part, don’t know me… and I am SITTING RIGHT THERE.

So basically, she explains, my devastating hunter personality just waltzed on in and “crushed” Dolores’ sensitive “passive gatherer” personality. I thought I was better than her and decided I didn’t want to be her friend. The lady then tells Dolores and I, “Forget it, you two will never be friends!” But I thought we were up until this point?? I’m feeling a bit hurt at this point, and a bit flustered. Even though she’s giving me crap about not talking, I think better of saying anything, such as, “Welp, my amazing bullshit meter is OFF THE CHARTS right now.” I know whatever I say will be used against me in some way to paint me as ignorant, in denial, or the perfect (evil) defiant hunter. It will all be over soon, right?

Right enough. After I am made responsible for everyone’s problems, the leader feels bad about my back and gives me a cranial back massage. I am the most confused person ever. Part of me even admires her for being such an effective manipulator with her straight-shooting and all that. And she is great at straightening out my back and kind to give me anti-inflammatories. After that, I spend the rest of the afternoon processing what happened with Louise and my dear diary after Louise goes to be with Dolores in her hideout. Woof, what a circus.

When Louise comes back in the evening, we put on long Easter skirts and go out to a nice spot in a field to have an Easter service. Louise is also a Christian and we are determined to celebrate Easter – the best day ever! We sing Christ the Lord is Risen Today (one of my favorite hymns ever, missed singing it with my mom in church), read the Easter story in Matthew (which has some interesting little added details compared to Luke), and pray. We pray a lot. We pray for all the kids, and the family, and the people Louise lives with, and for ourselves to be gentler, more loving people. Some of the kids come to join us and we hold them and pray over them, for their healing and for bright futures. It may be the weirdest Easter ever, but we found great joy in our little service in the field. And badly needed strength. He is risen!

The next day, I’m all set to leave in the late morning and take with me all the interesting things I’ve learned here. I get one more massage from the leader and then my ride shows up. But before Louise and I get in, another little girl messenger comes up to me and tells me one of the daughters would like to see me. Alright. So I go to her house for her to inform me that I owe her R 800 to pay for petrol to and from Johannesburg. I feel the blood run all funny in my body. That is $100. That is more money than I have in my bank account currently. That is definitely WAY more than the price of the petrol used to transport me back and forth. I ask if maybe R 400 would be a more appropriate price, seeing as 800 is more than I paid for my PLANE ticket to fly over here. She sneers at me and says, “The price of petrol has gone up.” I’m shaking I’m so mad. She’s ripping me off! Bear in mind the transport that brought me here 2 hours late in the middle of the night after dropping his friends off and chillin at the gas station for awhile. I’m overpaying for THAT!? I lose it. I give her all the money I have left, which isn’t even half. I have to borrow money from Louise to pay for it and then pull the rest out of my savings account to pay the driver and have enough cash to eat on the way home. Maybe it would’ve been okay if this cost was made known to me as I was budgeting for the trip and trying to determine whether or not it was financially feasible for me to go on it. Oh and then the driver tells Louise she can’t come to the bus station with me because he has to go to another town afterward to play soccer.

I get in the car alone. I leave confused, angry, and humiliated. I think to myself that it must be pretty bad karma to rip people off like that…

Anyway, I finally make it to the very scary and busy bus terminal where I am abandoned by mr. chauffer in nasty Joburg. Seriously, the city looks like it was built to be awesome in the 70s, but people just stopped building then. Everything is dated and looks like it’ll fall down any day now. When I finally get on my bus though, much to my surprise, it is the NICEST bus I have ever seen. It’s a double decker sleepliner and all the comfy seats recline really far back. I actually enjoyed the 18 hour bus ride quite a good deal. Lots of time to read my book, snooze, and let my back heal.

Despite the intense drama and oddity of my Easter weekend, it was not a total bust. I really enjoyed spending time with Louise and I feel like this bonded us quite a bit. We’re trying to get a trip planned for her to come back to Cape Town before I leave. Speaking of Cape Town, when that bus rolled back into the mother city this morning, I nearly died I was so happy. I really missed Cape Town. I was even thrilled to go into work! I love it here and I’m so thankful to live here.