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.
No comments:
Post a Comment