From Grumpy to Great

I’ll be honest. I woke up wickedly grouchy this morning. Not really because of anything, just the wrong side of bed and very tired. But nothing works off a bad mood like some good, hard, physical work. Norton called us this morning to let us know that people were gathering downtown at TAC to put together goods to go to the various centers around town and in the townships for the refugees. We headed down there and worked in the sorting room. When goods got delivered they came to us and the food and clothing items got sorted. We sorted the clothing by adult, teen, child/ male, female/ warm, not warm. When we first started working, the place was a mess and we spent more time looking for the right bag than actually sorting. Very subtlety, we got that ship organized and moving.

It was something to think about though. I started out frazzled. Disorganization makes me pretty crazy, but there was so much going on and so many different hands that it had little chance to get set up at the beginning. Over and over again, I am reminded how the earliest stages of any project, big and small, are crucial. Today, there was no deliberate move to be leaders, but by the end of it, the main TAC person in our room was thanking us profusely and made the comment that she just didn’t have to worry about the clothes sorting because we had it running so smoothly. Other volunteers were asking us questions and moving into the system without difficulty. Just because we organized—ourselves and the system. And even in the chaos of a hundred people moving in a hundred directions, TAC was more effective then the government at assessing the needs in the centers and getting goods delivered. Bureaucracy really slows a system down. For future reference, TAC would be a great place for someone to do an IPSP.

After several hours, Eloise and Pauline came and picked us up and we went to an Africa Day concert in Company’s Park. Around Company’s Park are several museums and the Parliament buildings. We didn’t go in any of them, so I hope we’ll g back, but I did take a few pictures. The concert was amazing and I loved hearing all of the variations of the traditional music. It totally reinforces in my mind how little rhythm I have.

We left the concert and headed to an area called Camps Bay. I’m not really sure which direction we were heading, but we were at the bottom of some mountains. As we headed up the mountain, we were in this dense, dense fog. Couldn’t see anything. And then, all of a sudden we kinda broke through them and we were above the clouds. You couldn’t see anything below the clouds, and above them the sun was setting in the most beautiful hues of pink and orange and purple. The photos really don’t capture the full spectrum and richness of the colors, but I tried.

Once the sun set, we went back down the mountain and played on the beach just a little while. The water was CA-OL-DE! But I have officially stuck my toes in the ocean this summer, and a South African ocean at that! We then had drinks at a little café off the sand and then headed home. Sanford did dinner tonight and OMG! (Julie West) it was good. That boy can COOK! It was chicken, but it was juicy and tender and very well seasoned. Taking turns cooking dinner is going to work very well for us!

Always,

Sarah