DENOUDSTEN DIARIES: March 2013

Thursday, March 7, 2013

South Africa Sightings 2

Monday:

We are up at six and after a leisurely breakfast are ready for our eight o’clock pick up. We drive to Pretoria first as Reinhild’s laptop had ‘crashed’ and needed to be looked at. Thankfully it turned out to be a loose hard drive.

We finally got under way, with two cars, at eleven. By this time rush hour was pretty well finished and we could make good time on the 350km trip. We did have lunch half way and arrived in Dirkiesdorp around four.

While Margreet and Reinhild drove on to Piet Retrief(50km) to go grocery shopping, Nico and Henk got to cleaning the house. They did have to break in as the key for the outside door wouldn’t turn. After removing the pins from the hinges they were able to get in and get to work.

After a, for us, late supper we walked back to ‘our’ house which is a hundred meters from the other home. Thankfully we had flashlights as by this time it was really dark and the main menace along the path are cow pies.

After inspecting the main bedroom we opted for the smaller bedroom. The latter has a ceiling whereas the master bedroom goes right up to the thatched roof and bats have found places to hang.

Tuesday:

We again got up just before six as we had to catch a ride to the Themba centre leaving at seven. We arrived at the start of morning devotions and afterwards were introduced to the 30 or so black South African staff.

As the Themba site was developed over a number of plots of land a few km apart it is quite a challenge to get from one part to the next. Reinhild took us around to the school and the separate dormitories for the boys and girls (89 boys and 95 girls grade 6 to 12). We also had a quick look at the preschool where we will have our jobs with fixing cracks and painting the kitchen area.

Although the mornings are cool it does get quite warm and as we are 2500 meters (Ed: I'm guessing 'above sea level'), have to be more careful not to get sunburn.

After getting home we fixed the toilet: there was a blocked filter inside the water tank. While Margreet was taking a shower Henk chased a bat out of the bedroom. This one must have sneaked in as we hadn’t closed the door properly. It finally was chased down the hallway (Henk only took out one light bulb) into the living room where it hopefully will find its way out again.

Margreet made supper for us –Reinhild had driven back to Johannesburg-and we made it an early night.

Wednesday:

We have a quick breakfast and walk down to the gate to wait for Nico. It is about 4 km on a pretty rough road to get down to the main road. On the way we pick up two of the workers. After devotions it is a bit of mayhem as Ntula changed money, got air credit, swapped SIM cards and found Henry to install the appropriate program on the laptop. So hopefully this all works and we should be ‘back in business’ internet access wise.