This is the first year in which I’ve had the privilege of seeing winter set in TWICE! It’s only Fall according to the locals, who’re still walking around in short sleeves (mostly migrants from the North) while I have already reached the limit on polar items in my wardrobe. Stuck in bed with a Texas-size cold, I’ve time to ponder life in
11.5.2004, Friday : sick but warm with all of life’s luxuries
Toast with apricot jam and Earl Grey tea… Just over four years ago, I emigrated for the 2nd time into uncharted territory. I took all my belongings that could fit into “Wittes” (white one) my ’62 Series II Land Rover and settled in a magical land of endless horizons where I discovered freedom in simplicity. Living in a rugged desert country the size of
In
In order to enjoy a slice of warm toast with butter and apricot jam the following blessings are implied : I have enough means to have bread, I am living in a dwelling with connected electricity, I own a toaster or any other sophisticated appliance to grill my piece of bread. Adding the excess of putting butter and jam, implies that I have some means of keeping my butter cold and the added lavishness of a good rainy season protected from pests for my apricots to be edible and the time to make jam. Making tea in the bush is less problematic, but still, it relies on a few critical parameters that are not a given to my fellow Africans.
So…let me raise my mug and celebrate another splendid day of basking in my Father’s sufficiency! A toast to Thomas Edison, to Tannie (auntie) Rita Rautenbach, a lady on a farm in Mpumalanga (where the sun comes from – in Zulu) who could make the best apricot jam in all of Africa and the clever people working at Zicam LLC Phoenix in Arizona, for making this funky “in your nose” medicine that enables some of my taste buds to participate in this grand occasion! To ya’all!!
11.3.2004, Wednesday : long lives the president (again)
“DRUG FACTS : When using this product – drowsiness may occur….excitability may occur..” How can this be true in both cases? Am I drowsy or am I excited? My eyes avoid the prescribed text books as I reach for the sponsored toilet roll on the floor where a small colony of used white bundles are resembling what I suspect snow could look like. Amidst (not too unpleasant side effects of my Tylenol Cold) my theory is proven again : Americans must have a genetic resistance to this stuff induced by many years of use. If they knew how potent it is on an unsuspecting central nervous system I might be required to sign an agreement not to use medication containing Acetaminophen while I’m a studying representative of this seminary.
11.2.2004, Tuesday : election week seen from the southern hemisphere
“Do you know who’s boss yet?” asks my dad in his good night email before I get into bed.
Will this man be God’s instrument in the AIDS crisis of my continent? Will his voice remain silent about our neighbor’s insane dictatorship that is preventing placement of the last peaceful puzzle piece in
9.29.2004, Sunday : Mormons under cover
Still shopping for a local congregation, one of my 3rd floor neighbors and her visitor from
Assuming that my neighbor and her friend was married, the lady made a comment implying different sermon, Sunday school and seating possibilities for the various visitors. Simplifying all the choices the
9.2.2004, Wednesday : online shopping for idiots
After spending four weeks investigating the different options in laptop computers, I have decided that I have to put an end to this non-stop argument in my mind : Mac vs. PC, PC vs. Mac…all the fancy functions plus the software for making movies at twice the price for six years or half the price for all the fancy functions with the software to edit videos at half the price for four years.
The final verdict is as follows : PC, HP (no support for Dell back home) ASAP!!
I stumble into the basement where my AV hero works. He knows how to do all sorts of clever tricks with a computer and has been the patient soundboard of endless technical enquiries. Today I shall spend the most money on a single item ever!
He confidently waits for the telephone sales operator somewhere on this continent to complete all the necessary details. My palms sweat and I want to cry for not being able to do this on my own. I am trusting a stranger who is speaking to another stranger to get my thousands from a strange bank in order to have a piece of equipment I don’t know how to work, with a plug that will never fit in the wall sockets back home!
9.20.2004, Monday : farewell to the men with their green meal trays
I have been the happy employee at the cafeteria for more than a month. Since school started, and real life dawned plus reading requirements, assignments due and trying to learn Greek from scratch, my RAM has been exposed to unmanageable levels of intensity! Thus, I am terribly sad to say, that I resigned today.
No more fashion-statements in my hairnet, no more sauna sessions in the kitchen with my cooking colleagues, no more last minute chance of orders to the ever popular and safe but boring choice of “grilled chicken sandwich” with some curly fries on the side to my friendly customers after a long, hungry afternoon.
What memories do I take with me from this lavish career in the catering ministry? You get apple-stick-lovers, adamant veggie-sticks-lovers, undecided eaters that couldn’t be bothered by either seasoned or unseasoned sides, the explosive sports channel watching crowd who always go for the whole spectrum of prepared beans and hot tortillas, with appetites the likes I have never seen before!
10.8.2004, Friday, : chamomile tea amidst geraniums at midnight
A kind group of warm hearted Americans invited me to join a social sacrament where authentic hospitality leaves a sweet scent everywhere you go. Pizza’s and Friday nights seem to go together in most households here and this one gave me my very first taste.
I was staring at the star studded night sky with some American girlfriends on the hammock. We were completely carefree for a few hours. Talking nonsense and pretending to be back in our own home back yards, wherever “home” was for each of us. Hearing the dog muffle for attention and the screen door open to get orders for the after-meal tea and coffee. The candle lights were beginning to flicker more rapidly as a soft breeze picked up. Kind hands offer a lovely big mug, prepared just for me and served with the love and dearness of a father. For a brief evening I was feeling safe at home…content.
10.9.2004, Saturday : lovers and friends, bubbles and chocolate
My first American wedding! What a rush…a whole mass of classy black dresses and suits lined up in front with three little angels slanting down like organ pipes in white. A proud dad and teary mom, a grinning groom and a peaceful bride with her Spanish eyes locked onto her man, staring dreamily and floating through the ceremony. I sat next to the two grandmothers of the party, ancient, wrinkled and powdered. Both of them wearing screaming pink and lime green somewhere in their sophisticated silk scarves and Jackie O outfits…what a treat!
The reception was at the top of a very tall building with bright orange fall colors sprinkled over the tables. Even the bathrooms had a view over the entire city, like the dining room in three directions. The room buzzed as the couple entered and I stood in awe at yet another miracle completed before my eyes. Two human beings chosen from different corners of the world, being friends for years and one day seeing each other for the first time. I cried and I smiled as Sting sang his beautiful song : I must have loved you…
10.14.2004, Thursday : drumming black
The pastor and his wife at my local church are great “normal” people, in the sense that their heaven centeredness do not disable their earthly use to God. They invited me to join them for a performance of the first female troupe of djembe drummers all the way from
Well, the show was incredible! We were about twenty white people in the packed audience and everybody was clapping and dancing at the end. I felt like I was back in the dust covered markets where live chickens and goats wander among the merchant stalls. The musicians’ bright costumes shone like textile turquoise with tiny shells and beads dancing at the ends of their cords to the rhythm of ancient ancestors. I was missing my black brothers and sisters…but proud to be an original from the precious reputation of drums and dance they’ve given to
10.15.2004, Friday : my first Halloween
Pumpkins everywhere and straw stuffed scare-crows guarding front doors along the hallways of our apartment complex. Halloween masks and costumes crowd the stores and I still can not believe that people actually want to have their front lawn look like an unearthed graveyard with skeletons emerging from below…what exactly is the point? Our Fall Fest at school presented a more digestible flavor of celebrations…providing endless amounts of food, drinks and entertainment for old and new. I sent an unexpecting baby boy crying hysterically when I unknowingly put my dark glasses on while making smiley faces at him. Oops…
10.29.2004, Friday : home alone
I was sad today. Yesterday was my brother’s birthday. Had he been on earth, he would have turned 28, but he’s been in a state of glory for fourteen years. As a family, my parents and I always go out for dinner on his birthday, celebrating the guy he was. We speculate about how he’s worshiping in heaven and smile about how close we feel to him in certain places where we used to spend time together. Mostly we recall how faithful the Triune God’s been in the remainder of our earth years together, affirming our faith to each other and remind ourselves not to hold back any expression of love and appreciation to anybody, not being certain that all of us might be around to do it later.
Two wet loads of clean laundry lies in anticipation beside the couch and I’ve just been invited for an ad-hoc ladies night up stairs with my two pregnant girlfriends…decisions, decisions!
- White Chocolate -
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