Freezing...in Africa!?

It is "Worker's Day" today, which is our equivalent of "Labor Day", and this means that the day is moving at a slower pace than usual.  I know we often complain about the unpredictability of Calgary's weather, but South Africa is similar in that regard.  On Friday and Saturday, we were cooking hot, but today it feels like an October day in Alberta!  It's winter here now, and although it's still not much to whine about, it does get a wee bit chilly in our unheated house with unsealed windows and doors.  We have a piece of fabric stuffed under the door to block the cold breeze, the rain, and also the frogs.  We are quite used to sharing our home with froggies now, and often have 2 or three hopping about.

 

It was a bit of an adjustment to go from the state of "high adventure" we were in on our holiday week, back to the routine of daily life here.  Dan had a bit of damage control to do at the preschool, where food supplies were running out, a window had been broken, and an important key lost.  I came back to find several piles of paperwork on my desk that needed to be attended to, some medical supply shipments that needed to be located, and a funding proposal deadline that needed to be met.  It was nice to hear our supervisor mutter several times that she had really missed us while we were gone, and that she can't imagine how she'll cope when we leave.   It's nice to be appreciated!

 

The girls are also finding it tough to get back into routine, and have been a bit "resistant" to their return to daily schoolwork.  I must admit that after being a home school parent for these months, I think that those of you who do it full time are heroes!  To attempt to help a hormonal teenager navigate the murky waters of geometry seems to be beyond the capabilities of my patience some days, and I look forward to handing the job back over to school teachers in the fall.  Jess will be turning 13 in just 4 days, and keeps reminding us that she will then be a full-fledged teenager.  She tells us with a big smile on her face that she's going to be "really BAD" starting next week...oh joy!  Actually, she is a delightful young lady in spite of her threats, and most of the time Dan and I are able to chuckle and remember what it was like to be 13.  Other days...our 3 room house feels just a bit crowded!

 

Yesterday we made the trek into a town call Hillcrest to attend church.  Hillcrest is a rather "white, upper-class" suburb of Durban, and one street there is literally lined with churches.  We thought we might just drive down the street and find one that sounded interesting.  We had just pulled over between a Methodist and an Anglican church and were reading the signs to find out when their services start, when our attention was drawn to a heated discussion between two men on the sidewalk.  A shabbily-dressed black man had evidently been asking church-goers for money, and he was being confronted by one of the "authorities" of one of the churches.  The white man was shouting his disapproval, and telling the other gentleman not to come back here on a Sunday morning again!

It was one of those times where you see something happen, your mind struggles to understand the situation, your stomach literally turns, and even as you drive away, you wish had shouted, "No, stop!  This is crazy wrong!"  I must say that we didn't enter either of those two churches, but even as we listened to a sermon at at church down the street, we could not stop thinking about the solemn lesson that was portrayed on the sidewalk that morning.  Even here in Africa, the well-dressed church-goers don't like to be reminded of the poverty and death all around them.  I can't help but think that all the time, energy, and money that was spent in the dozens of local churches on Sunday morning could have been used so differently.  Why are there still so many churches where only the clean, well-dressed, and "acceptable" people are allowed to enter, and then only if they leave their needs and problems outside?  It seems ludicrous to us that people here deny the cries for help from fellow South Africans who are dying in droves just down the street, but we realized that we do no differently in North America.  The need less evident, and more easily ignored...but the lesson is the same.