Another work week

Now I have three days to recreate. In a way, that should be easier because they have been work days either in the national library or the archives… and believe me there is nothing exciting to share about the work we do there.  It’s hard for me to imagine that someone is paying Maura to dig up information about how many carrots were planted in the 1800’s in the colony of South Africa and who paid what for barley and what land was considered good for the planting of English crops and how damn long it took for anything to be accomplished and who accompanied whom to ask about this and that. And long letters where it took lines and lines to say anything for the antiquated social mumbo jumbo that was evidently required of all correspondence. Actually, it reminded me a lot of the stuff that used to thrill my grandmother Fowler in those incredibly boring United Daughters of the Confederacy meetings, the mercifully few I attended where we sat around after years of reading meeting minutes and protocol readings before we discussed historical findings of letters or whatnot while my mind had long since wandered out the window  thinking how did anyone ever do this for fun….but again, I digress.  The language was similar as Maura was dictating to me from the extremely hard to read cursive handwriting and I was doing my best to type it into her Macbook (which I am never good at anyway) BW… Before the Wreck, I was actually pretty good at this, but I didn’t realize how much predicting I did and how much I counted on the phrasing and the words making sense… add into that the problems I’ve had since my concussion spelling even easy words and I was not as much help as I should have been. When the handwriting was larger and darker and more legible, it was easier for me to read to her… actually at that point, she found it easier to read from the document and type so I went back to recreating the blog for our weekend.

Monday was supposed to be our early start.. waking up with my alarm at 7, taking the laundry and getting off to the national library… only somehow I had turned my alarm off and neither of us woke up until 8… so the laundry had to wait because documents had already been ordered at the library and there is a 24 hour waiting period to get them. The library is actually less than a block from our swank hotel… but it wasn’t quite THAT cheap… I keep telling myself. I did go by to check to see if I had somehow dropped on of my medicines out of my suitcases when we repacked. I’m such an old lady pill taker that I have one of those weekly pill boxes and when I went to refill it at our new abode I was missing my…. GASP… anti-depressant. Not exactly the kind of thing you want to drop cold turkey, especially when your new medicine says to tell your doctor if you start giving away all of your things and start feeling suicidal (Don’t worry, I  haven’t) I called Kerry to see if I had left them at home and he couldn’t find them. No one had turned them in.. not that they probably would although it’s not the thing a druggie would really want… so I guess it will remain a mystery. I can and will restart them when I get home without any major issues… Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.

So… in spite of a really beautiful, sunny day… we worked… and there is not much to say about that. s

On Tuesday, we got up with the alarm… Let us say that I got up with the alarm and put the hot water on and FINALLY dragged my daughter out of bed… whose work we were going to do… and we got our laundry to the place where for a mere 75 rand they agreed to wash, dry and fold our clothes… an extreme bargain anywhere!!!

Tuesday was a national archives day and another absolutely beautiful day… for working  with molding, fragile documents, of course

I came in more handy here…. Especially as there is no internet there. First I must confess to dragging Maura back to the place with great and cheap milk tarts and to a post office where when we got the the lady and asked for international postcard stamps she had to send us to the man in the next box because she had not a clue where they were. When I ordered 30, he thought I had lost my mind. I explained that I was a teacher and had made promises and that I also had a large family... then, of course, I had to go quickly buy some overpriced postcards as I knew there would be no internet and Maura would be taking pictures… She was not overly happy with me.

But it turns out I was more useful in the archives. You have to sign up for a room to take pictures and get limited time so while Maura looked up what she needed, I actually took the pictures then returned the manuscript volumes (with my right hand) to the desk. I could also take her slips requesting new ones. I was especially helpful when she realized that her camera battery was dying and she didn’t have her charger. Thank you Ethan.. I had my cool iphone 5 with its very nice camera. (In order to connect with one of my students who is very into the newest cell phone and any other technology.. I bought myself my first smart phone.)

We were not quite finished with what we had by the time they were ready for us to go.. we had the room until 4 but at 3:30, the rest of the people had left and they were definitely wondering when we were going… so we finished all but the last manuscript book and signed up for 8-12 the next day… and Maura said we would get a cab… and what time would that cab be coming Maura???? (It came between 8-8:30)

We hadn’t eaten since the milk tarts (and Maura’s bread) so we stopped downtown but couldn’t agree on anything so we went back and ate at the burger joint that was so crowded on a Saturday and was deserted at 4:30. I had my chick peas and lentil sloppy joe, this time with the disco fries (covered with tomato relish, onions, sauce and melted mozzarella cheese.. not bad). After we finished and waited an eternity while the waitress, one of four blond haired pony tailed look alikes who could barely remember we were there, thought to bring us our check, I sent Maura to get our laundry. She returned before our waitress, but we finally did pay and trudged up the hill to our apartment and bed.

Most of the time I sleep well, but when I have trouble, it’s bad and I hate it. I was so tired. We both were. But I couldn’t sleep. Part of it was being too tired. Sometimes when you are too tired it’s harder to sleep. Part of it was starting a Tony Hill novel. I started a Mark Childress.. who writes historical mysteries kind of like Maisie Dobbs (which if you haven't read that mystery series you should go to Amazon right now and buy the first one) but then I realized it was a sample. And then, I started the Tony Hill without realizing it was him… and by the time I did… well, they’re good…. But dark… really too dark to be reading here…. Because here is hard for me. I am a rich person. I know that I am one of the haves. I also know that I come from haves that have been generous. My daddy was one of the most giving persons I’ve ever known. But giving would never be enough here. The need is too great. Some of the young men who beg here are tough and territorial. They have a turf and they protect it. They don’t allow anyone else to beg there. They treat it like a job, probably the only one they find open to them. Others, like the one that approached Maura and I yesterday outside the Clicks, do not appear comfortable or hardened. I’m hungry, he said.  This is some mother’s man child.. my heart responded even as I followed Maura into the Clicks. I wanted to find some bag of nuts. I wanted to help this one young man. I could see my own beloved son there. No one chooses this. It haunted me as I tried to sleep.

And nothing prevents sleep like worrying about it. I took Dramamine early.. but if it ever had any effect I never felt it.  There were times I was almost there… and then I wasn’t… nothing worked… deep even breaths… shaking the feet… and of course, I thought if I could just roll over on my left side… but I think rebreaking my collar bone might wake me up….

I did dream, and therefore sleep after I heard the children above getting ready for school….

We took our taxi to the archives and put in our 3 ½ hours of picture taking then came home. Today it rained while we were in the archives so.. not so hard to be there working… We tried the simply Asia restaurant at the other corner of our block… I ordered hot… it was not… an occasional bite at best. The sun came out… Maura worked and researched cars and tourist destinations while I napped… the room was cold and my bed was warm and I did manage to sleep some… hopefully I will do more so tonight…. And now you have caught up with our exciting adventures at the bottom of the world… or close to it.