First Friday

The next day of our working holiday… is another name for a working holiday a busman’s holiday?… I believe that’s the name of a Dorothy Sayer’s novel… the one where Lord Peter Wimpsey and Harriet Vane have their honeymoon, but it’s been years since I’ve read it. Of course, they must solve a murder while there, or why else would we be reading about it… but I digress again.

I foolishly bragged to Maura that I had gone to sleep the night before without drugs. The good book does say how pride goeth before a fall. It seemed to take me forever to go to sleep, and then when I finally did go to sleep, I got a call in the middle of the night from a friend in the States who was unaware I guess of the time difference. I missed the call having deliberately left the phone far from the bed to force myself up for the alarm set to take my medicine. It seems like I had barely gotten to sleep before the real alarm for my medicine went off. It did seem so unfair, and Maura seemed in no mood to be the adult with her mother there to play that role so eventually I got up and performed that duty.

We decided to take the bus to our switch and eat breakfast there and then go to the archives. Well, actually, we had a discussion. I thought we should get off at Riebeek and eat and get postcards and then hop back on and switch. Maura thought there was nothing there but an adult store. She thought there was more at Darling after the switch. It turns out we were both right, and wrong. The stop at Riebeek was actually at Long Street which has everything you could ever want to buy in life which means we could have bought postcards, food, etc. However, Darling was a place where real people shopped… so no postcards, but real coffee for a buck; a huge milk tart, half a loaf of bread, and a bottle of juice for two bucks more and a place to go back for the turban I’m really going to need soon along with anything else real at a market where working people shop… both on the street with venders and in an enclosed mall. Maura gets a bit nervous going off the beaten path like that… we were slightly lost for a bit… but it felt a bit more like our family’s travels to me and ended up being right at our bus stop.

There is no internet at the archives which makes Maura very productive and I was actually able to be very helpful to her today. Once she had written her information (in pencil of course) I was able to whisper her source information to her so that she could type it into her excel sheet and cut her time in half… maybe even less… and certainly took some pain off her back. Yea!!! I am here for a reason and not useless because of my wreck.

I have been feeling really discouraged about my students. I may be thousands of miles away, but they still have the power to break my heart. Two of them were sitting in ISS yesterday and one (not in ISS) informed me that his mother was definitely not letting him go to Camp Greenville. Bad behavior choices have consequences, I know… but I am so disappointed. And I am afraid that because he’s not going another of my boys will choose not to go, fearing he will not have a good time without him. They are so fearful, although they would never admit it. I might could convince them if I were there… but that is part of it. I’m not there. They trust me, but it’s taken me a year to get there. I know I have to let it go.  As hard as coming here has been physically, it would have been harder to stay. Even though I was so physically tired, the lack of mental stress was so noticeable those first few days that it was like a physical release. And of course, Camp Greenville is physically challenging as well.

It is another beautiful day in Cape Town, South Africa. That is academic self-discipline on Maura’s part. It is a perfect day to be out on the water or up on the mountain and here we are working in the archives. She should get an award. She was worried about me whispering her numbers and information to her a while ago and right now it sounds like a coffee shop in here. These old people looking up their family history do not understand about whispering…. For that matter, I don’t believe the male species knows how to whisper. We do this exercise at school where we put our hand on our throats and feel for the vibrations and compare whispering with non-whispering. (Most of mine can’t really whisper either, of course)

Oh Lord, he just put Maura’s number on 3 more boxes. We’re libel to be here for quite a while. OOOPs….. that was yesterday’s number. Maybe there’s hope for a little sunshine time.. but Maura’s off looking for more stuff so maybe not… time for me to quit blathering on the blog and start blathering on emails though…..

A reprieve finally arrived and we bought our tickets on the double decker bus with the open air seats on top. It was totally worth it. We waited next to the old Dutch castle (really a fort) that was once next to the ocean. The Dutch are really good at recovering land from under water.

 Our trip through town included the beautiful Bo Kaap area where beautifully colored houses were built by slaves who were never allowed color in their clothing so when they were set free made sure that color was included in every part of their lives.

 Then we headed up Table Mountain where the top of the double decker paid for itself with the fantastic views. We took both videos and photos with my phone. And Maura informed me that I was terrible at selfies, as if I didn't know. I hate having my picture taken.. why would I be good at taking my own?!?!?

The air on top was cool and much freer of the smog that permeates Cape Town. It bothers Maura more than me, but no one can escape it. So we just rode on and never got off through Camp's Bay.. where the super rich and famous live and the surf is 14 ft and crashes on the rock and were we later in the summer we could see the rare right whales.

Because of the kelp and rocky shoreline, there is no swimming on the beach so all of the rich people have their own swimming pools. There was a beautiful black and white Great Dane lying by one and he had only moved about three feet in the hour between our first and second pass. It is a truly beautiful place.

We stopped at the waterfront where we road the elevator Ferris Wheel and took the canal ride. It rode through more multi-million dollar flats with cormorants and ducks and one woman paddle boarding. Then, we got back on the bus and went to the street markets where we were offered the best prices from everybody... end of the day prices, South African prices, beautiful lady prices.. we were so lucky... but we were not buying today... except for some postcards from stores for my aunts and my students.

At this point it was back on the bus to find some food by way of another pass over the beautiful Table Mountain by way of District Six, a vibrant community of mixed races that was dismantled by apartheid and razed to the ground and left undeveloped due to the international controversy which ironically allowed indigenous plants to regrow there. (Maura thinks there may be an article there.)

 We found delicious Thai in Green Point for $18 including tip and took a taxi home. A conversation with hubby and a teasing calling to the dogs and it's almost time for bed. I am sincerely hoping to sleep after my morning medicine alarm.