Feels like it’s
been a long day, but maybe not really that much happened… Update on the Reading Hut, the walls
are finished! There’s still a lot
to be done, but the walls are officially finished. Next step will be the roof, the floor, the levelling of the
soil around (It’s built on quite a steep hill, so I imagine that’s going to be
quite a job) and a couple of other things…
Today, at last I
got to the chief again, after pre-school, graced with the company off the
very-hard to-track-down headman. (It is impossible to get papers from the chief
without the complete co-operation of the headman.) Another white lady I know, also wanted to go see the chief,
so she got a lift with me, which I was very grateful for. She has known the chief for some time
and is familiar with the headman as well.
At the meeting everything went well under the circumstances and I thought the headman did a good job explaining the whole land story to the chief. (Not that I understood half of what he said, but there were no discussions other than what I expected.)
The chief listened
intently without interrupting and came to a wise conclusion, I thought. On Friday they will go to a meeting in
which they will discuss more of these land affairs with the officials and then
we will speak again about a solution to the complications that we currently face. In the meantime, I don’t have papers,
but will continue to complete the rondavel. I will continue to trust in God and believe that He has good
plans for me.
When I got back it
was so hot I just needed to go for a swim. I promised René earlier that I would take her so off we went
with Vince as well. When we got to
the beach it was very much high tide and I spotted a blue bottle or two. When I see those things I immediately
lose all interest in swimming. We
stood in the shallow water for a while contemplating and decided to go swim in
the river instead. I had already
turned around and started to head the other way when René started crying all of
a sudden. It was a bluebottle that
got her around the leg. I quickly
ran back and got her to sit down and just put sand on it.
She was crying for
a while still but the sand definitely helped. Vince had never been stung by those things so he had no idea
of how intense the pain was. I had
never been stung either, but when I was a child, my sister got stung once and I
never saw her run as fast as she did that day, to get out of the water. That’s when I decided I’ll rather stay
far away from them.
Anyway, after a
while the pain got less and we had her legs covered completely with sand, so we
started playing with all the stones and strange sea plants that the tide washed
up. We made mini gardens and soon
René was laughing again. I must
say she’s probably the bravest
5year old I know.
Back at the
caravan, I discovered hundreds of ants in my cupboards, great. Some strange sort of infestation. I really hope I can get rid of all
traces of them…
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