250413, Mama Gloria 's hut

Mama Gloria and her grandchildren in front of the fallen hut

Well, I certainly didn't come off the worst in the flood.  There were many people whose houses collapsed and my good friend, Mama Gloria was one of them.  I didn't know until this morning when I saw two of her friends and asked them where she was.  Her hut collapsed Sunday afternoon during the heavy rain fall and she had to go and dig out and rescue what clothes and other belongings she could find.  Thankfully she was not inside at the time and there is another hut next door where she can stay.

She seemed in good spirits today when I visited but complained of body and head aches.  She probably has the flu and must be exhausted. I really hope she can get herself some rest...

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us."  Romans 8:18

Tea with mama Gloria

The kids in and out

Another neighbor coming to call

250413, Yesterday's Reading Hut session with Noen

Mhleli & Olona

Noen & Sinevuyo

Daisy

Vuyo

Yesterday was a special day with Noen visiting at the Reading Hut.  Noen and her sister, Tuppy are the 2 awesome ladies who have been giving me food and shelter and great company for the past week, while I've been recovering from the flood.  Thank you ladies! (And Gavin) 

230213, A river ran through it

This picture was taken on Sunday morning, after possibly the most crazy flood night I've experienced up to date.  The river started to flood at about 1am on Sunday morning, the sound woke me and I was not sure what it was since it had been raining quite hard and non-stop for a long long time.  But I was awake and occasionally tried to look out the window to see if it's getting higher.  I could see Ace, the night guard with his torch, walking around and checking the water levels. I also packed a little bag with the most essential things and went out to put it in my car and move my car higher up.

   I heard Aquila (the Boerboel, sleeping in my tent) give a whimper at some point in answer to a frog croaking.  That's when I thought that if the animals are worried it's probably time for me to also start worrying.  It had flooded before but didn't come as high as where I am currently parked, so I did not expect it to get that bad.

By 3am it got serious.  Suddenly the water was inside my tent and I had to wake Aquila (the Boerboel)  to get her out of there. . .  All the time it's pouring down.  From then on it all happened pretty fast.  Ace and Dewald (the camp manager) came to help me carry everything out of my tent.  By this time the water was suddenly much higher and a lot of things just floated off.  I was standing knee deep in water inside my tent looking around at these waves washing through, not knowing what to grab and what to let go, yet feeling strangely calm through it all, knowing Jesus is right there with me in the storm .

 I had to go back and and pack more things from my caravan cause now it looked like there is no stopping to the rising of the water. I then went to take shelter in Dewald's house and found I was not the only one packing even though the other people were much higher than me.  I must say at that stage I was mostly just histerically laughing at the reality of everything.  We were making jokes about packing up and going.   The water rose up to the caravan's entrance and there it stopped and went down.  It's amazing how quickly it goes down again once it's reached the peak.  

It was not the end though.  I was just starting to relax a bit when Dewald told me to come quick. A tree had fallen over on top of my car!  Luckily just the branches, so I moved it out without any damage.  But what I was shocked to see then was that the wind had come up and ripped my whole complete tent of the ground and  all the poles were out.   That has never happened before.  At least there was nothing left inside the tent.  As if that was not enough the wind also broke my caravan's window out.  That is a bit of a problem that is going to be hard to fix.  And the rain pours in...

From there I went over to stay at some kind people's house and got dry and tried to have some sleep.  The rain still didn't stop.  The rain measured on Saturday was 160mm.  The rain measured for Sunday was 300mm.  I anticipated another flooding.    

The water went all the way right up to the little fence you can see on the right.  

To my horror I was right.  On Monday morning when I went back, I was faced with the aftermath of a small natural disaster.  The previous evening at about 7pm, that river flooded again and this time went even much higher.  The whole campsite had to evacuate.  Everything on my side was in shambles.  I was still hopeful that my seedlings were going to survive, because some were still standing on top of the braai after the first flood, but when I got back, there was not even a single braai left standing.  The water went into and through my caravan.    I am soooo thankful I was not there to experience that. 

Mama Grace came around and helped me get the caravan floor cleaned of all the mud that washed through it.  Funny how she's always helping me with mud on my floors.  Previously she had to put it on (The Reading Hut floor) and now she had to take it off.  Anyway I am so thankful for that because it made me a bit despondent to see that and she just took care of it for me in no time.  Thank the Lord for Grace...

 The campsite after the storm

Here you can see exactly where the water went through the caravan

180413, The house that Sinevuyo built

At The Reading Hut

The mastermind having a moment

A work in progress

The end result.  Pretty cool mmm?

180413, Coffee Bay 'town'

It was raining a little this morning, so Thobile didn’t arrive for his class.  I can’t say that I mind.  I have enough to keep myself busy with. Right now (2:15pm) it's pouring and I'm enjoying some butternut/lentil stew...goodness!

One thing that is a little bit on my mind these days is the news (maybe old news for some but things happen so slowly around here, the effects may only be seen in a decade or two, who knows!) is that it is now official: Coffee Bay - Hole in the Wall is being turned into a town.  

I’m not sure exactly what that means but I do find it rather interesting.  It makes me wonder about some questions, like: 

What exactly makes a place a town?

Why do they want to make it a town?

Who will benefit from this idea and how exactly?

How will the local people be affected by it?   For better or worse?   

What exactly is going to be done to make this change?

How long will the process take and when will we start seeing results?

What are going to be the pros and cons in general?

Precisely what area will be enclosed in this town?

At this stage I can only guess.  I'll let you know once I have any answers.  I’m not sure if it is really a good idea to do this whole thing, since Coffee Bay is about 70km away from the main road (and the road is still pothole-riddled), it’s geographical setting is rather narrow, not much land close to the sea and then the hills start.  And how can they take land that has always belonged to the families of the community?  Logistically I can’t really see it but then again I’m not a town planner so what do I know.

Either way I must confess I find the idea of historical change rather exciting, even though I enjoy being here for exactly the reason that this isn’t really a town.  The fact that time hardly exists here.  And that some days nothing happens just because it’s raining.  Because I’m a dreamer, reflecting kind of person, I appreciate that. 

What does ‘a town’ mean?  Being able to buy property and having to pay tax on it? (The locals won’t be able to afford that.) That things are organized in a civil manner?  And that the municipality should be more responsible for the general upkeep of things, like keeping it free of trash, that would be a good thing. That’s one unpleasant aspect seriously spoiling the beauty of this place. 

And hopefully they'll ban bottle stores from selling alcohol on Sundays, cause that is a major thing that happens here on Sundays, it is party day for locals from surrounding area and I often don’t even want to enter the street on a Sunday because of all the noise of the drunken party buses and people trashing their glass bottles wherever they wish.  It is not uncommon to hear of someone getting stabbed at these gatherings.  If I want to go to the beach on a Sunday, I better just go early before the drunkards arrive to harass me.  It would certainly be a positive thing if they could change all of that business. 

An unavoidable negative point would be the increase of tsotsis.  At the moment it is relatively safe here.  Hopefully they'll have a police station in the centre of this town, wherever that's going to be.

170413, Daniel

I'm just putting up this little pic of my nephew, Daniel who lives in the Western Cape with the rest of my family.  It was great to get to see him while I was there and I already miss him and feel sad that I'm missing out on some precious times with him...  He took his first independent steps this week at only 8 months old!!! I really hope I can get back to see him (and the rest of the fam) on his first birthday...

170413, Back in the Bay

At Cintsa

Little Michelle having her breakfast coca cola...

René on the beach

It seems I have been absent for some time...  Well, I'm back now!  (I hope).  

Was on the other side of the country for a couple of weeks and this is already the second week of being back here, but it took me a while to get into the hang of things again.  This past weekend I also attempted another little road trip to Cintsa, to visit some people I got to know here in Coffee Bay last year.  Remember René, who I taught for a while last year in the campsite?  

I'm grateful to be able to continue this little friendship!