Today was a tough day, and for multiple reasons. Last night, because I was catching up on my blog, I stayed up until 12:30, which wouldn’t normally be a problem, but with a 7:00 wake-up, and constant daily manual labor, I was shot. So I was irritable. Not a good place to be in today.
Here’s some of the things that irritated me today (I’m fully aware that plenty of these will be exaggerated. All in good fun. And they definitely seemed horrible at the time.)
- The most irritating thing that happened today: the same thing that has happened often. People who weren’t willing to work hard. And I understand that I should allow them to take breaks because I can’t control it, but today was the last day and I wanted to finish for Maybis. When other people weren’t acting like they wanted to finish, I was getting frustrated.
- I was the best with the wheelbarrow because that’s all I’ve been doing (and these are not my words. These are the words of the people I was working with). That’s been my job. Of course, there’s always someone who insists that they want to take the wheelbarrow for the workout of it. This is frustrating because I know that the most effective and productive thing is to have me at the wheelbarrow, and the selfish, surface-level reason of “working out” isn’t good enough for me. Sorry, I’m working for something better than that.
- It was incredibly hot today. Another 35 degree day.
- Someone stole my water. At the house, the water isn’t safe for us to drink because we’re not used to it, so I brought two water bottles down. Someone stole my second, so I was done with my first by 10 (because I was rationing it) and didn’t have anything to drink again until after 1.
- I didn’t take a break. Not only did I not take a break, but there were people around me that were constantly breaking. Not that it’s new, but I’m so damn tired of being the only one who wants to finish anything (generalization, of course) and who is willing to sacrifice by being tired.
- Pictures piss me off. Because as soon as the cameras come out, everyone taking a break starts to work hard until they go away. Pictures of people working are more important than finishing anything, and that is pure and simple bullshit. I thought the people here would be better than that; I didn’t think people went on mission trips for the sake of telling people they went on mission trips anymore. I thought the work here wasn’t for selfish reasons, such as “this would make a great profile picture.”
- I’m really irritated right now.
- The people I was working with didn’t understand that because we had two piles of dirt we were making into mud, the most effective way to do it was to make one pile into mud, and then as we were transporting that down, make the other pile into mud, and repeat. No one would start on making a new pile until the old one was gone, leading to periods of inactivity and plenty of frustration.
- People were complaining about irrelevant things. My irrelevant things were slightly more relevant than anyone else’s, so their complaints frustrated me.
- I can’t emphasize the breaks issue enough. It was frustrating.
- Apparently girls either (a) have never used a wheelbarrow (b) don’t have any common sense, or (c) both of the above. No one understood that a wheelbarrow pivots at the front, the only part of the thing on the ground, and to make a turn the person has to walk wider than the turn. The people applying the mud (all girls) could not get out of my way. I had to ask them to move and direct them where to move every single time I went down to the house (Literally, every time. I don’t remember one time I didn’t have to direct someone to move.)
- At one point, my schedule was: carry the wheelbarrow of mud to the house, wait for people to move, tell people where to move, wait for people to move, dump the mud, return up the hill to the backyard where the mud was, drop the wheelbarrow, pick up a shovel, fill the wheelbarrow alone or with one other person, and repeat the process. All while at least 3 people sat in the hole and watched me.
- It took us an extra hour to finish the house
- People wanted to leave the house without finishing on the last day
All these things just stoked my fires of irritation today, and it has been a raging bonfire for hours now. So with that off my chest, let me give you an emotionally unbiased recap of my journey today.
At Walk in the Light, I was the first person to start. I’m always the first person to start. The same people in the back ended up working there within the first 15 minutes, so we picked up where we left off. We had a pretty good system most of the time. We would churn out mud faster than anyone could put it on the house, so we had to wait for them to need mud sometimes (another frustrating thing). By 10 my water was gone, which was frustrating and dehydrating, but you make do with what you can, so I got over it. I worked hard all morning and didn’t take a break, making me really tired.
Storytime, resuming biased viewpoint: There was one time where I came down with the mud, and I was about to enter the house, but there were women working on the mud right over the doorway on a ladder. I asked them if they could move for 15 seconds so I could dump the mud inside so others could work, because they needed mud soon. They told me that I could wait, and they would move “just now.” For those of you who have never been to South Africa, “just now” is not a good thing. If you hear someone say “just now,” be prepared to wait up to a week for it. Just now has no urgency. “Now now” means instantaneously, but I was pretty sure I heard “just now” from the ladies and I was taken aback. They’re so damn selfish that they can’t move a freaking ladder out of the way so others can continue the work on someone else’s house. So after 2 minutes, I asked them again, and the woman said (with attitude. Of course. Because I’m obviously the one who is being frustrating right now as there are people 10 feet away from me needing what I have), “We will move just now. We need to finish this.” The only reason they “needed” to finish that was so they wouldn’t have to move the ladder again. Laziness. After 5 minutes I asked again, and they just told me to wait. At sometime around 7 or 8 minutes, they finally moved out of my way, and I was back out of the house after dumping the mud in less than 15 seconds. I could have made 3 trips at least in the time it took them to move. That was frustrating because I couldn’t say anything to them, because they were the leaders, the experts. Some experts they were, can’t even assign time.
Resuming unbiased viewpoint: We eventually finished the house at 12:30, when we had been aiming for 11:30. It was great to get it done, and after pictures we headed out to a brai. That’s a barbecue, but South African style. It was really great actually; it started with us going to a nearby butcher and buying meat. After the buying of the meat, we placed the meat on grills in a big area and cooked our meals as we sat at tables in the area. It was a fun time, and the food was so delicious. It really got me pumped for all the times I’m going to grill this summer. I had some solid conversations, including getting to know Kate a little better. Kate’s not a student, but she’s going on the safari with us and to Cape Town because she has connections, so it was cool to get closer to her. Especially because I’m sure I’ll spend time with her on the safari time. The atmosphere of the brai was incredible, with relaxing music playing and a chill vibe going. It was definitely a time worth imitating. This was the second time this week I had the opportunity to experience a more real South Africa, and this one was almost as great as before (more white people here = negative, great brai = positive).
After that, we headed back and the women hung out with the gogos while the guys just sort of hung out. There were some kids like there always are, and Sihle and Baby J were both there, so that was fun to talk to them. They’re really great, and I have enjoyed getting to know them. To recreate all the conversations would be impossible, but they were great. I gave Sihle a hard time about javelin, and had him show me how he threw when he competed in it. It was great to joke around with him, and I’m trying to find something awesome to get him as a birthday present. His 21st birthday is coming up the day we leave, and he’s never had someone who will buy him presents, so he’s going to spoil himself this birthday and I would love to as well. We also taught Baby J to dunk, which is impressive when you consider he’s never played basketball before and is probably 5’7”, but not as impressive when you consider the rim was probably 8 feet tall. It was so difficult for him that it was hilarious. After this, we played soccer with the kids again, and that was fun. Then we hit the road to bring our last day at Walk in the Light to a close.
It’s weird, knowing I won’t be back there in the same position again. I won’t be at Walk in the Light leading anything anymore, or building a house, and I probably won’t see most of the kids again. Right now, I’m not sad about it though. I’m more excited that I’ve finished such a great chapter, and excited to get some rest. I’m exhausted.
After we left, we came back and played a pick-up game of soccer. It was fun and I enjoyed it quite a bit. After soccer was dinner with my D group, when we finally spent the 700 rand we were assigned at the beginning of the semester. It was delicious, and good to be with people I care about. And irritating, but that’s just because of the place I was in at the time.
After D group, I planned chapel. Singlehandedly, because I knew what we could do that would be perfect. The team put off planning it too long, and I had to step in 12 hours before it started to make a plan, but we are set for chapel tomorrow. After I planned it, I had to seek out and personally approve the idea with each member of the chapel team because I didn’t want to make it seem like I was taking over. I found everyone within reason, and only missed about two of the people. Now that that’s taken care of, I returned to my room and blogged this out. Now I’m going to bed for sure because I’m exhausted, and my relaxing recovery night quickly turned into a night of blogging and barely 8 hours of sleep. I love you all, and I really hope you enjoyed reading about Walk in the Light. And when I finish class tomorrow, I’ll be done with all but one of my classes! Woo!
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