How time flies when you’re busy. I know that is supposed to be having fun
- but!!! It is not all beer and skittles here.
When I wrote the last blog I was on the verge of getting on
the next plane out of here.
And now so much has happened since then, I’m still keeping
an eye on the airlines, and at the same time working through some changes.
Since my return from Lesotho I have been to Mbabane 3 times
to follow up on my Temp Resident Permit.
Still not ready. I do know now
that it was only lodged on the 8th November. I have spent a lot of time travelling every
week to Mbabane. This week just gone I
went to get the TRP – having been told the previous week that it would be ready
on 28th. Now it will be
ready on Tuesday 3rd. would anyone like to guess another date ??? The nice man at the desk did tell me that I
do not have to do a border run – just do not try to get out of the country and
I will be OK. No more fines etc. That’s
comforting.
I’m jumping all over the place as I try to put the last 2
weeks into some sequence. Hope you can
keep up … J
When I came home the week before on 22nd Nov.
there was a note under my door to say that my lease expires on 1st
Dec and due to the takeover of Mananga College, by an unknown company, all
renters are to be out by the 31st of Dec. the dates are a bit confusing, as the lease
for my house is supposed to be the 31st Dec, so there could be a
typo in the written notice, but I’m going with the 1st. as it suits
what I am about to do. I know the 1st is today, but I have 10 days.
Teresa & Daran are going home to the US for 7 weeks,
leaving on Tuesday. I am going to
house-sit for that time. For the first
2 weeks I will be coming back out to Mananga to spend Mon, Tue, Wed with the
ladies. After that I will empty my house
and leave some things with Bongiwe at her house in Mhlume. Bongiwe is another employee of KuDvumisa
foundation / CHIPS. And has offered for me to sleep 2 nights at her place each
week. Mhlume is about 15 kms from
section 19 and mostly on sealed road.
YAY
For most of Dec and the start of Jan I will be doing
research online and locally to see what we can do to assist these ladies. Also doing a submission to AusAid for a grant.
When Teresa & Daran return from the states, I will move
into Penny’s and rent one of her single bedroom flats.
Initially I did not want to live in the city, but now I am
quite looking forward to being able to live a life that may be more normal for
me. I’ve done the adventurous part and I’m mostly over it now. I will miss Jenn and Ian, who have become my
saviours of late. They are about 5 Kms
from me. I will continue to see them
each week when I am back here. I am especially keen to move so I can buy food
fresh that is what I like to eat. While
house sitting I will have access to unlimited internet and so my SKYPE will get
a work out. So be prepared.
Apart from that - the only other update on me is – probably
not what you want to know, but too bad. On Thursday night I attended a
thanksgiving dinner / feast. I then
vomited all night and still have diarrhoea.
I have slept on and off from Friday 5.00pm until this morning, Sunday
7.00am. I now feel that I have enough
energy to keep my head on my shoulders.
I haven’t felt this bad since I had glandular fever. No
more thanksgivings for me. What was it
??? all the food was over cooked, over
spiced and over flavoured and did not blend very well at all. My delicate gut protested very long and
loudly. I have had a small breakfast
today, the first I’ve eaten since Thursday night, and it is still in me
somewhere.
Did I mention this before ??
If so just gloss over it - who
watched the TV series No1 Ladies
Detective Agency?. Penny has about 6
of the books and I working my way through them rather quickly. They are just as fabulous to read as the
series was to watch. Now that I am in
Africa it is even more real for me. I
can see what the writer is talking about.
If you ever have the chance to get the books you will not be
disappointed.
Now for an update on the sewing project.
I am learning about the Swazi people – I hope.
We achieved 77 bags and the majority of them are very
good. 10 of them I had to finish or
unpick to finish as the sewing was either bad or the sewer was not up to that
skill level yet.
So 50 have gone to NZ and 20 to US and 7 staying here and I
have another local order for 10. The
story of the bags - I have probably mentioned before - they were making a
particular bag that has become their staple selling item. I made some simple changes to the way it is
made so that the finish of the bag is much more professional and classy and
attracts a higher price. They were selling for E120 – about $13 AUD. They are now E150 about $16.
While the new way of stitching them is much easier, they have
a habit of cutting corners, not measuring, not matching, falling back into the
bad sewing habits that they have adopted and testing my tolerance. I watch them sometimes, well all the time,
and they know what they are doing and look very slyly at me to see if I have
noticed. When I pull them up on it they
become annoyed. I am having difficulty
getting them to understand that if it is done in a particular way they will
always have a great result and not have to unpick anything. This is obviously too much for them to
comprehend.
I have been battling with this for weeks and constantly
repeating the same instruction over and over, and when I thought we had finally
made it, they almost in unison, decided to show me otherwise. On Wednesday I was totally dumbfounded at the
workmanship they were turning out it was appalling, the day before they were
fine.
At then end of the day I called to see Jenn and Ian and
burst into tears as I walked through the door.
Then I discovered that these ladies have a reputation for being
manipulative! They have been through
several teachers over a period of 4 years.
While talking to Jenn and Ian, we thought that early next year I will
get an independent translator to start the year off with how it is going to
continue. Topics will include praise for work of course – as well as - quality
control, payment for work based on quality, payments for machines taken from
earnings etc.
I was talking to a man from US who has been here for several
years and he is convinced that they do not have the capacity for information
retention that we have and it could be the case that they do forget from one
day to the next what they have learned.
So he suggested to have samples of every step of each item for them as a
visual aid. That’s another job the Dec/Jan. At this point I’m willing to try anything.
A little story from last week.
On Tuesday morning I drove Khumbuzile and her daughter to
the clinic in Vuvulane on a back road, full of ruts, potholes, water and
mud. I lost a hub cap !!! Wednesday I decided to go to work that way to
see if I could find it. Driving along
peacefully - and my car just stopped !
dash lights on and no engine sound.
PANIC ! I am on a road much less
travelled. Now what ??? I was about to get out of the vehicle and
behind me was the CHIPS van. They pulled
over to assist me and everyone decided that I was out of fuel. I’m thinking now that if I bothered to look
in the bush I would have found my hub cap. Why else would my car just stop for
no reason ???
Anyway – on with the story.
I locked up the car and hopped into the old van and off we went to
Simunye to get some fuel. This old van should have died a long time ago. First
I bought an empty 5lt. plastic water bottle for E5. Got the fuel and on the way back the staff
had other errands to do, so that was taken care of and eventually we got back
to my car. I suggested that I try to
start it before we put the fuel in and of course, like all good little cars it
fired up straight away and nothing wrong.
The fuel light was not on and
Mary still lectured me about driving on low fuel when in this country etc.
I then continued on my journey to section 19 and at the
junction I picked up a very well dressed Swazi lady and gave her a lift to the
highway. ‘Coincidence’ she speaks excellent English and is
looking for a new career, vocation etc. She
runs her own grocery store at P5 and has had other small businesses (see below
for P5)
She has qualifications in marketing and business. Swazi’s love to have qualifications and their
uni is free to encourage an educated society.
She is very interested in learning about sewing - not
necessarily to sew, but I was taken with her style and perhaps the opportunity
of mentoring her as the person who will take over from me to keep the group
going. I had already decided that it
would not be appropriate for a current member of the group to take on that role
as there is too much disharmony and bickering amongst them. We
will be talking to her next year to see if we have a match. Fingers crossed.
P5. Scattered
throughout the cane growing areas are these settlements / villages for workers
and their families. P5 is just the name
given to this particular one. Because the
inhabitants do not have transport it is a good little business to have a shop
in a village. This lady, Phindile, was
saying that the cane cutting season is about to finish and she will be looking
for something else for a while. They are
all so mobile in their lifestyle and where they live and what they do out this
way. Totally different to the life in
the city. I thought that the cane was
grown in rotation all year round.
I think we’re up to today now. Last night there was a bit of a storm with
very high winds. As it approached us it
sounded like a giant bear roaring. It
was strange. Instead of moths, I had
leaves in the windows. It only lasted
about an hour. The good thing is today
is cool and very pleasant.
I’m signing off now.
I wish I could send you some mangoes.
We have hundreds of them here and after last night most of them are on
the ground.
It’s cheerio from me for this week.
Love to you all and thankyou so much for your continued
support with emails and comments and knowing you are there. Please don’t stop, I need the regular sanity
intake.
**HUGS**
Georgie xxxx
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