A new week

This morning I woke with a headache that turned out to be an advantage.  At the Haven two people were asked to do something other than paint, and due to my aching head, I offered not to paint.  I had the most fun I’ve had at House!  I worked in the kitchen all morning, and the time flew!  I met many of the house moms as they came in to grab things or ask questions.  We worked with Owelda, whose mother explained her name by saying, “Well, your father was a welder,” to get lunch on the table by noon.  She was quite worried that lunch would be late, because she was late in the kitchen.  Another volunteer and I helped her cut butternut squash (not a job for the weak at hand), clean beans, peel and chop carrots, mash potatoes, and make anchovy meatballs as she called them, but they resembled a salmon patty with anchovies. Owelda was so grateful for our help, encouraging us even more about the service we’re giving at House. 

I left house feeling great, but as soon as I got back to Langerry, I laid on my bed for “just a minute” and woke up an hour later.  I ran down to grab my laundry and made a PB&J before catching a bus to our music field trip to St. Dominic’s Priory, a very nice private school in a nearby suburb.  The grade 8 and grade 12 students gave us a marimba workshop.

The marimba is like a xylophone, played by striking mallets on wooden pieces positioned over long wooden compartments for the sound to vibrate and make noise.  About seven kids played five different marimbas to songs like “Just Dance” by Lady Gaga, “Tonight’s Gonna be a Good Night” by Black-Eyed Peas, traditional South African and Zimbabwean songs, The Flag Song from the soccer World Cup, and other pop songs.  After we watched, we tried out a few rhythms, and I even had a go at the drum!

We got home from the workshop and I led a speed workout with some of the girls in the group.   Then I accompanied another friend to a Protestant gathering at a church down the road.  Some Irish friends invited us, and we met some more South Africans and some other American students studying at NMMU.  It is exciting to keep meeting more people and finding new activities to try.  We are hoping to do some ballroom dancing and adventure boot camp workouts with some of the people we met tonight.  Yay!

Culture for Bruce

Connie, the playschool teacher came into the kitchen around 10am.  The kids are meant to have a snack of juice and sandwiches at that time, and Owelda hadn’t made the sandwiches.  Each house mom must rotate to different jobs at House, and Owelda was obviously flustered in her kitchen rotation.  Connie started shouting, “It doesn’t matter if you started late.  My children need their bread.  The children always come first.”  I was not excited to be present for a yelling-match, but my heart quickened as I anticipated tension building in the room.  Instead of yelling back, another house-mom, Liluthani, started laughing, saying, “Oh you goin’ now Connie.”  Connie got a sly look in her eye.  Owelda just cocked her hip back with a little attitude and gave a smart remark that I don’t remember, because I realized at that time that Owelda had no visible teeth.  The tension dissipated as Connie grabbed bread to make the children their sandwiches, smiling, and I began to understand that Connie got her point across in an animated and what I would perceive to be a very confrontational manner, but Owelda’s feelings did not seem hurt at all.  For a person accustomed to “Minnesota Nice” otherwise known as “Midwest Passive-Aggressive” attitudes that skirt around problems, avoiding confrontation, it was interesting to see conflict resolution in a totally different way.