So, when we left off Brooke Jane and I had just made it back to the hostel from our Internet Expedition. That was Wednesday night (I think, my days are all messed up)
Anyways, so we woke up Thursday morning quite early and visited the Habitat offices here in Cape Town, and helped with organizing materials and marketing materials for next week's Nelson Mandela Build. Somewhat uneventful, but I did learn, well reinforce, a valuable lesson. You can never be too organized, and you can always find productive way to do something. After we completed a task in 15 minutes that was expected to take about two hours, we made our way to Pelican Park. Pelican Park is Habitat South Africa's focus area where, with their partnership with the contractor Power Group, build government subsidized housing for those without homes. Y'all, this place is incredible. It was so empowering and humbling to meet with the Pelican Park Owners Association, as well as some local youth who we will be working alongside with surveys next week. They are so incredibly thankful and amazed that Mercer has a program that reaches out and benefits others. I mean, Be The Bear, am I right?!
After our meeting with the PPOA, we went to the construction zone and began prepping work kits for the eight teams that would be working next week. Six shovels, three trowels, a wheelbarrow, water hose, rake, broom and 20 hard hats later, all eight kits were prepared ahead of schedule, so we were able to visit Table Mountain, but not after ending our work day with a war cry led by our Habitat partners.
Back to Table Mountain. Those were some of those beautiful views I have ever seen. Mountains for miles, with beautiful beaches and clouds draped over the mountain tops like a silk sheet was yet another humbling experience that I have been so blessed to have on this trip. I've caught a little bit (a lot) of slack for how many pictures I've taken already - I think I'm up to 500 in four days - but I just can't help it. This country is so beautiful, and in some places there is such a balance between poverty and natural beauty I have no choice to take like ten pictures of the same area. Oops haha. I'm trying to post pictures on Facebook whenever I have wifi, so look there if you want to see anything.
So, to my phone fiasco. When we landed in South Africa, I turned on my phone on and it connected to Vodacom 3G, then reset. So I turned it back on, but it was locked on the activation screen. Now, if I was able to get to my camera and music, I would just use my iPad to communicate with people. But it was COMPLETELY locked on the activation screen, saying that my SIM card was not valid (Sass moment- UM HELLO VERIZON I TOOK CARE OF DAYS DAYS IN ADVANCE SO I COULD GET IN TOUCH WITH MY MOMMA AND DADDY WHILE IN A DIFFERENT COUNTRY . I AM NOT AMUSED. NOT OKAY AND NOT HAPPY) Anyways, I digress. So, I tried to go to Vodacom to get a SIM card to put in my iPhone so I could connect to their network and use my phone, but that wouldn't work. My phone is literally a paperweight until I get back to the States. Thanks, Verizon. Thanks, Apple. So, after that hour and a half spent at Vodacom on the phone with Momma who had me on speakerphone with Verizon I still had NO phone and had barely talked to my momma. Let's just say my stress level was the equivalent of Defcon 5, and I was on the verge of my second anxiety attack. The first one came on the last leg of our flight, from London to Cape Town, when I was sitting in the very middle of the plane. I need to be able to move, especially on a 12 hour flight and I had a slight freak out. Shoutout to Brooke for bringing me back down.
I began Thursday with two goals. 1- don't kill anyone with sass, because I was stressed, missed my momma and tired. 2- find some way - at any cost - to be able to get in touch with my momma and daddy. Next step, prepaid cell phone. That night at dinner, we ate at the mall with the Vodacom store, so I ate fast and went straight to the store, but the was directed to a Walgreen-esqu store. I had finally found a phone, and all that separated me from it was a glass window, right? Wrong. In South Africa, every number has to be registered to a name, meaning not only did I need my Passport, but I also had to have proof that I was actually staying in this country. What's one more obstacle and about two more hours? A lot. I tried to keep calm and hold it together, and that was quite a difficult task. I went back to the restaurant empty handed, but knowing what I needed to get my hands on.
After dinner, we boarded our bus back to our hostel, where I got a bill with my name on it, and then dragged Brooke and Jane back to the mall so I could get my phone. About ten minutes laters, I heard the sweet sound of a dial tone and then my momma wondering who was calling her from a +27 number. You could hear the relief in both of our voices, and then I called my daddy who was equally relieved that not only did I have a way to communicate, but probably that he didn't have to worry about Mommas stress level anymore.
Now that I have a phone, I'm somewhat stress-free and operating at my highest productivity to help the people of Pelican Park. My night ended standing with Charlie, Josh, Kimberly and Martin, who works and lives at our hostel and whose full name is about a mile long- on Table Mountain overlooking the sparkling lights of Cape Town at night.
It's now Friday, 11:03am, and we're heading for another day on the job. I can only think of all the people whose lives our team will touch and help with our project, and how my life will be changed after this trip. Humbling is an understatement, because there is at least one situation every day that really puts everything in perspective.
God Bless
Reed
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