Rise and Shine

I remember David's phone alarm going off at what I thought was way. too. early. this morning...but I'd take that alarm over pots and pans and livestock any day....


February 2, 2011
When I think back to my first night in Tabankulu, and how I couldn’t sleep because it was so quiet, I just have to laugh. This morning, I was woken up at 6 by various animals making noises – including the loudest one of all…Sharon.


Apparently, she finds 6AM to be an opportune time to begin banging on pots and pans, sloshing water around in plastic jugs, scrubbing aluminum pots and banging on anything she can find. There must have been something very exciting happening just outside the door, too, because I swear she opened/slammed it shut 100 times. And it is connected to all the hanging pots and pans.


Now, at 7:45, she is at it again. Wrapping and unwrapping everything, banging on the metal kettle, and pouring water into/out of every pot/pan/cup/bowl/vessel in the house. Plus, every dog is barking, rooster crowing, cow mooing and donkey braying in the whole village.


I’m also sticking my foot in my mouth for ever complaining about the bed in Tabankulu. It’s no tempur-pedic and was a little firmer than my ideal mattress but I had clearly forgotten just how painful my taco bed/blow-up travel pillow combination is. I know that it is probably a million times better than sleeping on the floor, which is what most people here do (or so Sharon says..) and I am still considering it pure joy but it will be a miracle if I don’t have a lifetime of spinal problems after leaving this place. I’m also going to need some serious psychiatric treatment to get over the fact that Sharon is going to make me lose my mind.


There’s no school today because Thobeka is in Tabankulu. It’s gonna be a LONG one. TIA.