Life & Living - Week 5 in Cape Town

Molweni,

I trust that this finds all well with each of you.  Another week has come and gone, and I now have only three weeks remaining with my placement at Scalabrini.  And, five weeks from now, I'll be on the first leg of my return flight home.  It is truly startling as to how quickly time is now passing, so let me get this "halfway through the trip" posting up.

This past week, my fifth full week in Cape Town, was a fairly quiet one.  Most of my Dad's family gathered for a funeral service for Aunt Joan last Monday, so the start of my week was full of introspection (and, yes, even more introspection that I am typically prone to do).  I had been okay with Aunt Joan's passing, and was very thankful that she was able to pass quickly and without great suffering, but I longed to be back in the States when I found out that my family was going to hold a funeral service for her.  And yet I knew that would have been the last thing she would have wanted from me.  So, I spent last Monday afternoon at the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden.  The photos I posted last Monday are almost entirely from my visit there in her memory.

It was a cool, drizzly afternoon, so the gardens were fairly quiet.  I was able to find some peace there and I reflected on Aunt Joan’s strength, and on the strength that runs through my entire family.  For as much as I’ve joked over the years about being from that part of New York State that few have heard of -- the Southern Tier in the foothills of America’s Appalachian Mountains -- with the summer visits to see my Mom’s family in the heart of the Mennonite and Amish communities Kansas, it’s precisely this upbringing that has served me well in my adult life.  My empathetic, yet hard-headed, stubborn, guardedly private and often sarcastic nature I owe to my family, and for that you have my eternal love and unending thanks.  (And, to those family members who haven’t fallen over in shock after reading this far, here’s hoping we all get a bit more communicative in our more "seasoned" years . . . LOL!)  ((And, to those of my friends who have read this far and are scratching their heads in mild or total bewilderment, welcome to life with the 'new and improved' me . . . LMAO!!))

After I got through Monday, I honestly found myself drawing strength from the clients at Scalabrini's Employment Help Desk (EHD).  Their stories continue to be immensely inspirational to me and I often find myself at the end of the day feeling as if I've gained more from them than I've given in return.  Most fundamentally last week, their stories served to put things in perspective for me and to help me further focus on life and living.

I wish that I could share their individual stories with you, but I won't out of respect for their privacy and our shared humanity.  So, I can only speak about them generally.  Truth be told, on any given day the EHD sees a mixed lot of personalities come across the desk.  The beautiful thing about Scalabrini is that no one is turned away; if the person can sit there long enough to help us with a CV and can give us enough information to put on paper, Scalabrini will help them out.  And everyone that comes through the door is treated as if they were family (and, as with any family, some members are more charming while others are more, um, troublesome).

A handful of the 'regulars' on the EHD, who I saw almost daily my first two or three weeks at Scalabrini, have stopped coming in.  I find myself quite often wondering what job they've found.  That they actually found a job is a huge assumption, and there's no way to know that is the case.  But the gracious interactions that I had with them leads me to only hope for the best for each of them.  Other regulars continue to come in, and I now enter Scalabrini every morning a little after 8:30 in the morning with a round of "good mornings" and "hellos".   (And, since 'Troy' isn't an easy name for a number of them to remember, I'm increasingly responding to "hello, chief" . . . )  And, day in and day out, all of the volunteers on the EHD continue to do what we can to help the returning clients and the newcomers to the desk in their individual job searches.

So, let me wrap this up with a few final unrelated thoughts.  I finally made it up to the top of Table Mountain yesterday; the weather was fantastic and the views were indescribably beautiful.  All 50 pictures that I posted yesterday evening were from earlier that day.  This last week saw Lindsey's placement end (here's a shout out to you, Des!), so I'm the last of my group that remains.  But I've gotten to know the group that started a little over a week ago, and I've made another group of friends that I'll continue to keep in touch with after my placement is over.  And finally, from all reports, last week's reading of Same Train went amazingly well.  A huge THANK YOU to the entire cast and creative team for what I've heard described as one of the best readings -- if not THE best reading -- of the show.  And a special "thank you" to Mark Bruckner for filling in for me on the production end of things!

With that, until next time, all the best.

Sala kahuhle,

Troy