In the Beginning

After a typical Halford family breakfast (including cream of wheat, fresh fruit and toast around the dining room table), I followed Richard (who was driving Jane's car) from our home in Lone Hill out onto the highway. Once he was certain that I was on my way, he turned back to his own office and I trekked on to the NMCF office in Saxonwold. Unfortunately, the drive did not go off without a hitch.

Having only been to NMCF once, I became completely turned around once exiting the highway. I drove and I drove and I drove, all around Saxonwold, never once coming across the office. I stopped one security guard who was patrolling the streets, but he didn't know where I could find the office. In a near panic, I noticed a woman had pulled over on the side of the road. I pulled up behind her and she immediately jumped into her car. I honked and waved and yelled out my car window, and she finally got out and came to my car. (She was most likely sure that I was in some sort of medical emergency, the way I was carrying on). Thankfully, she could easily direct me to the office, and I was actually within spitting distance.

Once within the gates of the NMCF, I paused briefly to calm myself, and walked into the office. It was completely dark inside. "Welcome to Africa," said Leona (manager of Finance and my support person). The power was out.

So it stayed for half of the morning. I met my project manager, Aderna, in the dark. We reviewed my plan for the next month. In the near future, I was to review our documentation on Goelama project (more details to come, but basically concerned with Orphans and Vulnerable Children or OVC who were affected by HIV/AIDS). By late afternoon, I had finished with all of the documents I had been provided with, so I was tasked with reading a previous review of the project (all 230 pages of it) and using the information therein to improve upon our own assessment criteria. This needs to be done for next week when I will be flying to the provinces of Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and Kwazulu-Natal over three days. I will be tasked with reviewing our current projects in each of these three provinces. I'm terribly excited to be able to visit our projects so far from Gauteng, and to be able to see what is happening on the ground.

Over lunch, I hopped in Richard's car and headed off towards the mall. I first found all of the highway off ramps in the vicinity and ensured that I could find my way to the office from all of them. At the mall, the power was unfortunatly still off and only the grocery store (Pick'n Pay) and Woolworths (an absolutely lovely department store) were open. I went to Pick and Pay and bought myself some airtime for my cell phone. I was keenly aware of being a foreigner when purchasing my airtime. The cell phone industry is so well developed in South Africa, and I felt absolutely daft trying to navigate the system. Apparently, at any checkout in any grocery store in South Africa, one can buy airtime. I plunked down my credit card, and off I went with a pin code to enter all R275 (two hundred and seventy five rand) worth of airtime onto my account. I felt rather accomplished once the money was on my phone!

Back at the office, I was pleasantly surprised to find the second tea of the day set out. Yes, at 9:30 and 3:30 tea is set out by the maids of NMCF. The hot water and tea bags (and instant coffee which is the norm here) were set out in the middle of my floor. It is DIVINE! It was just as nice as coming across a poster under some papers on my desk for www.childrensmovement.org.za. The poster had 'people of the world' drawn by children; there was a comical picture of an Eskimo standing next to an igloo that made me cry with laughter! I will have to take a picture of this Eskimo (yes, it says Eskimo, not Inuit) and post it for you.

Following my afternoon tea, the rest of the afternoon flew by and I was suddenly behind the wheel again. This time, I did not have Richard to guide me. I put on the radio and decided to make the best of it. In Midrand (which is nearing Pretoria) I decided that the one off ramp I had pondered taking some 20 minutes before, was the one that I actually needed to take. Back I went. Following along the N1 South toward Bloemfontein, I passed William Nicol Drive and wondered if there would be another exit that would take me to my destination. When I started to notice signs for Kimberly, I decided that another exit was not forthcoming and backtracked (yet again) to William Nicol. Once in Fourways, the difficulty was finding home. After a bit of stress and one more u-turn, I finally made it home. Knowing that Patty would be worried, I called her the second I walked in the door. Sure enough, she had the phone book open to NMCF and was kicking herself for not taking my cell phone number before I left for the day!!

Across the street I went. Patty poured me a glass of wine and we chatted as we waited for John, Jane and Richard to arrive.

Now that I'm back home at Richard's (I suppose I should start referring to this as my home), I can't help but wonder how I made it through the day. There was so much going on, so many things happening. The language was different (the Programs department speaks Sotho when talking amongst themselves). The city was far different from what it had been in 1997. Even the pop cans here are heavier than they are in Canada (something I noticed in '97, but had completely forgotten). The cans here feel half full when it is actually completely empty.

It was quite an amazing day, all said. Tshepo, who sits next to me, inspired me. Just hearing about her thoughts on NMCF gave me goosebumps and a will to push myself harder. It felt nice to know that I was sitting in a room full of people with whom I share fundamental beliefs in human rights and development.

Now, I'm completely exhausted. It feels like I have already put in a week's worth of work, and it's only Monday. It has only just begun.