catherine and guy spent the morning on a mission to tie up loose ends. they collected the coca-cola donation just around the corner in nigel! they bought nike tog bags as prizes for the basketball games, shackles and contact adhesive for our astro turf. they arrived back at site just before lunch.
we ordered kotas lunch from our new favourite shop across the road from stan’s container. catherine had decided that we needed enhanced sustenance in order to get through the day’s tasks. there was a lot to accomplish. our launch is tomorrow and we had an a4 list of things-to-do.
i wrote a list of tasks after lunch and assigned jobs to all of our volunteers, our anc youth league heroes and ourselves. the afternoon was productive but haphazard. i spent a lot of time overseeing work and answering questions. the team worked flat-out until sunset. we had made a huge dent in the list. still outstanding however, was the erection of the mattress springs and the beercrate walls and the fixing of the astro turf.
a group powwow assumed to assess our progress. catherine suggested we stay in kwathema to assemble the beercrate panels. reluctantly we agreed – we had all known that it was inevitable but had all tried to evade the issue.
we assembled the beercrate walls until 10:30pm. mr cindy’s family made us instant coffee and tseleng, who needed a lift back to the city, told us of the aphrodisiac-properties of peanuts. we were glad we objected to hannahs suggestion of providing peanuts as the sole snack for the beerhall launch! tseleng took orders for quarts and traversed the dust bowl to stan’s container in the smoky darkness. we had not eaten, bar a couple of packets of spar maries catherine had stashed in her boot – her motherly instincts always seem to pay off in times of desperation! deliria and fatigue began to set in under the glary halogen spot mr cindy had perched on a chair. insects swarmed the warmth of the globe. we battled, tired, for the spacer guy had made. it was never anywhere to be seen.
hannah was expecting us at the friday session with rene spitz from ifg ulm and then in fordsburg for dinner at bizmullah and finally at the femi kuti concert at mary fitzgerald square. we sms’d her, but she didn’t respond. i guess she was disappointed that she would have a small turn-out from us again, but we had more important things to do – we had two beercrate walls to finish.
we left mr cindy’s feeling exhausted but relieved - we had completely underestimated the time required to assemble 48 crates. all that was left now was for our macgyver-gareth to fix the panels to the concrete structure in the morning. the end seemed nearer; i felt more excited about tomorrow than i had – everything seemed to have come together.
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Friday, May 25, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
LUNCH!
This is what we have been eating for lunch over the past weeks.
It has caused some disputes in our group as to which are the best
"quatas" and where to get them from....
Karabo insists on travelling to the far end of Kwathema for his favourite.
They do take a bit longer to prepare, yet I have to agree with him they are
tastier than the ones closer to the chess park!
Saturday, May 19, 2007
paint and plastic bags
we held our saturday kite and abacus workshop today. the children were gathered at the site when we arrived. they seemed excited and apprehensive. i guess they we not completely aware of what was install for them.
the timber blocks for the abacus had not been ready for collection when we had left johannesburg at 8am. we sent the children off to collect shiny, clean bottletops to pass time until the blocks arrived. r5 for 50.
after the children had returned with the tops, guy split the group into kite makers and painters. catherine headed the kite making. the painters sat on the black plastic sheet that we masking-taped to the floor and sang. the girls chose the songs and boys lowered there voices in harmony. the sound echoed through the ruins and resonated off the blackened soffit. it was loud and peaceful – like heavy rock at full volume.
gareth arrived after 10am. i was so disappointed that build plumb and tile had let me down on the completion of the blocks. i felt like i had let my team down. and the children too. but all dissipated upon their eventual arrival.
the kite flyers spread their black-bag triangles all over the central space and battled with controlling the red wool in the gusty winds. the painters were quiet and concentrating.
catherine made hotdogs for lunch. she dished them out from the elevation of the stairs, the single line of children passing slowly by for their fill.
the children left with their r5’s and we packed away thirty kites. the day ended on a low note – we planted more trees and grass and then gathered in mr cindy’s living room for a group discussion on our way forward.
it was a small space, warm and personal. the discussion was productive and heated and conflicting at times – we had a lot to accomplish and only a week before our launch. i was tired and irritable and was adamant that we should not begin painting until all heavy construction and erection was completed. the others disagreed. i surrendered my fight out of sheer exhaustion rather than submission. i compiled a list of monday’s duties and goals.
we left for johannesburg after dark.
the timber blocks for the abacus had not been ready for collection when we had left johannesburg at 8am. we sent the children off to collect shiny, clean bottletops to pass time until the blocks arrived. r5 for 50.
after the children had returned with the tops, guy split the group into kite makers and painters. catherine headed the kite making. the painters sat on the black plastic sheet that we masking-taped to the floor and sang. the girls chose the songs and boys lowered there voices in harmony. the sound echoed through the ruins and resonated off the blackened soffit. it was loud and peaceful – like heavy rock at full volume.
gareth arrived after 10am. i was so disappointed that build plumb and tile had let me down on the completion of the blocks. i felt like i had let my team down. and the children too. but all dissipated upon their eventual arrival.
the kite flyers spread their black-bag triangles all over the central space and battled with controlling the red wool in the gusty winds. the painters were quiet and concentrating.
catherine made hotdogs for lunch. she dished them out from the elevation of the stairs, the single line of children passing slowly by for their fill.
the children left with their r5’s and we packed away thirty kites. the day ended on a low note – we planted more trees and grass and then gathered in mr cindy’s living room for a group discussion on our way forward.
it was a small space, warm and personal. the discussion was productive and heated and conflicting at times – we had a lot to accomplish and only a week before our launch. i was tired and irritable and was adamant that we should not begin painting until all heavy construction and erection was completed. the others disagreed. i surrendered my fight out of sheer exhaustion rather than submission. i compiled a list of monday’s duties and goals.
we left for johannesburg after dark.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
tyre tectonics
wow, what an exhausting day. a dirty, productive day, but also a little pessimistic at times and quite emotionally draining.
after analyzing my previous blog entries, i have realized that my perceptions of kwa thema and this project have changed so much, or rather just adjusted. i reflect now on phoning, ordering, drilling, welding, rubbish, allocating tasks, building, batteries, deadlines…
my day began with a visit to kerry at fischer to rack his brains for more advice on fixings. he was, as always, very obliging and overwhelmingly cooperative and generous. fischer is definitely my number one fixing product for life!
guy and i arrived at the beerhall just after 9am. the first 4 balusters were up! what a sight! our spirits were high and the end-of-the-tunnel light was blazing!
mr cindy and i went to the civic centre to meet with stuma from the housing department. he had promised to facilitate the use of a tlb from the roads department. we walked quickly across the dry, windy route to the yard. the dust storms were stifling and blinding. the arid johannesburg winter was well under way.
after retelling the details of our project many times, we finally got correctly directed to sigfred, the site manager, he was a large, afrikaans, middle-aged man. sigfred agreed to lend us a tlb after lunch. we had just about accomplished another huge task – rubbish.
the balusters were popping up like buoys. the tyre towers were aligned and the trees opposite the swings marked. the rubble was being sieved for soil, the skip being slowly occupied. provitas were being passed around, coke sipped through straws.
i walked over to stan’s to charge the batteries. i noticed that overnight, he had assembled 4 tyre towers just like ours, on the street edge of his container sites! i felt warm and content that our northern-suburbs, privileged, culturally-ignorant ideas for our bollards had been so perfectly replicated by someone so established and wise in the tectonics of his own kwa thema. we had made an impression on kwa thema.
mr cindy and i went back to the yard to direct the tlb. its power and sheer capacity was unreal. it pushed the dirt verge with the ease of a lego truck in a sandpit. the dirty clouds were swept away by the gusty breeze, northwards.
we gathered at 2pm at lizzy’s for hotdogs. we were all quiet and contemplative.
i met tom at the chess park at 3pm to workshop the lettering for our tagging kwa thema project. the boys were shy and quite serious about their tasks. concentration and determination filled the little container. we concluded that capital d’s were not in kwa thema!
back at the beerhall, the ward councilor met us for our launch workshop. as the sun set, winter set in. the huge quarts of beer made the chill more intense.
the beerhall stood proudly in the sunset, its children played, silhouetted by the orange sky. the mountain of dirt defended the ruins of the building and we walked past, quiet and relieved.
after analyzing my previous blog entries, i have realized that my perceptions of kwa thema and this project have changed so much, or rather just adjusted. i reflect now on phoning, ordering, drilling, welding, rubbish, allocating tasks, building, batteries, deadlines…
my day began with a visit to kerry at fischer to rack his brains for more advice on fixings. he was, as always, very obliging and overwhelmingly cooperative and generous. fischer is definitely my number one fixing product for life!
guy and i arrived at the beerhall just after 9am. the first 4 balusters were up! what a sight! our spirits were high and the end-of-the-tunnel light was blazing!
mr cindy and i went to the civic centre to meet with stuma from the housing department. he had promised to facilitate the use of a tlb from the roads department. we walked quickly across the dry, windy route to the yard. the dust storms were stifling and blinding. the arid johannesburg winter was well under way.
after retelling the details of our project many times, we finally got correctly directed to sigfred, the site manager, he was a large, afrikaans, middle-aged man. sigfred agreed to lend us a tlb after lunch. we had just about accomplished another huge task – rubbish.
the balusters were popping up like buoys. the tyre towers were aligned and the trees opposite the swings marked. the rubble was being sieved for soil, the skip being slowly occupied. provitas were being passed around, coke sipped through straws.
i walked over to stan’s to charge the batteries. i noticed that overnight, he had assembled 4 tyre towers just like ours, on the street edge of his container sites! i felt warm and content that our northern-suburbs, privileged, culturally-ignorant ideas for our bollards had been so perfectly replicated by someone so established and wise in the tectonics of his own kwa thema. we had made an impression on kwa thema.
mr cindy and i went back to the yard to direct the tlb. its power and sheer capacity was unreal. it pushed the dirt verge with the ease of a lego truck in a sandpit. the dirty clouds were swept away by the gusty breeze, northwards.
we gathered at 2pm at lizzy’s for hotdogs. we were all quiet and contemplative.
i met tom at the chess park at 3pm to workshop the lettering for our tagging kwa thema project. the boys were shy and quite serious about their tasks. concentration and determination filled the little container. we concluded that capital d’s were not in kwa thema!
back at the beerhall, the ward councilor met us for our launch workshop. as the sun set, winter set in. the huge quarts of beer made the chill more intense.
the beerhall stood proudly in the sunset, its children played, silhouetted by the orange sky. the mountain of dirt defended the ruins of the building and we walked past, quiet and relieved.
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