Lekker Day in Addo 10/25/2012

Gabby inhales some fumes

BEN - Woke up today with no real sense of what we were going to be doing for the day.  We had a laid back breakfast and a bit of time to read before John put us to work.  The Aldermans are putting an addition on their backpackers that is to be their personal flat with full kitchen, bathroom, living room, and bedroom.  It’s quite nice.  We spent the majority of the day with a blowtorch in one hand, and a scraper in the other melting and peeling lead based paint off two different doors while inhaling almost certainly toxic fumes.  It was pretty satisfying getting long melted strips of paint off, but the combination of the hot sun and hot torch made for sweaty work.  It was just as if it was another day working construction as a day laborer like I did right after college.  We worked until about 4 when John called it a day and we headed over to see Hazel and Randy.  We quickly constructed a very cool tomato fence/gate simply out of bamboo and cut up stockings.  It looks pretty cool and was pretty fun to build.  I am excited to see our little tomato plants grow up!  It just so happened that as we finished, Hazel was pulling out a fresh chocolate cake from the oven that was to be served as dessert at the restaurant that night.  She gave us each a heaping portion and we devoured it instantly.  Yummm!  It reminded me of Wacky Cake from home with gooey chocolate fudge over a moist chocolate cake.  We were also able to pilfer some movies from Randy’s loaded hard drive and put them onto mine.  We will be able to watch them as we go to sleep although on my little tiny mini-computer screen.  We returned to the backpackers and helped with dinner, a dish they called Landmine Chicken, because it looked as a chicken would after stepping on a landmine (but was extremely tasty).  We waited for the family to eat, but John and

Our bamboo fencing to support our tomatoes

Cheryl’s son Josh, who lives in China, has been sick for awhile, and has taken a turn for the worse, losing his vision.  I felt bad for his girlfriend who was obviously juggling doctors, a sick boyfriend, and really worried, aggressive South African parents via Skype.  We decided to get out of their way and headed over to the restaurant.  We started a nice fire with a new form of fuel; coconut shells! It takes a bit to get them lit, but once they do they flame up and sound like a jet engine.  I should also mention the new character in our little family who returned from vacation today, Sarel (pronounced ‘Sah-rolled r’- l’).  Sarel is a 19 year old Afrikaans boy who runs tours into the national park and does some handiwork around the backpackers.  He is a really personable, nice guy, but also has some maturing to do.  We sat with Sarel, a cool Dutch couple, and an uptight, annoying German couple around our coconut shell fire talking about this and that and drinking some South African beers.  It was a nice, lekker (chill) scene.  Gabby and I went to bed and watched a few minutes of Star Wars before passing out.