Wakefulness

 What does one do when the heat and the mozzies wake you up at 1am? One gets up and finds something small to do to dispel the discomfort and hopefully tire oneself out enough to go back to bed for another forty winks.

    Walking through the house, visiting the bathroom, I disturbed a huge black moth who then flew to the next room. I had something to drink while mentally running through the things I could quickly do before going back to bed.

    Working on my Afrikaans curriculum - would take me past dawn and I would spend the day weary. Do some lesson prep for my easier classes - again, once I start, I would just continue. So I decided on a short blog before I read Psalm 91 for my mom and children and try heading back to dreamland for another cycle of sleep - or two.

    I have someone coming at 8 to help me clean - with my broken sleep patterns, that is a bit early for me, but normal life does go on outside my beautiful doors and sometimes I still have to join the fray.

    I emptied my tsedaqa box over the weekend in honour of my birthday and a friend who runs a local feeding scheme for children came to fetch it yesterday, early morning, just after 8. Fortunately, I was dressed, but I hadn't yet brushed my teeth! Poor friend, having to endure my smelly breath. My landlady did that to me last week as well. A parcel arrived for her early in the morning - you guessed it, just after 8! - and she wasn't in, so asked me to please run up to the gate and collect it for her. It was no problem of course, but that day I was still in my pyjamas and my hair was all over the place. She euphemistically called it "morning beauty"!

    My day yesterday was another one of beauty and tranquility. Even though the internet had been off since the day before and I lost 3 classes to the downtime, HaShem allowed me to do several things at home that I had not had time for. I accomplished a lot. I have decided that I should manage my time more efficiently so that my household duties don't fall behind again so that He doesn't need to cut the internet for 2 days to aid me in completing the necessary tasks at home. 

    A beautiful friend who uncomplainingly gave up her morning Hebrew lesson with me, insisted on helping me be able to teach my afternoon classes. At 12.30pm she checked with me that the internet was still down and then drove over with a mini modem to reconnect me for the afternoon. Just a few minutes later, I saw my signal was back so I called her, but she was already around the corner, so she brought it, had some water and a chat and then dove back into her air-conditioned car to go shopping for lunch for her family, leaving the little modem with me, just in case. A lovely interlude.

    I am very dependant on the internet - for prayer, Torah study, learning, teaching, chatting. I worked offline on a few things inside the house, it being way too hot to go outside and attend to my plants. I did that later, at about 6pm. My cucumbers have mostly succumbed to the heat, my tomatoes are barely keeping it together, a few of my plants, including the sweet peppers, have burnt leaves from the scorching sun.

    I only found out yesterday the reason for our internet connection being cut. Someone - apparently - who lives up the road decided to move their boundary wall and was digging to plant new fence poles on the municipal ground (the pavement) outside their house and in the process cut through the fibre cables. I sincerely hope that they face repercussions, seeing as it is highly illegal to do this. I would like to add a claim for loss of income. In South Africa, if it isn't loadshedding, there's ecoli in the water. Or you get people trying to claim land that isn't theirs and throwing a whole neighbourhood into chaos in the process. Life here is not for sissies.

    Then the ANC government act like children and send the Israeli representative home because he was helping the poor people of our province to get clean drinking water! I have never seen such a lack of leadership in our country. It shocks, angers and saddens me that the ANC has sold us out to the likes of Iran and China. Chief Rabbi Goldstein said it all so well in his YouTube video on the issue. Here's the link - it's less than 10 minutes long:

https://youtu.be/0vLwLwKnQnE?si=rrs5ulqTp4FrWmPb

    Just as Khomeini is killing his own citizens in Iran, so Ramaphosa doesn't give a hoot about his own people. He doesn't mind at all if they have to drink dirty water or die of thirst. He doesn't mind at all if young children are dying of water-borne diseases.

    I didn't intend to get into such weighty matters at these wee hours, so I will stop here, pray, read Psalms and take my trusty fan back to the bedroom with me. I sincerely hope I can clock another couple of hours before 8am arrives!

    I can't say Layla Tov, neither Boqer Tov, so I'll just say "See you later!"

Blessings, Penny