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Greeted many people on the street today as we again walked to the shops and back. Decided to see them individually as special to God, instead of being focussed on my destination. Love it that the needs are now right outside my front door, realize that I spent my days "on holiday" in my isolation from the world before...This is the life I've been waiting for...
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Tomorrow will be 2 weeks living in Hillbrow!! Some courageous people I have met so far: a group of professional medicals who have chosen to work at the Hillbrow Community Clinic and who with amazing energy and enthusiasm tackle their daily challenges (and some of ours!); a nameless man who sweeps the outside ground floor of an adjacent block of flats from 6.30 every morning, sifting through an unhealthy assortment and amount of refuse thrown down by the residents; Shoni and Prince, who tirelessly sweep and clean the refuse in every public area of our block every day; and a group of about 10 homeless boys/men who sleep on the pavements in a side road close to us. These are only a very few of the unsung heroes who have crossed paths with us. We are loving getting to know this community.
Here is the beginning of an explanation on why we have moved to Hillbrow.
Ghandi said "we must become the change we want to see in the world". I want to see a world in which the rich do not tolerate extreme poverty and inequality. I want to see many people actually laying down their lives of comfort and convenience for the sake of bettering the lives of others. Seeing people freed from poverty, inequality, racism and exploitation is more important than fulfilling our lust for more things!I want to be part of a society in which people are valued more than things. I want to see the god of consumerism in South Africa bowing it's knee to a love motivated revolution which results in freedom from oppression and exploitation. I want to see this for all people, regardless of class, citizenship, race or religion.I dream of equality in every sector of society. I believe that if the education system is not OK for a rich kid, it is not OK for a poor kid. The same goes with healthcare, housing, security. The same goes for rural kids and inner city kids. The same for black kids and white kids. I am not more valuable than the least valued in our society.I am going to do my life in a new way. I am going to live my dream and see this reality briefly described above happening around me. I hope others will join me and this will happen around them too. Who knows, very soon, the world can be a different place! One week of living in Hillbrow...spent most of it unpacking and sorting. Loving the rhythms of this great place, loving the Tanzanian owned cafe across the road, loving the sight of 100 plus people in the street below that I can look down on at any time of the day, loving walking around in my new suburb/home! Now to introduce ourselves properly...and visitors, please do pop in!
Also amazed at how much I am enjoying our new flat! Love the little kitchen - so much easier to keep clean! General housework is also so much less than at our house. Downsizing has been such a helpful exercise: we're not cluttered anymore, just taking what we need. And blessed where we live now in so many little ways...ironically our bedrooms are actually bigger than they were! So, our first night sleeping in the big city! Wow, in the community at last! And we discovered this morning that "there's a friendly Spar wherever you are!" (and ours is 24hrs - benefits of city living!)
Today we just took what we needed for each room: beds, tables, chairs, shelves, kitchen appliances and utensils, and of course our schoolroom learning materials..."Living simply so that others can simply live" - Mother Teresa
Welcome to my kitchen! Clean and ready to occupy — what do you think of the color "lemon sponge cake"? The schoolroom, bathroom and toilet are also painted this color - Moving Day tomorrow!!! Yay!
Hillbrow Report Day 7: So there's good news...and there's bad news! Good news: the rooms are really starting to look good, painting probably finishing end of tomorrow. Yay! Bad news: no pics because my phone dropped on the floor (like all phones do, many times!) and the screen, she is thoroughly dead! You can still phone me though, but I can't phone out...or do anything else actually...sad...
So today we tried cleaning the parquet flooring in the main bedroom...we will have to learn how to do this better into the future! Love the sun that streams into this room in the afternoons!
...And this is our new home-schooling room, bigger than we've had before in our previous home (ironically!) Can't wait to get all our learning materials into it. It has lovely big cupboards and we have chosen the colour "lemon sponge-cake" for it, recommended for its concentration enhancing hue! This photograph still shows the bright yellow colour that most of the flat was painted with when we first opened the front door! So, the dry walling is finally in place, and now we are beginning to see the transformation as the fresh paint goes on the walls. Visitors welcome! (And Hannah was in heaven today as 6 girls from the block came to play in our mostly empty flat!) This room is to become our lounge/dining room area, looking good!
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