Every Color of the Rainbow: Rats and Stuff

This morning we woke up to a cloudy, cold day, leftover from the rains last night. I came close to putting my sweater on, but opted against it in the end. At 7:45 we headed out of the house to bring a load of "rubbish" to the delightful dump. We made a stop at the iKaya Levangeli to pick up some more garbage, then we were off. We made our way through the busy morning streets of the Location, went over a bunch of speed bumps, then took pictures as we passed by a few pigs on the bottom of the mountain. Halfway up the mountain, once again, a man walking jumped in the back of the trailer for a lift to the top. He started throwing the stuff off the trailer while Caleb got the shovel to transport the more foul stuff. When everything was off, Caleb gave the guy a few rands for his help. From the dump we were off to the town of Alice, about half an hour from Fort Beaufort. Elaine and I were dropped off at (you guessed it) JUMBO! We went right to it as soon as we walked in the door. We each had a list of things we needed, so we knew right where to go. The last time I was there, there was a very nice pair of jean shorts, that I loved, and they fit me perfectly, but there was no tag on them. I asked a worker if she could find a price, but after 10 minutes of "looking" for the price, she said, "Sorry I can't find a price." I took the shorts with me up to the cash, hoping they could do something about it. After 15 minutes of talking on the phone, they said the same thing. They asked if I would be back another day, and I said yes. They said they'd have the price for it then. So, here I am, over a week and a half later, and when I walked in the door the lady recognized me and said, "Oh, sorry, we still didn't find that price." As I went to the place where the shorts were, there they were, hanging on the rack- still no price! I was pretty annoyed! I tried to forget about the incident, and soon clothes were flying here there and everywhere. About an hour later, Caleb was on his way from getting wood to pick us back up. It was quite a slow ride home, due to the fact we loaded down to the max. with wet lumber. The sun started to shine at 11:00, and things started toy heat up. By the time we headed off to Semour for Children's Meetings in the afternoon, I was roasting in the back of the bakky. Usually Semour is on Tuesdays, but because we'll be gone to P.E. tomorrow, we had it a day early. It went quite well, and when I gave the kids the silly bands I brought, they loved them! An authentic African meal awaited us when we got back, stiff pup, curry beef, butternut and round bread. It was lip-smacking good! At shortly after 7:00, the sun started to set, giving a spectacular glow to the sky. I really love Africa!

I almost forgot to tell you about the rat! Roxy caught it on Sunday, and I had the pleasure of seeing it! It was a big one!