Nov 30, 2021

   Several big events…Saturday, 27^th, My friend of more than 50 yrs. and I celebrated our birthdays together with Chinese at her house. I had Chop Suey and later  some sweet and sour pork, (doggy bags for both….I finished of the left over chop suey yesterday, ending with the south African version of a hot fudge Sunday (ice cream and chocolate sauce) mmmmmm.  And lots of sharing and reminiscing . a lovely day. Shirley is a well known painter   I enjoy critiquing her paintings. She is very gifted. She is just over a year older than  I and is still functioning well, though there are signs old age like for all of us in that age. I am now heading for 87, having completed 86 yrs. on planet earth.

    The second big event was Sunday the 28^th when we managed to persuade the Archbishop emeritus of Pretoria who was sent here to help straighten some problems in  our diocese. We wanted him to experience our neighbors, the happy clappies (they call us the frozen chosen,,,ha). Their service is very loud but also very attractive for some of our people ( I am also attracted.>>)They surround us and drown out, often, our singing and praying. Then he would understand why we are anxious to have our own church…..we have been collecting for our fund for years now and covid threw a big wrench in our plans. He  was the main celebrant for our Zulu mass, assisted by our friend Fr. Des Royappen.( who has been helping us for some years now). I was just a decoration up front there as I find it difficult to stand without support).The Archbishop, Slattery, had the mass in Zulu, and to the astonishment of some of the community, he also preached in Zulu, white as he is. I think he enjoyed being with us as much as we enjoyed his presence, being a real people person. (all 3 of us, the archbishop, Fr. Des and me received gifts..our sommunity is very thoughtful that way).

    Our community leader, Mr. Mike Pillay, then took him to see our church site and I went back ro my home, MD (Mater Dolorosa….emakehleni….the old age home. Our small community (many can’t see well any more or hear well but we keep on keeping on with the help of retired archbishop Paul Khumalo, who has the job of looking after us and does it well. So we had birthday cake and as much wine as you wanted. I had one glass (amazing as a Polak I only had that one glass of wine the whole day and I survived,,,ha)

I went back to the   Pillay home in the afternoon for a Braii Vleis (cook out) Where    many people had been inv ited and where I received the gift of a candle and some other things which I forgot to take. I hope they are still there..

I was very tired and wanted to sleep but the whole night the spasms were pumping, the whole bloody night…no sleep at all. But I survived, as you see. Monday night I took something called a parasetemol, and slept through the whole night. (the spasm are kicking up under the desk as I try to write.

Hey, it is way past my bedtime. I will continue tomorrow. Good night.

What I wanted to say last night was please don’t be hurt if you don’t get an answer from me regarding birthday wishes. I have been swamped by messages from email, facebook, linkedin, messenger and messages (sms). There was no way I could keep up with answering them all. It would take at least a week or even a month. But I appreciate the love that lies behind all those greetings and I promise you that I keep all of you in my prayers and thoughts. Please forgive me for not answering some of your greetings. Just know that I love you all too and keep you all in my heart. You all are my greatest blessing. Love and Peace always.     Cas