Mar. 14, 2022

Things went along normally till the 12rh of March. That is the day I have been waiting and longing for months. It was the day when I would meet , my niece, Ann,…. My daughter, a medical doctor… and her daughter, Katrina, my grand niece….who spent a year as a volunteer at our orphanage home, some years back,  and her new husband (married in Dec. last year), Chase ( I really like him), and David,

Ann’s husband….all 4 are paying me a visit and looking around, here and there in South Africa.

We went out for lunch on Saturday, the 12^th of March, to a restaurant called the Pot and Kettle, where I had taken Katrina when she first arrive in South Aftrica some years back to celebrate her birthday. The restaurant overlooks the valley of a thousand hills and is very scenic. She wanted to show the others this beautiful place and a place, after drinking in the lovely scenery, to have lunch. Shortly before lunch, My bladder told me it was time to make a move. So I did, but I am on crutches, and it takes some time to get where I am going especially as the toilet is a bit of a distance away. Well, I had the emberrasing experience of losing it before I arrived where I wanted to go, leaving a trail along the way. Very emberrassing , but what can one do. We had lunch and before going to a friends house for wine and cheese, they took me home where I could change into some fresh clothes and off we went.

   It was enjoyable just to be in their company and it became even more enjoyable when Katrina announced that she was pregnant. Wow. What great and beautiful news.

     While they went off to do some more visiting with Katrina’s friends, they dropped me off at home. I had had enough excitement for one day, and although I went to bed early, I couldn’t sleep,   I think because I was still too excited.

  

The next day was Sunday, and they came and picked me up and we went off to Savannah Park to my old community for a lovely Zulu Mass.I sat with them in the back and only read the gospel in Zulu and listened to Fr. Des. Who has been helping since I was no longer able to do it. The reading for that Sunday was about the Transfiguration, when Jesus took Peter, James and John up the mountain to experience the divine side of who he was, since all they knew of him was his human side. Of course, their minds were blown when he was transfigured, big dazzling light and all.

  

But what struck me was the juxtaposition of Transfigure and disfigure that he brought out in his sermon…..

e.g. during Lent while we try to get ourselves in shape for Easter, what we are actually doing is trying to get the sins out of our lives, the things that dis-figure us, and try to get back to the Jesus who was transfigured and who came to live in us when we were baptized.  I  thought that was a cool way of explaining sin, a disfiguring of the image of Christ in us.  Then we went up, after Mass, to spend some time and have an early lunch at the Pillay’’s  ( Mike and Anneta who look after our church stuff, Mike also being the  leader and organizer of the community. Mike is Indian but leads a 98% Zulu community.  Netta would be classified as a “coulered”.

I will get the rest of this tomorrow...