painting happiness

I woke up in a really bad mood. It was overcast and after the rough day I had yesterday (lots of time wasted by waiting for people, got home after dark at 6:30, which is really late), I didn’t want to do anything but stay curled up in my cozy bed. But I can hold off going pee for only so long and since the toilet is outside and I have to get decent before I leave my house, usually by the time I come back from the toilet, I’m wide awake. So despite the intimidating clouds, I braved the weather set off for the office to start my last project. I want to paint the office, cheer it up a bit for the staff and paint a big version of our logo on the wall.

As I walked down the road I didn’t really think about this and instead went over all the confrontations I wanted to have so I could wallow in my bad mood. But I knew this wasn’t going to get me anywhere so I tried hard to turn my bad mood around. I immediately got a ride and the guy driving was really friendly and that helped. I was surprised when I got to the office and no one was there but I just got down to work clearing things out and scraping the walls. The German guys showed up (they are here for a month volunteering for Phedišang, not sure if I’ve introduced them yet) and wanted to use the internet and they were in luck because no one was in the office working on the computers. It was nice to have them around (despite the fact that they were some of the people I wanted to have choice words with, mostly because they are a bit too attached to the internet and harass me to use it every day – and caused us to be really late getting home on Monday) and they helped reach the really high spots on the ceilings – they both are extremely tall.

Finally, around 12:30 I got really hungry and had to stop. I went outside and asked the cooks for some water to wash off the white paint on my hands so I could eat. Jeanette, one of the cooks, brought me a bucket of water and I started washing but she must not have liked my style because she grabbed my hands and took over the job. She first scrubbed my right hand and used tons of soap before moving on to the left hand to repeat the process. She was talking with the other women in Sepedi the whole time and I couldn’t quite understand what they were talking about but paraffin was mentioned. Next thing you know she’s put a bit of paraffin on my hand telling me that it will help get the paint off. After she was finished I dried my hands on my pants as usual and was about to go and get my bread with peanut butter but she stopped me and told me to wash my hands again to get the paraffin off – good call. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I was only taking a short break to put food in my mouth – I went right back in a few minutes later and finished painting the first coat and got a bit more paint on my hands.

I was hoping to leave the office early today but I’m offering my moral support to Charity and Suzan while they go over the financial report. I could be upset about staying late at work again but I’m going to try my hardest not to be – at least I am spending time with two of the most important people from my time here. The time with C & S is just as valuable, even if I am just sitting next to them, not actually saying much – there is always the journey home.