Sunshine Perspective

It’s amazing how much sunshine can help change perspectives.

Although, yesterday was sunny as well but clouds soon rolled in during the afternoon. So “technically” today is our first real nice day in Pietermaritzburg. Alleluia. It’s about time. Not that this sudden change of mood will necessarily last very long, but it’s been a nice change of pace. (Sorry those last few blogs have been rather depressing).

It all started with sunshine and Saturday. Yet, it was more than that. Here is a trivia question to see how well you all know me. What is my favorite thing to do on Saturdays?

Hmm… Give up?

Answer: Going to farmers’ markets! And that’s exactly what we did this morning. Malcolm and Lyndel (a couple from BCI) took Connie, Tim, and I to the farmers’ market at Alexandra park. The funny thing was that we got there close to 9 in the morning and everyone was starting to pack up to leave. Apparently, to get all the good stuff people show up to this thing at 5 am! Wow. That’s hardcore. I am definitely not that hardcore about farmers’ markets, especially when all we needed was green peppers and eggs. But I am still glad we got to go and I hope that we will get to again. The park isn’t that close to our house and since we don’t have real transportation to get there I am not sure how often we’ll be able go. Nevertheless, it pretty much rocked my face off, especially since I bought 5 pink Gerber daisies for (get this) R7.00 (which equates to a dollar! Yep. In the states those babies go for about 3 bucks a head. They are sitting on our kitchen table right now, looking so wonderful). (Side note: Asheville's tailgating "farmers' markets" are still the best possibly ever).

I am happy that we got this opportunity to go this morning. I’ve been struggling a lot with green, sustainable living here. Recycling is non-existent in the city. It is literally painful for me to toss out glass, plastic, paper, etc., all things that can easily be recycled at home. I understand that often “going green” comes hand in hand with privilege. Yet, what do you do when you live in areas where recycling is not an option, priority or trendy? This is why I was even more excited about going to the farmers’ market today in Maritzburg. So if I can’t recycle, at least we can get some of our vegetables from local growers.

At least that’s something.

It’s amazing how much sunshine can help change perspectives. (It’s a good thing I didn’t go to Sweden then, eh?)

(Side note: Other good things happened today like doing a little bit of laundry. Wow that was really wonderful. Also, I got to make supper tonight. Finally! It was so good for my soul. The menu?: bean burritos made with Connie’s homemade tortillas. It’s really challenging to make Mexican food here, but it turned out great).