April 18, 2007 - Reagen's Rosetta Stone

Another overcast day brought the blah blues. Alissa is still sick from the day before so it’s just the Rebecca’s and I turning in a full day’s work today.

More research (so tell me, how sick are you of my writing about this?) brought more online travels. Today my ventures were to Fiji, The Holy See (Vatican), Indonesia, and Israel to name a few. In locating and/or correcting contact information for the national libraries for the nations I again wish that the USA had more stringent rules in teaching the nation’s children a second language. My rusty French can help me out when pages of Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian pop up but I am lost when a non-Latin based language like Hebrew or Indonesian flashes across my screen. The symbols that make up their lexicon are things that I know are supposed to have meaning but to me are just beautiful scrawls across the page. Running into pages of information in languages I’m not familiar with certainly can put a long pit stop in the schedule of the research race. I need some sort of library Rosetta stone, that has the translations of all of the world languages and whose subject consists of contact information.

We learned today that Peter Broli, Cathy’s brother, who was to be our native chaperone and driver for our Durban trip can now not make it due to other work obligations. There is talk of Zwia, the student who carted us to the Lion Park, going with us. I certainly hope that something can be worked out, because for all my boastings of wanting to drive on the other side of the road, I would not be the best candidate with the lack of knowledge on the downshifting skills.

Another item added to our schedule was the mention of a choral concert being given by the UP Choral group, consisting of several songs in the South African tradition and in several of the national languages (there are 11 total). I’m stoked for that as I always look forward to experiencing all that another culture has to offer.

Rebecca H. and I left a little early to check on the new chaperone details and stated that we would meet everyone to get our laundry. I guess our signals got crossed because while our business with Cathy and Peter was resolved quickly, Rebecca H. and I waited for a quiet a while for the others to join us. In that time, I decided to unwrap a Snicker’s bar that I had brought back from the Lion Park. While shedding it’s wrapper I discovered that my Snickers was crumbling in my very hands. Apparently Alissa and I had selected some bars from the wrong batch and ended up with these crumbly counterparts. Not the Snickers satisfaction I was looking for.

Since there was still no sign of the girls and the closing time of the laundry service was rapidly approaching, I offered to trek over to the laundry place whilst Rebecca H. waited for our erstwhile companions. I was moving a bit more slowly than normal due to pain caused by unbroken in shoes, or rather I should say not-broken-in-enough shoes. Hobbling my way to the Hatfield Square who should I find but Alissa and Rebecca B. already waiting at Le Patt Café with all of our laundry at their feet. I joined their table, and as we waited for Rebceca H. to make her way our direction, I reveled in the sensation of fresh laundry.

While most people complain about having to do ironing and laundry as a chore, I find it soothing. Folding items straight out of the dryer and inhaling that warm soft scent is something that makes my day a little bit better each time it occurs. I enjoy placing clean clothes to their proper homes, and putting fresh sheets on the bed. It gives me a sense of domesticity, something that I don’t always feel I have a lot of. Keep in mind though that this is me doing my own laundry, I don’t know that I’d wax quite so rhapsodic if I had to take care of everyone else’s as well. But for at least tonight I’ll rest easy in that Downy fresh feeling.