Manual

A thousand apologies for not keeping my daily posting streak- I'm afraid other events, like the arrival of Toukam, managed to take precedence.

Where to begin... Tuesday. The commute, now perfected by the addition of the mountainous highway, was quite manageable and I almost got it down to half an hour. Upon arrival, I was informed that the director, Nelis, would be staying at home to take care of his ill son. Because of this unfortunate circumstance, I was placed in the charge of Annerie, the groundskeeper of Africa House.

Annerie apparently worked for or ran a restaurant in the past, and runs the Africa House with the same amount of vigor and intensity that a functioning restaurant would require. Realizing that she has an extra pair of hands and feet to utilize, I was swiftly put into use measuring the dimensions of two dilapidated showers in the boys and girls restrooms for a future renovation with tiling. Though at first a little surprised by the discrepancy between what I had imagined an internship would look like and the task brought in front of me, I proceeded to get to know the metric system in detail. After an elementary school-worthy slip-up, I presented her with the needed square meterage of tile. Up next and for the next three hours, I had a list of tasks including scrubbing cement from a plastic chair, rinsing other plastic chairs, and moving large furniture around the complex. By the minute I was asking myself and the good Lord what purpose I had there and if I would be doing this for the next seven weeks.

Salvation came in the form of Mr. Floyd McClung himself, the boss and the man I had been contacting since February. He walked into the compound and when I saw him, I quickly went up and introduced myself. Mr. McClung, it turns out, is a fascinating character from first glance. First of all, he's tall- about 3 or 4 inches taller than I am. Beyond that, he was wearing Crocs, typing texts on his iPhone, and keenly inspecting the surrounding area and the people interacting with him. His friendliness was apparent from the first sentence he spoke and after some brief small talk, he asked me if I could go get some coffee with him. Thrilled at the idea of getting to know this man, the author of more than 12 books, a visitor in more than 125 countries, and speaker at more than 100 colleges, I was also pretty happy to escape the manual labor.

We walked across the street to a shopping mall with a Pick 'n Pay and a nice cafe, where we sat down and drank some hot beverages. During the thoroughly enjoyable conversation, we discussed everything from US policy in Afghanistan to his newest book, my relatives to Sarah Palin, and world travels to world ministry. From just that short conversation, I not only realized how interesting my new boss is, but also got to talk with him about a subject that had proven to be ambiguous- my purpose at All Nations. Thankfully, he seems to want to get me on more intellectual projects and other more demanding duties. He also voiced an openness to my shadowing his daily work routine, ready to field my questions and explain how he runs such an organization. From that conversation, I'm quite sure I won't be doing manual labor the whole time I'm on this Columbia-funded internship.

Mr. McClung and I quickly grabbed sandwiches and got into his car. He ended up taking me to two of the "communities" (former townships) that All Nations is active in- Oceanside and Massapumalele. These areas are of the saddest I've seen- shacks line the streets while poor families and children meander around, passing by the gaudy walls and gates of the local drug dealer. It became clear to me that All Nations is serving some of the world's most desperate people in life-changing ways. As he drove, Mr. McClung told me about the desperation of the people, the government's attempts to help them, and the political infighting that has hindered even the most kindhearted attempts to help the people there. It was heartbreaking to see such suffering, but encouraging to know that there are so many people doing there best to help those in the community.

Though the time with Mr. McClung was enjoyable and eye-opening, all good things come to an end and I was once again dropped off at All Nations where I continued moving shelves and cabinets. I ended up leaving at about 3:30 when there was little else to do and once again got very close to a half-hour commute. It was raining, but I decided to run a couple errands anyway, in order to have the apartment ready for my roommate to arrive. For the next couple hours I continued reading my new book, which I am reading between parts 1 and 2 of Atlas Shrugged, called Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror, by former CIA head guy Richard Clarke. I had read an excerpt from it in my Intro to International Politics class last semester, and found it intriguing. I'm about halfway through and I'm really enjoying it. I didn't really know about America's history in regard to terrorism before 9/11, so this book is great about informing me of how previous presidents dealt with and thought about terrorism. He's very harsh on the W Bush administration, but who isn't?

At about 6:30, Toukam finally arrived! It turned out that the ticket that his company had acquired for him included a 24 HOUR layover in Atlanta, so he was forced to find a hostel there and make himself comfortable. He apparently met a lot of really interesting people along the way, but he was definitely glad to have found his new home base. We cooked up a simple dinner with chicken and beef and more veggies from Pick 'n Pay, as well as a bottle of sparkling wine, to initiate the good times to come. After dinner, we had a great conversation- one of many to come, I am sure. We finished the night and went to bed- him on the real bed and myself on the sofa in a sleeping bag, which proved to be a lot more comfortable than it sounds or looked.

Getting up bright and early at 7, I got ready for day 3 of work and attempted, with an utterly failed result, to make eggs for breakfast. I guess you could call it a learning experience... But then I was on my way in the rainy air, back on highway M3 to the middle of the Cape Peninsula. Because of the rain, my commute was about 40 minutes, but I didn't mind. Once again, Nelis was out of the office, so I began my day perfecting my gardening to-do list. However, diversion arrived when Pat, the secretary, told me that Mr. McClung wanted to talk to me. I called him and found out that I had been charged with the task of returning his passports back to an agency in the city. I drove over there, experiencing the most frightful moment in driving thus far (I'll spare the details on the blog). I returned to the office, where I began figuring out what I could do to improve the All Nations website, partially because I want All Nations to have as good of a site as possible, and also to prevent any future international interns from having to go through the traumatic process of finding the office without any good directions online.

For the rest of the day, I did random odd jobs and began to wonder, once again, what I would be doing there for the next month and a half. I now realize that I may just have to initiate projects on my own and pursue those. If no big steps forward are made this week, I may just do that. I left the office early again because of a lack of projects as well as the passport errand that I needed to do. On the way home I also stopped by Drive Africa to obtain some final documentation to bring Aslan into other countries. With that uplifting reminder of the adventure yet to come, I made my way home. Exhausted and hungry, I started a scandalous affair with a peanut butter and honey sandwich that ended in my utter fulfillment. Coincidentally, I also found out why you don't refrigerate honey.

Those were my last couple days- filled with emotion, new people, and exciting events. Let it be known that I have hope for the coming weeks with All Nations and that I know I'm still settling in. Thank you, Reader, for your prolonged attention, and I promise to have more pictures up for you soon enough. Until then, may your strides be lengthy and your burdens light.