By my very nature I’m not a nervous passenger. In fact I love travelling. I love the sights, trying the food, making new friends, and experiencing different cultures! But by any measure this trip has gotten off to a rocky start.
I’m sitting in Cork Airport with an incessant ringing in my ears typing fast and furiously. It’s because there’s a power cut and I forgot to recharge the laptop last night. The aiport siren though is working perfectly, letting us no there’s no power. One would have thought that the complete absence of lights anywhere in the building would be a good enought indicator, but better safe than sorry. On top of that my flight to London is delayed an hour and a half. And to make mtters just that little bit worse there no coffee, because the coffee machine isn’t working, because there’s no power. Even Job would be getting a little antsy at this stage and I’m definitely no Job.
Fr. Herman in the after school project
However it’s all for a great cause. I’m off to South Africa for two weeks to look at setting up a volunteering programme with our Missionary of the Sacred Heart brothers in the Region. Along with Sr. Susan Jones, a member of the Holy Faith Congregation and a chaplain in DCU, we’ll be travelling around the country, working in the various projects and looking at possibilities for short term volunteering ( three months ). We’re going to begin in Tembisa, one of the largest townshops just outside Johannesburg. Fr. Herman van Dyke, based in the Ivory Park parish, is involved with the local Tshwaranang AIDS Hopsice and the Pilani youth project. We should be starting on Monday, so I’ll fill you in as it happens.
In the meantime God has taken pity on my plight. The electricity is back on. The sirens have stopped. Perhaps now is a good time to see if the coffee machine is running again. Things are beginning to look up!