Little lessons in life

After being sheltered from it for so long since the advent of internet banking and telephones, oh yes and paying other people to do it for you, I was once again re-introduced to the exciting world of bureaucracy and public service employees….oh my maimed and shattered nerves!! I stand back and shake my head. Something sooo simple can be made to look soooo complex and intricate, but ey I guess it is what it is not so?!

A brief background, my friend Michael has a group immensely talented kids that he sort of manages and gets gigs for them, the hope of these kids is to I guess get some basic discipline in them, expose them to life beyond Dobsonville where many of them hail from but all currently live and also to try and raise funding for them so they can further their education or get some sort of a chance in life. For example one of the lasses who is part of the band got a scholarship to study BComm, from a Canadian lady who was exposed to her and the band. Now this is Michaels project, but he asked me to be a trustee which I accepted, but I must say up until this year, errr a couple of weeks ago ;), just before the world cup, I was one in name only and attending meetings and throwing in my 2 cents here and there... Anyway so a few weeks ago Mike asked me to accompany him and the kids to Canada cos he will need some assistance, I was like errrrr ok…easy part done.

Ok so now we can carry on. So many lessons of humility, patience and gratitude were definitely learnt. So it started on Sunday, when we got all the parents of the kids to come and firstly listen to their kids perform and help fill out the visa applications and permission forms for their kids. Its in times like this and occasions like that, that highlight how fortunate we are regarding education and how we should never ever ever take for granted the little things that we have in life. For you and I, reading and filling out what seems to be the simplest form is like second nature, but that’s because we have been exposed to such things. But it actually isn’t that easy. I guess like most things, practice makes perfect. 25 kids parents later…This was definitely an exercise of gratitude, humility and patience. I know it sounds helluva dramatic, but in all sincere honesty, and not making it a racial thing at all but just stating the facts as they were presented before me. As a man of African decent, yes maybe not born here, but I came here in the early 80s, when I was 7, I have to never ever take for granted the opportunities that I was granted, to attend a superb school, mix with people of all ages from such a young age etc. etc. Its actually how we take the little things for granted, but those things, those are the things that really matter. Anyway so I did what I could and headed off to my folks, you know me and Sunday fufu ☺

Then on Tuesday we, being Jabu, the young leader of the group who really does all the admin, and who helped me sort out all the applications, invitation letters etc etc…so off we went to the visa place, had to make a stop first so got there at about 9.15. There were a few people in front of us, so we waited for about 20 minutes, got to the front and the lady at the counter looked at us, saw like 26 passports and said no, no no no senior, please go to the other counter, I smiled and then stepped aside. So about 9.40, the lady in the other counter begrudgingly summonsed us over to her. Mind you this place closes at 10am right, her unwillingness to assist us was etched all over her face as bright and as prevalent as a Maori’s tattoos. But anyway she humoured us for a few minutes, went through one or two of the applications and found fault with them. Some of the fault she found was that only the mother and not the father had signed the docs. In there was a NOTARISED letter from the parent stating that the father was never there nor does she know the whereabouts of the father, and/or she has sinced heard that he has died. She still insists he must sign or get a death certificate…she sent us packing till the next day. I tried to tell her that she should start processing the ones that were correct and let me go and work on the ones that weren’t…nah bra, that’s logical AND it would result in work, so lets rather not…her excuse to me is that you guys are a group so we do it all together. I shook my head but what to do. Left the house at 7, it was now about 10.15, and no joy.

So I decided ok let me go to CIPRO seeing as I am there, all I need to do is change the address of my CC and get a CK1 printed and pay my annual fees, how hard could that be…left the bloody place at 14h30, and no they weren’t having a disco there nor were there any attractive lasses that caught my attention…no no noo, just a bunch of people that think that doing their job is doing you a favour…definitely a lesson in patience right there, but at least at the end of that I managed to do what I needed to…but I could have sworn that It should have taken maximum of 30 minutes…but alas. You know how it goes, ask clearly, get sent to a queue, get to the front of the queue, and oops sorry wrong queue you should be at counter 6 etc…

So come Wednesday, brand new day, I leave home pretty early because I’d much rather watch paint dry than sit in my car and watch brake lights in front of me and smell exhaust fumes. I had to make one stop though which delayed me a little. I had a plan when I woke up, I said yesterday you were wound up and the only person who suffered was you, so today we have a whatever attitude, try as best as you can to get it done, if you cant, well it is what it is, cos at the end of the day the source of your angst feels nothing and you are the one in a horrible mood and you take it out on everyone else. Lesson of patience and humility so learnt! So that was it. Got to the embassy, same story queue, sent to the other counter, same woman, same stories, just searching for reasons to say no as opposed to helping me find solutions, knowing very well what the nature of the applicants was…I said to her ma’am I am not here to fight, it’s a cultural experience for these kids, no one gets paid, some of these kids have never left Gauteng let alone smell what an airport looks like, if its only 15 that can go so be it, but just help me and let me know what I need to do, all of a sardine attitude softens…foolish!! Anyway, so she found fault with 11 of them, same stuff and the funiest thing was one of them, they hadn’t put an x next to a question that asks if any of the family members had lived outside SA for more than 6 mths or something like that…anyway, after a little over an hr we were done and she said I should wait she has to go speak to her big boss, she came back I was prepared for anything, anyway she said I have news for you, I said you wont accept these 11, no worries, I’ll go tell them, no we taking them all, we will find a way to make it work. Go to the ABSA and get the cheque for the Visa forms, this was way after 10, she said don’t worry, I will tell the guards to let you in. Lesson, my attitude change, her attitude change.

So now off to the bank I go. My mind is made up that I am going to ABSA, the lady mentioned ABSA, the guards told me ABSA so I was going to ABSA. Just as I got to the mall I saw the good old big blue and it called me, something just called me to go there, and so I did. Whilst waiting in the queue, there was a gentleman in the front of the queue, as his turn came, he got asked to wait because someone else from the side was there before him, just had to go back, he smiled and returned to the queue, the other queue became open, no lies as he got there some other person came from leftfield, he returned to the queue and smiled, I passed a random comment to which he responded, boss its life, what are my options, I can get angry and raise my blood pressure (whilst the person behind the counter just carries on with life) or I can smile and just accept it and wait..i choose the latter because when it matters, I wont be judged on what he did to me, but how I reacted or related to him….deep. We engaged in a conversation but then his time came and so too mine, but I said I wanted to hear more, cos he looked and felt like an enlightened fellow.

Anyway so I went in paid for my cheque and got sent outside to wait for it. Fortunately the man was there waiting for me. We carried on the conversation and he reminded me of this life we lead. We oscillate between being worldly and trying to follow a principled life and how as life evolves we are so stuck in the instant gratification of materialism that we forget about being humans and doing the basic things, like respecting one another and being civil etc. It was such a deep conversation, one I would never have expected to have in a bank nogal, but, definitely one of those thank you God moments, when you realize that this life is good to you if you take the time to slow down and let it be. He wrote down a few things for me that I would like to share with you and here they are:

If you focus on the hereafter and life beyond yourself:
• You will be made magnanimous…an open giver;
• Difficult things will be made easy;
• The world will be forced to your feet
On the other hand if you work for the world and all its possessions:
• You will always be in want;
• Easy things will be made difficult
• You will get what is destined for you

Pretty deep I say, such an impact it had on me ☺

Birthdays
12th Bobz
13th Inge, Maud
14th Wardie, Coach, Will, Anoka
15th Goochie
16th Jedd, Maskew
18th Thulz, Chetan, Violet, Tahir
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Eid Mubarak and shana tova umetukah to my peoplz

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Mad respect always!!