“All life demands struggle. Those who have everything given to them become lazy, selfish, and insensitive to the real values of life. The very striving and hard work that we so constantly try to avoid is the major building block in the person we are today” ~ Pope Paul VI
Durban is warmer than most of SA but it was a slightly breezy 12 degrees C or so this morning before and shortly after sunrise. The dogs were shivering on the back of the LDV while we toured the yacht mole and beachfront. It was chilly! Perhaps the wind-chill made it 9 degrees C or so.
The street persons certainly had it hard last night and were mostly still frozen up and hidden in old blankets on cardboard mattresses in their usual hooks and crannies. By sunrise most of the street persons in the yacht mole are up and about; this morning it was cold and “sleep-in” time.
On our trip and some of the way home we drove past a few IOL newspaper headline signs at intersections revealing that the “guest house owner” still refused to apologise. This is the first and only such guest house owner I have come across in years that has an “alternative” opinion like this. In my regular travels to Pongola, Newcastle, Umtata and a week stint in Bloemfontein, I shared guest houses with persons of all walks of life; they were happy, I was happy and the guest house owners were happy.
I thought about the huge countrywide interest and energy being generated on this “Sodwana” subject and what was important to me, but then soon got back into the present as I got close to home.
The sun had risen higher by this time and a few of the regular raggedy street children had started to gather at the intersection near my home to beg for scraps of food and a few Rand. I thought about the opportunities available to them and when (if) they might move up the food chain or be forced into crime… By then I was home.
This morning’s pondering highlighted a photo for me that I had taken a few days back of a car guard who I met some weeks back. I told him I would return with my new camera, which I later did. He was keen for a few shots but his eyes kept darting towards the cars he had undertaken to guard.
He’s an eager energetic chap with enthusiasm for his work; beautiful stuff indeed.
Canon G3X, F5.6, ISO 320, 1/125 sec. Handheld.
Zoomed in from afar with +0.7 exp.comp. Nil flash.
Andrew Harvard Photography 