Our Saturday began bright and early when Marie-Chantal pulled into the driveway to fetch Heidi and me to join her and Delphine for breakfast at 7:15am. (I cannot tell you the last time I was out of the house at 7:15 on a Saturday...I can tell this trip is going to change my sleeping habits a bit!) We drove around the corner to Steers diner, which basically looked like it was picked up out of America and dropped in Maritzburg...a nice chance to get a good breakfast and a bit of home that I had been missing. Marie-Chantal's son Jean joined us for our meal, and we chatted about what our adventures on our trip would be, and about his involvement in the city. With the Comrades Marathon coming up, he told us all about the event and how he had run it before. (The Comrades Marathon is no ordinary marathon...it is a run from Durban to Pietermaritzburg, and vice versa every other year, which is about 89km...way more than 26 miles!) When we had finished our breakfast, we set out with Marie-Chantal for what would be an amazing...and tiring...day!
Our first stop was to catch the tail end of the farmer's market in town. Marie-Chantal picked up a few things while we wandered around and explored all there was to offer...so many good things! (I particularly liked the flowers and teas considering, as anyone who knows me will know, I am not the hugest fan of fruits and vegetables.) While there, we picked up flowers to put in the vase at the foot of the altar in the chapel Emapethelweni. They were lovely, and our next stop was back home to arrange them.
After learning how to properly arrange flowers for a liturgical feast (Corpus Christi, to be precise, complete with an arrangement of real bread and grapes), we took care of some of her errands and drove around town, which included bringing an elderly woman she helps take care of to an appointment, picking up groceries, and much more. All the while, Marie-Chantal drove us around, showing us different sites of significance, including the train station where Gandhi was thrown off of the train, and different buildings. She even told us about the relationship between black and white people in Pietermaritzburg and in South Africa...a separation that was very new for me to experience first hand. She continued her history lessons as we returned to her house for a delicious lunch and she shared her own amazing story with us about her life moving from Belgium to South Africa and doing the incredible work that she does to this day, including helping elderly people with shopping and transport, running the Church repository (or as Heidi and I prefer to call it, gift shop), and hosting a gathering of Lay Dominicans. (This is not the last time we would...or you will...hear about any of these things!)
We finished our lunch, cleaned up, and then headed for Art in the Park, which was the main attraction of Saturday. We wandered around, looking at art of all kinds, styles, and media. (And just coming from my Modern Art class, it felt pretty cool being able to walk around and identify styles and eras being showcased!) It was a beautiful exhibit, and we ended our at tour with some delicious ice cream!
Even though our time in the park ended, our day was far from over! Marie-Chantal took us from the park to do her duties at the St. Mary's Church repository (or as Heidi and I more frequently referred to it, the gift shop). We got to to check out the store and also the beautiful church, which a French Queen had built in the 19th century when she saw that the town's churches were not well-made. Well, she certainly had great taste! It was beautiful. Finally, around 6:30, we headed back to Emaphethelweni.
Even back at home, our night was still not over...and we had been on the go for over 12 hours at this point! It was Saturday, and that meant recreation, a time when the Dominicans gather and invite guests over to visit and tell stories and enjoy each others company, along with whatever soccer game was on tv. Promptly at 8:30, though I was lying on my bed struggling to stay awake, we were summoned by a knock at our door. Brother Clement was not going to let us miss our first recreation! So we headed downstairs for a night of meeting many new people. Finishing off our 18 or so hour day and knowing we had to be up for Mass first thing in the morning, believe me when I say I crawl into my bed fast enough!
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