I tamed that Lion

Monday mornings, I have decided, are a thing of the devil himself. He smiles in joyful glee as he watches me strain to roll out of bed. He finds an even bigger delight in giving me excuse upon excuse as to why I shouldn’t go to work each morning and laughs as I consider each one as if it were truth. But the beautiful thing about Monday mornings is that the afternoon is following swiftly behind! And it isn’t that God isn’t present in those mornings, because He is actually more present than the devil, but in that moment of weakness my foolish mind chooses to listen to the lies of the devil. The reason I give you this ridiculously unneeded introduction is to illustrate how my Monday would have been ruined had I listened to said ‘liar’ and not risen from my slumber!

I hate waking up. For some reason I thought that would miraculously change in Africa. I’m incredibly foolish, yes, I am well aware of this. This past Monday morning, or yesterday, was not different. Waking up was the last thing on my mind as my dreams of wrestling the lions (and winning I may add) came to a resounding end as that awful alarm rang its hideous melody. Despite my best efforts I woke up and did my best to take a shower, which usually results in more soap left in my hair and on my body then should be the case for a young adult. I dreaded the day ahead instead of embracing this incredible opportunity coming my way. It’s the way I handle mornings, I am not proud of it. But on this Monday I was unconsciously setting God up to show out in an incredible way. (I don’t know that this logic of “setting God up” is theologically sound, actually, it is probably far from sound and I don’t suggest it on any level.) This day, you see, gave me something to put in this blog! Ha.

My first experience was an experience at best! My hair had been getting quite long and doing this awkward thing in the back where it seemed to stand at attention and wave at those behind me. I decided that I needed a trim, and then it occurred to me that I could not just get out my clippers as I usually do. I thought long and hard about this, much longer and much harder than was needed for a haircut, but decided that I would make a trip out of this and do it in Manenberg. I’ve had good ideas in the past, like attempting to break the sweet tea drinking record at Lambert’s Café or “roughing it” by setting up a tent inside because it was far too chilly outside, but this trumped them all. This seemed revolutionary to me. To the best of my knowledge no white man has ever undertaken such a task as this, and I was going to show how courageous I was and just do it. So I did just that. I went to one of the local barbers, waited in the que, line, and sat there…awkwardly. There were about 10 men waiting to get their hair cut and all 10 immediately stopped talking when I sat down. Staring would be an understatement. Twice I went to get in the chair and twice I quickly sat back down because I was jumping the line. They were kind enough to give me a glare to let me know. When my turn finally arrived I tried at least 5 times to tell him I wanted the same haircut he had given to the previous 10 guys but there seemed to be some trouble in translation. Finally, after using hand signals the actual cutting began to take place. It went as one would expect it to go until the very end when my man reached for the grease. I thought about stopping him, but decided that this may be pretty interesting so I gave it a go. As he attempted to put the grease through my hair you could see the look of confusion on his face. I think he tried to stop it, but he couldn’t keep from smiling sheepishly! All in all, I claimed my spot as the first white man to get his haircut in Manenberg, most likely.

The second thing that made my Monday great was the evening. I won’t go into some long drawn out story as before because I don’t think my words can describe this. I had the opportunity to climb Lion’s Head Mountain. One side of this mountain overlooks Camp’s Bay and the Atlantic Ocean and the other overlooks Cape Town. It is tradition to climb it on a full moon here so I decided to join in. I watched the sun set over the ocean and the moonrise over the city. It was incredible! Hopefully these pictures will do some justice for the experience I had!

My mindset of Monday was changed in these moments. I anxiously anticipate how God will ruin the devil's schemes in Mondays to come...and any other day for that matter!

I love you all…well actually I don’t know if I can honestly write that. I don’t know who all comes across this and I might not love you. I think it is safe to assume that I would most likely get along with you, but to take it to the next level and drop the ‘L-word’ may be moving a little to fast. Okay let’s try again. I most likely like you all and I appreciate you putting up with these absurd postings!

Sien jou gou. Totsiens!