The past two weeks have been full of ups and downs here in Kwazulu Natal as well as Gauteng with horrendous riotous criminality, followed by Ubuntu in its true form as I told you about in my blog Looting aftermath - Ubuntu.
Love thy neighbour...
The community stood together with food manufacturers, companies, groups and individuals donating whatever food items they could spare and made up food parcels for people whose cupboards were bare, as the shopping malls that were left unharmed locked their gates to prevent further looting and destruction of property!
This was taken at a church inside a retirement village
Neighbours helped each other as I told you in my previous blog and we all ended up with scarce items as we shared.
Once the food stores opened up for a couple of hours initially, people flocked there in droves with long queues forming.
We gave up a couple of times as traffic in and around those shopping malls was just plain crazy.
One could not buy fuel and both our car and our son's car eventually was on reserve tank with the red warning light showing up!
Rampant Third Covid wave
Something you may not be aware of, is that we're currently under lockdown with the third Covid wave running rampant, especially following the wild looting, so we were having to deal with that as well as food and fuel shortages!
We had enough pantry staples and some food in the refrigerator, so I waited till it calmed down a little. This was the queue that greeted me and it did move quite quickly; many shelves were empty especially fresh produce, meat and dairy products.
The monkeys were also coming in droves, searching for food; so when we humans have less wastage, there's even less food for them!
Happiness is...
Whatsapp group messaging really became a valuable communication tool and as soon as I heard our local Food Lovers Market was open, I was there in no time; no queues and no crowds. The shelves were crammed with super fresh produce; one was restricted with scarce items like eggs but I was a very happy shopper and went home with two boxes full of goods.
I could make up two food parcels for our bricklayer who's helping with our pathway and with our housekeeper who came back to work on Tuesday.
Fleecing the poor
Shocking to hear that bread which is a staple food is being sold in their areas for triple the price! There already is an investigation going on about that; it's just awful that unscrupulous shopkeepers are fleecing the poorest of the poor!
Our second Covid Vaccination done and dusted
So today we went along and experienced another super-efficient operation run by our government health department as we had our second Covid shot.
Batho Pele - People first.
When I worked at Ethekwini Department I was our department's Batho Pele representative; something we took seriously back then.
Sadly many of our municipality's departments no longer adhere to these principles, but it is heartwarming that our Government Health Department follows these principles.
Our vaccination date
Hubby and I rarely get time on our own, so after our vaccination, we took ourselves to one of our favourite shopping malls and had a light lunch with our favourite cappuccino's; restaurants are now allowed to operate, but less tables can be occupied so we felt quite safe.
Of course we do understand that we still have to be careful for at least 10 - 14 days before we'll supposedly have 95% protection, but everyone is being ultra-careful.
I managed to visit my favourite spice shop and a health food store where I could buy some healthy snacks.
Back at home...
The garden is still looking so good and generous by giving us such beauty despite it being winter, but we do live in a subtropical mild climate, still chilly but nothing like the rest of South Africa with many experiencing minus temperatures like some of my friends Silver Flower aka @fionasfavourites and Sir Sterling Sliver aka @papilloncharity; thinking of you guys tonight!
Full moon in two nights; I need a good camera to take a proper image of the full moon that's really looking beautiful tonight!
Hoping that our #silverbloggers and other Hive friends are all having a fabulous week, hope that Batho Pele has inspired you to help those unfortunate people in your community!
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I'm so glad you were able to get food after all the craziness. Another friend in SA was telling me that due to people either staying off the streets or participating in the looting, and the shopping malls being closed, that the homeless population was left with no way to get basic necessities, so she had been bringing some food by where she knew some of them stayed. It's always the poorest who suffer the most.
That sadly is a fact, they are the ones who suffer the most! The people of our country generally do help out when they see a need, that's so thoughtful of your friend!
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STOPThank you so much for keeping tabs on us @hivebuzz!
You're welcome @lizelle 😊🌹 Have a nice day!
Thank you for the mention my dear friend Lady Silver-Blonde Lizzie.
You are welcome to run over and borrow my camera for your moonshots 😇
You guys have done some wonderful work for the poor and I am mightily impressed.
Paillon partnered with another NGO for Mandela Day and supplied 670 meals for school children and some other things 🙂
Blessings to you guys and here's some !LUV
@lizelle, you've been given LUV from @papilloncharity.
Check the LUV in your H-E wallet. Daily limits change soon, check @LUVshares for info. (1/5)
Wow, that's just awesome how many people you've helped my friend! My heart goes out to those people especially seeing just how cold it was in the Cape!
Blessings to you and Marian as well, stay safe and keep warm🤗
Good you were able to get some food supplies @lizelle and got your vaccinations.
Seeing the monkeys on the road is so foreign to me and I love seeing them. I hope they get some scraps to eat.
It was great on both accounts @redheadpei.
Apologies for only now responding but life's been really hectic this weekend with guests coming and going;)
We throw vegetable and fruits peels and even bread down the one bank at home so the monkeys do get a lot of scraps, we used to have 2 giant papaya trees that provided the most gorgeous fruit for them, the birds and us, but they both eventually got too big and fell over after heavy rains. We've replanted but it's going to take time before they'll start bearing.
Thank you for stopping by 🤗
Seems like you had a good outing @lizelle, yes it's been hectic,things are getting back to normal; or should I say "The New Norm" that's shoved down our throats lately. Lol. Happy everything is going well with you my friend. Lovely post as usual. Stay safe.
It was kind of a nice date; who would ever have thought going for a vaccine and then to a shopping mall could be considered as a date but that's how it felt in this world with its new norm!
You stay safe as well my friend:)
As I write/type military helicopter just went overhead once again, hope things have quietened down not more trouble....
Yes every town has looked exactly as described above, helping one another, getting food out, cooking, what a crazy time!
Take care and stay safe @lizelle
!LUV
@lizelle, you've been given LUV from @joanstewart.
Check the LUV in your H-E wallet. Daily limits change soon, check @LUVshares for info. (5/10)
It was a scary time indeed, we also had the helicopters and even heard gun shots the one night, was just awful! Thank goodness that good old fashioned caring for your neighbor came to the fore during those dark days!
What a thing for you to come back to after having such a lovely break from city life!
Stay safe Joan 🤗
Hopefully things change after this, change is taking too long with current circumstances fueling deep divide among many.
Glad we made it home without incident which was evident, life carries on! Help those we able to and stay safe as well.
I read your post and think - this is how quickly people can go into madness and banditry. Once again, I wish everything was fine.
That's the scary part, that seemingly 'normal' people joined in! Madness and banditry is the correct description. Thankfully all is well again, thank you @antikus369
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