The Schaapkraal Diaries: Safe havens and healing plants

In the name of Allah the most gracious, the most merciful.

Gauria

3 Feb 2015.

Alhamdulillah, Sunday evening we had an interview at the Voice of the Cape on the Education Indaba with Sheikh Shaheed Esau and his team. Talking about our IHYA Teacher Education Course, of course. Good conversation and we all agreed that the time just got wings and we did not get to talk about the other projects but another time inshaAllah.

And so the week began, meetings at campus; filling out of ethics forms; watering the garden well so the heat and wind does not strip the plants of moisture and a quick visit to Ihata shelter for Abused Women and a check to see where we will plant some trees and strawberries. I am impressed. It is a peaceful place with cats and children frolicking around. The staff is warm and the women are busy. I can see from the veggie garden and fruit trees it is well cared for.

This morning I tried to do everything extra early so we could drop off my daughter and try to make it to the Peoples Dispensary for Sick Animals by 8 to have Leo's wires removed from his leg. I was so hoping that we were early and now I realise that the place s always full of dogs, a few cats and maybe a tortoise.

So when one has to wait in a room full of dogs and their owners, best to wear your thaub and to have a firm basket for kitty. I'm like Batwoman throwing the edge of my thaub over the basket and my bag on the other side to create a division from slobbering hotheaded dogs. Somehow the Leo does not make a peep. I read the notices: all puppies to kept on laps; dogs on leashes and cats in baskets. So I guess the rest are fine. People on the Cape Flats are just plain inventive when it comes to baskets for their cats. An owner used a cooler box and poked holes in it for air. Another had a laundry basket with a makeshift lid of plywood. Ja we are a creative bunch.

But I don't enjoy sitting there. A man came in with his dog that had been knocked by a car and injured badly so he had to be put out of his misery permanently. One dog came in with really bad skin and drooled all over, die man is min geticket! Sometimes dogs just urinate there, hey not a nice place to be ne. And then Leo went in, his x-rays showed the bone had healed but then they went and sommer neutered him. So he was still groggy and had to stay for the night. When I got home, Wolverine sniffed the basket and mewed "hat happened to his brother. Now he is acting like an only cat being spoilt rotten, though we all miss the Leo very much.

chilli bonanza

I am over the moon that my gauria has started blooming in the pots. The chilli bonanza continues and the asparagus are growing up so fast soon they will become thick hard canes inshaAllah. The ginger and garlic are flourishing though the ginger seems a hot favourite for our cats to pee on. I have five plants left.

And as I am taking pictures for the blog, I glance up to the roof just above the lime tree, where I left the caterpillar. Hello, a beautiful Chrysalis stuck to the ceiling. So happy I did not squash it.