SATURDAY SHOPPING AT KILLARNEY MALL

It is Saturday morning about 9:00AM and I had just hurried to get my Saturday grocery shopping finished before the food that I wanted to buy had been swept off the shelves. It is the kind of store that one day you can find something and the next day or weeks it is not available.

The shopping mall is directly across the street from where we live in Dukes Court. The mall is very convenient, especially since we have very small refrigerators that don't hold very much cold food.



The mall has a variety of stores that can accommodate most of our daily needs. There is one large grocery store and one very small grocery store, several small clothing stores and a couple of larger department stores, 2 beauty salons, a pharmacy and a drug store and a movie theater with three screens and a couple of book stores, plus several cafes. But most of all it's convenient!

I think spending so much time in Africa my eyes don’t see the uniqueness of this place we call our second home. When on our first mission here it was new for the full eighteen months but now most things are common place . But this day was different because as I walked into the mall the lights were out and what shops were open either were lit by candles, flashlights and a lantern here or there . The reason for the power outage was due to “load shedding” a polite term for infrastructure failure. All over SA it’s become a fact of life that power goes off in different areas of the country at different times of the day and will stay out in that area for at least 4 hours. It can be very inconvenient if it hits during rush hour . Traffic lights are out, alarm systems are shut down, no lights to get ready for work by. For business owners and their employees , lost revenuers, lost wages.

This Saturday was different, instead of my eyes seeing darkness the dark seemed to open my eyes to see more clearly the interesting and varied environment we live in. Everyone in the mall had a resigned attitude about the power outage. Store employees were sitting outside darkened stores, chatting with shoppers, or fellow workers, waiting for 10:00 A.M. to arrive when the power should be restored. Some restaurants and the grocery store I shop in have turned to generators and one little restaurant works off of propane offering a limited breakfast menu. Interesting to me is how the people have adjusted and resigned themselves to the situation. The resiliency of these people is evident in their lives every day.

As I look around I see women in Kurtas and men in Kandura’s, I see colorful traditional African clothing, on the faces of these beautiful bright and smiling people. People speaking many languages walking side by side in an interesting acceptance of one another.

After finishing my grocery shopping and finding almost everything I needed, for a change, I was standing in the check-out line people watching as usual. Two isles down were two teenage girls one of them was filling time by doing a little dance to the piped in music over the stores speakers. She was smiling and chatting with her friend and was caught up in the beat and rhythm of the African music, then she began to do a little dance, swaying and bobbing her head from side to side to the tune, oblivious to those around her.

It's not long before I notice I am also tapping my foot and give way to a smile that creeps onto my face as I see the joy in her face. I notice others with smiles on their faces bobbing their heads a little also. Who would have thought you could find happiness in a grocery line?

It's that way when we go to Church or to the Area Office where we are surrounded by our black brothers and sisters, smiles are quick to surface on their faces. There is singing in the offices by staffers singing or humming hymns and songs of praise. At Church, especially the black Wards, the singing is wonderful, bright smiles lighting their faces for those minutes they have no worries. There is a special handshake the Africans use to greet you , it speaks of friendship and acceptance and we know we are welcome.

That's what I saw and remembered today grocery shopping in Africa, it's not our number one home but we call it our second home and runs a close to our #1 home.

We thank God each day that we are here in this unique place where the lights may go out any time of the day or night but the gospel light still shines brightly and we are blessed to be a part of it. Life is good!

Can you find joy in a grocery check-out stand, at the very least smile and see who smiles back.

Cheers!