townsville - day 20

Day 20 - 10 Sept

I have no idea what I did this day. In my journal for this week I accidentally wrote the next day's events on the previous day's space so...

We can just say that I had another day as a vegetable who was busy washing smelly hiking clothes, walking dogs and eating non-dehydrated foods :) YEAH!

For the evening though, this is a good one. This is the night that Honor invited her pals over to torture us youngins. Okay, it wasn't torture, it was actually better than I expected! Here for the evening was: Honor, me & Peter, Nix & Kevin, Monda, Barbara & Norman, Bernie, Denise & Ron. The table tonight was a shmorgasborg: lamb w. bacon in red wine sauce, pork w. mustard sauce, Thai chicken, chili con carne and pasta/rice to go with the meats. It was seriously the most meat I have ever seen on one table. My faves were the Thai chicken and chili. We also popped open the bottle of Passionfruit (white) wine that we had bought at Murdering Point winery. Yum!

So with our plates we all headed to the sitting room to chat around. Monda asked me lots of fun questions about me, then moved on to Kevin, so as not to make us each feel too uncomfortable. It wasn't bad at all. Then I chatted with Bernie, Honor's former boss, for a bit. He sure knows a lot about birds and crocs, and just Queensland wildlife in general. But something important he mentioned is that he's disappointed that so many young Americans are lacking in their history knowledge of Australia's involvement with WWII. I had to admit that I knew nothing about it! I'm not much of a history buff anyway. If it weren't for my journal I wouldn't even know what I did last week!

So through the night, wine glasses were continually refilled and the jolliness of Australian teasing continued (Aussies love to tease!). I have gotten my legs pulled so much already since I've been here that I'm surprised I'm not 6'8" by now!

Monda and I ended up next to each other at the end of the night. She told me a beautiful story about one time when she and her now deceased husband visited Italy. Forgive me if the details are not all correct.... At this point in their lives, Monda and her husband were living in South Africa and would be on their way (after visiting Italy) to England to visit family. With them, they brought film reels of the African wildlife (elephants, giraffes, etc.) to show their families.

They were having cafe one day when a young German guy came up to them and asked if he could practice his English with them. They all chatted for a bit, when he asked them if they were staying in the hotel. Monda said they were. The German commented on how expensive it must be and that they should come stay where he and his girlfriend were staying, with a local Italian family. (Imagine two parallel rows of tall buildings held together in the alleyway by clotheslines.) Monda told her husband that they should go for it! So off they went with the German guy and his gf.

The mama in the house they were staying in was honored to have them there, so she had prepared her own bedroom for Monda and her husband. The bed was an oldie, with an iron headboard painted white, paint chipping off. Since Monda was so happy to be taken in with open arms, she asked the mama if she would like to see their films. Well, just about 10 minutes later the mama and her family had invited almost the entire neighborhood to see the films. They projected the films on a wall and everyone sat around watching the beautiful South African wildlife - things that some of them might not ever see in person. The mama was so overwhelmed with joy and thanked god for her opportunity. She then decided that she needed to cook a feast for Monda and her husband. In just a little while, Monda and her husband were enjoying a homemade-by-mama, true Tuscan meal!

It just goes to show how each person we meet can be a footprint on our soul, that even in the shortest of moments we can gain heaps of wealth and knowledge from that short meeting. And that is how I felt with Monda, like in our short time of joking and sharing, she had put her footprint on my soul.