Cape Vidal – KwaZulu Natal

Whenever I lead trainings in South Africa, I generally arrive about a week or 10 days before the meetings start…to get over jet lag…that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!

On one of those pre-training-jet-lag-recuperation times, Isabel Vidal and Cremilde Geddes and I went to Cape Vidal in KwaZulu Natal. Cape Vidal is a beautiful little resort town set in a sheltered coastal bay in the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, where it’s safe to take long, self-guided game walks (no man-eating carnivores, unless you count crocodiles, which you probably should).

So there we were, taking it easy; Cremilde, being a fabulous cook, who also *likes* to cook, we were eating well; exercising well; and I was sleeping a lot. One evening we decided to take in a little local color and, after visiting the internet place, we went to one of the busy restaurants in town. There to my astonishment, we learned that the town had just run out of water. Yes, that is what I said. The entire town had no water – no potable water from any faucet. And it seems that this is not a unique phenomenon, and so everyone stays prepared for the eventuality.

I was fascinated. A whole town running out of water was a possibility that had never once occurred to me. There were two questions immediately in my mind – what do we do now for water? And how in the world did this happen? The townspeople carried on about their business as if there were no issue, accommodating to the cycle, seemingly uninterested in a more permanent solution. Fortunately, Isabel being an out of the box thinker, and Cremilde being the soul of practicality, we had great fun figuring out how to adjust to How It Really Is Now (HIRIN) – making minor adjustments – like brushing teeth without water, getting swimming pool water into the toilet tanks, handling the fundamentals.

Then I turned my attention to getting my curiosity handled. Exactly how does a whole town run out of water? We got several stories. The most popular story (which could be the story fed to tourists) was that the pipeline delivering water to the town was regularly hole-punched by those that lived out in the countryside where there was no running water. Why walk all the way into town, when there was a pipe full of water so much closer? The minor hole became a bigger one as the pressure wore away the rim, eventually resulting in a gusher that drained the town’s water supply.

When I reflect on this, I see systemic echoes – macrocosm: cutting down the rainforest, thereby robbing the planet of the oxygen humans (and others) need to live, and then the inertness following the revelation – scientists have explained the impact of the demise of the rainforest, and the trees are still being felled. In Cape Vidal, the townspeople and the countryside dwellers know the issue and weren't even seeking any solution (except punitive ones). The microcosm: those times when I am too lazy to attend to my spiritual needs, and too willing to accommodate to the result of my laziness.

Why aren't the townspeople and the folks from the countryside getting together to solve this problem? There must be a way to provide water for both the town and countryside. Same goes for the rainforest, and all the other 'warfare', both minor and major, external and internal, that likely have solutions were we to focus on the bigger picture.

I realize even more the importance of my discipline of personal clarity, and just how life-giving it is to be a part of How It Really Is Now! I want to be a part of bringing it all together, rather than acquiescing to How We've Always Done It. It's just more exciting. Don't you think so?