Sunday
Today was the day…
I had 17 interviews scheduled for teachers. In the end 13 took place – 4 being re-scheduled to next weekend. I was grateful because it was all done online, so there was no need to be flying around the country. I really appreciate that. As a result, I worked the morning and took the afternoon off. Mike and I took a drive to the Old 3 Arts Theatre in Diep River – the New 3 Arts Village – it’s become a shopping centre.
It has a few unique shops and then the regulars like PnP, Woolworths and Clicks. One of the shops was giving an opening weekend 25% discount, so I took advantage of that and bought some Christmas presents for the family.
At 4:30am this morning, the first of our guests checked out. They dropped the key through the postbox and went on their way. When we got up, we went down to take a look. The place was spotless. Bed made, no dishes, towels hung neatly. It was great. I’ll do the laundry tomorrow, finish up and it will be ready for the next guest on Tuesday.
This afternoon the guests in the cottage shipped on out. This was an interesting party. They booked for 5 adults, so it was the first time we would have that number of adults in the cottage. You can imagine my surprise when a whole lot of people arrived whose names were not on the list. One was a little girl who proudly announced “this is where I will sleep!” There were no children expected. Today when Mike & I left to go to the 3 Arts, a couple of the guests were standing on the terrace… and there was a young boy! Where did he come from and where was he staying? There was only supposed to be one guy and 4 ladies. I saw at least 2 men and 2 kids and numerous ladies, so who knows what was going on. Book for 5, bring 8, but I couldn’t be sure, so I turned a blind eye. The main thing was they cleaned the place from top to bottom. They literally left it spotless. I just need to do the linen and it’s ready for the next guests. That, right there, covers a multitude of misdemeanors! They are welcome back any time, all 8 of them!
It brings me to a blog I wrote on 31st August entitled “Things That Can’t Be Written About!” Now that a suitable amount of time has passed, I can tell you what happened. We had (foreign) guests in the cottage and they got drunk! The guy locked the girl out and she tried to get back in. She kicked the door to get his attention. When that didn’t work, she took a bottle of wine and hit the bedroom window. As the window was old and not safety glass, it shattered! Yup! This, by the way, was 10:30pm. David heard her yelling at the top of her voice, so I phoned her on Whatsapp and asked if everything was all right. She said no it wasn’t. Mike and David went down and found her on the street with her suitcases. We could not leave her there, so we rushed to the Little Lookout (which was still a workshop, covered with dust and tools and cement but which did have a bed in it). Mike swept the floor, while I made up the bed. She slept the night in the Little Lookout, telling me they only had 2 bottles of wine!
You see a different side to people when these things happen. David excelled himself. He took complete control of the situation, reprimanding the guy, telling him to clean up the glass (and his cigars) and to pull himself together. He was brilliant.
You can imagine how little sleep I got that night. The next morning, we quickly had to alert Courage to the presence of the guest in the dusty Little Lookout. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. She asked Courage to make her coffee! Later in the morning, she disappeared with her boyfriend and at 5pm, I got a message from him asking if he could come and get her luggage. He sauntered up to collect it, butter not melting in his mouth. He shrugged off the incident. All was well with them. She was no where in sight. The window had a massive hole in it. That was going to cost. He was happy to pay. I checked her cell phone. She hadn’t seen it since just before noon. The whole night passed and still she didn’t check her messages. I was getting worried for her safety. Here she was in a strange land knowing no one except the guy who had a massive altercation with her! By mid-morning, the next day, I was really concerned. Eventually, at about 11am, I saw she had been online and could sigh a big sigh of relief. In the days that followed, as we had contact with them in order to repair the broken window, she at first looked sullen but soon cheered up. Believe it or not, a week later, they asked to stay another week and though I lacked a bit of trust in them, I said that was fine. I ended up giving them a good review and they went on their way, having stayed 3 weeks. What a drama.
Drama! Something I don’t need in my life!
It was only after they left we discovered a few other strange things. The latch of the front door was broken and there was a footprint on one of the cottage pane windows of the front door! She must have karate kicked it!
Before I made the Airbnb listing live, Mike and I prayed the Lord would send the right people. We have to trust that whoever walks up those steps have not arrived by accident.
Hebrews 10:23
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.
The best is yet to come – we are only passing through.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂