Bela Bela 1- 12 September
We slept late the next morning because we knew we had the
whole day to complete the setup and then took the process slowly so that
nothing could go wrong – go wrong – go wrong.
The process was a lot more organized than at Elangeni with Ethan taking
charge of the dance floor (which had to be re-built in spite of my efforts
to pack it sequentially). Paul arrived at around 11.30 having flown
and then all hell broke loose again. At
this venue we were using a lighting setup that we had not used previously and
as it turned out the stands for the lights were not there. He accused us of leaving it in Durban (which
we hadn’t). Then there was the 3 phase
cable for the lights – same story and finally there were some metal bars that
were needed for the screen. In this case
we had in fact left them in Durban and we admitted it, but for the rest of the
day he continued to belittle particularly the younger guys) and tell his
customers that we had left all his stuff in Durban. The setup was completed at around 8pm as the
other vehicle from Durban had some of the equipment (staging in particular)
that was required for this even (which was much larger than the previous
one) The next day (Sunday which had
originally been a rest day) we spent most of the day standing around or taking
tape of the stage and painting both the stage and some scaffolding that would
be used for the lighting. Paul continued
to treat everyone badly and at around 4pm accused us of leaving a particular
script that would be needed the next day at home. Like a good Taurean, I had reached my limit
– particularly when I found the script in a different place from the place that
he assured us that he had left it – I pointed out that possibly he had also
mistaken where the other stuff that he said we should have was which in turn
set him off on one of his most impressive rants so far.
Miraculously by dinner time, the shouting match may not have
happened and while not really civil, he was a little more friendly. I had a bad night that night. I was wondering if it had been such a good
idea to take on this job (which I had been told was the next best thing to an
all expenses paid holiday). I had not
been told about the carting about and setting up of equipment.
We met at 7am the next morning and set up a small outside
sound system and Paul and myself went
through the script (I would be assisting him – doing the sound and lights while
he did the videos). It was a highly
tense session as I have not done sound and lighting since my school days in any
big way. There were a couple of small
errors and each time Paul came down hard on me – as a result I would miss the
next cue. Eventually I asked him to wait
until afterwards to shit on me. After
that (apart from a few moments where I missed the subtle signals from the
people in the event to lower or raise the sound) all went well.
Paul did the evening function and I had my first time off
Elangeni.
So we are up to date.
This morning we set up a second smaller venue using the equipment from
the other vehicle. The process went like
clockwork with no serious issues.
Amazing how knowing a little about what needs to be done helps in the
process! After that (Joy of Joys) 4 of the 5 of us were allowed the day
off. Much of this morning was spent
connecting to the local hot spot (R50
for 150Mb) and sorting out the e-mails that I received as a result (recall I
have not been able to connect properly for over a week!). This afternoon we attempted to visit the game
reserve but it turns out that it is one of these that you have to go on the
rangers’ vehicle. At around 4.30 I went
to visit the metropolis of Bela Bela.
The town is dry and dusty and fairly run down. Many of the shops had already closed for
business. The main shop seems to be a
large Spar but I noticed that there is also a Shoprite. Still I always enjoy wandering through a
different place. This evening I enjoyed
one of the beers that had come all the way from the Elangeni on the veranda of
our cottage which overlooks a lake and watched the bats try to catch the
insects that had not already been nailed by a somewhat irritating electric bug
killer.
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