The Gala (Of Doom)

Now, I don’t WANT to blog about the gala. I don’t want to think about the gala. I don’t even want to HEAR the word gala for the rest of my life. However, as you are my adoring audience, I will tell you.

It actually wasn’t that bad.

We drove down to Windhoek the day of the gala (last Friday, July 15th) at 6am. It started out pretty badly with too-sweet, gross coffee, car sickness, aches, pains, etc. Luckily, this bit of bad luck was counteracted by the fact that I didn’t have to pay for accommodations as Juan was once more putting me up in his house for the night along with Jess and Rachel. (Well, Cat too, but since they’re a couple it doesn’t really count). So we dropped our stuff off and headed over to the Windhoek Country Club. (VERY posh)

When we arrived… I felt like I was FINALLY doing what I love: directing people and being in charge. Seriously, I felt like I do during a light hang in the theater at school when I’m the master electrician. There were tons of people at my beck and call and I got to delegate and set things up how I WANTED THEM because this silent auction was MY BABY practically. (except that I would never loath a baby with quite that vehement passion). Besides the fact that I had to re-do a billion bid sheets, it was okay. After we finished setting up, we went back to Juan’s place to change.

My dress actually looked quite good with the BRIGHT RED shoes because I was also wearing my bright red watch. It was very interesting to see all the CCF staff dressed to the nines because I usually see them all just rolled out of bed in baggy work clothes often covered in dust or donkey blood. It was fascinating.

When we got back to the auction (and everyone had been to the casino bar to fortify themselves for the evening, lol) our job was your standard meet and greet. I stood at the door, offered to show them to their table, stopped by Juan for their complementary welcome drink, and then led them to their tables… and then I was done. Seriously, that’s it. I didn’t have to watch over the auction, I didn’t have to shmooz, I didn’t have to retrieve auction items (at the end, it was all very TRUSTING how auction winners were allowed to grab their items and go pay), and I didn’t have to clean up tables/chairs/auction tables/ etc at the end. We just gathered up items that didn’t get bid on and table centerpieces and left. It was WEIRD.

The highlight of the trip, however, was the AMAZING breakfast that Juan prepared for us the next morning. We had these REALLY juicy steak things, fried tomatoes, chocolate croissants, passion fruit, cheese, eggs, mamosas, and coffee. It was… HEAVENLY. Like, the best breakfast I have EVER had and that INCLUDES breakfast from restaurants. It was DIVINE.

Then we packed up and headed uneventfully back to CCF. It’s weird… I have NO IDEA what the heck my job is going to be now that we do not have the gala to work on!