Greyton is a pictuesque village about an hour and a half drive from Cape Town. It nestles quietly in its green surroundings in the the shade of the Riviersonderend mountains. The word I most associate with the place is Tranquility. TD's grandparents had a thatched cottage there some years ago, so I am familiar with the beauty of the area. I took TD to see the house (which has changed a great deal since my parents lived there) on our first Mother/Daughter getaway a few years ago. Quaintly, the new owners kept the name : Snail Morning. That gives you an idea of the pace and focus of the area.
But, once a year, around this time, Greyton swarms with teenagers. TD's school sends all the grade 10s on a camp to Greyton. Luckily, they go in three batches of about 70 at a time, and after 20years, the townsfolk are used to them. In fact, they help the learners with the questionnaire about the place that hasn't changed in all the years that the school has been visiting, even though some of the questions are now irrelevant. It is part of the quaintness of the village that they embrace the invasion and kindly help to share the homework.
Of course I did my usual scare/educate routine for the teacher a week before they left, trotting out the same old info sheets that I have been using since grade 6, modifying a few details along the way. And as usual, the teacher was eager to hear, learn and inject the grapefuit with an expired emergency kit. TD's numbers have been all the place (I might have mentioned that once or twice recently 😏), so the practice round was very necessary.
The run up to the trip was epic. The Saturday night was the much anticipated Grade 10 dance. Ah, TD and all her friends looked beautiful, and had a magical night. On Sunday, after a sleep in, we celebrated our wedding anniversary in Wellington and then needed to play Settlers of Catan, so we did. On Monday, TD had a regular school day, followed by extra murals and stayed to see the dress rehearsal of her friends one act plays. (Her school day lasted from 7.30am to 10pm) So when Tuesday rolled round, TD was somewhat tired.
Breathe....
I was a bit anxious about this time away, more so than other times. From my chat with the teacher, I knew TD was going on a hike into the mountains in a small group with no adult accompanying them. I feared a low. And sure enough, TD had a 3 half way into the mountain. Luckily she caught it early enough (she could still think rationally and open her glucose) and dosed herself with sweets, and some friends helped her. She had several more hypoglycaemic events over the next 24 hours, and even more hypers.
The highs seemed to concern the teacher more than the lows. TD went very high during the night - above 20. Although this is dangerous, it is not as dangerous as 3 in the mountains, but I think maybe the teacher was mixing up the hypos and hypers. A very easy thing to do when all this diabetes stuff is new and overwhelming. She kindly checked TD at 2am and suggested TD take insulin to bring the level down. TD phoned me to chat, and both she and the teacher messaged me a number of times during the early hours of the morning, and by breakfast time, TD had stabilized. I bought the teacher a big box of chocolates, because I thought it might be going overboard to buy her the Superhero cloak she deserves.
And breathe...
TD came home safely, having had a wonderful time. I thought she might be worried about all the highs and lows. "How was it?" I asked. "The chocolate shop was closed" she said.
And breathe.
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| The picturesque village of Greyton |
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