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Published: March 26th 2006
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From the Balcony
The sunset view minus the sunset. The first few days were rainy which is not typical for this time of year. So I have officially made it to Africa, the dark continent, as they say. I’m in South Africa, which is in the southern hemisphere so that means that summer is just drawing to an end. Today the clouds are hanging low, threatening to drop a drizzle at any moment. Nevertheless, I can already see why people brag upon the beauty of this country. The bed and breakfast that I am staying at is perched on a hill overlooking much of the city of Pretoria. From the balcony just outside my bedroom I see the skyscrapers of downtown Pretoria on my left and to the right are natures own highrises, the green mountains which circle the city. In between these dualing ranges, the city of Pretoria sprawls out like a plush carpet. That is the perfect word for this place, plush. There is vegetation everywhere, creeping through the cracks and spilling out from every inch of soil. So even though Pretoria is quite large, at several million inhabitants, it certainly lacks the urban sterility of some of the other cities I have seen.
The place that I am staying at is called the Sunset Bed and Breakfast. It is run
Jaques the hound
This little guy took a cotton to me last night. He is one of two ferocious guard dogs kept by Renee and her family at the B&B. by a family of dutch descendent South Africans and the small army of native Africans that mill about cooking, cleaning, and keeping the creepings of nature at bay in the gardens. The small army also seems intent on catering to my every whim. They took my laundry from me and scoffed at the idea that I might have considered doing it myself. I have to say that I feel a little bit uncomfortable being served by these women so ingratiatingly. I guess it’s just a post-bellum hang up from growing up in the Southish. Still, the differences that exist between Caucasians and Africans here has already been quite obvious. Neither party seems to be uneasy with the roles they have settled into, though. So I guess that for now I will hand my dirty undies over every morning and leave my dirty dishes at the table for Phyllis, Meena, and Harriet to deal with, and hope that when I get home I haven’t become too intolerable for my friends to deal with.
I haven’t come across too many differences, as far as daily living goes, just yet. They do drive on the opposite side of the road, so as
The lineup
One of 8 trillion group photos that I anticipate over the upcoming weeks. This is lovely, though, I must say. Especially toward the right. On the left is Jayson, a fellow med student, and in the center is the famous Renee who owns the B&B. I rode “shotgun” on the left side of the car with Renee from the airport in Johannesburg, I felt like I should be pushing pedals and flicking knobs the whole time. It was also on the road that I heard the one strange word usage of the trip so far (not counting what I heard on the subways in New York yesterday by ghetto-Americans). Here they call stoplights, robots. So signs say “wait for the green robot” instead of “go on green”.
Another thing that has stood out is the preoccupation with crime that the white folk in this country have. It reminds me of when I was in Italy and everybody was deathly afraid of being robbed by them Albanians. When I commented that it seemed sort of like the people here become imprisoned at night because they are afraid to go out, Renee said that it was a zoo where “the people stay in cages and the animals come out at night.” And the houses do slightly resemble cages with bars on all the windows and doors.
Tonight we went to Renee’s home (she owns the b&b) and I cooked them an Italian meal of chicken alfredo farfalle. We drank South African wine and had an amazing time. I laughed the hardest of the trip to date when while waiting for the food to finish we were sitting around the kitchen drinking cab sauv with Renee’s mom. Both she and I were completely starved so we were using our fingers to pick up bits of parmesan cheese and the like from the counter top. Suddenly she gets this twinkle in her eye and goes for a larger grayish-brown morsel of food which she believes to be some of the mushroom that was cut and cooked with the chicken. She greedily stuffs it in her mouth and begins chewing, but within moments is choking and spitting. She hollered, “It’s caulk, it’s caulk!” With her heavy Afrikaan’s accent. Instead of a tasty fungal treat, she had actually ingested a rather substantial piece of cork. Maybe you had to be there and be slightly intoxicated on the grapes of South Africa, but we laughed our...
Here is my first Wine recommendation: KVM Cabernet Savignon 2003, it is very LEKKER (literal translation SWEET) as they say here. KVM until recently did not sell any of its product to the South African people but instead they exported it all out of the country. Apparently that has been the policy of most of the best wine growers here. Anyway, the South African wine growers, particularly around Cape Town are world famous for their grapes which were first introduced by the Huguenots who came from France in the 1680's. I'll talk more about this when I go on the wine tasting tour in April.
Feel free to email me at my hotmail account. I love hearing about all the things I am missing and what is going on with my peeps. One last thing, speaking of what I am missing. Before I left the US I told several of my friends how I was looking forward to not hearing those vial syllables, Pa-ris-Hil-ton while I was on this continent. So what should be playing on the tv last night while I fixed supper for Renee's family than a 2 hour special on the life of the Hilton sisters. South African tv is actually very disappointing in its originality. After the Hilton garbage, Renee's 12 year old daughter asked to be excused from the table so she could watch Strictly Ballroom Dancing, an apparent knockoff of Dancing with the Stars.
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Sasha Johnson
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Goedemiddag!
Breck, thank you so much for including me on your update list. I hadn't realized that you were already in South Africa! Please keep the treats coming and continue to update your blog, because I'll be reading it. Your writing really brings the reader close because you take the time to note little details like the Dutch word for "sweet", how "plush" the cityscape is, and how odd you felt when you had to let others clean up after you. It reveals something not only about others, but about yourself as well. Stay safe, take care of yourself, and keep in touch... Sasha Post Script: Since you're staying with Dutch-speaking people, I'll include a link so that you can grab a few Dutch phrases (with pronunciation): http://www.ielanguages.com/dutch1.html. It might come in handy.