9 posts tagged “johannesburg”
The week started out crazy busy and stressful but by mid-week it just got real slow and quiet and crawling towards the weekend. A few people at work and some friends are either in London this week or going to be in London soon, I've been watching the tennis and watching Secret Diary of a Call Girl (with it's fantastic London scene shots) have been making me pine more than ever since being back. I really enjoyed the London summers (short as they were), somehow the sun shining there is a lot more special than it shining here in SA.
I went to a hawan last night. This was due to my cousin Shavern moving into a new house with his fiance. I had not been to one since my grandfather died some years ago. Childhood memories of sunday temple, not knowing the words to the bhajans, just the tune and melody engraved in my brain, familiar smells, running away from hindi school in the afternoons. Shavern cooked up a fantastic spread of vegetable and soya dishes (with butter ghee being the 'secret' ingredient), there was even roti and vermicelli for pudding. We were all impressed.
earlier this year i put an ad out for a housemate to share my flat with me. i was not completely taken with the idea because i have had my fair share of difficult, crazy housemates. i had the ad out for about a month and interviewed a handful of people. at some point i got a call enquiring about the flatshare and the voice was softspoken, sweet and had a foreign accent that i could not quite place. the voice belonged to Nani who has now been my housemate since March.
Nani is congolese, is french speaking, completely strange and wonderfully interesting. she is also brilliant and entertaining and her laughter is infectious. it took some time for Nani to open up and share a bit of her life and self and stories and insight and take on life in general. i feel that we are friends and i am completely embarrassed and disgusted with my countrymen's behaviour towards african foreigners.
Nani, her family, friends and other foreigners in her situation are forced to be here in fear and for what when all they came to South Africa for is study and in some way create a better life for themselves which may not be possible in their own countries. Now they are forced to flee this place that could be said to be the 'land of the free'? Africa's equivalent of the once upon a time USA. A country where you can have a better life.
where is the respect for life, for your fellow human beings, for people who are in no better situations than the next South African, who are also surviving, trying to make a living, working hard and taking care of their families. where is the humanity. where is the love.
I went to my first live game. A rugby game. Lions vs Chiefs, Super 14 at Ellis Park in Johannesburg. Did it in style too, sat in the company box where we had free drinks and food throughout the game. I can imagine that the atmosphere is much better during bigger games! Faizal gave me a lesson on the rules of rugby which definitely makes it more interesting to watch. The Lions who are bottom of the league, believe it or not, beat the Chiefs! The johannesburg hillbrow skyline is just stunning from Ellis Park, hopefully it is going to look much better once the stadium has completed construction.
I've been a bit lucky in regards to load shedding. I may not feel the same way during the dark cold winter mornings though. Load shedding has been at 6am - 10am in my area the last couple weeks. It may have to do with there being about 5 hospitals in a 5km radius. So when I ventured out last night for dinner, I did not anticipate load shedding where I was headed.
I'm driving along and all of a sudden it is eerily dark... no street lights, no house lights, nothing. It was literally a ghost city... seemed so deserted and abandoned. Not that way I am sure in reality, families huddled around gas lamps, fire places, torches, candle light.
I thought maybe if I keep driving the power may be on where I was headed to.. Unfortunately for me, the power was out in about 5 different areas. The place I was going to though was opened, had candle light and there was no need to cook my dinner - SUSHI.
While at the lodge in the North West, I got a call around midday from a couch surfer, Ailee. She was arriving 2 weeks earlier than expected and would be landing in JHB on March 13th at 06:00 from Nigeria and would I be able to host her. I decided to do it, so I got a lift back to JHB on a transfer bus and made it home around 20:00. Fetched Ailee from the airport the following morning and took her back to the flat. Got to work at about 08:30.
When I was not at work, tried to take Aillee around JHB. Realised how daunting it can be to travel in JHB using public transport. The stories from my housemate Nani, did not help make Ailee feel very safe wandering around by herself. Visited the Apartheid museum on Sunday, which for me was quite intense. Sadly the weather in JHB and most of the country changed dramatically from Thursday night last week from 30 degrees celcius to 13 degrees celcius. That is global warming for you.
Dropped Ailee off at Park station this morning where she got a bus to Komatiepoort so she could visit the Kruger National Park where she wants to see lions (that are not in a zoo).
I recommend that if you are visiting South Africa and do not have someone to take you around, that you make sure you are able to rent a car here because that is the best way to get around this country, especially in the cities. And also being in fear does not help either as it will just paralyze you and not let you want to explore the city / country the way you should. The bus system in central JHB is not bad if you can get yourself to venture out and explore as you would in any other city. Minibus taxis here are just high-risk. There are people who use them because they have no choice and have no problems, and then there are others who lose their lives because of the reckless drivers of these taxis. If it is in your budget, stick to a rental car. Else use a backpackers bus service such as BazBus. And between the major attractions use the City Slicker bus (a hop on, hop off service). For more info check out this link at Gauteng Tourism. And check this link out for things to do in JHB.
I think I am getting a cold / flu. Most likely because of this weather change.
Volunteered at the Johanna Malan Early Childhood Development Centre on Monday for a few hours to help organise their storeroom. Quite a cool experience. When you leave there though you just wonder if you actually helped them out in some way, well... you just hope you did.
Tuesday I headed out to Finfoot Lake Reserve in the Northwest Province (about 2.5 hours drive from Johannesburg). My department had a conference there and I had to provide IT support. I was not really keen to go at first, but once there it felt good to be out in the bush. The reserve is on some beautiful piece of land. I didn't get to see the lake as I had to leave earler than the others. The lodge is not fenced off so the animals are free to roam around. Would have liked to have spent more time there.
Since returning to JHB, I've been feeling neither here or there or anywhere. Feeling like I don't belong anywhere in particular. That there is no reason for me to be anywhere. I just if I could would want to cease to exist.
After turning into Harrison Street, before turning into Commissioner Street I see a guy on the side of the road (not on the sidewalk) with shampoo on his head. A guy is helping him wash his hair, using water from a little puddle near the sidewalk. Where is this I think?? The countryside, some rural town, some impoverished, war-zone city?? No, Johannesburg City Centre. Crazy... just crazy.
"MadLove has been chosen on the short list of the worldwide X-Box
soundtracks competition and we are currently No.2 in the world! The song
we entered is 'Angels Fall' and it's for the Tomb Raider Legend game
soundtrack.
Now, here's the rub. We need you guys to vote and help get us to number one. Voting is unlimited so if you can keep a browser open and keep voting it'd be amazing. We know its a flawed voting system but everyone has the same advantage/disadvantage.
http://www.xbox.com/en-ZA/music
That's the link - navigate through to Voting and choose South Africa and then click on MadLove -
- remember to give us a five star rating. *****"
I apologise for not posting as much since I moved over to the vox site. The flight back home was pretty awful, but just glad I got to SA safe. Danielle my lovely was waiting for me at the airport. The bags took about 40min to come through and then I literally raced through customs with an official chasing after me for my form.
Spent the rest of the week wondering around enjoying the sunny days and not having anywhere or anything to do in particular. JHB is reasonably quiet in December as everyone migrates to the coast. Initially I did feel somewhat disoriented, not knowing if this is where I should be and also feeling sad for leaving London.
But now I am glad I'm here and know I made the right decision to come back, if only for the holidays. Have not decided when I am returning to London.
Rish and Lee drove up from PMB/DBN to pick me up and bring me home. Sweet sweet beautiful friends. They arrived Saturday afternoon and we had a picnic in the garden enjoying the sun, the grass, the delicious champagne and food that Danielle put together and of course each other's company.
Hope all is well wherever you may be.
