Hello all,
Im in Joburg at the moment at a chinese internet shop in a massive asian fleamarket just next to an even more massive shoppong center called East Gate. They tell me it's the largest mall in Africa. It seems like malls are such a big deal here because the city centers, where one would usually go to shop, go out to eat, nightclub and so on are all so dangerous. Port Elizabeth is like that to some extent but Joburg is on a whole different scale. Downtown Joburg is so dodgy that entire skyscrapers stand empty. The Carlton Hotel, the tallest solid concrete building, a testament to Arathied extravagance, has been abandoned for over 12 years. The remaining skyscrapers that are still being used have underground parking facilities so no one ever needs set foot on the sidewalk. The source of this information is the lady who runs my hostel, Stella.
Driving through the dowtown area yesterday gave me a glimpse at a fascinating metropolis. Rich with old buildings, interesting little streets, huge squares and amazing grafitti, I wish I could go explore the city but unfortunately that is not possible. Day or night, ofriegners are guaranteed to get mugged, so they say.
SO why am I in Joburg anyways? Three weeks ago I heard that our program up in Mussina, on the Zim border, basically the farthes possible location from PE within South Africa, needed a car and I volunteered to drive it up. It turned out that Kourtney also wanted to go up so the plan was for the two of us to do it over a day in a half and then bus back to Jbourg and fly to PE. Kourtney ended up making plans to stay up there for a week, her rowing friend from UVA is based up there, and an extra stop was added to the journey when we heard that we would need to pick up someone at the Lesotho border to serve as a translator for the Training of trainers that was happening in Mussina this week. It turned out there was no point in me going further than Joburg because Kourtney had a driving buddy and I would have to catch a bus 2 hours after I ot there in order to be back in time. So Kurtney and Refiloe, ther translator, dropped me at the airport. To complicate an already adventuous situation, I had fallen ill the night before and could barely stand or speak. Feeling a little better this morning I set off to the flea market in search of herbal tea and internet, not realizing this meant a 30minute treck through the blazing winter heat.
What else, what else. I convince Kourtney to switch off reading plays during the drive. Ambitiously we picked up 4, King Lear, Henry the IV, Alls well that ends well, and Pygmalion. The four cost us a combine two dollars. We made it through half of Pygmalion before she lost interest and my voice went.
Ill be back at home tonight and if my voices continues recovering I should have the energy to make a few calls.
Much Love.