A Taste of What’s To Come

Hello all. Yes, the sporadic entries continue to come through and for that I apologize. It’s mostly due to the fact that the last few weeks have been quite boring in comparison to recent months. First, we were told to put all of our project activities on hold for a few weeks because of ‘issues at National’, then the weather decided to revert back to winter and I think we have had maybe 3-4 sunny days out of the last 3-4 weeks! Crazy. A friend recently asked if I lived in the Mist Belt, a portion of KZN south of the Drakensbergs that gets fairly consistent mist in the mornings and evenings. I responded that I did not know, but after an early morning drive in the fog this morning and a peak out my window now (5pm) that shows nothing but fog tells me that I might be. But this is good. The rain brings the fruit and flowering trees into bloom and for that I cannot complain. There is nothing like driving through South Africa at this time of year and seeing the bright purples of the Jacaranda Trees reaching across the roads to their brother or sister on the other side.

However, the point of this entry was not to discuss blooming trees and misty hills, but rather life in my cottage with more than one person. Yes, Christy just left me, but for the last week she was with me from sun up to sunrise and, despite the small confines, I loved every minute of it. Ok, not every minute. There was a moment of sour milk that left, well, a sour taste, but that really was no big deal, right Christy?! It was just so nice to have someone around to wake up, eat lunch and prepare supper with and I’m very much looking forward to her return to South Africa in February. By that time we will, however, be moving out of the sticks (Ixopo) and to the bright lights and hot curry of Durban. We are very excited about living together in the sunshine city, particularly with so many of Christy’s and my friends in the area. Plus, there is a Taco Zulu there…yummy chimichanga’s and other psuedo-TexMex food.

The Beginning of the End

To those that I’ve discussed South Africa politics with, I just want to say I knew I was right. It was only a matter of time until the ANC split. According to the BBC on September 30, the ANC announced that the party was not going to split. However, today, both the Mail & Guardian and the BBC have reported that talks are underway about a potential split. This is a good thing. It’s time for part of the enormous party that is the ANC to splinter off and hopefully break the rule of one party in South Africa. The ANC is too large now to make the disparate people that fall under its umbrella happy (and there are a lot of people without jobs and solely dependent upon government grants of some sort) and a split will only strengthen democracy in South Africa. The only fear is how much violence, if any, will follow any split. There’s talk of tribalism, but hopefully it won’t get stirred up too much. I mean, South Africa has to host the World Cup [if I'm gonna keep this up, I should at least correct this mistake. Thanks for pointing it out Andrew] Olympics in 2010, so the powers-that-be will keep things stable long enough for that to pass. They are not idiots. Well, at least the Finance Minister isn’t. And by then, who knows, maybe it will all be a thing of the past and South Africa can move forward. Only time will tell…I could be wrong and there will be no split.