I've been hit with lots of random South Africa thoughts lately. It's not at all languishing, but I keep having dreams that I'm back in Cape Town, in the newsroom or loitering with other intern types at our favorite haunts. Or weird flashes of memory in the middle of conversations or interviews or drives.

I also started reading through my paper journal from that time period again, realized I didn't record anywhere near enough while I was there, except for about a week in March when I hopped on a bus and explored beyond and dutifully filled pages and pages and pages.

E.g.

March 1, 2009: Morning in Lesotho is lovely. Contrasting light. That one tongue of green extending out into nowhere...in Lesotho, it looks always like it will rain, but then does not. "It is raining that side," they say, nodding toward the next valley over. Wealth is kept in animals. Flies on the door. Scrawny pups. Aranda blankets, the fashion name in blankets.

Sick again, sniffly nose and flush. Downing rooibos. J says, "Your accent is total good." Dumela. "You are total young." And I walk through villages in a way that makes me NOT followed by dozens of kids looking for handouts. Like I know where I am going. Galloped on horse through fields and plains. Fast! Fear, and breathing heavily. But I see how it could be easy. Tea with no sugar/milk is "like medicine," he says. Dinner is peas and full-fat milk. Lunch is porridge and milk. Of course I am hungry now. Shooting star in the lonely sky left of the Milky Way and its dust cloud. Bad sputtering candles from China. Alexandre will be Prime Minister of Lesotho and fix hunger by asking the World Food Project for more food. Or a priest. Why do men in the United States always get new wives? he asks.

March 2, 2009: J & I chat in the kitchen while candles sputter and fizz last night. I like the sound. Earlier, A asks why Bush fights Iraq. And are Saddam's wife and small ones death? I do not know, I reply, surprised at my ignorance. And what are the exports of my country? The kids are in school today, others lie in the grass talking slowly. No hurry. Lots of time. Horses neigh in the background. The cat follows me. I read men's magazines. Orange and black fuzzy birds, and one black with a tail draping like coattails.

Pap and beans for lunch. Then a walk? If I eat pap long enough, any other food will seem like a treat...It is unusually nice for March. Male donkeys braying and braying. The maps here still say, "Orange Free State."

But mostly:

March 8, 2009: The Southeaster makes a rare March appearance to say goodbye to me. Grit in my eyes, not daring to wear a dress, almost falling into traffic - this is my Cape Town.

July 10, 2009: Memories that hit you. The newsroom. Tony's gawky tall shamble, often seeming to be looking down. Craig, hands in pockets. He could almost be kicking a can. Tash always with a mug of something. How much more attention could be paid just to people walking?

I've got children all over town.

When I was in South Africa, my most wife-like platonic friend took care of my cats. I still owe her child support.

Also when I was in South Africa, my most wife-like fellow reporter got a plant and we set it between our desks and named it Florence and considered which schools she might attend. We have not yet discussed child support.

wake up, sun

Residents use welding masks to watch the solar eclipse in Chongqing municipality July 22, 2009. A total solar eclipse began its flight on Wednesday across a narrow path of Asia, where it was expected to darken the skies for millions of people for more than six minutes in some places. REUTERS/Stringer (CHINA)

I still have, somewhere, a newspaper photo of elderly Nelson Mandela wearing eclipse glasses for the partial solar we had in Cape Town. Pretend he is part of the below throng of children:

This was in November.

After waiting far too long in line at some club that is "only good on Sundays" because "that's when the cool people are there," the girl who delayed us by over an hour because she had to find the right shoes said to me, "I think missing people is almost as important as having them around you. You learn who you really care about."

Slapdash January update.

1. Still warm and sunny here.


2. I am a sea-eating creature, here. It's so nice to not worry about mercury or the cost of transporting saltwaterfish all the way to Wisconsin.


3. New people in town. Some of whom like Scrabble.


4. Others of whom like jumping off bridges.


5. Stunning vistas, etc etc etc.

6. Not pictured, work, which I am still glad to be doing. More than ever, actually.

Go see do

I bought a bicycle on Friday. It's pretty sexy for a really basic mountain bike. Saturday I rode it up and down a mountain, so now it doesn't look quite as embarrassingly shiny. There is something giddying about summer starting (again), a good bike, a million places to go.


I've been asked to post more photos (sorry, Mom), so here are some examples of these million places to go.


Silvermine Nature Reserve & mountain bike trail.



Llandudno Beach


Llandudno Beach with dog


Hout Bay from above

Aaaaargh, it's a snake!

Tuesday was my second day at the Cape Times. On my first day, I arrived before the woman who was going to get me set up, so I ended up loitering at the security desk and chatting with the guards. I’ve noticed that when it comes up that I’m American, the election will eventually also come up. So far, I’ve averaged one conversation about Barack Obama or Sarah Palin (McCain is sort of there in the background as a foil) per day. Also, Wisconsin is best described as “north of Chicago.”

Everyone at the CT is very helpful and nice and seems to have a sense of humor. I’ve been offered food, lifts home, and a lot of patience about the fact that I didn’t have my magnetic key until Wednesday (you have to wave it at most doors if you want them to open. Even if you just want to get OUT). A good number are interns, mostly South African, but there is a British girl, and there have been a few Americans in recent years as well. So they actually have a helpful “how-to” guide for interns unused to South African style. R100,000 is R100 000, 7:30 p.m. is 7.30pm, and 25 percent is 25%. For starters.

Better yet! On my first day, I attended a lot of meetings, including ones I probably won’t ever be included in again, and researched the government between meetings. I will not be summarizing my findings here. On my second day, I was offered the choice of not writing anything, and then offhand my editor said, “There’s one thing, it doesn’t have to be today, it’s just a photo, really, but…” And that’s how I wound up in the suburbs watching Shaun MacLeod, pet groomer and volunteer snake catcher, handling deadly Cape cobras and puffadders about three feet from my face. I also got to hold some California king snakes (people import them as pets from the US). And, after calling a herpetologist and a poison centre (yes, centre), I got to write 350 words for page 3 about winter hibernation ending and what to do if you find a deadly snake in your home.

“Judging from your accent,” Shaun said when I arrived, “you would probably know what this is.” He showed me an enormous diamondback rattler someone had been keeping as a pet. Since it’s an exotic species, Shaun couldn’t release it. He seemed pretty unconcerned about the fact, though. In his time as a handler of deadly reptiles, he's been bitten only once, by a Cape cobra a couple years ago. "That was a learning curve," he told me.

Did I mention I’ve been hankering for a pet snake for a couple years now? Yeah. Still hankering.

Greetings from South Africa. It is cold here, by which I mean September 1^st was the first day of spring, and the high today will be somewhere between 60 and 70. I’d give exacts, but the forecasts are in Celsius and all I remember of that is that water boils at 100 and freezes at 0, and 20 is about room temperature in a high school chemistry lab. By day, I can get by in short sleeves and jeans if I keep moving and stay in the sun, but at night I’m glad I brought a couple sweaters and a fleece. It also gets dark early, with sunset around 6:30 at the moment.

I’ve been in Cape Town less than 48 hours and have yet to really talk to anyone who isn’t in my program, barring Alfonso, my taxi driver from the airport, who pointed out a lot of tourist attractions on the way and told me that when he saved enough money he was going to travel to America and see Memphis (Graceland) and the Bronx. I regretted to inform him that Wisconsin was no where near Memphis, and, unless he had a particular interest in exotic dairy cows, was probably not worth the extra money to visit. Another taxi driver told us last night that after 20 years of driving taxis, he was quitting in a year to move to Germany, where a friend will help him find something new to do. I’m not sure who will be left to drive taxis next year.

It’s pretty amazing to walk down the street and hear conversations that I can’t understand at all. It’s tough in English sometimes, too, because the accent is different, and not everyone’s English has the same accent. In a loud bar, even Australians are a little hard to follow.

Since opening my mouth at all pretty much flags me as foreign (though not necessarily American, it turns out), I’m finding myself pretty shy when I do have to talk. Buying groceries took forever because I didn’t want to ask where the peanutbutter was kept. I also try not to look at my map a lot when I go walking around, and it will probably be a week or so before I do anything so touristy as bring my camera along anywhere. Sorry, Mom.

Work starts next week. In the meantime, I’ve been reading the Cape Times (where I’ll be working) and listening to local radio to get a feel for current events. Politics and government spending is big. Sport is big. A few American items have popped up already; they’re mostly editorials about the presidential race. Barack Obama is in, Sarah Palin posing with slain caribou is out. Calvin & Hobbes is also in.

I’ve included the view from my bedroom. I’m on the 11^th floor, which is what we would call the 12^th, and to the north I have a great view of Table Mountain and some suburbs. There’s more city on the other side of the mountain, and I’m sure I’ll be hiking up there before the month is over.