The fringe

Mood: highly stoked

Health: poor

Details: throat closing, headache, uncontrollable amount of snotty goo exiting through left nostril.

Other than that I am fine! Today was a great adventure, we started off quite early, before the sun was up at 7:30. The group was our two neighboring houses, most residents were barely awake and about half were quite unsteady from a night of socializing with the Norweigian discovered phenomenon: crackaling, a cheap sparkling wine which goes flat in about half a minute.

Anyway, away on the bus with an animated tour guide who had quite the background—a South African recruit (unwillingly) to a special armed unit instructed to take out thousands of members of a Communist party in Angola in the 1990’s. Keep an eye out for his book, Zulu Fox Trot, which will reveal previous quiet information about the slaughter.

First stop: Maiden point, a lovely view of the Atlantic. A warm wind blowing off the mountain, a fine day was in the making.

Next: Penguins! At Boulder Point I believe. Cute little guys, charismatic with strikingly human behavior. I should like to be a penguin of this sort—sunshine, swimming, a mate for life, anchovies…

Then: A stop in a township community called Ocean View. A town of colored peoples displaced by the apartheid. The homes were three story buildings. Cinder blocks painted various hues that looked much like Brooklyn projects. Laundry blew on lines and kids stood on the roadside to wave as our tour buses rolled in. We watched a program dedicated to helping kids from this area arise from the slums, stomping drug and gang related activities by dancing and singing. They were quite talented dancers that used American rap to break dance and choreograph dances much like MTV music videos. This was a little shocking for me. Why replicate this American music, idolize values not their own?? The people however are quite open about sexuality, the hostess to us referred to her husband as, “the man I sleep with.” Plus the glow of stardom is bright—strong Western influence exists here and it is quite appealing.

On to Cape Point, the most SW point of land in Africa. There is no way I could describe the awe of this place, pictures will suffice, but a visit to this most wondorous landmark is the only way to serve it justice. It is in a national park and some weird elk-equivalent animals roam as do wild ostrich.

I spoke with a friend about how tangible moving abroad now seems. Being here only a few days has made me understand why a person would move to a place such as this to live their life.