Thursday, January 19, 2006

Things to Remember, Things to Forget (Special Filler Edition)

Things I'll remember:
Giant Mozambiquan king prawns as big as my fist.
The first view of Cape Town and Table Mountain from the front seat of the top row of a double decker bus.
The view of the sunset as we had sundowners at Melkbosstrand.
The archives and archivists (and the thrill of discovery) at Wits, UCT, the Cory Library, and the National Archives.
Two hours spent pulling in fish in Maputo.
New Year's Eve on the Indian Ocean beaches.
The views in Mpumalanga's escarpment. ("Mpumalanga's Escarpment" would be a great name for a rock band -- hey, the Kaiser Chiefs already stole from one of South Africa's icons.)
Good Old Grahamstown; A few minutes spent alone, reminiscing at the Great Field; less reflective moments at The Rat and Parrot.
Seeing the Inges.
Ten days with my brother, no one dead. Good times in Lesotho, Joburg and Mozambique (and thousands of kilometers in between).
The Proteas pulling out the one day match against Australia, some redemption for the first test loss (see below.)
Doug, Graham, Sheena, and the rest of the Cape Town gang.
Discovering that having mediocre Afrikaans facility means that I have bad but not nonexistent Dutch facility.
Braiis, beers, and summer sun.


Things I'd As Soon Forget:
Cramped overnight bus rides with passengers for whom hygiene was an option not much exercised.
The lines and smell and heat and chaos at the Mozambique border crossing.
Police road blocks for the express (and explicit) purpose of collecting a bribe.
Two hours spent pulling in fish in Maputo and seeing how resigned the people were to the sparse nets.
The slums of Maputo. The townships on Cape Town's fringes. Though I actually never want to forget these things either.
Getting screwed for two months rent by my roommate and having one of the checks I did get bounce, ruining my finances for the trip. (Thanks Cecelio.)
The Protea's blowing the shot at a draw in the first test in Australia.
Old white men at bars talking about the good old days in Africa.
40+ hours in planes and airports on the way back.


Yes, this is utter filler. When I can unbury myself, I'll be posting some substantive reflections on my trip, the state of South/southern Africa, and the reimmersion into dcat's usual anything-that-springs-to-mind coverage.

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