All sides of Africa

About a year ago, I was in Egypt. A few months ago, I was in Mombasa, swimming in the Indian Ocean. Two days ago, I was in Luderitz (umlaut over the u--the first place I've been with an umlaut!) on the Namibian coast, dipping my feet in the icy clean Atlantic. Today, I'm in Capetown, South Africa.

Capetown is our final destination. Sure, we're flying out of Johannesburg, but this is really our end point. And we've got here. I think tonight we'll take some time to reflect on that. It's hitting us, hard, that in about 9 days we'll be back in the US, and this will all be behind us.

So, from Windhoek, we took an overnight train to Keetmanshoop. From Keetmans, we hitched in a petrol transporter to Luderitz, this weird little Bavarian town in Namibia. I wish I knew more about architecture, but it was very bizarre. The houses were painted extraordinary colors. We stayed in this huge mansion that had been converted to a guest house. We made fish n chips, spent a lot of time looking at the ocean. It was a vacation that a middle-aged couple would take, and it was wonderful.

At the gas station back to town, we met Rashid, a peace corps volunteer. We hitched back with him, and hung out at his house with his girlfriend for 10 hours or so, until our bus came. It was nice. We drank South African box wine, I read part of this really sick book. It's called Africa (or some shit), and it's by the dude who is the Africa editor for the Economist. The dude covered stories all over sub-Saharan Africa, and he's extremely knowledgable and a good little writer, too. Some highlights--his chapter about genocides in Rwanda and Burundi, his explanation of the Goldenberg scandal in Kenya (an absolutely convoluted, evil genius money-laundering scheme that until now I've only had a faint understanding of. He untangled it all, showed how absolutely fucked up the president-kings in Kenya have been), devastating discussion of HIV in South Africa (made me remember Ukwala real hard, also never sighed so much in a 30 minute span), and his personal anectodes about Idi Amin. He was teaching English in Uganda when Amin came to power. He went to one of his rallies, and saw Amin driving himself around Kampala in a Jeep. Crazy!

And helpful, too. He described communicating with Africans south of the Sahara, how you don't get to the point immediately, you don't get angry, you work indirectly. The exception, he noted, is Afrikaaners. So, in Capetown, we don't bullshit around, hum and look away for a few seconds until we get closer to what we want. We say what we want and when. I don't like it.

Another thing I don't like--the lack of extended greetings. Everywhere else we've been, interactions start with a lot of questions. How are you? How is your day? How's business? Even at kiosks, just buying a coke, these are the questions you ask. Here, I've been tripping over my tongue, trying to be brief.

So, Capetown will be historical and hedonistic. Both Kat and I love love love museums, and Capetown has a shitton of them. We're also going to hit up Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela and Jacob Zuma, among others, were imprisoned. We will also maybe eat sushi. Kat really wants to see penguins, and I'm down. I think we'll do a wine tour, catch a movie, climb Table mountain.

Again, the world is an oyster. I will be home late on the 2nd of June, tired, most likely. Wanting to come back, definitely. But how do I do it?