Category: Ideas
-
Places Remembered/Places Revisited
Rosebank is quiet in the mornings. The sun sparkles off the little fountains and waiters stand ready outside the coffee shop across the way. I sip my coffee. It is restful. When I first left university, many years ago, I moved to Johannesburg. At the time, I lived in a place called Emerentia but I…
-
The Familiarity of an Unfamiliar Language
I keep catching myself. I’ll be sitting at a table, idly watching the conversation move back and forth, or sitting quietly on a train, zoned out but hearing the words drift by. Suddenly, it occurs to me that the words I’m listening to, the conversation I’m following, isn’t in English. Perhaps I am used to…
-
Morning Through A Mosquito Net
We woke up to the sound of drumming. We learned later it was a church group practicing. It was early. I remember so clearly. The taste of the air. The sounds. The way the light fell. The dusty ground. The bucket showers. Perhaps it was the fear, the excitement. Every sense heightened. It’s…