Author: Claire
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Old friends
It’s a quiet Friday morning. I’m sitting in a friend’s lounge in Grahamstown. There are clouds in the sky. Perhaps there will be some much-needed rain later. The flowers bob in the breeze outside. I can hear birds singing. It’s gentle. Grahamstown can be so gentle. This is not the Grahamstown of my student years.…
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The bittersweetness of boxes
On a warm Wednesday morning in May, I sent two medium-sized boxes on their way, hoping against hope that between the Korean Post Office, the South African Post Office and two customs departments they’d arrive in one piece. The first one arrived today. I set off with ID and R25 customs duty, alerted by a…
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Second Spring
In Korea, I struggled, even more than the unfamiliar food and chilly (read: bloody freezing) weather, with the long, long winter. I have grown up with northern stories – fairytales from Germany, school stories set in Austria, UK children’s books – so I was aware of winters more extreme than my own. I never realised…