While London is experiencing a heat wave. IN OCTOBER!!! I kid you not! It’s business as usual in Johannesburg…A bit of South African humour, this little strip is part of South African culture, although you probably won’t get it, never mind, I think it’s hilarious. (That’s all that counts.)
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I thought my country was one of the few that still had the mini-bus taxi… I love that thing. I prefer “sitting” on the outside of the mini-bus taxi (hanging onto the bar) as it takes curves at far too dangerous speeds for a way overloaded vehicle…
Also, bribing the authoraties at the road blocks is pretty standard.
Very amusing!
Makes me want to visit my country.
-Thirst
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I know the caption says this is a joke, but it’s not. Seriously.
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LA,
I believe it!
The only difference in El Salvador is that they would have a guy (or two) hanging onto a bar.
That and the big black cloud coming from behind the taxi.
Illustrated below…
-Thirst
People wouldn’t understand that these are the things I miss about Africa. I miss Africans, when they smile, their whole face lights up with black faces and white teeth…I miss that strangers will help you out if your car breaks down. I miss that people talk to each other on the street. I miss that people break rules, walk on the grass and pee in the bush. I was in Cape Town earlier this year and felt a bit alien as I’ve become anglified when people spoke to me. Strangers spoke to me, they’re so warm and they smile the smiles of happy people. I miss that.
I need to go home but I’m afraid that I’ll leave again. Even here in London, in the back of my mind, I’m always leaving. My bags are always packed…I don’t know how to stand still…
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As long as you are able to, why not have your bags packed?
Is settling down important to you?
[i]Don’t be afraid of letting go
Don’t be afraid of letting go
Not of anything out of anyone
All alone here with my demons
Am I ready to move on
To a person or place
Alone away from here
And I miss you
And I loose you
And I found you
I choose to follow my heart[/i]
Perhaps there is something meaningful in the words of this song…
-Thirst
Settling down is a very strange thing. I don’t know what it means, yet people all around are doing it. I think I move because I let go, not because I’m afraid…Settle…I don’t settle…
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liquidangel"]
Come to the Midwest. We are all like the Beav. I thought your response was very sweet and spoke of a simpler time. I am from the East Coast in the states, and it has taken me years not to look behind my back for rapists and lock my door behind me. We have many nights when we go to bed and don’t even lock up at all - it’s heaven. I will never forget the first week I lived here. I walked into the local grocery store and a little man with a little green vest and little green bowtie came up to me and said in a dorky voice, " May I help you in the dairy department today?" I thought he was a flippin’ pervert.
I have come to expect dorky and sweet, and I love it. Frankly, it is what the world is missing today - that innocent time of the '50’s. I miss the buzz of the big city, but have grown to love my new home.
Am wrong in saying that you would feel more comfortable setting if you find someone you want to settle down with… then you may not want to even leave your yard because everything you have ever wanted will be right there in front of you.
Assuming of course that everything that I’ve ever wanted is a man. I’m not sure Bessy. I’ve been with a few. I don’t seem to settle there either. Society is odd, it assumes that my goals in life should be to have a husband and children. I think that’s the biggest lie of all.
I love my country very deeply, but the reason I don’t settle there is because I’m a traveller. Travelling has always been what I do. It used to be from one place to another, now it’s from one way of being to another. I take care of this inner journey, the place takes care of itself. To settle would be to say “I’ve arrived”. It has always been my experience that when I feel as though I’ve just arrived, the reality is that I’ve just left. Even ‘settling’ must be a journey…
Every now and then I get terribly homesick for the African skies and the warmth of the people and the sun on my skin. I miss the nature, the sheer wildness of it, I miss the light (photographer’s dream) - the light is different, the smells are different, the energy is different - Africa, she is a healer. I’ll be home in a few weeks, I’ll recharge my batteries on the white beaches of the Cape, I’ll wake up with the sunrise and enjoy the sounds and the sites of the birds…I’ll spend silent days on the boat with my father while he fishes, I’ll spend afternoons baking cakes and working in the garden with my mother. I’ll read until the sun goes down and then I’ll fall asleep in the hammock on the porch while I watch the stars and the passing ships and listen to the sound of the ocean gently teaching me while I sleep…and after a while, when I’ve rested to the core of my being, I’ll begin to move again…
A
I just want to add here with no disrespect Bessy (and I’m not lashing you - this is not a personal issue I have with you but rather its an issue I have with this outmoded way of thinking), but this is utter nonsense. It’s like saying that I’ll be ok when I ‘find’ a man and then everything will be alright just as soon as I ‘find’ a man, somehow I’ll be complete and miraculously, my wandering nature will subside. Doesn’t leave us with much power being as it is that a woman should ‘find’ a man and give her power to him. I’m telling you this oppression stems from those fucking fairytales we were fed as girls…one moonlit night I’m gonna meet the perfect man who is going to fulfill all my dreams…blah blah blah what a load of bollox.
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There’s plenty of that in the wider world- it looks like you need to see more of the world. 
London is the world. The other day I walked into a shop and when the assistant spoke to me with an English accent I almost fell over. I don’t know what I was expecting, I had to re-orient myself, I forgot for a moment where I was in the world. An Englishman in London is a rarity. This is what is special about London. The whole world exists within this city. It’s quite amazing really. And each of us are Londoners…
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I suppose it seems that way…til you see enough to know better. And I mean that in a good way.
Ja, I suppose there is always more to see… 
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Again with the peeing in the bush!
As far as settling, I am inspired by my anarchist hero Tyler Durden:
I say never settle. “…never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let, let’s evolve.”
-Thirst
Yeah you know…peeing in the bush is not so much peeing in the bush thirst. 
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Oh, liberty. You are found in the oddest of places…
-Thirst
…in every place.
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