Rooster

Brilliant.

I took a Bush Taxi all by myself today. And I didn’t die. Or get lost.

But no one wanted to sit beside me. It’s because I’m white.

It’s strange getting very mixed reactions from people. Sometimes we’re treated like celebrities, with people saying hello and staring and smiling.

Other times, we get harassed, bumped, and called names because of our skin colour. They don’t like us. They think we’re rich and mean. And we are- compared to them.

We North Americans have got it all wrong. This country’s culture is full of greetings and questions about your health and your life, your family and your friends. It’s all sincere, too. None of this “hihowareyouwhathaveyoubeenupto” bullshit. People actually care.

We live in a faceless nation where we don’t really care how the other person is, we’ll avoid small chat if we can, and we never remember each other’s names.

It’s hard for me to come here from there. I still don’t remember names. Asking about the family of people I’ve only met once takes time to get used to.

But it could be worse.

**

They really do carry things on their heads here! Everything! Big and small. Corn, laundry, water, flour… yesterday I even saw someone carrying their Adidas gym bag on their head. Cracks me up!

Speaking of Adidas. Tommy Hilfiger, Nike, they’re running around on the streets. People without running water, people who live in houses made of rusted tin sheets. People who don’t use toilets, who live next to (or in) garbage dumps wear Nike t-shirts. Amazing. But I expected it.

I’ve been at work for nearly 2.5 hours and I haven’t even begun doing anything productive. I’m downloading an FTP program so that I can upload some pictures, but I still need to be able to load the camera software on my computer, and for that, I need admin abilities, which I don’t have. Hopefully by tomorrow I’ll be able to show you my life here.

Every morning I get woken up by roosters. It’s wonderful.