Thoughts From My First Full Day in South Africa

well we're on day two (saturday) in south africa. my first full day. i don't have anything interesting really to report but i'm really writing this for myself. a cleansing of all the thoughts running around in my head. yesterday was very difficult (emotionally) for me but it could have been a whole lot worse. perhaps it all started when i woke up from my drug induced sleep from london to joberg. i was awake for maybe 2 of the 10 hour flight. i was seated next to a young (24ish) indian couple from england vacationing (going on holiday) in south africa and southern africa.
i nodded off for a bit and when i woke up they were gone and replaced with a blond south african on her way back from a business trip in the middle east.
i put her in her early 40s and thanks to her requesting an aisle seat the couple moved and was replaced by only her. so we three seats between the two of us. what seemed like a drinking contest broke out between us and that sums up the first two hours. the landing of the plane woke me up and i hurried through customs to jump on the durban flight. while i waited i started reading 'disgrace' by some south african author. it involves, among other events, a break in where the main character is set on fire and his daughter is raped. that, coupled with news of south africa descending further into violence, made for a very unsettling first day. pippa had a scarier-than-hell story about a break in with her in-laws. i also kept rethinking, "i've just left a setup in santa cruz that for the first time in my life was just how i liked it! and now i've moved to a place where i probably won't ever get it close to how i like it. what the hell was i thinking?!"
but later pippa took me to the grocery store literally across the street and i bought some bread, cheese and wine and i started to feel more at home.
the place is tiny. and i mean tiny. can't be too much more than a couple hundred square feet but it's fully furnished, near work, in a very safe neighborhood, and comes with a very very very nice indian family. but i still feel totally alone out here and i'm trying to use that to my advantage to work on the cartoon.

i've begun investigating the cost of internet. i might not have internet on this computer for a few weeks.

i've also started taking little strolls around the neighborhood. hayfields, it's called. cute. quiet. i'm living an amazing experience right now. i'm just afraid that if i get robbed or something worse, i'll lose the lustre of it all.

i've found a microbrew of sorts at the liquor store across the street, 'boozies'. the beer tastes like sierra nevada but it's a nice taste of home. whistling weasel pale ale brewed in nottingham road wherever that is. 100km from here they say. it comes in a plastic bottle and i can buy it in plastic 2 liter bottles like soda. it has a short shelf life they warned me. i scoffed at the shelf life. "this beer isn't gonna make it through the night" i said.
the family i'm staying with has a boy named angelo. he visits me and hangs out with me. he asks lots of questions like you would expect from someone his age. he says he's eight. he has a cricket game in a week. if i don't have other plans i hope to tag along and watch him play.

i've been offered use of the housecleaner, fortunate, once a week on wednesdays. 70 rand gets her for 8 hours. i have no idea how i can possibly keep fortunate (that's her name) busy for 8 hours a day with my meager laundry and dishes.
rouwellyn, the boyrfriend of liza, the daughter of the richard and priscilla just invited me out to dinner and to hang out tonight. he said semi-formal and i'm sitting here wearing cargo shorts, an undershirt and turf shoes.

i keep my computer on california (pct) time because i eagerly work on the computer waiting for it to be time when i can call the states without waking everybody up. eventually i'll be busy at work and when i get home everyone'll be awake and at work. i'm not sure how many international minutes i get with a 180 rand phone card but i don't suspect it'll be much. and seeing as i get charged per the megabyte for dsl, there's no perfect way to keep in touch. but keeping in touch is a super priority that i look forward to. for now loneliness is a problem even though boredom isn't.