Marnie and I are living in Africa. If that seems to you a statement of the obvious, from time to time I could use a bit of reminding. Living in my little Parktown North bubble, I sometimes wonder if I’ve stumbled into some posh American suburb, albeit one with an abnormally large population of African domestic workers. You fall into a routine, get cmfortable; gym, write, mall, write, dinner, write.
Which is why it was nice to head up to Pretoria on Thursday. The way the northern suburbs of Joburg are laid out, you never get more than a peak of the hills surrounding the city. Driving up the N1, seeing the hard scrabble vegetation in the red dirt, the red tile roofs of the houses all in a row, smelling the coal smoke in the air, I remembered; oh yeah, this is Africa.
Marnie's Aussie friend Pru is in country, staying with her friend Cassie in Pretoria. When giving us directions, he told us to look out for the two ostriches around a fountain in the front yard. Gotcha.
Cassie is a self professed ambulance chaser, and business is very good given the number of reckless drivers in the country. The eastern suburbs of Pretoria are the nicer parts of the city, and Cassie, along with his wife Megan and two kids, bought their house there two years ago. They're undergoing some construction now, but we hung out in a lovely open air patio with a thatched roof just off the main house.
Pretoria has a larger proportion of Afrikaners than Joburg, and Cassie is indeed a proud Afrikaner, coming from several generations of farmers. Unprompted, he said the biggest problem in South Africa is entitlement. I think we have a pattern here. Cassie disagrees strongly with the large number of white South Africans fleeing the country, and would never think of leaving were it not for his kids. He also acknowledges that the standard of living that he enjoys would be impossible in another country.
We're off today to meet up again in Sun City, a sort of South African version of Vegas. It's a couple hours dive from here, and it'll be nice to see more of the country.
Which is why it was nice to head up to Pretoria on Thursday. The way the northern suburbs of Joburg are laid out, you never get more than a peak of the hills surrounding the city. Driving up the N1, seeing the hard scrabble vegetation in the red dirt, the red tile roofs of the houses all in a row, smelling the coal smoke in the air, I remembered; oh yeah, this is Africa.
Marnie's Aussie friend Pru is in country, staying with her friend Cassie in Pretoria. When giving us directions, he told us to look out for the two ostriches around a fountain in the front yard. Gotcha.
Cassie is a self professed ambulance chaser, and business is very good given the number of reckless drivers in the country. The eastern suburbs of Pretoria are the nicer parts of the city, and Cassie, along with his wife Megan and two kids, bought their house there two years ago. They're undergoing some construction now, but we hung out in a lovely open air patio with a thatched roof just off the main house.
Pretoria has a larger proportion of Afrikaners than Joburg, and Cassie is indeed a proud Afrikaner, coming from several generations of farmers. Unprompted, he said the biggest problem in South Africa is entitlement. I think we have a pattern here. Cassie disagrees strongly with the large number of white South Africans fleeing the country, and would never think of leaving were it not for his kids. He also acknowledges that the standard of living that he enjoys would be impossible in another country.
We're off today to meet up again in Sun City, a sort of South African version of Vegas. It's a couple hours dive from here, and it'll be nice to see more of the country.
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