Back in Africa

OK, so here we are in Africa, and yet it feels so much like America.

Let me explain... wide streets, freeways, motorways, drive-in hotels, motels, shopping centres, gated communities, drive-in restaurants, shopping malls, big cars, black people doing manual jobs, large advertising hordings everywhere, gates and walls and so on.

But it isn't America, which means I could start my day off with tropical fruit for breakfast - a bowl of passion fruit, melon, water melon, mango, banana and papaya, whilst sitting by the pool in the shade of a a palm tree and having coffe served by a very sweet young lady...

But, truth be told, I am staying in an expensive American-style hotel, with a room big enough to house a township family and a shower spurting out more water than Victoria Falls... and yet we are just a couple of kilometers away from the township of Alexandra, one of the most notorious townships in South Africa. It s a strange world...

After sleeping most of teh time on the plane and sleeping all night as well, following what was an early night in bed on Monday night, I was a little bit disoriente when I woke up this morning... but thankfully we have an Elizabeth in the office who is a 'tea lady' who serves the most delicious coffee and it was she who kept me awake most of the day while I tried to acqaint myself with the business we have here in South Africa... but more of that tomorrow.

Just to say that after a delicious, and none-too-expensive dinner, I ended back at the hotel this evening and ordered myself a glass of delicious red wine which I darnk with my legs dipped in the pool, looking up at the full moon in the sky and finding the Southern Cross.

I had been disoriented all day, imagining the sun to be in the south, forgetting that in the Southern Hemisphere, the sun is to be seen in the north. Not like me, but now I know, I should have a better sense of direction tomorrow.

Good night.