Went to Umthatha yesterday with Lucy and her youngest, Noma-India, 7years old (her first time ever in Umthatha and a city of any kind…! She had never seen anything like traffic lights, traffic jams or automatic doors before.) I think she was quite exhausted by the end of the day, but happy. I bought her a Mcdonalds hamburger when we first arrived (Had to go to the best toilet in town!)
I did my monthly shopping while Lucy looked for shoes for her son and clothes for Noma-India. I felt quite embarrassed as I loaded in my heavy bags of stuff from Shoprite, probably most luxury items that I could survive without… But hey, I grew up in a different world…what is normal to me, is absolute indulgence to some other people. Maybe I’ll still learn to adapt, not sure. There certainly is a huge difference between being poor and being able to get by. I certainly love to eat well, can’t do without my super awesome fruit and veggies, got to make sure that I don’t run out of anything, I have been poor in my life and would choose not to return to that exact state. It’s not completely in my hands though.
But this has been an interesting topic since I’ve arrived in the old Transkei. The question of how basic do you really want your life to be? Believe me, the question gets asked when you’re around here. And there are good and bad things whichever way you lean. So, perhaps to find the balance somewhere in between? I certainly know that when the storms were raging earlier this week, I would have been better off with less possessions. The less you have, the less you have to loose. And we realize how little we really do need.
But, there are many luxuries in life, which some we may choose to have in our lives and there’s nothing wrong with that. I enjoy a good cup of coffee now and then, which cost a little more than Ricoffee. I’ve been trying to learn to play the guitar since my 21st birthday, now and then I really enjoy playing some rhythms on my djembe drum… None of these I’m really good at, but they add a certain amount of pleasure to my life on the occasion. I was so happy when I stopped at the Post Office in Mqanduli yesterday and my ipod charger had arrived (the internet tracking system said that it was still in transit after almost 4 weeks...) I seriously love listening to music on my ipod with my little speakers… Life wouldn’t be the same without them…
So, for the moment, I’m somewhere in between, trying to figure it all out. Trying to make sense of the lives of my new friends and find where I want to be in my life. I definitely don’t want to jeopardize the experience and opportunities that I’ve been so fortunate to receive in my life.
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