Nervous Conditions

Greetings from my bed in South Africa!

As always I hope you are happy and well, where ever you are.  I would love to hear from you if you ever have the urge to email!

As I wrote in my last post, I finally got my hands on some yarn!  It has been very nice to have my hobby back, and for this project I am using two colors for the first time.  I was too impatient to find a good youtube tutorial video, so I may be doing it wrong.  Only time, or some one with more knowledge, will tell!

My progress so far

Last night was a fabulous Saturday.  I stayed in, made my self a bakeless (no oven in our kitchen!) oatmeal cookie and some coffee, and settled in with my knitting and a documentary about Ginger Baker.  The documentary is aptly named "Beware of Mr Baker".  I recommend it, especially to anyone who has an interest in the history of jazz, the birth of rock, drums in african music, or insanity.  It was interestingly made, and I was pleasantly surprised to find so many connections to Africa and South Africa specifically in the film.  Mr Baker currently lives in South Africa, but before that he traveled across the Sahara in a range rover.  During his first trip to the Continent he became friends with Fela Kuti, a musician and political figure in Nigeria, who I have actually heard a bit about around Cape Town.  So that was entertaining and educational.  

After the movie I finished the book I have been working on, Nervous Conditions.  Someone who spotted me reading it on campus told me it was an "essential part of the required reading on the Continent" and that it "talks about colonialism in an interesting way".   It was an easy and fast read, that did present colonialism with a healthy dose of ambiguity.  Near the end the character's ties to their metaphoric meanings became blatant, so much so that it was almost an insult to the reader, but I am glad I read it, and I would recommend to anyone wanting to relive their IHS english class days.  As I was reading it, in fact, I couldn't believe IHS wasn't teaching it.  It's so perfect for IHS!  Female, African author, writing a personal account about her struggles with colonialistic constructs as she aimed to get an education.

Today was Sunday and I dragged Anna out of bed for a little morning excersise.  We managed to pick the only clear and sunny hour of the morning, and it felt good to get moving again after the marathon knitting sessions I've been putting in.  Our BIG adventure for the day was going grocery shopping!  We caught a minibus taxi from campus, to Bellvile (a little over 10 min) where we got our food for the week.  I got some things I am really excited about!  First, I got a bag of "samp and beans" which the internet tells me is Xhosa (South African).  Another South African item I got was Rooibos tea!  I just got the Shopprite brand, but it tastes good to me.  I am excited to figure out what to do with the baby eggplant, and I decided to finally give biltong, the local meat jerky, a try. The final exciting thing I purchased was a package of dates from Iran!  From Iran is the exciting part.  Does the US not trade with Iran?  I should know.  Sorry!  

For dinner tonight I made Zucchini "spaghetti".  

it would have been easier with a julienne peeler, but I had the time to slice it all with a knife!