Expensive Thrill is so over being upset at dutchmen that she wrote a post about why South Africa is great. The thing is that I agree with much of what the lady had to say, I am however going to add a few things here that make it special for me.
Let me start off by saying I left and came back. Thats right I ran for the buiteland like a greyhound after being hijacked in 1998. I have a wife whosé daddy is Irish so getting permission to go and live in the buiteland is easy. The last time we did everything in less than 4 weeks.
But here is the think my African arse needs African sun, African music and to occassionely tune a taxi driver grief.
Here is my list.
The Sun
We don’t have a sun that just gently warms the air before the rain cools it down again. No we have a real sun. It burns and bakes. It turns a white boy into a red boy in 20 minutes if you spend too much time at the wrong time. I regularly hear people bitching about the heat, These are the same people who bitch about the cold. It was 39 degrees celcius here last week, thats right just a few degrees cooler than hades and I loved it.
Keep your paltry 22 degree heatwaves, I want real heat waves. The solar panel on my head needs to feel its wrath regularly. You see if I get into the rain for more than two days I become suicidal. The sun is my friend. I love her dearly.
Photography
Being a photo nut, I can’t help but believe we have the best of the best. Photographers all over the world take photos of lions at the zoo. A fucking zoo I tell you. Give me the wide open spaces, the plains, the rooibokkies, the lizards, agamas and chameleons. No more wild horses, hedges and pruned forests for me.
The scenery in South Africa also calls me, we have everything from rocky crags to desert plains, dunes and the mighty Karroo. Why the hell would anyone want all the grass to be green, It gets boring. In my land I can find the greenest grass, the reddest dirt and sunsets that are awe inspiring.
We have the bluest seas, the greenest forests, muddy dams, lakes and rivers.
The People
From the palest to the blackest, we have it all. Greeks, Porras, Zulus, Afrikaners, Xhosas, Mpondos, Swazis, Seswatis, Germans, Russians and English people all live her under the African Sun. All the cultural differences mean nothing when there is help needed. Have you seen the Rainbow people laughing together, crying together.
I know I am awestruck by the Moves of the traditional dancers. Our people don’t do the polka or the Samba. The earth trembles beneath their feet. The drums create instinctive knowledge that these people are not to be trifled with, A 1000 years of the sun beating down on the ancestors has made these people tough. Nowhere else have I seen men working in the midday sun. The rest of the world siestas while our people laugh and get the job done.
The dark and starry nights
I can step outside my front door at night and watch the twinkling lights in the sky. I am not an astronomer and I don’t know Ursus from Cassiopea but I can recognise the Southern Cross. The sky is just not complete without it.
I could probably find another hundred things to say, but I want to leave some for you. Tell us what you love, come back here and tell us you have or just link here from your wordpress site and I will check out your writing.
Some more stuff you may enjoy
Tags: Dancers, home, people, Photographer, South Africa, Sun



September 16th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
and loving it.
we could all do with a little reminder every now and again that crime and high petrol prices are not all this beautiful country is about!
cheapthrillss last blog post..Why I Love My Country
September 16th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
September 16th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
cheapthrillss last blog post..Why I Love My Country
September 16th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
South Africans last blog post..British Airways is a SA low cost carrier
September 16th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
You mentioned the sun, but would it be so brilliant if it wasn’t set in such a gorgeous blue sky?
And our white beaches; that beautiful ochre soil on the Highveld; and the carpets of flowers that celebrate Spring here in the Cape?
Hell – we even have Zapiro!
There are just so many things around us that ensure that his country that will always have my heart and soul! It’s worth fighting for. It’s worth working hard for.
Rouvannes last blog post..Foto Na Dans - Pantomime op Herwinbare Klanke
September 16th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Cazs last blog post..WHY I LOVE SA (Inspired by EXMI)
September 16th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Kitty Cats last blog post..No kids allowed
September 16th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Charmskools last blog post..I have been tagged! Thanksalot!
September 16th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Roxs last blog post..Kafka on the Shore: Spellbinding!
September 16th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
September 17th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
One thing you didn’t mention. In South Africa, if you want to be an exhaust repairman, you buy two trestles, borrow a welding torch and make a cardboard sign. Congratulations you are now an exhaust repairman. In Europe, you have to have high school maths, study for 6 years, then do an apprenticeship and after about 15 years you may call yourself an exhaust repairman without spending the rest of your life in jail.
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:12 pm
Within my soul, within my mind there lies a place I cannot find. Home of my heart land of my birth, smoke-coloured stone and flame-coloured earth, Electric skies, shivering heat. Blood-red clay beneath my feet. At night when finally alone I close my eyes and I am home,I kneel and touch the blood warm sand, and feel the pulse beneath my hand. Of ancient life too wild to tame, how can I show you what I feel? how can I make this essence real? I search for words in dumb frustratiion to try and form some explanation, but how can heart and soul be caught, in one-dimensional written thought? If love and longing are a fire and man consumed by his desire, then this love is a simple flame, that no mortal thought can hold or tame. As deep within the earths own core, the love of home burns evermore. For I have an African Soul.
April 3rd, 2009 at 10:50 am
Thank you, you made my day. I too have an African soul.
May 15th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
The poem is titled HOMELAND and I wrote it, Michelle Frost, not Smith. (wow, where did Smith come from??)
This is actually only a portion of my poem and not the correct words either, which is sad and frustrating for a writer to see, even though it is nice that you both like the poem.
You can find the real poem with all the right words on my blog here:
http://hhomeland-africansoul.blogspot.com/
Michelle Frosts last blog post..Homeland