hiking in the bundus

So one day I was really itching to go on the quad bike with the research assistant at the NGO I was working at. You see part of his job was to go up the hills in the quad bike to go and map up a few plots and check up on progress. So he had a really cool job because he was clever enough to study conservation while I was wallowing away in journalism school.

Anyway, so one day when it was not that busy in the office, I offered to go help the eco warrior with his research up up on the hills. It is only not that I realise how crazy that was. But I wanted to drive a quad bike up and down the hill, so off we went.
Now, please take a moment to look at the picture I have posted with this post and you will realise how high up we were. And you know how when you are driving past the hills and they look very green and the grass looks like it is up to your knee? Well it is not. Nearly 10 minutes into the climb I was panting, exhausted and really tired of having to fight off the long grass off my face. It really did not help that eco-warrior kept telling me about the snakes that he sometimes came across.

I regretted the hike terribly. And my legs, oh my poor legs were so sore. But eco warrior was hiking like he is just taking a stroll to the corner store while I was panting like those people on “the biggest looser.” Three hours later we were done. I had climbed steep hills, jumped over streams and just generally put my body through the most excruciating exercise regime I have had in my whole entire life.

Please look at the picture again and notice my smile. It was completely fake. I was just smiling at the camera. Deep down my body was going “death is better!” given the chance I would probably do it again but this time I would stick to driving up and down on the bike while eco-warrior does all the hiking.

break...

http://tinyurl.com/2wcpn5f

I have been a bit lazy to blog these days. Not because I do not have the time. But actually because I have too much time. Too many opinions. But sadly not enough words with which to express them. So I choose not to write.

baGhana Baghandisgusting

http://tinyurl.com/3yhym5b

So my beloved South Africans are so caught up in all this world Cup madness that it seems that amnesia is turning out to be one of the side effect.

a little bit of background if I may: South Africa is hosting the 2010 Fifa soccer World Cup which is ending on July 11. So for the past three weeks we have had days of drinking, hugging, kissing and just behaving like we are a festival somewhere in the bush, even though we are in the middle of Cape Town.
The tourists are here, so we are being gracious hosts and since we do not speak much Swahili, Portuguese, Dutch, French etc drinking and screaming loudly seems to be working quite well for our international relations.

http://tinyurl.com/3axc23u

So everyone is happy and we have even brushed the xenophobia under the carpet and are calling the Ghana team, baGhana baGhana, now. You see our South African team, Bafana Bafana, bombed out in the first round so it seems we have adopted Ghana as our own, for now

This is in Stark contrast with what people have been saying in the city though. We (the media) have received reports that xenophobia violence is going to start all over again after the World Cup.

So you can see my confusion, and that of my fellow colleagues. Because on the one hand we all love each each other and on the other hand we are threatening other Africans with violence.

All the genuine and false comradie is mixed into a little cocktail glass provided by Fifa.

So now that Ghana is out of the World Cup, we love or hate them again, depending on how well your bank balance looks.

South Africa is a very Schizophrenic country. it seems.