#Africa

Ruth asked me to provide moral support while she got a tattoo to celebrate her birthday. Even better, she invited me to bring my camera.

Instagram of SA Hardcore Tattoos, one of the most well-known tattoo parlors in Joburg. The owner is Orthodox Christian, hence all the crucifixes and Blessed Virgins. I dig the juxtaposition of religious symbolism and tattoo ink.

Poetry, like many other things, is different in Africa than in other parts of the world.

Thumelo, a South African poet, performs today at the Sophiatown Bar & Lounge in Melville.

I’m in the Eastern Cape at the moment. The Eastern Cape is one of my favorite South African provinces; the people are friendly, the pace is slow, and the scenery is beautiful in a non-dramatic kind of way. It’s seriously cold though, especially in the evening. There’s frost on my car windshield in the morning, and the mountains are capped with snow. (By the way, ice-scrapers don’t exist here so forget about scraping the windshield. You just turn your car on and wait for the frost to melt.)

Pine forests don’t belong in Southern Africa. Like countless other non-native plants and animals, pine trees were brought here by Europeans and continue to be cultivated on a large scale by paper and timber companies.

I don’t spend a lot of time around small children. Very few of my friends have kids and there aren’t many children living in Melville. When I am thrown into a situation with a lot of little kids, I’m always taken aback by how tiny they are.