#Culture

Another guest post from Squeak, who we now call ‘Smokey-Squeak’. This post will make more sense if you read Smokey-Squeak’s original post first.

A lot has happened since I last updated you on my situation. Soon after I wrote my previous post, Ms. M came to Heather and Joe’s house to talk to them about me. I was there when they were talking. It was awkward. Ms. M apologized for what was happening and so did Heather. Everyone looked down at me with sad expressions on their faces. This is when Heather and Joe learned that my real name is Smokey, not Squeak.

I recently visited Alexandra Township for the first time since moving to Joburg, to attend a kids’ baseball tournament. At the end of my post about the tournament, I said I was looking forward to spending more time in Alex in the near future. Turns out my next visit was nearer than I thought – two days later I received an invitation to attend a tour of Alex, sponsored by Joburg Tourism and the Alex Tourism Route-Open Africa Cooperative (ATROAC).

Africa is not an easy place to be gay. Homosexuality is illegal in more than half of African countries. South Africa is the most progressive African country when it comes to gay rights, and yet ‘corrective rape’ – lesbians being brutally raped and sometimes killed by men who seek to ‘cure’ them – is a frequent occurrence here. Here’s one of many recent articles I found about corrective rape.

I grew up watching baseball, as I described in a recent post. I also grew up playing softball, which is baseball’s alternative for girls in the United States. I played softball competitively from when I was about 8 until I turned 30, when I was forced to retire after one too many knee surgeries.