I’m really distracted right now, planning a mini out-of-town getaway this afternoon and a move to a new house (and a new neighborhood!) this weekend. My blog will soon be filled with news of these events, but in the meantime I’m experiencing a blogging malaise. I can’t seem to motivate myself to post much here right now.
Wandering Lenasia with the Purple Pimpernel
Last Wednesday I headed down the M1 highway with my pink-haired friend Gail Wilson and my purple-clad friend Faarooq Gardee-Minty Mangera, a.k.a. the Purple Pimpernel. Our destination was Lenasia, a historically Indian township 30 minutes south of central Joburg.
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A Visit to the Thokoza Memorial
Last weekend I attended my second #SpazaShopTour of Katlehong and Thokoza (see my post about the first tour), and visited the Thokoza Memorial for the first time. The Thokoza Memorial, opened in 1999, honors the people who died in this area during the violent political conflict in the years leading up to South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994.
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Spaza Shop Magic in Katlehong
On Saturday I participated in the first-ever #SpazaShopTour, starting and ending at African Accent Spaza Shop in Katlehong.
The weather was miraculously perfect for a six-kilometer walk. We wound through Katlehong and Thokoza, visiting spaza shops and street-side cafés and historical sites, chatting with each other and those we met along the way. Bongani, our host, walked us past his family home and explained what it was like to grow up in Katlehong in the early 1990s, when a deadly war broke out as the apartheid regime came to an end.
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Announcing the Katlehong and Thokoza Spaza Shop Tour
Many of you may remember my post about the African Accent Spaza Shop in Katlehong, which I visited for the first time in June.
I’ve kept going back, for various reasons. Every time I go I wind up spending hours sitting outside the spaza shop, chatting with my friends Bongani and Nkosikhona about anything and everything. At some point the three of us started talking about organizing a tour.
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Touring Soweto with a South African Blonde
Last week I did an all-day tour of Soweto with Eenblond Tours. “Eenblond” means “a blonde” in Afrikaans, which makes sense because that’s exactly what Gilda Swanepoel is.
Gilda and I are kindred spirits – we’re the same age and our life stories have many parallels. Gilda spent lots of time traveling solo around southern Africa and used to write a travel blog. She loves getting to know Joburg’s people and cultures in a very intimate way. I’d been meaning to take one of her tours forever and she does lots of different ones, around Joburg and all over South Africa. But I was particularly keen to go to Soweto with Gilda.