This is an odd place.....

So, I’ve been sitting on my bed for some time trying to think about what to write for this entry. I flicked through my photo’s and began to realise how truly surreal my life is. I know extremes between wealth and poverty exist everywhere, and that completely different cultures can exist close together.
However, within the space of a couple of weeks I have attended a wedding like this:

I’ve been drinking in a place like this:















Where the ladies’ toilet looks like this:




I’ve been dancing here:






















And I’ve stayed in a B&B like this:


I'm not sure that these pictures really sum up the contrast - you also have to bear in mind that there are people living in tin shacks within half a mile of my place.

I think I’m a flexible and open-minded person, and I consider myelf quite well travelled. I just can’t work out how all this fits together.

At the moment my social life is dependant on white people. They can drink and they can moan like nothing I have ever witnessed before. I find the moaning very hard work.

My work colleagues who are all black apart from my regional manager are very dedicated to turning things around in this area.

You don’t see racially mixed groups of people hanging around socially.


I can’t speak for the rest of South Africa but Mthatha is a very odd place