thanks.

My father says that after True Thankfulness will always come Joy.

my father is a man of great wisdom, even if he has hurt a lot of people along the way and doesn't seem to acknowledge it.

He told me to try it. just to see if it would work.

So I wrote an e-mail of true thankfulness to my stepmother, who alongside my father, decided to let me have $200 for a birthday present a few months early. It allowed me to go to Mozambique for a few days.
In Mozambique I had the best prawns (shrimp) known to man-kind. I had matapas? matadas? some kind of delicious spinach and prawn liquid that you pour on top of rice or pap/mealie meal.
I met great adventurous spirits.
I laid in a hammock in the afternoon sun.
I slept a lot.
I experienced life in a normal city that didn't feel touristy. It was normal Maputans eating in the restaurants and buying vegetables from the women on the sidewalks. It was school kids who passed me on the streets not beggars. The police presence perhaps had something to do with that, and I know that I missed seeing a lot of the city, the poorer and more desperate areas, I'm sure. I walked around the business areas. the government housing areas, the beaches, most of the city center.
All the streets are named after leftist revolutionaries. including Mao Tse Tung and Kim il sung. and Karl Marx. and Lenin.
I am thankful for that adventure.
And I am thankful that I had some time to get away from Stellenbosch to process my time here. And I didn't cross the Atlantic, so when I came back, I could remember the parts that I really do love, and acknowledge the many idiosyncrasies that I have gotten used to. And I got to take more pictures.
I am thankful for all of that.
See you soon America