Every year I spend a few weeks in South Africa visiting my family. The first two weeks I spent in Durban with my mom, and we spent many hours sitting on her sunny verandah watching the garden birds as well as other random visitors. Here are some pics that I snapped during that time. Next on to Cape Town and a five day stay at Struisbaai, a beautiful little town near Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa, where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet.
I’m back in the USA after spending a month in the country of my birth, South Africa. So many stories to tell, so much I could say, about the sadness and the hopelessness, the unnecessary suffering. Mainly due to corruption and theft. Theft from the people who have been robbed of an opportunity to create a great new African example of growth and prosperity. Theft by those in positions of authority at every level who have used those positions to enrich themselves at the expense of a naive and trusting people who believe their empty promises and vote them into power. I took these photos to illustrate a theme that is repeated everywhere in this country. The disparity between the haves and the have-nots. There’s plenty of blame to go around and plenty of opinions, but it is what it is.
I have posted about these guys in the past, but since nothing much else exciting goes on in my Mom’s retirement village, here is another episode, season 2 🙂
People put out food for the birds before they go to bed – big mistake! Problem is that monkeys get up earlier than the birds and so apply the old adage – “ya snooze, ya lose”.
Actually there was some other excitement the other morning, and it wasn’t good excitement. Five of the residents’ homes were broken into and robbed during the night. The little village is surrounded by a wall with an electric fence, and there are gate guards on duty 24/7, but these things still happen. Fortunately no one was hurt, but the old folks were still pretty rattled, especially one lady who sleeps with her phone right next to her bed and who discovered it gone the next morning!
We all have our pesky garden critters, and Durban in South Africa is no exception. Yes, they look cute and they sure are smart, but they are also very destructive thieves. I was watching a troop of them this morning as they cavorted in the garden, swinging through branches, smashing through delicate orchids, breaking off choice flowers and munching on them, emptying out the bird feeder and the bird bath. You also can’t go out and leave the kitchen windows open here, otherwise they’ll raid your home and steal the food. I know I should have chased them off, but they were too much fun to photograph!
