I have felt absolutely helpless this last week, watching the mayhem and seeing South Africa implode. The destruction is so hard to see unfolding and fearing for my friends and family. And feeling so guilty not being there to help the communities and specifically, the little community where I was living. It’s such a helpless feeling, seeing the disaster unfold and being powerless to do anything.

This time last week was the first of the rampages and over the weekend, my brother’s factory building and rental storage units were looted and torched. His life’s work up in flames and dozens of people now are without work. The mobs rampaged through the local areas, looting and destroying whatever they could. Food and supply warehouses looted and burned; trucks and fuel tankers attacked and burned, causing widespread food and gas shortages. And putting untold numbers of people out of work and now they and their families face even more severe poverty and starvation.

Neighborhoods banded together, forming units to guard their neighborhoods, 24/7, armed sometimes with only baseball bats and machetes, barrackading the streets and protecting homes and lives.

And all supposedly, or at least initially it was thought, to get Zuma (the other Trump) out of jail.

And today, although the rioting and mayhem seems to have slowed somewhat, with the army out in force, unexpected sources, like the Taxi Association (long thought of as a mafia-type organization) has banded together and said “You Loot, We Shoot,” and I have no doubt they would! But they also got out onto West Street, our main Durban city street, for a huge cleanup, brandishing brooms, not guns, and armed with just their brooms and black plastic bags, wearing masks (hallelujah) and rubber gloves, cleaning up the streets of the city.

It’s heartwarming to see humanity coming together, not just in Durban, but Pinetown and and other smaller towns, where civilians have taken to the streets and malls to clean up. Facebook groups are popping up with groups organizing the cleanups and WhatsApp threads are rolling with other groups and communities banding together.

According to the latest reports, these rampages were staged by 12 people who have apparently been identified, several within the government and others part of the radical branch of the ANC (political party). Whether they will be apprehended and jailed remains to be seen. We are hearing that it was a failed coupe attempt.

Compared with what is going on in South Africa, my concerns are really small! Of course, I’m concerned about going back to a nation at war (basically) and wonder when/if life there will ever get back to any kind of normalcy. On top of the mayhem, the pandemic is soaring and the chaos of the past few days can only exacerbate it, as the majority of the hoards were unmasked. And because of this chaos, the vaccine rollout is on hold. Clinics raided and destroyed, putting all the caregivers at risk.

So now I need to re-consider my options.

The pluses:
I have a place to stay indefinitely here in Washington in the little apartment at Jim and Mardelle.
I have my car.
I have health insurance, albeit in Los Angeles.
I’m surrounded by old friends

The downside:
If I stay it will be through winter and I really hate winter
The US is SO expensive
I miss my friends

But for now, I’m not making any decisions other than going down to California as I have doctor visits scheduled for August.

And after that, who knows? There’s the possibility of a month-long housesit over Christmas near Ryan. If that is confirmed, then there is the option of staying up in Port Townsend until then. And possibly returning to South Africa early next year when things have settled down a bit.

So I do have options but won’t be making any big decisions until I have more of a feel for the future!