We’re on Day 92 I think of the lockdown here in Sunny South Africa. Feels like a lot longer than that!

Has much changed? Not really. No eating out unless you do take-away or to-go. No getting together with friends and family, although there are ways around that! I think a lot of people are “going to church” in various places! Stores are open but you can’t try any clothing on. Wearing a mask in public is compulsory as it is almost everywhere else in the world. We can buy booze but only Monday thru Thursday and people who smoke are fueling the black market for cigarettes, depriving the almost bankrupt country of millions in taxes. But still the gestapo keep the ban on! Amazingly illogical rules, some of them.

All it takes is using some common sense - but there are too few people with that trait, a scarce commodity!

We can only do what we do, carefully.

Yesterday I went over to the AIDS centre and donated my old iPhone 7Plus so they can get some good instagram pix. I had planned to sell it once I arrived here in October, but didn’t get around to it before the lockdown which shut down that idea and I told the young interns at the centre that I would bring it in for them to use. But then the shutdown ended any opportunity I had of taking it there until yesterday.

It was such fun to see Paula and the crew there. Bought myself a new mask (I didn’t try it on) but it’s spectacular - made from West Africa Wax Cotton and very colorful. Plus a new beaded necklace. The bead ladies do amazing work.

It’s amazing how even a little, tiny adventure brightens up the day now. In the old normal, going to the grocery store was a chore. Now it’s a big adventure! How deprived we are of any outside stimulation. And how I miss it!

Before June 30 rolls around, I will buy a ticket back to California on Emirates, which is advertising that they will be flying out of here in September. Maybe they know something we don’t know but I’ll grab at any straw. If I buy the ticket by 30th, its covered by the COVID emergency rules, which allows for free changes and is valid for 24 months. it’s a pretty standard price and not a rip-off like the repatriation flights which would break my bank. So I will definitely feel more comfortable having that in hand and ready when the country opens up.

I am really fortunate to be where I am. Comfortable, food on the table, a G&T every night, but I feel that, at least at the moment, and being of an “age” where maybe there aren’t that many years left, that vegetating like we are being almost forced to do is eating into the time we have left to live a full life. And although I really have no firm plans on what I will do when I get back, I just feel as though I will have more opportunity to continue experiencing a full life there, and not here. I had high hopes for being here, but put too much faith in developing and rekindling friendships from a gazillion years ago. And the lockdown didn’t help matters!

This is such an interesting time in history with so much going on. Some of the upheavals and protests I agree with and others I don’t. Of course, we all know things have to change, but the way some people are trying to change things, just make the situations worse (imho). After all, history is history. You can’t change it. Just like you can’t change what happened yesterday. But you can make changes now and in the future to write a new history. I for one, would love to change some of my history! But I can hardly go and burn houses and torch cars or shoot people. All I and anyone can do is try not to repeat the same events (mistakes) and create a time that our grandchildren and their children can, in the future, look back on and appreciate and understand and admire.