Much Ado About Nothing

Flying over the coast of East Africa, Zanzibar and Lake Malawi I was quite tempted to abandon the idea of working in Mozambique and travel all over Africa instead. I think I might have slightly annoyed the lady next to me by constantly leaning over excitedly looking at the view and trying to work out what I was looking at. On descending into Jo'burg the enormity of what I am about to do suddenly hit me and I was terrified.

Once I got off the plane and found the taxi I'd booked I felt much better. When, as we left the airport carpark the driver had to take his keys out of the ignition and then restart the engine to prove that he hadn't hot-wired the car, I was reminded of how different things are in South Africa. As we drove into Jo'burg, I chatted to the driver. He was quite a strange man - born in Malawi and brought up in Rhodesia - he made lots of jokes that I didn't quite get and after I told him that I studied the 'antichrist in art' at Edinburgh, he proceeded to tell me that we were living in the time of 'iron and clay feet' and that Christ would soon be coming back down to earth to judge us. I'm not familiar with the book of Daniel, but I think he meant that the end of the world was coming. (Just to warn you)

I stayed with Margaret - a good friend of a good friend - she was incredibly nice and had gone out of her way to make me feel welcome. We sat in her garden and drank wine, and after supper her son Andrew invited me to go out with him and his friends. It was interesting to be immersed into a complete group of friends from a different country - I couldn't quite work out what was different about them, and I couldn't get over how cheap the beer was. They all seemed very nice and were hugely entertaining, but at 1am, after a 4am start and an eight hour flight I had to go and sleep.

On Friday night, Margaret, Andrew and I went to see Bryan (an old friend of Andrew's and one of the people I had met the previous evening) in the Wits University production of 'Much Ado About Nothing'. Even though it is one of the few Shakespeare's I haven't studied, I immensely enjoyed it. I thought the energy and dynamics of the cast were excellent. There was lots of jumping around the stage, singing and chanting and the overall use of space was very effective. I confess that I did have some problems following some parts of the play, but Shakespearean language is never easy, especially in a strong South African accent. Bryan who played Benedick, and the guy who played Claudio were by far the best. I decided not go and see Mr. Scruff with Andrew, Bryan and their friends. If I hadn't had to wake up early to go to Mozambique I would have loved to go.

My time in Jo'burg was definitely too short. The Stuart Watsons took great care of me, and I will definitely go back and visit them. Whilst I didn't feel safe in the city, I think the majority of that unease came from people in the UK scaremongering, and maybe reading the local papers doesn't help.

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