Walkway columns are plastered with flyers advertising abortions and penis enlargement, mostly, but also magic potions or witchcraft to win a court case, solve financial problems or recover a lost lover.
With voodoo, you can be free of consequences, physical shortcomings or even the universal curse of losing this and that, until you lose everything, so give me a call, eh? I can cure you of all but the "painful exit."
Next to the train station is the taxi van depot, a spot I've become familiar with, since there's no cheaper way, by far, to get around this vast metropolis. Each van I get on, I'm the only non-black, interestingly, although whites, I'm sure, must hop on one of these, I don't know, once every decade?
Whatever, it's good to be accepted. Although the legal limit for each van is 15 passengers, they routinely pack in two or three more, so we're always sitting shoulder to shoulder.
Having taken buses and vans my whole life, I know damn well why they're so comforting. For the duration of the trip, you don't have to do anything!
Even if you have the shittiest job, you're not there yet, so the funky van is a blessed reprieve. Plus, there's much to see out the windows, almost too much, and you're with people who love you!
Well, maybe not, but at least they won't kill you while you're all jammed inside a stuffy steel box that's redolent of body oils and arm pits" We're all the same, dude, and heading in the same direction, until you get off, that is, so hallelujah!
"Cape Town, bra! Cape Town, sista! Cape Town, boss?"
Before you can get on a van, though, you must cross a yard that often reeks of piss, for hundreds of homeless people live around there. All over Cape Town, there are many cracked windows and glass doors, but on Strand, you'll see even more of them. Vandalism is a leading South African sport, apparently.
A current headline, "Service delays due to attacks on electricity staff." Utility crews are being assaulted in the black townships of Gugulethu, Nyanga, and Khayelitsha, but why?! You tell me"
Since January of this year, 83 taxi van drivers in Cape Town have been killed by a rival company. This is common across South Africa. In 1999, for example, 268 drivers were killed nationwide, and 287 injured.
Reading about Cape Town trains being set on fire, I asked a colored man why? He was sure it's done by taxi van companies to cripple the rail system, "so everyone will have to ride taxis."
He also warned me to never take the local trains, not even to picturesque Simon's Town nearby, "They see you as a foreigner, they'll rob you."
"But aren't there security people on the train?"
"They won't do anything. They're scared. They don't have guns."
Driving their own cars or taking Uber, most whites can sidestep much of this madness, you see, and they never frequent any of the dumpier neighborhoods I've been snooping around.
With voodoo, you can be free of consequences, physical shortcomings or even the universal curse of losing this and that, until you lose everything, so give me a call, eh? I can cure you of all but the "painful exit."
Next to the train station is the taxi van depot, a spot I've become familiar with, since there's no cheaper way, by far, to get around this vast metropolis. Each van I get on, I'm the only non-black, interestingly, although whites, I'm sure, must hop on one of these, I don't know, once every decade?
Whatever, it's good to be accepted. Although the legal limit for each van is 15 passengers, they routinely pack in two or three more, so we're always sitting shoulder to shoulder.
Even if you have the shittiest job, you're not there yet, so the funky van is a blessed reprieve. Plus, there's much to see out the windows, almost too much, and you're with people who love you!
Well, maybe not, but at least they won't kill you while you're all jammed inside a stuffy steel box that's redolent of body oils and arm pits" We're all the same, dude, and heading in the same direction, until you get off, that is, so hallelujah!
"Cape Town, bra! Cape Town, sista! Cape Town, boss?"
Before you can get on a van, though, you must cross a yard that often reeks of piss, for hundreds of homeless people live around there. All over Cape Town, there are many cracked windows and glass doors, but on Strand, you'll see even more of them. Vandalism is a leading South African sport, apparently.
A current headline, "Service delays due to attacks on electricity staff." Utility crews are being assaulted in the black townships of Gugulethu, Nyanga, and Khayelitsha, but why?! You tell me"
Since January of this year, 83 taxi van drivers in Cape Town have been killed by a rival company. This is common across South Africa. In 1999, for example, 268 drivers were killed nationwide, and 287 injured.
Reading about Cape Town trains being set on fire, I asked a colored man why? He was sure it's done by taxi van companies to cripple the rail system, "so everyone will have to ride taxis."
He also warned me to never take the local trains, not even to picturesque Simon's Town nearby, "They see you as a foreigner, they'll rob you."
"But aren't there security people on the train?"
"They won't do anything. They're scared. They don't have guns."
Driving their own cars or taking Uber, most whites can sidestep much of this madness, you see, and they never frequent any of the dumpier neighborhoods I've been snooping around.
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