Welcome to South Africa...Duck Mother****er

That is the line from one of the best t-shirts i've seen here, the only picture on the t-shirt is that of an AK 47.

It seemed quite appropriate as I now seem to live in what can best be termed a slightly different conditions. The trouble started in Jo'burg where anti-immigrant violence broke, directed on Somali's Zimbabwe-ans and Mozambique-ans. Then slowly it traveled down the coast to cape town. The source of the violence is poverty- shocker- people frustrated that there are no jobs and focus there hate on the Somalis who often own the local grocery stores in the townships, and the others who compete for jobs. The church across the road is housing immigrants from the townships which is cool, although it is not to say that there isn't anti-immigrant sentiment here, I remember long before this a man approached me crying (at the time i thought he was a particularly adept beggar) claiming to be from kenya and saying how everyone here was so mean to him and he couldn't get a job, no one would give him a chance. I gave him some change and never thought more of it until this. then the other day a homeless guy came to our door complaining about the immigrants, saying they were taking all the jobs. actually one of the more interesting things recently that we discovered, we have a policy never to give money to anyone who comes to the door, sure that sounds kinda cruel, but it came after we did for the first few days and weeks and suddenly every 5 minutes there is someone at your door, it's too much. well there is this one really quite insane fellow who we gave food to once and he has never really stopped coming, he doesn't speak or shout he just holds his hand on the doorbell for about 10 minutes and then leaves, needless to say he is not a fan favorite, also he accused one of my roomates of stealing from him and he carries a knife. Now it's always been kind of a wonder as too why he keeps coming back. well the other day I was coming back from the store and saw him outside the house, not wanting to get involved with this guy i turned around and pretended I was going the other way, Shortly thereafter he passed by and i walked back to the house, on our wall there was a huge piss stain, it turns out he has been ringing the doorbell for 10 minutes at a time then in vengence he pisses on our wall, i guess he just has to use the bathroom.
Suddenly everything fell apart.
Some of our roomates went to the local restaurant which has free internet. It's a really nice restaurant, and it has always seemed out of place in observatory, even more so with so many people sitting there with their laptops. Sure enough two men enter and try and grab the laptops from two girls sitting next to my roomates, then when the girls refused they started hitting the girls, one of the laptops fell and broke, they panicked grabbed one of my roomates purses and the girls laptop and sprinted out of the restaurant. So that was interesting. Luckily no one was severly hurt or had much taken.
Then there was the one yesterday... this one was scary. Jess was on her way to a final around 430 in the afternoon (you should never take a minibus taxi a) alone as a woman b) after 4 c) one with just dudes. But jess was late for a final, didn't want to wait for her friends and went for it.
(just to clarify these are VW vans with a driver and man sitting in the back opening the door and collecting the money, oh and shouting CAAAAAAAAAAAPE TYYOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWNNNNNNNN!!!! to anyone and everyone on the street, often getting out of the car to chase you down just to ask you if you are going to WWYYYYYYYYYYYYYYNNNNNNNNNNBEEEEEERRRRRG which is the other town they call out. but anyway)
jess gets in and immediately things get weird with the money collector
"ah miss we just have to take a detour here to pick up more passengers"
-they toured around the townships, the man collecting the money got sketchier and sketchier "you know dear there are some people who do good things and some who do bad"
- awkward
finally after gassing up the car they continue into a nice area "don't worry sweetie we just have to stop at this factory, don't worry you're safe, I'm not gonna rob and rape ya, ahahahaha"
finally it gets ugly.
he pulls out a knife and demands everything she has "gimme you bank card and pin NOW!!!"
"I don't have it I'm going to a final, why the fuck would I bring it there?" jess by the way is tough
she gives the man her backpack which has nothing, he is still shouting at her and pushing her, and the van is still moving, finally she throws her cell phone at him jumps up to the front seat, the driver stops and she gets out. the van drives off and she finds herself in a nice quiet suburb of capetown, oh and she still has a final to take.

So needless to say things have escalated here. But rest assured in reality these are just a few isolated incidents, on the whole I feel very safe here, alert but safe. Tomorrow marks a week left here before I go to London for a few days, pick up my mother and go to mother russia, I've taken 3 of my "finals", which i wouldn't know whether to classify as really easy or really hard, only grades will tell. Friday is my last final, then some hiking and i'm out of here... well maybe a beer or two.
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