Small stories from a big world

  Christmas and New Year in Belgium. It is always a wonderful, busy time. Meeting friends and family, eating good food, laughing, reconnecting in conversations while walking. And telling stories. Stories about monkeys and leopard soft toys, for instance (see Territory 2 ). At many a table, theories were built about nature and nurture, about instinct or learnt behaviour. People shared pictures of leopard decorations, leopard-patterned clothes, leopard shoes and handbags. Then it was New Year’s day, time for the traditional new year’s wishes and exchange of presents. My godchild gave me a fairly impressive box. Not heavy, but bulky. Out came a leopard. A beautiful plush imitation of the real thing. And so I left Belgium, with a leopard - since been named Lazy Lu -in my suitcase. During my first week back it rained all the time. So Lazy Lu stayed inside. He is far too beautiful to get soaked, isn't he? Besides, those monkeys don't show themselves when it rains. They sit on...

In December, I visited St Lucia. A town about 240 km north of Durban. It is sandwiched between sea and lagoon and it is beautiful. A large nature reserve. That nature also just comes into the town. I saw a warthog grazing on a lawn in front of a house. And there are signs everywhere warning you about hippos. They walk in at night to have a taste of that tender grass. So it's better to move around by car after dark. And monkeys, of course! You can see them jumping from branch to branch in the trees, searching rubbish bins, shouting at each other. In short, nothing they don't do back home in Durban either. But one thing was different. On Sunday morning I am having breakfast served on a covered terrace. I sat at a small table between the garden and the breakfast buffet. The other guests had left early. A large troop of monkeys was roaming the neighbourhood, several of them in the garden of this lodge. But, how extraordinary, none made any attempt to take anything from the buff...

  A human being is a territorial animal. You can also see this instinct in how we try to protect our personal space. Just think of all the remedies gardeners in Europe used last year against snails. In the south, it's different pests again. In Vietnam, it was a matter of keeping rats out of the house. And cockroaches! Those really big ones with long antennae. You'd rather not hear them rustling in the dark. Accidentally step on them with your foot. Brrr. No, thanks. There are spiders and ants. In Rwanda, a cupboard was eaten by termites. Once a scorpion wandered in. Over the years, I learnt some techniques to kindly show these little uninvited guests the door or tolerate them, like the geckos whose droppings you find all over the place. Here in Durban, in the fairly tropical province of Kwa-Zulu Natal, you also have cockroaches and ants and things like that. But new to me are the monkeys that just move around in this urban environment. They are vervet monkeys. They are not ...

  Pressing the button on my remote. The garage door rolls up and I walk in quickly. It's raining, hard. That's convenient. The rain will wash away the dust that has accumulated on my car over the past few weeks. It seems symbolic. The rain clatters on the windows and washes away the last remnants of ‘holiday in Belgium’. It is quite a drastic transition. In so many ways. Saturday morning -still in Belgium- I still went jogging on a slippery road, my breath formed little white clouds and my gloves could not prevent my hands from stiffening from the cold. When I stepped off the plane on Sunday evening, it was as if a warm, wet towel was wrapped around my head. Thirty degrees warmer. Twenty-four hours of travel and being in a completely different world. Even before I leave the garage, I press the central locking button. It's safer that way. The steering wheel is on the right side. I reverse and merge into the left-hand lane. The indicators and wipers are also reversed....

  Spring Day is celebrated in South Africa on the first of September. It is not a public holiday, but rather a bit like Valentine's Day. I did look forward to spring after so many months of winter. Spring in the south of the southern hemisphere is completely different from Europe. You get up one day and suddenly discover blossoms on trees everywhere and it seems like it is full summer only a week later. Sometimes. Colleagues in Pretoria and friends in Bloemfontein mentioned very hot days, and then freezing winter temperatures again. Those fluctuations are not abnormal. But here, in the south, where it never gets very cold even in winter, the grey coolness just lingered. Lots of wind, lots of rain. Then, all of a sudden, I saw that splash of colour appear. On the way to work: a tree with bright yellow blossoms and a bit later, the purple shade of the jacarandas as well. What is perhaps even more beautiful is the effect when that purple opulence begins to fall. A road or playground i...

  The east lights up in beautiful pastel shades. It is 6:30am. I have been on the road for an hour and in the meantime I have covered the route that thousands of athletes ran last week, from Durban to Pietermaritzburg. Respect. Meanwhile, it is completely light. I drive through rolling countryside. It is cold. A thick mist hangs in the valleys. The road is busy. Trucks and holidaymakers. This is a long weekend and the winter school holidays have started. Tomorrow is Youth Day. It commemorates the 1976 police massacre of SOWETO schoolchildren protesting against Afrikaans as the language of instruction. On the radio, I hear a report on the first session of parliament after the 29 May elections. For the first time since 1994, the ANC did not have an absolute majority. This caused a lot of unrest: how would a coalition be formed? But there will not be a coalition. The ANC invited all parties to form a government of national unity. The new parliament re-elected the incumbent president R...