Sunday, December 23, 2007
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Santas on Patrol
Today I was driving in southeastern Pretoria, a more rural area, and a nursery was holding a giant Christmas sale. Someone thought it would be a good idea to post a Santa Claus at the driveway entrance for advertising. This Santa Claus was skinny and black and his red suit was very baggy and he was not in a promotional mood. He was sprawled in a yellow plastic chair with his legs jutting straight out while he calmly watched traffic and waved at no one. On my second pass an hour later, he hadn't changed his position but his long white beard was pulled beneath his chin so he could pop nuts into his mouth without interference. He was the most bored, skinny, African Santa I've ever seen and, while he didn't convince me to buy plants, he did make me laugh.
At the stoplights, there are always vendors. You can buy sunglasses, mesh "table tents" to keep the flies off of food, cellphone car chargers, drinks, rubber balls, brooms and clothes hangers which are very popular. There are often poor whites at the lights too but they only hold signs asking for money. Sometimes there are young black men whose faces are painted white who step in between the stopped cars, do a dance and then pass by with their can for some coins. I don't know what the history is for "white face" in South Africa but, depending on the mood and the day, it's often kind of creepy. But yesterday I saw a guy who tipped the scene into the absurdly hilarious category. He was dancing with a painted white face......and wearing a Santa hat with white dreadlocks hanging from the cap. The dreadlocks were whipping around his head while he danced and he clutched his can in one hand and hats for sale in the other. I fumbled to get out my cellphone camera but didn't make it in time for the green light so I watched the white-faced, dreadlocked black Santa prancing away in the rearview mirror.
At the stoplights, there are always vendors. You can buy sunglasses, mesh "table tents" to keep the flies off of food, cellphone car chargers, drinks, rubber balls, brooms and clothes hangers which are very popular. There are often poor whites at the lights too but they only hold signs asking for money. Sometimes there are young black men whose faces are painted white who step in between the stopped cars, do a dance and then pass by with their can for some coins. I don't know what the history is for "white face" in South Africa but, depending on the mood and the day, it's often kind of creepy. But yesterday I saw a guy who tipped the scene into the absurdly hilarious category. He was dancing with a painted white face......and wearing a Santa hat with white dreadlocks hanging from the cap. The dreadlocks were whipping around his head while he danced and he clutched his can in one hand and hats for sale in the other. I fumbled to get out my cellphone camera but didn't make it in time for the green light so I watched the white-faced, dreadlocked black Santa prancing away in the rearview mirror.
Photos
The registration process for seeing our photos hasn't worked very well for some people so we're making the new photos visible to everyone.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
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