Dear South Africa

Dear South Africa,

It's - 9 outside, the sun pretends to be shining but it's kind of sucking at it, and I'm cold. Even inside my 'heat included in the rent' apartment. I'm trying my very best not to think of you, you with your 'Skool vakanie is hier' summer vibe going on. Then I read this article about moving back to SA and my best intentions of embracing yet another Christmas without my family and this stupid cold went out the window (which you must know, is impossible because all my windows are double glass and shut super tight).

I also just had a nice long chat with my parents on Viber, about the places we'll go and the meat we'll eat once we do come visit you, hopefully early next year. My goodness do I need you, I need your affordable lamb chops and wine, your beaches, your lions, Woolworths! I need Woolworths!

It feels necessary somehow, to write this letter to you. It's after a year of leaving you that I need to say, it wasn't you, it was me. I didn't leave because I thought you were going to the dogs, or because of that awkward 'held at gunpoint' incident of early 2012. I left due to meeting this super hot guy while cheating on you with Vietnam, sorry about that by the way. So, yeah, something about leaving for love.

Don't be too concerned about me though, I don't hate it here in this strange land,  I will even miss this place once I leave some day. Isn't that just the lot of an expat? Your heart get's left in all these places and you wonder if you'll ever totally feel at home in one place again. Might just be me. Maybe home is not about a place?

I just wanted to write to you and say I'm totally rooting for you. You're one of kind. I know you have problems, turns out, so does every other country. Despite the etolls and that clown of a current  president, I still think you're the best country on earth and I still can't imagine saying that we'll never move back. I don't know if and when, but I also don't know a ton of other things. Like the rules of rugby (still) and what the hell EFF stands for, because surely it can't actually stand for Economic Freedom Fighters can it?

This letter isn't really about me being homesick for you, or about listing the 204 things I miss about you, I just thought we should, you know, touch base. Let you know that I'm thinking about you and that despite not hanging out for a while I'm still totally crazy about you.

Love,

'n boeremeisie x

2 hours after I first posted this: I just learned that Madiba has passed away. I've typed out at least 7 different sentences here and I keep deleting them, I guess nothing can really be said other than rest in peace great man. We love you.