An article on Women24 caught my eye. It’s humorous at the same time as being realistic. I find myself not wanting to go out for similar reasons.

It’s entitled “Why Joburg is the strangest city”. She starts off by saying:

In most big cities, one drives to the dry cleaners, parks, runs in, picks up the clothes, and runs out again. In Jozi - not so much.

The writer tells of wanting to pick up a dress at the dry cleaners, and on the way, of having to deal with vendors at traffic lights wanting to wash her car’s windows, sell counterfeit DVDs and homeless magazines.

At the end of it all, she got home with a whole lot of goods she didn’t need, a bunch of homeless magazines and no dress from the dry cleaners.

I don’t want anyone washing my car windows at traffic lights so I normally give the window washer an apple or a sandwich from my lunch. I don’t buy goods simply because my purse is in the boot of the car – on account of all the smash and grabs that can happen, nothing is visible in the car.

It is for the same reason that I don’t buy homeless magazines, even though I would be helping a homeless person.

Living in this city is amazing and it is also amazingly complex.