The Simple South African continues.
Local and personal circumstances have rather interfered with my normal routines which include selling a house, moving to a new venue, trying to adjust to much smaller premises (previously four bedrooms, three bathrooms, study, kitchen, lounge and dining room and an outside ‘flat comprising bedroom, lounge kitchen and bathroom. There was also a large garage and workshop (my favourite space) and two small gardens. I now, with my wife of some 50 years, occupy a two bedroom flat, with kitchen, lounge, verandah, garage and small garden. Talk about a small change.
Life goes on, however, and with all the above-mentioned, that has rather disturbed the writing activities, I fear I have neglected my readers. Will try to correct that, starting now.
In previous blogs I have referred to the events that accompanied the migrations around the world, with the more adventurous setting out for foreign, and often very different, and challenging situations, while in other cases, there were those fleeing persecution. They were often not very well-informed, as they based their decisions on the tales brought back by adventurers, seekers of wealth, and those who wanted to find ‘something better’. Inevitably, the information spread by these people was tinted by their wants, needs, or a desire to leave the place in which they found themselves.
I often find myself sitting at this keyboard wondering what was so ‘bad’ in their current situation, or so ‘attractive’ elsewhere that so many people from different countries would leave their existing situations. There are historical records that might enlighten us, but I have found few ‘factual’ writings that give a clear picture of the .good, bad and ugly, so that those wishing to leave their homes and countries were well-informed, and prepared for what they would encounter.
One of the questions that have stuck in my mind over the years (my parents emigrated from the Netherlands many years after the early settlers) was whether what they found was so much better than where they were. This question must have had far more significance for those early settlers who found no written records or clear information that described the destinations they sought, and it does appear that quite a few were ‘running away from’ for many different reasons, rather than running towards something better.