Cruthin' Around

I think I'm making some advancement on the crutches! Around, the house I've just been using one and it's definitely getting easier to move around. I still need both crutches for the trips up and down the stairs--I try to limit those as much as I can.

There are still a lot of things I can't do, like go to the beach. So, yesterday I stayed home while my house mates went to the beach. It was not the most exciting day of my life, but I am making some progress on my book. I'm reading My Traitor's Heart by Rian Malan; its the true story of a white South African attempting to reconcile his family's past with his feelings about apartheid. The author reflects on what it means to be white in South Africa during the 1980s as the country was coming apart at the seams. He is a journalist who was part of the anti-apartheid movement but honestly admits that he still feared things like going into townships and acknowledges that he could never completely separate himself from his family's racist past. The book is pretty compelling and I'm learning a lot about the anti-apartheid movement and the chaos of the time. The author is not afraid to critique his own past which I think allows a deeper connection between reader and writer.

After my day of reading, I went out to a party that some other Americans were throwing. It was pretty fun, and I met some new people, but I got tired of the crutches by the end of the night. Despite my fatigue, going out with the crutches made me more confident about what I can do and hopefully, I won't be spending as much time in the house.

Most of my house is heading off on a hike up Lions Head (one of the smaller mountains in the area), obviously that is not a possibility for me, but later we're all going to an outdoor concert. I think its supposed to be a ska band which should be interesting, so I'll have to write more about that later.