Mzoo Spot

 An official memo expressly stated that all employees must return to the office on the 1st of April. This followed the announcement by the president that the country's 2-year long lockdown had come to an end. 

 I have always held a view, jokingly, that everyone has his/her covid-19 wave. Meaning if you have not contracted covid-19 in one wave, chances are that the next one might be waiting for you. After being careful all this time, covid-19 came knocking. We had felt comfortable after a year of homeschooling that our son can go to school even if it's twice a week, to get a chance to interact with his schoolmates. We felt he probably missed them. Indeed he really enjoyed his few days at school. Unfortunately, when a covid-19 case was recorded in his school, we feared he might be affected. Our fears were indeed justified because a few days later he had a mild, but dry cough. We swiftly took him for a test, and it came out positive. By this time we were feeling healthy with no signs. A few days later, I felt some mild flu signs: muscle pain at the back in the main. The test came out positive. 

I didn’t get a chance to go to school with Joe, because he was a few years younger than me. At the same time, I left Port Alfred to do my high school education in PE, and so we never really crossed paths during this time. I got to know him a little bit closer in the year 2000. By this time I had come back to Port Alfred after finishing my junior degree in PE. Indeed I spent the whole of 2000 in Port Alfred devoting most of my time to coaching football players. He was with Black Aces. In early 2001 I left Port Alfred for Cape Town at the insistence and invitation of the recently departed Mxolisi Payi.  We reconnected with Joe again much later, possibly around 2007/8, this time in Johannesburg. Both of us had started our working careers. I must say when we met again, he was already well established, a married man with a house and car. We met mostly for soccer matches. I remember initially, I lived in the Pretoria CBD, and because I didn’t have a car, I learnt for the first time how t...

It's the end of 2020, and we are back to level 3 lockdown. A coronavirus variant was discovered recently in South Africa and is seemingly driving the second wave of infections in 4 provinces (Eastern Cape, Western Cape, KZN, and Gauteng).  Eastern Cape started to see an increase in early November, and it is in Nelson Mandela Bay metro that this new variant was picked up. Yesterday over 17 000 new infections were recorded, making this the biggest tally since recording. The second wave is well and truly bigger than the first. Technically, however, some medical scientists argue that a second wave becomes possible when the first one has been interrupted. Meaning cases should go back to zero, something that didn't really happen. Although cases did drop for almost three months since August, they didn't get to zero. So, technically we are still in the 1st wave; what we are seeing now is a resurgence. They argue! Vaccines have just been approved and are now administered in affected...

It's now over 100 days since South Africa declared a state of national disaster and thereafter imposed countrywide lockdown to fight COVID-19 disease.  The first cases of COVID-19 were identified in  Wuhan, China in December 2019.  When international news broke in early 2020, very few imagined that an unknown disease will change their lives in ways they never have dreamed of. News broke around March 2020 in South Africa that a group of holidaymakers returning from Italy started to show flu-like symptoms. It turned out they contracted Coronavirus in Italy or during transit. Now South Africa has the most cases in Africa and ranks in the top 10 globally. COVID-19 disrupted life as a whole. We are now in the third month working from home. We have become experts in the use of teleconferencing tools like Zoom and Teams. 

Many years ago Rio only existed in the realm of imagination. I recall those days vividly, because I owned a Barry White's Beware cassette, with the catchy song - Rio de Janeiro.  It's a happy and upbeat song describing the character of Brazilians. This past week I got to see Brazilians live in their own space.  Rio and Brazil are the most recognisable places in the world. Rio is associated with the carnival (a week of partying really), characterised by great colour and sexiness. Rio's Copacabana and Ipanema beaches are canvasses on which Brazilian humanity plays itself out. For many these beaches are associated with busty well toned ladies traipsing about in the slinkiest bikinis.  Brazil as a whole is known for its love and pedigree in football. I was on a four day working visit to Brazil, and surely never enough to capture the essence of that vibrant country. Firstly, I had to endure a 10 hour long daylight flight from OR Tambo to Sao Paolo. Flying for that lon...