10. Quasi-Hermit Weekend

It’s chilly this morning. I remember a time when I was still in Johannesburg, I would wake up early with a bad hangover on a weekend. Despite the wobbly condition, I would still drag myself to run. Somehow the chilly wind blowing on my face was salvation—atones the previous night’s sinful binge.

I used to have this weekend hermit habit: staying at home reading or roaming the city I was in alone. If I was at home, I just read and relish the experience conveyed by a good book—I don’t utter a single word with anybody. And if I wanted to roam the city, I would walk and take the cheapest route available. 

One weekend morning, I took my company-issued Corsa Bakkie for a ride. Since our accommodation was in Midrand, which was an hour drive away from the townships—that would be Soweto, I get to have breakfast on the road at those makeshift food stalls tended by the local ‘big’ mamas (my South African site agent coined the monicker). Breakfast would sometimes be a staple of pap (a mashed potato-looking lump of dried porridge made of coarse maize or corn) served with grilled sausage (‘sheba’ or ‘boerewors’). The greasy breakfast was heavy and filling—not to mention cheap. The big mamas would be surprised why a Mexican-looking Asian from a country they have not heard before would have the most important meal of the day in such an establishment. I said I wanted to try their food—food is food. The big mama smiled. 

I was just one of the lucky few that were fortunate enough to work in South Africa to build their stadiums and their infrastructure (the Gautrain for one) for the 2010 World Cup. It was just one of the few moments that has been imprinted in my heart.

I experienced that moment alone. And in doing so, I had breakfast in a place that has been unfairly treated as dangerous—dodgy—but there I was, chowing on pap and sheba. Sometimes, you need to be lost to create what you seek. That morning I created an experience; that made me happy.

I need this experience again. I’m restoring this habit again. I will switch off the net.

I will be lost. And in doing so, create those experiences again.

“Not till we are lost, in other words not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations.”

~Henry David Thoreau

My hermit playlist