Day 3-048
4 hrs, 4 .2 kms
Day Totals: 10 hrs, 7.1 kms

I notice in along the way that there are a lot of lodges and parks catering to tourists, but all of them are well outside the city. Once we reach the city of Mafikeng, there's not a tourist to be seen anywhere.

With no place to store my bag, I come up with an idea: every supermarket has a "bag drop off spot" so people don't enter carrying their bags. How about if I leave my backpack there? No one says you HAVE to shop in the store! So I do, then head out to explore then town.

The streets are crowded in the central commercial area which feels like a mix of Africa and America. Shopping malls have replaced traditional markets, but the transportation hub, with "leave when they fill up" minibuses is very African. There are suspicious looking fellows skulking about, but I figure I should be OK if I stay in the busy area.

The problem is there are no parks or plazas anywhere for doing my Parkbench concert . the only green spaces are around the churches, and these are locked up. Finally I figure that my best bet will be to strum in an enclosed outdoor area outside of KFC. I wonder if this is going to be my typical experience here in South Africa.

I do try to disconnect from my personal experience and concern about security to open my eyes and observe the experience of people around me. I see overall people look healthy and happy. None of the signs of malnutrition or abject poverty that I saw in Western Africa. I'm sure people here have concerns about safety, but they're probably not carrying around a lot of valuables like I am--and they know the places and times of day to stay off the streets.

A fellow strikes up a conversation with me. He tells me he's a police officer, and explains a bit the challenges he faces.

"People say we're not doing our job. The problem is that the constitution makes it hard for us to arrest people--we have to have a very good reason to do so. And it's easy for them to sue us. Then when we do arrest them, they end up out on the street the next day committing another crime."

I imagine that due to police abuse during apartheid era, the new constitution has limited the powers of the police... maybe a bit too much.

I do learn later that there are some towns out west where crime is very low. These towns are small and isolated, so it's not easy for criminals to just disappear. And the police aren't shy about roughing people up...