My Matsieng memoirs
Friday, September 25, 2015
We were amazed by the number of shopping malls, shops, cafes and restaurants in the city, which reminded me very much of Phoenix, Arizona and other American cities in arid parts of the States. The restaurants are varied and offer great food. (Our favourite was The Abyssinian in Riverwalk Mall.) The cinemas are clean and show all the latest films. The quality and variety of goods for sale is certainly beyond anything available to me in my part of Britain. The two guide books I bought before coming here, namely the Lonely Planet and Brandt guides, provided plenty of ideas for interesting places to visit.
Being in a country for the first time is always a little nerve-wracking so we asked Precious, the maid of the house we had rented, and her daughter, Mighty, to come with us on our travels, which they seemed only too glad to do.
It is not uncommon in this part of the world for parents to actually punish their children when they show signs of depression associating it with issues of indiscipline, and as a result, the poor child will be lashed or given some kind of punishment. We have had many suicide cases in the country and sadly some of the cases included children and young adults. We need to start looking into issues of mental health with the seriousness it...