But later I was chatting with Eddie about environmental politics a bit, and I asked him casually whether people in SA do civil disobedience acts like tree sitting. They might be killed. I hear versions of this several times, that it has been in the past, at least, dangerous to take political stands, and people are afraid. There's actually a lot of the same Balinese and Guatemalan stuff there that you'd find at any import store here, also tzatskelehs from all over Africa, all also available at Pier One. I'm pretty fetched by the twisted wire soap dishes and candlesticks and such apparently made in the townships and buy a few little things.
Stuff is made from recycled everything.
I buy a hat crocheted from plastic bags, a bowl collaged with product labels, a little wire doll necklace made from a piece of a coke can. That evening I go to Gill's quilt guild meeting and meet about eight other quilters. They look like the same women you'd meet at a quilt meeting here, proper, older etc. Very nice too. One woman is doing a ten year project, an intricately embroidered peace quilt replacing the traditional American flower motifs with local flowers.