Dependancy.

One of the massive differences between England and South Africa is safety. The area where I've lived all my life is amazing. Everybody knows each other and it's all very friendly and safe. It's taken my mother an hour before to make it from one end of our road to the other (and it is not a very long road at all-I could walk the length in 5 mins) because she's stopped to talk to people or people have stopped to talk to her! In Manchester I would go out at night alone and not even think about it, I regularly used to walk home at 2am after babysitting.

Here in SA however it is a totally different matter. Yesterday me and Sarah were on the train (I'm not a huge fan of taking the train because they can be so dangerous here for a white person) and we were the only 2 white people in the whole carriage. And it wasn't an empty carriage. Also, at night, you just do NOT go out alone. I haven't been outside in the dark on my own for nearly 6 months and by the time I get back I won't have been outside on my own for a whole year. It's just not safe. Even in the daytime I've heard of people getting into potentially sticky situations. It makes you so unbelievably dependant on other people. If I want to go to the gym or the shop after dark, I have to find someone else to come with me or I don't go. I used to be so scornful of those girls that need a friend to go to the bathroom with them in case they get lonely or whatever the reason is, but now I've nearly become one of those people. I've become so used to having people around me all the time I find it weird when I'm on my own. Last night one of my roomies was still on holiday and the other 2 were out for the evening. I turned off my laptop at about 12.30 and tried to go to sleep but I couldn't because my room was too quiet. I've not slept a night on my own for nearly 6 months and now it seems that I need other people around me even when I'm sleeping! My roomies came back before I fell asleep so everything was OK!