The Luxpats

Category: Destinations

  • Nannies: The Thaw

    —

    by

    luxpat
    in

    My paranoia about A’idah kidnapping Spencer got worse and worse. Every day, I’d be in a good mood when she arrived in the morning and a black mood when she left to go home. I was surprised to acknowledge, however, that I didn’t dislike A’idah. In fact, she and I got along wonderfully all day,…

  • Nannies: Paranoia

    —

    by

    luxpat
    in ,

    Every night before she leaves to go home, our nanny makes a joke about taking Spencer home with her. I don’t think these jokes are very funny. Call me paranoid, but with each new joke I get a little more uneasy. It’s not in A’idah’s favor that she wears these thick-rimmed bifocals that make her…

  • Watching His Children Mourn Him

    —

    by

    luxpat
    in ,

    The night Nelson Mandela died, a violent wind blew dark clouds across the yellow sky in Cape Town. The air here is never completely still; it brushes against your face with the weight of the sea every time you step outside. Once every few weeks it’s so windy that the flower sellers pack up early,…

  • How Long Would You Wait at a Free Clinic?

    —

    by

    luxpat
    in

    When I walked into the hall at 8:30, I was given a number and a piece of paper to fill out. The man who handed it to me wore a surgical mask. I sat next to a young woman, who leaned over conspiratorially and said, “They don’t care about us. It’s all about them. It’s…

  • An art collage that measures public sentiment

    —

    by

    luxpat
    in ,

    Aleta Michaletos was interviewed on the Africa News Network last night about her collages and their unforeseen connection with Nelson Mandela. Michaletos began making the collages in Pretoria, SA in 1989.  Mandela was still in prison, and politics were tenuous. Clashes between supporters of the ANC and the National Party erupted in anonymous bombings throughout…

  • Keeping Warm in a Smallpox Blanket

    —

    by

    luxpat
    in ,

    Don’t bother wasting education on people (Africans, in this case) who don’t need it because they are meant to serve. That’s what a minister of education meant when he said, “Education ‘must train and teach people in accordance with their opportunities in life,’” as quoted in Mandela’s autobiography. We all call bullshit, his argument is…

  • Nannies

    —

    by

    luxpat
    in ,

    Rich people have nannies. I’m not rich. I became rich when A’idah told me that she charged $20 per day to care for my infant son, clean my house, and cook me dinner. When I was six years old, a cashier at the grocery store paused before taking the food stamps from my mother’s hand.…

  • Scary Things They Have to Say in Airline Policy

    —

    by

    luxpat
    in

    Cathay Pacific reserves the right to deal with unruly passengers in several ways, one of which is “making the passenger exit the aircraft while the aircraft is on the ground” [emphasis mine]. I was so glad I’d chosen Cathay Airlines when I read this. THANK YOU Cathay. I hadn’t considered that you might have reserved…

  • TSA, National PTSD, and Prosthetic Breasts

    —

    by

    luxpat
    in

    Every time we travel to a new country, we pay attention to what’s going on at security to get through quickly without embarrassing ourselves more than usual. As you might expect, the US has the strictest checks we’ve seen. A sample of recent screening points: Philippines: Metal detector, no full-body scan, no electronics removed from…

  • Hong Kong Laid Over: A Exploration of the Senses

    —

    by

    luxpat
    in

    The airline gave us a dark plush room in a nice hotel located in the heart of Hong Kong. There were two shower caps, one sewing kit in a hard plastic case, two free bottles of water, one large can of peanuts for eight dollars, two paper bags on a peg next to the toilet…