Trendy Melville

The afternoon that I got back to Johannesburg from the Kruger safari I decided to take a stroll along the trendy 7^th street. I had stayed in Soweto for the few days before the tour but had heard that Melville was actually the place to be. I was dying for a coffee but as it turned out the whole of Melville had a power shortage, something I found out was actually fairly common.

The street was quiet and I wondered if it was always like this or if the black-out had scared people away. I passed a cute little café called Love and Revolution and saw its advertisements for yoga and fair trade coffee… definitely the sort of place I would frequent, definitely not the sort of place I pictured finding in Africa. I peered in to the semi-darkness to be greeted by the owner and his manager. They offered me plunger coffee and a seat next to them, they also offered me use of their laptop and an invite to a dinner they were holding later that week.

The manager Kendall was an adorable gay guy and banter with him was fun and comfortable. He told me about the Out In Africa festival that was on (a gay and lesbian film festival) and said he’d take me to see one… only I was too shy to say yes straight away and spent the next hour trying to turn the conversation back onto the film so that he’d invite me again and this time I could say yes… he didn’t invite me again but at least I had said yes to his dinner.

The lights came back on and the café started to fill up with young trendy hipsters so I left.