This morning I woke up at 7am. I am not a morning person so waking up this early is not for me. My body felt like a ton of cement. Struggling to get out of bed, I smelled a thick sent of marijuana. Knowing that one of my house mates was probably already up, I went to wash my face and join him for a ‘smoke sessions’. The smell of weed makes me happy, I often compare it to the feeling of smelling fresh food, knowing you are about to get satisfied. After smoking I felt pretty high, and went back to sleep, missing my morning class. I have now come to realize that the ‘smoking session’ was a ritual- a rite of passage. A rite of passage consists of the separation, liminal/marginal and reincorporation stages. When I went outside to smoke with him, I realized that we were in a spot in the yard away from the walls of the house. This means that we were separating ourselves from the rest of the ‘non-smokers’. We were thus in the separation stage. While smoking, I could feel myself transition to a ‘higher’ level. I was in between sober and high. This was thus the liminal/marginal stage-a stage of constant transition. When the joint was finished, I could feel that I was high. I realized I was no longer in my previous state, but I was now in a new state(high). We went back into the house and rejoined the space of our fellow housemates. We thus went into the reincorporation stage, as we were in a new state, and reincorporated into our groups.

After falling asleep, I woke up again around 9, got ready and left for class. In class, I could hear the students speaking about the lecture of the day before. Because I did not attend that lecture, I felt a bit confused. Suddenly my mouth ran dry, it felt like the drought season we had in Cape Town a couple of years ago. I then reached into my pocket and took out some halls, tasting relief instantly.

After leaving class I went home to my girlfriend. I saw her standing outside. It turns out there was a lizard in the room and she was scared, and waited for me to come and chase it out. I realized that this was an example of the social position of the man’s role as the protector of the female. I went in and chased out the lizard (I was not going to kill it of course!)

By this time it was around 6, and my girlfriend cooked. She made me some Roti, which I loved since its taste reminded me of home. We then went to sleep.

With minimal contact on a day-to-day basis, I do not speak to a lot of people, hence there is not a lot to narrate about my day.

Lorenzo De Booy

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