My Morning Commute

Here’s a day in the life of a director of a nonprofit in South Africa – the good, the bad and the ugly.  By African standards, which tend to run to the extreme, this was pretty low on the good, bad, ugly scales but a typical day nonetheless…

Dishes by Candlelight - tres romantique'

Day started off ugly as I was on Day 3 with no electricity.  Doing dishes by candlelight is tres romantique’, applying makeup in the dark – not so much.  The results are either ghoul or clown – and the results aren’t revealed until the sun comes up and I am out and about and there’s nothing I can do about it.  Additional ugly factors – no hot water means no shower which means greasy hair, dark bags due to lack of sleep due to summer heat and no fan, and to top it all off - no coffee!

But I was determined this would be a good day in spite of the acute uglies because I was off to the beautiful country side to scout out a new location for PLAY camp.  With the electricity out on a grid that was about 30 miles wide, I dreaded the intersections during morning commute with the traffic lights down.  Once again, South Africa surprised me.  The usually congested main intersections of my section of Pretoria were flowing freely thanks to traffic directors provided by Outsurance, an automobile insurance company.  Since they’re not cops, I’m not convinced we had to obey them but we all did, and were entertained in the process.  It appears they hire hip hop dancers for the job.  They were getting down and having such a good time, I wanted to stop and watch them but that would defeat the purpose.  They were awesome.  And so much better at their job than the robots, that’s what traffic lights here are called.  Brilliant marketing device, Outsurance, and cuts down on accidents so you don’t have to pay out.  Well played.

Fernando, my Faithful Ford Figo, after Bennie the Bakkie blew up

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After 3 intersection performances, I was on the toll road – smooth sailing to the country.  I could enjoy the morning commute radio jockeys.  Even the antics of the morning show personalities have a unique South African flair.  Today’s prank was on one of the guest DJ’s.  He had volunteered to do a story from a nearby game reserve and was going to tag along on the daily chores.  He was told he had to de-tick the giraffes.  They gave him a bottle of flea and tick powder and told him that he had to shake it into the groin area of all the giraffes.  “But they have really powerful hind legs so you gotta get in and out of there real quick!”  Of course he was not very successful, they were not tame giraffes, but his running commentary was hysterical.  Afterwards they explained that they actually use paint ball guns loaded with pellets that have tick poison in them and shoot the animals from afar.  They then shot the guy with a pellet because he was covered in ticks after crawling through the bush for 3 hours.  

PLAY magnet was Christmas prezzie from my sis

I made good travel time thanks to South Africa’s courteous system of slow moving traffic driving on the shoulder when they see you approach from behind.  I don’t know if it’s legal or not but we all do it.  I move over for them, they move over for me.  If they move over for you, you hit your hazards to say thank you and they flash their lights to say you’re welcome.  And this happens whether there is oncoming traffic or not, you might even be 4 across on a 2 lane road.  It was terrifying the first time this happened to me and I was sandwiched in between 2 semi trucks.  But you get used to it.

CYARA low ropes course

After leaving the toll road, it was a lovely drive through the country.  I saw zebras grazing with donkeys.  I drove by a wedding venue and saw a giraffe wandering through the parking lot.  After 2 hours I arrived at CYARA, an adventure camp site.  I got a tour of the facilities and property by the program director and one of the adventure guides.  It is going to be perfect for my March camp – it has all the adventure activities crucial to the PLAY curriculum and the staff is going to sync their activities to my curriculum.  We discussed objectives, activities, schedules, pricing.  I am impressed with all I see and hear and so excited for this camp! They are excited also to be partnering with a mission team from America and affirmed how beneficial their role as mentors will be. 

The day has gone from ugly to good.  Knowing I am facing a hot house and no fan, I stop on the way home to buy ice for the cooler so I can have chilled white wine, the recommended accompaniment to PB&J sandwiches which is all I can make without stove, oven, or microwave.  South Africa has what we call parking guards at all stores, restaurants, public establishments of any kind really.  They are not hired by the establishment.  In fact, they have to pay the store every day to be allowed to stand there in their orange vest.  The only way they earn money is if people who park there pay them to watch their car.  Most people do and the going rate is 2 rand.  This is about 20 cents.  

"Helpful" car guards on duty

Sometimes they help you load your groceries, direct you while you back out of a parking spot, do whatever they can so you notice them and give them 2 rand.  Today, the helpful parking man watched as I loaded the groceries into the boot (trunk of car).  I had to set my keys down so I could lovingly arrange the ice around the bottle so it would be chilled by the time I got home.  Then helpful parking man closed the trunk.  Yep, with my keys, purse, phone, laptop, my whole world inside.  This was bad. 

Luckily, a good friend lived a few blocks away so I walked under the hot African sun to her house and my luck held as she was home.  I used her phone to call for roadside assistance from my beloved Outsurance – they saved the day twice!

This blog was not brought to you by Outsurance.  I wish it was. That would mean they paid me.