[For HW]
The highlights of today do not relate to work (but work was great today).
Highlight #1:
I took the bakkie to the mechanic on Wed morning. Some new sounds emerged Saturday as I was driving back from my mini-weekend trip. Sounds which didn't sound great, but also didn't sound like the car was going to fall apart or spontaneously combust. I thought about ignoring the sounds for a few weeks, until it was more convenient to take the car in to the mechanic. I had the car in the shop 2 weeks ago for its 120,000 Km inspection, and it apparently got a clean bill of health, after getting a new ball bearing. So I was a bit annoyed that the clean bill of health only lasted 2 weeks, after costing me a pretty Rand (SA currency). Anyway, amusingly the mechanic is a local buy who has a shop right next to a gas (petrol) station. He wasn't at the shop on time, and I was afraid he wouldn't get there in time before my ride showed up to take me to work. The guys who pump gas said I should just leave the keys inside the shop, and head to work. Which, honestly, would likely have been fine. Not my usual MO, and a bit of leap of faith that the bakkie wouldn't disappear, but I knew full well the limits of my auto insurance for theft, and that had the bakkie gone missing, it wasn't going to be covered under my insurance for this. I imagined the conversation in my head, and hearing the agent say something to the effect of: "So, let me see if I have all the pertinent details. You left the keys to your vehicle with the petrol station attendant, and at this time the anti-theft system was disengaged so the mechanic could work on the car, but the mechanic wasn't there. And now your car is gone. Ah-hah. I see. The good news is we've decided you're a moron, the bad news is you're screwed. And we suggest next time just leaving a sign on the bakkie which says, TAKE ME."
So, they didn't get the car fixed in one day. I'm not even going to go into what was wrong with it, since they essentially had to replace the part that the dealer had to replace, plus fix the brakes.. The important issues was that I was sans car this morning. And not wanting to ask for another ride, decided I'd figure out how to get to the hospital on my own.
Options:
Bike. Don't have one, but that would have been ideal, perfect morning for a ride to work.
Walk. Doable, but a bit far.
Bus. Not possible.
Hitchhike. Totally doable.
Taxi. Doable, but a bit tricky.
So, I chose Taxi... Now, taxi isn't NY or Dublin stand on the road, hail down a car and get to work. Taxi is a 12 seater van, which usually drives a set route for a set price, which requires some complex hand signals to get the right taxi.. They are often very full. For a while the Taxis were death traps, as most were not road-worthy. Sometimes being held together by tape and string. But, there has been a campaign to get the road-unworthy ones off the street, and deaths from taxi accidents have declined. Literally. I called S because I had to get some of the basics on how to go about taking a taxi. He gave me an over-the-phone tutorial on how to get to work on the taxi.
So, this morning, I left ridiculously early. Was on the street corner, and as I saw approaching taxis I did my hand signal (finger pointing to the ground, with a wagging circular motion to indicate I needed a local taxi) and the third one stopped. I hopped in, and verified it was the local to Southgate (the mall where I would go to change taxis). As I mentioned a minute ago, most taxis are now road-worthy. This one wasn't. But it was early morning, and I didn't have far to go so I felt a bit invincible.
The taxi driver was kind enough to show me where to go to grab the next taxi to the hospital. I jumped out at a busy intersection, made my way to the next taxi, and was at the hospital in under 20 minutes! All for the cost of an equivalent US$1.25. Not bad.
My coworkers were fairly impressed that I'd take the taxi to work. To be blunt: white people generally don't take taxis. And white tourists certainly don't take taxis. The joys of being the outlier!
Highlight #2:
The folks at my favorite Jo'burg coffee house held a cupping tonight. Cupping is the coffee equivalent of wine tasting. It's a pretty systematic way of tasting coffee. I've been looking forward to it for WEEKS! And one of the attendings I'm working with is also a coffee addict, so I'd told him about it. My landlord and her family came along as well. It was fantastic. The guys really had the place set up well for the event. They had some local musicians playing, who apparently usually play next to the pay station at one of the local malls. The coffees weren't labeled, and identities were only revealed after the cupping was over. I must say, the Rwandan was superb, though the coffee is coming from the region that borders the DRC, and I guess the supply may be interrupted for a while. The Kenyan was as to be expected, and while I haven't been a fan of the Ethiopian it grew on me a bit. I've uploaded a few pics.
On a small aside, the new barista has spent a few winters working in CO, and is headed back for a week of skiing. Made me a bit jealous!
Well, the coffee buzz is finally wearing off...
Cheers
