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Published: March 31st 2006
Dusk at the Sunsetview Guesthouse
And now we know where the name came from.Several days have passed since my last blog and it seems like there are a million things to talk about. The phone lines went out, as things tend to do around here, and with their eventual repair, the internet promptly stopped working for a couple days. So now it’s time to catch up. I spent the last of the weekend trying to get things in order and recover from the jet lag, that along with three meals, six bottles of water, four sanitary wipes, a blanket, four and a half movies, and lounging socks, came complimentary with my 18 hour flight. We discovered this pizza place within walking distance from the b&b and I have eaten there twice. I say walking distance, but one thing that you learn quite quickly when you don’t have a car is that walking distance can become stretched farther than you thought. This place is a good mile away, and when the African sun is beaming down on you, a hearty sweat is impossible to avoid. The little quirk about this particular restaurant, Romano’s Pizza, is that the pizzas are buy one, get one free. So you can’t help but get more than you can eat
Three Amigos
Here you have Tif, of camera fame, and Jayson and I just lounging around after a hard day's work at the hospital(all 3 hours of it). which leads to pizza for breakfast, the all American classic.
I had a fairly cool experience on Monday. A couple of friends and I were in a cab near downtown, when this black Mercedes surrounded by six police cars went speeding by. The cabby told us that it was President Mbeki, the leader of the country. Mbeki is the leader that replaced Nelson Mandela, but unlike Mandela, his reputation is not so stellar. Apparently he puts Clinton and Lewinsky and Paula J. and……all to shame. The cabby also told us about when President Bush was here in Pretoria last year. For the whole 5-6 days he was here, two major streets were closed down between Parliament and the hotel he was staying at from 7am-5pm every day. This made traffic a disaster. The cabby laughed and said, “You, American, like must every thing bigger.” Which doesn’t really even make sense, but then again it does.
The first mini disaster, besides the loss of Jake’s luggage (his bag that he checked was lost and it took him 3 days to get a hold of the airline, at which time they informed him they would give him $75 per day
Twilight Dinner
The group eating at a Mediterranian restuarant, Toulas. The food here has been spectacular. for up to 5 days if he would only provide a picture of everything that he lost. Taking a picture of the things that were lost is his next big challenge. In the meantime, he was originally borrowing some of my clothes and wearing the same thing everyday, which in the aforementioned African climate is not conducive to good hygiene. Tiffany, another med student/friend, then suggested that he use the technique that her elderly landlady had informed her of. Tiffany was complaining about not having enough room in her suitcase while she was packing for Africa, so this lady, Bertha, told her she should only take a few pairs of underwear and take a box of panty liners to change out every day. Now that’s my kind of traveling. Just the open road, a jar of peanut butter, and a box full of panty liners.) So back to the incident. Basically, a camera was dropped/fell/knocked-out-hands/jumped-of-its-own-volition out of the hands of one friend. In short, a camera went splat against the pavement and wouldn’t work anymore. The whole incident has taken on a grassy-knoll type feel where nobody knows exactly what happened anymore, but everyone has their own accounts. The next
Mommy, what's an ugly American?
Towards the end of the Toulas fine dining experience, one of the group, Clay Cochran: Future Neurosurgeon, decided to paint his face with the left over sauce from the rack of lamb he cleaned to the bone. task was to get it fixed. After a 1.5 mile trek through the city, being redirected a hand full of times by Pretorians, each telling us that it was “just at the next light”, we found a repair store. While waiting on an estimate to fix the camera, the proprietors of the store shared with us their personal stories and thoughts on South Africa today. Of course they mentioned the crime (actually they talked almost solely of crime and on a return visit they even brought out the newspaper and translated every shocking headline), and told us several gruesome rape stories, one involving lesbians tied together and sodomized (it’s gotten to the point that if my friend Sam doesn’t see an authentic African sodomy, she doesn’t think that she will have experienced the true South Africa). And it’s not just white women, in fact it is many more black women that are raped. They also told us a story of the daughter of the most prominent magistrate here in SA. She is a lawyer, her husband a judge. Their home was broken into. The maid was raped. They were tied together and beaten, and their 4 year old daughter was
Getting our sweat on!
One of the benefits to being a student at the Univ. of Pretoria is free entrance into a large, leafy athletic facility. Here is the group before we head off to our respective cardiovascular pursuits. killed because she was making too much noise. And often times the motive for rape apparently includes a desire to pass on the HIV to innocent people. Then they discussed a new technique that is being developed to stop the rape here. It is a condom designed with internal barbs that become imbedded into the penis of the attacker upon the attempt of withdrawal. This little device can then only be removed surgically. Ladies, don’t rush out to buy these just yet, they are still in development. But seriously, it really is disheartening to hear all these stories, I hope, and suspect, that the crime is not quite so bad as some would tell it, but since it stands in such contrast to the peace of 10-15 years ago and since the police have been so inept at curtailing it, it has become the national focus.
On to less sickening topics. Living in America, you don’t generally think too much about having an accent. I mean, British people have accents, but I have become incredibly aware of my accent lately. First of all, South Africans are constantly mimicking it. I’m not sure if they realize how insulting it is
Mall Rats
We have found ourselves hanging out at the mall a lot. This is Brooklyn Mall in one of the suburbs. The malls are very nice here with stores such as Mr. Price (ooh la la) where Jake has replaced the wardrobe which disappeared into the African mist somewhere. This is Jayson and I. when they tilt their heads back and morph into what I can best describe as Jerry Lewis with Down’s syndrome. This is an American accent apparently. But for the first time ever, I had a girl tell me how great my accent was today at the hospital. Maybe it’s the braces.
Speaking of oral hygiene. Something is amiss in the state of Guateng (the province which Pretoria and Johannesburg are in). Bad breath is rampant. Case in point. A couple of days ago, the same day as the camera accident, we had gone to the mall. Tiffany, whose camera was mutilated, was in a less than dapper mood. So I thought maybe it would cheer her up if we played a game. This game basically consisted of going into a store and picking out the goofiest outfit for someone else to try on and then taking a picture of it. There were three of us and we would each have a turn at being the victim at the expense of the other two. Tif an I picked out a pair of puffy denim man-pris with zipper pockets all over them and a pink checkered sweater under a tight denim short sleeve shirt topped off with a white fedora for our friend Jayson. He claims that the man-pris were too small, so he comes out in the rest and I quickly snap a photo. No sooner had the shutter closed than this man comes over and tells me I have to erase the photo. I tell him it’s not a digital camera (which is the truth) and his boss waddles over and starts assuring me that everything will be all right if I follow regulations. This man’s breath was so bad I thought I was going to pass out. Tiffany thought I had farted (a common occurrence so far on this trip, her accusing me of farting, that is, not me actually doing it. I mean I fart sometimes, but generally not A. at the dinner table B. while conducting official business C. while crammed into a taxi D. while trying to avoid being arrested E. while telling a story). And to get the guy to shut up I was about ready to not only hand over my camera, but also my wallet and passport.
Well, that’s it for now. I do have one correction, the winery I called KMV in the last blog is actually KWV. Next time I will write some about my experience in the hospitals here. This weekend I am going to the Lion Park where I will be able to pet baby lion cubs ect.
I would like to thank everybody who has been keeping in touch with me. I appreciate the messages and comments.
Peace out,
Lucky Wombat
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kelly
non-member comment
wow! it sounds like you all are having an interesting time! i can't believe all that stuff about rapes there! that's awful! the rest of it sounds very fun though...i love walking everywhere so i am jealous of you all. whenever i walk anywhere here ( like to starbucks) everyone just looks at me like "what's wrong with you? where is your car? is it broken? do you not have one? are you homeless?..." have a great time and take a pic of the baby lion!