Life in South Africa

Just one of many places that needs some rain.

After realizing my lack of excitement for the holidays may be due to the lack of festiveness in the town I live in (minimal Christmas lights or decorations) I started to think about some of the other differences here. After a few months I've adapted to certain things and have not mentioned them but I figure there are some differences that might be worth sharing.

Let’s start with driving. I don’t think I will ever quite get used to the drivers here but it is definitely less shocking now. I should mention that not every driver fits into this category and these are just my observations, although I’m sure the statistics speak for themselves. I was quite astounded by the drivers here the first time I embarked on a lengthier journey.  I’m willing to bet if you’re driving more than an hour you’ll encounter at least once an oncoming vehicle in your lane; in my experience, they’re trying to pass other vehicles and eventually get back in their lane but it can be pretty close sometimes. You’ll also experience very slow moving vehicles, very very fast moving vehicles (likely to cut you off) and several cars will be stopped on the side of the road for various reasons. Apparently many people don’t have a proper licence but rather buy one illegally, which explains some of the unfortunate driving habits.  As well, it is not only other drivers you have to look out for here but animals as well. I haven’t had anything large cross the road yet but just the other day when I was driving with my supervisor we had about 5 monkeys cross the road right in front of us. The last monkey made it across just in the nick of time.

Next topic: Rolling blackouts. This is a new concept to me, but apparently something South Africa is familiar with (as well as other countries). The details are fuzzy, but from what I understand just a few years ago there used to be rolling blackouts to mitigate the demand for electricity exceeding the supply. The rolling blackout entailed certain parts of the country having no power for allotted periods of time. For example, one suburb would have no power from 2 – 4 pm every day and even some university’s time tables were scheduled around the blackout, imagine that? As well, there used to be messages on the television, from the electricity company, reminding South African’s to turn off their appliances and use their electricity sparingly. The only company I know of that demotes their product. On that note, electricity here is very expensive and I regardless of the lack of supply I can understand why someone would want to use it sparingly. I also understand why there are so few xmas lights here.

Probably not surprising, another shortage is water. It’s not to the extent of some places in Africa but it is an issue on and off depending on the rainfall, season and area. In the Eastern Cape there has been periods of time where entire towns ran out of water and had to have it shipped in. There was also a time at the University that they had no running water for weeks. There are signs posted in many districts to alert people about the water shortage and remind people to be cognizant of water use. At one rest stop there was a sign on the bathroom door that said no water due to shortage. Unfortunately the Eastern Cape has experienced some severe droughts the past few years but recently there has been some rain which has made a difference, in fact, as I write this it is pouring outside :)