We have landed in Port Elizabeth and have been living in our flat, as they say, for one day and two nights. It is Wednesday morning for us, and early Wednesday morning where I am from. The flights were safe and we got through customs at Johannesburg easily and caught our short flight to PE…(the abbreviation for Port Elizabeth). The first hill we overcame was the weight of our baggage. However, we had packed an extra suitcase and were able to avoid a $150 fine for each of our bags by moving some of the weight around.
At the beginning of our six hour layover in Washington D.C. we were graced with the company of my niece, Sasha, and her parents, my D.C. siblings, Bob and Carrie. To put it mildly, the two adults had a happier and more social disposition than my niece. She had just woken up from her nap and is not quite two years old, so I’d imagine going to the airport and seeing people she’s not been around since she was less than a year old was just about as much as she could handle. Luckily, her mom and dad knew how to ease her nerves, so she mostly clung to them and occasionally looked our way. Both Gretchen and I were very happy to have seen them because we were going to miss them visiting Ohio the next weekend.
Our plane to Johannesburg boarded and the brutal 17-hour leg of the trip began. Basically, we took off from Washington and spent almost seven hours in the air in transit to Senegal. Before you call me a liar for saying the flight was to Johannesburg, allow me to explain. We fueled up in Senegal, but were not allowed off the plane. Some passengers got off and a group of young men (we think a basketball team) got on. That took close to two hours, and then we had an eight-hour flight to Johannesburg. I was able to sleep a couple of hours on both legs.
There was the start of our adventure…
However, what great adventure can begin without some sort of mishap? Our plane touched down at the Port Elizabeth airport and we exited down a ramp to the outside, then walked into the airport. We both concluded that the airport is about the size of the Canton/Akron airport back home, but upon further thought, I think in reality it is much smaller. Anyway, we went to the baggage claim and awaited our luggage. Sure enough one bag came through, then another…then we waited…and waited…Dr. Singh found us, and I went to talk to him and his son while Gretchen went to the counter to report my bag lost. Yes, my bag was left behind at Johannesburg. The most amusing part is that it made it all the way across the ocean, and across the Continent of Africa. Its downfall was the transfer from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth. We picked up all of our luggage in Johannesburg (including my bag), went through customs and re-checked it. No worries, however as we were told that our bag would be delivered by seven am the next morning. (I’ll just comment here that it did not arrive until after 10:30 and two phone calls!). Crisis averted, we can continue the post…
Things are a little different in South Africa…
First of all, there are the plugs. We knew about this so we got converters. However, what we did not know is that there are two types of plugs in South Africa…one for the outlet and others for smaller appliances. This was no big deal either because we were easily able to find a way to make things work. (Currently, however, Gretchen is not able to use her hair dryer because the plug does not quite fit…we will have to figure that one out today).
I almost forgot to mention the first thing that we noticed, so above should actually read ‘secondly’, instead of ‘first of all’, but I digress. People drive on the wrong side of the road here!!! Well, if Americans drive on the right side…ahem…yes, my humor has not changed in South Africa…moving on. So, they drive on the left side of the road, and it is very unsettling. Dr. Singh and his son are perfectly good drivers, but we both had the urge to grab the wheel on turns when our instinctive feeling was that we were turning into a head-on collision. I expect, as Dr. Singh suggested, we will become accustomed to it just in time to head back to America and be freaked out by the driving there!
Another point at which we had a little bit of a shock was when we received the bill to our firs dinner at Wimpy. It was 84.00…Ok, we already had the knowledge of the conversion rate but there is nothing like seeing that number for a couple of burgers and some fries. The conversion is around seven South African rand to one dollar, so our meal was $12.00…a bit closer to what we were used to. Although we are very much aware of the prices, we are still amazed at the high numbers and laugh about the amount of money we are spending. Our first day we spent over R400 on groceries and around R200 for our cleaning supplies and a water filter!
Something that is new to us is the idea of a ‘Pay as you go’ policy. Obviously the concept is self-explanatory and I know that there are things like that in the United States as well. Cell phones have this, but it is MUCH more common here than it is in the United States. What we found very different, as we had never heard of this before, is that electricity works in a similar way. The method for paying electricity that is common goes like this:
There is a box in your residence that tells how many Kilowatt-hours you have remaining before your electricity runs out. In order to make that number go up, one must travel to a place where electricity is sold. There are more places than gas stations that sell it, but that is where we buy ours. The electric box has a card with it that is taken to the gas station, and at the counter you tell the employee how man Rands you want of electricity. They take your card and the amount of Rands, and in return you get your card back along with what looks like a receipt…THIS IS NOT TO BE THROWN AWAY!!! On the receipt is a list of numbers that must be taken back to the electric box. On the box there is a keypad with numbers one through nine on it (basically looking like a pay phone’s keypad). You punch in the list of numbers, the screen flashes a few times, and your Kilowatt hours go up! It would be accurate to say we are extremely grateful to have had Dr. Singh to take us to the gas station and show us the whole process…you should be thankful as well, because without him, your desire to read of my adventures would NOT have been satiated.
I would imagine that the electricity is not more expensive than in the U.S. However, internet is quite a bit more expensive for us than at home. This is why I am currently typing this in a Microsoft word document offline and will be copy / pasting this into my blog. With the internet, you pay per data downloaded size. People who are into computers will understand this, but here is a bit of an explanation: When you are connected to the internet, your computer is constantly downloading and uploading stuff with the internet. When you do harder and more in-depth things such as a music download, the amount of data is increased. Once you run out, you must go to the store and ‘recharge’ your SIM card. (for information on what a SIM card is, click here).
I am sure there will be many more things that strike us as strange while we are here in South Africa, and I will mention them from time to time. That is all I have for now, however, and I will end with some general information.
I will be going to Pearson High School on Friday for a couple of hours to get acquainted with it. My full start is on Monday as scheduled. Dr. Singh has been wonderful as have been our Realtors Mariette and Herman Rossouw. We have just today gotten internet, so we will be checking our e-mail from time to time. However, because of the cost and the way that it is priced, we will not be constantly online. Leave a message here or e-mail me any questions you have!
A Picture of Me with Dr. Singh
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