I am loving this autumn weather. Once the sun sets the temperature quickly starts dropping into the 50s. Then it seems like as soon as the sun rises we are back into the 70s, getting up in the 80s around noon.
School has been out for two weeks since the end of the first term. The Longtom Marathon took place on the 28th. Thank you to everyone who donated to the KLM foundation in my behalf! I think Peace Corps South Africa as a whole raised around 14,000 bills. I finished the 13.1 mile half marathon in 1 hour and 56 minutes. That’s a bit less than 9 minutes per mile on average.
April 12 will be the 9 month mark for my time in country. I can gauge how long I have lived here based on the number of people in my cell phone contact list. The more personal connections I make, the more I have felt at home here.
Concerning cell phones, most people use prepaid phones instead of contracts. At least in the village, there seems to be a continual shortage of air time. When kids come over to my house and see my phone they automatically pick it up and type in the code to see how much air time I have. I have seen this happen over and over with people between the ages of 12 to 24. When they see that I have about 40 rand of airtime they turn to show their friends in amazement or shock. ‘Why do you have so much airtime?!’ I guess nobody buys airtime in sizes greater than 5 rand at a time.
This 5 rand of airtime is then put to its best use calling people and hanging up after 1 ring. The goal is that the person will see the missed call and use their own 5 rand of airtime to return (and pay for) the conversation. I get this kind of thing all the time. I usually refuse to call back. Sorry but there is no way in hell I am going to pay to call a certain teacher who probably makes 7 times as much money as I do each month, owns a local tavern and drives a black 3 series BMW. This guy can afford to buy some damn airtime.
*Philani is standing next to me right now with his hands down his pants dancing to the Marvin Gaye song I have playing.
Overall, prepaid bills are an amazing thing. You know exactly how much of whatever service you’re using. The electricity is prepaid too. One night I was suddenly plunged into darkness. It wasn’t a blackout because the houses next door were still lit. I used my cell phone banking to buy a code for 50 rand of electricity, walked outside, opened my Eskom box and punched in the code. At the very last number of the dozen or so numbers I heard a metallic clink and all the lights in my house lit up at once. That’s convenience.
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