Cars, Bugs, and Serial Killers

So, we did end up having dinner with Lyndon, my one book club response, who has been out of the country for 15 years in the UK, US, and Australia. It was interesting to hear his experience growing up in a school that frowned upon racist remarks and to hear his views on South African politics. Unfortunately, government corruption keeps rearing its head into many conversations we have with people. In fact, the current president, Jacob Zuma, was charged with rape many years ago, in addition to hefty political corruption allegations. About the rape: He admitted to having sex with his accuser, who in fact was HIV positive. He argued that he did not use a condom because he took a shower afterwards, thus curbing the chances of transmission. This, while he was acting as top official of the South African AIDS Council! As a Zulu “everyman”, however, he is a very popular figure—especially as he has such a resonating (if unclear about details) populist message about employment and poverty alleviation. The critical Left’s critique of Zuma—and of the ANC (the ruling party) for that matter—is that they are corrupt in the sense that they are in bed with big business and that they have failed to curb the growing “class apartheid” that their pro-free market policies have allegedly unleashed.

Last week, we thought we were going to own our very own car in S. Africa - a 2005, silver, automatic, air-conditioned Chrysler Neon (also known as Dodge Neon in the US). Okay, we must be missing home. We didn’t buy a US-made car while living in the US, but now that we’re abroad we secretly feel we have to represent??? So, Daryl, our car flipper seller, picks us up and we go downtown for AA testing. This is an extremely comprehensive technical test of the car that takes several hours. Since we had time to burn, we walked to the massive Juma Mosque. We were given a tour by a Muslim man, who attempted to come across as accepting of all religions, until he unsurprisingly slipped in his comments about the accuracy of the Koran in comparison with other doctrines. Interestingly, the Koran has an entire chapter dedicated to Mary, because why wouldn’t you talk more about the mother of Jesus, as she must be even more almighty, he argued. This appealed to me, Jodi, being female and all. But then, he casually brought up 9/11, so I asked if it angered him that 9/11 had contributed to negative perceptions of Islam in the US (okay, leading question). We were unprepared for his next statement: Osama Bin Laden in fact funds this mosque, and there was much to defend about the man. He told a long, confusing story which did not answer my question, and he essentially argued that 9/11 would have been okay had the towers been filled with only middle aged men. He stated it was wrong because they have rules against hurting children and women and I think he was trying to say Bin Laden believes the same and wouldn’t condone this. Hmm. Anyway, despite his views on US actions and policies toward Muslims, he was very warm and cordial to us, and we were interested in hearing his perspective. In fact, we would have really liked to probe more—he was really wanting to get into a discussion; however, we were now running late for the AA testing due to his chattiness. So, we literally ran back to Daryl and the car at the testing center, only to find out it FAILED miserably. They found an insane amount of issues; such as broken engine mounts, leaks, pipes broken, and poor brake pads. Needless to say, we decided not to buy the car, and we were all in bad moods. Daryl still gave us a lift home, which he didn’t have to do, so that was generous. While I think he knew the car wasn’t great, I do believe he felt betrayed with all the work he had personally done on the car and received such a failing mark. But, Daryl will sell his car in the next day or two, to a man that just needed a few days for his financing to clear. All will be okay in Daryl’s world.

Fast-forward several days. After the AA test debacle, we had agreed that the Hyundai Atos is probably our best bet as they are small, fuel saving, and highly regarded, despite being inexpensive. We knew that we could get a newer car with fewer miles for a reasonable price and we’d save on gas money. Plus, they are extremely popular here so we’d be able to sell it back quickly. So, the world turned one up for us! We tested a 2006, silver, Hyundai Atos and loved it! It also has more space than we anticipated (aka, family baggage room if they pack very light— note photo when packing, visitors!). The owner was really trust-worthy and had all of his service logs, including his recent brake replacement. I, Chris, took the four of us (packed like sardines) for a test drive and scared the living daylights out of everyone because I stalled it TWICE in the middle of a steep hill. Oh yeah, and there was that time at the beginning where I forgot which side of the road I was supposed to be on… We all laughed very nervously and I noticed that everyone was tightly gripping different parts of the car. The couple was so friendly though and they took me up on my *joke* request for driving lessons. I have to thank mom and dad for teaching me how to drive a manual back in the day, though this is a new challenge with the steering column on the right, the stick on the left, and the driving on the left. Thank goodness the clutch, break and gas pedals are all in the same place. Uggh. Anyway, we have had to drive to a bunch of places to sort out the registration, tires, etc and my skills are improving.

We are so excited to use our new, little, cute car. We are eager to visit Pretoria for Chris’ research meetings, go to the Drakensberg Mountains, and Mozambique with Gina – all in February, I hope. We feel so liberated!

Just for fun, we are posting a couple of pics for the first installment of our blog series “Apartment Wildlife.” For the first pic, look to the lower right-hand corner to see a big slug visiting us the other evening. We also had a shower friend.

Another random aside: Chris was walking down the sidewalk the other day coming back home when a car stopped next him and a white, young professional South Africa declared he is new to the area and would like to start a friendship with Chris. Strange, huh? Perhaps stranger is that Chris gave him his phone number. So, Sven texted us and called that same day, but we didn’t respond. Chris thought with all my online connecting, I would be proud of his lack of boundaries (Chris feels that he is much more guarded about people than I am). Ummm, finding interest groups online is different than some random guy on the street asking for friendship! Perhaps he was interested in a romantic relationship; or, as our landlord commented, is a serial killer. Needless to say, we won’t be “auditioning” Sven to pursue a friendship.