Cars

Petroleum prices here went-up by 25c per liter last evening. It was the big news and I heard about it all day long. Every newscast had the admonition that you should run out and buy all the petrol your car could hold before the taxes went into affect. I guess that this is a big rise (in terms of percentage it is nearly a 10% rise) but still I have a hard time thinking of it as being a lot of money. Its about 4 cents. (two pence)

Everyone here (it seems) who can own a car does. There is no public transportation to speak of; I've seen nothing that looks like a public bus. There are, however, mini-busses; twelve passenger vans crammed to bursting at the seems. One was full of school children (all decked out in their uniforms) singing and dancing in their seats. What a riot. I haven’t quite worked-out how it works, how you know which one is going where and what you would pay when you get onto one of these, but when I asked, I was told that I shouldn't get on one; the tend to be in poor states of repair and dangerous.

I cannot say that the cars the hotel have been calling for us have been any better! The one that came for the last few days was is need of repair. Badly in need of repair! I'm no expert on cars, but even I knew that this car needed work! The steering wheel squeaked and hissed as it was turned. The rear wheels made ominous metallic grinding sign a they turned. The seat belts were held together by duct tape. (Even in South Africa: Duct Tape holds the world together!)

For the last two days , the client has sent their driver to collect us. The driver is a really nice person and the car is in good repair! I wish I had mentioned to the client earlier what the cars the hotel was dredging up were like!

Most of the cars in the lot at the client are tiny by American standards; heck, they're pretty small by British standards. They're small but at least the insides are comfortable. We've gone to lunch (and dinner) with the client a few times over the past two weeks and even the back seat of these cars is comfortable to two large Americans. Why can't we have more good small cars in the US?

I hope that wherever you are today, I hope you're having a great day!

Don Bergquist - 08 March 2007 - Randberg, Gauteng, South Africa