lately in my sociology of industrialisation class, we’ve been discussing the issue of national healthcare, and as if this weren’t already such a contentious issue in the united states, it truly rises to the forefront of individuals’ attentions, minds, and hearts here in south africa. in 2007, the expenditure for public sector healthcare totalled 59 billion rand, serving 40 million denizens. on the other hand, the expenditure for private sector healthcare totalled 67 billion rand, serving 7 million of the country’s wealthier residents. put another way, in 2007, the 8.5% of south africa’s gdp spent on healthcare; 3.5% of it went to public sector healthcare, whereas 5% went to private sector healthcare. the annual amount spent per person within public sector healthcare is 1,400 rand, whereas the annual amount spent per person within private sector healthcare is 9,500 rand.
the extreme disparity in the amount of money allotted toward healthcare in the public versus the private sector has resulted in a remarkable gap in the standards of health between south africans – and understandably so. after all, medicine has undergone a process of commodification – the result of this being that, if you can afford it, you can obtain the best healthcare possible. if you can’t, then you’re screwed.
this issue certainly sparked a debate amongst the students in my sociology class, and quite frankly, i wasn’t too enthused about the solutions they proposed for remedying the situation. one of the more outlandish (in my opinion, at least) solutions proposed was a reassignment of white medical staff to facilities in majority-black neighbourhoods, and vice versa. i wasn’t terribly keen on this pitch, namely because it works under the presumption that all white people are rich and all black people are poor (a supposition that’s becoming less and less true in post-apartheid south africa), but also because it presumes that whites inherently provide better healthcare than blacks (it should be noted that the author of this suggestion, in fact, is black).
another suggestion that i was equally nonplussed about, but seemed to be met with a greater level of amenability by my classmates, was that of eradicating private healthcare altogether. under this proposal, all of south africa’s medical staff, facilities, and programmes would be state-owned and state-operated. the 7 million denizens currently subscribing to private sector healthcare would be reassigned to public sector healthcare (against their respective wills, but that’s another issue).
it is indisputable that private sector healthcare triumphs over that of the public sector, and the 7 million south africans presently subscribing to private sector healthcare receive a far superior quality of medical care than the 40 million utilising public sector healthcare. if this is the case, then why should south africa bring an end to private healthcare altogether? while it’s lamentable that optimal healthcare isn’t readily available to the entire south african populace, realistically speaking, it’s better that this higher standard of healthcare be available to at least some of the population, rather than none at all.
eliminating private sector healthcare in south africa altogether is a very dangerous concept. while decent healthcare is at least somewhat attainable in south africa, a complete transition to nationalised, public sector healthcare would eradicate any semblance of this. if private sector healthcare is allowed to remain, then it will eventually make its way throughout south african society – private firms, advertising a dramatically higher standard for healthcare, will entice consumers of all socioeconomic statues, and eventually the private sector will become the de facto option for medical services. if private sector healthcare ceases to exist in south africa, however, then there will be no chance of this, and the standard of living in this country will significantly suffer.
as the united states finds itself in the midst of this litigious issue in the context of its own population, it is important to remember that countries like south africa, despite a smaller population, have far less capital to spend on medical services as well. the discrepancy in healthcare amongst americans seems small in comparison to that amongst south africans. the existence of private healthcare, even in a minimal capacity, within south africa not only provides a greater quality of healthcare for denizens than would otherwise be possible, but also serves as a promise for a greater standard of medical care for all south africans in the future. by nationalising healthcare in its entirety and eliminating private sector healthcare, this possibility will be exterminated.
22 October 2009
18 October 2009
if you see her, say hello
i know you all were expecting a post on bloemfontein. and i'll get there, i promise. but i just wanted to share some of my recent musings.
so, i've got this problem. i'm always thinking ahead. which doesn't sound like such a dilemma, unless you factor in the fact that its consequence is that i'm never content with the here and now. like, last semester, i was fixated on the prospect of going to cape town, and this one, all i can think about is everything i've got going on next semester. i mean, i'm gonna get involved in chad's new liberty society club at gw; i'm gonna be doing stuff with ΣAΛ, my honours fraternity; i'll likely be back at my fab job at dsw, at least over christmas; i'm gonna find a great internship, which shouldn't be too difficult considering employers like hiring interns with at least junior standing, which i've got now; i'll be taking classes at gw again, which will be such a breath of fresh air since uct's coursework doesn't challenge me whatsoever; and, most crucially, i'll be back with all my amazing friends. right now, it all sounds pretty sweet.
and yet, even though i'm sure this semester will be over before i know it, i've still got a ways to go (33 days, to be precise) before i leave cape town. i've carved out a niche here and established a modus operandi for myself here: indeed, i volunteer, i intern, i go to class, i go to on-campus clubs, i explore the city. and yet, i can't help but feel listless toward my being in the present day.
were my expectations far too unrealistically high for cape town, and ergo i'm not suffering the consequences of such thinking? or, am i merely fated to live in a state of being in which i am perpetually excited for what lies ahead whilst remaining nonplussed toward my present status?
there's arguments for both, i guess. one element that's certainly served to the detriment of this current semester is the lack of genuine friendships that i feel i have here. the truth is that i really don't have any south african friends, and the overwhelming majority of my friendships with americans feel trite and contrived; those that might have a little more meaning, well, they simply haven't been able to replace the ones i left behind. the last time i felt this way was in 2nd grade.... i had no friends then, either, and the prospect of moving to thousand oaks made me feel extremely hopeful. now, 13 years later, i find myself in the same dilemma.
on the other hand, what if i am not so lucky as to be chugging toward a blissful dénouement? indeed, what if i am doomed to wander the earth, cursed by my own today, never truly able to reach that golden tomorrow? it's entirely possible: reflecting on my previous blog entries, i find myself constantly discussing my then-seemingly exciting future plans whilst lamenting past decisions leading to my then-present. will this pattern lead to an eternal listlessness on my end?
in truth, i imagine that the answer lies somewhere between the two. as quinton has said, studying abroad in cape town is not solely about learning about south african culture, customs, politics, society, etc.; it's about becoming an increasingly global citizen, and to that end, becoming more aware of my own identity as an american. indeed, it'd be impossible to say that this semester is just like any other semester during my undergrad. the lessons i'm learning are far more momentous than ones i've learned in semesters past.
so, let's take a look at what i've figured out.
first and foremost, i am utterly, indisputably, and irrevocably proud to be an american. south africans wishing to travel to the united kingdom must obtain a visa, through their local british consulate, before departing south africa. when i went to the united kingdom, all i did was click a few buttons on orbitz, take a sleeping pill, and off went the plane. (brangelina were crazy to deny their swakopmund-born daughter an american passport in favour of a namibian one.)
when my greatgrandparents left german-occupied austria in 1941, their voyage took them sprinting through the fields of western europe, carrying my grandfather in their arms as they ran, for fear that the nazi soldiers chasing them would catch up to them. i'm an american thanks to their willpower.
second, as much as i complain about it and ridicule it, the truth is that i absolutely love attending george washington university. not to sound terribly conceited, but people tell me left and right that i could've gotten into georgetown with my sat scores. it's a great school, but egad, why would i want to go there? i get to go to school in the same neighbourhood as the naval hospital, the state department, and the world bank. my freshman dorm was 4 blocks from the white house. i could see the washington monument from my sophomore dorm. the tv sets in my student union play cnn and msnbc, not espn. there are busts of our nation's first president scattered throughout campus. classes are tough, but i always walk away from any given semester having enjoyed at least a couple of them. and most importantly, even though i chastise gw for not playing an active role in my pursuits, it's still helped me nonetheless in obtaining employment (via the very pleasing line it adds to my résumé), exploring dc (thanks to its conveniently placed metro stop, proximity to the mall, etc.), and making friends.
that brings me to my final point. when i left california in 2007, i couldn't believe what i was doing... how could i say good-bye to the 10 years i'd spent formulating friendships in thousand oaks? then, i got to dc, and i find myself in a world in which i could walk down any given sidewalk and assuredly run into someone i know for a quick hello. i certainly see a lot of faces to which i'm averse, too, but nevertheless, i've been very blessed to have encountered a wide and warm social circle over my 2 years in dc.
if there's one lesson i'd like to take away from my semester abroad, it's to never, ever take the individuals in my life for granted. they're all too important and too precious to be overlooked or dismissed. being 12,000 miles away from them all certainly has stressed the importance of this credence for me.
on the one hand, i'm sure that, in the future, i'll succumb to my natural process of longing for the future whilst listless toward the present. on the other, i feel as if my experience studying here in south africa has somehow been too monumental to regard as "just any other semester", and consequently, i hope to be able to cherish these elements (my country, my school, and my life) of my life, as well as many more (my family, my job, my travels, god, etc.), with much more fervor than ever before.
i know that, as i sit here, alone in my room on a saturday night, i certainly do right now.
so, i've got this problem. i'm always thinking ahead. which doesn't sound like such a dilemma, unless you factor in the fact that its consequence is that i'm never content with the here and now. like, last semester, i was fixated on the prospect of going to cape town, and this one, all i can think about is everything i've got going on next semester. i mean, i'm gonna get involved in chad's new liberty society club at gw; i'm gonna be doing stuff with ΣAΛ, my honours fraternity; i'll likely be back at my fab job at dsw, at least over christmas; i'm gonna find a great internship, which shouldn't be too difficult considering employers like hiring interns with at least junior standing, which i've got now; i'll be taking classes at gw again, which will be such a breath of fresh air since uct's coursework doesn't challenge me whatsoever; and, most crucially, i'll be back with all my amazing friends. right now, it all sounds pretty sweet.
and yet, even though i'm sure this semester will be over before i know it, i've still got a ways to go (33 days, to be precise) before i leave cape town. i've carved out a niche here and established a modus operandi for myself here: indeed, i volunteer, i intern, i go to class, i go to on-campus clubs, i explore the city. and yet, i can't help but feel listless toward my being in the present day.
were my expectations far too unrealistically high for cape town, and ergo i'm not suffering the consequences of such thinking? or, am i merely fated to live in a state of being in which i am perpetually excited for what lies ahead whilst remaining nonplussed toward my present status?
there's arguments for both, i guess. one element that's certainly served to the detriment of this current semester is the lack of genuine friendships that i feel i have here. the truth is that i really don't have any south african friends, and the overwhelming majority of my friendships with americans feel trite and contrived; those that might have a little more meaning, well, they simply haven't been able to replace the ones i left behind. the last time i felt this way was in 2nd grade.... i had no friends then, either, and the prospect of moving to thousand oaks made me feel extremely hopeful. now, 13 years later, i find myself in the same dilemma.
on the other hand, what if i am not so lucky as to be chugging toward a blissful dénouement? indeed, what if i am doomed to wander the earth, cursed by my own today, never truly able to reach that golden tomorrow? it's entirely possible: reflecting on my previous blog entries, i find myself constantly discussing my then-seemingly exciting future plans whilst lamenting past decisions leading to my then-present. will this pattern lead to an eternal listlessness on my end?
in truth, i imagine that the answer lies somewhere between the two. as quinton has said, studying abroad in cape town is not solely about learning about south african culture, customs, politics, society, etc.; it's about becoming an increasingly global citizen, and to that end, becoming more aware of my own identity as an american. indeed, it'd be impossible to say that this semester is just like any other semester during my undergrad. the lessons i'm learning are far more momentous than ones i've learned in semesters past.
so, let's take a look at what i've figured out.
first and foremost, i am utterly, indisputably, and irrevocably proud to be an american. south africans wishing to travel to the united kingdom must obtain a visa, through their local british consulate, before departing south africa. when i went to the united kingdom, all i did was click a few buttons on orbitz, take a sleeping pill, and off went the plane. (brangelina were crazy to deny their swakopmund-born daughter an american passport in favour of a namibian one.)
when my greatgrandparents left german-occupied austria in 1941, their voyage took them sprinting through the fields of western europe, carrying my grandfather in their arms as they ran, for fear that the nazi soldiers chasing them would catch up to them. i'm an american thanks to their willpower.
second, as much as i complain about it and ridicule it, the truth is that i absolutely love attending george washington university. not to sound terribly conceited, but people tell me left and right that i could've gotten into georgetown with my sat scores. it's a great school, but egad, why would i want to go there? i get to go to school in the same neighbourhood as the naval hospital, the state department, and the world bank. my freshman dorm was 4 blocks from the white house. i could see the washington monument from my sophomore dorm. the tv sets in my student union play cnn and msnbc, not espn. there are busts of our nation's first president scattered throughout campus. classes are tough, but i always walk away from any given semester having enjoyed at least a couple of them. and most importantly, even though i chastise gw for not playing an active role in my pursuits, it's still helped me nonetheless in obtaining employment (via the very pleasing line it adds to my résumé), exploring dc (thanks to its conveniently placed metro stop, proximity to the mall, etc.), and making friends.
that brings me to my final point. when i left california in 2007, i couldn't believe what i was doing... how could i say good-bye to the 10 years i'd spent formulating friendships in thousand oaks? then, i got to dc, and i find myself in a world in which i could walk down any given sidewalk and assuredly run into someone i know for a quick hello. i certainly see a lot of faces to which i'm averse, too, but nevertheless, i've been very blessed to have encountered a wide and warm social circle over my 2 years in dc.
if there's one lesson i'd like to take away from my semester abroad, it's to never, ever take the individuals in my life for granted. they're all too important and too precious to be overlooked or dismissed. being 12,000 miles away from them all certainly has stressed the importance of this credence for me.
on the one hand, i'm sure that, in the future, i'll succumb to my natural process of longing for the future whilst listless toward the present. on the other, i feel as if my experience studying here in south africa has somehow been too monumental to regard as "just any other semester", and consequently, i hope to be able to cherish these elements (my country, my school, and my life) of my life, as well as many more (my family, my job, my travels, god, etc.), with much more fervor than ever before.
i know that, as i sit here, alone in my room on a saturday night, i certainly do right now.
05 October 2009
your mother should know
remember back in sixth grade, when it was all the rage to let your pants sag and have your boxers exposed? i did that once, and my mom saw me and man oh man was she pissed. in retrospect, what in god's name were we thinking?
so, apparently, my e-mail address is circling its merry way around nigeria.
∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙
from: yourcareer@shilty.com
to: Michael Ross
date: Mon, Oct 5, 2009 at 2:17 AM
subject: Michael Ross, a vacancy of Part time position for a student may be interesting to you
Hello, Michael Ross! I found your resume interesting. Our company needs Part time position for a student. Salary - 14.000 USD. Our site address - http://www.shilty.com/?cs=qkme8xf1b4.
Sincerely yours, HR-director.
Cilicia Miller
Shilty Company
http://www.shilty.com/?cs=qkme8xf1b4
∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙
umm, first of all: SHITTY company!?!!!?? that should be anybody's first clue. i shan't dwell on the myriad grammatical, uhh, points of interest, but note "cilicia"'s usage of the decimal comma, as is common in anglophone african countries such as nigeria, as opposed to the decimal point as used in the united states.
in other news, i went to the beach at fish hoek yesterday afternoon. i took metrorail, which offers beautiful views of false bay since the track hugs the shoreline, but unfortunately, i had a stomachache whilst there. :( also, it got cloudy. meh.
so, apparently, my e-mail address is circling its merry way around nigeria.
∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙
from: yourcareer@shilty.com
to: Michael Ross
date: Mon, Oct 5, 2009 at 2:17 AM
subject: Michael Ross, a vacancy of Part time position for a student may be interesting to you
Hello, Michael Ross! I found your resume interesting. Our company needs Part time position for a student. Salary - 14.000 USD. Our site address - http://www.shilty.com/?cs=qkme8xf1b4.
Sincerely yours, HR-director.
Cilicia Miller
Shilty Company
http://www.shilty.com/?cs=qkme8xf1b4
∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙
umm, first of all: SHITTY company!?!!!?? that should be anybody's first clue. i shan't dwell on the myriad grammatical, uhh, points of interest, but note "cilicia"'s usage of the decimal comma, as is common in anglophone african countries such as nigeria, as opposed to the decimal point as used in the united states.
in other news, i went to the beach at fish hoek yesterday afternoon. i took metrorail, which offers beautiful views of false bay since the track hugs the shoreline, but unfortunately, i had a stomachache whilst there. :( also, it got cloudy. meh.
01 October 2009
the sims 3
the best part about studying abroad in cape town is also the worst part: no matter what the task or action, everything spontaneously becomes an adventure. even for tasks as seemingly simplistic as running over to the supermarket, it's your best bet to devise not only an intricately formulated plan for yourself, but a back-up plan as well. so, when i decided to go across town today to century city, over the northern suburbs (as opposed to my own suburb of mowbray, in the southern suburbs), the action i took was anything but straightforward.
not even a month ago, EA released their newest computer game, the sims 3. i've loved the sims series since the original version of the game came out 9 years ago, and i've been playing it - off and on - ever since. my dad gave it to me as a gift when i was 11, and my mom, displeased by the ESRB "teen" rating, made me promise i wouldn't make my sims have sex. so, i just trapped them in a room and burned them instead.
now, at age 20, i have decided that, despite the rapidly increasing number of the responsibilities that i've got here, i want to start playing computer games again. i don't have a tv, and the internet is ridiculously expensive here, so i decided to obtain a copy of the sims 3. miraculously, EA opted not only to produce this programme so that it could played on either PCs or macs, but also to release it here around the same time as in america. both agnes and jeffrey have purchased it and have raved about it for me, so i decided to forego fighting off my attention deficit in favour of purchasing the programme.
the only problem with this, of course, was the price. R350 is certainly a lot for me to spend, especially when my income is zilch. however, agnes informed me of gumtree, south africa's answer to craigslist, so i opted to check it out in hopes of finding a cheaper version of it in this way.
well, i was right. a woman decided she was too busy at work to play the game (whoops), so she decided to sell her copy. she listed the price as R200... i negged her down to R150, and that was that. the problem: she wanted me to come pick up the programme from her in century city, where she works. yikes, that's quite a distance, especially sans automobile.
nevertheless, enchanted by the notion of saving a cool R200, i opted to traverse the city via public transit in order to get to century city... a task easier imagined than completed. the majority (60%) of commuting capetonians travel via "taxi" (known in america as a jitney or a shared taxi), so after failing to find any clues online regarding how to get to century city via train or municipal bus, i opted to travel via taxi.
the problem with this: taxis function within an extremely decentralised system, so there's no website elucidating taxi routes and whatnot. ergo, i left my building around 2:30 with a strategy in mind of touch and go. i rode a taxi on the only route i'd ever taken before (main road toward wynberg) into cape town, to the central taxi terminal. i've always been fascinated by this structure; it's bustling with an indescribable amount of activity. my favourite part, however, is the series of 30ish lanes, each signed to indicate the final destination of whichever taxis pull into the given lane. it creates the illusion that transit in cape town is simple.
since i didn't know which taxi route i'd want (since they aren't listed online) before i got to the terminal, i walked down the (very loud) row of lanes, reading the signs posted at every lane, trying to determine what my best bet would be. no routes terminated at century city (as i'd guessed), but one goes to the neighbouring community of milnerton. i decided that milnerton would be my best bet.
since i'd been staring at my street map prior to my journey and knew the basics of century city/milnerton's geography, i told the conductor of the taxi in the front of the lane that i wanted to go to milnerton mall (i'd decided to walk to century city from there). well, in typical TIA (this is africa) ridiculousness, no one had any idea what i was talking about. great. i finally found somebody who knew what i was talking about; apparently, the shopping complex had been renamed centre point mall. so, off i went.
the taxi passed through brooklyn along koeberg road. soon, we reached milnerton, and i was let out in front of centre point mall. great, now what? i was feeling rather calm at this point, though; the northern suburbs have a reputation for being safe and comfortable, and lo and behold, this held true in my eyes. (for those of you at home getting antsy reading my words, take solace in the fact that i'd NEVER conduct a journey like this in a rough neighbourhood. again.) looking at my map, i determined that cutting through a neighbourhood, named tijgerhof, would be my best plan. so, off i went down degrendel road.
tijgerhof was an odd mix of swakopmund and the san fernando valley. most of the street signs in the area were in the distinct style that swakopmund's and windhoek's were in, and frankly, that made me feel even more at ease. tijgerhof had some condominium complexes resembling the (seemingly tunisian/moroccan) architecture prevalent throughout swakopmund, but the houses looked as if they belonged in canoga park. one of the roads i needed to take was unpaved, which threw me off, but that was only temporary, and i continued on.
traversing tijgerhof, however, i suddenly became aware of how late it had become: it was suddenly 3:45! i sent an sms to the woman i'd be buying the software off of, asking her if we could push our 4:00 meeting back to 4:30. she was amenable. i got to the other side of tijgerhof at ratanga road, and unfortunately, it was here that i made a crucial error. i'd planned on turning right down ratanga road and turning into century city not too far down. however, i saw signage announcing the entrance to century city right in front of me, so i proceeded straight into the community.
century city is an oddity for cape town. it's a master planned community, and as such, it's made to look dazzling and pretentious. i proceeded down century boulevard, becoming increasingly reminded of wood ranch (for those of you native to ventura county) as well as exhausted from walking. signage indicated that canal walk (the mall where i was to meet my seller) was "ahead", but all i saw were more master-planned neighbourhoods of cookie-cutter houses. indeed, like most master planned communities, century city would've been far easier to traverse by car.
after a half hour, i reached a more commercial section of century city. now, the urban landscape reminded me of las vegas. the architecture certainly opted to make its buildings look larger than life, and i immediately felt an intense of aura of elegance pervading the neighbourhood. i continued walking, by this point not only exhausted, but baffled by all the "century city shuttles" i saw running. oh well, i figured i couldn't be that far off, right?
i hit canal walk right on the dot of 4:30. had this been our original plan for meeting up, i'd have been quite proud of myself. the seller showed up at 4:45 (quite good for africa time), and we completed the transaction. at last, i had the sims 3 in my possession! :D i walked around canal walk for a bit, and it looked like an awesome mall. i wanted to spend more time there, but at the stroke of 5, i started to worry that, since it'd taken me some 2 hours to get here, i wouldn't make it back to mowbray before sunset. so, i left.
upon exiting canal walk, i saw, right in front of me, a bench labelled "century city shuttles pick-up". i figured, "why not?" and boarded it. it didn't take me terribly far, but it only cost R2, and it helped me realise how silly it had been to go through century city's first entrance at ratanga road; there was a much more convenient option not too far from canal walk! i alighted at century city's transit terminal; nope, no luck getting back to cape town, as all the options i saw would have taken me to various locations throughout cape flats (where, presumably, most of century city's blue collar employees reside. i'm not trying to pass a judgment, it's just fact.). fortunately, i was not too far off from tijgerhof, so i made my way through that neighbourhood relatively quickly.
i came out of tijgerhof at centre point mall, and hoping to take the reverse journey of what i'd done before, i caught a taxi whose conductor told me that it was cape town-bound. this was, as i should have expected, false, and the taxi terminated at the maitland metro station. i was disgruntled, especially since i sensed that the sun would soon disappear behind table mountain for the day, but the conductor not only helped me find a truly cape town-bound taxi, but gave some of the R6.50 fare that i'd given him to my new taxi's conductor so i wouldn't have to pay an additional fare. this new taxi rattled more than i like them to, but it nevertheless made its way to the taxi terminal in cape town in due time.
the sun disappeared behind table mountain. crap, time to vamoose. i found my way to the wynberg-bound lane and boarded one of its taxis. it's a popular route, and that was made obvious given the large crowd waiting on the platform to board a taxi as well as how crammed we were into the (supposedly) 15-passenger minibus. i'd guess the true number was somewhere in the twenties.
dusk came about just as i alighted from that, my final taxi of the day, and i hurried down saint peter's and durban roads into my building. i immediately felt victorious, having completed my roundtrip journey unscathed. :)
i suppose that, when i get back to dc, any given situation will seem rather easy to take on, and any given method will seem wholly efficient and effortless on my end. from overcoming a car accident in rural namibia to obtaining a computer game from a woman across town, though, the adventures thrust upon me here in africa make any day become instantaneously exciting. :)
not even a month ago, EA released their newest computer game, the sims 3. i've loved the sims series since the original version of the game came out 9 years ago, and i've been playing it - off and on - ever since. my dad gave it to me as a gift when i was 11, and my mom, displeased by the ESRB "teen" rating, made me promise i wouldn't make my sims have sex. so, i just trapped them in a room and burned them instead.
now, at age 20, i have decided that, despite the rapidly increasing number of the responsibilities that i've got here, i want to start playing computer games again. i don't have a tv, and the internet is ridiculously expensive here, so i decided to obtain a copy of the sims 3. miraculously, EA opted not only to produce this programme so that it could played on either PCs or macs, but also to release it here around the same time as in america. both agnes and jeffrey have purchased it and have raved about it for me, so i decided to forego fighting off my attention deficit in favour of purchasing the programme.
the only problem with this, of course, was the price. R350 is certainly a lot for me to spend, especially when my income is zilch. however, agnes informed me of gumtree, south africa's answer to craigslist, so i opted to check it out in hopes of finding a cheaper version of it in this way.
well, i was right. a woman decided she was too busy at work to play the game (whoops), so she decided to sell her copy. she listed the price as R200... i negged her down to R150, and that was that. the problem: she wanted me to come pick up the programme from her in century city, where she works. yikes, that's quite a distance, especially sans automobile.
nevertheless, enchanted by the notion of saving a cool R200, i opted to traverse the city via public transit in order to get to century city... a task easier imagined than completed. the majority (60%) of commuting capetonians travel via "taxi" (known in america as a jitney or a shared taxi), so after failing to find any clues online regarding how to get to century city via train or municipal bus, i opted to travel via taxi.
the problem with this: taxis function within an extremely decentralised system, so there's no website elucidating taxi routes and whatnot. ergo, i left my building around 2:30 with a strategy in mind of touch and go. i rode a taxi on the only route i'd ever taken before (main road toward wynberg) into cape town, to the central taxi terminal. i've always been fascinated by this structure; it's bustling with an indescribable amount of activity. my favourite part, however, is the series of 30ish lanes, each signed to indicate the final destination of whichever taxis pull into the given lane. it creates the illusion that transit in cape town is simple.
since i didn't know which taxi route i'd want (since they aren't listed online) before i got to the terminal, i walked down the (very loud) row of lanes, reading the signs posted at every lane, trying to determine what my best bet would be. no routes terminated at century city (as i'd guessed), but one goes to the neighbouring community of milnerton. i decided that milnerton would be my best bet.
since i'd been staring at my street map prior to my journey and knew the basics of century city/milnerton's geography, i told the conductor of the taxi in the front of the lane that i wanted to go to milnerton mall (i'd decided to walk to century city from there). well, in typical TIA (this is africa) ridiculousness, no one had any idea what i was talking about. great. i finally found somebody who knew what i was talking about; apparently, the shopping complex had been renamed centre point mall. so, off i went.
the taxi passed through brooklyn along koeberg road. soon, we reached milnerton, and i was let out in front of centre point mall. great, now what? i was feeling rather calm at this point, though; the northern suburbs have a reputation for being safe and comfortable, and lo and behold, this held true in my eyes. (for those of you at home getting antsy reading my words, take solace in the fact that i'd NEVER conduct a journey like this in a rough neighbourhood. again.) looking at my map, i determined that cutting through a neighbourhood, named tijgerhof, would be my best plan. so, off i went down degrendel road.
tijgerhof was an odd mix of swakopmund and the san fernando valley. most of the street signs in the area were in the distinct style that swakopmund's and windhoek's were in, and frankly, that made me feel even more at ease. tijgerhof had some condominium complexes resembling the (seemingly tunisian/moroccan) architecture prevalent throughout swakopmund, but the houses looked as if they belonged in canoga park. one of the roads i needed to take was unpaved, which threw me off, but that was only temporary, and i continued on.
traversing tijgerhof, however, i suddenly became aware of how late it had become: it was suddenly 3:45! i sent an sms to the woman i'd be buying the software off of, asking her if we could push our 4:00 meeting back to 4:30. she was amenable. i got to the other side of tijgerhof at ratanga road, and unfortunately, it was here that i made a crucial error. i'd planned on turning right down ratanga road and turning into century city not too far down. however, i saw signage announcing the entrance to century city right in front of me, so i proceeded straight into the community.
century city is an oddity for cape town. it's a master planned community, and as such, it's made to look dazzling and pretentious. i proceeded down century boulevard, becoming increasingly reminded of wood ranch (for those of you native to ventura county) as well as exhausted from walking. signage indicated that canal walk (the mall where i was to meet my seller) was "ahead", but all i saw were more master-planned neighbourhoods of cookie-cutter houses. indeed, like most master planned communities, century city would've been far easier to traverse by car.
after a half hour, i reached a more commercial section of century city. now, the urban landscape reminded me of las vegas. the architecture certainly opted to make its buildings look larger than life, and i immediately felt an intense of aura of elegance pervading the neighbourhood. i continued walking, by this point not only exhausted, but baffled by all the "century city shuttles" i saw running. oh well, i figured i couldn't be that far off, right?
i hit canal walk right on the dot of 4:30. had this been our original plan for meeting up, i'd have been quite proud of myself. the seller showed up at 4:45 (quite good for africa time), and we completed the transaction. at last, i had the sims 3 in my possession! :D i walked around canal walk for a bit, and it looked like an awesome mall. i wanted to spend more time there, but at the stroke of 5, i started to worry that, since it'd taken me some 2 hours to get here, i wouldn't make it back to mowbray before sunset. so, i left.
upon exiting canal walk, i saw, right in front of me, a bench labelled "century city shuttles pick-up". i figured, "why not?" and boarded it. it didn't take me terribly far, but it only cost R2, and it helped me realise how silly it had been to go through century city's first entrance at ratanga road; there was a much more convenient option not too far from canal walk! i alighted at century city's transit terminal; nope, no luck getting back to cape town, as all the options i saw would have taken me to various locations throughout cape flats (where, presumably, most of century city's blue collar employees reside. i'm not trying to pass a judgment, it's just fact.). fortunately, i was not too far off from tijgerhof, so i made my way through that neighbourhood relatively quickly.
i came out of tijgerhof at centre point mall, and hoping to take the reverse journey of what i'd done before, i caught a taxi whose conductor told me that it was cape town-bound. this was, as i should have expected, false, and the taxi terminated at the maitland metro station. i was disgruntled, especially since i sensed that the sun would soon disappear behind table mountain for the day, but the conductor not only helped me find a truly cape town-bound taxi, but gave some of the R6.50 fare that i'd given him to my new taxi's conductor so i wouldn't have to pay an additional fare. this new taxi rattled more than i like them to, but it nevertheless made its way to the taxi terminal in cape town in due time.
the sun disappeared behind table mountain. crap, time to vamoose. i found my way to the wynberg-bound lane and boarded one of its taxis. it's a popular route, and that was made obvious given the large crowd waiting on the platform to board a taxi as well as how crammed we were into the (supposedly) 15-passenger minibus. i'd guess the true number was somewhere in the twenties.
dusk came about just as i alighted from that, my final taxi of the day, and i hurried down saint peter's and durban roads into my building. i immediately felt victorious, having completed my roundtrip journey unscathed. :)
i suppose that, when i get back to dc, any given situation will seem rather easy to take on, and any given method will seem wholly efficient and effortless on my end. from overcoming a car accident in rural namibia to obtaining a computer game from a woman across town, though, the adventures thrust upon me here in africa make any day become instantaneously exciting. :)
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