Back in America, where the trash gets picked up with unflinching regularity, where I can bank on every traffic light working like a charm each morning on the way to school, and where I can start and stop utility service with just a single phone call if I so desire, I chuckle with utter delight when reading about the misadventures of yet another American expat in South Africa.
It’s Like Camping Without the Hassle
I recently came across an article on Jozi Kids called “100 Benefits of Load-Shedding.”
One hundred? Okay Jozi Kids, I think you might have gone just a tad overboard. There are not even one hundred benefits of Nutella. Or central heating. Or indoor plumbing.
But I do get their idea. Rather ...
Load-Shitting, Excuse me, Shedding
Load-shedding.
It’s the word on every South African’s lips these days.
(For my non-South African readers: no, this has nothing to do with going to the toilet and getting rid of THAT load, as you might be inclined to deduce from the title of this post or the word itself or even from the fact ...
I’m Having an Affair
Yes, I have an affair. It started shortly after moving to South Africa. It wasn’t all that secret, to be honest, but it was very time consuming. I mostly conducted it over the phone, except for one not-so-clandestine encounter. Then I thought I ended it last July. 190 long days of not talking ...
The Medupi Power Station
| Medupi Power Station |
Following my previous post about energy, where I somewhat romanticized the notion of poverty and low energy usage in South Africa, I thought I should be honest and show the entire picture.
South Africa, you see, is building the world’s largest dry-cooled coal-fired power plant. When completed, ...
Time to Put My Eskom File in the Drawer
So for almost one and a half years I have been indignant.
If you search for “Eskom” on this blog, you will find all my previous Eskom posts and can chronologically follow, if you’re so inclined, how I was at first ignorant, then surprised, determined, outraged, foaming at the mouth, ...
The Relativity Theory of Power Interruptions
I shared a good chuckle with a friend today.
She told me that her husband, who is working in Germany at the moment, was listening to the radio while driving through Berlin, and the story of the day was that at 2:00 tomorrow the power in such and such area would be turned off for two and a half minutes. ...
My Truce with Eskom
Here I thought I had finally come to a sort of unspoken agreement with Eskom (our electricity provider here in South Africa): Every once in a while I’d call my new friend there, Mr. Smith (I am not kidding, that’s his actual name; come to think of it, maybe it is just what he wants me ...
Eskom – How Much More Absurd can it Get?
I bet you’ve been missing my Eskom stories? If not, you might want to skip this post. But I promise you it will make you feel good, for the simple reason that you DON’T have to deal with them! Unless you live in South Africa, and then you can commiserate with me.
I left ...
Eskom: Absolute Power to Turn Off Your Power Whenever They so Choose
I’m actually shaking with rage as I’m writing this. My South African friends will no doubt laugh and shrug their shoulders and tell me “Welcome to Africa.” Noisette tells me that at least it makes for another good story, and he’s quite right. I’m grateful to you, who are reading my blog, for letting me vent for the next ten minutes, otherwise I think I might explode.
Eskom came and turned our power off today. In broad daylight. I wouldn’t even have known but for Sibu’s (our domestic help) quick thinking, who spotted a security guard in our driveway and went to find out what was going on.
What was going on was that there were two people from Eskom, escorted ...