fun and frustration

i don't think i've ever had a span of 4 or 5 days filled with so much fun and frustration like i did this long easter weekend (we, in sa, got fri and monday off, because apparently the people here are christians and like holidays). i'll start with the frustrating partS:

car issues #1: after being in the shop for 3+ weeks, hakuna matata (my car's name for now, thanks to my boy biede) came home. you would think that being away for so long, they had to have fixed the problems, right? wrong. the funny noises were still there. the air conditioning still didnt work properly. so what did they do? i'm completely convinced that they gave the car to one of the workers/technicians and he took it on vacation to botswana or zim or china, drove up the mileage (majorly) and then returned it back and boom, it was "fixed".

car issues #2: exhibit #2 that someone had taken the car for a fun ride and brought it back "fixed", i noticed the engine was very week; in fact, i had to sit in the dealer's office when i got it back while i waited for him to charge it up. this was wed. thurs,it felt even weaker. friday, it refused to start. luckily i was staying over with a friend who had jumper cables (a bit more about that later). sat, it refused to start. by now i figure the battery's not weak; it's dead. luckily i had just enough (barely) airtime to call a friend and we drove to an auto shop in just enough time (they were 5 minutes from closing) to buy a new battery. btw, u can call me mr mechanic bcuz my friend and i fixed the battery ourselves (amid sparks flying and instructions in the handbook that simply said "to replace the battery take your vehicle to the nearest audi dealership")

car issues #3: ok, this is not really an issue, but easter sunday i take it to church, get home and realize that the right front light was hanging down. apparently, i think i scraped it in the new, hill-y, and pot hole filled church car park (some easter present, huh). so i put on my handyman cap again and tried my best to push the light in and screw on the peace of the bumper that was also hanging down.

cell-phone issues: vodacom, one of the big cellphone companies here, is now the devil to me. theyve been successful at giving me hell in trying to set up a monthly contract with them. so i finally decided i want none of it; call them; demanded cancellation; told them i would not pay the cancellation fee, as the phone never was fully activated and certainly never used; and demanded a full refund of all the money i'd paid so far. after about 4 calls TODAY (including finally to corporate), they have told me that part of the refund is on its way. i now have to keep fighting for the rest of it.

ok, the negatives of this weekend may seem overwhelming, but it didnt really bother me too much, because the positives were immensely better. i had more fun this weekend than i have in a while here. the low-down:

thur: i ventured to the east rand (that's east of jo-burg...seemed like another country!) for the first time. a friend of mine (that i met through another friend) finally had enough of sa and was shipping it to the UK, so she had a farewell party. i found out at work that day that the east rand has a "special" reputation. apparently even english south africans dont hang out much there, as it is mostly an afrikaans area (tho this girl's family was scottish). turns out it wasn't that bad at all. still very white, of course, but not too bad. i met a lot of very friendly people (lots). party-ed all night there; spent the night at the girls brother's place (who luckily had the jumper cables); and left on friday morning.

fri: had lunch with some work colleagues. it was more of a brunch/lunch/dinner, cuz we spent a lot of time at the restaurant. it was good to just hang out and chill tho. sat: after fixing the battery in my car, i was ready for some good chicken; so we had some. a lot actually. the night was extremely good too. went to 2 clubs here in jo-burg. one was very mmts, mmts, mmts (they reallllly like the techno, house, trance-type music here). could only stand so much of that, so we continued to a much more freindlier atmosphere of hip hip. i'm not one for clubs but this place is now probly one of my favorite. they played both new hip hop and a lot of old school stuff and the dj really mixed it up all night. it was nice, met lots more nice people, and actually danced all night (thats right i danced!)...until my feet could barely move. sun and mon were spent going to church, having lunch with friends, and running away from the police twice (ok, maybe it wasn't that serious/cool, but thats my story and im sticking to it). but overall, one of the best weekends i've had in a while. i took no pictures, but i can't guarantee that some will not be popping up on facebook.

im taking this friday off (so reallly short wk for me) to go hiking in Drakensburg, so i'll def have pictures up for my next post, for you textually-challenged group!

blessings and curses and race

change of plans: i was planning on blogging today (actually yesterday or so...) about the men's church conference that i went to this past weekend. well now something else has my attention (i'll get to that below). just to say a bit about the conf, it was a bit weird at first, cuz i walked in early on saturday morning (after nearly turning back cuz i was a bit late and the gate wouldn't open) and all i could see was old men. i mean reallly old men. it wasn't until i sat down and cleared my eyes and mind that i spotted a couple people my age (though the majority was still old men). with all my doubts tho, the conf turned out really good. i got to meet some amazing people and surprisingly (to me at least) people really opened up and shared stuff in ways i didn't expect (including myself). the theme was blessings and curses and even though we touched on some areas that i strongly disagree with (e.g. aids possibly being a curse from god or abortion on any level inviting god's curse...), the underlying theme of being aware of forces at work around and among us was a really enlightening one. we even talked about spirits and demons (oooh, ahhh)...topics that westernized people rarely like to talk about; but ask any african, indian, other asian, etc, and they will testify to u that things do happen on a supernatural level that need to be acknowledged. anyway, i may be getting too deep for y'all, but i'm glad i went and not only did i meet some new people, i got my learn on a bit.


so on to the new topic. a few weeks ago, i was at a braai and we somehow got on the topic of race in the US and in South Africa. the south african seemed to believe that one problem is that america has only covered up the issue and pushed it aside, but has not adequately faced it head on. hence, when anyone says anything that could even remotely be considered derogatory all hell breaks loose. i agree with that. however, he also contrasted that with south africa, believing that south africans were on a better path because they were actually facing the race issue head on. not so sure about that.

anyway, i was reminded of this convo today as i got home from work and turned on CNN (as is routine) and the breaking news was that obama was making a major speech on race. i must admit, my first instinct was "oh no...he's digging himself in a bigger hole". all week id read about the whole "issue" with his pastors comments,etc; which was all frankly annoying. so i was, unfortunately, under the impression that he should just let this blow over and ignore it and hope it gets lost in the other "irrelevant" news stories of..uhm...lets see...maybe iraq, or the economy, or jobs, or education...

well, this man's got some balls. after hearing the speech i was impressed. i think for the first time in a long time someone was actually speaking about the issue of race and racial relations in a REAL way. no innuendos. no beating around the subject. he brilliantly spoke about this issue in a way that i believe everyone has experienced in some way. black anger. white guilt. white frustration. hispanic frustration. black pride. his words: "issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through...But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now...the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races...This is where we are right now. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years."

He goes on to say a lot of other awesome things, but those are some of the ones that stuck out to me. i suggest listening to or reading the rest of the speech. so yes, its another speech. why should we put stuck in speeches anyway. well first of all racial dialog is something that seriously needs to happen on a meaningful level in the states. to see a major presidential actually address it, in a way potentially damaging to his candidacy, is inspiring. barack likes to say change happens from the bottom-up but it almost always takes urging, agreement, and work from the top down as well to make anything happen. it would seem like in an obama presidency, there will be support from the top jolting (and sometimes spurring on) action from the bottom on issues such as these (contrast that with the current administration).

finally, i thought he took a serious gamble in making this speech. it could still backfire on him. depending on how the commentators and pundits decipher it, i can see many people completely using it against him. for me, i must admire his courage in speaking honestly about race and confronting it head on. who else has been able to do that in an intelligent, non-biased way? certainly not bill "the first black president" clinton, nor jesse jackson, nor al "i will do/say anything to remain relevant" sharpton, nor rev jeremiah wright. this was more than mere politics.

post-post: i really did try to refrain from blogging politics (at least us politics) for a while; ill try harder next time.

naija wknd

this wknd, i hung out mostly with my nigerian friends. did some braai-ing (bbq; pretty much an all day event), ping pong (oh, how i'd missed the best game on earth), foosball, talking naija and politics and obviously how to fix the world and dancing...i must say, i learned an immensely valuable lesson on sat: seriously need to work on my dance steps before chill'n with naijas. ok, i know nigerians can dance, but i didn't think i was THAT bad. well, i am. it was a shame. it is a shame. i was a disagrace to all that is nigerian. i apologise. and vow to spend the rest of my life fixing this problem. ok, maybe not a vow. and maybe not the rest of my life. but one of these days...watch out!: i'll be dancing like the tru american...uh, i mean nigerian i was meant to be... i blame the US for spoiling me.

fortunately, there were no incriminating pictures taken of me trying and failing to dance (at least none that i'm aware of), but heres one of us men discussing how we would fix all the world's problems. the other pic is me taking the ping pong table (and would-be opponents) to school...

in the spirit of blaming the states for my problems, sunday afternoon presented another blame america moment. we went go-karting at some random place in the middle of nowhere. apparently go-karting is when u just drive the go-kart around and maybe try to win the race by safely overtaking others and making good time. well, the sign may have said go-karting, but my mind registerred "bumper cars". so there i was lovingly (of course) shoving (maybe a bit of bumping and crashing into) other karts out of my way on my quest to win and win big. result: we almost got kicked out of the place. apaprently ur not supposed to bump people in go-karting....how was i to know man. i'm only a stupid american...

post-post shoutouts: (1) the IRS (US version of SARS) for my nice tax return; i could use the money...actually i already have...

(2) if only i had known that all those times when i was losing matches i could've conjured up a deal that goes something like this: hey i may be losing, but if you take 2nd place, i'll take first place. deal? hmm...

random quips

- well, i'm a bit (or actually a lot) tired this morning as i got little to no sleep last night; thought i'd watch as the primary results for texas and ohio (and vermont and RI) came in. bug mistake. not only am i extremely tired, i'm also grumpy and not so happy with the results (or with the clinton smear and attack campaign in the final days before the primaries..."shame on you")

-it's been almost 2 weeks now that my hakuna-mutata has been in the shop and they still don't know when it will be ready to pick up. i'm not complaining tho, i like the upgrade they gave me to use in the meantime. so no worries (get it...get it...!!)

-i'm also a bit sore from the "active" weekend that i had. including going to the gym on friday (doesn't happen all too often, but i did learn that i have 12.3% body fat...i think thats good, no), paintballing on sat, and playing some serious soccer (futbol) on sunday. i think u can find some pics of paintballing on facebook...'twas all good, tho; plus i need to condition myself for going hiking 2 consecutive wknds at the end of the month. eish

-going out friday night, i noticed everywhere was packed and traffic was backed-up everywhere. as in much much more than usual. so i ask a friend what was going on. a concert? play? nelson mandela? actually, none of the above. it was the end of the month, and since people here get paid only once a month at the end of the month, everyone goes out and spends like crazy at month's end. note to self: avoid shopping at month's end

-still waiting for my cell phone to be activated....my land line may or may not be installed on sat or sun

i'll try to think of something more substantive to write next time...