The New Bakkie

I finally found the vehicle I was looking for! A liitle Nissan Bakkie
1400... The saga of classified papers, driving through every Muslim
neighborhood in Capetown, and making endless telephone calls is over
for now. Just when I was going to ask that dangerous question "Young
man (actually getting quite older!), what the hell are you doing here
in Africa?", this little baby appeared. New tires, brakes, well
maintained, and eager to go...
    I recieved all of my money back for the Fiat (Fix It Again
Tony) that I bought last week from Peter who is now immortalized in
the video clip below. Actually it was his doughy boss named Jock
(probably Jack, but with the Afrikaans accent it sounded like the
preferable Jock). He is the guy who owns the used car lot called
"Stikland" on the out skirts of Cape Town. To clarify the story, I
bought the Fiat from Peter at the lot with a certficate that said the
car was road worthy. All cars must be deemed road worthy according to
South Africa law. Peter said it was a 750 rand test and that he would
take care of it for me. I later learned that it is a 250 rand process,
and Peter probably split the "Extra" 500 rand with the man at the Road
Worthy Certification Center, because as all the mechanics I conferred
with assured me that the car would have never passed the
test....never. But Jocko came right, and my money came back (minus the
brakes I had to fix just to get it sfae to drive back there!). We sat
in his silver 1980's Mercedes as we talked about the wheel of life,
and what goes around comes around. I actually really enjoyed this
talk. I then confronted Peter in my best Robert DeNIro, and said I
still expectd that 500 missing rand ($50.00 USD) back by "High Noon on
Saturday". He was actually nervous and scared, which shows that when
you speak the truth, the mouse can be mightier than the cat. He
replied that he would not be there on Saturday, becuase he had to
attend a funeral. I replied "You might be attending your own funeral
if I don't see my money!" In which he claimed I was threating him, The
whole story made for a good one, and sent me into so many wild little
adventures around Cape Town, like visiting Ibrahim and his family
today about a Bakkie they had for sale. It was a piece of shit, but I
enjoyed talking with him. He was a muslim man with 4 children living
in a pretty barren cement house in a dreary part of town. He had
beautiful children with wonderful smiles.... as did he and his wife!
His young teenage daughter wore a burka so that only her eyes would
show. She wanted to be a teacher. Ibrahim's final words were that the
most important thing is to raise our children to be God-fearing. So as
you can see, it was worth the $50.00 fiasco at Stikland!
     Now the taxi-buses are a real experience here. Last week, I
piled into the oversized VW bus with some 18 other people. Though Cape
Town is ethnically mixed, I was the only white guy I saw on any of the
buses or even bus stations that day. The only seat open (More like a
half of a butt cheek) was right next to the driver. Now usually it is
like Latin America where there is a young guy  (Sometimes the driver's
son) on board who handles the money, leaving the driver to focus on
his task. But if there is no collector, they just start passing up
money towards the driver, and the person sitting near the driver has
to deal with th ecounting and change for him. So here I am in the bus
fresh to the country, with a new currrency, and passengers speaking
Zulu, Shona, Xhos, and all the other languages and accents, and they
are all handing ME the money and expecting change. They will hand you
a 20 rand and say "20 and 1" then another person gives you a 20 and
says "20 and 2" the second number meaning the number of passengers. Or
1 and 1 and 10 and 2 and 3 and 50.....AHHHHHHH! I could not stop
laughing. Then the entire bus will start breaking out in a song as
they are riding home from work. Usually one person will sing lead, and
the others follow in on a chorus. A call and response. So incredible
that they muster this energy after a long day.
   On the way hometonight, we almost hit a penguin in the road in
the dark. Kent swerved the car quickly when the little guy popped out
of the bushes next to the side of the road and was waddling across the
street without looking. He looked like the Artful Dodger waddling into
town to have himself a drink. I couldn't stop laughing about this!
Kent and Landi said that sometimes a group of them will walk up from
the beaches and hang out inside of the the bus stop kiosk...Ever in
wonder, jg