Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Brief Sojourn to America

I am in the US for all of six days for some grad school considerations and family time.  To get here, I decided to take public transport from Mbabane to the Jo'burg airport since a) I had meetings in the morning and the nice van left at 7am, and b) it is cheap and so am I.  I also thought it would be entertaining to keep track of what the process entailed, so I kept notes.  Which I will now present to you.

10:30am, Monday: Meeting starts, 90 minutes late
11:45am -- Meeting ends.  My ride ditches me and sends me with a different lady to go to an atm for needed cash.
12:00 -- I find the different lady who is to drive me to the atm for cash.  We find said atm.  She takes me back to the meeting hall instead of the taxi rank.
12:15pm -- random toothless man we wave down on the side of the road drives me to the taxi rank.  The previous kombi (minibus) left 10 minutes previous.  I am promised we will leave by 2.
2:20pm.  Switch kombis, but still at the taxi rank.
2:30 -- Kombi leaves Mbabane.  I am told I will switch again at the border.
2:45pm -- Arrive at the border.  Stamping and queuing.
3:00pm -- Get in new kombi.  Forced to airless back.
3:15pm -- Leave for Jo'burg
6:20pm -- Forced to switch kombis again at large mall in Jo'burg.  I lose my shit with the driver.
6:30pm -- Switch kombis again in the middle of freeway.  Old man loses his shit in a mixture of zulu and sotho because I am white.
6:45pm -- kicked out of kombi to travel last half mile on foot.  Begin sobbing.  Almost run over.
7:05pm -- South African Airlines begins trying to figure out what the hell a buddy pass is.
8:20pm -- Flight leaves.  I am in business class.  Success!!

1 comment:

Mom said...

Sounds like a book to me . . .