I have now been in South Africa for a week, a week of good health and good vision. The Peace Corps in The Gambia has to arrange my transportation home and The Gambia is not easy to reach from South Africa. They apparently could have booked a flight yesterday that was business class, but that was not approved, even though I said I was more than willing to suffer in business class. So now my flight is arranged for October 2nd. That means I will have to suffer through another week of beautiful weather, malls, a wealth of restaurants, even movie theaters. The sacrifices I make for the Peace Corps. I was thinking that 2 weeks of per diem and lodging would more than cover the business class costs, but probably the medevac comes from a different budget that does not impact The Gambia.
As I indicated the weather here is amazing. It is the beginning of spring here and it is sunny with low humidity and moderate temperatures. I haven't worked up a sweat since I have been here. I have a private room with cable television and a hot shower and a huge breakfast provided every morning. Oh, the agonies I must endure. This was my fifth room and third guest house ( long story) but I am settled now. I am in Praetoria which has over 2 million people (I had no clue). They had a huge air show over the weekend of which I saw a tiny bit of when they overflew our area. One thing that jumps out at you is the security in the residential area. There are many large beautiful homes in the area, and a good percentage of them were built in the aparteid era. I was speaking with the peace corps doc and he said when he was a boy, kids would just run out of their homes to meet up with playmates (reminds me of when I was growing up). Now things are radically different. They have major security on all of the properties. At the very minimum there is a tall wall, and some of them are very tall. Then there is always some kind of sharp object on the top of the wall. This is a picture of the gate for the guest house at which I stayed for the first 3 nights I was here.
The type of fencing they have here is called devil horns and the horns are very sharp. The armed response sign is truly that. The owner said that they are there within two minutes if called. There is also lighting and electric fencing that is on 24 by 7. Many homes also have large dogs who run barking and growling up to the fences if you walk by. Many homes also have 1 more more rows of razor wire. The guest house owner also has the lodge alarmed with motion sensors at night and is thinking of hiring a guard. So as you can see, they are serious about security here.
Here is close up of the devil horn fence.
And you can see how many rows of electrified wire is the norm.
The guest house owner (born and raised in South Africa) said that the crime problem has been exacerbated by people streaming into the country from other countries looking for work when no jobs are available. I did see a boy holding a sign up in traffic saying that he would rather starve than steal. It is interesting to say the least. I hope to visit the Aparteid museum and Soweto this week. All of the museum tours were booked last week due to the air show. They do not come cheap but I think will broaden my perspective.
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