Part 1 of a 3-part series. Read part 2. I moved to South Africa in August 2010. In December 2013, I finally bought a car. Cute, right? I love tiny cars. This photo was taken by my former boxing buddy Henrike, who sold me the car when she relocated to Abidjan. Thanks, Henrike.
Browsing Tag
driving
Life is hard for a Jozi car. Parking spaces are small here. Street lanes are narrow and sometimes unpaved. Potholes are ubiquitous. Road rage rules. Cars share the road with minibus taxis – mighty behemoths with inconsiderate drivers, which hem cars in from all sides. Jozi summers bring heavy rain and hail; winters bring dust and pollution. Fortunately Jozi has the Car Spa, a sparkling oasis for downtrodden cars (and their owners). The Car Spa.
I put it off for as long as I could. I let my boyfriend chauffeur me everywhere, even though it didn’t feel right. I bought a bicycle. I called taxis. I accepted rides from friends. I walked. Sometimes, when I really wanted to go somewhere, I just stayed home instead and pretended it didn’t bother me. If you want to be independent in Joburg, you have to drive. And I had developed a serious Joburg-driving phobia.
I launched 2Summers about six months ago and I’m nearing 10,000 hits. (If I’m lucky, I might reach 10,000 after publishing this post.) It’s a small feat, I know, but reaching that milestone is a pretty cool thing for a regular person like me. More than a fourth of those 10,000 hits happened on one day in November, when a post about my trip to Swaziland was featured in “Freshly Pressed” on the WordPress homepage. I was so overwhelmed when that happened that I never thanked WordPress for choosing me, so I’ll do that now. I also want to thank everyone who read, subscribed to, and commented on my blog that day and in the following days. And lastly, thanks to the old-timers who’ve been reading 2Summers from the beginning.