Breakdown

Today, I got to know the M3 (the highway I take to work) quite well, but more on that later in the post.

On Sunday, I slept in until the late hour of 9 AM and decided to make eggs for breakfast, since it was Toukam's 28th birthday! I was grateful to see my scrambled eggs turn out infinitely better than my attempt at a sunny side up egg last week. We had a nice breakfast and headed out on foot to Hillsong Church at the convention center. For those who don't know, Hillsong is a very popular Christian band, with many younger churches using their songs for their congregation to sing. They're originally from Australia, but they have started churches in England and here. It was a quite enjoyable service, though the fog machine and light show during the worship time may be a little over the top.

At the service we ran into the Americans who are working at All Nations with the t-shirt printing business. It was nice to run into them and have a brief chat. They were headed back to Africa House early to go to a celebration marking the successful purchase of a property across the street, where they will be housing the t-shirt shop. Apparently when they first went to Hillsong, it was in the City Hall, which I took pictures of last week. I wish I could have been to that service!

Not wanting to have Toukam's birthday be completely uncelebrated, we went out to lunch at the only place that was open in what seemed like the whole city- the restaurant on the first floor of our apartment building. It's an italian place and we enjoyed the meal. The commute wasn't too bad either.

For the remainder of the day, we went to an internet cafe and then read for a couple hours. I'm proud to say that I am halfway done with Atlas Shrugged (or is it half way to go?) and I'm still feeling that it's engaging. The characters' situation just seems to become more and more desperate in their anti-profit American world. Fascinating.

I went to bed pretty early in anticipation of the 5AM wake up time that I needed to have in order to pick up Floyd (Mr. McClung) from his house and take him to a meeting and then to the airport. I managed that and was on the road, fully dressed and having had breakfast, at 5:30. Despite my judicious preplanning, though, there was something else in store for me. As I cruised out of the city on the empty pre-dawn streets, I rounded a curve and lost - but quickly regained - control of Aslan. Thinking it odd that despite the dry road and my normal speed it had done that, I continued on. However, as I drove I noticed that my car simply wasn't working right. It turned out that I had, of all things, a flat tire!

At this point in the commute I was about 10 minutes out of the city on a main highway called the M3, meaning there weren't any exits nearby. So, I had to just stop the car on the highway as far to the left (remember, it's reverse) and put on my warning lights. Obviously, I was kind of upset- my boss was counting on me to be there and take him to the airport, and now I was stranded. Thankfully, I had my US cellphone with me, and I tried to give him a call, but nobody answered. I then took advantage of what Drive Africa had included in my deal and called AA (their version of AAA) and asked someone to come help, since the jack in the car would not have gotten me out of there within any reasonable amount of time. I waited on the sidewalk for a while, in the cold dark, and hoped the AA guy would come.

The first person to come to my aid was actually a police tow truck. He pulled up and wanted to help, but I told him that I had called AA. He left and I continued my solitary vigil on the roadside. However after about 10 more minutes, I noticed something that only added to my anxieties- my car's lights were getting dimmer, and the drivers coming on the highway were having to put on their brights to see that a car was there. Worried, I rushed into the car and tried to start it- my battery was dead.

Marveling at my extraordinary misfortune, I then reduced myself to using my phone as an illuminated way to direct traffic away from the broken down vehicle. Since it was still completely dark, this had somewhat of an effect, but I still felt like an imbecile, frantically waving a Blackberry on a highway in South Africa at 6 in the morning in office clothes.

Eventually I reached Floyd and the AA truck came- they quickly changed my tire and gave me a jump for my car, and I was once again on my way, though slightly shaken. I had received directions to the publishing house where the meeting was from Floyd and I rendezvoused with him there. He understood my plight and we laughed about how I had got much more "character building" that morning than just waking up early. The meeting itself was extremely interesting. Floyd is almost complete with his 13th book and he's publishing it with a subsidiary of Random House. At the meeting they discussed everything from possible cover designs to how the royalties would work. Though only a quiet observer, I felt like just being there was really great.

I then drove with Floyd to the airport, where he departed to Taiwan for the next couple weeks. I then had the task of taking his rather large Toyota pickup back to his house. (I had left my car at the offices where the meeting took place). I eventually got back to Africa House, asked someone to pick me up from Floyd's house, and dropped the car off. At his house I finally got to meet his wife, Sally, who is a really kind person from what I could tell. Back at the office, I did a couple hours of work before getting a ride to the train station. Since I didn't want my car troubles to haunt me for the coming week, I decided to get it all done with today. The train ride was more than an hour on a definitely African train, but there were great views and it was nice to relax after such a taxing start to the day.

Upon arrival back to Cape Town proper, I walked about 20 minutes back to my car, which thankfully was still there and intact, and drove it straight to Drive Africa. They have a mechanic and he repaired my broken tire and told me that regarding the dying battery, 20 minutes of having the lights on without the engine running would actually run it empty. I was thinking that something was wrong, but apparently Toyota Corollas have tiny batteries. He assured me that it should be recharged quickly, if not already.

Driving back to the apartment, I was really thankful that I had sorted out all the car problems today. It would have been a big hassle to have to go to the mechanics later in the week and elongate the whole issue. I went grocery shopping and sat down with Atlas Shrugged, tearing through page after page as the plot grew more and more engaging. I'm about 2/3 done now, and I'm debating whether or not to take a break from it in between parts to read another book- I may just want to finish it now. However, there are still 400 pages left, and I don't want to be rushing through the end. The options I have for interim books are "Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah" or "Blue Planet in Green Shackles," the book by the Czech president about crazed environmentalism. Any suggestions for this predicament, Reader?

I cooked dinner and we ended up watching "Crash," the 2005 Best Picture Award winner. I bought it before we left because it remains one of my favorite movies. It has such power in the way it was made. I highly suggest it to anyone looking for a movie to watch.

Well, that was my last two days- full of ups and downs and character-building exercises, as unintentional as they were. Cheers!