Thursday, January 17, 2008

South African Google Earth

(Click for a larger picture)

South Africans have developed the ability to laugh at their problems, even under the most adverse circumstances. Our crime problems are being surpassed only by the random power blackouts that have been going on for months and are likely to continue for the next 8 years or so.
Today I visited my friend Dennis who is recuperating from gunshot wounds he received from 3 armed men, while out walking his dogs with his wife on Boxing day. One bullet narrowly missed his heart, went through his colon and liver. The second bullet injured his left leg, before lodging behind the knee of his right leg. Three weeks later he can barely walk, so I popped round to his house to help him set up some computers in his wife's study.
We couldn't test everything immediately, because of the 3 hour power blackout (Eskom calls it "Load Shedding") from 4pm to 7pm (their second one today) so I did a lot of running around with torches and candles first. I also sat through 90 minutes of traffic congestion to get there, caused by the power outages and rainy weather.
In case your're wondering what "Google-letu" is all about, Guguletu is a well known "township" area.

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