Third World Problems

As a spoiled first world person most of my life, I would complain to myself mostly about annoying things that might happen to me. 

But now I am in Africa and these problems I have are now real!  ;) Third world problems are way worse and make me grateful for all I had in the past.

Mail comes to your house in the first world, here you have to get a PO box or use a courier.  Mail that I tried to get from NJ to South Africa has taken 3 weeks to come.  Some mail may never arrive.  Our insurance cards are still somewhere in the system, hopefully not lost.   I don't think I ever thought I would miss the US postal service, but I do. 

Couriers: you pay them to deliver and pick up but there is no insurance the item will not be lost, stolen, or damaged. 

Unwelcome house guests - spiders a plenty, flies, mosquitoes, roaches, gecko.  Food chain tells you geckos eat spiders and roaches, and spiders eat flies and mosquitoes.  So this isn't so bad.  What eats geckos?  

Water comes to your house via the tap.  It may be safe from bacteria on a good day, but not free of lead, mercury, or other metals.  Awesome!   You can buy ozone treated water at PnP (grocery store) or at a separate water store called Oasis.  Luckily in third world water refilling is cheap, 5 rand a jug.  Conversion 8.8 Rand to 1 dollar
Other cheap items: 3 dollar sandals that broke two weeks after purchase, third world problems.

A surprising observation about walking in South Africa is bare feet is normal.  I have seen males and females, young (3 yrs) and old, black, white, rich, poor, on the street, in the grocery store, (even in Will's class) people bare foot.  I am used to the rule "no shoes, no shirt, no service".   In South Africa that doesn't apply.  My first world feet are getting used to this third world, broken glass covered sidewalks, but you won't see me barefoot just yet.  Only if all my sandals break.

As I read this, it sounds really negative, but I am doing just fine.  There are many highlights to my experiences in South Africa.  These are just some extra tidbits.