Pretoria: A Shopping Extravaganza, September 16

During our last week of training, Peace Corps took us on a one-day tour and shopping trip to Pretoria. Intellectually we were all aware of the stark class differences prevalent in the country, but it wasn’t until it hit us full in that face that we were able to truly understand the huge disparity between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’. We began the day with bucket baths, breakfast prepared on the coal stove, and boarding a bus in a rural village of dirt roads and tin roofs and two hours later were walking through an air conditioned mall with an ice skating rink, bowling alley, movie theater, McDonalds, and hundreds of stores and restaurants catering to the well-off. Unfortunately we didn’t have much time to contemplate these separate worlds for long as we only had a few hours and a long list of items for purchase, number one being cell phones. Who would have thought that our first real cell phones would be purchased in South Africa in the Peace Corps?! PC strongly encourages all volunteers to purchase and carry a cell phone with them at all times as it is the easiest and most efficient means of communication in the country. After three cell phone stores, we finally found what we wanted, one super cheap phone and one with the capability of connecting our computer to the internet. We also purchased a kettle (essential for boiling drinking water and warming bathing water), clothesline, wash basin, hangers, fridge, and other essentials such as a wok =). The day wouldn’t be complete without taking advantage of the restaurants, so we gorged ourselves with pizza (the first cheese we had seen since arriving) and milkshakes. The bus ride back was filled with the comfortable silence of 40 volunteers in food comas.