TIA

T.I.A. - "This is Africa"


TIA is a saying you hear a lot over here. I suppose it is a way to adjust your expectations to the African way of life. More accurately, I think it is the only explanation to the peculiarities and frustrations of this pseudo first-world city. Here are a few lessons learned:

1. Accounts Receivables is not a generally accepted practice here. Utilities are pre-paid! Power was inadvertently turned off
2. I am getting all sorts of grief claiming the Giants are the champions of the world, I mean, they won the World Series right!?
3. Ryan Seacrest is exclusively 'On Air' every night from 7:00-10:00pm... really Africa.
4. They drive on the left... I get into the passenger seat almost every time I go somewhere.
5. They call stop lights "robots" (yep, they are so far behind in technology to think that traffic lights are mechanical wonders) and you can do pretty much all your shopping from peddlers while waiting. Hey, you never know when you might need the day's paper, or a hammock, or a mirror.
6. "Now now" can refer to a time in the past or the future and "just now" refers to sometime in the near future but not necessarily immediate. So accomplishing a task now now means that it might already be done, or that you are going to get to it this afternoon, but potentially will not get to it until next month.
7. If you look around you would think the World Cup was starting next week. IT'S OVER, Spain won (Note: actual world champions).
8. The typical affirmative response here is, "Is it?"..... yes, it is, that's why I said it the first time!
9. Bribing cops is always appropriate. One could be piss drunk, smoking dope, not wearing a seat belt, while driving 150kph on the right side of the road and running robots...... that would be about $20.
   (I have yet to have a conversation on the topic where the word "safety" was used)
10. China is slang for friend, boytjie is slang for china, bru is slang for boytjie, and all these people are okes. Something bad is cock, something good is lekker, someone that is lekker is probably hundreds (100 percent).... and if you don't care about my vocabulary lesson then you give rocks (indifferent).
11. If someone says, "Africa time," then its probably not going to happen.

The Giants are the World Champions, it says so on the cover of The San Francisco Chronicle.