To say that I was a little apprehensive about our first trip to South Africa would be an understatement. For some unknown reason, I find myself worrying about little things, being cautious and feeling slightly on edge.
My preliminary impressions of South Africa after only 12 hours in the country were not overly favorable. However, after a good night’s sleep and the introduction of a new day, I awoke feeling refreshed and hopeful.
However, that hope was weakened before I even made it out of bed. While laying in bed, I noticed the light in our bathroom flickering. On-off-on-off-on-off. This pattern seemed to repeat itself at random intervals over the next ten to fifteen minutes. Likewise, the light on our power converter—plugged in on the opposite wall—seemed to follow the same pattern. Seriously? We are having intermittent power outages?
This turn of events did nothing to ease my nerves about being in a third world country. Here we were in a five star hotel in the modern city of Cape Town and we are unable to sustain power for more than 30 seconds at a time?
I started to wonder if this was a sign of things to come during our stay in South Africa. We had heard about the potential of unstable internet , but was electricity going to be an issue as well? As I laid there in bed, I thought about the potential of being stuck in the elevator or the potential of being caught in the shower with no lights (or hot water). My bubble of hope had definitely diminished.
Luckily, the intermittent power outages only lasted for about an hour! Perhaps I over reacted (a little), but the thought of not having basic necessities at our disposal caused me to pause and second guess staying so long in South Africa. My first impression the day before was not great and I must say that the start of the second day was not helping to ease my mind!
