Drama

We've encountered a lot of drama since coming to South Africa. First there was lots of drama with the woman we came to work with. Then at the hostel/backpackers we've been staying at, there has been a fair amount of drama with the other people staying here. Most of the people staying here are long-termers, and not travelling. One guy, a South African is always saying how he doesn't have money and he eats pap all the time, usually with not much else. Pap is made from white maize meal, a staple here but not that nutritious. He apparently has trouble having money for food, but somehow gets money for the many cigarettes he smokes every day and the drugs he takes. So to supplement his pap he steals food from the rest of us. No one has actually seen him taking the food, but there is somewhat a general consensus he is the culprit. Sometime things outrightly are taken, or a new package of something is opened when the owner hasn't done it. While Jared and I were in Durban for a week, lots of our food was gone when we came back. At first I was pissed off, but not everyone knew we were coming back and may have thought the food was abandoned. At first I had sympathy for him, but when I realized he was buying cigarettes and drugs I didn't have sympathy for him anymore.

Being vegan, I think our food may be less tempting to take, but we've gone to putting all our food in plastic bags tied at the top, this is also good for the stuff that stays outside the fridge in order to keep the cockroaches out.

Then last week, several items belonging to the hostel/backpackers was stolen. The iron, an electric skillet, and the CD/radio player. This last one really pissed off the manager and she confronted this guy and told him he had to leave. She thinks it's him because there weren't many other people around, and right before the CD player disappeared he asked for a black plastic bag. He told her he wouldn't leave, he is still here so I am not sure what will happen.

We've never trusted him, and he seems to be doing worse than normal. The other night when Jared got up to pee at 2am he was wandering around the halls muttering to himself.

Even more drama happened several nights ago when Jared and I went out to a moderately nice restaurant in Camps Bay. We went with a businessman we met at the hostel who has appeared to have money. I'll call him John. He drives a nice car, owns his business and is going on a trip to India at the end of the month and will be staying in 5 and 6 star hotels. The reason he is staying in this hole in the wall is because he rented out his house for the holiday season. He originally told us he accidentaly rented it out the wrong months, having meant to rent it out while he was gone in India. At the time I totally believed him, but thought it was a bit strange.

So we went out to dinner, and he said it was going to be his treat. It was half priced cocktails, so we ordered cocktails, then appetizers, then the meal. He wanted wine with the meal, so then we had a bottle of wine. Then he ordered soup and several cokes, then we all had to have dessert. We were at the restaurant a total of 3 hours or something. A nice leisurely meal. I had a good time. When it came time to pay the bill he went inside to charge it to his card and said he'd meet us upstairs. We waited at the table for him instead and when he came out I asked if it was all sorted since he had been gone for awhile. He said yes, it's all sorted. But when we were walking out our waiter was coming with us, and our host said he needed to go to his car and get his other card. This seemed quite weird. So Jared and I waited outside while he got his other card and then went to the restaurant. Jared didn't think things seemed right so we walked back down to the restaurant. John was coming out but the manager was holding his cell phone. I was a bit fuzzy at this point and didn't really put anything together. Again we asked if it was all sorted and he said yes.

Jared, being the socialite he is had traded phone numbers with our waiter. The phone started ringing at about 1130 pm. At first I didn't answer it, who calls at 1130pm? But it kept ringing so I answered it. It was the manager from the restaurant. He said the bill was never paid and where was John who was supposed to be going back and pay it? Confused I started to defend saying yes it had been paid and blah blah. But why would the manager lie? I asked him to call back in 10 or 15 min. Jared and I went and talked to John. No, we find out the bill hadn't been paid, his card had been rejected. He has money he tells us, but for some reason it hasn't been transferred properly between accounts. John talks to the restaurant when they call back and say its all sorted and he will go in the morning.

The next day we ask John how it went paying the bill. He said he went to the restaurant but the manager and waiter wasn't there and since they had his cell phone he wasn't going to pay the bill without getting his phone back. The manager on duty told him this was fine, come back tomorrow.

On the following day our phone starts ringing again. The phone is a piece of shit and hard to hear the other people on it so I didn't answer until about the 4th call. Its the restaurant saying John hasn't come to pay the bill. I get defensive again (I do this when confronted) and say he went in yesterday but the manager wasn't there so he didn't pay it. I'm told, no the manager was here and John never showed. Oh, I say...I don't know what to tell you then. He asks how to get ahold of this guy, and I say we'll be seeing him later tonight. The restaurant then proceeds to call us a total of 25 times. Half way through this I turned the ringer off. We were in the train station so I couldn't have heard him anyway. What would I have told them? We were stuck in the middle of this mucky thing.

Jared and I are thinking at this point something is really wrong and John must not be telling us the entire truth. We start to think he doesn't have money like he says he does... We get back to the backpackers and talk to John. Jared is insistent that if he needs to borrow some money from us to pay the bill (and so they'll stop calling us, and not press charges against John) we can do that. John says he will go back to the restaurant tonight and pay it. The restaurant is getting pretty pissed and said they will charge him with credit card fraud or something if he doesn't sort it out by tonight.

In the end, Jared and I go with him to the restaurant and end up paying the bill. We were assured by John that he'll pay us back in a few days....fortunately we are in South Africa where the dollar is stronger and so such a meal is much cheaper than in the US. I really hope we get the money back.

And for a last bit of drama, getting off the train yesterday the door shut on Jared's bag and the train started to move with his bag stuck in the door. Both Jared and the bag are fine, just a bit of a sore shoulder.

Its my intention now that we just see the drama and aren't a part of it. It is all so silly and useless.