August 8

Things don't always go according to plans.
I was dropped off at the office early, just like yesterday. The girl driving us to the school decided to take a different way, a back way, that runs along a gorge and is very windy and contains a steep hill before meeting up with the main road. On this steep hill the car begins smoking so bad it was pouring out the hood and in the car. I immediately got out of the car- I knew my mom would be furious if I blew up in a car in South Africa. The girl parked the car on the side of the road and we popped the hood to see what the problem was (like we know anything about cars). A very nice pedestrian stopped and let us use his cell phone to call for another ride and the Toyota Dealership. The driver had burned the clutch (or something like that), people keep trying to tell me the advantages of manual cars here, but I'm not convinced. We ended up being an hour and a half late to the school, but they were very understanding and I was glad it wasn't my fault! It worked out fine for me, because I had planned to do my surveys at the end of the day anyways. We both adjusted to the situation and things worked out just fine.
When I got home, Janet told me there was a message for me that the Manley's (Charlene and Neill) were going to have a Braai (a barbeque in Afrikaan) instead of going to see Pirates of the Caribbean 2 like we had planned. Being the silly person I am, I was sort of pouting inside because I was really looking forward to the movie. When Neill picked me up, though, he assured me that we were going to do both and I chided myself for my bad attitude. It was the four of us again for the braai and we had a great time- I wouldn't call it a barbeque, just grilling out, really. Then we found out that the movie was sold out (it was half-priced Tuesday and South Africans are very frugal). By this point, I was totally okay with not seeing the movie and we opted to just hang out instead. Soon it was getting late and James was nice enough to take me home this time.