3 Weeks in South Africa

It has been a long time since I have written a blog…I can’t believe I have now been in South Africa 3 weeks!!! Wow! I have been doing short-term trips for several years now, just traveling for 10days to two weeks at a time. So, yesterday I felt it was time to go home. 3 weeks had pushed me a week past what I have grown accustomed to. So, I went to the movies. I sat in a movie theatre just like home, in the air conditioning, and I watched a Hollywood movie. It was a bit like home except I could not laugh with anyone about the movie afterwards….so it actually left me really wanting a great girls’ night with loads of laughter. South Africans see all the Hollywood movies but don’t necessarily know what makes the movie funny to Americans. I am always surprised at the different things people in other countries laugh at in movies and they have no idea why I laugh when I laugh. But it was a nice day in the AC yesterday…..really it was well worth the $3 for a movie just to sit in the AC for two hours. It’s really not that hot here, but you know a little AC is just nice now and again…..in a month when winter is coming with no central heat, I’ll be running to the movies for a heater :)

So for those of you reading this blog so that you can learn about moving to other countries…..I have learned a lot over the past three weeks!!!!! Oh, the things I would have done just a little differently had I known.

So first, leave it to Africa, they put the wrong visa in my passport. At some point I am going to have to deal with this, but I’ve just survived all the other things, so I’ll speak to Home Affairs another month! But I have a visitor’s visa in my passport….the one visa that lets you do nothing other than visit. I can’t open a bank account or do anything that requires a visa….I have a better situation than the other guy who was at the bank trying to get an account the day I was there. This poor fellow moved here to play Cricket for a pro team. He should have a worker’s visa, but they also put a visitor visa in his passport. Now this pro team only pays the players through paycheck bank deposit because it is the safest thing here, but this guy can’t get a bank account and therefore no paycheck until they get his visa worked out. What a hectic work this guy has ahead of him to get this all sorted out.

So, anyway, back to learning the best way to do things in South Africa, at least. It’s actually a miracle but I was able to sort out finances and paperwork and everything to get a car in one week’s time. Here’s how it went. Well, actually, it didn’t go as smoothly as this will sound. At each step I kept discovering that I actually needed to back track and do something differently…..but here’s how it could go for others in the future. First, find the car. Then, I had to go to the traffic department to get a traffic identification number (or something like that)…if you go into the traffic department and tell them you are a foreigner with a passport and you need the paperwork to buy a car in SA then they will give you the correct form. Anyway, I got this form very late in my process but I will let you know you need to just get this form in the beginning. Oh, and make sure you go ahead and get your id pictures made before going to the traffic department. Apparently there are usually people set up outside to take your picture right there, but none of these people were there when I went. The next thing is while you are at the Traffic Department have them approve your driver’s license (I would get an international one before you leave home, but they also may approve your American license). I actually don’t know how this last part works because I was told about it later when I got my car insurance and now I have 6 months to get it done. So all of this took some time and I went back and forth a lot because I didn’t know about one detail or the other. But it wasn’t too bad and I got it all done in one day!

But here is the MOST IMPORTANT thing to know when buying a car here….would have saved me and people at home a lot of time and money if I had known. We did fundraisers at home to raise the money for me to buy a car with cash when I got here. If you are doing this ask the dealership you are working with in advance what their requirements are for paying in cash. I brought traveler’s checks from home and had people at home go and wire the rest of the money to me. I paid all the fees to have this money exchanged and wired because I couldn’t get a bank account so I couldn’t pay with a bank guaranteed check which is what the dealership actually requires. So, after I got all this cash they told me I actually cannot pay in cash, but I would need to go to their bank and deposit the cash in the bank and bring the deposit slip……make sure to only work with trust worthy dealerships if you must do this!!!! Otherwise find a trustworthy South African friend to put the money in their account and get the check for you. Anyway, I went to deposit all this cash…..now at this point I had probably lost close to $200 in fees and lower exchange rates for exchanging cash. In the end I discovered the easiest thing would have been to have my bank at home wire all the money into the dealership’s bank account…..total cost = $55 for the wire + best exchange rate rather than the lower rate you get at money exchange locations. A bit of an expensive lesson….but that is why I’m taking the time to write this to let you know the things I have discovered so far for being a foreigner buying a car in South Africa.

Alrighty, well, more another day…..thanks for reading…..let me know if there is anything particular you would like me to write about concerning South Africa and the moving process.