It’s a Christmas Miracle!

As it usually does, the universe acted in a funny way yesterday. I posted a rather lengthy blog about the trials and tribulations of getting the internet hooked up at our house. And, about an hour later, Telkom was at our door, unannounced (they were supposed to call before they came). I know for a fact that this had nothing to do with my blog post, as it had just been published and had virtually no readers (although 700 people visited the page in the first 12 hours of the blog going live, so thanks for that! Feel free to subscribe (a handy box is at the top right-hand side of the page) and/or share).

This is what navigating Telkom’s customer service feels like.

After going through all the same processes we had already done a thousand times, the tech called Afrihost, the data provider, and proceeded to go through the same procedures AGAIN. Anyway, it turns out that this whole mess was a communication issue, which doesn’t surprise me, because South Africans tend to talk a lot, but avoid actual communication as if will give them ass cancer or something. Apparently, Afrihost had been trying to connect the wrong line number and said it had been changed on Dec 15. We certainly didn’t change it. Telkom may have. Or it may have never been changed at all. People tend to just say things here. You never know the entire truth, and trying to get to the bottom of anything is about as futile as a cat trying to bury a turd on a marble floor. I’m just going to accept this little Christmas miracle and enjoy having the internet at my house.

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About the Author

I’ve been many things. A university English instructor, a picker upper of dead bodies, a musician, and a sales guy. My work brought me and my family from Vancouver, Canada to Pretoria, South Africa in September 2016, and I’m still wondering how that happened. I started this blog mostly because my friends back in Canada kept asking me how things were in South Africa, and posting about my experiences seemed more efficient than repeating myself hundreds of times. Maple and Marula is a way for me to make sense of my new surroundings as an expat who has no idea what I’m doing.

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2 Comments

  1. This is all so true. Especially the cat/turd analogy! You had me spill my tea over that one. Are you related at all to the guy writing O God My Wife Is German? I think you'd like his blog…

  2. Hm- I definitely need to check that out! I kind of just write whatever I'm sure will annoy my wife. It's one of my favourite past times. She's the luckiest (and most patient) woman on the planet.

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