Of power cuts, flat tyres, truck drives, ICT and Simphiwe Dana This morning I woke up at 4 am. I am not an early morning person, but I had things to do. Last night after leaving work at 9.30pm, I hit something on the road, didnt realize that I had a mother of a tyre burst til I got home and saw this morning that the tyre resembled a Syrian situation. Anticipating a morning situation from hell , I posted Lift from King to East London but I think most of my friends from FB ignored it, thinking it was a 419 scam of sorts. Thank you to my over- usage of data my officially issued Samsung has been soft locked which meant I couldnt call til I begged Chichi to loan me her R249 Pep store phone which she was not happy about, as you know Chichi is Nigerian and the idea of parting with her Mommy bought cell phone minutes is traumatic. Meanwhile I had promised my colleague Sisanda Sivuyile Nkukwana, I would pick her up but with my morning situation unchanged, I woke Chichi and her brother up to start preparing to walk to school and they left the house at 6.30am. The smart-thinking Sisanda, called another colleague to see what can be done and walaa, the car moved. Just after passing Breidbach, a thundering noise requires that I stop, guess what second tyre burst. Of course, we call the office and Gerries breakdown service, a good King Williams Town Afrikaner guy, who comes in less than 15 minutes and we decide to hike to the ICT Summit.Whilst hailing a Truck and being offloaded to catch iphela to drop us at the ICC just before the Premier started his speech. Long and shot by 10 am, we were rolling, Premier Masualle was moving, the audience was responding, listened to an interesting presentation by VODACOM Chief Officer Vuyani Jarana, followed by a videolink presentation by Dr.Ngcaba from South Korea on the establishment of a Cortex hub. By midday, we have had meetings with our Strategic partners from Dimension Data who we are working with on hosting the Eastern Cape Diaspora in GPland.We have met with industry players from ECITI to look at ICT solutions for the province, my adrenalin is pumping and although I had to sacrifice my Miu Miu stilettos for my Kate Spade pumps, the Eastern Cape is the best place to be right now, except for the Nkantolo hooligans who burnt the bust of OR protesting against slow service delivery in housing.A long phone call with Simphiwe Dana ties up a long outstanding project and I am on top of the world. To top this up, I finally met Zamo Zamokuhle Sibisi in person and my life is complete. THis place is starting to get under my skin, its home, with its challenges, I now have to go back to King, pick up,Chichi from my friends place, drop off Lithas luggage at hostel, speak to the landlord to make sure he fixes the tripping power situation in the house and whilst at it, catch the last glimpse of the beautiful gorgeous Eastern Cape sunsets and not forget to call Gerries and find out how is the car doing , pay my R450 breakdown costs and sleep well knowing that I have served my province with Pride# Life of a Ruralitarian#
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 15:05:49 +0000