Charles Apple

I’m here preparing for Day Four of my infographics sessions with six South African visual journalists.

It’s been a fascinating experience for me. It amazes me that no matter where you go in the world, the problems, concerns and delights are essentially the same. Minor differences, perhaps. But the same.

For example, some of the concerns the artist have expressed remind me very much of the things many of us old-timers went through when we were first introducing visuals into newspapers 20 years ago: Editors who don’t want to run graphics because it cuts down on the space for words, editors who won’t discuss an illustration idea until it’s completely done. In the states and in other countries, we’ve learned how to get past all those barricades. Here, though, they’re still suffering growing pains.

So it’s good that I’m here. I can tell them how we solved those problems and some of the mistakes we made along the way.

Yesterday, we finished strong with some motivational-type lecture points. Today, we’ll be brainstorming ideas for graphics and working on some live pieces. In addition, I hope to present a segment on alternative story forms and one on visual ethics.

Meanwhile, I’ve been concentrating on working and resting. If you’re wondering why I’ve not shown you any photos of beautiful downtown Cape Town, it’s because I’ve not really been out into the city just yet. I hope to explore a little later this week, over the weekend and next week. But now, I’m concentrating on our sessions.

For today’s travelogue piece, though, let’s focus on a few differences between South Africa and the United States — those delightful yet perplexing differences I dealing with every day here.

—
ELECTRICITY

I’ve written about this one a couple of times already.

In theory, my Mac should be able to handle South African electrical power, which is more than twice the standard U.S. power voltage. In the U.S., a standard wall power outlet delivers 110 volts; here, you get 230 volts.

But the Mac power cord has a built-in transformer that automatically steps down the voltage and feeds my laptop just what it needs:

And it’s been no problem at all, both here in the hotel and at work. Getting to this point, though, was a bit of a hassle. Mostly because I worried about it too much.

I knew the Mac would convert the voltage, but I also knew I’d need an adapter to physically plug into the wall. I also knew I might need to charge my camera battery, so I worried about the voltage needs of that device.

So I was relieved when I found this combination voltage converter and power adapter at Brookstone in Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach:

It even had a nifty little color-coded map to tell me which plugs would be needed in which countries. South Africa is yellow, meaning I’d need the big one in the middle and the smaller one immediately to the right.

But I found the prongs on that big plug are flat. South African electrical prongs are round and very thick. Brookstone sold me out!

So I had Sharon return this $40 piece of garbage and I bought an adapter during my layover in Washington.

And it’s been perfect. Just what I needed:

The night I checked in, however, I had a bit of a scare. I placed the adapter on the end of my Mac cord — as you see here — plugged it into the wall socket by my desk here in the hotel and immediately heard an electrical pop and saw a flash. I jerked the plug back out of the wall, afraid I was going to fry my power cord.

But my Mac was down to just a few minutes’ power left. I really needed a charge.

I looked at the row of outlets by the desk. The hotel helpfully supplied me with three — count ‘em, three — different sockets:

I suspect this isn’t typical of all South African hotels. So if you’re coming to see the World Cup games next year, take note. This is just here in the Westin.

Ironically, the one on the right is the flat-prongged outlet I’d use with the middle plug in that Brookstone set.

But the one in the middle intrigued me. It’s a big circular hole, but deep in that hole are two rounded outlet holes. And that appeared to match this little adapter I brought with me:

I already owned this little guy. And I had read it was widely used in this country, too, so I packed him into my briefcase. I slipped it into the outlet and it fit perfectly. There was no snapping, popping or sparking. And the tiny light on my Mac cord immediately turned green, meaning I was getting juice.

Problem solved.

The next day, I attempted to iron my Dockers and shirt. When I plugged the hotel’s iron into the big socket, it popped and snapped again. And the iron wouldn’t work. In fact, it only heated if I literally held the plug into the outlet.

Which told me what had happened: The outlet is bad.

Or, at least, it was. I mentioned it to the hotel folks and apparently they had someone look at it. It’s working fine now.

Now, I mentioned a few minutes ago that I was worried about power for my camera battery charger. I should mention that I finally — finally — pulled out the charger and discovered it had a lengthy power requirement label on the bottom, something I had never really noticed or taken the time to read.

Sure enough, it, just like the Mac, is rated for up to 240 volts (it’s at the top, just below the Canon logo. Click for a larger view):

Bottom line: I brought only two appliances. Both work fine on South African power. All I needed was a simple, cheap South African-style plug adapter — not a $40 power converter.

Oh, and the best part? After I checked into the hotel, I found this in the Westin’s guest services pamphlet:

I didn’t even have to buy one. The hotel would have given me one for free!

Sigh…

—
SOFT DRINKS

I didn’t have this problem in Manila two years ago, but I did in England back in ‘89: I find myself craving Diet Coke. You can get it here, but it’s not as readily available as it is in the states.

In a typical U.S. hotel, every floor has one or two Coke or Pepsi machines. Here, though, the only place you can buy a Coke is at the hotel gift shop. They cost 12 Rand — about $1.50 — and they keep running out in the small refrigerator down there.

Buying a warm Coke isn’t really an option because there no ice-dispensing machines here in the hotel, either. If you want ice, you have to call room service. Which I could do, obviously. But that’s a lot of trouble to go through for just a cold Coke.

Now, they do have Diet Cokes in the minibar. However, those cost 20 Rand — $2.50. Not only that, but they’re only about two-thirds the size as a regular Diet Coke:

Also, notice the name change. They don’t call it Diet Coke here; it’s Coke Light.

And you know the part on the side of the can that says each serving contains less than one calorie? Check out how they say that here in South Africa:

—
MONEY

Because I’ve been concentrating on teaching, I’ve not had a chance, yet, to get out into the city and spend any money. So the difference between U.S. and South African currency hasn’t really affected me yet.

The downside, though: The only way you can learn this is by doing it. And despite the fact I’m in my fourth day here in Cape Town, I have no clue when I look at a price tag and see something priced in Rand.

Roughly speaking, a South African Rand is about 12.4 cents. An American dollar is about 8 South African Rand. Those aren’t exactly even numbers. So taking a number and converting out of and back into Rand is an interesting mental exercise.

Before I left Virginia Beach, I made up this handy little cheat sheet:

I keep it in my pocket at all times. At some point, I should probably update the numbers and make a new sheet. I imagine the prices have changed a bit since last Wednesday.

For example…

They’re charging me R12 for a Diet Coke, downstairs at the gift shop. My cheat sheet says R10 is $1.25 and R2 is a quarter. Total price: $1.50.

There’s a really nice hardcover book at that same gift shop that contains photos of Cape Town. I’ll have to buy one to take home. The book is R450. That’s about $56.18 American. Which is pretty pricey. It’s a very nice book. But you see why I’ve not yet bought it.

I exchanged $200 in cash at the airport in Johannesburg and got back a huge pile of R100 bills — so many that I felt self-conscious about walking around with all that in my wallet. And tipping can be difficult when all you have are large bills. I took care of that little problem pretty soon after my arrival at the hotel.

Like most countries that are not the U.S., South Africa has gorgeous money. Check this out:

From the top:

• Rhino: R10 bill. Worth about $1.25
• Elephant: R20 bill. Worth about $2.50
• Lion: R50 bill. Worth about $6.24
• Um… is that a water buffalo? R100 bill. Worth $12.48

I’m told they have R200 bills, which would be worth nearly $25. But I’ve not yet seen one.

In fact, the first time I bought a Diet Coke downstairs, I wanted one can and gave the young lady a R100 note. She got all flustered and finally admitted she didn’t have enough change. So I made it two Diet Cokes. She still couldn’t make change. I found it odd, in a big hotel like this, that I couldn’t buy $3 in soft drinks with basically a $12.50 note. But whatever. I’ve made it a point to keep smaller bills with me.

I have coins to show you, too, but a) I’m having difficulty photographing them, and b) I’ve received very few of them:

I did a miserable job of putting these in order for you. From the top:

• R2 coin, worth about 25 cents
• 10 cent coin, worth about a penny… if that much
• 50 cent coin, worth about 6 cents
• R1 coin, worth nearly 12 and a half cents
• R5 coin, worth 62 cents

I love the idea of the R5 coin. I wish they’d develop a $5 coin in the U.S. But we can’t even get Americans to use the $1 coins.

—

I’m not sure how drained I’ll feel this afternoon. I’ve been pretty tired in the evenings. Last night, in fact, I cracked up my wife by actually falling asleep as we were video iChatting.

I’d love to get out and see at least part of the city before the weekend. We’ll see how it goes…

—
EXPEDITION TO SOUTH AFRICA

You’re reading the eighth chapter of my journey to Cape Town, South Africa.

• CHAPTER 1: Preparing for the journey.
  
• CHAPTER 2: I made it as far as the Dulles airport bar
• CHAPTER 3: Getting really bored sitting at Dulles
• CHAPTER 4: Safe and sound in Cape Town
• CHAPTER 5: Day one in Cape Town
  
• CHAPTER 6: Day two; No effects at all from jet lag
• CHAPTER 7: A tour of the Westin Grand

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 27th, 2009 at 2:08 am and is filed under Charles Apple, Travelogue, Trip to South Africa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.