Fridays

Fridays my office closes at 1:30. Once in a while, I try to take the opportunity to spend the afternoon running errands and shopping around Old Mall. Woolworth’s gets their food shipments in on Fridays so going there is like going to expat social/networking hour.

Shopping around Old Mall is also a good opportunity to check people that I know at various shops and say hi. When I was still living in Sehithwa, a lot of the shop owners around town knew me because I made a point to introduce myself when I first arrived to differentiate myself as a local and not a tourist. The ladies at PEP used to help me when I came in to buy lunch bags, socks, and clothes for the kids at the preschool. The ladies at Shoprite always chat me up and ask me about Sehithwa.

Most people around town get used to seeing me (it’s a small town) and whenever they run into any of my other friends, they always ask where each other are and to relay messages.

“Tell Gofiwa to come visit us. We have her favorite beer that she has been looking for! She has been coming every time looking for it, and now we have it. So tell her to come.”

It’s nice to see familiar faces at everyday places and get to spend time to say hi and see how people are doing. I’ll run in to see my friend Wame at the Orange store, say hi to the vegetable boy at Shoprite, chat with Oleo and the ladies at Liquorama who always show me the cheapest imported wine and what’s on sale, the bag check lady Lydia at Spar, the guys at Shell gas station that used to work at Woolworths, a Chinese lady named Li Li who’s hilarious and always nice to me when she sees me, my Indian friend Dunsun at Taurus Pharmacy.

Just a nice thing about living in a small town.