When I was in Paris with my family, my mom kept having to remind me to say "please." It was like I was a four year old, and my mom was teaching me good manners. Sadly, I'm 24 and I should probably know to say "please" and "thank you" by now. Unfortunately, living in Uganda has made me a touch impolite. Ugandans do not say "please" - there actually isn't even a word for please in the local language. When I first moved to Uganda, I was so frustrated by the way people asked for things because it sounded more like a demand. "You assist me with a pencil" or "give me an apple." Over time, however, I immersed myself into the culture, and I decided to forgo the "please" when asking for things. As you can imagine, this was driving my mother nuts in Paris.
During our first day in Cape Town, Maggie and I both realized that we were not saying "please." We sounded so rude to waitstaff, taxi drivers and people in our hostel - especially because everyone we have met in Cape Town is so polite. We were really embarrassed and started to make a conscious effort to have good manners. We have started a "please jar" where we have to donate 10 rand (about $1) if we don't say "please." We need to rid ourselves of this bad habit before we get back to the US. Fortunately for Maggie (or maybe unfortunately), she learned her lesson the hard way.
Last night, we went out to a bar for a few drinks and to listen to a live band. Maggie ordered a round of drinks and said to the bartender, "I'll have a Castle Light and a Coke Light."
He looked at Maggie with his eyebrows raised as if he hadn't understood. She repeated herself, "Castle Light and a Coke Light." Once again, she got the raised eyebrows. She enunciated a little more and spoke a little louder and said, "Castle Light and Coke Light." Nothing. Just the look. Maggie repeated herself one more time, almost yelling, "CASTLE LIGHT AND COKE LIGHT!"
Finally, the bartender said, "I'm not going to serve you until you say 'please.'"
Maggie clasped her hands to her mouth and said, "Oh my god!" She apologized profusely and then we both started cracking up laughing - this bartender totally just called her out on her rudeness. Maggie was mortified and she refused to order drinks the rest of the night. (I had to do it). The bartender kept saying, "Your friend is scared now, huh?" Oh well...lesson learned. We were really good with our manners today!
Cape Town is amazing and we are having a lot of fun. The hostel, Atlantic Point, is great; definitely the nicest I have stayed in. The first day we were here, we went on a serious shopping spree. We felt like hobos in our gross clothes that we've worn everyday for two years. I also got a much needed manicure and pedicure. On Saturday we toured around the city. We wanted to go to the District Six museum, but it was closed because of Easter Weekend. So we will try later this week. Today, we went to Table Mountain, which was awesome. We had really great weather, so we had awesome views of Cape Town.
Maggie and I have done some damage in the food department. We are eating nonstop. We were most excited that you could buy individually packaged cubes of cheese from the grocery store. Our first meal was McDonalds. We both had a burger, fries, chicken mcnuggets and a coke (FOUNTAIN SODA, YAY!). Don't worry, the coke was diet - so it was a total low cal meal. Since then, we have been eating real people food. I think we have been most excited about salads (we've missed lettuce and spinach!) and cheese. Also, you can drink the tap water in Cape Town, which is the greatest thing of all. I love not having to worry about finding safe drinking water or buying a ton of bottled water.
Pictures will be uploaded once I get home since I don't have a computer, and I refuse to be one of those tourists that takes photos with their iPad.
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