FunFair

This past weekend was Mthatha’s annual festival, sponsored by the Rotary Club. It had all the hallmarks of something I was familiar with – people trying to sell you gadgets you don’t need, halls of mirrors, rides, lots of food, and so forth. In fact, at several points, my friends and I commented to each other that it didn’t feel like Mthatha at all.
But then we ended up in the beer tent and I learned things were a bit different than in the U.S. First off, there was rugby on the T.V. Second, the bar was shut down and when we asked why, one of the men in charge said, “Something is out of order with our license” – I think they had forgot to apply in time – “so we’ve got a couple of people down at the office right now seeing how big a bribe it’ll take to get everything sorted out.”

Not perhaps a strategy the Nome Rotary Club would have adopted to sort things out.