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| Remember
this guy. This is Robbie the Robot from
that classic TV series "Lost in
Space". It was about the Robinson
Family, Professor John Robinson, his wife
Maureen, and their children, Judy, Penny
and Will. They are stranded when their
ship, the Jupiter 2, crashlands on a
uncharted planet. The crew also includes
hunky pilot Major Don West and the sappy
Dr. Zachary Smith. Robbie was forever
warning little Will, calling out
"Danger, Will Robinson, Danger. What is this
picture doing in this quicknote on
Africa? Well, you see, THIS is a robot.
At least it represents my idea
of a robot. Robot is not a term you hear
much in the US in general conversation.
Here in southern Africa, however, the
term robot is often used. You see, a
'robot' here is a traffic light. Don't
ask me why. But it kind of throws you for
a loop the first time someone gives you
directions and tells you to take a right
at the second robot. It's one of those
little items that brings home the fact
that your are definitely not in Kansas
anymore, Toto.
This
picture was "borrowed" from the
"Lost in
Space" website. The official
website of the classic TV series.
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| Do you ever get funny
feelings like the shivers or hairs standing up on
the back of your neck. Do you ever get the eerie
sensation of something seeming familiar and
totally alien at the same time. Do you sometimes
have to pinch yourself to remind yourself what is
real. We
know we are in a foreign country. We freely chose
to come to Lesotho and, more generally, southern
Africa. However, sometimes it’s the little
things in life which bring home the fact that we
are “Strangers in a Strange Land”.
Herewith is a list of items that makes us feel we
are in another dimension. A dimension not of
sight and sound, but of mind. Listen up, folks,
for you have just entered the Twilight Zone.
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- YKYNIKA,T
(that’s You Know You’re Not In
Kansas Anymore, Toto) when you pass a
queue with 105 people in it, and they are not
waiting to get into a rock concert or a football
game, but rather they are waiting to get into the
local bank
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- YKYNIKA,T when you
pass a road sign that says “Caution –
Hippos”
- YKYNIKA,T when
missing children are discovered to have fallen
into potholes.
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- YKYNIKA,T when you go
grocery shopping for the first time and you go
down the condiment aisle and it’s packed
with a thousand different kinds of something
called “chutney”, but where the hey is
the mustard.
- YKYNIKA,T when you
finally find the mustard, but when you squeeze
the bottle it comes out red, only to discover
it’s tomato flavored mustard.
- YKYNIKA,T when the
sign behind the wall topped with razor wire at
the local utility says “Customer
Services”
- KYNIKA,T when you
cross into another country to go grocery shopping
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- YKYNIKA,T when all
the service people in stores want you to buy a
donkey
- YKYNIKA,T when you
can get a cell phone in 20 minutes but it takes
18 months to get a regular phone
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- YKYNIKA,T when you
bring your car to someone called a “panel
beater”
- YKYNIKA,T when you
can get a doctor’s appointment for the next
day instead of in 3 months (or even the same day,
if you call before 10:00 am)
- YKYNIKA,T when your
cat turns up missing and a week later you see it
as a hat on someone’s head
- YKYNIKA,T when
you’ve just left for work and you turn the
car around and go back because you’ve seen
the garbage men coming.
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- YKYNIKA,T when there
are things on the restaurant menu like kudu and
ostrich and the chicken tastes like fish
- YKYNIKA,T when you go
to a dance and there is a king and queen - not
two of the attendees selected by judges, but a
real king and a real queen.
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- YKYNIKA,T when you
learn a robot is not a mechanical man
- YKYNIKA,T when you
can’t find plain salted potato chips but you
can get all the chutney flavored potato chips you
want
- YKYNIKA,T when you
constantly repeat the mantra “Look Right
– Drive Left”
- YKYNIKA,T when you
can get Coke, Sprite and Fanta but not Doctor
Pepper
- YKYNIKA,T when you
divide the cost of deli meats by 7 and multiply
by 2.2 to find the cost per pound. (Or is it
multiply by 7 and divide by 2.2 – wait, I
think it’s ….)
- YKYNIKA,T when you
see them fill your tires up to 200 and you think
they are going to explode only to find it’s
not pounds per square inch but something called a
kiloPascal.
- YKYNIKA,T when very
few people pay their bills by check and those
that do NEVER send it by mail.
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- YKYNIKA,T when
it’s 80 degrees in a building and the people
are huddled around an electric heater.
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