We had a lot of fun this weekend with various friends, several of whom work in Lusaka Zambia, and now because the airline has gotten absolutely unreliable drive the 1000 odd kilometres to Lusaka on a Monday and home again on a Friday. It takes about the same time as the flight, what with waiting times and airport and flight delays but is considerably harder.
What suddenly bemused me was some gentle teasing of a couple who have moved to the Chisawasha Hills on the outskirts of Harare and some forty five minutes from town. The teasing centred around the distance to travel anywhere..... in fact they described it as living miles from anywhere, in the middle of nowhere. Several people said beautiful place, just that it is so far out! They remarked that living out there you might as well live in Johannesburg, a city notorious for the length of its commutes. My eyebrows raised somewhat, these same people think a 1000 kilometre trip to work is not a long commute?
wait? a 1000 kilometers? Isn't that close to 500 miles? Am I correct? And if so, how does one do that? I've made long commutes, like when I lived in Arizona and had to drive to the big city north - it was 130 miles each way, but round trip that is half what I think you are talking about! And, I have to say, that commute wore me out!
ReplyDeleteIt is about 620 miles (I think). And I guess it isn't really a commute when you go on Monday and return only on Friday.... just seemed so odd their casual acceptance of driving back and forth this far when they wouldn't care to drive for half an hour across town to see a friend....
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