State draws bad drivers, lightning

By PHINDILE XABA

© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 8, 2001

ST. PETERSBURG -- Iam new to this country of yours, and I am taking lessons to earn my Florida driver's license.

I come from South Africa, the home of Nelson Mandela, and there we drive on the left side of the road. From what I have observed, that is largely true here, too. Except for those who drive on the sidewalk.

I am kidding, more or less, just as I'm not really serious when I say that a red light here appears to mean "speed up."

I have hired a driving instructor, who was forthright with me. "Life is not going to be easy for you, firstly because I am a perfectionist, secondly because I don't teach people how to get their license but how to drive," the instructor said. It was comforting to me to see how many of you apparently are still learning to drive, too. In my first week in St. Petersburg, I have seen some drivers slow down when the light is green, stop abruptly in the middle of the street or drive at the lowest speed possible in a high-speed zone. I have seen others do just the opposite and treat speed limits as things that must be doubled to be observed.

I take my driving test this week.

In my first days in Florida, the small and simple things have gotten to me. Your doors work differently than ours, as do the taps in your public restrooms (we call them public toilets in my home of Soweto). I had to sneak a peek at someone else to see how she turned on the automatic electric-eye faucet. Back home, we use an actual knob to turn the water on and off. I don't know whether there is any difference in how you pump petrol at the gas station. I had never done it before last week. It was fun.

I don't mean to give you an African language lecture based on my name, but I can't stop to laugh at Americans. My first name, Phindile, has a silent "h." It is pronounced "PEEN-dil-leh." My family name is Xaba, and the "x" has a "click" sound. It is shared among the Xhosa- and Zulu-speaking ethnic groups and can mean different things to different groups. In my case it is Zulu.

Americans being obsessed with last names, I do find it hilarious when I introduce myself and people get fascinated by the click. I must admit that this whole exercise can become taxing when also dealing with the stress of being away from home.

Where I come from, many people believe that lightning strikes with a purpose in mind: It is out to get someone. Lightning is believed to be an evil spirit, a sign of the anger of the gods and of the ancestors. If that is true, the gods must be angry at a lot of people here.

When my plane touched down in Tampa, we could not leave it because there was too much lightning. Where I come from, some people believe that witches have a power to cast a spell and manipulate lightning to smite someone.

I hope those beliefs are mere superstitions. On the other hand . . .

- Phindile Xaba is an Alfred Friendly Press Fellow, and she will be at the St. Petersburg Times for the next five months. She will be contributing in the Neighborhood Times.

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