African Journal: A very expensive pizza

[thatcrazycajun]

Yesterday the Songbird decided to take a mental-health day and work from home after coming back from the office around 10:30 to do a post-arrival walk-through with the local GSO (General Services Officer), who is in charge of repairs and maintenance to our US Embassy-leased home here in Mbabane. I was home as usual, trying to find remote work online, cleaning up after the cats and generally keeping house, and helped point out things we found on arrival that need fixing, such as rotting beams under a part of the roof.

We then got hungry and decided to order a pizza delivered from the local branch of the South African-based franchise, Debonairs Pizza. After several phone calls back and forth to establish (a) where we were, (b) what we wanted to order and (c) how much it would cost, plus two calls to the delivery person to have the guard give him directions as he got lost (it was our first time ordering from home) and an approximately 45-minute wait, we got our slab of cheese, pepperoni and mushrooms.

We paid and sent the delivery person on his merry, and no sooner started eating than our guard phoned to tell us there was an accident outside the gate. Seems the delivery person had tried to back up and drive away, lost traction on the muddy and steep hillside road (it had just begun to rain) and spun in, and smashed his truck's rear end into our yard's high concrete perimeter wall, breaking several of its horizontal panels inward.

This is one of those times we are thankful to be a US government employee family; our GSO and local Embassy folks took care of all the necessary police reports, inspections and calls to the pizza company and others so we did not have to try navigating our way through it all, and promised to send someone to fix the wall within 24 hours. (UPDATE, 10:34 pm Friday: As of now, the repair crew still has not shown up.) The damage supposedly is not that hard to repair; some concrete fill has to be chipped out of the tracks on the posts and the broken panels removed, then new ones slotted in and fill replaced. We are also thankful no one got hurt and that we are not having to pay the cost of repairs. But it was altogether more excitement than we really had wanted to have that afternoon.

Comments

[hillarysherwood.livejournal.com]

Definitely too much excitement for a pizza. I'm glad the driver wasn't hurt and I hope the repairs get done soon.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I'm glad nobody was hurt, and I hope future pizzas will be more quick and convenient for all concerned!

[asg-qa-s7.livejournal.com]

Do you want that concrete panel thin, regular, or Sicilian?

Glad it's not more than it was!