Driving in the land of speed bumps and roundabouts

      Driving in South Africa has not been as different as I expected.  Yes, they drive on the right side of the car and on the left side of the road, but that has not been the difficult part.  Figuring out the unwritten rules of the road has taken some time and practice....with lots of honking by other drivers.  In most cases I just go with the pace of the other cars on the road, but when it comes to the roundabouts, there are rules.
      Roundabouts are about as common as four way stops in the US.  They are everywhere and I do appreciate that it is much faster to get where you are going when all you need to do is pause and not come to a complete stop.  There are two types of roundabouts, big ones and small ones.  As I have learned and hopefully I am following the unwritten rules correctly, when you approach a small round about you give the main way of traffic the go ahead.  When you approach a big round about you treat it like a four way stop but instead of letting the person who approached the round about first go, you yield to the car on the right.  The problem I run into is not paying the best of attention as to which round about I am at and just going on through, not yielding for others.  Which causes a few honks my way, but then I just shrug it off like the other drivers should be able to tell I don't really know what I am doing.
      In South Africa it is illegal to talk on the phone while driving or to turn left on red and I have seen people pulled over for this.  I rarely see a police car, and when I do it is always at night.  The police cars have blue lights and bright markings down the side of the cars.  Speed limits here range from 40-120km per hour but it does not seem to matter how fast you drive, you never get pulled over.  The right lane is the fast lane, and if the car in front of you is not driving fast enough and there only happens to be one lane going your direction, feel free to pass it, no one seems to care.  I of course enjoy the rule bending as I am a bit of an aggressive driver and lack patience for slow drivers.
      The speed bumps here are trying to get the best of me.  They are everywhere.  Main roads, gated communities, right before roundabouts, parking lots, South Africa is sure proud of displaying them.  In fact there are 11 speed bumps, some flat and some tall, between the back gate to our community and our house.  What would be a 2 minute drive is stretched out, I guess so I can enjoy the view as I drive, but really I am just testing the car's ability to jump.  There have been a few times where I have jumped over one or two as they are hard to see at times and the signs for them are low to the ground.  Thankfully we have a rental car so as long as the car lasts a few years with my crazy driving, we are good.
      Black and Veatch gives their employees with a family of 4 or less a Toyota Corolla.  Always white with black leather interior it seems so when a few families are together, it looks like some sort of Corolla convention.  If you happen to have a family of 5, then you get a Toyota Fortuner.  I have seen about every make of car here, fewer American brands then European.  Plus there are some that I have never heard of.  Motorcycles are fairly common and surprisingly given the nice weather I have seen very few convertibles (probably has something to do with the level of car theft).
      Our Corolla is fitted with shatter proof glass windows, a fire extinguisher and an alarm system.  This is not just any alarm system that would go off when broken into but more of a panic system.  If for any reason I need help, there is a black, almost flat button hidden out of sight that I can press and it connects directly to the Black and Veatch security team.  I am told that the button is hidden so the criminals won't know I have alerted anyone and they install this button in a different place on every car.  There is even a button in the trunk.  If I am in a car accident this silent alarm will go off and the security team will call Mark to make sure everything is okay.  There is also a tracking system so the security team knows where we are at all times.  Now if I am car jacked or some other horrible incident occurs, let's just hope I can find this obscure button in the middle of a nightmare.  
      One last thing about driving in South Africa, the kids do it.  Children as younger than Adalyn enjoy sitting on their parents laps and driving.  Car seats seem to only be a suggestion as children are often hanging out of the windows, climbing between seats and enjoying the ride from every view the car can offer.  South Africa is pretty family friendly, but Adalyn won't be driving any time soon.