CATEYE MICRO WIRELESS CYCLING

mother and daughter at Thabo Mbeki Estates, an "informal settlement" outside Johannesburg. Alan Levin told them that we were working on cheaper phone service for South Africans. What they told him is that the Estate offers water, electricity, a clnic nearby.... but crime is still the enemy.

What strikes me the most as I travel through (a teeny bit of) South Africa is how happy most people seem. Am I deluding myself? Certainly there are many angry people here as elsewhere, and especially anywhere with huge social problems. But I keep thinking of Barry Schwartz's Paradox of Choice. Here are people with so few choices....yet they can find joy in a warm day that heralds the end of a long cold winter, and in a crowded, unsafe housing estate that offers the possibility of comforts they have long dreamed of.

thanks for the ride, Alan!

I know! While we're at the grocery store how about we pick up a cell phone from a company that has no reputation, available only at Kroger, and has rather expensive phones for a prepaid service (Tracfone can go down to $10 in some places).

(As an added plus, they are apparently CDMA, no unlocking for you)