TIA, man

so if any of you have seen the totally believable and realistic motion picture Blood Diamond (starring none other than all of our 5th grade crushes, Leonardo Dicaprio) then you probably know the saying, TIA, or This Is Africa. Basically it translates to, on any given day about 95% of the things that you hope to go a certain way...probably won't. You get get mad, you can cry, but you can't really expect anything different, because TIA. In my cumulative time living in Africa I have never actually heard anyone use that phrase, but we as efficiency seeking Americans seem to love it, and hey if it helps assuage an otherwise hair-pulling frustrating situation...then why not.
Take for instance, my experience today. I waited for 4 hours for my taxi to fill up (they are van taxis and won't go anywhere until they are completely at or even over capacity). As I'm already getting nervous that I wouldn't get to where I needed to be before dark, they taxi marshall tells us it will probably be another hour because we still had 3 empty seats. I get out to go to the grocery store and buy a snack, and when I get back I find that the hour had quickly turned into 5 minutes and my taxi had left without me. OMG. I got really pissed, then decided there was nothing i could do, then went and waited another hour and a half for a different taxi to take me back home. after waiting for someone to jump out, 3 more people to jump in, get gas (why we couldn't do that as we were waiting is still unclear to me), taxi breaks down and we are shifted to yet another taxi. 7 hours later I returned home, much poorer and without anything that I actually needed. TIA, man.

I've taken another interpretation of the saying, a personal one which means somehow this time around South Africa has rendered me absolutely crazy. I'm normally very organized, and no matter how late I came home on a given night in college I always put my keys and my wallet in the exact same place...I always know where everything is. Lately, things have been flowing a little differently. A month or so back, I was convinced that someone had stolen my credit card. I couldn't find it anywhere, and after searching my room 3 times I decided there was no alternative...it couldn't have been MY fault, I never lose ANYTHING ;)...On the phone with my mom I'm about to cancel the card and oops, I find my credit card in a bag of instant coffee. WHAT? who knows. Yesterday, I couldn't for the life of me find the R700 (almost $100) that I had taken out to use over the weekend. I knew it was somewhere in my room, but again after searching 4 times I was about to admit defeat when something urged me to look inside a book that I haven't even been reading, and lo and behold, there was my money right in the middle. In the beginning of training, Peace Corps told us to be weary of accusing host families or communities of stealing from you because it seriously affects the relationships that they build a long time spending, and that often times when things are missing its usually because we were so tired or have our minds in 100 different places that we misplace the item. I smugly laughed to myself and thought, "i would neverrrrr do that". well, woke up this morning and couldn't find my phone anywhere. still can't. seriously emily, what the heck????
TIA, man.