Kill them with kindness.

One of the very first things I picked up when I moved to Cape Town, was how angry people are here.  I even emailed Aunt Carol from my previous job and told her about it.  In the detailed email, I said "They live in the MOST beautiful city in the world but carry so much anger, how disappointing." 

Security guards, shop assistants and cashiers take the cake for me.  Bulelwa a friend said to me, I think in Cape Town in order to be a security guard, you need to be an angry, dread locked, Xhosa person.  She is adamant one of the requirements to be a security guard is:  MUST BE RUDE.  Cashiers mumble, shop assistants sing out loud with the radio, you hardly ever find someone to help you, and if you do there is always a bit of an attitude.

This drove me crazy the first week.  Now what I do is:

1.  I greet them with their names*then they give me that look, HOW DID YOU KNOW, duh name tag*.  Which always makes them so happy, because every single human being wants to be acknowledged.

2.  I make small talk, women hate this one.  They give me that, *what you trying to do look, please add a coloured accent to the *trying*, ha ha ha. 

3.  I make eye-contact.

4.  I thank them, and wish them a lovely day, even if the service was crappy.

Some people will say, but we pay for the service, I won't do such.  You do not lose anything out of being kind and considerate, being angry and rude is so exhausting.  Half of the time I make excuses for them, like would you not be angry if serving people is ALL you could do in the world?  Plus smile, we live in a city with one of the Wonders of the World. 

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