As we approached the runway to land in Johannesburg, the pilot announced the temperature and time. It was 2 degrees and 20:30 hours. Wait! What? Instantly, our jet lagged brains went into a math freeze. Minus two degrees - what is that? 5/9 or 9/5? Add 32? We decided that we were going to estimate by multiplying by 2 and adding 30...so that makes it 26 degrees! (and I am suddenly the envy of the team, having brought a puffy jacket with me....however, it was in my checked bag).
And what is this military time thing? It even has it on the digital clock on the stove. More subtraction!
As if that was not enough math, we moved to the gate to board our next plane to Lusaka, and needed to buy a couple of bottles of water to take our malaria pills. All of the prices were in Rans...what is a Ran you might say? I am still not sure! Apparently a bottle of Evian water is 20 R, with a Ran being about...wait, what? More math? If one South African Rand equals .093 dollars, how much did my water cost? Yikes!
Next thing you know we are in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. We are ready to spend some money. We want to change our money into Kwacha. The exchange rate is 5.9. But, our money changer did not get smaller bills. We have all chipped in $200 US dollars and received 59 hundred kwacha bills , how do we divide these by 5?
In the market, we are told, you have to haggle. This requires quick thinking - once you have the price, you have to divide by 6 (not my favorite divisor - why couldn't it be five?). Then you offer half their price, then they give you another number (again with the math). Bottom line, not really sure what I paid for things, but it was fun!
My mind is boggled, but I am sure that math is an essential skill!
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