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If you’re a Gen Z or Millenial, you’re probably used to hearing your parents or grandparents tell you how our generation is too dependent on our phones and would be utterly lost without them. Unfortunately, they may be right. I found myself spending my final three days in South Africa without a phone, debit card, or drivers license, and while I survived, my lack of essential items certainly made for an adventure.
It was a Thursday morning. My study abroad program had just ended, and I had three days to kill in Cape Town before flying back to the States. While I had already been in the city for 5 days and hit most of the major sites, I was still looking forward to do some final exploring before heading out. After checking out of my hotel (I was no longer under the program’s dime and had to find my own accommodation for the last couple days), I took an Uber to Camps Bay beach to soak up some rays. Everything went smoothly as I got out of the car and dipped my toes into the sand. And that’s when I noticed my pocket felt a little lighter than usual. Panicking, I quickly pulled out my wallet, lanyard, and….that was it. My phone, with my source of internet, my thousands of pictures and videos from the semester, and my only way to tell the time, was missing. I immediately flagged down the nearest cab and headed straight back to the hotel, where I was storing my suitcase.
Fortunately, I still had my laptop, and logged in, hoping to track down my phone. Unfortunately, this yielded no results as my data had just run out. Off to the nearest MTN store (which took me a lot longer to get to without Google Maps), to pay another ridiculous sum of money for a data bundle that would last me less than a week (that’s a whole other rant I could go on but I digress). With the data loaded remotely onto the phone, I was now able to see it’s location. Sure enough, it was moving all around the city- meaning it was still in the Uber. I thought for sure I had caught my break, but I quickly found out that Uber’s customer support is next to useless, and I was unable to get in touch with the driver. Now it was starting to hit me that the phone was not coming back. This is South Africa after all, and almost everyone I talked to had a phone, watch, or other valuable stolen from them at some point in their life. After living here for 3 months, It seemed only fair that I would lose something too.
Losing a phone is annoying enough in and of itself, but unfortunately I had both my debit card and drivers license tucked into a pocket on the back of the phone case (moral of the story, NEVER use one of those). Now someone had a photo ID of me, and I had to survive on the little cash I had left (about $80). A hostel for 3 nights would cost about $60, and the COVID test to get back into the US would cost around $30, so I was in a bit of trouble. I canceled my card, and emailed the program staff to see if they could help me out. Luckily for me, my study abroad director was still in town and gave me about $100 to get through the next few days.
Still without a phone but at least with a little bit of money, I checked in at my hostel and was able to have a somewhat normal next 3 days. And for the first time in awhile, I felt what life was like in the pre-smartphone era. I took the bus around, carried a map with me, and asked people for directions. I was still able to attend museums and art galleries, stroll along the waterfront, and even hike Table Mountain (though I did end up hitching a ride back to my hostel when the bus conveniently decided not to run on Saturdays). Other than attending First Thursdays (a monthly event where museums stay open at night to showcase local artists), I avoided going out after dark, and I was extra cautious of not getting lost. When Sunday rolled around, I headed off to the airport and checked in for my first flight. I made it three days without a phone, and was successfully on my way to the US. I just needed to make it through my layover in Cairo- what could possibly go wrong there?
Courtesy of my friends, I was able to recover a few pictures of Cape Town. Check out my TikTok below!
And just for fun…
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