On the first Monday of the month at noon, a bunch of sirens go off all over the country.
For the first few months I kind of missed it, probably because I was working in a site office out of the city.
So the first time I heard it was a bit of a surprise. It was in the first month of lockdown, maybe the second. I thought there was an air raid or something.
I then found out its a testing protocol to make sure all the emergency systems work. Since then I found that every time this happened the newcomers tend to ask “what’s going on in [insert area name], I can hear all the sirens going off in the distance”.
Today when I heard it I joked to a friend that I was waiting for the question when he had the best response:
“Organised crime. Hulle steel almal op Maandag oggend 12 uur karre. Dan is dit te veel vir polisie om te reageer. Oorweldig die polisie. Vandaar al die 12 uur kar alarms”
I chuckled at that.
Be kind. Stay safe.
mcharlottesmith 