Somewhere in Kimberley, where the air is always filled with mine dust, five coworkers cram into the break room during lunch. Two of them are miners, one operates the loader, and another keeps track of everything that’s moving. Then there’s the older guy they call Oom, even when he’s not in the mood. As they chow down on kota and vetkoek, they joke around about the shift and then slide a few rand coins onto a pile in the middle of the table. The coins clink and one of them is always sure to say “Today is the day!” which is guaranteed to make everyone laugh. It’s not a big deal, but that’s the whole point of this little daily tradition, to give them something to look forward to other than their broken tools and aching backs.
Nomsa likes to bet on the numbers, so she takes out her phone, opens the YesPlay mobile app, and the rest of the crew gathers around her. On day one they had some problems with setting up their accounts, but she helped them with the registration and then showed them how to find Lucky Numbers in the menu. Now it takes even less time than brewing a cup of Ricoffy. Everyone is calling out their picks, Nomsa enters the numbers in the app, and Jabu always wants to bet his late gran’s birthday. Everyone makes fun of him, but they still let him do his thing. They usually bet on simple picks, and once or twice per week they bet on some lottery draws just for fun. This allows them to play online right from the mine gate.
At around 3PM somebody whips out their phone to check the lottery results. Everybody gathers around, and for a moment you could cut the tension with a knife. This week they even had a little YesPlay bonus which resulted in a heated discussion about who “called it” first. If lady luck isn’t on their side, they laugh about it and continue with their day.
