12 Unique Things About South Africa
I’m coming up on two months here in South Africa. I love it here… the people, the culture, the weather, the scenery, the food, and the wine… omg.. THE WINE. It’s all just fabulous. For every awesome thing, there’s something that just catches me completely off guard.
Here’s a short list of what I’ve encountered so far:
1) A Braai Is Not A Barbecue - Seriously. Just don’t call them the same thing. A braai is an event, usually lasting hours, where friends and family gather to snack, drink, laugh, and then finally eat somewhere about 10 minutes to midnight. Ok, I’m exaggerating, but not by much. We hosted our first braai a few weeks ago and our friends arrived about 3pm and we ate somewhere around 8pm.
2) Plugs - Why oh why do I need 14 adapters to plug something in? There’s two prong, three prong, three rod, diamond shaped, round and on and on. I’m endlessly searching the house for the right adapter to plug in the simplest things. And speaking of plugs…
Standard SA Power Strip
Seriously.. WTF is this?
3) On/Off Switches on Outlets - Umm…why? I just don’t get it. Oh, and no outlets OR switches in bathrooms here.
4) Skeleton Keys - Just about every key in the house is a skeleton key. What’s cool is, though, you can head to the local Build It and just give them a code and they hand you a key. No more having to have keys cut.
5) “This is Africa” - A ubiquitous phrase that either serves as a warning or substitutes for “it is what it is”.
6) Time - I thought life in the south was slow paced, here in South Africa the pace is absolutely glacial. I’ve been told that’s why Cape Town is the Mother City… it takes 9 months to get anything done.
7) “Now, Just Now, and Now Now”- The simple explanation is Now means maybe eventually. Just now is later, as in “See you just now”, and Now Now means now.
8) Brandy and Coke - I hear it’s a thing… God knows why.
9) Gin - Gin is the national booze, and South Africans are very proud of their gin. There’s a place not too far from here called Classic Cats that has over 200 types of local craft gins. We visited here back in November and tried three, so we’ve got 197 to go.
10) Kak - This was my first curse word Kim taught me. It’s slang for “shit” and it’s a universal adjective. It’s not just cold, it’s “kak cold”. It’s not early, it’s “kak o’clock”. And compared to a braai, an American barbecue is just kak.
11) Wine - South Africans are immensely proud of their wines and, dear lord, they should be. They make American wines look like Mad Dog 20/20. We live in the winelands and there’s over 500 wine farms (vineyards) in the surrounding area. Wine tastings are just something you do on the weekend, or even a weekday. It’s as normal as running up to the store for snacks. You can go and taste everything from chardonnay to chenin blanc to cabernet sauvignon and pair them with everything from ice cream to licorice to chocolate to biltong. And speaking of biltong..
12) Biltong and Droewors - This is the snack of the Gods. I once made the mistake of comparing them to beef jerky and Slim Jim. These are so much better. And instead of random meats, you can get ostrich, kudu, springbok, or most other game meats. There’s also “beef” if, you know, you’re boring.
I am loving learning about my new home country, and the friends I’ve made so far have been really patient teaching me new things and not laughing too much when I butcher things in Afrikaans.
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