Who would've ever thunk I'd be in South Africa? Life's wild right? Arrived early Monday morning and its already Friday that I'm writing this post, so after my first week I wanted to answer some questions and share what my experiences have been this week. Its been great staying with a South African family (originally from Soweto y'all) because I get to bounce my previous notions of the country and learn the real truth.
Some misconceptions about South Africa:
Children starving everywhere, people will kill you for your p
hone, everyone speaks Afrikaans, the water is dangerous, etc etc.
Well I hate to break it to you but the family i'm staying with said that even they wouldn't want to go to Africa, to which I said but this IS Africa and I was cordially dismissed. South Africa is like its own African nation, the California of Africa if you will. There are microwaves and wifi and shopping centers and highways everywhere here around Johannesburg aka joburg. As for the language, most everyone speaks English although already I'm learning the common language is Zulu and some other common languages are: tswana, sotho, Xhosa, and tsonga around here. Sotho (pronounced sue-too) is spoken in Lesotho (pronounced leh-sue-too) and was one of languages school was taught in in Soweto along with Zulu and English. People speak Afrikaans and many of the signs and town names are in that language which is basically Dutch but so far it doesn't seem like all white people must be Afrikaners, many speak English as the first language and if they do speak another as their first language many people still feel more comfortable reading and writing in English.
Enough about languages for now though because you all know I will be talking about that in the future. First impressions... Hot (yessss), flowers blooming and smelling beautiful (yassss), dry (limp hair), loud (horns a honking sometimes just taxis honking all the way down the street to get people to take a ride), and taking the highways to get to the house a bit overwhelming. Taxis here around joburg are these makeshift white buses and they and everyone else are wild drivers. Added to that fact many people walk along the side of roads with carts or trying to find a taxi and will simply meander across a busy street. And the roads are a bit confusing and the driving is on the left hand side. So yes driving is a bit crazy, but i'm already getting the hang of being a bit assertive myself.
How people act. I was immediately hit by the chill African attitude. Don't worry be happy kinda deal. Even here around the city people take their time and don't worry too much about things. This is evident in field service as well. All houses big or small are behind a gate here in Cosmo City, the difference is you knock on the gate but if the gate is unlocked even if the lock in attached but not locked, you take the lock off and enter sometimes searching the main residence for the man or lady of the house. Once there you ask for permission to speak to the back rooms sometimes up to 10 or more of them! We draw maps in order to keep track of the back rooms. Most everyone has at least one study around here and NOONE has been mean or not listened to the scripture we are sharing, most accept a return visit. For all my first apprehension about safety, beer bottles everywhere by 10am/lots of people kinda hanging out on the side streets, cosmo city has a pretty good reputation for being accepting and friendly, no troubles.
I was able to visit bethel already this week and after said visit maybe even a promise of volunteering there while im here. Wow the SA bethel is beautiful, its like a botanical gardens. Its a busy connected campus with guess what.....BIKES BIKES BIKES everywhere, its how a lot of bethelites get around and also guess what they've been kinda looking for a bicycle mechanic. WHAT IS HAPPENING. Its about a 30 min drive to bethel from where i'm at and its so relaxing to drive there its near the hills nearby and its a beautiful drive. So much to write and being a bit out of the habit i'll try to do my best to stay up to date and answer some questions/let you all know whats happening. If you could write some questions/comments down below it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Some misconceptions about South Africa:
Children starving everywhere, people will kill you for your p
Well I hate to break it to you but the family i'm staying with said that even they wouldn't want to go to Africa, to which I said but this IS Africa and I was cordially dismissed. South Africa is like its own African nation, the California of Africa if you will. There are microwaves and wifi and shopping centers and highways everywhere here around Johannesburg aka joburg. As for the language, most everyone speaks English although already I'm learning the common language is Zulu and some other common languages are: tswana, sotho, Xhosa, and tsonga around here. Sotho (pronounced sue-too) is spoken in Lesotho (pronounced leh-sue-too) and was one of languages school was taught in in Soweto along with Zulu and English. People speak Afrikaans and many of the signs and town names are in that language which is basically Dutch but so far it doesn't seem like all white people must be Afrikaners, many speak English as the first language and if they do speak another as their first language many people still feel more comfortable reading and writing in English.
Enough about languages for now though because you all know I will be talking about that in the future. First impressions... Hot (yessss), flowers blooming and smelling beautiful (yassss), dry (limp hair), loud (horns a honking sometimes just taxis honking all the way down the street to get people to take a ride), and taking the highways to get to the house a bit overwhelming. Taxis here around joburg are these makeshift white buses and they and everyone else are wild drivers. Added to that fact many people walk along the side of roads with carts or trying to find a taxi and will simply meander across a busy street. And the roads are a bit confusing and the driving is on the left hand side. So yes driving is a bit crazy, but i'm already getting the hang of being a bit assertive myself.
How people act. I was immediately hit by the chill African attitude. Don't worry be happy kinda deal. Even here around the city people take their time and don't worry too much about things. This is evident in field service as well. All houses big or small are behind a gate here in Cosmo City, the difference is you knock on the gate but if the gate is unlocked even if the lock in attached but not locked, you take the lock off and enter sometimes searching the main residence for the man or lady of the house. Once there you ask for permission to speak to the back rooms sometimes up to 10 or more of them! We draw maps in order to keep track of the back rooms. Most everyone has at least one study around here and NOONE has been mean or not listened to the scripture we are sharing, most accept a return visit. For all my first apprehension about safety, beer bottles everywhere by 10am/lots of people kinda hanging out on the side streets, cosmo city has a pretty good reputation for being accepting and friendly, no troubles.
I was able to visit bethel already this week and after said visit maybe even a promise of volunteering there while im here. Wow the SA bethel is beautiful, its like a botanical gardens. Its a busy connected campus with guess what.....BIKES BIKES BIKES everywhere, its how a lot of bethelites get around and also guess what they've been kinda looking for a bicycle mechanic. WHAT IS HAPPENING. Its about a 30 min drive to bethel from where i'm at and its so relaxing to drive there its near the hills nearby and its a beautiful drive. So much to write and being a bit out of the habit i'll try to do my best to stay up to date and answer some questions/let you all know whats happening. If you could write some questions/comments down below it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
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