"There are no foreign lands. It is the traveller only who is foreign." - Roberts Louis Stevenson2/25/2016 Thursday, February 25th, 2016
Adapting to life in a new country, especially one so far away from home, has its challenges. Water can be a big issue here due to the drought; going outside of the city can mean having less access to fresh water. This means buying bottled water and using it for everything from drinking to bathing. The heat here can be enough to make you faint if you do not stay properly hydrated and fed, but other times, especially so close to the coast, the breeze and rain is enough to stay cool. The culture can sometimes be a shock. Everyone can speak English, but that doesn’t mean they like to. Xhosa is, what I have found to be, the most commonly spoken language for black South Africans in East London. It sounds more like Khlosa but the “k” is actually a click. White South Africans commonly speak Afrikaans which is made up of mainly Dutch. When I move to the Durban area, Zulu will be more common even though there are some Zulu speaking people here. Aside from language, the traditions are quite different from what I know in Canada. It is very old fashioned in the sense that women are the homemakers. Some of the men do not understand my independence and wanting to do even laborious work by myself; standing up for yourself and showing them that you can do more than they believe you can is a good way to not get pushed around. They often do not like women who do not submit to them. That said, I have never had a problem with them being rude to me because I stand up for myself, we all still get along. No matter what differences we may have, we have all managed to find common grounds so we can work together. I believe that I have made many friends here. Once you are open to understanding their culture, it becomes easy to get along even if you do not agree about everything. There has never been a day since arriving here that I have gone outside and not thought, "Wow, I'm in South Africa". There has never been a moment I have experienced here which has made me feel like this is a normal life for me. Sometimes I find myself getting used to my surroundings, and then I see a giraffe standing in front of me and I just smile and remember to take in every second of this experience because before I know it I’ll be gone. I have never been to a place that has made me wake up every day and think that I have to push every day to its limit and experience as much as I can. There have been moments of stress and sadness when I had to remind myself to live in each moment to get the full experience I can from here. I need to be present for every moment and leave problems in the past. I have great support from my family. My dad has had a great way of bringing me back to the fantasy which I am experiencing here. Whenever I am having a bad moment, he tells me that I have to just look outside and watch the animals and reminds me to enjoy it while it lasts. He knows that cheers me up. It reminds me every day how unimportant some things are in the grand scheme of things and how much I need to really step back and embrace my life and where it has brought me.
1 Comment
Cheryl
2/25/2016 06:00:05 am
Thank you for sharing your musings and reflections of your experiences there. What an opportunity! Be well, stay safe and keep up the good work.
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