What was it like being in South Africa after 7 months?: 10 Things that shocked me

The 14^th of May 2018 was the first time i was setting foot on American soil. I remember landing at JFK airport in New York and stepping outside to smell the thin fresh air(i slightly understood right then why they call North America "the free world",the air even smells like freedom hahaha). I remember seeing diversity(and people who grin at each other for no apparent reason), it was a new world for me. There were so many presumptions i had of this beautiful, bountiful country that were either re-affirmed or corrected as months went by. There are a ton of things that are different to South African ones e.g Driving, Measurement system, currency, Public Holidays, traditions around public holidays, general attitudes and behaviours of the people who inhabit this country. Its been a jol partaking in the traditions...!

However delightful the times i was having were, America didn't quite feel like home yet. I was often day dreaming of being in the same vicinity with my mother and siblings and doing life the way i was accustomed to. Perhaps the old popular saying is right "There is no place like home" that is why i decided to visit home after 7 months but i was never ready for the experience i had in the 10 days that i was in South Africa. Here are 10 things that astonished me upon my return to the motherland;

1. Time:

Because of Daylight saving, Seattle is no longer 8, but 10 hours behind  South Africa which is technically the whole day, i struggled to adjust to local time, i was going to bed after 4am every morning which meant stealing a lot of time i could have spent with my family. My internal body clock was way behind which made me groggy and sometimes nauseated during the day. My sweet mother stayed up a couple of times and kept me company while i waited for the clock to send me into a deep slumber. 2 nights before i was supposed to return to the US, my body clock finally adjusted to Mzansi time......it took a while after getting back to Washington to return to a decent sleeping pattern.

2. Language and Accents:

 When i was in college i used to think my english was poor to an extent i wouldn't  feel comfortable speaking it all the time which wasn't a bad thing because there are 10 other languages one can use in South Africa, i am amazed at how easily i got accustomed to speaking English all the time that when i got home(Venda) i was speaking a mixture of English and Tshivenda=Venglish. I got those "uhmmm so you think you are all fancy now with your English" types of look in public. One of my aunts even said i sound American now which is hilarious because in the US i get asked a lot which part of the world i'm from because of my "thick accent". I won't lie, when i was flying from Seattle to Johannesburg via Heathrow, London, the British accent sounded strange and so did the "Boer" accent of the people whom i was in the flight with. The logical explanation is that i am accustomed to hearing a US accent on a daily to an extent where my brain has registered that as a default accent.

3. Driving:

 To everyone's annoyance- whenever i would be a passenger in someone's car or in public transport i would feel as if they are driving on the wrong side of the road or i'd mentally ask them why they are not turning right at the Red traffic lights. i was even terrified when my younger brother suggested i get behind the wheel, i refused because my mind has been programmed to see the right side of the road as the correct side,don't even get me started at getting confused about where the driver's door is.

Traffic lights and road rules are not mandatory in South Africa, they are more of a suggestion whereas in the US people stop if there is pedestrian crossing at a "Zebra" crossing, people don't hoot unnecessarily at cyclists(there are official bicycle lanes in most public roads).

4. Food:

Being in the US has taught me a lot about the philosophy behind food. I had been well aware about the many roles of food in society, eg. Survival, celebration, etc. but being in America has taught me about food epistemology(what people believe about food), what is considered good food, food ethics(is it wrong to eat meat, why people become "militant vegans", how much is it morally right to eat,etc), food technology(GMOs for mass production, processed and unprocessed foods) and the politics involved in food production, distribution and consumption,i think about how strict the customs and border protection crew is in many countries about the types of foods one is allowed to bring into the country. I've learnt how to count calories and nutritional content of different foods.
 As i noted in my previous blogs, this country has a vast amount of food items available on the market-different ways of cooking food but most of it has one common ingredient-CHEESE,which is almost impossible to not indulge in gooey-unhealthy-heart-problems-causing-are-you-gonna-go-to-the-gym-after-eating-that-type-of-meals daily despite my skin's protestations(ereng Acne mo ngwaneng?

😂). There are many food options available for all kinds of diets which was not the case for me when i was home because who is on a Keto diet in Venda? and my family doesn't eat dairy, a lot of sugar, salt or snacks in general. I'd say it was was a clean break from my usual Americanized way of eating. 

5. Internet , Data and access to information technology:

The data struggle was real. South African mobile services are not ashamed to engage in daylight robbery. There wasn't free Wifi in any of the places i went to except the complementary 40mb i got from Menlyn mall in Pretoria. 

Because i had to keep in contact with my friends and one special person, i ended up buying a vodacom simcard, i spent over R500 for data within a week,eek!. Then there were network issues that made the video calls not to be done(Pots reference)

6. Weather patterns: Washington state is cold! Venda is hot!

I landed in Johannesburg on New Year's day in heavy rain but when the bus from JHB to Thohoyandou got to Naboomspruit, it was scorching outside, there was poor ventilation inside the bus. It rained a couple of days i was in Venda and i was thankful to God for the occasional relief from extreme heat aaaand then it went back to what its well known for. I was surprised how slightly intolerant my body has become of the extreme heat, i reckon its because i have hardly experienced a full sunny day since 3+ months ago.

7. Family:

I was shocked to see how much my now 7 year old Nephew(Takalani) has grown-its as if someone was feeding him manure. I couldn't believe that the 3 kg baby that i held few hours after birth was now a full grown man who says things that make sense. Where did time go?. I was surprised that my 2 year old nephew, Vhuhwavho(in the gif above) is now incorporating three languages in a single conversation- not sure he is aware that he is speaking different tongues. Pretoria kids vibes.
My other family members are not quite the same, neither am i. These changes are easy to notice when you been away from each other for an extended period of time. 

8. Distance between the two countries:

Having taken 4 flights(to and from SA) walked me into an epiphany; being in Washington means i am more than 12000km away from home. Last May when i was coming to the US i didn't dread the trip because i didn't have to do a double 22+ hours of flying. I was excited to just get to the other side and be s far away from South Africa as possible. This time it was different, induced by the fact that i hate flying and i'd taken 4 different flight from Seattle to Oklahoma then back the same week, i was running out of my flying forbearance. 50 hours of travel(flying time, layovers, airport check-in times) to get to South Africa proved to be worth it and getting back to Amerika was also worth it. Both countries have people that i care about deeply so whats a 50 hour return trip compared to the heart-warming memories i make with my loved ones? (just getting a panic attack thinking of the heavy turbulence on one of the flights that made me ask why ndi sa dzuli fhasi nahone?!Mitshimbilo hei i do ri vhonisa dzikhakhathi😂)

9. Currency:

 I exchanged some dollars at Berau De Exchange and marveled at the fact that a 20 dollar bill gave birth to 290 South African rand. Although 1 dollar is 14 times bigger, products and goods seemed ridiculously expensive in South Africa because i have now grown accustomed to paying with 5, 10, 20 dollar notes

10. Which country i like best;

Some of my friends ask me which country i love best.. I can honestly say i love both South Africa and United States(it's grown on me...or i just like some people here). I was astonished by how much i experienced some sort of culture shock among my own people. I had a desire to return to the US within few days of being home(please don't tell my mother). I'm appreciative to have been born in a beautiful country like South Africa but to be able to live in another wounderful one like Amerikha is a double blessing.