Howzit? And other fun expressions!

Today’s post is fun and will probably be an ongoing topic.  As would be expected, with a new country, culture and continent…comes new words and phrases!  What fun (and sometimes a total embarrassment)!  

To illustrate my point, I shall explain the “Geyser”.  All of my American friends just conjured up something akin to “Old Faithful” in their minds.  A hole in the ground that periodically expels hot water; usually in a National Park somewhere.  Also, your mind pronounced this as “Guy-Zer”.  Let me first mention, that I have taken more cold showers in the 4 months since arriving in South Africa then in the entirety of my life!!  At first, I just thought people had VERY SMALL hot water heaters here.  In the home that we stayed in as guest for the first month we lived here, we never knew whether we would turn on the tap to find nice hot water….or freezing cold!  We just attributed this to the fact that things are “different” here, and hot water might just be another commodity in short supply.  We never thought to ask…(there is a good lesson in this, but I’ll save it for later!).

When we moved into our own place, we had a number of little things that needed to be addressed.  Missing keys, running toilets, leaky windows and some electrical issues.  But we also quickly realised that we had no hot water!  We searched for the hot water heater and found nothing ( at this point I’m starting to get really worried)!  We dealt with cold showers for a week before complaining to a friend.  “Have you checked the geyser?” he asked innocently.  Now when he said “geyser” it was pronounced “geezer”, and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what some old man had to do with my hot water!!!

Because of the aforementioned power issues, South Africans are very conscious of power usage.  Unlike America, they do not have large hot water heaters hidden in a closet or basement.  They have “Geezers”!  Evidently this is in the roof of the house and heats the water, but ONLY when the switch has been flipped in the fuse box.  This little contraption uses so much power, that people here have it on a timer, OR just flip it on when they know they will need hot water at some point and then flip it off again.  WHAT!?!  So….I need to plan ahead if I want hot water…hmmmm, ok!  Let’s just say, we still take a lot of cold showers!!!

Here are some other fun (and different) words and pronunciations:

“Howzit" - traditional greeting

“Sharp, Sharp”-  honestly, I’m still not sure EXACTLY what this means, but it comes out sounding like “shop, shop” and I still have no idea how to respond....I just smile...and nod....a lot

“costume”- bathing suit….

Okay, another funny story here.  Soon after arriving, we went to a birthday party for a friends daughter.  When we arrived, they asked if we brought “costumes”.  And what was my natural response, “Ohhhh, I didn't realise it was a costume party!”.  Kindly (and probably confused herself) the mother asked if we would like to borrow a “costume”.  Oh no, it didn’t stop there….I was utterly confused as I look around at all the kids wearing normal clothes, “Will they be dressing up later?”.  FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY!!!!  Why have I never heard of a bathing suit called a “costume”???  I’m picturing all these kids emerging as SuperMan or Cinderella, but no, just going swimming.  Oh the joys of living abroad!!

I’ll leave it there for now…there are SO many more and I am excited to share with you more of my embarrassing moments later.  For now, thanks for joining me!!