The Banana Tree

Hello friends.  I took an unexpected hiatus!  More and more I am convinced that “busy” is a state of mind that has nothing to do with what’s going on around me.  Last week I started to feel the familiar burden of “busyness” creeping up on me again.  We definitely had  more packed into the last few weeks, but it’s funny how “being busy” follows you.  I think that’s another post for another time….

Okay, The Banana Tree.  First off, I don’t think you can hear the story properly unless you pronounce it properly.  And for all intents and purposes, this must be pronounced as closely as possible to the way my dear friend Justin Renton pronounces it.  American friends, when you saw this title, this is what happened in your mind:  Buh-Naaa-Na (notice that the “aaa” and “a” are like the sound in “apple”).  Well, frankly, that just won’t do!  To go further in this story, you must hear the word like this:  Buh-Naw-Naw.  Say it with me “Buh-Naw-Naw”.  Got it?  Good.

Okay…so when my husband and I were deciding upon which overseas location in which to move our family, we chatted to Justin about a difference in South African culture that he labeled “The Banana Tree” theory.  (Did you say it right?  Just checking!)

This theory notes the difference between the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere thinking.  Mainly with regards to weather.  He explained that given the fact that the Northern Hemisphere folks have been trained in regards to planning ahead and keeping busy because they all know that Winter is coming and therefore, crops need to be harvested, food needs to be stored, preparations need to be made and you need to work hard to ensure a sustainability during the harsh winter months.  As a whole, this is worked into the DNA of the Northern Hemisphere human.  In contrast, the Southern Hemisphere folks do not have the same challenges with regard to winter.  Enter The Banana Tree.  The theory is, that the banana tree will always produce bananas.  All year round, fruit will appear on the trees, grain will grow in the fields and in general…”everything will work out in good time.”  There is no rush, no urgency, no fear of the hardships to come.  Culturally, this contributes to the way that people will approach life.  I found this fascinating at the time and wondered what this would look like practically.

I could go super deep and spiritual with this whole theory…but far be it from me to pretend at intellectualism!  Wanna know where it popped up for me?  Let me explain…

"Now Now" vs. "Just Now"

Any South African has just begun to chuckle.  In America, I feel like we are pretty pedantic in the way we measure time.  We tend to be “slaves of the clock”.  We have many ways to describe the length of time we can expect something to happen:

Generally we will give a tangible time frame…

“Be there in 5”- meaning minutes

“Friday, next week, at 2pm” - exactly what is says

Or when we are vague, but still using tangible measurements of time…

“In a sec (second)”- meaning that in under a few minutes, I will get to it

“In a few”- this is referring to minutes and generally can mean anywhere from 3-5 minutes.

“When I can” - don’t hold your breath, this may or may not happen and by the way… “can’t you see how busy I am right now?”

In South Africa, they have two measurements of time.  “Now, now” and “Just now”.  At first, I thought it was kind of cute.  “Now, now” sounded a bit like a stutter and I always smiled a little in my heart.  But what I soon realised was that when you receive this as an answer to your inquiry as to when you could expect something….you actually had no idea when this would happen!  

Speaking to the fridge repair person who hadn’t shown up to the last two scheduled appointments…

Me - “So, when will you be here?”

Repairman-  “Yeah, yeah…just now.”

Me- “But wait, does that mean today?”

Repairman- “Yeah, yeah…soon..just now!”

They did show up.  The next day.  As I started to see this trend, I sought help from my South African friends to understand this measure of time.  The funny thing is, they don’t know either!

Some say that “Now, now” is sooner than “Just now”.  But others reverse the two.  As far as an estimate as to how long either is referring to….well, that is a complete mystery!

In the States, “just now” is a past tense term.  

Me - “Are you going to unload the dishwasher?”

Husband - “I did it just now”.

Husband - “When are going to order the pizza?”

Me - “I did it just now.”

Let me tell you, as a Northern Hemisphere human…this just boggles the mind!  My “slave to the clock” nature screams, “JUST TELL ME WHEN THIS WILL HAPPEN!!!  I WANT A TIME….THAT SHOWS UP ON MY WATCH, FOR THE LOVE OF PETE!!!”

Once again, I am reminded of my prayer when we were thinking of where to serve overseas…”God, take us to a place that is slower paced and help me learn patience.”  God is faithful my friends.

Well, I guess I can just blame it all on the Banana Tree!  

I’ve got to go, I’ll post again soon….”Just now”!

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!!

LOAD SHEDDING…and more 3rd World adventures

So, what is Load Shedding you ask….I’m actually not entirely sure that I know yet!  Except to say that we often do not have electricity.  Evidently, Eskom (the power company here in SA) wasn’t exactly “forward thinking” in the energy planning for Johannesburg.  Simply put, they don’t have enough power to supply the growing needs of this city and therefore have to “shed some of the load”.  This kind of thing is UNTHINKABLE in the United States.  Can you imagine having rolling blackouts that last most of the day because someone failed to plan well??  There would be riots in the streets!!!  But here in South Africa, it’s just part of the scenery.  Yes, the average citizen isn’t too happy with the situation but “What do you do?”.  As inconvenient as it is, it is also very dangerous.  Johannesburg is rather infamous for it’s crime and violence (that is a whole OTHER blog post…).  People live behind walls, gates and electric fencing.  When power goes out, so does the electric fence!!  And no one knows this more than the “bad guys”!  Also, the traffic lights (called “robots” here!), go out….which complicates an already overloaded and overcrowded traffic system.  

This is one of those things that is hard to wrap your mind around as an American.  I am SO incredibly humbled by my 1st World entitlement!!  If we don’t like something, we change it!  There are countless options for phone, internet, cable and even power!!  I can’t tell you how many times I changed cable/internet providers because I was “displeased” with my service.  That is just not the case here.  Most thing are government run and government controlled.  Choices are limited.  And complaining (although I hear a fair bit of it in the cell phone stores) falls on mostly deaf ears.  

We waited 9 weeks to get a letter from South African Home Affairs before being able to open a bank account.  We waited 3 1/2 MONTHS to get cell phone contracts.  And we had to wait just as long to get our own internet access.  And what a fiasco that turned out to be!!!

You know, one of the things I prayed for in moving here was patience!  I prayed that I would become a more patient person.  WHAT WAS I THINKING?????  But I realised I have a lot to learn from the culture here.  I can’t tell you how grateful I am for our internet….our “slow” and often sketchy internet.  Or for our cell phones, that drop 2 out of every 5 calls!!  

And now, every time I flip on a light switch, I am grateful that we have power!  (Even as I write this, my dear friends are hosting their son’s 5th birthday party IN THE DARK!!!).  On the “bright side” —sorry, bad pun—we have had candlelight dinners and flashlight game nights that have added a special layer to this adventure and are building lasting memories!  

Our kids are getting the wonderful opportunity to be grateful for, and think about, something that I took for granted my whole life.  Electricity!!  

It’s funny how these “hardships” are the very things that are giving me an opportunity to grow.  I am so humbled to have these opportunities.  And for now, I have internet and electricity so that I can share it with you!  Till next time…

My first blog...bear with me!

Well…here goes nothing!

Welcome to my blog!  To be honest, I have been “mind blogging” (is that a thing?…it should be) since we stepped foot on African soil.  But through a series of unforeseen events, I am just now getting around to typing out some of these thoughts.  What an adventure!  I figured that blogging would be the best avenue to record our experiences because it comes with a fair bit of accountability.  I have a dismal amount of diaries laying around that have one or two excited entires with promises to “really keep it up this time”!  I’ve been through amazing things in my life thus far and I have little to no written record.  With this latest move, I am determined to write some of this down!!  

Let me first start by saying that I grossly underestimated how big this transition would be for me.  I have moved around my whole life and have always considered myself to be easily acclimated.  Also, we had been planning on an overseas move for over 5 years and I really thought I had counted all the relevant costs.  Holy Sweet Home Alabama was I underprepared!!

As I hope to document, this move has been life changing on EVERY level.  If you ever think you know yourself, please sell everything you own and move to another continent, culture and life!  THEN you will find out all sorts of terrible, humbling , interesting things about who you really are!  For instance, I grew up in the Midwest.  We never had an abundance of money or things.  We lived in trailer houses, drove cars that broke down frequently and didn’t even know “name brands” let alone wear them!  But I rarely felt in want.  As a child (probably over aware child), I was acutely aware that we had to be careful about money and at times were in rather trying financial circumstances.  But I never thought that happiness came in the form of a dollar sign.  I had more fun playing outside and exploring the land than any child will ever have with a PlayStation or iPad.  So I have always thought of myself as someone who didn’t put much stock in material possessions.  Well….lets just say….I was wrong.  VERY WRONG!!  If I could possibly put into words how much I miss my KitchenAid Stand Mixer…(insert large sigh!).

I have moved away from family, friends, and the country of my birth….and I miss my mixer!!  It’s really funny what brings someone peace and comfort in life.

And can we just talk about the internet for a minute!  The biggest reason that I have yet to begin this blog is because we just last week (31/2 months after arriving) were able to get internet set up!!  Yet, it’s currently too slow to support Skype or other relevant ways to communicate other than email.  It took us 9 weeks to get a bank account!!  You can accomplish little to nothing in South Africa without a bank account.  I had NO idea how much I relied on the internet!!  Over the previous few years, I could often be heard complaining about technology issues, download speeds and interruptions in service.  All while we were streaming Netflix, sending emails and downloading countless applications on MacBooks, iPhones and iPads!!  

There is SO much to catch you up on here in the strange and wonderful world of South Africa!  Join me as I attempt to put this whole crazy thing into words.  Thanks for stopping by!