South Africa?

So I have reached the halfway mark of my exchange. This for sure has been exciting scary and every other emotion you can think of. But one thing that can sure put a spanner in the works is answering questions about your home country. As with every other foreigner when travelling or living in another country bwe encounter a fair amount of questions that we need to answer.
So this Post is mainly for my international friends. Its all the questions, statements and remarks that you have asked or want to ask.

• You from South Africa right, so do you know Nelson Mandela. This statement I am sure every South African who's met people while abroad has dealt with it. Yes we know Nelson Mandela he has been quite a big figure in our country as he has been in a lot of country's. That being said to put it bluntly he is quite a big South African export. However please do know that we have plenty more exports we have offered the World; We gave you Charlize Theron who is one of the top Hollywood actresses today, Princess Charlene of Monaco is South African, Candace Swanepoel(Victoria's secret model) Gavin Hood who has directed plenty Oscar award winning movies such as X-Men Origin and a proudly South African Movie Tsotsi. Bonang Matheba who is the only Revlon ambassador outside of the USA is South African. This is just a few notable South Africans flying our flag up high  in other country's. So please ask us about them, you can even ask me about Oscar Pistorius I might not have much to say about him but it'll sure be refereshing.

While we on the topic of international exports. Die Antwoord which is a popular band all over the world is not as big as you think in South Africa.

•Population this scares a lot of Finns when they ask how many people live in South Africa. 55 million, thats how many people live in South Africa. Coming from a small country this number might sound enormous but this is quite normal to us. The Finland population is approximately 5 million people while Johannesburg which is a City in South Africa has about 10.5 million people.

•Weather once again this scares a lot of Finnish People. Well Africa is generally a hot continent but South Africa is easily the coldest country in Africa. Our climate depends on where you are in South Africa the more North you go hotter it gets. But on a normal temperature can be between 18°C and 25°C well atleast thats where I'm from.

•Food if you really wanna know about food, please go to South Africa. The food culture there is an adventure on its own.

•Cape Town Its as if this City has become synonymous with South Africa. This I totally understand afterall its been voted one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Certainly you should go there. There are more spectacular towns to see though, Kimberly which houses the worlds largest Man made hole and where the worlds biggest diamond comes from(Finnish People you know the Board Game Afrikan Star). The province of Limpopo which has Mapungubwe Africa's own mid-evil empire. And other awesome culture filled places such as Durban, Grahamstown Johannesburg, Pretoria and many more.

•Yes we have 11 official languages, and no swahili isnt one of them. Once again we take it over the top and have more official languages than any other country.
No its not hard simply because of some kind of common understanding we have. In those languages 9 are tribal languages and the other 2 is English and Afrikaans(a Language originating from the Dutch Language.)  Disclaimer: we do have White people in South Africa so if you hear a White person say they from South Africa please dont be shocked.

•Safety No coming to South Africa wont get you killed. Just like any other country we do have our own issues with safety and crime. That shouldn't be the reason to not go there. As long as you know where to go and when to go there with someone who has knowledge of the place it shouldnt be a problem. Dont let such block you from a great adventure.

•Animals? Oh yes its Africa home to the Lions and Buffalo's and all these other majestic big creatures. They dont always roam the streets (although I'd like it) as you'd think. Just be careful or a monkey might sneak in and steal your food.

Well I hope this cleared up some things about it. After all this is South Africa a land where almost everything goes and its all up to you.

Ensikertaaan
Kabelo Mokgehle

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Labour Pains and Giving Birth.

Image
16 October 2016 Marks 9 Months since being in my wonderful Host country (Finland) that each day I grow to appreciate more and more almost as much as I do my beloved home country South Africa. The number nine in a lot of cultures and Faiths has an important meaning and significance, as it means to be the number of life and breakthrough to a lot of people. So I've reached my ninth month of exchange, what does this mean? Im ready to give Birth!! Unlike many other pregnancies, the conception period and pregnancy took a lot longer than normal approximately over one year. The beginning of my conception period of coming on the exchange began when I had the idea to apply for exchange. Not knowing which country I'd want to go to or what to expect, I started with my application process not expecting anything but willing to see where the wind will take me. My pregnancy officially started a few weeks before I left for Finland as the normal symptoms of pregnancy started such as morning
Read more

100 Days

Image
100 DAYS 24 April 2016 marks me officially being on exchange for 100 day. Without a doubt this has been a very eventful 100 days. So in this post I'll correct a few misconceptions about being here. •No I am not on holiday. If it were a holiday there would be a lot of things I do differently handle differently and hardly care about. I however am here to learn and live. To build a life and for me to grow as a human. •Living in someone's house is not as easy as it sounds. Settling in another country is is a challenge that can cause problems for a lot of people. What puts a spanner in the works is the reality of having to live with a family you hardly know. So far I've only had one host family that I really enjoy being with. That doesn't change the fact I hardly knew them before I moved here, I didn't know what makes them tick or what turns them on. Everything here is basically walking on eggshells. Simply because you know nothing about what to do or what's gon
Read more

Lapland Tour

Image
Friday the 25th of November as Rotary Exchange Students we had the privillege of embarking on a trip to Lapland/The Arctic Circle. This by far is the most time pressed yet time extensive trip I've been on. In a 15 hour bus trip(it was more for others) we reached the North magical secluded town of Muonio on Saturday the 26th. With all formalities said and done and settling in our hotel lodge( Harriniva hotels). I set out to do a close to impossible task, getting to meet and know all of the 131 exchange Students that were there(especially the new inbounds that arrived in Autumn). It was a tough challenge as I'd frequently forget thier names or their home country. I dont know if that task was successful or not but it sure was fun. When the night progressed. We went to the outside camp and had our dinner there. A Finnish meal under the stars up North in Lapland couldnt get more Finnish than that, sitting around a fire and enjoying all the simple things. The next morning we prepar
Read more