Why I Love South Africa
I love the familiarity, even forwardness in which South Africans relate to each other. They are quick to smile, to greet and to initiate a conversation whether you find yourself in a queue in a bank, shop or public loo, at a party, petrol station or on the beach. If you drive past someone with the same unusual or new car as yours, they signal you by throwing brights – I kid you not - I have experienced this! People are just so easy going; they have this informal way about them that I love.
I have seen Afrikaans folks chatting away in broken English, English guys laying themselves bare in Afrikaans and a friend of mine praying for a Zulu gogo – they couldn’t understand each other but their hearts spoke the same language.
It’s the same rainbow-coloured thread that weaves us all together.
And I like.
I was at the shops yesterday, when an elderly man came up to me with a can of Black Label beer in his hand, he says to me ‘do you know what Im going to do with this’ so I looked at him cautiously and said ‘um, drink it’ he says ‘no, I’m going to make a beer batter for my fish for supper tonight’, he then proceeds to have a long conversation about how he saw a Jamie Oliver show on TV and was going to follow one of his recipes, he then helped me with my shopping bags commenting on the nice wine that I had bought and as quickly as he arrived, he said his goodbyes and was gone.
People here are very friendly and its great!
Ya but did he try and get your number?
No, he was a complete gentleman