Life in South Africa

Well, what can I say? My finger's didn't go numb and I definitely didn't tell of all my tales, but hopefully today will be a better story telling day. For the record, I still had my big ass cup of coffee... actually...it was a few drinks...with a good friend...so completely justified right? :o).

Let's dive into it shall we? It has thus far been a 6 month journey of ups and downs and highs and lows. Nothing unexpected I suppose when you move away from home for such a long time, and I must say the highs definitely outweigh the lows. I've met a lot of amazing people here in SA - locals and foreigners. You wouldn't believe the expat community that is here within my company alone. No matter who I have met though, regardless of where they are from, one thing remains the same, everyone I have crossed paths with has had open arms and have been more than welcoming. It truly has been an amazing adventure of human spirit. People I didn't know 6 months ago I now call some of my best friends.

I suppose I should start from the beginning. I won't bore you with too many details on my life here and will dive into all the adventures, but a lot of you back home have been asking so...

It was an emotional and stressful time organizing the move and then actually making a plan once I got here as to what I was going to do and how I was going to do it. I arrived at the airport and the company taxi took me to the hotel and I won't lie - I felt very lost. New surroundings, new cultures, new chaos, and an overwhelming sense of loneliness. However, I managed to quickly find my footing over the first week or so at work and things started to look up.

I figured, may as well dive into life here ASAP and I found myself playing action cricket with a team from work. Keep in mind, I am a Canadian where the term cricket refers to a noise-making bug. I left with only two bruises and a lot of laughs. I have pictures, but luckily, this being my blog, I can save myself the embarrassment of having to show you guys!!

I met a lot of people in the first few weeks here, found a fantastic place to live, and got use to my surroundings. Even managed a luxurious day at the spa with some newly found friends. I have to say it, you can't live anywhere in the world like you can live in SA. This picture gives you a bit of an idea of the backdrop to the spa.

The hardest part of my time here was definitely over the Christmas holidays. Tentative plans I had fell through and everyone I had met was either on some trip or home for the holidays. I've never missed home like that in my life and although it was tough, as everyone always does, I made it through. What's that saying..."the only unbearable thing in life is that nothing in life is unbearable". Before I know it, the holidays were ending, friends were coming back, I was more than well rested and things were looking up. I did, however, end up jumping off a bridge on my 30th birthday just after the holidays, but I'll get to that in the next tale.

Enough about me and my life here in SA though. A lot of people have been asking about the "situation" here and if it's safe and and and...I have had a lot of emails from home expressing concerns for the situation here and I just want to say thanks to all of you!! I'm not sure what you're hearing and seeing overseas, but regardless, the situation here is quite bad.

The latest to hit the international news was about the Xenophobic attacks that were happening in the nearby townships. I imagine what was heard overseas was that foreigners were being targeted and attacked. Although this was the case, from what I have heard, the attacks stemmed more so from the locals that were upset with those fleeing in to the townships from surrounding countries such as Zimbabwe blaming them for the crime and for taking their homes and jobs. The result, well, I'll let the pictures do the talking in this case...

South Africa is an interesting country that I think everyone should explore at some point in life. It is a place where no rules really exist, a place of crime and chaos, a place of frustrations requiring unreal amounts of patience, but having said all that, it is one of such beauty that I can't even describe it in words. I don't even think my pictures will do it any justice, but hopefully they will give you some idea of what I am talking about. The pictures above are a reality in this country, but so are the ones in my tales to follow.

Well Just Sit Right Back and You’ll Hear a Tale…

Felt that was appropriate as any a title since it’s been MONTHS since I last blogged and it has definitely been a tale of a faithful trip. I’m hoping to type until one of two things happen (1) I have finished telling of my adventures to date or (2) my fingers go numb from typing. I have had quite a few adventures since arriving in South Africa, one of which started off as a three hour tour. The weather didn’t really get rough, but we did get lost and had to spend the night in the mountains and I did feel like Gilligan for a while (apologies to those not familiar with the Gilligan’s Island reference). Wasn’t sure if we were going to make it out, but that story is for a bit later. Let’s just say that I didn’t think dying of hypothermia in South Africa was a possible way to leave this planet.

I will try my best to upate as detailed as possible, but with so much that's happened, and so much more on the way, I might just give the condensed versions of a few tales, but we'll see how it progresses.

It’s tough to know where to start. So much has happened since coming to SA, but I guess the beginning is as good as any. It’s funny, I keep thinking that I need to see this and I need to see that and that I have perhaps been working too many hours and am missing out on all my traveling time…until I sat down to write about it and realized that even though I have a lot yet to see, I have done more and seen more and met more amazing people then I can even recall in the six months I've been here. It's also hard to beleive that my six month anniversary in SA just past last week. I suppose time really does fly when you're having fun.

I am going to try and split each trip/event into a separate posting so you can easily navigate if you don’t feel like reading it all at once - or at all for that matter – hahahahaha. I'll hopefully get up some nice pictures though if you’re up for skimming. Whatever you decide I’ll pause now for all to go and get a big cup of coffee…myself included.