Szavanna_blog

Szavanna August 9th, 2007

‘Welcome to South Africa’ - said the home affairs official and put that big stamp in my passport that entitled me to get my own green card - the one called ‘permanent resident permit’.

That was ten years ago. Ten years is quite a long time - and it made me think about the fact that South Africa is now officially part of my life - my stay here has changed me in so many ways, I learned a lot, and it’s time to think back a bit and see what I figured out so far.

Well it all started in January 1997 - when I arrived at Johannesburg airport. Back in Hungary my friends kept on teasing me for years “so when are you going to Africa?”. Well that was the day when I left for Africa.

But why???

South Africans are used to the country and normally go through the days without noticing a lot of the things - the things that make me think constantly (till today)- wow - ‘So it’s like that here‘…or make me ask questions like - “Hm I wonder why it is like this …”. or “What on Earth did he mean by that???”

South Africa is very different from all other countries I have been to probably due to its position on the map and its history, the fact that it’s a melting pot of cultures - basically - a bit like New York City - you can find the whole world here in one country - all of these make it very unique and new to me coming from “over there” - far away from such influences
The land of Melting Xmas trees

When the plane landed the first thing I noticed was the Christmas trees at the airport.

Which is not so strange since it was the 3rd January - you do have Christmas decorations everywhere during the first week of the year. However - something was wrong with these trees - they were standing there with the hot sun shining on them through the glass walls of the airport - as it it was a mirage - I had the feeling they will melt any moment. I normally associate Christmas trees with freezing cold cloudy weather so this just didn’t make sense at all. The day I left Budapest was the biggest snow I’ve ever seen - I could hardly get to the airport - the roads were all covered with thick snow - it was freezing cold. The next day I landed in Joburg on the hottest summer day - well this to me is still the strangest thing - and I realize how everything is different here because the seasons are all “mixed up”.

Danger on the farm

My first years I spent on farms North of Pretoria which is probably the biggest jump one can do - from Budapest to a South African farm - one can easily find a lot of differences, things to talk about.

In Hungary we don’t really have too many dangerous animals - well on that farm there were snakes, scorpions, centipedes, spiders of all kinds - it took me many sleepless nights before I got used to things a bit - I was constantly afraid that I’d step on a snake or some funny insect bites me - I was constantly on the alert.

One day I was busy in the house when I heard footsteps outside. When I look outside I saw the neighbour with a gun in his hand coming towards me with a smiley face. I got a major fright - in Hungary noone has a gun - just the fact of seeing a gun scared the living daylight out of me. He eventually realised how frightened I was and said - “Oh don’t worry, I am just coming to let you know that I just killed a big lizard on your roof - you don’t have to worry any more”. Then he showed me the poor lizard lying there on the ground. Wow it was without a doubt a big lizard.

Later on we realized that we had a whole family of them living in the roof - so during the evenings when we heard those mysterious shuffling noises coming from the top - we knew it was “just them” - our big lizard friends.

‘Ah so you are English!’ - I hear every day…

This would’ve been the most ridiculous thing - if I was in Hungary - I never thought that people would actually tell me that I was English - coming from “over there from somewhere in the ex-Eastern block”.

Of course by the above question they mean that I prefer English to communicate with. Naturally, most people that speak English here are not actually English at all - with 11 official languages and many many more unofficial ones chances are very small that an English speaker actually turns out to be English.

The people that visit the OpenCafe everyday speak many different languages and they have no clue that when they talk I am listening - I have lots of fun having all these languages “around” - since I get the opportunity to compare them, see similarities and differences in dialects that people speak here.

I was about 12-13 when I had my first English lesson - in Hungary we learnt Russian as a second language - one had to look for a private teacher to learn English - and we did - I still remember how thrilled I was when I got my first English grammar book for Christmas. Once I was familiar with the basics, I looked for opportunities to find people to practise my English with - and the first people I found were from Yemen…. but that is another story…

Back to the green card I got from that home affairs official…

All the above is just an intro to all the stories I could tell friends & family back home - ten years of experiences will give me enough to carry on telling the stories for a long long time.

The fact is - this African journey is different from my other travels - since I have my green card and I am here to stay.

I must say that though my second home can be an unbelievably hectic place to live in - I would still go with Rouvanne’s views on this and say that it is also a treasure chest of amazing traditions, beautiful landscapes & great music - all of which I could never have experienced, seen or heard - have I decided not to get on that plane to Joburg.

• Uncategorized
• Comments(2)