I’ve been a super lazy blogger and I really don’t think I can even attempt to write out absolutely everything that’s happened since the last post (!). Nursing and Rehoboth have become just like normal life – it’s hard to believe that it’s been almost 4 months of being here… it’s gone by so fast, but at the same time feels like this has been forever. It’s a very natural flow of things. My job is seriously amazing. I think I’ve said it before, but even after more time being solo in the clinic and being more and more involved, this nursing is just so me. It’s hard to think about going back to Canada and going back to the kind of nursing there… There’s definitely different challenges here, but that’s kind of what makes it fun – it’s just such a different experience than anything I would see or have to handle in Canada, no matter the capacity of job I had. I can only be so full of thanks that I got to come here!!
Another part of having spent a significant amount of time here is picking up a whackload of South African slang:
Jersey = sweater
Vest = tank top (if boys wear them)
Takkies = running shoes
Lekker = good/great/delicious
Ungaas = I don’t know (Zulu)
As well = same as regularly used, but pronounced with more emphasis on the AS, and used a lot more often!
Ja = Yeah
Shame = not used always as ‘what a shame!’ but more like a filler word – there’s a pause, say ‘shame’! Yvonne said when she had her son here, people would come up and ask ‘so what did you have, boy or girl?’ she or Alfons would say ‘boy’ and the response would be ‘aw, shame!’
Rubbish = like in the UK, meaning garbage or trash
Naughty = used much more commonly in reference to misbehaving children
Plaster = bandaid (also like in the UK)
Eish = kind of like an ‘oh man’
Hey = used like our ‘eh’
Baggies & Costume = swimsuits, male and female. So if someone tells you to bring your costume, they don’t mean Halloween.
Oke = short form of ‘bloke’, but they don’t say bloke, only ever oke… so means a guy
Manky = gross
Pitch = verb, means to show up somewhere, like to an event or to work “he didn’t pitch at work today”
Packing with laughter = laughing really hard
Pancakes = crepes; also: our pancakes are called crumpets and are much smaller
Potjie = long-cooking layered stew, pronounced like ‘porky’ in a new york accent
Bobotie = kind of like shepherd’s pie… that’s the closest comparison I can make, from Cape Malay
Vaalies = people from the Transvaal that come to the South Coast (where I am) on holiday for the beaches, notably recognized by wearing speedos/bikinis/surfing gear in the shopping centres, bright red burned skin, and carrying bodyboards around with them everywhere to try and fit in with the locals – the locals don’t like them, but makes for a fun game of ‘spot the tourist’, even I can spot them!
And there’s probably even more, but that’s all the vocab I’ll bore you with today :)
Some quick highlights from the past month or so:
- Realized how small the world is. A guy in my cell group grew up with my cousin’s cousin in Zimbabwe!
- Had Easter on the beach at a sunrise service – so beautiful, and so cool to have a HOT Easter and spend the rest of the day on the beach, swimming and soaking up some sun. Gorgeous!
- Realized I’m a bad Canadian… it’s becoming autumn here, so it will get warm during the day, but once the sun sets, it’s something like 16-18 degrees… and now I’m absolutely FREEZING once it hits that! Wearing long pants and long sleeves; huddling under blankets and cuddling with a hot water bottle! I made so much fun of my South African friends when it was still summer here about their ‘freezing’ temperatures of winter, and now I’m worse than some of them! Man alive. Terrible! How will I cope ever again with -20 degrees??
That’s all for now!
Turrah,
Heather
