Adapting

I started this blog update several months ago but never completed and posted it so I suppose now is about time to that. We’ve been in South Africa for almost a year. We’ve seen seasons change Struggled with customs to minimize offense and have tried to learn 2 new languages (one of them is English). It was easier writing blogs when we first arrived and everything seemed like a strange adventure. Most days life doesn’t seem like a strange adventure, it just seems like life and work.

Seasonal Change – Living like a forest ranger

As a California city person, my life here has been enlightening. We live in a very rural, near-wilderness region. I love the outdoors but before coming here my outdoors experience consisted of short trips to parks now I’m like the park ranger – here all year long. Here I have had the opportunity to watch the same small stretch of land over months.

Our first visit to the hospital was at the end of winter before we finished training. The area is golden brown. Leaves are off the acacia trees leaving their parasol tops a cartoonishly sinister mesh of branches. The brown of the grasses and leafless tree is contrasted with the brilliant red of coral trees which sparsely color the area. The air is dry and cool. Temperatures are much like Los Angeles, 65-75F during the day, 45-55F at night, the difference is that South Africa is convinced it is AFRICA, hot and steamy. Therefore no heating, no insulation and no weather stripping, plus real South African homes have ventilation holes near the ceiling. So unlike Los Angeles, South Africa is coooolllldddd.

We returned to start our service in late September, the beginning of Spring. The grasslands are still gold and brown, the trees still bare. The first sign of springtime is the jacaranda tree. Along the route into town and all through the town of Vryheid, large (30-40ft) jacarandas add a purple counterpoint to the coral trees dots of red.

Spring in Zululand is a fast paced adventure. Every week a new vista is painted. The first act that Spring produces is a low carpet of bright blue blossoms showing through the brown remains of last years grassland growth. The next week brings out the next act in this serial drama – tall darker blue flowers that are complemented by the first colorings of green in the grasses. The next week brings out a low yellow carpet of flowers to compete and overshadow the blues. The small yellow flowers have a couple weeks in the spotlight but are then outshown by large yellow flowers which overwhelm all the others. Green then becomes the theme of the week. At first the grasses are low and mixed with last years remains; they seem almost grey. The next week they become brilliant emerald green, a gem that spans miles square.

By Summer, December, the acacias have filled with leaves, parasols over the grasslands. The thornbark acacia is the signature of the South African grasslands. It’s parasol covering is pure Disney Lion-King. In summer the grasses are still green but have begun to develop shocks of seeds, some grasses with yellow seeds, some with red-brown. Looking out across grasslands now looks like fields of green seen through gold or copper gauze. The carpets of wild flowers are gone but have been replaced by gaudy spots of purple, pink and yellow.

Summer in Zululand is the rainy season. I find it amusing that LA’s rainy season November to April is the same as here. LA’s is winter, this is summer. Summer days here in the mountains of Zululand are in the 70’s and low 80’s, usually with some clouds in the sky. The mornings are often foggy (called mist here). The mist lifts by mid-morning. By late afternoon there are thunderheads in the sky. Evening temperatures drop to the high 60’s and often are rainy. To someone from Southern California the rains are high drama. Lightening, thunder, wind whistling through cracks in the windows, downpours beating on our tin roof make for a thrilling experience.

As I write this it is almost June, and the temperature is down. This past week the highs were in the 40’s (Fahrenheit) and the lows were in the high 20’s. The leaves are dropping from the trees and again the hillsides are golden. The poinsettia bush (tree?) in our back yard is in full bloom. The people of my area distinguish 3 seasons, Spring, Summer, and Winter (includes Fall), The isiZulu for Winter is ubusika, which also means “it cuts”. When the Zulu were barefoot the winter cold would crack the skin on the soles of their feet. The cold season still comes quickly and with a cutting vengeance.

English as a Second Language

South African English is both delightfully direct and hopelessly obscure. On the direct side if you get a dent in your fender you don’t go to a body shop you go to a panel beater. If you drive near a hospital you’ll find signs saying “No Hootering”. Hooters are automobile horns; I don’t know what South Africans visitors make of the American restaurant chain of that name. The direct language carries over into commerce. Americans have stores called “Pick and Save”, here we have “Pick and Pay”. My favorite is the ZA name for HMO’s, with real clarity of language they are called Medical Schemes.

Obscurity comes in trying to establish times and distance. Call a person who was supposed to be at your site 15 minutes ago and ask him when you can expect him. The answer is invariably “I’m on my way, I’ll be there just now. Just Now is ZA English for the indefinite future, some time between 5 minutes from now and the 2010 World Cup. If you try to press the importance prompt arrival you will be rewarded by the much more precise statement, “Not a problem, I’ll be there now now.” Now Now is the more definite indefinite future and refers to a time somewhere between 4 minutes from now and the 2008 Summer Games.

Adapting

As I said at the top of this update, life here in ZA just seems like life, and Zululand just seems like the place I live. Writing things down in the blog does remind me that Zululand isn’t a suburb of Los Angeles and this really is an adventure.