People

South Africa is called the "Rainbow Nation" for a reason, and it's not because of gender or hippies or an obsession with care bears. Nope, it's because there are people from EVERYWHERE in this country. Seriously. It's a blessing that they pretty much all speak English! I came here wanting to learn a language, but the longer I'm here the more I realize how pointless that would be... there is no one language that would be helpful to know in my ministries (apart from English). So, without further ado I give you the people of South Africa*:

Afrikaans

The national rugby team, the Springboks, in action

Please don't be offended by any of my generalizations. I recognize that you can't put any person in a box and say, "This is who you are." I'm just giving you observations I've made while being here. So, Afrikaans people. Afrikaans people are descendents of Dutch settlers to South Africa. About 7 million people speak the language of Afrikaans in South Africa (that's about 13.5% of the population). Listening to Afrikaans on the radio here is interesting... as an American it sounds like people are trying to hock a loogie in the middle of tender love ballads.

From what I've observed, the majority of Afrikaaners LOVE rugby and are generally very big people (that could be 'big' as in extremely chiseled muscles on every square centimeter of their body or 'big' as in they have thick bones and wide-set shoulders and hips or 'big' as in you may want to lay off the beer for awhile). And about beer - apparently they like it a lot! I went to a rugby game in August and the friendly guys in front of us were Afrikaans and had about 8-12 beers a piece and they acted merely tipsy. No biggie, apparently. (note: my observation about them liking beer comes from MANY different specimens, not just those four dudes).

At a Lion's rugby match with other expat friends 

The game was fun, but I still have no clue what was going on. I still need to watch Invictus with Morgan Freemand & Matt Damon... maybe that'll give me some more insight. Rugby seems like a game that includes bits of American football, soccer, basketball, gymnastics, and wrestling, and even after the player cross the "end zone" it doesn't mean they got a touchdown, or whatever it's called. That ball can stay in the "end zone" for five minutes before actual points are awarded. Since I knew there was no hope of understanding the game, I spent my time people watching instead. While we were there an Afrikaans man with a flag was waving it on top of our heads yelling at us in Afrikaans and refusing to translate for us. The guys in front of us let us know that he was telling us we needed to yell and get excited. Go team!

I'm assuming that pretty much all Afrikaans in Joburg know English, but I might be wrong. That man wasn't the first or last time that an Afrikaaner spoke to me in Afrikaans. My immediate reaction is saying, "No, I'm an America. I only speak English," and their response is to add hand gestures and speak louder in Afrikaans. I've asked a few people about it -- some say they have no idea what that was about and they say the Afrikaaners are just strange. Others have said that's just how stubborn Afrikaans people are. I'm not sure which is the truth, but I do know that I'm going to my next rugby game with a national so I will actually have a clue about the game.

"Schoemanshoek"

For me, I've completely stopped trying to say things in Afrikaans. One night I tried to pronounce the name of a city in Afrikaans and I had my pastor, his wife, and a few others clutching their sides from laughing so hard at how bad I butchered that word. Speaking of being terrible at pronunciation: Charlize Theron, the actress & model, is of Afrikaans descent and when she moved to America she changed the pronunciation of her name to make it sound more American. Some Afrikaaners and South Africans are still bitter about that because they think she's abandoning her roots. Regardless of their ethnicity, it seems many South Africans are very proud of their heritage!

The Other White People

The other white people (although honestly, Afrikaaners are pretty much all perfectly tan) are a mixture of British & Australian descendents. If you want more info on them, go visit England. The white South Africans have a not-quite-British, not-quite-Aussie accent. It's right in between the two. Highly developed parts of the country have heavy British influence, including roundabouts everywhere, tea time at every occasion, and calling stoplights "robots," trunks "boots," napkins "serviettes," cookies "biscuits," and pacifiers "dummies." 

A major benefit to the British influence is that I get to watch Downton Abbey when it airs in Britain, which is months ahead of the American PBS premiere! Sorry, but not sorry! ;) When I say that the Brits developed the area, I really mean that. Contrary to what I've found to be popular belief among Americans, lions and zebras do not roam free in Johannesburg. We have soaring skyscrapers, VERY nice malls, loads of nice restaurants, huge casino malls, theatres, museums, movie theaters, bowling alleys, ice skating rinks, etc... 

Montecasino

So really, Johannesburg is not too different from living in America. There's just going to be Cadbury instead of Hershey's and we drive on the left side of the road instead of the right.

*because there are so many people, I'm going to tell you about the people in multiple posts. Look for another post soon!