10 Things to Love about South Africa

Girl said I was too dry and tedious with my last entry about hiking. She said my - this is what we did and this is what we saw - style was dull. I have to agree, but that is what happens when you write when you are tired. Plus, since we were successful at locating the ever elusive P.A.B in Hermanus, we have yet to come up with anything entertaining to be on the lookout for. So, to keep the entertainment factor up for the few people who do read this blog I am going to try to increase the randomness factor a bit. Don’t worry, it won’t be too random. I will attempt to post more daily happenings, general occurrences and thoughts of the day, rather than just focus on the weekly big events.

For my first random thought of the day entry I am going to list 10 Things to Love about South Africa. I found an old (2005) South African GQ Magazine in a stack of periodicals at the place we are renting and it had a list of 40 things to love about South Africa and I got inspired. Since I have only been here for a short time, I have to keep my list shorter and relative to the Cape Town area. Plus, their list was pretty weak. Or maybe I just don’t get SA humor.

10. The accent….can’t understand a word some of them are saying half the time, but it sounds good.

9. It is Multicultural – people here are from all over Africa and the world; SA has 11 official languages.

8. The cheap seafood and tasty fruits - Girl's been eating nothing but calamari, oranges, guava, and "huge assed" strawberries.

7. All sorts of plants and wildlife – terrapin, tortoise, birds, snakes, dassies (hyrax), whales, sharks, the Big 5, and the P.A.B. of course.

6. In the winter you can still wear sandals, t-shirts, and shorts.

5. You can jaywalk without being hassled by Big Brother.

4. The wine.

3. All the outdoor recreation you could ask for (minus the winter sports): hiking, fishing, safaris, shark cage diving, surfing, sailing, paragliding, etc.

2. Even the middle-class can afford to pay someone to clean their house, landscape their yard/garden and wash their car. (labor is cheap; kind of sad to realize that hired help is paid so little - housekeeper makes about $6USD a day for 8hrs work).

1.Besides Charlize Theron and a few supermodels South African celebrities are in everybody’s league - they all look like your average jane and joe.

Check out Poison's cover of the song.