Thursday, February 5, 2009

South African-isms

Slowly I'm beginning to incorporate the local lingo into my daily interactions. A few key words:

howzit - hi / what's up
brew - bro
braai - barbeque 
now now - pretty soon
just now - any time between 15 minutes and 6 hours
hubbly - hookah 
taxi - a minibus packed with people that ricochets down the street and honks noisily at pedestrians
cab - private taxi
sundown - watching the sunset on the beach with beers
black - dark black Africans
coloured - mixed racial ethnicity
hectic - lots of meanings including fun, exciting, crowded, etc.
jammie - bus 

Things are still hectic (meaning wonderful and busy) and hopefully I will be able to begin updating regularly once everything settles down. For now I'm simply taking everything in and trying to make sense of it all. Soon to come will be a few initial observations on issues of gender and race, but just now I'm going to get ready for another crazy summer evening. Within a day or two I will also know whether I will be camping through Namibia next week. I can't imagine being in a more amazing place!

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