Adventures & Wanderings of a Peace Corps Volunteer in South Africa

YOU KNOW YOU'RE IN SOUTH AFRICA WHEN ...

…you bucket bathe your whole body (well except those hard to reach places, like the middle of your back) in less than 2 liters of water a day.
…you enter a building in a rural area with a posted sign that reads “Restaurant” or “Butcher” and there is no food or meat in sight, only beer bottles (I’m told this is a licensing issue).
…you pee in a bucket at night to forgo the long walk to the pit latrine in the dark.
…you watch the same Culture Spears “Kulenyani” DVD music video over and over nearly 10 times a day, 70 times a week, and 280 times a month without any suggestion of boredom or insanity.
…“clean” water becomes a relative term
…burning plastics, aluminum cans, bottles and any other imaginable piece of non-biodegradable trash is the best “disposal” method
…roosters crow at all hours of the night and day (and off key at that!).
…you watch T.V. and hear Zulu, Ndebele, Tsonga, Sotho, and English in the me sentence on the same news broadcast, and people around you understand what is being said!
…you wait in a Khumbi (bush taxi) for hours under the hot, baking sun to fill at least fifteen passengers before it begins to move.
…you drive a long distance in a Khumbi with the windows closed (to prevent women’s hairdos from being ruined) and 10,000 watts of pumping stereo sound causing you to faint and your mind not to function.