September Snapshots

Surprises:
- Fences and/or low walls are around most houses
- Houses usually do not have basements
- Their bananas taste better
- The toilet is often in a different room from the sink and bath
- At first glance, Johannesburg (Joburg) looks like a US city
- Zulu food is mostly pepper free! (I am allergic to peppers)
- Most Zulu names are three syllables long
- South Africans drive on the left side of the road
- Having a housekeeper/nanny living with a family is more common than in the US
- Most Zulu women have hair extension appointments rather than haircuts

Personal:
- I have worn a fleece almost every day
- My sister’s friend asked me if I know the Jonas brothers
- From my room, I can see a field of sugarcane, which lies on the other side of my host family’s wall
- I finished Nelson Mandela’s A Long Walk to Freedom and Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country
- My host sisters and I play Sequence often
- My host father brought his eldest daughter and me to work and introduced me as “his other daughter”
- Surprisingly, I have become the tech guru at my school
- My sisters’ English is fluent and with a British accent