My South African life! #2 (+ Tumblr)

There is one thing I noticed about South Africa (or, maybe it’s just Capetonians) over the past few months, and that is the no strings attached, non-committal attitude that people seem to have.

Now, I’m not talking about relationships or anything of the sort, but about a general sense of no commitment. As if people feel no sense of duty towards each other.

I’ve been told that things in South Africa don’t last, and I was honestly confused when I first heard this, but now it makes a lot of sense. I’ll give you a simple example to illustrate South African non-committment.

You’re at the grocery store. Everything is fine, you find all the things you need, yada, yada, yada.

Three days later, it’s time to do the groceries again. You noticed that the vegetable aisle is rather empty, but that’s fine, because you don’t really need veggies. You need, uh… Fish. Smoked snoek, actually. But there is none. So, you sigh to yourself, and head back home. And, since you really need that snoek, you head back to the grocery store the next day. The vegetable isle is still looking empty, and it really because you needed green onions that day, and there are none. As for the snoek… Well…

It might not be such a big deal to some, but since we’re a family who cooks every single day of the year, it’s really annoying. And, of course, this sense of non-committment doesn’t apply to grocery stores only. It applies to a lot of things.

If you order something, it takes ages to get to you. My sister ordered stuff from China, and she still hasn’t received all of her order. It’s been more than four months. In France or in the US, it would rarely take more than one month.

If you give someone your number in hopes that they will call you back, there is a very high chance that it won’t happen.

And so on.

Moral of the story is, things in South Africa don’t seem to last, and people don’t seem really work together.

Of course, I could be wrong, but that has been my experience so far.

(You can read my stuff and see a few pictures here and there on my new blog and follow me on instagram @yogirljade)