I have a year left working for Global Ministries in South Africa. My new visa (that I still don't have after 10 months of waiting, Home Affairs) is supposed to expire on June 30, 2013. Come next year's July I'll be back in the US.
I've been thinking about what that'll be like and what I'll do after my 6 months of visiting churches in the US are over. I had a bit of culture shock when I came here- for instance, I didn't understand half of what was said to me for the first month. (Ha, I still don't understand half of what is said in the finance/student admin office. They forget I don't speak Afrikaans.)
A few days ago I got a slight preview of the inevitable reverse culture shock that awaits me during my triumphant return to America. I went to the shops because there was zero human food left in my house and ended up spending nearly 10 minutes in one aisle because they a new kind of peanut butter. That brings the brands of peanut butter up to like, three. I didn't know what kind I wanted. I remembered how big WalMarts are- my entire Checkers supermarket could fit in the clothes section. So I did the American thing & grabbed the peanut butter nearest to me.
There are a few Americans living in South Africa that I've come across in my almost-two-years here. I understand them just fine- there are no problems switching back and forth between hearing South African accents & hearing American accents. But I think we can understand each other because we're both exposed to South African phrases & accents. I think I'll be interminably hard to understand for a while. There are funny phrases here that I've become accustomed to. Denise & I were talking about the same thing today & she described it in English at the same time I described it in Afrikaans. It always catches me up just after I use Afrikaans words without meaning to use them. No one is going to know what I'm talking about in the US. A secret language- cool, but less fun when no one else understands it.
There are still almost 13 months to go. I've got the Otter Trail to prepare for, two friends getting married before then, Christmas, another hectic registration season at the college, Terri & Mike's baby's first birthday. I have lots of time left in South Africa before I have to go back, but I guess I should start preparing now, hey?
