Proudly South African!

I have never been someone who is the ostrich who sticks her head in the sand to avoid negatives around me, but I think too often we can get caught up in the quicksand of the negative things (and there are many, our crime rate being the most worrisome to me) about our country. 

*But* I also love to focus on the good things about this wonderful land I was born to.  The pride of being a South African runs deep in my veins and after reading this post yesterday, I was inspired to share my reasons for being proudly South African.

   

It is without a shadow of a doubt that God blessed this land with abundant beauty, we have the most amazing sunsets, beaches, flowers, wild life, mountain ranges and open spaces.  We have so much space!  It is truly breathtaking…

  

  

   

  

We are a culturally diverse country – we are not known as the Rainbow Nataion for nothing 😉  Our nation is made of people from all walks of life and different cultures – blacks, whites, indians and coloureds (this is not an offensive term, but is an offical race class in our country) all living side by side in the daily drum beat that is South Africa.  We have 11 official languages and embrace our cultural richness!

    

Plus Nelson Mandela is a South African!

            

We are passionate about our sports!  From our cricketers to our rugby players to our soccer stars, we live to support our favourite teams.  Our rugby players currently hold the title of World Cup Champions, and our Paraolympians have shone brighter than the brightest stars winning a total of 30 medals – 18 of them gold in Beijing recently.  Like any nation when our sports are on a downward spiral our sports stars are often the subject of bad press but at the end of the day, we support them no matter what!

  

South Africa boasts two oscars!  Our most famous export Charlize Theron won for her role in Monster and our very own homegrown movie industry won the oscar for the local movie Tsotsi…

  

There is nothing better than spending your Saturday afternoon on your patio in the gorgoeous sunshine and entertaining your friends by having a braai (barbeque).  The smell of boerewors braaiing brings back so many childhood memories and if by chance your neighbours are braaiing and the smell wafts over and creeps up your nostrils – I can guarantee you that your tummy will rumble and you’ll be keen to braai as well!

   

We have cool South African slang which encompass words like “howzit?” (how are you?), “eish” (crap, crikey, crumbs etc), “haibo!” (oh my gosh or such like) and often use many of our languages all together when talking to each other ” I’m going to moer you stukkend” (I’m going to hit you broken – literal translation for those english teachers out there 😉 ).  We have some great Afrikaans sayings that just are not the same in any other language ie: “gaan kak in die mielies” (go crap in the meilies)

We have Mrs Balls Chutney, NikNaks and Rooibos tea… AND biltong – who could forget biltong?  An afternoon of sport is just not the same without it to snack on…

    

We are SO blessed to be living in a country where we have the best weather (even in winter it does not get too cold), the best people and the best views… I love being a South African and pray that the negative issues we have in this country can be sorted out…

Viva SA!!  Viva!!