A Day in the Life of a South African Expat - The Visual Edition

For the last several weeks, I have had multiple requests to complete an in-depth exploration of our daily lives, here in South Africa. To provide readers with all the illustrious and unbeknownst activities which comprise our days in this far, far away land. Activities that are so foreign and extraneous from our prior lives in the States, that only a comprehensive journaling would suffice. To truly dive deep into such unfamiliar notions as "take the kids to school" or "eat lunch." Or even "visit a playground." Not to mention the shockingly rare and unheard of "swim class." Activities that are sure to create shock & awe in all those who happen upon this essay.

In all reality, and I as I detailed in last week’s blog, the world has quickly caught up with itself. And any regionally-based characteristics that may have previously existed, are slowly being mixed into a "worldwide culture." An essential blend of what was once considered unique to a given population or region, and now is a fragment of its former itself. For example, here in South Africa, life has changed fairly drastically in the last 15 years:

• Rampant poverty, homelessness and hunger still exist, although iPhones have officially jumped all three to the top of the "necessity list"
• Authentic local food is still authentic. And local. Although is now served with a side of gluten-free avocado toast
• Things that used to be unbelievably cheap are more-so relatively belieably cheap (e.g. food, wine, most forms of human-related labor)
• People still speak their own language, and have their own unique version of calling someone a lover of someone else's mother. So I guess this has stood the test of time
• Every living soul knows who Chandler Bing is

As you can see, attempting to find mind-blowing uniqueness where none exists would undoubtedly lead to a fairly monotonous post. So, I instead decided to mix things up a bit, and take a more "photojournalistic" approach to presenting our daily lives. To give more of a visual perspective of what comprises our waking existence. Which is somewhat similar to our pre-South African one's, minus the whole "having a full-time job" aspect. Without further ado, onto the pics: