Random Facts About Life Here

• Johannesburg’s high altitude makes it a mile-high city. The air is thinner and eggs take an extra minute to boil. 
  
• There are 14 hours of sunlight here each day. The sun rises at 5 am and sets at 7 pm.
  
• The monetary unit of South Africa is the Rand. The current conversion is 7.3 Rand per 1 U.S. dollar.
  
• Johannesburg is also known as Joburg. 
  
• Joburg is the largest urban forest in the world. There are 6 million trees across the city, 1.2 million in parks, and 4.8 million in private homes. 
  
• Traffic lights in South Africa are referred to as “robots.” There are 1,789 “robots” in Joburg. 
  
• We listen to records here… yes, records played on a record player. 
  
• There are security bars over all windows and triple locks and security measures over all doors.  
  
• Food here is about half the price of what it costs in the U.S. and electronics cost about one-third more. 
  
• There are attendants working at every pump in fuel stations to fill up and wash your windshield. No one pumps their own gas in South Africa. 
  
• There are store clerks working in almost every aisle in stores cleaning the shelves and restocking them. This is part of job creation to try and alleviate SA’s high unemployment. 
  
• Also, every parking lot has a parking lot attendant whose sole job is to wave you to an open space and then when you leave to wave their arms and help you back out. A typical tip for them is 10 Rand. 
  
• There are 11 official languages in South Africa: Afrikaans is a popular German/Dutch language and Zulu and Xhosa are the most popular tribal languages, but everyone speaks English. 
  
• You can drink the tap water, it's safe. 
  
• AIDS and HIV are widespread in Africa. 
  
• South Africans love to “braai” (it means barbecue) and is a popular social activity for weekends. 
  
• While fast food restaurants aren’t very popular here, there are a few KFC’s and McDonald’s.  
  
• Most entertainment here comes from the U.S. (music, movies, TV shows). Movies that open in the U.S. also open here simultaneously. 
  
• Generally, only very wealthy homes or businesses have air-conditioning and heating. 
  
• Brick is commonly used in construction for exterior and interior walls, even in smaller, less expensive homes. This is due to the prevalence of the components that go into bricks combined with a scarcity of trees for lumber, and also plain, old tradition. 
  
• There are 3 capitals of South Africa: Pretoria, Capetown, and Bloemfontein. Each serves a different function: judicial, civil, and legislative. 
  
• Johannesburg is classified as being in a sub-tropical environment. Current summer weather has been: High: 82F and Low: 60F.
  
• You have to pay for plastic bags at the grocery store. This law was instituted to try and alleviate the litter problem here in SA (i.e., people value something they have to pay for and don’t dump it. It worked with plastic bags, not with the rest of the litter problem). 
  
• If someone tells you they’re going to do something “just now” it could occur anywhere from within ½ hour to 2 hours, not immediately.