Canada Day in SA

Happy Canada Day from South Africa!

I love life in South Africa. There are many times I’m sure I never want to move back home to Canada. Canada is polite. Everyone will say hello back to you when you greet them, and everyone will ask how you’re doing, but they don’t really care. We know better than to reply with anything other than a simple “fine,” “good,” or, if we’re feeling particularly boisterous that day and feel like taking the risk of alarming people, we say “great!” And that’s it.

South Africans aren’t polite. They’ll talk about politics, salaries, and everything else that Canadians avoid within 5 minutes of meeting you. And I love it. Because they aren’t held back by social inhibitions. This also means they’re incredibly friendly (the ones who aren’t trying to rob you, anyway, but that’s overblown). We’ve made incredible South African friends in a very short time here, precisely because they don’t politely stick to their own clique. You really only need to meet one South African. Then you’ll meet their friends. And then the friends of their friends, and before you know it, your network is large enough to hold a lekker braai.

That being said, we’ve also met several friends from Germany, Scotland, and the US. We also managed to find one Canadian, and I think the sole Mexican in South Africa. What I’m saying here is we’ve been able to surround ourselves with great people from all over the world.

The biggest holiday in Canada is called Canada Day (we’re not very great at coming up with original names), and it celebrates the day our constitution was signed: July 1. We did this intentionally so that we can have all the good parties before the Americans each year when they celebrate on July 4. This year was a particularly big one because we celebrated 150 years of Canada being a country (yes, I know there were people there first, and yes, I know the land mass was always there. I know somebody will be quick to point out that we’re celebrating 150 years of colonialism and blah blah blah. The point is, we have issues as a country. We’ve ignored some groups. We’ve treated others horrendously. But we’re still the best country in the world (according to all kinds of reports), and we still have reason to celebrate. Like, for instance, the fact that people who do nothing but complain about Canada have the freedom to do so in safety. The people who tend to complain the most tend to be the people who have travelled the least. Anyway, rant over- I love Canada, and it’s ok to be proud of my country while recognising we still have a lot to do when it comes to equality for all).

Months ago, I knew I wanted to have a Canada Day Party here. But oddly enough, when I started looking around for Canadian-themed party decorations in South Africa, I came up blank. Here’s where all kinds of people pitched in to help out. In Vancouver, Dallas picked up a bunch of party supplies that I had ordered from a speciality store and dropped them off at one of my work’s branches. Curtis bought a few extendable marshmallow roasting sticks (they don’t exist in South Africa for whatever reason) and dropped them off for me. From there, the party supplies and roasting sticks went to our head office. Colin bought me some REAL graham crackers (which South Africans have never heard of) so we could make S’mores and also delivered them to head office. One of my colleagues, Christian, happened to be travelling from there to here and agreed to bring a suitcase filled with our stuff. So that part was sorted.

But we were still missing some stuff. The marshmallows South Africans have are pretty much sugar coated dog turds. I never thought it would be possible to screw up something as easy as a marshmallow, but South Africa somehow managed. I also wanted some cedar planks to BBQ some salmon, and the only ones I could find here were insanely expensive. Luckily, some of our American friends, DJ and John, happened to be going home and offered to bring back the planks and marshmallows (along with a bunch of party supplies for the Potato’s bday, but that’s another story).

Then I tried to find REAL maple syrup. I found some, but I’m convinced it was laced with unicorn tears because the price was insane. Luckily, some South African friends, Paul and Gilly, happened to be going to Singapore, where they found me some authentic Canadian maple syrup.

Some of our other friends, Carsten and Agnes, offered to bring a cake. Although they’re from Germany, they showed up, along with their two adorable boys, decked out in Canadian flag T-shirts (imported from Germany, made in Bangladesh) and bearing this:

The only thing that could have made it more Canadian is if it was made out of pure beaver meat.

We couldn’t believe how perfect it was, and we’re blown away that we have friends who were willing to go to such lengths to help us celebrate.

It truly was an international effort to get everything all set up.

My wife made some incredible burger patties and the best potato salad to ever grace the planet, and I manned the braai to make the sure the more than 30 guests we had over didn’t go hungry. We also hired Vincent, who works at a market near us, to be the bartender for the evening, and he did an incredible job of keeping everybody happy.

My favourite part of the evening came when Paul asked if he and Gilly could address the guests. Thinking he was just going to say something about great friends gathering together, of course I said yes. I should have known better. If you’ll remember, I find the two-toned shirts the South African Boers hold so dear to their hearts quite silly. If you don’t remember, you can read about it here. Paul proceeded to present me with a ridiculous shirt of my very own, and it went a step further- it was THREE tone! I’m ready to mingle with the locals in whatever small towns they congregate in to compete for the most hideous attire ever award. Thankfully, he spared everyone within eyeshot and didn’t include the little hot pants the Boers like to wear with the shirts.

The women started crawling all over me the second I put it on.

He was kind enough to put a Canadian flag on the back to remind everyone I didn’t know any better.

Because I was so busy cooking and talking to our guests, I entirely forgot to take a single picture of the night. Luckily, our friend Evelyn Gibson was there with her camera. We had no idea she was going to be taking pictures, but we’re grateful she did, and all pictures on this post are courtesy of her. Evelyn is a highly acclaimed photographer in South Africa, and we’re honoured to be friends of hers. You can see more of her work here.

I guess what I’m trying to get at is we’ve been truly fortunate to meet so many great people in South Africa. Our friends were more than happy to not only celebrate our special day with us, but they were willing to pitch in and really be part of the celebration. Several guests wore red, and I had to laugh at how many showed up sporting plaid, which is as Canadian as hating Nickelback.

I mean, it DOES look incredible.

Here’s the thing, as an expat, no matter where you end up, you’re going to go through a time where you feel a little bit isolated and question whether you did the right thing or not. I’ve definitely had those moments. And then something like Saturday happens and you know you’re in exactly the right place. Here might not be forever, but it’s perfect for now.

Happy Canada Day to all my friends, both near and far.

Vincent working his magic.

So two South Africans and a Scotsman walk into a bar…

The maple-glazed salmon was a little bit of a hit.

Fires and friends.

This courageous marshmallow sacrificed its life to become a delicious S’more

Some of the kids found something more interesting than a dumb old Canada Day party.

This is Paul. Don’t trust Paul.

Everybody was talking about how Canada is the best country in the world. Probably.

All the drinks were super manly and I didn’t feel weird ordering a single one of them.

I missed the memo that said we all had to wear princess dresses.

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