Monday, May 19, 2008

A Rose By Any Other Name...

... would be confusing!!

When we moved to South Africa, we landed at Johannesburg International Airport. It's now called OR Tambo International Airport. It used to be called Jan Smuts International Airport. This would not be so bad except that the road signs have not all been changed, so half of them say Johannesburg Int'l Airport, and the other half say OR Tambo Int'l Airport. Even this is not so bad, since there is only one International Airport in Johannesburg, and it is easily accessible. But what about city names?

Polokwane used to be called Pietersburg. When we first moved here, we had a bit of trouble navigating the highways, as they don't post directions. If you want to take the N1, which goes north/south, you have to take the N1 towards Johannesburg or towards Polokwane, which means you have to know major cities and where they lie in relation to where you are. When we figured out that Johannesburg was south and Polokwane was north, we thought we knew all there was to know. But then half of the signs said Pietersburg, which messed us up (moment of panic!) - which direction are we headed in now? When we finally realised that Pietersburg and Polokwane are one and the same, we breathed a sigh of relief.

Nowadays, it doesn't matter if we're headed toward Warm Baths, Warmbad or Bela Bela. It just means we're going north and we'll get there eventually.

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