Our New Home in Johannesburg

Our New Home

Dakar to Johannesburg - Sweatin' to Shiverin'

Dakar to Johannesburg

Sweatin’ to Shiverin.’ Morning temps: 87 degrees to 57 degrees (both inside our house). Sea level to 5,000 feet above. Fans set on high to electric radiators, gas heaters, space heaters and heating pads on our beds. Anyway you look at it the weather shock was intense for us. Flowers are still blooming and the grass is green but oh, it’s a little chilly for us West African people. Oh, and did I mention adapters? We have more sticking out of every outlet than you can imagine!

We’ve enjoyed seeing the change through our children’s eyes as well. Lucas has many questions. Why is there grass? Where is the sand? Why do you have to wait for the light to turn green to go? (Traffic in Dakar was really a giant free-for-all, Johannesburg has organized traffic and we have to pay attention to every sign.) We have had to teach Alexis not to take rocks out of people’s yards because they’ve paid for them to be a decoration. She loves rocks so we still let her keep the ones in the street.

We have visited the mall. Our hope was that we wouldn’t look like hillbillies seeing things that look so modern after such a long time without it. (I think we did ok.) We rode the escalator many times and the kids loved finding shopping carts they could ride in. After running into several people while walking in the mall, we realized we not only drive on the left side of the road, we are supposed to walk on the left side of any path. That takes getting used to but we are beginning to have to say “excuse me” a lot less.

We’ve enjoyed learning a few new words. A man came to fix the carriage door in our townhouse. The first thing we had to buy were nappies. We had chips with our sandwiches and crisps with our hot dogs. We push our children in prams. There are robots at the major intersections. After we go shopping we put our groceries in the boot. Here’s the translation. A man came to fix our garage door. We had to buy diapers. Chips are French fries and crisps are chips. Children get pushed in strollers, stoplights are at the major intersections and car trunks are called boots.

Dan had a young lady at the mall tell him, “Oh, you have such a cool accent!” We just laughed because we don’t think we’re the ones with the accent! Then at breakfast today Lucas wanted Dan to pray in French. So, Dan did. Then Lucas said, “That was a short prayer!” Well, yes, we don’t remember quite as much French as we’d like.

We have moved into our townhouse in a gated community. There are 48 other homes and we were able to attend a neighborhood party the day we moved in. The fun feature about our home is that we have a loft and the kids love to play up there! Oh, and we have a small yard with grass which we all love! It does take a lot to heat our home. We learned from Dan’s co-worker that people who’ve lived here awhile go through a 9 kilogram gas can about every 25 days. Whoops! Ours was empty in 3 and a half days! What can I say? We chose to live in Africa because we like to be warm! We did have someone tell us that the winter has been unusually cold here this year. Huh! When we arrived in Dakar last summer they told us it was unusually hot. What is it with our family and extreme weather??

Ready to Fly!

June 2009 Adventures

Well, we are headed to Johannesburg, South Africa in just a few hours. Our ride comes at 4am and our flight leaves at 7am. We are packed and very ready to go! It was a little hard putting our kids to bed in long sleeves and jeans with it being so hot (we cranked all our fans) but we are going to experience weather shock when we arrive in Johannesburg tomorrow evening. It could be a 40 degree difference! I can't say I wouldn't mind a little cool weather for awhile though.

We have had a very busy couple of weeks saying many goodbyes to IMB friends and to our Senegalese friends. We were very proud of Lucas for giving his scooter to our neighbor boy across the street. He did it with a joyful heart even though it was hard. We couldn't get it to fold up and fit in a suitcase. We were excited, however, to discover that Alexis' little kitchen could pop apart pretty easily so the pieces did fit in several suitcases. It is encouraging for the kids when they see their familiar toys coming along. Thank you for your prayers as we experience this new adventure in our lives!

What a Weekend!

Fun with our Friends!

The weekend of May 23-24 was one huge party! We had adventures at the beach and Magic Land with 3 other IMB families. The fun part is that each family has 2 kids almost the same ages as Lucas and Alexis. 8 adults and 8 kids made for a really fun time! This was a special time for all of us because we don't know if our kids will ever be together like this again. One family was leaving for stateside assignment, another returned to their village in Senegal the following week, another is moving to South America and we are moving to South Africa. But our kids have developed friendships over the last year and this was a time to celebrate!

May Fun-#2!

May 2009-#2

After a couple of quieter "winter" months, we've had a couple of wonderful opportunities to play with other kids this month. These pics show a few of those moments.

There are still things about the culture that surprise us and make us laugh or look at each other in wonder. Here's a small sampling....First, our closest good grocery store has started selling cow tongues and rabbits. The rabbits really took me by surprise and not just because I've never even seen one here. They skin 'em, wrap 'em in saran wrap and place them in the front of the meat display. They still have their eyes & ears so it weirds me out a little every time I see them. Then just the other week the garbage guys went on strike. Trash piles up fast but we were still surprised the next week when the garbage truck came 6 days in a row! Lastly, our night guard's name is Arfone. He's a very nice young man but he will often ring our doorbell right when we're putting our kids to bed. He'll ask Dan to park 2-3 inches closer to the building or tell him that he needs to turn the tires so they're totally straight. The Senegalese seem to be perfectionists when it comes to parking!

Fun in May!

May Pics 2009

Here are some pictures of the things that kept us busy in the beginning of May. We enjoyed a Saturday morning at the beach. We want to enjoy that as much as possible because who knows if we'll ever live by the ocean again! Then we attended Kids for Kids Day - a fundraiser at a local school. We went with some friends and the kids had a blast! The rest are just photos of those "special moments" we want to capture and treasure forever.

Now for a few fun stories of things that have happened recently. We were eating breakfast the other day when Lucas asked, "Are there fruit guys in America?" This was followed by Alexis asking, "Do we use silverware in America?" It is so fun to teach kids about different cultures. We are often surprised by their questions but it gives amazing insight into how they think. I have to share about our experience the other day as we drove into downtown Dakar. We were on an on-ramp and the cars were all stopped in front of us. Dan asked me if I could see what the problem was. Yeah! Someone was actually stopped at the stop sign! That is a rare thing here. You could cause an accident if you stop at a stop sign. They are more of a colorful decoration that reminds you to look over your shoulder before continuing on. We will certainly have to check our driving habits upon re-entry to the U.S.!

ESL Class and Tea Time

ESL Class & Tea time

I have enjoyed teaching an ESL class for the last 4 months. The ladies were delightful and we had such a fun time together. I usually taught the first 30-45 minutes and then one of two ladies (Jami or Helen) would then read a Bible story in Wolof. The ladies heard a total of 24 stories in the class. The class actually began in October by two young girls here on a short-term assignment. I began teaching at the end of December.

I mostly taught a lot of vocabulary - names of food, clothing, numbers, shapes, colors, emotions, household items, etc. I tried to find things that would be helpful for them as they work for English speaking missionaries. The ladies enjoyed learning about different holidays/celebrations. Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentine's Day are pretty much the same. But weddings, the birth of a baby, and the 4th of July are very different. Here the men pay for the entire wedding and a week after a baby is born, the baby's head is shaved and the name of the child is decided and announced. We also had fun acting out "going to the grocery store" with Alexis' play food and charades as they learned different verbs. On our last night of class I made apple crisp and brought ice cream to share. It was a fun way to end our time together.

There are also some good pictures of Ibrahima teaching Dan how to make tea. We even had to go buy the teapot and glasses but we are so glad to have learned how to do this great tradition. Men make and share tea as a sign of friendship. It typically takes over an hour to complete the whole process usually including 3 pots of green tea. And yes, the amount of sugar is amazing! We tried to explain the process with each picture so hopefully you can follow along easily.