South Africa Tidbits

This past Sunday I did more driving-probably a good 20 minutes. But I spent all my time focusing on coordinating driving a stickshift and Dan had to keep telling me to watch out for the curb and to stay in the middle of the road. Because the steering wheel is on the right side of the car I have no concept of how much space the car is taking up to the left of me. It’s so weird. It will take lots more practice before I drive by myself. It’s so nice to drive on real roads on Sundays because hardly anyone is out. Nothing is open in the afternoon so there’s no reason for people to be out unless they’re learning to drive like me. 

Lucas just came and asked for milk. That’s been a highlight and the most purchased item on our grocery list. We love that we have fresh milk again!!!! Dan’s so happy to have a toaster and loves having toast for breakfast almost every morning. Alexis is happy that Rice Krispies is one of the most popular cereals here. I’m happy that I can find brown sugar! Our first few trips to the grocery store were overwhelming to say the least. Several of the stores remind us of Wal-mart but we haven’t seen that much stuff in one place in a long time. The aisles were long and there were so many choices.

Figuring out prices is a whole different game. In Dakar we used “cfa.” For awhile 500 cfa = about $1. So we learned to divide everything by 500. Not so hard. Here the currency is called the rand. Right now $1 = about 8 rand. I just have to keep remembering to divide by the right number! And cooking using Celsius, grams and milliliters is a little tricky when my recipes are in cups, tablespoons and teaspoons! I must admit that so far everything I’ve cooked has turned out fine and my math skills have greatly improved!

A Morning Adventure

We were watching Mary Poppins just last night when I happened to see a mouse run out into the living room and back behind some boxes. We looked all over but never found him. At 4am I heard some scratching on the door. I got up and closed the door to our bedroom thinking he was still in the living room and we’d get him later. Then the scratching came from a different part of our bedroom. I sat straight up in bed and Dan acknowledged he’d heard it too. Oh my! The mouse finally came running out from under our bed and Dan got him! Good thing because I wouldn’t have been able to go back to sleep! We really do experience something new here everyday!

The Lion Park

Lion Park

One of the most popular things to do when visiting Johannesburg is to visit the Lion Park. We were excited to visit the four lion sections but first we had some other fun that included feeding a giraffe and petting lion cubs. We took a drive through one part of the game park that had antelope, zebra, wildebeest, ostrich and other animals. Then we drove through the lion part of the park. We chose to view the lions after they had been fed because we knew they’d be more active. We weren’t disappointed! We were able to view lions that were often within 5 feet of our car and the guys really liked it when a couple of them fought over a chunk of meat. So, here are some snapshots of our adventure!

Our First Visitors

Crocodile Farm

We were absolutely delighted to have Dan’s youngest brother and his wife come to visit us in South Africa! Stephen & Kelli left Kodiak, Alaska, and literally traveled halfway around the world to come and see us. What a treat that was! Our week together was full of laughter and many adventures. I’m going to blog our sightseeing trips separately because otherwise it might be picture overload. These pics share our visit to the Crocodile Farm. We were really interested in watching the “feeding time” which is only on weekends so the last 3 pictures in this group may be a bit much for some of you but hey – at least I didn’t include the video!

We also wanted to share what it is like to go to church here. We have visited 2 very nice churches and they remind us of the U.S. The preaching is excellent and the songs are familiar. The only difference is watching everyone sit with their winter coats on during the whole service. We’ve noticed if we move around more during worship we do stay a bit warmer! And there is something here about “fresh air.” No matter what the temperature people want to have windows open so there is plenty of “fresh air.” We noticed they were open in the sanctuary and often people will open the windows in their bathrooms as well. Brrrr! I’m afraid we haven’t gotten that desperate for “fresh air” yet!

Happy Birthday Lucas!

Lucas's 4th Birthday

Lucas celebrated his 4th birthday on July 8 which was about one week after we arrived. We had him open his presents from us after breakfast. His ‘big” gift was a new bike since we’d left a few of his “big” toys in Dakar. They just wouldn’t fit in a suitcase. Anyway, I realized I haven’t yet taken a picture of it but he sure loves it. We also planned a pizza party in the evening for him. We invited 5 other couples that he knows really well. 3 of the couples he knew from Dakar so it was special to have people he was familiar with. The biggest blessing was finding a Spiderman cupcake mix complete with the muffin cup, icing and sprinkles. I almost cried with relief in the store when I found it and would definitely declare it as a “Praise God” moment.

It is fun to see how our kids have grown in the last few months. Lucas is now very into superheroes and “flies” around our house in his Batman pjs. His job is to save the Princess (Alexis). To help Alexis play her part we bought her a Cinderella nightgown. She loves to decide if Lucas is protecting Belle, Cinderella or White Snow (aka Snow White). *Be warned; you can only shoot fire from your arm if you have a cape on!

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??