Well the big news here this week has been the presidential elections for South Africa that happened on Wednesday. The main party in SA is the ANC, and of course the ANC candidate (Jacob Zuma) is the front runner by a long shot. There has been many things that have gone on since we have been here.. more than I can explain or even understand, so I won’t try to … but here are some articles I have found that give you some info (if you are interested)
Some history about Zuma.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/194586
Another Article about Zuma and the ANC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30355164//
Here is an article about the election and results
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30391215/
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
The Easter Bunny Arrived
Well when we arrived home on Sunday the Easter bunny had arrived and left the boys lots of goodies! Exactly what they wanted... Evan wanted a chocolate egg or bunny and Aiden wanted a DVD. Boy that Easter Bunny is smart!!
That night the Easter bunny hid glow in the dark easter eggs in the backyard for a fun hunt! We grabbed our buckets and flashlights and off we went! What fun!!
Hope everyone had a great Easter!
That night the Easter bunny hid glow in the dark easter eggs in the backyard for a fun hunt! We grabbed our buckets and flashlights and off we went! What fun!!
Hope everyone had a great Easter!
Our Weekend
Well since we had a long weekend we headed out for a few days. On Friday we went to St. Francis Bay which is only about an hour away. It is on the coast and it gorgeous. St Francis Bay sits on a canal system that leads to the Kromme River and then out to the ocean. We stayed at a B&B right on the canal with a small private beach. All the houses in St Francis are white with thatched roofs...it is soooo cool looking! It amazes me how a straw roof can protect you from the elements! We also headed down the road to Cape St Francis which is right on the ocean. We saw the lighthouse and the Penguin Rehabilitation Center that is located there. Very cute! For lunch we ate at the Port which is a small marina in between St Francis and the Cape. After we got back to the B&B the boys had a chance to run around the yard and play with the owners grandkids that were in visiting for the holiday weekend. They had a blast with their new friends. Then later in the afternoon we headed out on their boat for a canal cruise. It was so much fun being on a boat and cruising. We headed out to dinner and had a great evening!
The next day we headed out to Jeffreys Bay which is only about 30-40 minutes from our house. It is a beach community and the big attraction is the surfing. I believe they call it the Surfing capital of SA. We just toured the town and site during the morning. We stayed at a B&B quite close to the beach..in fact if our room had faced the back we could have seen it from our balcony. So the afternoon we spent most of it at the beach collecting shells, playing in the small tidal pools and watching the surfers. After a long day we headed back into the town and played putt putt and had a late lunch/ early dinner. Then a relaxing evening in our room enjoying the ocean air.
That about sums up the short vacation. We had a great time and are planning more weekend get aways as I write! Stay tuned!! The weather right now is so great that I want to take advantage.. it is warm during the day mid 70's and gets cool at night (need a jacket) perfect Fall weather... but it lasts so much longer here!
Ok - here are the pics of the weekend... enjoy!
On our way to the B&B we saw a couple little monkeys hanging out in the trees... cute!
Here is the Seal Point Lighthouse. I am sure the view from the top was amazing, but we could not go up with children under 6.
The Penguin Rehab center. This center caters to African penguins.
Sites from the canal cruise.....
A view from the back of the B&B looking out onto the canal
The kids playing with their new friends... for the night anyway!
Surf Museum at Jeffreys Bay
Surfers at Jeffreys Bay
The Boys checking out the tidal pools
The next day we headed out to Jeffreys Bay which is only about 30-40 minutes from our house. It is a beach community and the big attraction is the surfing. I believe they call it the Surfing capital of SA. We just toured the town and site during the morning. We stayed at a B&B quite close to the beach..in fact if our room had faced the back we could have seen it from our balcony. So the afternoon we spent most of it at the beach collecting shells, playing in the small tidal pools and watching the surfers. After a long day we headed back into the town and played putt putt and had a late lunch/ early dinner. Then a relaxing evening in our room enjoying the ocean air.
That about sums up the short vacation. We had a great time and are planning more weekend get aways as I write! Stay tuned!! The weather right now is so great that I want to take advantage.. it is warm during the day mid 70's and gets cool at night (need a jacket) perfect Fall weather... but it lasts so much longer here!
Ok - here are the pics of the weekend... enjoy!
On our way to the B&B we saw a couple little monkeys hanging out in the trees... cute!
Here is the Seal Point Lighthouse. I am sure the view from the top was amazing, but we could not go up with children under 6.
The Penguin Rehab center. This center caters to African penguins.
Sites from the canal cruise.....
A view from the back of the B&B looking out onto the canal
The kids playing with their new friends... for the night anyway!
Surf Museum at Jeffreys Bay
Surfers at Jeffreys Bay
The Boys checking out the tidal pools
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Fun Week
Well we have had a fun week.. we played at home on the jungle gym, drew pictures, went the the farmyard and feed animals and rode the pony, we went to the beach and explored the tidal poles for fish, little crabs, seaweed etc and today we went to see a movie. Tomorrow we leave for a short weekend away. Here are some photos of our adventures this week!
Monday, April 6, 2009
Update...
Well I just wanted to update everyone on is happening here. The boys are out of school starting today until the 15th. So we are getting ready for Easter and colored some Easter eggs todays. This was fun for about 5 minutes and then they were bored. Tomorrow will be out and about to the farmyard to feed some animals and have some lunch.. don't think I took my camera last time so I will take some pics and post this week. We are also headed out on a short trip to St Francis Bay at the end of the week. It should be alot of fun... we drove thru the area awhile ago and it is beautiful. Lots of houses along some canals that lead to the river and out to the ocean. We are staying at a house on the canal. It should be a good few days. Then back for Easter Sunday and then we will be going to a cricket game on Monday.
Friday we went to the McCarty's for an adult Easter party.. it was fun! Lots of good food and great people! Other than that it was a quiet weekend. The official Ironman Triathalon was run this Sunday. It was hot!
So a few weeks ago I went to this African store with some friends.. they sell all things that are made here is SA as well as some neighboring countries. All handmade and so cool! I got lots of stuff but my two favorites are the wooden carved giraffes I got ... check out the pics!
They are taller than the boys.. and I paid less than 200 for both! All handcarved out of one piece of wood and painted. GORGEOUS! There are many more things.. I will take some more pics and post them.
And this weekend we got a new gardener.. check out his outfit! A little flashy but he is comfortable working in it!
I am sure one day he will beg me not to show this to anyone!!!
I guess that is it for now... here are some photos of the Easter egg fun! I will post more this week and weekend!
Friday we went to the McCarty's for an adult Easter party.. it was fun! Lots of good food and great people! Other than that it was a quiet weekend. The official Ironman Triathalon was run this Sunday. It was hot!
So a few weeks ago I went to this African store with some friends.. they sell all things that are made here is SA as well as some neighboring countries. All handmade and so cool! I got lots of stuff but my two favorites are the wooden carved giraffes I got ... check out the pics!
They are taller than the boys.. and I paid less than 200 for both! All handcarved out of one piece of wood and painted. GORGEOUS! There are many more things.. I will take some more pics and post them.
And this weekend we got a new gardener.. check out his outfit! A little flashy but he is comfortable working in it!
I am sure one day he will beg me not to show this to anyone!!!
I guess that is it for now... here are some photos of the Easter egg fun! I will post more this week and weekend!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
6 Months
Well I can’t believe we have been here 6 months…the time has flown by. Which I guess is good, that means we like it and are enjoying our time instead of counting down the days to go home! Things here have become normal and we love it. When it comes down to it my life really isn’t that much different here than in the US… chasing kids, being the taxi driver back and forth to school and other activities, hanging out with friends. It is just the environment. But you quickly realize that no matter where you are, people are the same, moms are the same and care about the same things.
Well we are just about to finish up the first term of this school year and April 3. The second term will start back up on April 15th. Aiden is still taking golf lessons. They both are taking swimming lessons and music. Now next term they want to get into gymnastics. I am taking tennis lessons which are a lot of fun. The boys have made some great friends and so have we. Scott works alot but is enjoying his evening and weekends with the boys and friends. This weekend he is going to play some golf for the first time! We are headed into fall now and the evenings are getting chilly. During the day it is still warm and sunny.
During the school break we are going to do some fun things around here as well as head to St. Francis Bay for a few days just before Easter. That should be fun! We are planning lots of other weekend excursions and longer trips for when we have visitors coming.... we would love to have anyone come visit! I already feel like I am running out of time to see things before we head home. I know when we lived in Georgia there were lots of places that were on my list to see and we just never made it .. here I won't really have the opportunity to come back some other time so I am packing it in.
Since I was writing this post I thought I would go into some of the everyday life things and try to give you an idea of what it is like here.
The language here is different… they speak English but with an accent, sort of a British/Australian mix I would say. Very nice actually. The boys haven’t picked it up quite yet but they use the terms from here. Most people also speak Afrikaans, I am often spoken to in afrikaans and answer in English to continue the conversation in English. It is amazing what you can really understand without knowing the language. So they have a lot of slang words that are afrikaans that are used in their speech as well as just different uses of words. What is interesting is that the use of words and their meanings….Here are some examples:
We would say “I am going to get the kids from school” they say “I am fetching the kids from school”.. They use fetch a lot.
Also if you are angry you are “cross with someone”
Here if you are being asked to wait a minute.. someone will say they will be with you “just now” and here now does not mean right away!
After saying thank you we would respond your welcome here the response is Pleasure.
There are so many more examples as I think of them I will send them along!
Shopping:
The main differences are size of stores and selection. Great example our cereal aisle is a full aisle with 100 types of cereal , here it only takes up about 1/3 – ½ of an aisle and there are only 20 types. I still have found everything that I need. Of course brands are different and somethings seem to taste a little different. In a way the food is much healthier here…most of the produce is organic, same with meat. Not a lot of prepackaged food like we have at home.. not tons of preservatives, etc in food. They import quite a bit from the US so we get quite a few things here that I didn’t expect. There are some things that are strange.. like the flavor of chips. Some examples of chip flavors: tomato, beef, lamb, and chutney. One thing you have to get use to is not being able to get things on your list .. for example if the fruit or veg you want is not in season you will not find it! I am use to being able to get whatever I want whenever so that has been a small adjustment. They also really like sauces on their food.. so there are tons of sauces. One we like is the sweet chilli sauce… it is good on lots of things. When you order a steak at a restaurant they always ask what kind of sauce you want… anything from a steak sauce like A1 to cheese sauce, peri peri sauce, etc. The burgers here are not the same either… they always again have a sauce on them. The beef here tastes funny to me (probably because it doesn’t have all the chemicals in it) Ostrich meat is readily available here so we tend to eat that instead.. it tastes just like beef and is much leaner. There are lots of butchery’s here that are great. You can get all kinds of game meat, which are really quite good. I have had to find some substitutions for some items in my recipes but there is always a substitute! Drinks.. they have soda, etc.. but there are a lot of carbonated drinks, water you have to ask for still water if you want just a bottled water, they have carbonated apple juice and grape juice, their lemonade is also carbonated. The missing things are the convenience items you can find.. premade items,(pie crusts, cookie dough, etc), mixes (cake, muffin, brownie) they have some but not the selection and the brownies are different more dense and cakey. Nothing that we can’t adjust to!
Here there are lots of people looking for jobs…. There will be many guys standing along the side of the main roads just waiting for someone to pull over and need some work done so they have a job for the day. Lots of jobs are manual labor … landscaping, painting, construction, etc. So companies that do that type of work might need a few extra hands one day and stop and pick up a few. And some are picked up by homeowners wanting a gardener or maybe some work done to their home. We employ a maid which is very common here. She works for us 3 days a week for 8 hours a day. She cleans the house and does the laundry. She is very sweet and I think does a great job. We pay around $10 a day and that is more than most. Actually at her last job she was paid less and she worked full time for the family. So I am helping to support her family. She is better off than most.. she is married and her husband has been employed by his employer (a survey company) for many years. There are lots of maids that are single raising multiple children or grandchildren and they are the sole income of the family.
Well that pretty much covers some of daily life here… let me know if you want information on something specific.
Well we are just about to finish up the first term of this school year and April 3. The second term will start back up on April 15th. Aiden is still taking golf lessons. They both are taking swimming lessons and music. Now next term they want to get into gymnastics. I am taking tennis lessons which are a lot of fun. The boys have made some great friends and so have we. Scott works alot but is enjoying his evening and weekends with the boys and friends. This weekend he is going to play some golf for the first time! We are headed into fall now and the evenings are getting chilly. During the day it is still warm and sunny.
During the school break we are going to do some fun things around here as well as head to St. Francis Bay for a few days just before Easter. That should be fun! We are planning lots of other weekend excursions and longer trips for when we have visitors coming.... we would love to have anyone come visit! I already feel like I am running out of time to see things before we head home. I know when we lived in Georgia there were lots of places that were on my list to see and we just never made it .. here I won't really have the opportunity to come back some other time so I am packing it in.
Since I was writing this post I thought I would go into some of the everyday life things and try to give you an idea of what it is like here.
The language here is different… they speak English but with an accent, sort of a British/Australian mix I would say. Very nice actually. The boys haven’t picked it up quite yet but they use the terms from here. Most people also speak Afrikaans, I am often spoken to in afrikaans and answer in English to continue the conversation in English. It is amazing what you can really understand without knowing the language. So they have a lot of slang words that are afrikaans that are used in their speech as well as just different uses of words. What is interesting is that the use of words and their meanings….Here are some examples:
We would say “I am going to get the kids from school” they say “I am fetching the kids from school”.. They use fetch a lot.
Also if you are angry you are “cross with someone”
Here if you are being asked to wait a minute.. someone will say they will be with you “just now” and here now does not mean right away!
After saying thank you we would respond your welcome here the response is Pleasure.
There are so many more examples as I think of them I will send them along!
Shopping:
The main differences are size of stores and selection. Great example our cereal aisle is a full aisle with 100 types of cereal , here it only takes up about 1/3 – ½ of an aisle and there are only 20 types. I still have found everything that I need. Of course brands are different and somethings seem to taste a little different. In a way the food is much healthier here…most of the produce is organic, same with meat. Not a lot of prepackaged food like we have at home.. not tons of preservatives, etc in food. They import quite a bit from the US so we get quite a few things here that I didn’t expect. There are some things that are strange.. like the flavor of chips. Some examples of chip flavors: tomato, beef, lamb, and chutney. One thing you have to get use to is not being able to get things on your list .. for example if the fruit or veg you want is not in season you will not find it! I am use to being able to get whatever I want whenever so that has been a small adjustment. They also really like sauces on their food.. so there are tons of sauces. One we like is the sweet chilli sauce… it is good on lots of things. When you order a steak at a restaurant they always ask what kind of sauce you want… anything from a steak sauce like A1 to cheese sauce, peri peri sauce, etc. The burgers here are not the same either… they always again have a sauce on them. The beef here tastes funny to me (probably because it doesn’t have all the chemicals in it) Ostrich meat is readily available here so we tend to eat that instead.. it tastes just like beef and is much leaner. There are lots of butchery’s here that are great. You can get all kinds of game meat, which are really quite good. I have had to find some substitutions for some items in my recipes but there is always a substitute! Drinks.. they have soda, etc.. but there are a lot of carbonated drinks, water you have to ask for still water if you want just a bottled water, they have carbonated apple juice and grape juice, their lemonade is also carbonated. The missing things are the convenience items you can find.. premade items,(pie crusts, cookie dough, etc), mixes (cake, muffin, brownie) they have some but not the selection and the brownies are different more dense and cakey. Nothing that we can’t adjust to!
Here there are lots of people looking for jobs…. There will be many guys standing along the side of the main roads just waiting for someone to pull over and need some work done so they have a job for the day. Lots of jobs are manual labor … landscaping, painting, construction, etc. So companies that do that type of work might need a few extra hands one day and stop and pick up a few. And some are picked up by homeowners wanting a gardener or maybe some work done to their home. We employ a maid which is very common here. She works for us 3 days a week for 8 hours a day. She cleans the house and does the laundry. She is very sweet and I think does a great job. We pay around $10 a day and that is more than most. Actually at her last job she was paid less and she worked full time for the family. So I am helping to support her family. She is better off than most.. she is married and her husband has been employed by his employer (a survey company) for many years. There are lots of maids that are single raising multiple children or grandchildren and they are the sole income of the family.
Well that pretty much covers some of daily life here… let me know if you want information on something specific.
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