Happy Fathers Day!

We hope all of you Dad's had a great day, no complaints here!  Greg and Charlie started the morning working on a model.

The kids had a great game of tennis, all the walls in our compound are very handy for tennis, then we headed to this cool place called Groenkloof Nature Reserve which is about 10 min from our new house.   At the place you can hike, mountain bike, ride horses and see giraffes, zebras.  We saw the giraffes from the road but didn't manage to find them once we were inside!  We got super close to a zebra who was on our trail while we hiked.  

We ate a nice picnic lunch and Greg had seen people driving through the park while we were hiking, so he asked and found out they were on a 4x4 nature driving trail.  He bought a pass and we headed out.  Charlie would ride his bike for a bit then we would have him jump in the car when he got tired.  The 4x4 trail was pretty calm at the start, then it got to a point where it had about 8 obstacles!  (built by the Jeep Company)  This is the part where kids need Dads...I would have never attempted it, it was CRAZY!!  We did the first few then decided maybe we had better not push our luck and pop a tire or something...the first was called Hippo's Hole where you drive through smelly, somewhat deep water and big rocks... we made it...

This was Greg checking out the sign before we went through.  We checked out the obstacle called Warthog Mud Hole-super deep hole-we did NOT attempt!!  Although the girls wanted us to try them all!

Charlie was inspired and jumped on his bike for some little jumps.  We thought of our New Hampshire buddies, George, Mikey & Caden would love this place!

The big bike rider!  This bike was too big for him when we left, now he rides it everywhere!

Other adventures this weekend, we went to our first "Braii" which is basically cookout in South Africa.  

It was hosted by an Australian couple who were wonderful hosts, great cooks and storytellers! We tried some classic South African dishes bobotie-meat pie, and boerwoers-spicy sausage. The girls know some of the dishes because they eat them at school for lunch.  Katie even got Greg some Biltong for Father's Day, its like beef jerky but everyone here eats it, kids share it with them during snack time at school.  We hope to host our new Australian buddies at our house soon, but first we must stock up on some wine!  There were no empty glasses at the table!

Home Sweet Home!

After a whirlwind (with Greg on a trip of course) we are finally settled in our new house!  We moved in Friday and were expecting just our sea shipment, instead they sent a truck with our air & sea shipment.  It was also the afternoon that Kelly had to go back to see her doc for her wrist checkup.  So I couldn't figure out how to be in 2 places at once (house & doctor) so luckily a guy from Greg's office at the embassy came over and stayed at the house with the movers so I could do the doctor visit.  Kelly's wrist is healing well and in about 4 more weeks she should be back in action.  I think Greg's office mate who was my hero on Friday may never have a family after seeing all the junk & chaos associated with moving a family of 5-he may decide to stay single forever!

Kids are thrilled to have new playmates and all of their toys, Charlie especially!  They have already rigged up a pulley system with the house across the driveway from us that has 3 girls similar ages.  This morning before school Katie was scrambling around (writing a note for the basket to send across to the ten year old next door telling her what time she'd be home from school)  She managed to do that then left her lunch on the table-gotta love Katie!   Charlie went to the balcony later in the morning to send his Darth Vader costume by pulley (thanks Meg) so that his buddy, the four year old girl who currently is into Star Wars could borrow it.  When he checked the basket on the pulley there was already notes, pictures, and rainbow looms inside for the kids.  Much more exciting than any text message or letter you can receive!

Our new neighbors were amazing, they took the kids to dinner & a movie the first night so I could keep unpacking, then they cooked us an amazing Sunday dinner.  They are a great family and make us so happy that we asked for a compound housing assignment instead of a stand alone house!  (oh yes, we are also borrowing their internet while we wait for ours to be connected, otherwise I'd still not be online!)

I promise to send pictures of the house, the pulley system, etc...very soon, still waiting on my trusty phone to be unlocked...but eventually I'll break down and pull out my other camera...just haven't brought in the bag I packed it in yet!  Maybe that will be tomorrow's project!

Mandela's Quote Rings True!

I was reading a book called Living in South Africa and there is a great chapter on culture shock.  In the margin there is a Mandela quote that says, "After a great hill, one finds that there are many more hills to climb".

So true!  I foolishly thought that getting out of the states, (packing out, selling vehicles, road trip) was the big hill and then SA would be easy street.  However we are still in our temporary guesthouse, waiting for our house to be ready to move in, both our shipments (air and sea) have arrived and wait for a place to be unpacked.  We are all eager to be settled, however we have to move guesthouses because this one is booked for the next few nights & of course Greg had to travel again for a few days! So here I am dragging suitcases solo again!

As to the culture shock piece, we have all had bits and pieces at different times.  For the girls, it is adjusting to a new school where things really aren't that well explained and teachers expect a level of formality that doesn't exist in the states.  One teacher said to Kelly, "I'm not your friend, you don't say "OK" to me, you say, "Yes, Mrs. Hans"."  For Charlie it is having no playmates other than Mom and most people here seem to have their 4 year olds in all day preschool (even if they aren't working) I guess because tuition is cheap compared to daycare in the states.

My challenges are how long it takes to get things done, getting my iphone from the states to work in South Africa has taken 3 trips to 3 different places, now it is in the hands of some company to see if they can get Verizon in the states to unlock it.  I also struggle with the security aspects, you have to be on your guard whenever you step out of the gates and it is no small task with kids in tow!  My personal low was last Friday when Charlie and I were on our way to an adventure and I stopped to fill up with gas.  I pulled out my credit card to pay and the credit card company had put a fraud hold on it.  So, I was about 100 Rand short of SA dollars ($10) and we had to call Greg to come and bring us extra cash.  (I was about 30 minutes away from his office!)  Why did I only have one card?  In case my purse was stolen then there was only one card to cancel...a brilliant plan if your one card actually works!

However. to balance out all the challenges we did have a fabulous weekend, we went to an Outdoor Expo and checked out various offroad camping vehicles and we also got to learn about all the amazing National Parks we can visit.  We also went to a funky market in Jo'Burg on Sunday and got to sample some neat foods, Katie bought a coconut where the guy cut off the top in front of her and she could drink the juice. (which she didn't like) Charlie and Greg got to put on boxing gloves and have a boxing lesson on the sidewalk outside of a gym.

No photos to share as my trusty phone camera is out of commission while I figure out how to make it work here!

Greg drove to Botswana today and reported cows on the road in front of him, donkey carts, other wildlife, and as he passed a National Park he saw three elephants up by the fence munching on grass!  We hope we can join him on his next trip!