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!