Nora's first day of school

She loved it! I had to drag her away, which I never had to do in Flagstaff. The girls she was playing with were super cute. The teacher said she did great and that one of the older girls "adopted" her and took care of her and wouldn't leave her side.

The car

2006 Toyota verso (7 seater) with 1.6 big boss motor, manual transmission and 139k kilos. Why doesn't every wagon have two little fold down seats in the back row? This is our new mini minivan kid transport machine. Buying and registering a car has been a bit of a headache but we are getting there. This weekend we will take it 3 hours to the east north east to have Christmas in July (it is winter after all) with a big group from work. The place we are staying is a hundred kilometers from anywhere, out on the Karoo, and supposedly we might be able to hear some of the big 5 game animals from the nearby game preserve...

Paraglide, rock climb or surf... Hmmm

Load shedding

No we don't mean getting rid of the kids. Sometimes the power goes out for 2 hours at a time while the utility does some maintenance or simply can't keep up with demand. You do get a few hours warning but many are surprised when it happens. Tonight I was walking down a Main Street in our neighborhood when it started, I saw a couple store owners come out to the street and cuss and stomp their feet...

When it happens at night, this is a good time to light some candles, drink some beer and stay off the streets. It's also a symptom of a very poorly managed state/privately owned utility. So it goes in SA.

(Notice the completely dark neighborhood outside the window except for a couple apartments lit by candlelight or a small LED light.)

Miscellany

Ivan @ 11 months

Nora has decided this pillar out in front of our building is her "house." We can only convince her to come inside if we pretend we're just inviting her up for a visit.

Went on a beautiful hike along Signal Hill.

Happy boy - he's clapping and almost saying mom and dad!

Back to the beach

A kiss from Nora

The blue hoodie twins out for pizza

Adventures in language

Remember our language lesson where we said that "shame" means "how cute"? Luke said something to the receptionist at work, a Xhosa woman who goes by "Auntie," about the kids, and she asked how old they are. He said "1 and 3" and when she responded with a severe "SHAAAAAME!!!" he wondered for a second if he'd done something wrong before he remembered the local meaning.

In a less interesting story, our maid asked if I had a "lappie," by which she meant a washcloth (I think).

Also, this isn't about language, but I am often asked if Sonora is a boy or a girl. Which surprises me because she has long-ish hair and is usually dressed in pink, and it made me wonder what the "rules" are for dressing boys and girls around here. Today at the park we were hanging out with a dad and his, I thought, daughter. I referred to "her" with female pronouns at one point, shortly after which he loudly praised him with "good boy, good boy!", possibly for my benefit. This boy was dressed in blue but had long flowing blond hair, some of which was put up in a little ponytail topknot right over his forehead in a way that an American would NEVER do with a boy. He had some crazy Afrikaans name that I can't remember but wish I could. But that experience in small part answers my confusion about how anyone could mistake Sonora for a boy. Now I'm sort of wishing I hadn't gotten rid of some of Sonora's old clothes because they were too girly to dress Ivan in. Guess I could've still used them around here without it being too weird - oh well.

Nora on the spinner

Ivan and a new friend

Drove to the Cape of Good Hope today

Then and now: after bathtime

Llandudno beach

 We drove to a beautiful beach with surfers, rock climbing, and parachuters landing on the sand.

Random scenes along the waterfront walk at sunset

We took a lovely sunset walk along the beach tonight, from our house north to a red and white lighthouse. Lots of people out, and perfect temps.

We made it to a neat playground

Watch out, Ivan!

In the apartment

And now, in the "doesn't do it justice" category...

 

View of the sunset over the ocean from our apartment window.

Street scenes on the way to work

A weekend in rocklands

This is the primary reason that Luke wanted to move here. Bad pictures but the place was amazing

Office views

South African for wine country

A work meeting brought the family out to wine country today for lunch at one of the local vineyards. This is about 45 minutes east of town. Our first seafood here was pretty outstanding as we got a royal platter with six different delicious critters. The hang was also very kid friendly and Nora got to make some lunch friends. We will be back...

Language

It's pretty nice that English is the main language around here, but there are still challenges other than just the accents. Besides switching over to Britishisms (boot and bonnet for trunk and hood, lift for elevator, nappies for diapers, flat for apartment, torch for flashlight, etc.), there are South African Englishisms. "Shame" means "it's a shame," but also means "how cute." Oranges are called "naartjies." Bakkie is a pickup truck. After someone says thank you, instead of "you're welcome" you say "pleasure." A swimsuit is called a "cozzie," as in swim costume. Waiters are apparently called waitrons. Lekker means good. Traffic lights are called robots (on our first day I asked our doorman where the grocery store was, and his directions included going to the second "rrrrobot" with a rolled R). Then of course there's "now" which means right now, "now-now" which means soon, like in the next hour, and "just now" which means sometime in the not immediate future, like "I'll call you just now." There you have it. Now you'll sound like a local when you come visit us. See you soon!