Don't like to drive here!

I haven’t written in several days. I am very tired at the end of the day once I get the girls in bed. All I want to do is get in bed myself.

All is well here. I am steadily getting everything in order at the house. Today, I spent half of the day setting up accounts. I got a bank account set up. It is nice to have a bank account. I was missing having one. Now, I don’t have to carry so much cash around and risk being robbed. It should be a couple of weeks before I get my debit card. I had to go by the phone utility office to pick up my DSL router. I installed that tonight at the house and I know have DSL in the house (wireless internet). I am very happy. The little datacard I was using was not very good. I just have to figure out how to hide all the wires now in the entrance where the router and phone jack are. It looks like spaghetti in there right now.

Then I had to go to Westville (a nearby suburb) to sign up for satellite t.v. I wasn’t even getting the local channels very well. I had gone to the office nearby yesterday but they couldn’t open my account so they sent me to Westville. I don’t like Westville. The streets are so confusing. Even the locals get confused in Westville. Sure enough, I got lost- the lday told me the wrong exit and I ended up at a mall. I finally managed to make my way back to where I needed to be and got the satellite all worked out. We now have CNN so I can keep up with the news.

After all that driving in horrible traffic and sitting in offices, I was very glad to get home. Traffic has gotten worse lately. The new school year started today so traffic has increased. The girls won’t start until next Wednesday because they are in a private school.

I already don’t like to drive. And I sure don’t like driving when I don’t know the roads. AND I definitely don’t like driving when I don’t know the roads and I am driving on the opposite side of the road (with a stick shift). Not fun. And the worse part of it is that there are these little minivans here (they call them taxis but they are like little buses) and they drive like maniacs. They were stopping on the interstate and loading up people. Then they will just pull right out in front of you. One pulled out in front of me making me go into the other lane and almost into another car. He honked at me and I honked at the minivan.

The girls are good. They went today to a little animal petting farm nearby with Tammy. They had fun.

Emmanuel, the gardener, came for the first time yesterday. He has been working here at the house for 15-18 years. He can’t remember exactly how long. You will find that often in Africa. Many locals in the village don’t know their birthdate. Dates are not important when you are living in poverty. The next meal is important.

Emmanuel is nice. He is a tall skinny Zulu. He is very soft spoken and humble. He gets $12 a day for about 8 hours of labor. I have to make sure he has tea at 10 am (with milk and 2 ½ teaspoons of sugar) and lunch- leftovers or paloney (bologna). That is the norm with all domestic help- you make sure they eat while they are with you.

I bought a small pushmower yesterday. Emmanuel will mow the yard on Saturdays. The pushmower was used and it cost an arm and a leg! Here they use these pushmowers that are electric. They use a long extension cord- really strange. I’m not sure why. Anyway, I wanted a petrol (gas) mower because our yard is big. It cost about $350 dollars used. It doesn’t even have a very big cutting deck. I’m afraid to find out what a riding mower would cost!