Driving in SA- Arrrggghhh

Driving seems to be something I write about a lot. You have to be so attentive when driving here. Take your eyes off the road for a second and you could hit someone. You very rarely see people talking on a cell phone when driving. For one thing, it is illegal. And not to mention pretty hard to do since most all of the cars here are standard. Another thing that is illegal here is to drive and smoke with kids in the car. This was a recently passed law.
There are so many police roadblocks here. When I drive to work in the mornings, I usually pass about 3 or 4.
The girls do pretty good in the little car we are driving- especially since it doesn't have a radio, a dvd player, etc.
Another thing you will see quite a lot of here is people (men) peeing on the side of the road. Last Saturday, we had come to a major intersection and were at a red light. Right on the side of the road was a guy peeing. I told the girls not to look. He was on Sofia’s side. Of course she look and was asking why he was peeing on the side of the road.

The cows are another danger here. Every morning on the way to work I also have to watch for cows. They graze freely on the sides of the roads here.

Then if it is raining and foggy, driving conditions are so much worse. Especially in the hills going to the office. The hills are usually blanketed with a thick fog.

But on the days it is sunny, the view is spectacular. You can see for miles and miles in the valleys and hills. I almost stop every morning when I pass through this certain point on my drive to work. It is breathtaking.

The girls are good. This is their first full week of school. On Tuesday, Sofia was sad and didn’t want me to go. But for the past two days she has been okay. I think it is partly because they were with me nonstop for the first month. Sienna just plops right down and starts coloring. They are going to start ballet classes. Apparently, there was a demo at school and they really want to do it now- Sienna and Sofia call it ballellet. And now they want to wear tutus.

It has been really hard this past week and a half knowing Gary is so sick. I want to be there with Mom but know that if we come, we can only stay for a little while. So, I am trying to wait as long as I can. There has been an outpouring of love and support here from staff and friends. They are very concerned. The girls know PawPaw is sick and we talk about it in the evenings.

Daily life

I just got the girls into bed and figured I should write on the blog some since it has been a few days. It was soooo hot today here. We were pretty miserable in the house since there isn’t air conditioner. We swam in the pool in the morning and then it started getting too hot to be outside. Later in the day we went to KFC and got some ice cream and then to the grocery store- just really to get out of the house and the heat. And we didn’t have water today. They were working on the lines or something. And when it came back on, it wasn’t very clear- I think it was just lots of air in it but I was still a little leery to drink it. The water in this area is safe to drink. We have also been having lots of power outages lately. What can I say- this is Africa.

We didn’t do too much all weekend. Yesterday, the girls and I went to the mall to look for some baby things for the gardener’s, Emmanuel, new baby girl. They don’t have much money so I wanted to get them a few little sleepers. He makes $12 a day.

Mavis, the housekeeper, also has a little 5 month old- Junior. I got him a little outfit, too.

Sofia is better. She was sick all last week with a pretty bad sinus infection. I was worried I would have to take her back tomorrow if it didn’t get better. But finally the antibiotics beat the infection. I don’t have insurance here yet. It may still be several months before I get it because you have a 3 month waiting period. But I took her to this doctor who works out of her home. She doesn’t charge much.

Apart from Sofia being sick, it has been a tough week knowing Gary is so sick and all that the family is going through there in Arkansas. Sofia and Sienna know that Gary is very sick and they pray for him. It is so sweet.

Then all you see in the paper and on the news is the desperation in Haiti. Such a sad situation there.

Otherwise, we are fine here. The girls started school on Friday. I picked them up early so they wouldn’t have to stay all day their first day. They like their school. Their teacher’s name is Yanci.

One other little story before turn the computer off….On Friday I went to a grocery store near the office. I haven’t gone in there before because there are always so many people standing around outside and it doesn’t look to safe. But Nunu was with me and she knows many people in the area. I was checking out and I noticed this HUGE spider hanging over the heads of the cashiers. It was so big, I thought it was fake. But it wasn’t. Finally, some guy came with a piece of cardboard and knocked it down. And it started running. It looked like a HUGE brown recluse but I don’t think they get that big. Just goes to show how different the standards are here in the grocery stores. You never know what you are going to see of find.