Our Home Away From Home

I am a little ashamed to show you what a nice home we have here in South Africa, but some people have asked to see what it looks like.  I know you think we are living in a hut with a dirt floor, and I will say that many things in our life are very different, but we are enjoying a pretty normal existence here.  We moved in on Elder Herbert's birthday, 7 August.  Almost all of the cupboards were full and of course the furniture was here because we moved into a flat owned by two wonderful members of the Church who had decided to move to ENGLAND!  Their children were all living there (and granchildren) and Bernadette and Sigmund assured us it was not much of a sacrifice to go and leave their life behind.  We are renting the place they had moved into after all their children left.  They left everything because they can't afford to ship it to England---it will cost about the same to buy all new things.  As you can see from this pic of my living room - I now have pictures (handmade, embroidered) on my walls and lamps and small tables and bookcases!  Cool, huh.

First I will show you the central area of the complex as seen from our front door and then a picture of our front door which you can tell is ours because the "burglar bars" are sitting open.  That second picture is taken from the front door of our dear friends, the Harms who encouraged us to move here so we would live across from them and who now live in Johannesburg because they have been transferred!  We have a cute little courtyard down there and we can plant things in pots down there if we want to take care of them.  We have several little planters with plants around our door as you can see from the second picture.

Our living room is very much like a living room you would see in the US. We have two small love seats and -yes, really, two matching recliners.  That open door leads out to our deck which is enclosed in glass and is now a sunroom.  We have a nice futon out there, so if anyone comes to visit, they will have a nice place to sleep.  The only drawback is that the dryer is out there so it gets muggy when we can't open the windows because of the "cold."  It really is a great idea to put the dryer on the deck and we can open the windows so that the whole front of the deck is open.  Yes, family, the TV tables are here!  You can see my laptop on that one in the front left.  And of course, the ever present heater which we have not put away yet.

Here's a quick picture of the sunroom.  It is cute and I love to sit out here at night and open those two big windows and look at the stars and the moon and wonder what all of you are doing!  Only down side---no burglar bars---but don't worry we're on the second floor and we keep the windows locked tightly when I am not sitting there!  (Yes those little lines are to dry the wash!  We are very green here and intent on saving electricity!)

Here you can see the recliners and another thing that we have had before in one of our homes---a window between the kitchen and the living room!  And there is Vic stretched out in the recliner!  Deja vu all over again!  This was taken soon after we moved in - the boxes are actually gone now! 

We have a spare bedroom for guests too!  Yes, I realize that we will probably never have any guests, but it is fun to dream!  This is my little keyboard that Vic bought me for Christmas last year.  I am really improving as a pianist although I am not ready to play for Church yet except in emergencies.   I'm still way too slow! If you come to visit I will serenade you to sleep with Abide With Me Tis Eventide!

On the other end of the room is this little computer desk where I often work on my blog.  It isn't very comfortable sometimes, so I move to the living room and use the TV tray.  This is a little more organized now.  This picture was taken when we first moved in.  The pole is a floor lamp.  You can only see half of the bookcase, but that is filled with Church books and map books and a few history books that are wonderful to have here where for missionaries books are really a luxury. 

This is our bedroom with cross-stitch temple pictures for a headboard.  I could not believe Bernadette didn't at least take these with her.  She said if she comes back for a visit, she will probably slip those into her suitcase just because it took so long to make them.  They are the Salt Lake, Johannesburg, and London temples. 

The bed is really comfortable and although it looks like nothing special, we feel fortunate to have such a great bed to sleep in.  It has helped our health stay good we think.

Here's a picture from the other corner so you can see our great dresser created by two dressers with a board over to connect them.  It is so great too because we only had five total drawers in our other flat and now we each have six!  That long top is very handy and a little TV!  We don't watch much, but a little news in the morning is nice---the weather and the sports - futball is not what it is at home!  But we enjoy hearing about Bafana, Bafana and the many rugby games can be pretty entertaining if you need to unwind from a long day in the office. 

And here you can see our exciting closet!  It's large with lots of shelves too.  Yeah, I guess it isn't too exciting, but what do you expect?  I know! a mural painted on the doors-- of the jungle or the ocean would be nice.  But I'm not sure Bernadette and Sigmund would agree.  As you can see from their home they live simply and are not ones to do the unusual.  We are so grateful for their unselfish gift to us of this fantastic place to live.  We attended a farewell fireside for them at the Mowbray Ward where they lived and everyone was so upset they were leaving.  They have truly blessed the area they have lived in---he has been in branch presidencies and bishoprics in several places in the stake and she has served in all the women's auxiliaries and was the stake primary president when they decided to move.  They are charging very low rent so that missionary couples can live here.  And they insisted on painting and fixing everything up before they left.  It is actually much nicer that when they lived here.  They took out the carpets and put in a wood floor throughout except the kitchen.  We hope they are so happy there in England.

Here is our lovely little water closet.  We are happy to have a small sink in it, as most people just have the potty in there.  At least we can wash our hands without going to the next room.  Only problem---no hot water to that little sink --one faucet and only one temperature---cold!  Yes, there is a mirror which I didn't have in my other flat and there is a cute little cross-stitch on the wall that says "A day hemmed with prayer is less likely to unravel."  I enjoy that little thing very much!  I guess it is my sewing background because it just kinda speaks to me!  Hmmmmm looks like I need to wash the mirror!

We do have a tub in this flat and a pretty good hand-held type shower on a special hanger that makes it a nice way to wake up in the morning. They have unbelievable water pressure and that shower is super!

You can see these rooms are just around the corner from each other.  This is lots nicer than our bathroom in the other flat that was all-in-one.  Almost as good as having two bathrooms, but not quite!

I do have a little better pic of the bathroom so you can see that I actually can wash my face in hot water and everything in here.  Another mirror - what a bonus---we are blessed.  It looks a little dark, but we actually have very good light in here and it is a great bathroom. 

I have saved the best for last---the kitchen.  It is pretty nice and we enjoy cooking and eating in here. 

There is lots of cupboard and counter space and it is just a cheery room.  This is the first thing you see when you walk in our front door---it is right off the entryway.   I take a lot of flack from missionary visitors about those jello molds on the back wall!

You could probably not care less right now, but this is the other side opposite that side.  Next to the stove is the washer.  Not totally convenient, but not too bad either.  We have two good-sized windows, and they are frosted glass because they are right on the walk-way outside.  So people cannot see in if they walk by.  I miss being able to see out!

And here is a close-up of the buffet where we have all our dishes and then the kitchen table.  You can see we have lots of the conveniences you have at home.  I hope you are not too disappointed!

Elder Harms teased me so much about the jello molds and begged me for a salad in the shape of a fish, so I finally made one for him and here is the picture to prove it!  I am planning to make the cornucopia for Thanksgiving this year!

 Now you have been all through our little flat and I hope you'll leave a note about what you thought of it.  Come on over and see us sometime - we'll leave the lights on for ya!  No we won't---what am I saying?  That would really waste our electricity!  You are very welcome to come, but few lights will be burning!

A Forgotten Draft - Different Things in Africa

I thought I had posted this blog a long time ago, but I got looking at my blog and didn't see some pictures that I was sure I had posted.  Some of them I put on Facebook a few weeks ago----but I thought I had them here already.  Now I know what happened.  I really didn't finish the blog and it was just a draft.  So here it is---it really should have been before the sailing post because it happened a long time before we went sailing.  When it happened, I was dreaming of going sailing but didn't really think we ever would.  I thought it would be way too expensive. 

People ask me sometimes, "So, what's different in Africa?"  To tell the truth there are only a few different things that I mentioned in my other blog.(This one is supposed to be named Different Things)   But this blog is about things that are different for me, but something that you may have experienced in your life.  So this may be overwhelmingly boring, but I want to share these pictures of things that are so interesting to me, but pretty ordinary. 

 South Africa is trying so hard to be like Europe and like America, that many things are the same.  The things you can buy in the stores are almost the same.  But the foods usuallly have an African taste---which is kind of a sweet and sour taste to everything.  They really love hot chilies here and put them in everything.  They make a sweet chili sauce that is really tasty---many of the missionaries have asked me if I think they could take some home to show their moms so they can make something like it.  I think I have tasted something kind of like it at some great Chinese restaurants, but still there is that little African taste that I can't describe!They don't have catsup here---I mean they HAVE catsup, but it is really just tomato sauce.  They even call it tomato sauce, but put it in a catsup bottle and use it on their fries and hamburgers.   

Here is something that is very different for me here in Cape Town, but lots of you have seen this lots of times I expect.  The wharf!   I have always dreamed of living near the ocean and I have to admit visiting the wharf is one of my favorite things to do. We went down on a sunny fall day and watched the boats coming in and out of the harbor and I couldn't help but think about my life in Idaho - landlocked with hardly a boat in sight----the ones we did see were mostly on the freeway going somewhere other than Idaho! The wharf was really bustling on this Saturday (our P-day) and the large Cruise liner in the background started "hooting" its horn to call shoppers back to the boat. This picture was taken from the food court of a huge 500 store mall named Victoria and Alfred's. (after a long ago king and queen of England---or was it a queen and her son?)

   We stopped at a little sidwalk cafe and had some chips (french fries) and a soda (very healthy for old folks eh?) We were sitting under those little red umbrellas showing in this picture. 

This pirate looking ship is probably some kind of a tourist trap, but it might be fun to go on a ride in it!

While we were sitting there lots of interesting boats came by - some going out, some coming in.  They have a bridge that goes over this little waterway to connect the different parts of the wharf and they keep opening it to allow small boats in and out of the harbor.   Some of these were short ocean cruises that people were going out on. 

This picture shows the other side of the "canal" these boats are going into---there were people over there waiting to see the next big event.  We thought probably the oceanliner was getting ready to leave, but we didn't think it would be this soon.  I expected to see some people like Lucille Ball and Ethyl come running down the sidewalk yelling for them to wait.  It was just so sudden.

The big oceanliner that had been blowing its "horn" for about half an hour started moving out and all the little tugs began to gather around to help out.  It was fascinating to us, being the landlubbers that we are, to see this huge thing drift softly and delicately out of it's place among the other boats and move out to sea.  We moved across the "canal" to the other side to get a better view.  Those of you who have been on a cruise have probably seen this many times, but for us this was a new experience and very pleasant.  There she goes!

One Friday night  a few weeks later we went to a restaurant in Tableview by the beach with our group of friends.  There was live African entertainment and a woman came to our table and offered to paint a design on our faces to add to the "mood" of the place.  We were more than happy to have that done and we posed with her for this picture in a little corner of the restaurant where she was selling little homemade items.  You can see some of the items in the background. 

From left to right we have Sister Susan Harms-Public Affars, Sister Laura Mahler, Family History Preservation; Sister Kaye Plehn, in the office with me; Marita the design girl; me; and Sister Deanna Foster, Family History Preservation. (Too bad I didn't get a pic of the men!)

You can't see my design very well, but it was really cute!  Right after this I decided to go to the restroom and  Elder Herbert was heading there too.  It was then that we realized there was something strange about the bathroom that no one else had said anything about.  It was the ladies' AND the men's room.  The stalls were completely shut little rooms, and the sink area was for both men and women.  Very strange feeling!  So Vic took this picture of me in the bathroom.  I really liked the sinks and mirrors and mostly wanted a picture of them, but it turns out you can see my little design a little better. (This was Friday night and the next day was P-day, but yes, I had to wash it off the next morning.  I think it would have stayed for days! ) Now that bathroom was something you don't see in Idaho. 

I took this picture of the mountain one morning because I loved the full moon over the mountain---in the daylight! (Can you see the tiny moon?)  I know, I know, you see that all the time in Idaho so that is nothing new.  And I probably wouldn't have added it here, but I noticed the trees.  They look like they are bowing to the mountain.  This lovely look for the trees is from the Cape Town Clean-up Man---the brisk wind that blows almost every day in Cape Town.  (They call it that because they say he blows all the trash away so the streets are clean) (I guess they never look at the fences!  They are covered with trash!)  You can see the wind has had quite an effect on these trees.  The tops of the trees are touching the ground!  We see it all the time.  Probably because they just planted them and let them go----back a few years ago.  Now they carefully build little boxes around every new tree to keep it growing a little straighter.  Idahoans figured that out a quite a while ago!

You know I am crazy about this mountain here in Cape Town, so I have to throw in a couple of unusual pictures here to emphasize its uniqueness!  It never ceases to amaze me all the different faces of this mountain.  On this day it looked like a striped mountain.  I know the clouds are causing that, but I don't think I have ever seen a mountain look quite like that before.  It is kind of a zebra mountain! 

And the next one is equally satisfying, though probably not as unusual.  It is just so beautiful.  Its another reason to get up in the morning----so you can see what the mountain is going to look like!

Okay,  enough about the mountain, let's see what else we can come up with.  This next one reminds me of my youth, but the animals are different.  I really haven't had many good pictures of the animals down here, so maybe I will try to show a few of them.  These baboons really reminded me of the bears in Yellowstone when I was a little girl.  There were lots of them and they sat on the road like this and begged for scraps of food.  Can you see the little ones on the side of the hill above the cars?  If you look carefully you can see them all the way down the road.

This baboon was all alone - probably a male judging by his size and the fact that he was alone.  He just walked up to this really nice house like he owned it.  He was not a bit afraid of us and came right up to the car and crossed the street to look out over the ocean on the other side.  I'm sure the people who own these homes aren't that thrilled to have these baboons roaming so freely around their beachfront property!

The ostrich was a little further down the road, and not so close to the houses, but I expect they tend to get into things and bother people quite a bit too.  I just couldn't believe how big they are and how quickly they move.  It is amazing. this guy is at least 5 feet tall - maybe closer to 6 feet and really not that friendly!

Now I have finally posted this blog - I guess I was looking for a good way to end it.  I haven't found it!  So I'll just say hope you enjoy this little taste of lots of sights to see around Cape Town.  Somehow my friend Renae knew I would be posting again very soon.  I think she even had a comment about the one you will do tomorrow.  I'm planning one about our new house - just need a couple more pictures and it will be done too!  How's that for an ending?

A Sailing we will go!

We went to the wharf because we were planning to go out to Robben Island. It is the place where they kept Nelson Mandela for about 25 years during the anti-apartheid struggles. We had been told to get tickets early, but our friends just got up that Saturday and said --Let's go! So we ran out to see if we could get on the boat. No Luck! All the tickets for all day were sold out. We were walking dejectedly along on the wharf and there were many men trying to get us to buy a little trip on their sailboat. I suppose that is the only way they can afford to keep them----if they can get a few passengers once in a while. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and not too much wind---about 5 knots we were told. One guy said because we were "pensioners" (old people!!!) he would take us for 140 rand per person. Sounds like a lot, but when you divide it by 7 to change it to dollars---that's only about 20 dollars! So we said- why not?

Here I need to introduce you to our dear friends Elder and Sister Mahler (above).  They are from Arlington, Texas, but have lived in lots of places including Santiago, Chile for two years when they were young.  He worked as a free lance oil man and did just about everything from the stories he tells.  They joined the LDS Church after they were married in Texas.  He actually joined first, then they were moved to Chile with his job, and then when they came back, she joined the Church too.  They are two of our Family Search-Records Preservation missionaries who are here photographing the records in the archives so they will be preserved.  They are a really interesting couple---both in their 70's, but very active hikers and kayakers.  They are dying to get me into a kayak!  But not on mission!  This isn't a good picture of her because she is laughing, but she is really cute and they both are just supa people.  Great picture of Vic, though, so I had to include it!

Behind them you can see the busy wharf and over on the left under the little square umbrella is where we bought our tickets.  Then we had to climb down some wooden stairs to get to the boat.

We also had a little Muslim family, Mom, Dad, and a teenage son with earphones who looked really bored.  They were very shy and didn't talk to us a lot, but we sort of got aquainted and visited a little.  The Mahlers moved up to the front of the boat (picture later) and when they came down, we encouraged the Muslim family to go sit up there.  But the Dad said that his wife and son were too afraid!  Yes, especially the son was too afraid to hardly move.  He never walked around at all.  So he wasn't bored (stereotyping!)  he was trying to be brave and look brave.   They were a very cute and loving family.

 

But Gramma Dalene was not afraid to walk around in the boat.  I was so afraid I would miss something.  I even took pictures of the sails so you could see how big they were.  I really loved it when they turned off the motor and pulled up the sails by hand and we began to move with the wind.  It was exhilarating to say the least.

Here are the Mahlers sitting in the bow of the boat.  They both got pretty wet from the spray.  I got pretty wet too---it seemed like no matter where I stood, that was where the waves hit us!

Here is a look back at the Green Point Stadium that was built at huge expense to Cape Town for the World Cup.  Now, of course, everyone is complaining that it will never get used again.  I hope they get some good concerts and other great games to keep the people happy.  They are actually playing a soccer game there this week against a US Soccer team.   It is a very huge structure and really very pretty.  This is before we got very far out.

This is when they started putting up the sails.

The sails seemed so huge.  I never dreamed I would get to ride such a large sailboat for $20! 

There, I think they are all up now---I couldn't get them all in the picture. 

The shore began to look very far away.  Here we were trying to get a picture of some dolphins we saw, but we were just too slow.

We did see the beginning of a sailboat race---it was so beautiful to see all those sailboats together.

I think this boat looked like the one we were in except for the red sails.  Kind of gives you an idea of what

our boat looks like from a distance. 

Here is our captain driving the boat- he was pretty friendly and willing to talk about the area.  He said he goes out sailing about once or twice a week when he can. 

And this is Sheldon - our first mate.  Actually it was just him and the captain.  He said he hadn't been out for a couple of weeks because he is going to school.  He worked hard to keep us safe.

Here is a nice pic of our lovely Table Mountain.  I didn't think that much about it when I first saw it, but now I know that it is an icon that represents the city and that everyone who comes here is inspired by it. 

I am no exception. 

We saw this boat on the way back into shore - it is a boat that travels to Antartica.  You can see the helicopter pad on the end on the right side.

There were lots of boats as we came back into the harbor. 

We had to wait while this boat passed us as we came back in to shore. 

This big guy was built on the wharf around the area where we took off in our boat.  He is made from the cases that the two-liter bottles of coke com in.  I know, it looks like a lego man, but it isn't! 

Gotta quit for a while and get some sleep.  I hope you enjoyed your time on the ocean with us.  We loved taking you with us!