Between weekends

Between Lesotho and Hluhluwe I was busy and I had a mild case of salmonella just to round things out. Add to that some interesting plumbing issues around the condo… and well I was glad to see the week gone. I cooked our dinners last week, because quite frankly we needed to eat some home cooking, even if it wasn’t quite the same. The kitchen here is terrible from several angles. The working triangle, sink to stove to refrigerator and back to sink, is very poor, although there is a prep sink, it doesn’t have hot water. To help add to the mess is the stove top, it’s induction and it has 2 settings, TOO hot or NOT hot enough. Then I have to contend with a couple of knives that won’t hold an edge for more than a couple of minutes at a time, really bad metal, 2 non-stick frying pans that are ready to be tossed and some stainless steel pots with lids, (in 3 graduated sizes of “almost just right”, to a smaller “almost just right” and then, a just plain uselessly too small). So you can see why cooking is a challenge.


Adding to the challenge is the groceries… produce is chosen for you and packaged up. You buy the package… and good luck. I am also finding that even though the product is an American product, it doesn’t always taste the same, so you need to be prepared to fix whatever you have made to eat… for taste.

The plumbing issues have been interesting to say the least and would throw me off apartment/condo living for sure! (I have never lived in an apartment/condo in my life). The first one was one of the bathroom sinks separated from the wall and caused the pipe to leak. Not a big deal until someone above us decided to do laundry. The force of the water coming down the pipe from above, force our pipe out of the wall… so now we had water coming in…. we sort of fixed it and called the management company. Well since we are still in the midst of ‘the Holidays’, plumbers are not easy to find… So finally it’s fixed and not our fault, it had happened before. Next the ½ bathroom- we are sitting in the living room, hear water coming down the pipe, it sounds funny so we go look, for some reason... water is spewing out of the stool. Not overflowing…but a bit of a jet. Of course the building even less help than before… so we did a little mop job after it stopped and left it. Plumber showed up 4 days later in the afternoon. HA!!!

I also had to arrange for a rental car. We wanted something higher and an automatic with a/c for the game park… in case it was really hot. Hertz has recently come back to South Africa, and had the best rates. Talk about service. If anyone is planning to visit South Africa and is planning to rent a car, let me know I will give you a name and number. She can arrange a car anywhere in the country. I’m not sure it’s for everyone, but the cars we’ve rented have been delivered to our door, (probably because I don’t want to drive here), and if needed, it would have been collected here too. We only live about a block from the office, but in the states… Not a chance on that.

I’m feeling much better and we had a great weekend. I am editing pictures and preparing for another upload in the next day or so… but while we were gone I went shopping and thought I’d post the new goodies too.

As always, there will be more Later. And don't forget comments are your entry to winning something I bring back from Africa!