A Few More Things...

There have been so many things that have been happening since we arrived. Most of it seems inconsequential… or part of everyday life… and then I think, I wouldn’t do this or see this in Chicago or any other city in the states for that matter. Of course getting into the house was the primary issue, and now that we are here, there are some interesting things. Like the telephone. We still don’t one, but we have the wires. They came on Thursday last week and pulled them from the road into our little compound and then into the house. We are now waiting on telecom to come and splice and create connections to plug the phone in. Once we get that we can have ADSL Internet; maybe not at the same speeds as we were used to in the states, it will be better than the 3G/Edge Network we get on the Aircard.


We don’t have TV yet either, and I think I might have mentioned that in another post. I thought TV, Internet and Telephone were all delivered by the same company. Wrong. We can have TV, we just need the TV. It wouldn’t be so important if we had Internet that was faster or a signal that was split-able. We have 2 TV’s coming in the Sea Shipment, but by the time it gets here… besides that DH really wants a Flat Panel, so I don’t know what we will do with the 36” 200 pound CRT (tube) TV when it gets here… But maybe we’ll think of something.

I have started a list of things to write about… some of it is just stuff, but I have 2 other headings “Things that look the Same but Aren’t” and “Things I Really Miss”, I’m sure I will think of other categories later… but so far I only have the 3. Under the heading of ‘Things I Miss’ is a sponge. I know we have gone away from natural sponges for everyday cleaning, that is not the sponge I am missing. The type of sponge I miss are the ones for cleaning or wiping things up. You know the O’Celo brand, that come a package of 6 in those bright colors, lime green, purple, raspberry… about 3 inches by 4 inches and about 1/2 inch thick and not to terribly expensive. Here the kitchen sponges are that fake foam sponge with a green scrubber on one side. I hate this kind. They tear and rip at the slightest rough spot, the green scrubbie part lets stuff cling to it so it never really looks or gets clean, and spreads more water around than it soaks up. You can find them at the Dollar Store too. So today I was emptying the last suitcase. It was a carry on and had all the technology related gadgets in it. I wish I had unpacked it sooner!!! I found a new sponge and a ‘Magic Eraser’ I threw in just in case!!! I hope the Air Shipment has some surprises like that in it too!

The same weekend we moved into the house, we had signed up for an Embassy sponsored tour of Pretoria. It was about 6 hours and included a stop for lunch. We really wanted to back out, but we didn’t want it canceled for the other 2 that had signed up. Anyway, we were shown some of the historical highlights, government buildings, and major areas of commerce. All in all a good grounding geographically for me, so I can learn my way around the city.

I wish I could share pictures. But I will wait until we have a better Internet connection and then I will overload it with pictures!

Before I go, I wanted to say thank you to everyone that is following, reading and commenting!!! And welcome to Pam, Linda, Wanda and pajtr. Check out Pam and Lindas blogs… they are both about cooking!!!

That’s all for now, more later.
Beth