More Adjustment and Adventures

We are continuing to settle in and adjust to our new life here. I started work part-time this week. There is a large public sector strike taking place in South Africa right now. Most of the strikers are in the health and education sectors. They have closed down hospitals and schools. Here is a report from the NY Times describing the strike: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/28/world/africa/28safrica.html

We took a visit to the Lion Park outside of Johannesburg. It is a small private game reserve about 12 miles from our house. You can go on a game drive through non-carnivore area and then through an area reserved for the lions. They also have an special area--"Cub World"--where you can enter the cages with young lion cubs and pet them. Alexander and Quince really enjoyed that. Plus they enjoyed feeding the giraffe. Boy did it have a long tongue!

Both kid's schools have uniforms and Caroline took the kids to buy their school uniforms. Quite a process. Everyday uniforms, blazers for Friday chapel, jerseys (sweaters), caps, sports uniforms, black sandals for A, lunch box for Q. School uniforms are expensive, but at least they will know what to wear each morning. Both kids really seem to like their uniforms and did a fashion show. We still will have to buy sports equipment and gear for Alexander.

Wednesday night we went with our friend, Tanya, to the Johannesburg Central Business District to volunteer for a church project to feed the homeless. The CBD is a very run-down and poor section of town – quite a contrast to the section we live in. Rather than have the homeless men (almost all were men) come to a central location, the project loads the soup and bread into a pick-up and we follow in cars to 3 different locations right on the street. The idea is that the volunteers not only pass out food but make an effort to have conversations with the men – designed to humanize and break down stereotypes. The majority of the volunteers last night were students from Univ of Johannesburg. Many of the men that we talked to were on the street because they had come from other parts of the country or continent for work but couldn’t find it. SA has incredibly high unemployment so even skilled folks can’t necessarily find work – one guy Caroline spoke with had been an electrician for ten years.

Tanya, and her friend, Sensus, took Alexander and Quince under their wings (quite literally with arms over each of their shoulders) and guided them in passing out food and talking with the men. Alexander was completely overwhelmed by the experience and he and I sat in the car for the second stop. For those of you that know him well, you know he is not a processer so he wasn’t able to really explain what he found so difficult (Was it scary? Was it sad? Was it hard to talk to strangers?) , but as we know his comfort zone has quite a small radius and everything about this was about a mile outside of that so I think it took everything out of him to be part of it even for those 25 minutes at the first stop. He did get something out of it (he commented that he was surprised that while some of the men seemed “messed up” (drunk or mentally ill) most just needed jobs, and I think it will stick with him as he enters into school with some of the wealthiest and most privileged boys in the country.

Quince, on the other hand, was totally into it, asking all kinds of questions of the men. She did the first and second stop, but did fall asleep immediately in the car on the way home. This morning she said she really liked it because she said, completely sincerely, that she was able to make new friends with people who lived on the streets. That girl.

On Friday we went to the Johannesburg Zoo which is also quite close to our house. It is a nice zoo and we enjoyed watching a family of lemurs play. We also watched some weaver birds weaving their nests in preparation for Spring, and they weren't even part of the zoo.

After visiting the zoo, Caroline took us to Moyo's, this really neat restaurant at Zoo Lake. It is a large sprawling structure built around trees with big comfy chairs and stools. Alexander and Quince had their faces painted by a hostess and we all enjoyed the view of the sunset, some tasty drinks (magic martini, margarita, fanta orange and fanta grape) as well as some yummy Cape Malay Samoosas. If you come and visit us, I promise to take you there.

Our House

We really like the house we are living in. The kids love their bedrooms. Alexander has his own bathroom attached to his room which he loves, but the room is at the back of the house and he doesn’t like being that far away from us (with all the security and talk of crime he is a little freaked out about someone breaking it.). He also has yet to take a shower in his bathroom because his room is pretty cold and the under floor heating is broken in his room– the first nights here we turned on the under floor heating in the other rooms. (evenings are particularly chilly and we need fleeces – though spring is on its way – sorry Boston).

Quince has a really sweet room, and Aimee and Matt left some great stuff from their kids for her. Some toys and art supplies, cute sheets and comforter – so it turned into a nice room right away. Yesterday, she spent hours (while listening to Harry Potter on the Ipod) getting lavender sprigs from the huge lavender hedge in our backyard, tying them with yarn, and hanging them around her room. It smelled fantastic.

The house has an open floor plan with dining room, living room open to each other – and big window doors forming a wall to the yard – so when opened the dining room is completely open to outside. It is very common to have a design where the inside space can flow into the outside space here because so many months of the year are beautiful (sorry again Boston).

We are within walking distance of 4^th Avenue – a trendy little street shops and restaurants, and more importantly for us, a small little library and some tennis courts. We have already applied for library cards, though I have yet to pick up a tennis racket.

Unfortunately we need to move out of this house at the end of November – the couple is selling the house. We will begin looking at new properties tomorrow– in fact we have an appointment tomorrow.

We have remained in fix-it-up mode ever since we left Boston. We have been working with a electrician who has been able to fix some of the lighting. The washing machine downspout was overflowing in our kitchen yesterday, so we will soon be making the acquaintance of a plumber. We have been able to get the cable TV turned back on and the wireless working. I think we have the place just about whipped into place.

The Big Move

Just two weeks ago, we moved to Johannesburg, South Africa for 2 years. We are settling in quickly and comfortably in a suburban neighborhood of Johannesburg called Parkhurst, but it took a lot of planning to get to this point.

Caroline and I had been Peace Corps Volunteers, so we had previously had the experience of living and working abroad, and we wanted to share this experience with our children. However, it is one thing to uproot and move abroad at the end of college when you are 21 years old and can pack all of your belongings comfortably into a hatchback car, and entirely different when you have settled down in the same community for 14 years with two children. Planning for this move became a serious project starting back about a year ago. Some of the big issues we had to plan for were housing (both in South Africa and Boston), identifying schools for our children, selling our cars in Boston, getting visas, planning for the actual travel, and making the work transition from Boston to South Africa.

Our first priority was finding schools for Alexander and Quince. Caroline joined me on a work trip in October to Johannesburg, where we had the opportunity to visit different schools. We quickly found a spot for Alexander at Pridwin Preparatory School, which I liken to the “Hogwarts” of South Africa: it has four houses that compete against each other, head boys, prefects, and they play a sport with “wickets”, “bats”, “googlies”, and “overs” not unlike quidditch to us muggles. Finding a school for Quince proved to be more challenging. We were able to get her on a number of waiting lists, but they were long waiting lists. Caroline returned to Johannesburg this past January on her own work trip and visited some more schools, but didn’t have any additional success in find her a spot. It wasn’t until April, during another work trip, that I visited St. Teresa’s Mercy School and Quince finally found her educational home.

The application for a South African visa requires passports, birth certificates, our marriage certificate, a CORI report (attesting to our lack of a criminal record), children’s immunization records, proof that we don’t have active cases of TB, round-trip plane tickets, 2 passport photos for each family member, copies of our bank statements, proof of medical insurance, invitation letters from the children’s schools and letters of support from Boston University and the University of Witswatersrand. We began assembling these materials back in early March along with requesting our CORI reports and making appointments with medical providers. I couldn’t submit the application until I could find a window of time when I wouldn’t need my passport and this wasn’t until after I returned from a trip to India in early May. I guessed that the World Cup in South Africa in June and July would reduce productivity in the visa department. I was able to get the application materials to the Consulate prior to the opening of the World Cup, but the visas weren’t finally issued until 6 weeks later. Until they actually arrived, I had nightmares of us having rented our house and sold our cars, but still unable to travel without the visas.

Quince and Alexander at BWI with our 12 pieces of luggage.

During numerous previous trips to Johannesburg, Matt and Aimee Fox kindly hosted Caroline and I at their rented house in Parkhurst. They were leaving in late June, but their lease ran through to the end of July. We discussed an extension of their lease with their landlords and decided that having a furnished house to call home when we arrived was a very attractive option. In making the deposit for the house I learned more than I care to about international wire transfers.

Quince and Alexander at the start of the 15 hour flight from
Atlanta to Johannesburg.

The last six weeks in Boston preparing for the move were a whirlwind. It seemed as though with each successive week the list of things that needed to be done before we could move grew longer and longer: hire a property manager, contract with a snow-removal company, find tenants for our house, sell our cars, store our belongings, etc. We had lived in our house for just over 10 years and during those 10 years; we had accumulated a lot of belongings. In getting ready to move, we had to decide what needed to take with us, what we would store, and what we could get rid of. By the time we moved out, we were down to our maximum baggage allowance: we each traveled with 2 large suitcases, 1 carry-on, and a small backpack.

Our first meal in our new home in Johannesburg

The actual travel turned out to be easier than I expected. We had a short flight to Atlanta, GA, and then a very long non-stop flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg: 8,433 miles and a little more than 15 hours. Our children have always enjoyed flying, but they never enjoyed a flight more than this long trip. Each seat was equipped with a small video screen and they were able watch their favorite TV programs and movies during the long trip to their heart’s content. While some trips I have been on consist of one disaster after another—lost luggage, missing yellow fever vaccination cards, missed connections, late flights, etc.—this trip went as smoothly as one could wish for. Our driver from the transport company that we had engaged greeted our arrival, and he whisked us and 12 pieces of luggage to our new home.

The first week was spent doing some of the same things we did in Boston prior to our departure, only in reverse: unpacking (not packing) all of the belongings that we brought; filling (not emptying) our refrigerator and pantry with food, opening (not closing) accounts, and; meeting new friends rather than saying good bye (for now!) to old friends. We all seem to be in the “honeymoon” phase of our life in South Africa. The kids toured their new schools and cannot wait to start.

Quince visiting her new classroom.