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.
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