Gonna go back in time....

We have been blessed to stay in the home of a family here in South Africa that is away in France. We have had full use of their pool, trampoline, giant dog named DINO, cockatiel, hamster and many wonderful books and toys. Their house has a thatch roof and has a very unique style. The front door is a solid wood door about 8 inches thick - you should see the length of the key! They have a novel idea of putting trampolines in the ground even with the surface grass - it looks much nicer than having a trampoline above ground and definitely won't blow away in a strong wind storm.

We have enjoyed watching the monkeys play in the back yard- they are quite entertaining. We've been told not to smile at them (which is hard to do!) because they see teeth as a sign of aggression. But so far, they've been across the yard and haven't ventured close. We think these monkeys are vervet monkeys. We'll try to get a better shot of them to post.

Now to the back in time part - life here in South Africa reminds me of the 70's in the US. We find ourselves going to 10 different stores to find what we would have found all at a Walmart Supercenter (I told you I would miss Walmart!). At the grocery store, baggers still bag your food for you, except they call the bags "packets" and you have to pay for them. They are encouraging you to bring your own bag to help the environment! The cereal aisle is not full of cartoon character based sugary cereals, but mainly Special K, Corn Flakes, and maybe a few others. The big sugary cereals are Frosties (Frosted Flakes), Rice Krispies, and Cocoa Balls (Cocoa puffs). That's it! It's quite refreshing to not see all the commercialization. Oh, and don't forget to shop before 7 pm, because they close at that time. There are full service gas stations, and hardly any SUVs here. most cars are small. They call trucks bakkies (pronounced bucky) and they are all small like the 70's Toyota trucks that you used to see all the time. Life moves at a slower pace here. When you ask someone about a future plan, you'll probably get the response "I'll do that just now," but it doesn't mean anytime in the immediate future, and might not even happen at all! We've been told that everything shuts down from Dec 15 to Jan 15 and that you can't even get a plumber or a locksmith, etc. as they're all on vacation! Imagine how that would be in the US! Although some days it feels very weird to be here, most other days it feels just wonderful!!