It's about 5:30 a.m. I keep waking up early these days. It's my birthday today. At least here in Africa time it, and will be soon where I was born!
Things are great here. We live on the ocean in what has been called "one of the most desirable zip codes in Africa". I can hear the waves here at the dining room table, and look down at the ocean and lights on the curve of the bay.
As we get into winter (I'd call it "winter-lite" -- it's not that bad), the ocean is getting more active, with bigger waves. They now crash within 10 feet of the swimming pool at the base of our building. We're expecting a big storm this weekend, so it will be interesting to see what happens.
Work is super busy, but it's great to be doing something new, away from headquarters where I can actually make a difference in the performance of the business.
We get out and explore most weekends -- hiking, going to Kirstenbosch (arboretum), the bird park, wine tasting, farmers market. Some of our days are just like in the states -- doing errands, shopping -- but even that is more interesting and fun in a new country. We can find just about everything we want around here -- you just have to go to more stores to find it!
Politics is even more interesting here with the recent inauguration of the countries 4th President since the fall of Apartheid. Jacob Zuma has a mix of some of the more extreme qualities of recent past US presidents. He's "self-educated" (5th grade education), and not always the brightest and sometimes says the wrong thing (think Dubya), is a very charismatic black man (think Obama), and has questionable moral judgement when it comes to parts of his personal life (think Clinton).
Because the fall of apartheid happened less than 15 years ago, it still has an influence. The ANC, the part of Nelson Mandela, got almost 2/3rds of the vote, and there are still references to "the struggle." I can see how if I was discriminated against (putting it lightly), I , too would fight pretty hard to keep my party in power, (even if there's a fair amount of corruption going on it).
It's a country where some people have everything, (like the guy in our building who has 3 or 4 cars, and 3 motorcycles). But many lack good services (electricity, clean water, medical, police), so the issue of "service delivery" (getting the government to do things) is a big issue. The Western Cape province, where we live, elected a white woman. (Helen Zille, some times nicknamed "God-Zille") This area is more diverse than most other parts of the country, with the highest "coloured" population (which means non-black, non-white, of Indian, south Asian, Middle East, or other mixed heritage). So it is the most open to non-ANC.
Other than that, we've been working out more at the nice "Virgin Active" gyms we joined. (Yes, the same Virgin -- Virgin airlines, etc. Richard Branson is a genius.) Kate is taking "bums and tums" classes and moans about how sore she is. I'm losing weight. It's kind of nice to be on the metric system -- I'm down to 82 kilograms. It even sounds lower!!!
The other benefit of living here is the restaurants. Great selection of foods, and good quality. Though the Rand has appreciated about 15% since we moved here (making it more expensive in dollars), it's still much cheaper here than eating out in the U.S. At the little lunch place I go to a lot at the base of work I work, I can get very good "Cape Malay" (Indian) food for about $2/day.
Movies are cheaper, too -- usually $2 to $3.50. It just takes longer for movies to get here. (Some things on DVD in the US are just hitting the theaters here.)
Satellite TV gets us some global news...when the satellite is working. (Things like this and our internet/DSL are more erratic here.) They have different censorship on TV. They'll bleep any taking of the name of God in vain, and the names of certain body parts. (This is actually a very religous country.) But other swear words that would be banned in the US are fair game here. It's interesting.
Okay, you can tell I'm running out of steam. I hope everyone who reads this is doing well! Take care!
