Well, in my post here, I mentioned that I have three pairs of shoes right now. So I decided to give them all some credit…and without further ado:
My tennis shoes.
These are actually my first pair of Nikes. I'm usually a New Balance kind of girl.
My flip flops, both made by Reef. Please ignore the sock imprint on my feet! Also, please give me props for the toenail art- I did it myself! With a toothpick! Apparently it is very rare to find a professional that can do it here in Cape Town.
My casual flip flips.
My "dressy" flip flops. Not so fancy now that they got wet :(
Moving across the world with jewelry leaves a bit of a quandary. Do you bring it all? Do you leave it all in storage? I did a bit of both, bringing some stuff I cared about and some, not so much. I’ve taken a few pictures of the pieces that I love and have with me here.
Handmade saguaro with silver/turquoise. Something to remind me of home.
I love Bulova watches. I even wore one at my wedding!
Something my father gave me. It has peridot. I wish I had brought something my mother gave me.
This next one is a Christmas piece that my hubby bought for me from Olive Bungalow. I picked it out for myself- have you ever done this? I'm just so particular...
There is a "bad husband story" that needs to be told. He bought it, fully wrapped, just before we went out to dinner and he was so excited to see it that he opened it, MY PRESENT, in front of me at the restaurant. Then he made me wait until Christmas to get it. Has this ever happened to you? I didn't think so. I'm pretty sure that I will be telling this for years to come....
It is so unique because it is one piece of stone, doesn't it look like a painting?!
The back of the pendant.
Thanks for looking!
What would you bring with you to Africa?
Visit littlemissmomma’s I SPY to see what her favorite shoes and jewelry are!
Tortilla making ingredients, all brands you would not find in the USA. Yay for measuring spoons!
We finally got our stuff together enough to try making our first Mexican dinner here. We first started by “fast soaking” the Pinto Beans (Here they are called Sugar Beans or Red Speckled Beans), which means boiling them for 10 minutes, then soaking for the rest of the hour. This saved us about three hours, good thing since we started at 4:30 and still had to cook them for another 1.5-2 hours!
Proof I made some of them!(And never too far from the iPhone:)
Then we set to making tortillas. This was actually the second time we tried to make tortillas since we have been here. We have been trying different flours (there is nothing called all-purpose/general flour here), for these, we used a combination of self-rising flour and white bread flour. We have not been able to find manteca (lard) or Crisco (shortening- what do they bake with here?) here, so we had to use Canola Oil. They tasted much better the second time around and had improved texture.
Our tortillas
Once the tortillas were made, we set out to make our bandera salsa (red, white, and green, the colors of the Mexican flag.
Salsa ingredients. We only use the reddish chile.
Salsa Bandera!
Lastly, we made chile colorado. We were concerned that we would not be able to find the right type of powdered chile, but we did. The most common chile here is peri-peri, which P has mixed feelings about. He still has not found a suitable hot sauce for his food. P made the red sauce by making it with water and the powdered chile. After he complained that it was not reducing right, I suggested that he add some flour. Then he proceeded to smack his forehead, remembering that his mama does do that. Although we added it pretty late, it incorporated well. My only problem was that it was too hot and I only ate about three pieces of meat! In the USA, you buy different levels of heat for the powdered chile, but we had not such options.
The finished product.
Paired with a South African beer, Hansa, because the only Mexican beer that we’ve seen is Corona, which we detest.
We were in heaven!
Hope you had something yummy for dinner!
P.S.: Hubby’s blog can be found here.
P.P.S.: I added this to Sew Much Ado's Wednesday linky.
Song of the day: Oye by Mara. It’s not necessarily a Mexican song, its more reggeaton, but it’s so fun to Zumba to! The video has somewhat of a strobe-light effect, so beware if this tends to bother you.
I wanted to spend some more time thinking about what it is to live without. I’m sure some of you just went through Lent and gave something up (as many people do). Did you give up chocolate? Or Soda? Or a grouping of “bad” things? Or instead did you add something to your life, like saying “than you” more or spending more time with your grandma? What did you do?
One of the lessons that you are supposed to learn by making these choices is how to appreciate your life more and the things and privileges you have. Moving across the world has done something similar for us. Our situation is weird because we do have things; we live in a fully-furnished rental house (no television or radio) and someone has kindly lent us their car for the last month and a half. And yet, we came here with just a large suitcase and a carry-on each. My husband wears the same five shirts to work every day; we’ve bought him one since he’s been here. We have one five-pack of hangers for his shirts, I don’t hang anything right now. I have tennis shoes (called tekkies here) and two pairs of flip flops (a casual and a “dressy” pair- if flip flops can be dressy); I do not own a blow-dryer (but that may change this week as it has gotten cold). Living with such few articles of clothing has made me realize that I do not really need too much. I’d love a pair of loafers, but until I have a job, I don’t really need some. I do laundry more frequently, which is fine, since I have a lot of time on my hands. But then I worry about all the water we’re using… I have started to live more frugally (and greener)- I wash out Ziploc baggies to re-use then for his sandwiches, I use small boxes lined with a grocery bag instead of buying a trash bin, I use every last bit of dish soap before starting the new bottle, I put old pizza boxes underneath the dog’s eating area instead of buying a mat, and I wash out used containers of pasta sauce to use for storage. Why did I ever need so many mis-matched plastic containers? I even saved a piece of tape to re-use in the future. How many of you have done these things? Why did you do it?
We have very few personal, sentimental things here. When we packed all of our belongings, everything seemed personal. I had to learn how to give up things that were too small, broken, aged, out of style, or useless. We still packed some of those kinds of things with our stuff. And so we still have a lot of stuff. We literally packed all of our belongings, minus furniture, in less than five hours with four people. It surprised me how quickly it all disappeared into boxes. But it’s not here with us; and I wonder if we really need it. And then I think about how it would be nice to have personal things, things with memories attached here with us. And then I think maybe that is because we do not have any personal relationships here, I’m to the point that I am missing having a personal relationship with anything.
Note left in our mail box (I blurred out the phone numbers).
Then, I think about the poverty that I have seen in Tucson and here in Cape Town. In Tucson, we have a large homeless population because it is warm and a friendly community. I saw them often because we had a “hospitality house” for homeless people in our neighborhood. I often put out on the curb things that we no longer needed and might have been useful to the homeless. In Tucson, you see people sleeping on the sidewalk or on a bench. They hold up signs asking for money, saying they are a “disabled vet” or “will work for food.” Here, in Cape Town, poverty looks different. I have not seen anybody sleeping on the streets, I have not seen signs. They beg for money at street lights and corners, saying “sorry, sorry.” I have seen more women begging for money, and they are often holding their children as they do it. My cynical outlook on life thought that they were trying to manipulate me so that I would be more likely to give money; then I realized that they probably did not have family to look after their child. Here, I would not ever think of leaving stuff in front of my house because it might be an invitation for soliciting in the future. Here, people ring your bell to beg for food or money; and they put slips of paper in your mail box advertising their skills of house and yard work.
Here, there are neighborhoods called “Townships”, the most well-known is Khayelitsha, however there are many throughout the area. The townships, created under Apartheid, are made up of small shacks, crammed together in spaces of unused land. I heard that when they first settled in 1985, they had tents for shelter; as time wore on, they added more permanent walls in the piece of land as their tent used to be on. Here is the Wikipedia page about Khayelitsha, it is very informative. I imagine that the people who live there really have almost nothing in their homes; how can they when they have to sleep so many people, feed them, and clothe them.
I am lucky. I am lucky with the “nothing” that I have. I think that when we finally get our things, I really am going to have to go through it all again, and give away what I can. It will be hard, but I do not NEED most of it.
I want to be aware and present in the moment.
I want to be kinder and gentler to myself and others.
This is what I have learned so far.
Happy Easter.
P.S. Look at my husband's blog- he has a new post up!
Song of the day: Simple Life by The Weepies. They don't have a video for the song, but someone put up a YouTube video with nice images to go along with the song.
To see a general tour of my rental house, look here.
I'm adding pictures of some of the details in the house. We do not have any of our belongings, so I cannot show you my fabulous (thats supposed to sound ironic) decorating skills. I have bought three things that decorate our mantle. I also added some pictures of the few things we brought with us that I cherish.
Enjoy!
First, Some architectural details of the house:
At the base of the hallway archway.
Our bookcase, with the books we have bought since being here. Top shelf books still need to be read, second shelf books have been read (by one or both of us). The other shelf has free maps that I have picked up about South Africa.
The dining room fireplace. Sunflowers.
The Lounge (living room) fireplace. Ships. (Also- ignore the ugly wires)
The three things I've bought for decoration: A shadowbox display (it has lovely fittings), and two animals to go in it.
All three together.
This is a donkey, if you can' tell.
A Scottie dog.
Things I brought: A scrapbook my friends made for me as we left the USA, and my dogs!
In the last month, I have gone to the gym 20 times, gone hiking once, and probably averaged two small bags of Cheese Naks a week (see previous post here). We went to Hout Bay, Kalk Bay, Muizenburg beach, we went to the tip of Cape of Good Hope, drove on Chapman's Peak Drive, and we hiked Lions Head mountain. We went to two different wine estates, Lourensford and Spier, learned how to ride Segways, and enjoyed tasting eleven wines with fine cheeses. We are finally comfortable driving on the left side of the road and navigate the tiny lanes and pedestrians with ease. I drove by myself to a place I had never been in town and did not get lost.
We have watched the first seasons of Rome, Six Feet Under, and seasons one and two of The Wire. We have watched three movies in the theater and rented 10 movies. Still have not watched any television except while at the gym (they offer CNN, Sky News, VH1, cartoons, sports, sports, and more sports). I have written eight blog posts and received ten comments. I finally got to 555 blog views today! I attempted to use Photoshop and after much frustration, realized how hard it is! I met up with someone from an NGO and will start free counseling at an underprivileged primary school in the next two weeks. We looked at three homes, and drove past others, and decided to pass on them all as either too far, too dangerous, or too small.
We did not have many social engagements this month, I guess our newness has rubbed off! However, we are becoming more adventurous on our own and are getting our feet wet!
Here are some pictures I took when we were at Muizenburg Beach:
Muizenburg Beach is known for its colorful dressing huts.
Hello, I'm gonna start doing something that littlemissmomma started a few weeks ago, an I SPY segment. I really like her blog and crafts; I have to make myself only look at it a couple times a week. I took most of these pictures today while driving to the gym and back. It was very cloudy this morning, but it cleared up nicely by the afternoon!
Devil's peak at the intersection of Lover's Walk and Grotto.
Here, they put electric fencing on as many places as they can.
One of my favorite houses in the neighborhood; it has a bubbling fountain and is 3 stories high.
St. Paul's Anglican Church, just off of Main.
View from my dining room. Gray morning, no rain.
UCT campus, Table Mountain, in the background, is covered by the "Table Cloth" of clouds.
View from my street. Lots of cars parked on the street because we are so close to UCT.
This is a house on the corner of my street, it's name is Dyffryn (it reminds me of Harry Potter!)
It should just be called Rondebosch Video (it is a video and convenience store, not a cafe!)
This is the intersection of Main and Grotto; the gray building holds the Pick N' Pay that we do a lot of our grocery shopping at.
A man selling hand-carved wooden spoons and ostrich feather dusters.
"Happiness Unlimited" is actually very limited- the store is much smaller inside than it looks.
Mini bus taxi- can you see all the bodies in it? (This is a much newer van than what you would normally ride in.)
This is the Claremont Mercedes dealership, I really like the architecture.
Table Mountain with the "Table Cloth."
P.S.- Sorry for the bad photos.
P.P.S.- Uploading these took forever because I use a pre-paid wireless modem for internet!
Song of the day: Like a Prayer by Glass Cake. It's a cover of Madonna's hit song. What do you think?
