April 17 to 22, 2012 in Cape Town, South Africa

Cape Town!  Tuesday we left for our vacation.  Unfortunately, there are only two flights out.  We passed up the direct flight since it left around 6:30 AM.  Sure the boys are early risers, but by the time you get up, get ready, drive to the airport, park in long term parking, and check in, etc. etc., you have to get up pretty early.  That seems to mean getting to Cape Town already tired and done for the day.  We left a bit later, but of course that meant flying by way of Walvis Bay.  They couldn’t seat us together because the flight was so full.  We had slightly different seats for the flight from Windhoek to Walvis Bay and from Walvis Bay to Cape Town.  We managed to scramble around and swap seats with people to get together.  Our very full flight ended up having the four back rows empty.  Whatever.  On one stretch I was sitting in between Ryan and Justin in a bank of three seats.  I could BARELY get my hips to fit in the seat.  Since I noticed that all of the seats were not the same height and that some were Air France seat belts and some were not (second hand parts?) I figured I just got a skinny seat and was thankful that I am not a very large woman.  A flight attendant noticed me and pushed a button under the arms to push them over slightly towards each of the boys.  Brilliant!

By the time we got settled into our hotel we were ready to eat.  Justin had seen a travel brochure for a mall.  It included a list of restaurants and he spotted MCDONALDS!  What a perfect birthday dinner for Rob, right?  He was very excited and Ryan started singing Old MacDonald over and over.  That pretty much sealed the deal.  Justin blew us away by eating a cheeseburger.  We aren’t too fond of burgers in Namibia, and Justin “discovered” a new food.  He had his Happy Meal and some of Ryan’s.

The wind was so strong that I thought the roof was going to blow off of the hotel.  I suppose that since we weren’t on the top floor it wouldn’t have been too tragic for us.  Miraculously, the boys slept through the night despite the loud howling.

Wednesday we were ready for Table Mountain.  Table Mountain was not ready for us, however.  We got up there and saw that the cable car was closed due to high winds.  We drove down to the waterfront area and found a place to park near the clock tower.  The area we wanted to go was just a short walk.  With all of the construction in the area we could not easily get from point a to point b.  We ended up moving the car to a different location. 

We went into the aquarium, which thrilled the boys.  They hadn’t been impressed with a trip up to a mountain and back down again.  They enjoyed looking at the different fish and other water creatures.  They were even brave enough to touch a starfish/sea star.  Living dangerously, huh.  After finishing up, we were hungry and set off for something to eat.  A lot of seafood in the area, which I hate.  Some interesting possibilities for restaurants if it weren’t for the boys.  We ended up at McDonald’s again.  Since we don’t have McDonald’s in Namibia, we didn’t really mind.  In the US it isn’t a first choice, but it has been seven months without American fast food so it was a treat for all of us. 

We then took a ride on the Ferris wheel to catch a bird’s eye view of the area.  Ryan thought it was great.  I think that Justin is a little less enthusiastic with heights.  He liked to have Rob right there holding on to him.  We had time for Justin to chase birds and Ryan to play on the playground before heading off for a one hour boat ride.  I think Justin would have been content to chase sea gulls for the entire vacation, but at some point the rest of us were ready to move on.

We had the foresight to medicate Justin before getting on the boat and it seemed to help him enjoy his time a bit more.  The pirate boat ride was complete with face painting and a short skit.  The show was really, really bad.  Kids seemed pretty into it though, so what do I know?

Back to the car for a return trip to Table Mountain.  This time we were able to go up on the cable car.  The view is absolutely amazing.  The boys enjoyed running around and needed constant reminders to stay on the paths and not climb all over the rocks.  The cable car trips up and down the mountain were not Justin’s favorite, but he managed to keep himself together.

By that point we were done.  Fortunately for us, our hotel came equipped with a kitchen in our suite.  We just went back to the hotel and ate there.

Thursday was our day for visiting the Cape of Good Hope.  We drove along the coast passing through some small towns along the way.  Our first stop was the penguin colony at Boulder’s Beach.  It was interesting to see so many penguins just doing their own thing.  I only saw a couple of them splash into the water.  It seemed like the majority chose to either lie down or slide along on their bellies in the sand.  I guess with all of the wind they don’t want to waddle upright.  With some of the gusts of wind I wonder if they could stand upright at times.

From there we continued on our drive.  We got to Cape Point and walked the long trek up to the lighthouse.  When Ryan would complain that he was tired, I would offer to run with him for a break.  Seemed to work for him.  At the top, the boys were a bit disappointed by the stubby looking lighthouse.  They thought it was a water tower.  We opted to take the funicular back down to the base.  Since eating choices are limited, we decided to grab some muffins at the little shop.

Just a short couple of minutes later we were in front of the Cape of Good Hope sign for a photo op.  We walked around for a bit despite the wind.

We decided to go look for a restaurant I wanted to try.  It was a bit of a drive, but it was too late to do anything else really and a bit too early to eat closer in.  Unfortunately, we didn’t find the restaurant.  We walked around a mall and ended up eating at Spur.  Yes, there is a Spur just down the street from where we live and yes, the food is only mediocre.  They do have a play area for the kids though and food that they will eat.  Justin was anxious to get to the car and back to the hotel.  Ends up that he had to go to the bathroom and he thought he would hold it until we got home.  I was able to figure out his problem and we found a bathroom just in time.

Back to the hotel for us, with a good many detours as usual.  The streets in Cape Town are laid out in an interesting fashion and change names frequently.  We spent a lot of extra time driving.

Friday we went on the city bus tour.  It runs its two hour loop and you can get on and off at various points throughout the city.  Every fifteen minutes another one comes by, so you never have to wait for too long.  We got off by St George’s Cathedral  which is known for allowing Blacks and Whites to worship together during apartheid.  From there we walked to the Company Gardens and allowed the boys some time to run and chase the birds as we made our way towards the South African Museum.  We were rushing through because the boys were not horribly interested and because Justin had to go to the bathroom again.  I wish he would just SAY something instead of us trying to guess what the problem is.  From there we decided that we needed to have lunch and that the most promising prospects were behind us and not ahead of us on the bus route.  We walked for awhile and determined that McDonalds was probably the most promising choice in the area for us.

After lunch we got back on the bus and rode it around the rest of the route to see the city.  I had thought that the Jewish museum would be interesting, but, because of Holocaust related displays, not particularly appropriate for the boys.  I planned to run in quickly while Rob watched the boys outside, but decided against it.  There really didn’t seem to be a great place for them to just hang out.  On we went!  Much of the city was familiar as we had already driven up and down streets trying to get from point a to point b.  At least this time we were just taking in the sights and listening to the commentary instead of trying to navigate our way somewhere.  We got up to Table Mountain (again) before heading back down and towards the beaches.

We enjoyed being able to look at Camps Bay and some of the other beaches, points, and bays.  We thought they might be a good location to visit on Saturday.  We took the bus back to the starting point.  We were tired and it was too early for dinner.  We didn’t really want to go back to the hotel and out again either though.  We chose to go to Subway and pick up sandwiches to eat later in the evening and then went back to the hotel.

Saturday the boys were a bit down because it was our last vacation day.  We decided that we would go to the science center and then head out over towards the beaches.  When we got to the science center and I saw what it was, I figured we would be able to spend an hour there tops.  They were renovating the museum and everything was housed in one large room.  The boys blew me away by insisting we spend six hours there.  Justin didn’t even want to eat lunch.  We bagged the idea of the beach and enjoyed our time at the museum.  When they announced closing time we were finally able to get the boys to leave.

For our last meal we headed out to, you guessed it, McDonald’s.  We even took some back with us to have as a snack on Sunday before leaving.

Sunday wasn’t an early start.  We didn’t have to leave the hotel until 10:30.  Traffic was very light and we made it to the airport more quickly than we anticipated.  We returned the rental car and went to check in for our flight.  Air Namibia recommends that you arrive at the airport three hours ahead of time for international flights.  Why they don’t open their counter until it is 2 hours until take off is beyond me.  That certainly doesn’t help the line at the counter.

I must admit that Air Namibia is one of the few airlines which will feed you (for free) on such short flights.  Unfortunately, what they do feed you gives airline food a bad name.  Not like you will starve on a two hour flight though.

Back in Namibia we waited and waited for our luggage to come on the carousel.  It amazes me how long it can take when there are so few planes.  I think it would have been faster to just have us climb into the cargo hold and pull out our own bags before going into the airport.  In modernizing their parking system, you now must pay for parking before returning to the lot.  The machine does not take bills larger than N$50 (about USD 7.50).  When your parking is over N$100, it would be nice if you could put in N$100, but no.  There is a parking cashier adjacent to the machine.  She didn’t have change.  Hello?  The sign says CASHIER, shouldn’t you have money?  She charged us a different rate than the machine did, but it was in our favor.  (Note: This lovely “improvement” in the parking system has caused parking rates to approximately double.)

We loaded up the van and headed home.  Back to unpacking, laundry, and the glamour of everyday life.

April 8, 2012

Happy Easter!  Today in church when he was asked what was special about Easter, Justin responded that it was getting lots of candy.  The teacher said that we do sometimes get eggs and sweets, but that we celebrate Jesus' resurrection at Easter.  Justin said, "yeah, and we get lots of candy!"  Funny enough, he didn't even really get a lot of candy.  He and Ryan each got a fun size bag of M&Ms, a small 120 calorie chocolate bunny, and a kinder egg.  They got some small toys in their basket as well.  The favorite part of the Easter season is probably hiding the eggs.  Yes, I hide some and they find them, but the boys love to re-hide them and have me (and/or Rob) find them.  We do this over and over and over and...

This week we decorated eggs.  The boys really enjoyed it this year.  In the past it has been a quick activity hardly worth the mess in my opinion.  This year they really got into it.  No, their eggs weren't particularly beautiful or special, but they had a blast.  Ryan got dye on a pair of Justin's new shorts (Ryan was wearing them) but thanks to Shout, it came out! 

We made bunny cookies again this year and Justin and Ryan made little bunny baskets to put them in for their friends.

I guess since this isn't the blog about how I entertain the kids I should talk about life in general.  I had a lovely 24 hour stomach bug.  Glad it was short!  It overlapped with a cold(?) which consists primarily of me having very little voice.

It is kind of a strange weekend here.  Good Friday and Easter Monday are holidays, making it a nice long weekend for Rob.  EVERYTHING was closed on Good Friday, yet for some reason open on Easter morning.  Don't get that, but whatever.  Things around town are very quiet as almost everyone has fled the city for the coast or to visit family.  Easter weekend is kind of like Labor Day weekend in the US.  This is the time for the last hurrah of summer before we admit that it is over.  In the US (and northern hemisphere in general) Easter is a time of light, rebirth, spring!  Here it is just the opposite and kind of a bummer.  I am so northern hemisphere biased!

Time for bed.

April 1, 2012

Well, I should also be doing updating the blog that tells about what I have been doing during the month.  Perhaps tomorrow.  I upload pictures to that blog and get frustrated when it takes awhile.  I seem to have a sloooooow internet connection right now, so pictures might not be the best idea right now.

Our exciting news for the week is that we have our next post: Yerevan, Armenia.  We are SO excited.  No, we don't know exactly when we will be leaving here yet.  No, we don't know when we will be getting to Armenia.  It is good to know where we will be going though.  For those who don't know, Armenia is by Turkey, Georgia, Iran, and Azerbaijan.  It will be a big change from Namibia.  Justin is very excited.  Yesterday, the boys were running around in their big winter coats.  THe coats are currently a size too big, but should be perfect for winter there.

This week we "fell back" an hour as Fall is now here.  It is confusing to change from standard/daylight savings time at a time different than the US.  It is even more confusing since we change in opposite directions.  Surprisingly, the boys slept in until 5:30 in the morning. :)  They were more than ready for bedtime when 7:00 rolled around tonight.  Maybe cooler temperatures and more hours of darkness will have them wanting to sleep more.  Hey, I can dream, right?

The boys and I were doing some frog things, but will put that on hold to do some Easter activities this week in preparation for Easter.  Justin has specifically asked me NOT to look up information about the Easter Bunny on the internet.  He says he KNOWS the Easter Bunny is real so he doesn't want me to look it up because it might say he is wrong.  He cracks me up.  We talked a little about the real reason our family celebrates Easter.  I told him that the important part about Easter is Jesus being resurrected.  He gave me an "uh-huh" kind of response and then told me that the REALLY important part is getting things from the Easter Bunny.  As long as we have that straight.

We got our flu shots this week.  The whole reverse seasons thing here in Nambia and all.  Ryan was so thrilled with his post shot lollipop, that he asked if he could get another shot.  Not a lot of kids want that.  He even asked again the next day.  Amazing what lollipops can do.

I think that I have chipped a tooth or something.  There is no pain, but I keep getting stuff stuck there and when I tried looking, it looks like part of the tooth might be missing.  There is no  pain (except for my tongue when I try to dislodge stuck food and cut it up), but I have to floss every time I eat.  I wonder if I will have to take care of it here or if it can wait until I go back to the US.  Sigh.  With my luck I will have a sub-par job done here and then have to get it done again in the US.  Guess I can wait a bit to see how it goes.

Planning our trip to Cape Town, South Africa.  Very excited.  Hopefully it will be fun and relaxing.  It looks like there is a lot to do.  Traveling is easier with older kids.  Of course a 3 year old doesn't always understand the idea of taking advantage of using a toilet when it is available and not waiting until the last minute.  I shouldn't complain.  I can't remember the last time Ryan has had an accident.  Of course since he refuses to keep the same clothes on if there is even a drop on his underwear, I do more laundry than I should.  Sometimes he will even complain that his underwear smells like his penis so he needs to change his underwear and pants.  When he washes his hands he will change his clothes if he gets his shirt at all wet.  Sigh.

Ryan has decided that his cousins make wonderful scapegoats.  Since they live in Oregon, I can't really hear their side of the story.  Whenever I ask him where he learned something that he thinks I don't like, he says it was cousins.  He also tries to avoid responsibility by asking me not to look or to stop talking.  Favorite expressions include:  "I don't know yet."  "It's hard to tell."  "Don't say that to me."  Fake coughs are also great ways to avoid a subject.  It is hard not to laugh.

I have a bit of a sore throat.  Here's hoping it doesn't turn into a full blown cold or anything.  Perhaps the internet is fast enough that I can upload pics to my other blog now. :)

March 24, 2012

Oops!  My life has been so incredibly exciting (not!) that I seemed to have completely skipped writing about last week.  I remember last Sunday thinking that I should write about the week, but wasn't sure what to write about.  So there you have it!
Not that this week has been very exciting to write about either.  Justin and Ryan have actually been sleeping better, which is nice.  Better is a relative term though.  They have been sleeping until almost 5:00 AM.  Ryan has once or twice gotten up before 4:00 AM, but I have been able to get him to go back to sleep for a bit.

I have also been trying to excerice with the wii fit.  It has me on a four time a week schedule.  Ryan has been my faithful exercise companion.  It gives a bit of an extra challenge with him trying to follow my movements while standing almost right on top of me.  I wish I enjoyed it as much as he seems to.  I would probably be in better shape if I did.

Justin wants a baby sister and has been praying that he can have one.  He has commented that it looks like I am getting bigger so maybe I have a baby sister growing inside of me.  Nice.

Now it is March 24th and I still haven't finished this entry or posted anything.  Perhaps I can catch up.

We continue to have the boys' swimming lessons twice a week.  Some days they do well, some days they do not.  Estelle tried to test them to see if they could get their next badge.  As soon as she told them that, Justin had to go to the bathroom.  It went downhill from there.  He didn't even want to get into the pool.  He cried, complained, and refused to even try some of the things she asked him to do.  They are things that he CAN do or she wouldn't have asked him to do it.  Justin is afraid to fail in front of people.  By refusing to try, he cannot fail.  Estelle is so patient.  She said that she will try again with him in segments, not telling him it was part of his test until AFTER he succeeds.  Ryan wasn't thrilled with the part that required him to float on his back.  That is something that he absolutely hates, but he did it for 20 seconds so he passed that part.  He and Justin are both Level 2 Tadpoles now.  As soon as Justin gets his act together he will be a Level 4.

We have our weekly Tuesday playgroup.  Sometimes the kids play better than others.  The boys will definitely miss the kids when we move.  I will miss the moms.  It is amazing how much better it is in a place when there are people you enjoy spending time with.  We are very different people and our worlds mostly revolve around the kids, but it is nice to have grown-ups to talk with during the day.  It is also nice to see others also have good days and bad days raising their children.  Next year Justin will be starting school too!

I received an upsetting e-mail from my brother on March 11th.  My dad was out of town on a planned trip for a ham radio contest when he unexpectedly became very ill quite suddenly.  He was taken to the hospital and had to be flown to a larger hospital where he was in ICU because of sepsis.  Being so far away from family made it a long few days.  My dad is back at home and recovering.  I am grateful for my family and I am thankful for everyone who stepped up to help them.

Probably the highlight of the month so far has been St Patrick's Day.  I had no idea that the boys would enjoy the books I had so much.  They became interested in leprechauns and wanted to build leprechaun traps.  Justin asked if leprechauns were real or not.  I told him that I did not think they were, but that some people believe they are.  He asked me to check online.  As soon as I got to the computer, he told me to stop.  He figured if I looked up the answer and found out they were not real, they couldn't make traps. 

They made traps out of legos, blocks, baskets, cans, toy ladders, paper, and just about anything they could find in the playroom.  They used shiny trinkets I provided to try to lure the leprechauns.  On St Patrick's Day they did not find any leprechauns in the traps, but found some small green "footprints" in some places.  They found some of the legos rearranged to build an escape ladder from one of the traps.  They also discovered the first clue of a treasure hunt which ended with a treat from Pete the Leprechaun.  Justin has decided that Ryan was right, leprechauns must be real!

March 21st was Namibian Independence Day.  It is nice to have a holiday in the middle of the week so Rob can be home.  He took the boys out to a friend's house for a bike ride and I got to sleep in longer than I have in a very long, long time.

I have been trying to go through things to organize them or sort to get rid of them by donating, selling, or throwing them away. I don't know where we will be going next, but we won't have a house as big as we do here.  Besides, it is nice to get rid of things we don't need or use.  The boys, however, disagree.  I try to do my sorting while they are having their quiet time because otherwise they want to keep everything.

Hmm, looks like I am now ahead.  I might not have to write for a week.  Better try to find something worth writing about. :)

February 26, 2012

February 26, 2012


Last week I never wrote. No big loss since not much happened. It was rainy and I had a lot of migraines. That meant that the kids watched a lot of TV and played on the computer a lot.

On February 14th we did have our playgroup Valentine’s Day party. We had previously made our valentine mailboxes so they were ready to go. The children made valentines to pass out to each other. Snacks included red heart shaped jell-o, heart cookies, bugles, apples, and a few other things. Tanja had purchased some valentine picture frame kits and the kids put them together and inserted a picture I had taken of the group. Justin said that it was his best Valentine’s Day ever. That was nice to hear. Normally he builds things up in his mind so much that he is disappointed by the actual event. We had spent a lot of time making valentines so he had spent a lot of time imagining the day. It thrilled me that he enjoyed it. Making the day even better was the package Grandma Pat had sent. The boys got some valentine candy in a heart box, a couple of small toys, and a card.

Sunday, February 19th we went to a planning meeting after church. Rob went into the meeting while I waited with the boys. They were running around outside and there were a couple of other boys outside too. The older one was almost seven and his younger brother was three. The boys all played so well together. Justin often wishes that he had more friends here. The playgroup is nice, but the other child his age is a girl. He would love to have a boy his age to play with. Unfortunately, many times when he is with other boys his age, he gets upset if he is not top dog. To watch the four boys play together so nicely despite their many differences was a highlight of the week.

February 20th was President’s Day so Rob didn’t have to go to work. The boys were thrilled because they wanted to show off their swimming skills at swimming lessons. They were so excited to show him their new “moves” that they had trouble listening to Miss Estelle. Justin is proud of his diving, which right now is propelling his body forward and landing on his stomach. Oh well. Slow but steady. Ryan is able to float on his back, but lacks confidence.

After swimming lessons, Rob suggested that we go to Spur for lunch. Spur is a South African restaurant chain that serves slightly overpriced mediocre food. The boys love it. There is a bouncy castle for them to play on as well as several video games they can play. While the food isn’t the best, the boys eat well. They enjoy playing too so Rob and I get some time without them. 

The rest of the week was pretty routine. We didn’t go to playgroup on Tuesday because Ryan had some sort of stomach bug and had thrown up. It ended up that no one was up to playgroup so we didn’t miss out.

Saturday, February 25th was an interesting day. Ryan had a horrible rash all over his body. When a friend dropped off some Benadryl for him, she told me that it looked like ringworm. Guess what? It was! Instead of a few little patches though it was ALL OVER HIS BODY. We decided to stay in for the weekend and keep our ringworm to ourselves.

Sunday was a very relaxing day. We stayed in all day and did next to nothing. Ryan got his cream put on him a couple of times and that was about as stressful as it got. Made me wonder if ringworm was so bad after all. :) The chorister from church called to tell Justin and Ryan that she missed them. That made their day. Not a huge thing to make a call, but a thoughtful gesture that really meant a lot.

The week will probably start out slowly while we wait for Ryan to no longer be contagious. We shall see.

February 12, 2012

February 12, 2012


Another normal week has flown by.

Tuesday we went to the petting zoo for our playgroup. There have really been a lot of improvements made to the place since we first went a couple of years ago. It still wouldn’t meet US standards for many reasons, but since we are not in the US it doesn’t really matter. Sure, there are unsafe things, but if you supervise your children it should work out okay. It helps that the boys are older too. I am less concerned for their safety now than I was when we first moved here.

The ostriches have gotten so big. It is amazing to see how fast those things can grow. Feeding them can still be a little scary, even after all this time. They seem like flying snakes when their long necks whip their heads up and around to get to your food. Aggressive little suckers. The boys have gotten used to the goats, horses, alpacas, pigs, rabbits, and many of the other animals. Since we don’t have a pet it is nice for them to get to spend some time around animals.

We also went back to the library. I think once the novelty of that wears off the boys won’t care about it as much. The selection is small and the environment is, well, it is in a windowless storage room. It is not very inviting to say the least. It is a good place to go to get out of the house for a little bit though. I am glad Tonja showed it to us.

Swimming lessons continue. I am glad that the boys are taking them. Besides the obvious benefits of learning to swim, I have enjoyed watching Justin gain a sense of accomplishment when he masters a skill that has been difficult for him. He is moving along slowly, but he is getting it. I would like to find something non-competitive for him to do wherever we end up next. I think that it is good for his character to fail and continue to work and work until he is able to succeed. Too many things come easily to him and I want him to understand that practice and hard work are essential to progress.

There was one day this week when the boys were driving me absolutely crazy! They are getting so they can play together better, but they can also annoy each other. They know just which buttons to push. It seems like some days they would rather upset each other than have any fun. Good thing there are only two of them.

My seminary class at church is going well. I am excited to see the students coming AND making an effort to be on time. I guess the next step will be to get them to do the work at home they are supposed to do so that they are better prepared to be in class. There isn’t a lot for teenagers in Namibia to do, so I wonder why they can’t find the time to get their studying done. Hopefully I can motivate them. One step at a time.

I feel like I don’t have nearly enough time for the seminary class, yet Ryan’s sunbeam (3 year old) class on Sundays seems soooooooooooo long. The kids are very active and busy, one girl in particular. It is hard to keep them engaged in the lesson. They seem to enjoy it though. I definitely don’t have the chance to get bored.

Last Sunday Ryan locked himself into a bathroom stall. I had the other children with me in the bathroom and I couldn’t get the door open from the outside. The door goes down to the floor, so crawling out is not an option. The dividing wall between stalls, however, does not go to the top. Once I was able to find someone to keep track of the other kids, I was able to climb up the toilet, into the window, over the wall (ducking because there wasn’t a lot of clearance for my head) and then walk my arms down the far side of the other stall until I could swing my legs all the way over and climb onto the toilet. Ryan was happy to have me there. We started to leave the bathroom to get the other kids and go to class when he told me he hadn’t peed yet. What? He must have been in there for 10 minutes. Guess he forgot.

The boys are excited for Valentine’s Day. We have a little party with their playgroup planned, including passing out valentines. Hope it is fun for them.

February 5, 2012

The most exciting part of the week for us was probably getting the list of potential places for Rob’s next assignment. It is fun to think about the next place we will go and what it will be like for our family. We are reading up on the different places and weighing the pros and cons for each place. Hopefully it won’t be too long until we find out, at least unofficially. It is fun to think of the next adventure. Our next post will probably be one that both boys will be old enough to remember well.


On Wednesday we went to the library with the boys’ friend, Leah, and her mother, Tanja. I would have NEVER found it if we hadn’t gone with them. You go in this small back door and walk down a hallway with boxes stacked around. Down one hallway there is a reception type desk with a woman sitting behind it. She is the librarian. She opens the door to a storage room and turns on the lights. The books are lined up on shelves with very little sense of order. Children’s books are together. Adult books are separated by language. No windows, yucky fluorescent lighting and very stuffy in that room. I am assuming that it is there because the real library is undergoing a six month renovation. The interesting thing about the renovation is that it started in February 2009. Lovely. To get a library card, you have the woman make a copy of your driver’s license. You write down your name, address, and phone number and the books you are taking out along with the date. When you return them, you cross of the books you return. The cards are kept in a shoebox looking box. Wow! Wonder how well that works for them? I am sure they end up missing plenty of books. Of course, no one else was there. Perhaps they can’t find the place!

On Thursday we got to babysit Nicky and Timmy while their parents (Gilbert and Sara) went out to celebrate Sara’s birthday. My boys were so excited to have friends over for dinner. After that they played trains until I finally put my kids to bed. They all played pretty nicely together until about an hour after bedtime. I sat up with Nicky and Timmy watching Go, Diego, Go videos.

Other than that it has been pretty routine. We went to swimming lessons, had our playgroup, and shopped for food. We will see what the next week brings.

January 29, 2012

I have a friend who writes a journal entry/letter each week. I don’t know if I will be as ambitious as she is, but I want to write on my blog more often. That should be an easy enough goal.


This week was a fairly normal week. That is part of the problem about writing. I feel like I could often cut and paste one week’s events week after week with only minimal changes. Life is fairly routine. Today, however, is my 40th birthday so it seems like a good time to start writing. We even went out today so I have something to write about today.

Monday was a regular Monday. I took the boys to swimming lessons. The boys are most definitely not natural swimmers. They have, however, made progress. They tend to improve for awhile and then plateau before moving forward again. Right now they are on a forward trend, so it is exciting for them. I don’t care if they ever get to be great swimmers, I just want them to be safe (or at least safer) in and around the water. I am so pleased that Justin is able to swim on his back for the length of a full size pool. As he works on other skills, he is able to flip over to his back when he needs and get over to the side of the pool. I love that he has figured out how to “save” himself when he gets in a situation he finds uncomfortable.

We continued on to do grocery shopping. It can be a challenge sometimes with the boys, but generally they are pretty good. They complain that they don’t like it, but neither do I. They were out of tortillas yet again and with tacos on the meal plan for later in the week I feared I might actually have to make them myself. Not that it is hard, but it is just one more thing. We ended up not only finding tortillas on Friday, but an overpriced can of refried beans. It was a fun splurge. I like refried beans rather than meat on my tacos and I had forgotten to soak the beans.

Tuesday is our normal play date day. It has been a nice addition to our schedule. While we were in the US last August, a couple more families moved into the Embassy community. We now get together weekly with Leah (mother Tanja), Isla and Eamon (mother Leslie), and Nicky and Timmy (mother Sara). Leslie and Tanja both have babies less than a month old, but so far that hasn’t disrupted our group. It is nice for Ryan and Justin. They really look forward to Tuesdays. I am happy that I have some other mothers to spend time with. They are great women and mothers. They are able to teach me a lot and it is nice to have some other people with children at similar ages to Justin and Ryan.

Wednesday is another swimming day. The boys did well and they were proud of themselves. Monday night the boys had slept all the way through the night until almost 6:00! I checked to make sure that they were breathing. Tuesday night they made up for it. They were up so early that I was just dragging. They don’t take naps, but they do have a one hour quiet time which allowed me to take a quick nap.

Thursday we went to a CLO coffee at Michelle’s house. It was a small group, but nice to get out of the house to a different setting. The boys were well behaved and it gave me a chance to relax. Later that day Justin had a dentist appointment. We were happy to learn that his cavity has not gotten worse and does not need it filled at this time. Here they seem to like to go all out for fillings in children. The dentist said that they go to the hospital and use general anesthesia. That seems like a bit much for a small filling. I just hope that Justin doesn’t have pain or other problems until we get back to the US.

Friday Mathilde came over to clean. I feel uncomfortable having someone clean my house, yet I love having my house cleaned without me having to do it. With four indoor toilets and two small boys, it is really nice to have someone clean the bathrooms.  I like to get out of the house to give her some space so the boys and I took off for the petting zoo. We spent about an hour feeding the animals and playing on the playground. We will really miss it when we leave. It is definitely unique. It has the usual animals like goats, pigs, chickens, geese, rabbits, guinea pigs, and horses as well as warthogs, eland, tortoises, peacocks, and ostriches.

Friday was also the first night I taught seminary at church. I only had four students, but I hope that more start coming. I want it to be a learning experience, but I believe it can be fun too. I want to show them that teaching doesn’t have to mean someone standing up front and lecturing at them the whole time. When I am gone, it gives Rob a chance to spend some quality time alone with the boys. They spend a lot of time with me and tend to come to ask me to do things for them even when Rob is around. They enjoy spending time with him and this takes me out of the equation.

I love Saturdays. Once Rob gets up I get to go back to bed while he watches the boys. On this day, he took the boys with their bikes over to Zak’s house to ride their bikes. Zak (Rob’s boss) has a flat driveway that is perfect for riding bikes. Our riding area is brick and slopes both north and west. The boys really struggle learning to pedal bikes on it. It is either really hard to pedal or they get going too fast. Hopefully their skills will transfer and they will learn to negotiate our more difficult terrain.

Rob had noted that Alvin and the Chipmunks movie was playing at the theater. Not that he and I were interested, but Justin loves the chipmunk movies. Lately he has also been asking when we could go to the movies again. Our only family attempt at the movies occurred about 7 months ago when we saw Kung Fu Panda 2. Ryan lasted a very short time. Justin made it the length of the show, but probably only because I brought gummy candy. This time, we all made it through the 89 minutes. Justin would have been happier if it had ended about half an hour sooner, but he was able to handle it. Ryan made it that long thanks to popcorn, granola bars, fruit snacks, and a cereal bar.

And now it is Sunday. My boys have been so excited for my birthday. They have been making me all sorts of things. Earlier this week I realized that I wasn’t getting any presents from them, so I found a couple of things in my drawers that they wouldn’t recognize and had Rob help them wrap them up. They love wrapping and they love giving presents. For the past couple of days they have been telling me that I couldn’t open the presents until my birthday. They were also quite excited about the cake they purchased on the way home from Zak’s house.

I chose to go to Na’an su ke Wildlife Sanctuary for my birthday. It is about an hour outside of Windhoek so not bad for a day trip. We went on a tour to see cheetahs, baboons, and lions that are unable to be in the wild for a variety of reasons. You can choose some tour options that let you get up close and personal for a photo shot. No thank you! It was an enjoyable drive and nice to get to see some of the animals up close (with a fence). We had a lunch buffet that included kudu, oryx, chicken, and a variety of side dishes. It was a nice relaxing day.

Here’s hoping that posts in the future aren’t so dull.

Six Weeks in the USA

It is 1:30 AM and my kids have been up since 11:30 PM AGAIN!  I am cranky and wishing they would get their acts together and figure out we have changed time zones.  I will use this time to complain about my latest travels.  Our vacation was great, just the getting to and from had issues.  Thank you to all of the people in the world who are kind and patient to those who are travelling with small children. I hope that I can remember what it is like and be helpful to others when my monsters are a bit older.

We were all really looking forward to our vacation in the States.  The boys and I had made a countdown chain more than a month in advance.  It seemed to take forever for it to be time to go and then suddenly the day had arrived!

Since we didn't leave until the afternoon, I kept busy doing all the laundry, vacuuming, and doing whatever else needed to be done so that when we returned our home would be clean.  Obviously there would be dust and stuff, but it would be orderly upon our return.

The airport in Namibia is incredibly small.  If it weren't for the required security measures it would remind me more of a bus depot or small train station from some made for TV movie.  The size has its pros and cons.  Not a lot of services available, but you certainly aren't going to get lost or have trouble getting where you need to be. 

Last year we had trouble at check in because we were going from Namibia to South Africa to Atlanta to Seattle to Spokane.  For some bizarre reason they can only put 3 locations on baggage tags, so our bags could only be checked through to Seattle.  This year we were going from Namibia to Frankfurt to Chicago to Spokane.  Yay!  Our bags could be checked all the way to our final destination from the start.  The check in agent did not know the airport code for Chicago.  Seriously?  Are we the first people to be going to Chicago?  Isn't it in the computer or a book or something?  The woman was totally clueless as how to check our bags.  We told her the code for Chicago and also Spokane.  I still found it very, very strange.  Still, bags checked and boarding passes to Frankfurt were in hand.  Of course Air Namibia doesn't work with any other airline so we would have to get the rest of our boarding passes later.

We had our exit papers all filled out ahead of time.  At the immigration counter we handed over our passports and completed papers.  The woman wanted to go through them one at a time rather than look at us as a family.  Okay, but should she really start with the children?  A two year old should not be separated from his parents, should he?  I had visions of him running past the counter once he was cleared and going heaven only knows where.  Security was pretty much of a non issue except for the big old car seat we had for Ryan.  Ugh.  No one ever knows how to get that thing to fit through the x-ray machine the first time.

Normal waiting to board.  No pre-board or anything for people with young children, so we wait.  We gate check our stroller, leaving us with four carry-ons (two of which were backpacks) and the car seat.  We walk out to our plane and up the stairs, dragging the bags and kids with us.  Back through the plane with all of our stuff we settle in.

Ryan is ticked that he has a car seat and Justin doesn't.  We aren't too thrilled with it either.  Justin didn't need a car seat for the plane when he was two, but Ryan is a bit more active.  Who wants to  be forcing a child to keep his belt buckled for a ten hour flight?  For an overnight flight it made sense anyway since Ryan sleeps well in his car seat.  Once situated, the flight attendants actually have little bags of goodies for the kids.  That made their days.  Not a lot of airlines do that anymore, so a real bonus.  We wait and wait and then it is FINALLY time to take off.

The little safety spiel is done and Justin is still reviewing the safety card from his seatback pocket.  A flight attendant comes up to us and tells us that the airline does not allow car seats to be used on the plane.  What?  Is that the most bizarre thing you ever heard or what?  We have to get Ryan out and buckled up.  I wanted to smack the woman in the head with the car seat and tell her what I thought of her, but arguing with a flight attendant is not the best way to start out a trip.  I would probably be arrested and never get to go on my trip.  The woman was a complete idiot, but what could I do?  We got the seat out and, along with the other passengers, got to listen to Ryan cry about having his seat taken away.  He did NOT sleep through the flight as we had anticipated.

I know airline food is not looked upon as great to begin with, but somehow the Namibian touch made me really want to gag.  Thank goodness that I packed plenty of snacks. :)  The entertainment was the movie "Like Water For Elephants" shown on a screen up at the front of the cabin and a couple of pull down monitors.  Reminded me of traveling long ago except the headsets were marginally better and didn't cost five bucks.  I kind of wanted to see the movie, but with kids that wasn't an option.

We get to Frankfurt and are among the very last off of the plane because we have to wait for the flight attendant to get our car seat for us.  We walk down the stairs and our stroller is not there.  It is, we are told, on the baggage carousel.  Maybe I am missing something here, but why would I gate check something if I wanted it on the baggage carousel?  We get on the bus to get to the terminal.  I am sure that the other passengers hate us.  I can't really blame them.  They wait on us to get our kid out of the car seat.  Our kid screams on the plane because he doesn't have his car seat.  Now we are the last people off of the plane and the bus is waiting for us while we try to locate our stroller.  I kind of hate us too, but I don't think it is our fault.

Inside the airport we have to get clear across the airport to another terminal, go through security again, and get boarding passes for our other two flights.  We have enough time to do this. What we do NOT have enough time to do is go to baggage claim and wait for our stroller, go through customs, find the United counter to get our boarding passes (rather than getting them at the gate if we don't exit to baggage claim), go through ticket control, passport control, and security.  We opt to abandon the stroller.

Once on United, things went better.  We were allowed to use the car seat.  Imagine that.  In seat personal entertainment systems keep the kids happy.  Somehow even though I called in to request our kids have children's meals we only ended up with one.  It worked out okay.  They shared that and a regular meal.  They enjoyed controlling what they wanted to watch.  Ryan watched the same segment of "Rio" over and over.  His system finally crashed as we were landing in Chicago.  I guess it can only show a segment a thousand times before it goes berserk.  Another flight of about ten hours, but this one was not as bad.

Short time in Chicago and on to Spokane.  33 or so hours of travel, but we made it there alive.  Only the Air Namibia flight sucked.  I mean, not like it is enjoyable to travel that long with kids, but Air Namibia was the only bad part.  The kids behaved well, considering.  They were cranky at times, but that is a long trip.

Guess what?  Our stroller showed up in Spokane a couple of days after we arrived.  There was a big piece of paper with a note on it asking for someone in America to call us. :)

While in the US we flew from Spokane to Portland, Oregon and Burbank, California.  Those flights were uneventful.  Yay!

We dreaded returning.  After much deliberation, we decided not to take the car seat on the planes.  We knew it would be helpful for the trip from San Francisco to Frankfurt, but didn't want to have to haul it through the airport at Frankfurt for five hours and not know if we would be able to use it on Air Namibia or not. 

Things went smoothly from Spokane to San Fransisco and on to Frankfurt.  Once in Frankfurt we were anxious to get our boarding passes for our last flight to Namibia.  Air Namibia is not a major airline and our gate was not posted nor was the counter opened.  We spent quite a bit of time wandering around the airport.  We eventually found a check-in kiosk and were able to print our passes.  Rob was confused when he was required to scan our passports face down for the machine to read them when the machine specifically said (and had a picture to match) to have them face up to scan.  He asked me if he was just too tired.  Nope.  The instructions were incorrect.  Yay Air Namibia.

We spent more than two hours at McDonald's and its playland.  Thank you, McDonald's!  The boys got out a lot of energy before the flight.  Without the car seat to deal with, getting onto our flight and situated was not so bad.  I knew it was going to be a loooooong flight with "Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2" our source of entertainment.  Probably just as well that it wasn't something that the boys would want to watch because they couldn't see the screen.  The boys did pretty well.  I wish they had slept more.

I had very low expectations for Air Namibia and they didn't disappoint.  They claim to be the spirit of Namibia or some such thing.  I think the country should sue the airlines for slander unless the spirit of the country is supposed to be inconsistency, incompetence, and indifference.

When we landed, of course our gate checked stroller wasn't at the gate, but we didn't care.  We had to get our bags anyway.  We were pleased that the diplomatic line was open so we didn't have to wait in the long line to get through immigration.  There were only a few people in front of us.  When it was our turn, we had our forms filled out.  The line next to us for SADC (South African Development Community countries) was able to process 23 people in the time it took the woman to process our family of four.  Our forms were completed.  We had the diplomatic passports with appropriate visas.  The information was virtually the same.  Why, why, why would it take so long to get four people through?  I think Air Namibia and immigration must get their employees from the same employment pool.

I shouldn't have been so cranky, because our bags were not out when we got through.  Half an hour after the flight had landed the crews bags got through.  Our bags started showing up fifty minutes after we had landed.  Remember, it isn't a big airport.  Their are two baggage carousels and you can stand in the middle of the two and watch both.  I'm wondering if they made some poor soul hand carry our luggage from the plane rather than transport it on the baggage cars.  Our bags (including stroller) all made it. :)

If you aren't declaring any goods they randomly screen bags.  The woman who was choosing who to screen choose the next two people in line, but her idiotic co-worker misunderstood and starting having everyone go through.  There wasn't room for people to wait as the bags went through the x-ray.  I continued on through with the kids and the carry-ons (I decided not to have those screened and no one seemed to care) while Rob stayed with the luggage.  Our bags were filled with goodies like 15 pounds of salsa, 9 pounds of peanut butter, and other things we wanted to have with us here.   They had him go to have the bags examined.  Rob takes the bags over to the woman at the goods to declare side and she asks Rob what she is supposed to be examining.  Uh, how is he supposed to know?  If you were hiding something would you really tell her anyway?  

Our shuttle driver was waiting for us.  We made it home safely.  The house was clean. :)  I guess I shouldn't complain, but I am.  Now comes of the question of what I will do next time if I have the option.  Will I choose the horrible Air Namibia or will I opt to go through crime ridden Johannesburg, additional security screening and pat down, and deal with four flights rather than three?  I don't know.  I do know that I am glad Ryan will be done with the car seat and stroller.  I am also glad that I won't need to carry bulky diapers with me.  That's something.

Now I realize that I should be happy that I am not the housewife who got hauled off the plane and searched and interviewed.  If I were in her place I would be really really upset.  I don't know the whole story though, and am guessing that she probably got pulled because of the people she was sitting with.  People who saw the men by the restroom probably got nervous and I would suspect the flight attendants got multiple comments by other passengers.  Justified?  Perhaps not, but I think that probably things played out as they needed to be played out.  I understand being upset, but I think that people were probably doing their job based upon the information they were given.

With the exception of Seattle, I have always been treated respectfully going through security.  Employees have been kind to my children (currently 4 and 2, but we have travelled with them younger too) and been polite and patient carrying out their duties.  Yes, they have patted down Ryan's rear end.  I know that upsets some people and they say that babies aren't security threats.  I think that a poopy diaper would be a great place to try to sneak things through.  Do you really think the employees enjoy having to search kids and the elderly or infirm?  Seattle, on more than one occasion, has ticked me off.  The people there were, in my opinion, very rude and disrespectful to me and others in the line.  I think a lot of the security measures are strange.  I think there has got to be a better way.  In the meantime, if employees are just doing their jobs,I try to be patient with them.  I can save my frustration for the idiots of Air Namibia.  I guess we all have our own little issues, don't we. :)

Oh, and in case you haven't guessed, I hate Air Namibia. 

Happy (Early) 4th of July

Even though it isn't the Fourth of July yet, we attended the annual Embassy family party to celebrate.  (Not to be confused with the official party which I seriously doubt will include a bouncy castle!)  Since we are in the Southern Hemisphere, it is winter here right now.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day!  I had the boys in long sleeves, but they would have been okay in t-shirts.  Oh well, saved me from having to put sunscreen on their arms.

That's my boy, going up the slide!

 

Justin and Rob were partners in the three legged race.  I competed with Ryan tied to my leg.  He thought it was the funniest thing ever.

Doesn't Justin look comfy?

After the three legged race, Justin decided a game of tug-of-war was in order.

Penduka

Rob and I went to visit Penduka, a small community not too far outside of town.  From what little we had read and heard, we were under the impression that it was a tourist type destination.  We knew that it was an organization that helps disadvantaged women by teaching them how to make craft products that can be sold.  I envisioned a large gift shop with smaller areas where you could watch the women working on the projects.  There is indeed a small gift shop and you can see the women at work, but Penduka is not there for the tourists, it is there for the women.  It is a no frills operation focused on helping women in need become more self sufficient.

A map painted on the wall of one of the buildings shows the layout of the community, which includes some bungalows for housing some of the women.

One of the small buildings was for bead making.  Glass bottles are collected throughout the city and then broken and molded into beads for jewelry.  The women who make these beads are all deaf.

View out to some of the bungalows.

Outside of the main building.  This building houses the gift shop as well as the sewing area, the pottery area, and the batik printing area.

I was very impressed with their TB program.  They provide treatment to people with TB.  The people are monitored to ensure that they take their medication.  Before they take it, they are given some food.  Being fed is a motivator to come and it helps reduce some of the side effects of taking the medication on an empty stomach.  During treatment, patients are taught how to make simple bead crafts.  They are paid for each piece they complete.  The catch is, no payment until they have finished their treatment.  I thought that was brilliant!  Who wants to give up all of that free money? 

With so many charity scams and mishandling of donations, it was nice to be able to see something in action.  It was also nice to be able to buy some crafts that were actually made in Namibia.  So often the things you find here are brought in from other countries and the prices are marked up.

Here is Ryan wearing the apron that I bought him at Penduka.  I loved the colors and the animals on it.

Justin looks pretty cute in his apron too.  They had some with gorgeous embroidery, but I knew I would never allowed those to be used as aprons!  Now my boys have aprons to wear when they "help" cook and when I want to help protect their clothes when they are eating.

Here is the Penduka website: http://www.penduka.com/en/

Here is a shot of the area around Penduka.  I took it through the van window on our way home.

Here is a picture of one of many barber shops set up along the way.  Why you would need so many places to cut hair is beyond me.  I suppose it is a way to try to make some money without much in the way of start up costs.  Unemployment is incredibly high here.

More random homes/businesses/storage sheds

Back in town we stopped at this little shop.  Someone had told Rob they have the best fries in Windhoek.  Well, the fries were good, but not great.  They must not like crispy fries here because they just don't make them that way.  At least they are potatoes and probably contain trans fat.  How can that be bad?  Our vote for best fries in Namibia is definitely out at Okapuka game lodge.  Kind of far to drive for fries though. 



Game Drive Afternoon Trip

We FINALLY made it to the Okapuka Game Lodge.  It is only about 40 km away from Windhoek, so it is one of those things that we could do any afternoon.  Of course that means it is something we hadn't gotten around to because it is so close and doesn't require a lot of advanced planning.  Fortunately, we went with a couple who is only here for a couple of months.  That means they have a tighter timeline.  That was the motivation we needed to go. 

Warthogs were everywhere!  I took this shot while sitting at our table.  We snacked on some fries while we waited for it to be time to leave for our drive.  Rob and I agree that the fries were the best that we have had in Namibia.  Very reasonably priced too.



We saw two crocodiles while we were out on the game drive.  While we were snapping pictures of one, a warthog came trotting down the path.  It saw the croc, returned back into the brush, and made a wide detour to get around.  Not that I really had any desire to see a creature mauled by a crocodile, but it would have been interesting to see how fast that croc could move.  He looks so harmless just resting there.  I've seen enough nature shows to know better though!

We saw probably about 20 giraffes in all.  We didn't get close to a lot of them though.  I was amazed at how well they can blend in to the the landscape.  They are obviously tall and I would have thought that would make them stick out.  Their coloring matches up with the dry bushes and trees though.  I find giraffes one of the most interesting animals to watch.  They are graceful and just different.  Very neat to view them here as opposed to a zoo.  I get better pics in a zoo, but it just isn't the same.

The tour guide feeds the rhinos, so we saw plenty of them.  I liked this picture because you can tell how close they got to us.  It would have been easy to reach out and touch them.  Our guide assured us they were vegetarians, but that doesn't mean anyone wanted to run around and play with them.  These guys are BIG.  We saw a couple of them have a disagreement and I sure wouldn't want that horn coming my way!

These are springbok.  We saw tons of them as well as kudu, oryx, sable antelope, blue wildebeest, hartebeest, eland, and the like.  Our guide had the facts about which were the fastest, which could leap the highest, which were the largest, etc. etc.  They eat a lot of these animals here.  I have tried some when we went to Etosha.  Not horribly impressed, but I am not big on game meat.  We saw one oryx with only one horn and it was facing the wrong way.  Our guide told us it was from incest.  "Incestuous antelope" became my favorite phrase of the day.  The little oryx looked a bit like a unicorn reject.

I love all the birds' nests hanging from the trees. Namibia has a lot of interesting birds, but they are fast, small, and hard to get pictures of unless you have patience and a good camera.  We also saw baboons, but they were fast and uncooperative with getting their pictures taken.  Baboons cause a lot of mischief here. 

Nice fire going at Joe's Beerhouse.  We had an early dinner so it wasn't cold yet.  When the sun goes down, winter can be chilly here, especially if there is a  wind.  Joe's is  a tourist "must" for eating out in Namibia.  I opted for a beef steak rather than some of the more exotic game choices that are available.  Our poor waitress seemed a bit confused by Americans who didn't want sauce dumped all over their meat.  The garlic butter on it was perfect!  Why would we want to mess with that?  They really love their sauces here.  Unfortunately, I don't find them very appetizing.

A friend told me that the boys wouldn't do well on the drive.  I know a lot of places don't allow small children because it is hard to get them to follow directions precisely if wildlife get out of control.  I think our boys would have been fine as long as they weren't sitting on the edge.  I would have felt that they were safe, but I sure wouldn't have enjoyed myself.  They would have been bored.  Justin is so clueless at spotting things too, I wonder if he would see a rhino unless it touched him!  They got bored just looking at a few pictures.  The comment Justin made was along the lines of you saw a rhino, cool, let's go play now.

So Mom, Dad, Meredith, or other potential visitors.  I will take you to Okapuka if you visit us.  It is close, the game drive itself is short (only 90 minutes) and inexpensive.  You get to see a little of the wild without it being inconvenient. :)

Rant, Rave, and Well Deserved Praise

I love to shop at Kohls for clothes for baby and toddler items as well as some other basic odds and ends.  When our Chinese rice cooker died, Kohls had the best price on the replacement (okay, I only compared with Amazon, Macys, and two or three other sites), especially since I could get it at 30% as a Kohls charge card holder AND get $10 back for every $50 I spent.  I am a regular Kohls customer for things like that. 

This week my two kitchen wooden spoons arrived in a box big enough for a bed pillow, but they had it dropped shipped from their supplier so can't blame them for that, and my other items did not arrive.  Box came with packing slip and some baby items that were not at all what I ordered.  Not even close.  Sigh.  So I want to return the things that aren't mine and get the things that I ordered and paid for.

Living overseas presents challenges, and returns are one of them.  With the time difference and the often crappy connection I have for phone calls, e-mail customer service would seem the way to go.  I explained the situation.  Questions were asked of me.  I responded, but of course the same person didn't get that e-mail.  Trying to go over things (guess they don't read the whole thread or the notes that they take) is like a game of telephone and the message doesn't get through. 

I gave up and called as I had done on a previous occassion.  Nicest customer service on the phone.  Very polite, very helpful, and the problem was dealt with.  Not only was it corrected, but it was corrected to my advantage as a courtesy for my inconvenience.  Nice.  They have kept me as a customer.  I hope that as they look over my order history they can see that I am a reasonable person.  I know that there are people that try to scam companies over things like toddler boy socks and bath tub ABC letters, but I am not one of those people.

Specific kudos go to the supervisor who just knew that 20189 is State Dept zip code and that they could not schedule a UPS pickup so I could return items.  The wonderful woman who spoke with me on the phone honored the prices of my original purchase OR the current sale price, whichever was to my advantage.  Now, how much money is Kohls out?  In my mind, they aren't out any. They have kept a customer.  For me, it wasn't about the money either, but about customer service.  Thank you, phone customer service.  Now to get your e-mail representatives with a more efficient, helpful way of doing things.

Rice Cookers and Fighting Eland (Two Different Subjects)

Such exciting happenings in the Weber household. Our rice cooker died, or was at least very sick. It would sometimes shock you when you touched it. Hmmm, not a good sign. Our outlets all have individual on/off switches so I could just turn off the power before touching it, but really it seemed like a sign to get a new rice cooker. We bought it in China for something like $10 to $12 US and it had a good run. During our move from China to Japan it got dented, but it kept on working. Now, after just over five years of faithful service, it was ready to get a new one. The replacement ended up costing $70. We have only used it once so far, but it seems to be of a better quality. Time will tell how it holds up. Now I just need to remember that it is 110 volts and not 220 so I don't plug it in directly and blow it up. (Left: old cooker, Right: new cooker)

Before swimming lessons, we stopped off at the petting zoo. We saw two elands (or is the plural eland just like the singular?) butting heads and pushing each other around. These guys are taller than I am and were being quite aggressive. I wanted to take video or at least get a picture, but my camera was in my purse and I didn't want to let go of Ryan's hand. The animals roam free and we weren't too far away. Ryan was trying to be a peacemaker and I feared that getting out my camera might just be the distraction that allowed him to enter the fight himself. I got a shot of one of the eland a bit later when we were further away. Doesn't he look calm and friendly in the picture?

See how exciting our lives are?  Maybe you have had a rice cooker die lately, but how often do eland fight right in front of you?  Hopefully after our day trip on Saturday I will have something a bit more exciting to post. :)  Just wanted to put something up since I said I would post more often.

I Just Want to Plug In the Humidifiers!

It is winter now.  The long summer rainy season is over and humidity levels have dropped drastically.  Time to plug in the humidifiers in the bedrooms.  I put it off longer than I should have because I knew it would not be a simple task.  We have three humidifiers.  One came with the house and it has a skinny European style plug.  One that we brought with us is from the States (okay, probably made in China, but a US brand) and has a US plug and needs a transformer to convert the voltage.  The one we purchased here has a round European plug.  Now, to get them plugged in and operational...  Pictured are some of the many styles of adapters we have.  Here in Namibia they have the most ridiculous plugs, just like in South Africa and who knows where else.  The prongs are huge and make me think that these are training plugs, kind of like they make the fat crayons for toddlers.  I figure out a configuration that works, but wouldn't you know it, when one of the adapters is plugged in, it turns off the power to the outlet.  All of the outlets have on/off switches, and to push the adapter in far enough to make contact forces the outlet off.  It took probably about 40 minutes to get three humidifiers plugged in.  The outlets alone are a reason not to live here.  I hope that the next place we lives has something more sensible that can use a universal adapter.  I feel like I have enough adapters that I could open my own Radio Shack.

Back to Blogging?

Okay, there have been a lot of reasons that I haven't been blogging.  One of them is actually pretty stupid.  There were two obnoxious widgit graphics that appeared over my text and I didn't know how to get rid of them.  I know that I could look online to find out or just experiment with settings, but our internet can be SO slow sometimes (remember dial up speed?) and with the boys constantly distracting me it was just not something that I was doing.  Today (I hope) I did it!  Yay!  Now that that isn't there to bother me, perhaps I will get back to more regular blogging.  At least I have been doing monthly updates of what I have been doing with the boys on my blog http://entertainingmykids.blogspot.com/

I want to write a bit about our trip to Etosha last month, but for now I will write about my tripS to the store to buy food.  This morning I went to the fruit and vegetable market to buy produce and milk.  That was all that I needed.  I got the produce.  I can generally accept that our produce is trucked in from South Africa and does not always look the way I expect produce to look.  I can also usually deal when an item or two is out of stock.  Today there was no milk to buy.  Correction, there was no milk that had an expiration date any later than today.   There was some with yesterday's date and some with today's date.  That doesn't really help me for the rest of the week.

This afternoon I decide to head out to the market to buy milk.  My husband wants some ramen for work as well.  Simple enough.  Still, since I am making the trip I might as well buy for the week.  They had tortillas in stock (yay!) which I have not seen for three weeks.  We are out, so I bought five packages of eight tortillas to put in our freezer.  That starts us out at $15 US.  I continue, happy that they do have milk AND ramen AND even the kind of yogurt my kids like.  The dates on the products are all good.  Of course since I am buying so much I figure I should get flour since I am low, chips, etc. etc.  Once we get over the magic number of $15 US we need to get a tax receipt so we can be reimbursed for the 15% tax on things here.  (Your state tax isn't sounding so bad now, is it?)  I load up the cart and decide I should check how much money I brought.  I wasn't going to get much and now I have quite a bit.  I have about $100 US so I plan accordingly.  I end up buying about $70 worth of stuff.  The boys have been playing with food in the cart, trying to climb out, making loud noises, grabbing for things on the shelves, etc. etc.  I am so frazzled as I check out that I forget to get my tax receipt.  Grrrr... I could wait in the looooooooong line at customer service, but I really don't want to be with my screaming demons a moment longer.  There goes $10 US down the drain.  I know, not a huge sum, but it still makes me mad.  There was no good reason not to get that "free" money. 

So we get home and the boys are walking so slowly while I am carrying heavy bags.  They are fighting to get in the house and I open the door without turning off the alarm first.  I have to push past the kids who are hanging on my legs and trying to be the first ones in the house and get over to the control panel to turn it off before the alarm company starts calling.  Then Ryan is upset and needs comforting.  Justin decides to help put away the food because he knows I am not pleased with them.  He puts some in special "tricky" places for me.  Lovely.  I think I have found everything.  I wish I hadn't been busy with Ryan so long.

Good thing I got more than milk and ramen because I am NOT looking forward to my next trip to the store!

Swakopmund Vacation

 This weekend we finally got out of Windhoek for the coast. We made the four hour drive to Swakopmund, Namibia, the second largest city in Namibia (not saying much) and the closest city to Brad and Angelina's place in the country. We had a nice time, but I think it it overrated. Don't think that it would be nearly as popular if there were more to do here.

We got to Swakopmund at lunch time on Friday. Everyone always talks about the cute little cafes and restaurants. They are supposed to be kid friendly (which I have decided means you can let your children run around like brats without regard to their safety or any consideration of other people), but come on, my kids are four and two. We decided to just hit KFC and even waiting for that was hard for the kids. They were EVERYWHERE! At least they enjoyed the food. We made our way to where we were staying, a 3 bedroom place in the north end of town. It worked out perfectly for us. We had plenty of space and had a kitchen, meaning we didn't have to eat all our meals out. :) We rested a bit and then walked over to the beach for a bit. Yes, we had to get sandy and wet so we had to go back home and change. We made a quick stop at the Snake House. For about $4 each, we were able to see snakes in three roms that all together were smaller than our kitchen. The boys enjoyed the snakes, and loved watching the chameleon get fed. They also loved climbing on the jawbone of a whale. Easily entertained. We walked around the downtown area for a bit and then headed to the grocery store to pick up a few items.

Saturday was cool and rainy, but we headed for the main beach area and playground. Next to the playground, a bouncy castle park was set up. For a fee, the kids could bounce around to their hearts' content, and oh how they loved it. We spent HOURS there. Justin's favorite was the inflatable water slide. Ryan tried it once, but when he climbed to the top he was freaked out by the water and perhaps the pitch of the slide. I think it was just as well because otherwise he would have been wanting to climb up it all day. Instead he kept climbing up a rope cargo net, using his arms and not his legs. He got really tired, but what great upper body strength!

For lunch we found a charming cafe (meaning overpriced mediocore food) and then headed over to the Kristall Galerie. This is a pretty small museum that could be seen in about 10 minutes. It has a cave replica which frightened the boys the first time through. Ryan was wrapping his legs around mine, afraid to move. After the first time through, we couldn't keep up with the boys. They thought it was great. They also have an area where you can "find" polished rocks. Ryan mostly wanted to throw them in the water.

Back to the bouncy castle area for a couple more hours.  Justin kept gong back to the water slide over and over, while Ryan and I wandered over to the ocean.  Justin and Rob eventually joined us, and we enjoyed having the waves get our feet and legs wet.  When the boys started to shiver, it was time to head home.

Sunday was a lazy day.  We had gotten WAY too much sun on Saturday and all ended up with burns. :(  We headed out to a pizza place for lunch and had an African take on Italian food.  Home for a quick nap and then we were back at the beach.  This time we had hats and protective clothing as well as PLENTY of sunscreen.  Justin liked playing in the sand and Ryan liked playing in the water.

Each evening after the boys were in bed, Rob and I watched a DVD.  While taking small children on a trip means it is a trip and not a vacation, it was still nice.  It was good to be at the beach and to have a few days without laundry and other routine chores.