These are pictures of our new house. No, we aren't in it yet, but you can see the difference between this and the temporary house. We are excited!
Monday, August 31, 2009
New House
These are pictures of our new house. No, we aren't in it yet, but you can see the difference between this and the temporary house. We are excited!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Our first African House
So this is it. We are here temporarily, but I thought maybe you would be interested in seeing what things look like here. There are two fence pictures, our guard, the pillar in front of our house, and the trees. Madison contributed to most of the pics :) Hope you enjoy.
Mozambique, Africa
We've made it to Africa. A long ride, but it was actually not so bad as the first time we came to Africa as Newlyweds. Back then I hadn't had back surgery so it was murder to be on a 15 hour flight. I figured this time would be awful because of the girls...but they did a great job. They slept about eight hours and each seat had a personal movie player. That kept us all engaged for a long time. Don't get me wrong, it was arduous, just not as much as I thought it would be. That is a good thing!
Adjusting is always interesting. Sometimes really intense, like when your daughter is throwing up and has a fever for four days and no one knows what is wrong, and you are thinking, "Malaria? Yellow Fever? Cholera? Crazy African illness?" Sometimes it is just one tiny thing after another like having none of your own pans to cook in so you use the sterling silver ones they give you and they burn everything in sight. Hence having to make eggs in the microwave for Mikaela. Or when you have to distill your water in this big, ugly silver thing that sits in your kitchen and may clean your water but it still tastes like dirt. We cook with it and wash veggies in it with bleach and brush our teeth with it. The welcome book talks about how mundane things, routine things, get under your skin because there are just so many, all day, that are different or hard or non-intuitive; one example is our kitchen sink has the hot water on the right and cold on the left and you pull up to turn it off and you push it down to turn it on. Weird.
Madison likes school and has been really fortunate to get a great teacher for kindergarten. They also made an exception and let her into the first grade gymnastics class--I begged and they felt pity on me. She starts on Tuesday. One of the slides is her at her fist day of school and Mikaela in her pijamas as we were still adjusting to time zones.
It is more chilly here than we thought, the girls have to wear sweaters but I am happy as a clam. It is like Fall or Spring weather when you wear jeans and a t-shirt or even a sweater at times. The sun is beautiful and we live 30 seconds from the beach. The beaches are disgusting and where we visited there was a dead rat-yuck! Our friends asked if we saw any hypodermic needles---we won't be going there anymore. Life will be a little easier when we have a car and can get ourselves around and go to the nicer beaches up the coast a bit.
All in all, we are happy and surviving. We are in a temporary house, but it is big and nice and we really have no complaints. We just have to get used to a key for everything and the laundry room being outside by the gaurds little bathroom that always smells disgusting. Other than that, there is comfy furniture and we have internet! Not so many mosquitos since it is winter, so we are really doing well. In the group of pictures after the slide show I will put in some of Madison's pictures of the house, the yard and the guard. Then we will send more when our new house is ready.
Love to all--from Africa :)
Adjusting is always interesting. Sometimes really intense, like when your daughter is throwing up and has a fever for four days and no one knows what is wrong, and you are thinking, "Malaria? Yellow Fever? Cholera? Crazy African illness?" Sometimes it is just one tiny thing after another like having none of your own pans to cook in so you use the sterling silver ones they give you and they burn everything in sight. Hence having to make eggs in the microwave for Mikaela. Or when you have to distill your water in this big, ugly silver thing that sits in your kitchen and may clean your water but it still tastes like dirt. We cook with it and wash veggies in it with bleach and brush our teeth with it. The welcome book talks about how mundane things, routine things, get under your skin because there are just so many, all day, that are different or hard or non-intuitive; one example is our kitchen sink has the hot water on the right and cold on the left and you pull up to turn it off and you push it down to turn it on. Weird.
Madison likes school and has been really fortunate to get a great teacher for kindergarten. They also made an exception and let her into the first grade gymnastics class--I begged and they felt pity on me. She starts on Tuesday. One of the slides is her at her fist day of school and Mikaela in her pijamas as we were still adjusting to time zones.
It is more chilly here than we thought, the girls have to wear sweaters but I am happy as a clam. It is like Fall or Spring weather when you wear jeans and a t-shirt or even a sweater at times. The sun is beautiful and we live 30 seconds from the beach. The beaches are disgusting and where we visited there was a dead rat-yuck! Our friends asked if we saw any hypodermic needles---we won't be going there anymore. Life will be a little easier when we have a car and can get ourselves around and go to the nicer beaches up the coast a bit.
All in all, we are happy and surviving. We are in a temporary house, but it is big and nice and we really have no complaints. We just have to get used to a key for everything and the laundry room being outside by the gaurds little bathroom that always smells disgusting. Other than that, there is comfy furniture and we have internet! Not so many mosquitos since it is winter, so we are really doing well. In the group of pictures after the slide show I will put in some of Madison's pictures of the house, the yard and the guard. Then we will send more when our new house is ready.
Love to all--from Africa :)
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Holy Shrimp, Batman
I know someone is wondering what kind of lobster or crayfish that is, but it really is a shrimp. We bought four of them at the fish market, and they weighed over 1/4 lb EACH (and cost about $2 each)! Needless to say the girls didn't even finish theirs. I almost asked if they sold saddles for them, as well.
The fish is a red grouper, the first fish we ate here in Maputo (yes, the fish market is Tobias' favorite place so far), and it was DELICIOUS!! We almost felt like we were eating Nemo, though, since he looked more like he belongs in an aquarium. But we will definitely get grouper again. Our favorite so far has been the fresh clams. You buy them live and cook them immediately, and they are fantastic. I think we have eaten more than Mikaela's weight in clams already (and they only cost about 50 cents/lb). HEAVEN!
Do Ya Think Maybe She Likes Him?
Well, our family now has our first dog, a Boxer named Sugar Ray. He is happy, VERY energetic, and just what we need, especially for Africa. Most people here are terrified of dogs, which makes him a perfect fake guard dog because he looks tough and scary, but is as nice as a new puppy. When we take him walking it is like parting the Red Sea, people move right out of the way and give us PLENTY of space. And the girls can't really hurt him, either, since he weighs more than both of them and pulls me around like a little kid when he wants something. We are really happy to have him.
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