A New Home

Where In the World Are We? These days we live just outside the village of Acornhoek located in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. This is in the north-eastern most area of the country and skirts the western-most boarder of Kruger National Park, one of the few publicly-accessible game reserves. (If you want to see a fairly exciting Krugar video clip with lots of animal action, look here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM). And we are only a few hours drive away from Maputo, Mozambique a coastal capital famous for its huge, fresh prawns.

Getting down to the nitty gritty...we live in a place called Wits Rural Facility (WRF) which is a compound/facility run by Witwatersrand University to house people involved in rural-based research projects that are affiliated with the university. People like us, for example, who are helping with a Health and Demographic Surveillance Site (HDSS) focused on 23 rural villages nearby and based out of the the village of Agincourt. It's nice that we're not the only geeks here.

Now, to put to rest the minds of those who you are concerned that we may be living in claustrophobic mud-huts with "moo poo" walls, we've included some pics of our new place. Make no mistake: we are livin' large.


Our House: Dubbed "Cisticola" by the WRF owners after a genus of very small insectivorous birds not unlike the warbler. You may notice that it has a lovely thatched roof, the benefits of which (compared to a metal roof) were described to us in detail by the managers and fellow residents. Basically, they all boil down to this: it's cooler when it's hot outside and hotter when it's cooler outside. Now, the so-called "costs" of such a roof were slightly less annunciated. In fact, it was difficult to squeeze this information out of people because basically a thatched roof means more "critters" as roommates. The owners' advice to us: just remain calm if at sometime during our stay, we glance around and spot a squirrel, owl, iguana, or snake on our table or lying between us in bed. If this happens, I think remaining calm will be the last thing on our minds. By the way, I love how they refer to these animals as "critters". As if referring to them this way makes them more lovable than if I were to call them "pests". OK, it kind of does.


The Kitchen: How could we live without a green kitchen? Answer: We couldn't. We've never had a bar in the kitchen before, and we are loving it...and barstools too! Neil and I take turns pouring each other glasses of apple-pear juice and listening to each other's heart-wrenching stories of lost loves...Paseo's chicken sandwiches, overcast afternoons, Chocolate Almond Indulgence ice cream, sailboats on Lake Union, 7-11 Slurpees, the Burke-Gillman trail, Gorditos' burritos, non-sunburned skin, Pagliacci's pepperoni pizza...



The Leather Chairs: Our project coordinators were all ready to snag us a delightful little lounge suite which doubled as patio furniture....light-weight bamboo frame, dark abstract-art material for the cushions. Quite nice, actually.

But...turns out we found a smashing deal on a couple of chocolate-brown leather recliners in Nelspruit (the capital of Mpumalanga Province and about a 2-hour drive away). Lucky for us, one of the chairs was broken and the price had been reduced to 1/4 of its original price. One salesperson, who obviously misjudged how cheap we are, tried to sell us a chair that was three times as expensive. "Uh, no." Then quoted us a repair price for the recliner of 1,000 Rand (about $110). "Again, no." We took a gamble and crammed the chair into the plum Polo "as-is". (Yes it fit...believe it, if you can!). So, we went across the street to Builders Warehouse (the South African equivalent Home Depot) picked up two bolts, two nuts, and four washers...7 Rand (< $1) and half an hour later we had ourselves a perfectly functional leather recliner. We even made double chocolate muffins at the same time. What better treat to go with our chocolate chairs? . . The New Bed: Yes, that's right, we finally got a new bed. The day before I arrived, in fact. So, Neil no longer has to sleep on a twin-sized bed with used sheets and blankets that smell like a game drive. I do believe he's quite happy about that.
The other night we went to bed with a bunch of winged beetles flying around our lamps and dive-bombing our heads (another plug for the short hair, by the way). So, to get back at them (in our preferred pacifistic way) we put up our mosquito net. Bring it on, bugs!



The Plum Polo: Meet our latest set of wheels. After exhausting the country's used-car lots, and making lots of new "best friends", Neil finally came across this little beauty. It's sleek, stylish, and (with a 1.4-liter engine) very fuel-efficient. As an added plus, we were able to side-step the whole used-car-dealer universe by buying from it directly from the previous owner (leave it to good, old-fashioned networking). The downside: it's a bit gutless. Fortunately, we tend to be able to pass most of the vehicles on the roads around here...usually construction/farming vehicles or pickup trucks (a.k.a. "buckys") overloaded with people or household furnishings, or both (see pic below...and imagine all the other cars whizzing by at 120km/hr...yikes!). Of course, while the plum Polo is no replacement for the Subaru (the value of which our good friends, the Chandlers, have managed to increase substantially by prying open the back door open...and getting it closed again!), it'll certainly do. Great car hunting, Neil!