First Impressions

There are so many things that at one point in time or another in the past month I have thought "I wish X were here so I could tell them about Y" or "If I had only known Z" .  My brain is quite full of things I want to share.  Things that made me say hmmmmm.  Things that made me say wow.  Things that have made me laugh and of course things that my kids have said.  Things that I never thought I would miss and things I thought I would miss and don't.  Challenges that have been real and those that were all in my head before we arrived.  Things that made my skin get all goosebumpy and things that made my skin crawl.  I hope to get to all these things in good time but let's just start with first impressions.

I admit I was always fascinated by South Africa.  From it's colonization, to the anti-apartheid movement, to the current day.  I had read many books both fiction and non-fiction.  My favorite being A Blade of Grass by Lewis DeSoto.  (Though my book club didn't have such favourable reviews). I have always loved African choral music.  The Power of One sound track and Ladysmith Black Mambazo were in my cassette tape collection, when the music world ran on cassette.  When dh had the opportunity to come to South Africa 10 years ago I was crushed that I couldn't tag along.   So, even though this opportunity was a life long dream in the making I still arrived and felt completely shocked.  I was amazed at how media images had shaped my minds snapshot of Africa. Before I came here, I knew Uganda had lush forests where gorilla's lived (Thanks Diane Fossey) and although I probably knew somewhere in my head that the rest of the continent was not a desert wasteland like all those aid organization ads and videos that we see so often on the television in North America, the lushness and elevation changes of the city surprised me. 

Port Elizabeth is a port city in the true sense.  Roughly, 1 1/2 million people, on Algoa Bay, which is technically part of the Indian Ocean.  The port is very active, transporting manufactured parts and goods and thankfully (eventually) the 40 foot container with all of the worldly possessions that I couldn't cram into 10 suitcases.  (More on that in a later post).  It is the windy city (we've experienced 50km/hour winds), the friendly city (each of our neighbours made a point of coming by to introduce themselves and leave flowers or cookies), and the 10 min. city,  which amazingly enough for a city this size is true.  You can get just about anywhere you need to go in a 10 min drive.  In just 10 min. you can go from this view...

to this one...

What were my first impressions?  That as much as I had read and tried to absorb over the years, in my fascination for South Africa, I really knew nothing.  I learned that this adventure I had so willingly embraced was going to be so much more than I could have ever anticipated and for that am thankful.

Next post:  Why I won't need a telephoto lens.