Electricity - Part 2 - What the???

We arrived in PE on the last flight out of Joburg.  By the time we landed, disembarked, and collected  our luggage it was dark.  DH's boss, who lives in our development, met us at the airport so we could follow him back to our new neighbourhood.  When we arrived at the house and he handed us 2 sets of keys and 2 credit type cards.  After travelling for 24+ hours with 3 children, I was in no shape to question why we needed credit cards with our house keys, I assumed someone would fill me in later.

As we start trying to plug in various electronics that we had purchased or brought with us, we ran into some problems. Now, in Ontario, building code says something like, there must be one electrical outlet every 8 feet and minimum 1 outlet on every wall. Here the building code seems to be different. We do not have outlets on every wall, in fact in DD's room there is only one outlet total. Unfortunately, that outlet is being used for the security system, so we have nowhere to plug in a lamp or anything else in her room. 

We have also discovered that the "M" type plugs that are used in PE are used in very few countries.  Many of the 220V appliances that we have purchased need adaptors as they are the 2 prong "C" plug that most of Europe uses.  Fortunately, everyone in PE has this problem so it's not just those of us who are expats.  Just about every store has a whole section of electrical adaptors, plugs, extension cords and power bars.  I'm quite certain that every outlet in our home has an adaptor and or power bar to accommodate the various plugs for the various appliances that we own.  Most of them have an extension cord too.

About a week after we had arrived and gotten all of our appliances sorted out we started having a problem with the lights on our driveway.  They kept tripping a breaker.  When I went in search of the electrical panel this is what I found. 

Now, I got the breaker panel part of the picture, but what the heck was the phone without a receiver doing there?  Being the curious person that I am I looked at the "phone" a little more closely.  Keypad, little window, manufacturer name.  The little number in the window says 12 kWh.  My brain does a quick rewind to high school physics and comes up with kilowatt hour = electricity.  So, as I'm trying to figure out how the electric company comes to read the meter inside the garage, I notice that the number is counting down.  My heart rate accelerates as I realize that the number is indicating how many kWh we have left. I have no idea how many kWh we would use in a day, so I have no idea if 12kWh will get us through the next 24 hours or not.  As I am contemplating how long our electricity is going to last I notice that the numbers are actively counting down.  Now, I start to panic realizing that there is not a snowball's chance that we're going to make it another day at the rate it's moving.  I rushed to turn off the pool pump, washing machine and anything electrical in the house, then I got on the internet to try and figure out how to get electricity.  I knew that it had something to do with those credit card things that we got as we arrived. 

I called dh.  He said he'd ask a colleague and get back to me.  I tried the bosses wife, she wasn't home.  So I Googled the electric company.  I got a list of the places to buy electricity.  Turns out it's the same kind of pre-pay as my cell phone, only I didn't know that about my cell phone yet, as I had only had it for a week.  I figured that I needed to take the credit card and pay for electricity, they would swipe it to load it up and off we go.  By the time I've figured all of this out the clock tells me it's 4:30.  At that point I was under the impression that all stores closed at 5:00.  So I load all of the kids into the rental car and dash off to the mall in a panic.

We arrive at the mall and on the way to the Pick n Pay I run into one of our neighbours.  I  ask her how the electricity works.  She tells me that she's not sure if Pick n Pay still does it or not, but I should try and if not I should go to Sasol, that's were they get their electricity.  I have no idea what or where Sasol is.  In fact I'm not even sure I've understood her accent.  It didn't sound like any place that I was familiar with, so I asked her where it was.  She gave me directions, but I didn't understand anything except for the fact that it was somewhere between the mall and home. I had no idea what any street names were or even compass directions,  I'd only been driving for a few days, so asking for directions was kind of silly in hindsight.

I thanked her, cursed myself for not understanding South African accents better and said a little prayer that Pick n Pay still sold electricity.  It is now 4:45 and I breathe a sigh of relief when we reach Pick n Pay.  Guess what!!! it's open until 8:00.  I go to the customer service desk and they tell me no they don't sell electricity anymore I need to go to the Sasol.  They give me equally useless directions and I rush the children back to the parking garage.   As I drive out I am convinced that Sasol, whatever it is, probably closes at 5:00 and it's now 4:55.  As I'm driving towards home, I am looking at every sign I can see and low and behold I see the Sasol.  I did understand the accent and found that Sasol is a petrol station.  Realizing that it's a petrol station and probably open past 5:00 I relax a bit.  I park, and get the kids out of the car and go inside.

There is a line up and we wait our turn with credit card and electricity card in hand.   I get to the teller and hand them both cards.  I say,  I just moved here and I need some electricity.  They say "I'm sorry we don't take credit cards, cash only".  Sigh!  So I frantically search my purse and pockets for any South African money.  I ask how much electricity I get per Rand.  The very nice and patient young lady behind me in line tells me that it's roughly 1 kWh per Rand and she uses about R250 per month for her flat.  I manage to locate R30 in cash and figure that will get me through a few days.  So the teller takes my money and the card enters some information on his special electricity machine and hands me back the card and receipt.  The kind, and very understanding lady tells me that there is a code on the receipt that I need to enter into the meter at home.  I thank her profusely, pack the kids back in the car and head home.

By the time I get home we're down to 10.5 kWh and I've only been gone for an hour.  Looks like the 34.8 kWh I got isn't going to take me too far.  I stand looking at the metre for a few minutes and try to figure out if there is a special way to enter the code.  Do I enter the card code first? Do I press the # key or the * key?  I don't want to do it wrong so I head off to the bosses house to see if his wife is home.  Turns out the boss is home.  He assures me that all I need to do is enter the 20 digit code into the key pad and that's it.  He tells me that with the pool, alarm system and general use, his family of 3 goes through between 35 and 45 kWh per day.  He also tells me that everyone, even South Africans, forget to pay attention every once and a while.  He told me how one night he was watching a rugby match and the TV died.  They had forgotten to buy electricity.

The boss invites me to stay for a cup of tea and we have a lovely visit.  Dh calls me back while I'm at the bosses house and I tell him it's all sorted out.   Dh joins us at the bosses house when he gets home from work and listens to me retell my adventure.  After I'm done he thoughtfully mentions that I could have used my Canadian debit card in the ATM at the petrol station to get more cash.  He was right.  I had been so caught up in the stress of making sure the lights didn't go out on us in the middle of the evening I didn't even think about using my debit card or even looking to see if there was an ATM.

After this fiasco, DS #2 volunteered to be our "electricity monitorer" (his words not mine).  He had been really good at remembering until last week.  We had just arrived home from school and I went to get one of the kids bikes down, which happened to be near the metre.  We were down to 13kWh.  So I pack the kids back into the van to go get more electricity.  We have since found a spot that will take payment by credit card up to R1500, so I don't have to carry too much cash around.  When we got home with our code in hand I went to punch in the numbers, but the metre was reading 14kWh.  Weird, I thought the metre is counting up ?!?  It took me a minute to notice that to the left of the screen was a negative sign.  Before we left we had been at minus 13kWh.  So, I learned that the electricity is not shut off as soon as the metre reaches zero.  Hopefully, we can remember to maintain our electricity and I never have to find out at what point it does get shut off.

Electricity - Part 1

The first thing that you realize when you are planning a move out of North America is that both the electrical and tv broadcast systems in North America are different than SA (and much of the rest of the world for that matter)  SA works on 220V 50 Hz and PAL TV.   Knowing this we started with a sorting process.

This sorting process took several passes.  The first pass was done with a very general question in mind.  Will we need this in SA?  Things like power tools we pretty much decided we wouldn't need.  We were going to be renting, so housing modifications were going to be minimal and we figured that we'd rather be spending time exploring anyway.  Things like the table saw, router and circular saw were definitely store or give away items. 

When it came to things like lamps, clock radios and kitchen appliances we divided into need or not.

The next pass we checked through all of those electronics we thought we would need and looked to see if they were compatible with a 220 current.  Things like the laptop, printer and ipod chargers were fine.   But the Nintendo DS chargers were not (though a South African charger works without a transformer as the wattage output is the same).  So that narrowed things even further. 

In order to keep things straight in my head I went to the dollar store and got some green, blue, red and yellow stickers.  Green (Go to SA by sea container), blue (Go to SA by air), yellow (Caution hold in storage in Canada), Red (Stop freecycle , garbage or someone in the family was going to take it).  I ended up using the stickers for all of the furniture and boxes as well, it really helped me and the movers when it came time to actually move stuff.

My brother had moved to Switzerland from the US several years ago and we had the opportunity to visit him twice over the years. I knew one thing that I needed to bring from home for sure, was my clothes dryer.  The clothes dryers in Switzerland didn't dry anything like they did in Canada.  Everything had to be hung to finish drying.  Part of the issue is that they are condensing dryers not direct vent dryers so the humid air is recycled leaving the clothes damp.  After our look see visit in February it was confirmed that clothes dryers in SA were the same.  The good thing about  Canadian clothes driers is that they are 220V, the bad thing was we didn't clue into this until we had already agreed to sell our current dryer with the house, so we needed to get another one.  Now that I'm here I wish we had managed a 220V Canadian sized washing machine too.  The washer here is tiny and for a family of 5 a big Canadian one would have made my laundry go a lot quicker.

The other thing that we needed to get was a PAL TV.   Dh did some research online and found a store in North Toronto that specialized in 220V appliances.

M, one of the staff, was amazing, but what he told us conflicted with what we had heard from my brother about his relocation.  

One said told us that lamps would work just fine with a plug adaptor and a 220V bulb.  The other said nope.

One said that kitchen appliances would be fine, though mix masters and coffee grinders would be a little slower due to the lower Hz. We just needed a transformer.  The other said not to take anything with a heating element.

They both said that with an appropriately sized transformer we could run our North American stereo, TV, Wii system and DVD player.  We wouldn't be able to watch DVD's that we purchased in SA or play Wii games, but we could watch and play all the ones that we currently owned. 

Given that the company was moving us we decided to push our luck and take some things that we had conflicting opinions about.  We reasoned that if they worked, great we saved ourselves a bunch of money,  if they didn't they weren't so huge that they couldn't be stored in the garage until we moved back home.  We also figured that it would be better to use what we have rather than buying new there and having to sell them or get rid of them when we moved back home.

Turns out moving our things was the right decision. Using the transformer, my sewing machine works just fine, I don't even notice the speed is different.  The toaster toasts, the coffee grinder grinds, just a little slower than it used to.  All the lamps, but one work, though the tri-lights are only single lights now.  The only thing that I really notice the difference in is my stand mixer.  It's a basic Sunbeam and I've noticed that it doesn't really have the same speed variation as it did in Canada, but it's still workable.  The TV, Wii, DVD combo, through the transformer, also works like a charm.  How we could have forgotten a North American power bar however, is beyond me.  So, we need to plug and unplug things every once and a while, but no biggie.

One thing I was thrilled about was my iPhone.  We knew that dh was going to get a cell phone through work, but we also knew that my Canadian cell phone wouldn't work in SA.  Knowing that it would take longer to get a home phone than a cell phone I bought an unlocked iPhone and am so thankful for that.  It was up and running within a day of our arrival and it is still very much needed as phones in SA are not a flat rate like in Canada.  You pay for the phone line and you pay for every local and long distance call that is made.  Calls in are free, calls out cost money.  It's actually cheaper for me to make calls on the cell phone, so it's been very important.  Because it's unlocked I can pick up a local card anywhere we travel outside of SA and use it when we return to Canada with any provider without roaming charges.

Seeing as I now had an iPhone before we left Canada I loaded up on TV shows and movies for the kids on iTunes.  We got a set of component cables so we could watch on the Canadian TV.  One day I was having a mommy moment and I plugged the iPhone into our PAL TV.  A few days later it occurred to me that it was still hooked up to the PAL TV, but it had been working just fine.  How cool is that.  It must have something to do with the fact that it is a digital not an analog signature.  It has occurred to me that maybe the digital satellite feed would have worked on our TV from Canada too.  No sense trying it now really, as we bought a PAL TV, but maybe we could have saved some money and just used the TV from home.  Maybe NTSC and PAL don't matter in a digital world. That's something that would have been nice to know before we left.

So, what I learned is that if you have the right transformer, which weighs an absolute ton by the way, you can run just about anything you have in Canada.  By having 2 transformers we have really saved ourselves not only a ton of money purchasing replacements for all the things we already owned, but saved ourselves the hassle of trying to resell them all before we leave for home again.  If we have purchased something here that we want to take back to Canada the transformers work in reverse too.  So the transformers are a win win as far as I'm concerned.

Next post - Electricity  - Part 2 - What the? 

  

Addo Elephant National Park - The Circle of Life

The first few times we went to see indigenous wildlife here in South Africa, we went to private game reserves.  This was our first time to a national park.

The difference between this National Park and the 2 game reserves that we had been to, is that the national park allows nature to take it's course within the confines of the park.  Addo is home not only to elephants, but also lions, buffalo, black rhino, spotted hyena, leopard, a variety of antelope and zebra species, as well as the unique Addo flightless dung beetle, found almost exclusively in Addo. 

At the 2 game reserves we visited the carnivorous predators were in separate enclosures from the herbivores that would be their natural prey.  We arrived at the park in the late morning and stayed until late afternoon.  Predators like lions and leopards generally come out at dawn and dusk to hunt, so though we didn't see either, we saw evidence of their presence in the park.  What we saw gave us plenty of opportunity to discuss the circle of life.

Just at the side of the road I took this shot.

From the shape and width of the spine we think that this is a partial skeleton of an elephant.  It was just at the side of the roadway, far from any watering holes or flat plain areas where you would normally see lions.  So we wondered, was it caught by a leopard hiding in the trees nearby? Or maybe it was dragged there by a group of hyena's or jackals after the lions had finished with it?  We'll never know of course, but it was interesting to discuss.

We saw more evidence of the big cats at one of the watering holes, just below a lookout point.

This was a watering hole with a herd of kudu grazing nearby.  I believe this is the spine and skull of a kudu.  The position of the skeleton suggests that it was taken down and flipped over onto it's back in order to expose the throat for the final kill.

These were the only two skeletons that we saw on our trip, but there were more things to ponder in the circle of life.  Towards the end of our drive we came across this lone male kudu.

It was strange that he was all alone, as kudu are herd animals and usually travel in groups.  As we observed him we realized his rear right leg was damaged in some way and he was unable to put any weight on it.  DS #1 piped up "We should call him dinner".  Cruel, yes, but it shows his understanding of the circle of life.  It is the young, the old, the weak, the injured that are targeted by predators.  But why was this kudu on his own?  Was it his choice or did the rest of the herd leave him behind because he was injured and couldn't keep up?  What would the children do if a friend was hurt, would they leave him/her behind? More interesting discussion points for the family.

The circle of life isn't just predators and prey.  It's all animals and how they need each other within the circle.  Like this flightless dung beetle.

This particular dung beetle is found primarily in Addo.  It lays it's eggs exclusively in the dung of elephants.  They are a protected species.  Which is why the yield signs.

Not only must you yield to the beetles if they are in the road, but you are not permitted to drive over dung on the roadway as it may contain dung beetle eggs or larvae. 

But, perhaps my best lesson of the day came near the beginning when we came across a group of warthogs.

A while back when we had visited Seaview Game Park I had an "aha" moment.  We were driving through the reserve and came across a family of warthogs.  I remember thinking to myself, it's just a warthog, I've seen them before.  I told dh to drive on, I didn't need another warthog picture.   But, as we drove away I thought a bit harder about my decision.  By the second game drive had I really become complacent about seeing a warthog? I decided that just wasn't right.  How often do we take for granted what is so close to us? How could I be so laise faire about this amazing opportunity?  So, the next warthog we saw I asked dh to slow down so I could take a picture.  I resolved to take pictures of all the animals, even if I had photographed them before.  Really, I was resolving to slow down and appreciate all there was to experience on this adventure. 

So, we came across this little family of warthogs at Addo and I asked dh to stop so I could take a picture.

Apparently, I got too close.  Old momma warthog wasn't putting up with it, so she charged the car leaping towards the camera in my open window. 

This was the picture that I took as my finger spasmed on the shutter button in my panic to move the camera back into the car.

She scared the beejeebers out of me.  I'm sure it was 10 or 15 minutes before my heart rate returned to normal. 

I got to thinking about the fact that, outside of the car, in a one on one with momma warthog, I would lose.   I won't carry a gun or any other "safety tools".  So, I have come to terms with the fact that I'm really just a hairless weakling in the circle of life and this adventure of ours is best viewed from a safe distance or the inside of a car at the very least.

Addo Elephant National Park - The elephants

Addo Elephant National Park encompasses about 180 000 hectares (445 000 acres) of property.  Established in 1931 as a national park, it was home to the 11 elephants remaining in the area.    

The elephant population was decimated back in the early 1900's after farmers had killed off the majority of the elephants natural predators, and the elephants became a problem, eating crops and drinking precious water supplies.  Major P.J. Pretorius was hired to exterminate the elephants.  He called the bush they lived in, hunter's hell.  He described it as being so dense and thorny that you could only see 2 paces in front of you.  It took him 3 months to kill his first elephant.  Even with the conditions he was determined and managed to kill 114 elephants in 2 years and captured 2 calves to sell to a circus.  They killing stopped when the 16 remaining elephants took refuge on the farm of 2 sympathetic farmers, but they had an intense fear and distrust of humans.   In 1925 some land was set aside for an elephant park, but the elephants didn't want to move from their safe farm.  Eventually, a plan was created to herd them with warning gunshots and fires (to prevent their retreat), to the new park, but it was hard to keep them there, creating a risk to the bordering farms and inhabitants.  In 1933 park staff began feeding the elephants, the primary food source being oranges from a local co-operative, to keep them within the park boundaries.  In 1954 an elephant proof fence was constructed out of railway ties sunk 1.8 metre into the ground and held together with 3 lengths of  lift wire.  Though the fence kept the elephants in the park area, they would not stray from the feeding spot and they decimated the vegetation in the feeding area so that there was nothing left to eat except what was provided for them.  The elephants would approach the feeding truck screaming and roaring and grabbing oranges. The feeding was stopped in 1979 and the elephants left to eat their natural foods.  Given the long life of the elephants (approximately 70 years), citrus fruits are prohibited from the park, for fear that the older elephants will revert to their aggressive behaviour to obtain the fruit from visitors vehicles.

It became apparent how dense and tricky hunting in this type of brush must have been when our vehicle turned a slight left around a bend and we just about ran smack into the back end of this young bull.  The first elephant we saw that day.

We could neither hear, nor see him until we were just about on top of him.  Elephants are very quiet creatures.  The bottoms of their feet are thickly padded like cushions and they only lift one foot at a time to walk or run.  Later, we came across two even younger bulls.  They were play fighting.  The only sound you could hear as they fought with each other was the clash of tusk hitting tusk.  There was no other sound at all.

The landscape in the park is very hilly allowing for some pretty spectacular lookout points. 

I was completely oblivious to what this particular view was hiding until dh pointed it out.  Here's a zoomed in shot of the same brush.

If you look closely, in the middle of the shot, there is a large grey elephant head. I had thought that it was just one dead tree in amongst all the green ones.

After lunch we visited the information centre at the park.  This is Hapoor.  Well a cast of him at least.

Hapoor was the dominant bull of the Addo elephants for 24 years. On the plaque next to the head it says that the name Hapoor is related to his nicked ear, though I'm not sure what exactly Hapoor means or from what language.  It is believed that the nick was caused by a hunters bullet.  It was well known that Hapoor had a deep seated hatred for humans.  He was extremely aggressive.  He fathered the majority of the calves from 1944 - 1968 and increased the population of the herd from 20 to 50.  In 1959 he was challenged by another bull and killed his challenger in the fight.

In 1966 Hapoor killed one other elephant, a cow, this time.  Park staff had noted that the cow had a large abscess and had tranquilized her to attend to the abscess.  As the effects of the tranquilizer took effect Hapoor and another cow tried to keep her up and moving.  When they were unsuccessful and the cow fell, unable to get up again, Hapoor stabbed the cow 4 times with his tusks, apparently all brain shots.  No one knows why exactly, but I would like to think that it was a natural compassionate response that she not be left to suffer predators, which would speak volumes about the intelligence and social nature of elephants.

In 1968 at 44 years of age Hapoor was deposed of his patriarchal crown, by the son of the cow he had killed.   Which makes me wonder about the phrase, elephants never forget, and whether they have the capacity for revenge or if was it just coincidence.  Hapoor became a loner and before long broke out of the park through what was thought to be an elephant proof fence.  Due to the inability to contain him and his aggressive nature towards humans, the Nature Conservator of the park had no choice but to shoot him.  In his honour they named the largest watering hole in the park after him. 

Though not aggressive by nature, bull elephants in musth (those looking for a lady elephant, if you know what I mean) can become a little bit crazy and aggressive.

As we were watching the two young bulls play fighting they moved closer and closer to our vehicle.  At one point a much larger bull decided that our vehicle was too close and began to walk directly at us, with his head swinging back and forth and his ears flapping.  Dh took that as an aggressive, back off behaviour and backed up the vehicle slowly until the older bull stopped, apparently we had reached an acceptable distance.  It was a bit of a tense situation.  To give you a sense of how big elephants are, here's another photo I took from the lookout. 

Needless to say elephants have the right of way at Addo.

Addo Elephant National Park - The Circle of Life

First tastes of South Africa

I knew when we accepted this transfer that we would be exposed to some very different foods.  I'm not overly adventurous when it comes to food, but I was certainly willing to give it a try.  With 3 young children, however, there was always a chance it wouldn't go well.  The other family member I had to consider was the dog.

When we arrived for our look see visit in February we were wined and dined with a Braai just a few short hours after arriving.  A Braai is the preferred method of entertaining friends in South Africa and we got to experience the best of the best.  It was a Sunday evening and a local restaurant owner and chef who takes Sundays off had agreed to Braai for the management staff meet and greet.  A Braai, from what I've been able to figure out is pretty much all about the meat.  First we had prawns, the size of my hand, as an appetizer. Then came the beef tenderloin, chicken, and fish courses.  There was a couscous salad and a greens salad too, but it was really about the meat.  Dh was in heaven.  After a dessert of cupcakes and chocolates we knew that food was not going to be an issue in South Africa.

DS #1 is extremely adventurous when it comes to food.  He loved the prawns.  His favorite breakfast is eggs Benedict (with hollandaise sauce).  Last summer we went for a hike with friends, one of whom is a naturalist with his own outdoor adventure company.  We had a campfire and our friend sharpened a stick and speared a cricket. He roasted it over the campfire for a couple of minutes and said who wants it.  DS #1 was first in line.  He tried a live one too, but says he prefers the nutty flavour of the cooked ones.  Nothing phases this kid, except cooked vegetables :)  I knew DS #1 would not be a problem trying new foods.

DS #2 and DD are a different story.  Not willing to try the crickets they are much more conservative in their food tastes, which was why I insisted on being taken to a grocery store when we visited in February.  From that visit I knew that the staples in South Africa were the same as the staples in Canada and if the two little ones didn't want to try new things, they would be just fine with my tried and true Canadian recipes. 

So far as the dog was concerned I went into a pet food store when we visited in February, too.  I reasoned that if I couldn't find the food he was eating in Canada then I should take note of what was available in South Africa and see if I could find it in Canada.  It turned out that they didn't have the same food we used, but they did have several brands that were common.  So, on returning to Canada I decided to change over his food to one that I could also buy in South Africa.  That way I could slowly make the transition instead of changing his food cold turkey when he arrived.  It worked really well.  Even with the stress of 2 full days of travel and 4 days away from us, he transitioned really well with no stomach issues.

When we finally arrived we tried to keep things as close as possible to our Canadian diet for the family.  We ate out a little bit more in the beginning, because there is only so much you can do with one pot and one frying pan for a family of 5.  Still, we didn't venture past the beef, pork and chicken and the traditional fruits and veggies that we ate in Canada.

By the time we had been here for a month or so, it was time to venture into some of the more South African offerings. 

We started off with the things we were pretty sure would be acceptable to the kids.  Our first foray into traditional South African food came from a local bakery called From the Kitchen.  It's sort of like a consignment shop or co op for baked goods.  Dh was taken there by one of his colleagues and we have found similar shops in various locations about the city.  Women bake sweets and savoury treats in their homes and then bring them to these shops for sale.  Each package has a description of the item, a sell by date, a Member No. and the price.  The member gets a portion of the sale price. 

Dh brought home 2 items that night.  The first were koeksisters (pronounced Coke Sisters).  It comes from the dutch koekje, which means cake.  They are a deep fried, braided dough covered in syrup.  My kids loved them.  They were too sticky and sweet for me.  I much preferred the Hertzoggies.  They are a light, puffy pastry tartlet with apricot jam filling and coconut meringue on top.  Yummy!  I have read that they were named for General Hertzog, former Prime Minister of South Africa. 

This is what they look like.  Hertzoggie on the left, koeksister on the right. 

Next, I think it was boerwors (beef farmers sausage) and biltong (beef or game jerky).  We had varied success with both.  DS #1 was a fan of both, DS #2 neither and DD loved beef biltong, but not the boerwors so much. 

With two successful new food trials and two mixed reviews under our belts we took a bit of a breather before diving into some truly alternative foods.  A few weeks later dh, always a fan of venison back in Canada, brought home some Kudu steaks.  He prepared them on the Braai and we made the mistake of telling the children what they were eating.  DS #1 tried it with enthusiasm, DS #2 and DD not so much.  It was tender and looked like beef, but had a gamier taste like venison. 

Having learned from our mistake of telling the children what they were eating, we decided to try again with stealth Kudu in the form of hamburgers.  DS #2 and DD ate them no problem, and not a comment out of them.  We discovered the trick.  So, with our next try of blesbok (also a game meat) we told them we were having steak, just not what kind of steak.  It was much more gamey than the kudu and they kids noticed right away that it wasn't like Canadian steak and we had to come clean.  I think even dh thought it was a bit too gamey, as it hasn't come home again.

We took a little break from different foods and ventured into different ways to prepare the foods we knew.  So we tried sosaties.  Basically, these are what we would have called shiskabob at home, but they are marinated in thick sauces for hours (or days) before they are cooked.  They come in either pork, chicken, lamb or beef and there is a huge variety of marinade choices.  Those of you who have been following the blog would know that one of them is called Monkey Gland.  After the initial shock of seeing it, I have found it in other stores and in bottled versions for home.  Some butchers have signature marinades and we are trying the ones that sound appetizing to us.  The kids love them, but I think kids would eat just about anything on a stick.

Our most recent new food was served in the form of spaghetti sauce.  The kids were told a few days after what it was that they had eaten.  Nothing too shocking, just ostrich.  Strangely enough, even though ostrich is a bird, it has the look of beef rather than chicken or turkey.  The ground ostrich that I used for the spaghetti sauce looked much more like ground beef than it did ground chicken or turkey, and the taste was much bolder than poultry as well.  They kids loved it.

We have found that butternut squash is an absolute staple here.  It comes in different incarnations from soups to sides and I love a butternut stuffed pasta that they make at Woolies with a rose sauce, spinach and grape tomatoes. Mmmmm good.  The kids still aren't struck on butternut and DS #2 gags every time I serve it, but I'm hopeful that it will grow on them.

I've gone out and purchased a South African cookbook.  It's interesting to read the various ethnic origins that have influenced South African foods.  German can be found in the sausages and schnitzels.  The Dutch are credited with the varied use of vegetables. French settlers influenced the area, by using less fat and using herbs and spices in a more subtle way.  The Malay influence is seen in the various curries and sosaties.  The British brought leavening agents which allowed for "thick cakes" and leavened breads.  The native Khoisan influence is seen in the propensity for meat and the use of mealie (corn).

I'm saving the recipes on page 117 of my cookbook for a really special occasion.  I'm sure that devilled lamb kidneys, ox tongue and brains are best served when, let's say, the Prime Minister comes to visit :)  Of course, if anyone does decide to visit and would like to try a recipes on page 117, I'd be more than willing to prepare brains lightly breaded and fried as the recipe suggests.  Just don't expect me to join you.  I'm not that adventurous.

Next Post:  Addo Elephant National Park

Lessons on patience

Right, so this was supposed to be a post on food, but I haven't been able to post for a few days for a couple of different reasons.  So here's a little insight into how things work, or don't work sometimes and why my post has been delayed. 

We started out having real difficulty with our Internet about a week ago.  Here's a little history about our Internet.

When we arrived we needed a home phone, easy, there is only one provider.  They have a monopoly because they control all the lines, kind of like Bell used to in Canada.  So, when we went to the phone company we found out that they did broadband dsl too.  We said terrific sign us up. 

One day the Internet just up and stopped working, but on international sites only.  We could get South African websites, but not international ones.  What we didn't know was that the dsl provider has caps for local and separate caps for international bandwidth.  We never ran out of bandwidth in Canada so after a few frustrating days of thinking our router was broken or our modem, we called the provider.  We had run out of bandwidth the first week. Sigh.

The rep on the phone told us we just needed to go to the website to top it up.  Marvelous. Off to the website I went, they only accept South African credit cards, so I entered all my brand spanking new South African Visa Credit Card information and .......... nothing.  I tell dh I'll go to the bank and get this sorted out the next day.  Next day and 1 1/2 hours later, with 3 very bored and unhappy children, nothing is sorted out because the bank has no idea what the problem is and I can't change anything anyway because dh is the account holder and I'm just a dependant. Grrrrrr! So, the next, next day dh calls the number the bank gives me and they say sorry can't do this on the phone you need to see your personal banker.  The appointment is set up for 2 days later. 

In the meantime we go on to plan B: buy an Internet stick from a cell provider and ............... nothing, can't figure out why, maybe because we live in the country.  Sigh! By now, we're on day 3 maybe 4 or 5 of no Internet.

Time to try plan C: go buy more Internet at the grocery store, because you can do that here.  I put in all the information just like it says on the receipt................. nothing.  So I call the help number on the receipt and they say, no those instructions are wrong, so they talk me through getting the extra bandwidth.  Hooray we have Internet again. 

Dh goes to see his banker and is told, oh no, you cannot make online purchases, you are not South African.  So we have a credit card, but we can only use it in stores, not on line.  Sigh! 

So, while all this is going on I discover that the Internet provider has a data management portal.  You can request by e-mail to increase your cap, which would have been nice to know when I called them in the first place.  So I e-mail to increase the cap to the absolute maximum and ............. nothing.  Sigh.  Turns out I have to reset the router back to the original provider, so a long phone call later we are back up and running, until 2 1/2 weeks later we reach the maximum cap.  Still 6 days left in the month before it rolls over, so I buy more bandwidth at the grocery store. 

By now I have become an expert at changing the router settings.  So when the same thing happens the next month I'm ready.  I have located an Internet provider with a higher cap, I can honour the ADSL contract with the phone company by paying them for the line and just have the bandwidth provided by someone else.  Terrific done.  The other company will do direct withdrawl, no South African credit card required.  That was 1 1/2 weeks ago and that's when it all fell apart.

So, I changed the router settings again and it worked, for 20 min.  Then our Internet access was intermittent.  On for 5 minutes off for 10.  Then on for 1 hour and off again.  Over the course of a week we lost our Internet 8 or 9 times a day.  After much research dh decided that it's the router and he's going to buy a new one, he'll bring it home that night.  Just as I am ready to chuck the current wireless router at the wall, I am saved by the fact that the power went out, again, for the 3rd time in 4 weeks.  It's not the whole city or anything, just 3 of the houses in the subdivision.

It happens so much that the next door neighbours have a generator.  Not just any generator either, when I first saw this giant blue thing over the fence it reminded me of a Zamboni without wheels, it's that big.  I wasn't sure what it was, maybe a furnace or air conditioner.  Nope, it's a generator.  In the day time I know when the power goes out, not because the digital clock goes out, but because the neighbours generator starts humming.  Either that or when the house alarm starts going haywire to tell me the power has gone out. 

So, the router is saved from certain death, by virtue of the fact that I have no power.  Now, no power isn't a huge deal.  The stove top is gas, so I just need a lighter to cook.   We have flashlights and we go to bed pretty early anyway so it's not such a big deal.  Still, dh figured it would be easier to go out to dinner, so we did.  We got home from dinner and still no power.  This is 8 hours later.  It was kind of like the old saying "I'll fix your headache by stomping on your foot."  I forgot about the Internet headache because I kept stubbing my toes in the dark. :)

Dh promptly falls asleep, because it's dark and there is no television.  I, on the other hand, stay awake until the power comes back on, which it thankfully it does at 22:15 (they use the 24 hour clock here, but that's a whole other post). I dutifully set all the clocks, again, turn off the alarm when it starts going haywire to tell me the power is back on, turn off ds #2's bedroom light.  I suppose he tried it one last time before he went to sleep, just to see if it worked.  Then I go to sleep.

The next day dawns and I'm back to trying to sort out the Internet only this time with the new router.  Thankfully, the kids have a friend in the neighbourhood and it's the school holidays, so everyone is out and about to play.  They are not around to bare witness to their mother turning into Mr. Hyde.  So the new router works beautifully, for 20 min. then nothing.  I call the provider who tells me that he can't help if I'm not using the router they provided.  Sigh. 

I switch back to the original router and call them back.  We've gotten so far as him verifying that I am me.  He gets 3 steps into the fix and the phone dies.  Not a power failure, just the phone.  I have given him all my contact information so I wait for him to call me back.  15min later I give up and call them, and I start the whole process of verifying that I am who I am and after 25min.  I have an Internet connection again and I'm good to go and then the power goes out again.  Grrrrr.

I SMS the neighbour in charge of our electrical problems and she tells me that the fix last night was temporary patch and now they are really going to actually fix the problem,  it shouldn't be out for too long this time.  So the joy of the Internet fix is tempered by the fact that I cannot use it because they are fixing the power. 

After the power comes back on, I try with the new router again.  No luck.  I give up and put the old router back on again.  I know my limits.  Dh and I spend a quiet evening in front of the tv watching the first episode of An Idiot Abroad executive produced by Ricky Gervais.  Totally hysterical given our current situation.

Knock on wood today has been a good day.  I managed to get the new router working, it's a lot faster than the old one, and the power has not gone out once.  I have learned a few things from this experience.  First, when we get home I will never complain about any of our Internet or phone providers again.  Second, setting a router is easy once you've done it a dozen times.  Third, I can't understand the South African accent on the IT help line any better than I could understand the Indian one when I called Bell.  Fourth, patience is indeed a virtue and Fifth, a sense of humour is paramount when you become an expat.

Next Post: Food

Random observations

Here are a few random observations that couldn't make up a whole post individually.

- Pop cans have heavy bottoms.  Even when they are empty, I think there is something left.

- New cars still come with ashtrays and a lighter.

- Addresses here are:  House Number and Street
                                   Neighbourhood and City
                                   Postal Code
                  They don't mention the province at all.

- There are 3, 1st Avenues in Port Elizabeth:  1st Avenue Newton Park, 1st Avenue Central and 1st Avenue Walmer.  Which is probably why the address includes the neighbourhoods, not provinces.

- Everyone wheels shopping carts around the mall.  The anchor stores are usually grocery stores or have a grocery department, so everyone just wheels the carts around the whole mall.

 - Almost every parking lot has parking guards.  Some are paid employees, others are unemployed and looking for a way to make some money.  They wander the parking lots in safety vests, pointing out empty spots.  If you nod at them as you leave your car they will watch over it to make sure it stays safe while you are shopping.    When you return to your car they help you load your purchases into your trunk.  They direct you as you back out by holding off traffic and guiding you with hand signals.  They even return your shopping cart if you have one.  If you have nodded to them to watch your car you give them R1 or R2 for their service. 

- We live on Algoa Bay, which is part of the Indian Ocean, but everyone here calls it the sea.

- They don't say zero, they say oh or naught.

- Cream soda is green not pink.

Next Post: Food

Happy Canada Day

I was going to post on random observations, but as Canada Day has come and gone on this side of the world I started to reflect on how strange it was for me today.

First of all Canada Day is doubly special at our home.  Dh also celebrates his birthday on Canada Day.    
Today for the first time dh went to work on his birthday.  It was just an ordinary morning.  Being the beginning of the month I needed to go to the cell phone store and get some more data time.  I needed some groceries.  Everything, of course, is open, it's Canada Day.  No one here cares and why should they, they aren't Canadian.  So, that was the problem.  We, our immediate family, are the only ones who cared that it was Canada Day.  At home we would have enjoyed a BBQ and watched fireworks, there is nothing here, but the Braai. 

These are the holidays they have here in South Africa.

New Year's Day
Human Rights Day (March 21st)
Good Friday
Family Day (Monday after Easter)
Freedom Day (April 27th)
Workers Day (May 1st)
Youth Day (June 16th)
National Women's Day (August 9th)
Heritage Day (Sept 24th)
Day of Reconciliation (Dec. 16)
Christmas Day (Dec. 25th)
Day of Goodwill (Dec. 26th)

In Canada public holidays have always been about the day off work, the long weekend, the friends and the family.  Victoria Day celebrates a Queen's birthday.  Canada Day celebrates the British North America Act.  The Civic Holiday sort of commemorates the abolishment of slavery in the British realm, but they picked August because the needed a holiday between July and September.  Family Day is celebrated in some provinces, just because it's nice to have a day off with family. Labour Day is perhaps our most significant holiday in that it commemorates a parade of union labourers in Toronto in the late 1800's.  

I wondered though, how do the holidays here compare.  What do South African holidays mean to the people of South Africa.  I discovered that here it goes much deeper than in Canada.  Here the holidays are a reminder of some very historically significant moments.

These explanations are copied from the South African government website here

Human Rights Day -

The Bill of Rights contained in the Constitution is the cornerstone of democracy in South Africa.

The Constitution provides for the establishment of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC). The aim of the Commission is to promote respect for human rights, promote the protection, development and attainment of human rights, and to monitor and assess the observance of human rights in SA. The SAHRC was launched on 21 March 1996, 35 years after the fateful events of 21 March 1960 when demonstrators in Sharpeville were gunned down by police.

The Native Laws Amendment Act of 1952 extended Government control over the movement of Africans to urban areas and abolished the use of the Pass Book (a document which Africans were required to carry on them to ‘prove’ that they were allowed to enter a ‘white area’) in favour of a reference book which had to be carried at all times by all Africans.

Failure to produce the reference book on demand by the police, was a punishable offence. The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) proposed an anti-Pass campaign to start on 21 March 1960. All African men were to take part in the campaign without their passes and present themselves for arrest.

Campaigners gathered at police stations in townships near Johannesburg where they were dispersed by police. At the Sharpeville police station a scuffle broke out. Part of a wire fence was trampled, allowing the crowd to move forward. The police opened fire, apparently without having been given a prior order to do so. Sixty-nine people were killed and 180 wounded.

In apartheid South Africa this day became known as Sharpeville Day and although not part of the official calendar of public holidays the event was commemorated among anti-apartheid movements.

Freedom Day

Freedom Day commemorates the first democratic elections held in South Africa on 27 April 1994. 

Workers Day

In pre-1994 South Africa, the demand for the annual observance of the day as a public holiday became a rallying point for workers and their trade unions and was one of a number of annually significant days to symbolise and mobilise resistance to the Apartheid Government and its racial policies.

Youth Day

Previously known as Soweto Day.

In 1975 protests started in African schools after a directive from the then Bantu Education Department that Afrikaans had to be used on an equal basis with English as a language of instruction in secondary schools. The issue, however, was not so much the Afrikaans as the whole system of Bantu education which was characterised by separate schools and universities, poor facilities, overcrowded classrooms and inadequately trained teachers. On 16 June 1976 more than 20 000 pupils from Soweto began a protest march. In the wake of clashes with the police, and the violence that ensued during the next few weeks, approximately 700 hundred people, many of them youths, were killed and property destroyed.

Youth Day commemorates these events

National Women's Day

This day commemorates 9 August 1956 when women participated in a national march to petition against pass laws (legislation that required African persons to carry a document on them to ‘prove’ that they were allowed to enter a ‘white area’).

Heritage Day

"The day is one of our newly created public holidays and its significance rests in recognising aspects of South African culture which are both tangible and difficult to pin down: creative expression, our historical inheritance, language, the food we eat as well as the land in which we live.

"Within a broader social and political context, the day's events…are a powerful agent for promulgating a South African identity, fostering reconciliation and promoting the notion that variety is a national asset as opposed to igniting conflict.

"Heritage has defined as "that which we inherit: the sum total of wild life and scenic parks, sites of scientific or historical importance, national monuments, historic buildings, works of art, literature and music, oral traditions and museum collections together with their documentation."

 

In an address marking Heritage Day in 1996, (former) President Mandela stated:

"When our first democratically-elected government decided to make Heritage Day one of our national days, we did so because we knew that our rich and varied cultural heritage has a profound power to help build our new nation.

We did so knowing that the struggles against the injustice and inequities of the past are part of our national identity; they are part of our culture. We knew that, if indeed our nation has to rise like the proverbial phoenix from the ashes of division and conflict, we had to acknowledge those whose selfless efforts and talents were dedicated to this goal of non-racial democracy."

Government determines a theme for each year’s celebrations.

Day of Reconciliation

In apartheid South Africa 16 December was known as Day of the Vow, as the Voortrekkers in preparation for the battle on 16 December against the Zulus took a Vow before God that they would build a church and that they and their descendants would observe the day as a day of thanksgiving should they be granted victory. With the advent of democracy in South Africa 16 December retained its status as a public holiday, however, this time with the purpose of fostering reconciliation and national unity.

During the earlier part of the 19th century, many Afrikaner farmers left the eastern cape and moved inland. Among them was the Voortrekkers, a group of Afrikaners protesting British colonialism and seeking independent republics on what was reputedly empty land. But the land was not empty and clashes between these Afrikaners and indigenous peoples were inevitable.

Late in 1837 one of the Voortrekker leaders, Piet Retief, entered into negotiations for land with Dingane, the Zulu king. In terms of the negotiations Dingane promised the Voortrekkers land on condition they returned cattle to him stolen by Sekonyela (the Tlokwa chief). This Retief did and apparently he and Dingane signed a treaty on 6 February 1838. During the ceremony Dingane had Retief and his entourage murdered - an event which was witnessed by Francis Owen, a missionary who described the scene in his diary.

In ensuing battles between Zulus and Voortrekkers over the next few months numerous lives were lost on both sides.

On 16 December 1838 about 10 000 troops under the command of Dambuza (Nzobo) and Nhlela attacked the Voortrekkers, but the 470 Voortrekkers, with the advantage of gun powder, warded them off. Only three Voortrekkers were wounded, but more than 3 000 Zulus were killed during the battle.

It wasn't until writing this post that I took the time to look further into these South African holidays.  Being here, it's never far from my mind how new this democracy is.  How much growth and development is still required. I look at these annual reminders of their volatile history and recall a quote by George Santayana who wrote "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."  (The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905)

And so,  I look at this list of South African holidays differently now.  I see it as a balance of acknowledging the past and celebrating the future.  They are more than just a day off for hubby and the kids.  They are an annual history lesson, that I intend to teach.