5/23/2009: Rugby!

Gordon (Fraaancis' husband) won some tickets to the Bulls vs Crusaders rugby match today. Turns out he won them by jumping into the fountain up at Vodaworld! Sweet! I was doubly honoured that he invited me after finding that out!

After parking up as close to the field as we could, we began walking. Visions of Texas Tech football tailgating danced in my head. Cars everywhere, tailgates down, grills out, meat cooking, beer bottles laying around, people milling about, country music playing (boermusik) - it was all the same except the music was in Afrikaans rather than English!



Walking towards the stadium - directly in front of us is a massive Castle biergarten. Wunderbar! (No we didn't go in.)



Walking up to our seats on the main level - Pretoria is beautiful! That's Gordon there on the right, and thousands of people walking into the stadium on the left.



The stadium before filling up with folks.



The Bulls were down in the first half 7-20, but came back in the last ten minutes to score 20 points, making it 27-20 at halftime.



People had ample chances to wave their flags. No horns here (they are banned because white folks get irritated and start fights, so I heard). Interesting note - there were as many black people here as there were white people at the soccer match. I saw two black folks. That's it. There were some Malays and Kiwis however, rooting for New Zealand (of course).



About 70k people I believe.




Exiting the stadium...



...in time to have a couple Boddington's Pub Ale. Yummy, and comes in imperial pints (18.6 oz.)!

5/22/2009: Mike's Pilot Test and Evening Out

This morning I drove Mike and myself over to the Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) building in Midrand so that he could transfer his American PPL (pilot's license) to South Africa (not actually transfer - more like get it recognized so he can fly here). After about an hour and a half, all was well, so we loaded up and drove to Lanseria airport west of Joburg.

After a copious amount of paperwork, we were ready for him to take his test with the instructor. We loaded into the junky Cessna 172 and made our way over to Hartbeespoortdam.







Beautiful!



What wasn't beautiful was that my stomach was still not 100% and he had to do spiral turns and stalls. Yikes.



I dropped Mike at the airport and sent him on his way, then make my way back home. After we watched Star Wars: Clone Wars, we loaded up and went to Doppio Zero, which is fast becoming our favourite eatin' out place.

The kids got to make their pizzas once again - Mary and Vin made ham and pineapple...



...while John made ham and mushroom.



We had hummus and tahini and April's favourite pizza - the pollo with extra coriander and sweet chili sauce, as well as a bottle of Beyerskloof Pinotage 2007. Yum!

5/19/2009: Mary's Dance

Mary has been attending dance here at the Irene Village Hall (building was built in the 20's by the residents of Irene - pretty neat). She enjoys it very much:



Awww puddin'!

5/18/2009: Last Day of Freedom

Mike is arriving from Texas tomorrow night, so this was pretty much the last night this week that I had to spend with the family. We started with a bottle of Tall Horse Pinotage 2007, which both April and I liked fine.



Sarah had fallen and forked her tongue earlier in the day, so she was a bit cranky:



April and the kids were worn out from a weekend of being sick:




The first bottle of wine was good, so we continued onto #2, a bottle of Goudini Shiraz 2006. I tried to sneak this one past April, but she realized early on that it wasn't a Pinotage. Oh well - we for sure like mild reds! I purchased this bottle at the Irene Homes fair for R30. Not too shabby!

5/13/2009: Mission Work Redeux

I had to go into Vodacom today, so Fraaancis (my ministry supervisor here) picked up April and the kids to go see what the result was of all the donations received by us from our email and Facebook appeal.

Here is the new coal-fired stove/heater in the creche (that's Francis with it). This allows them to heat the building as well as cook, without the expensive expenditure of liquid propane. We just gave them the money for this stove on Saturday - here by Wednesday it was purchased and installed. Efficient!

More pics at Flickr!



Here are the children of the creche in their new clothes! They actually look warm, no?



Here are the children off the cold floor, on mattresses! The fire only engulfed one mattress completely - the others were salvaged by wrapping them in sheets (rather than having a plastic cover).



April and the kids were fed lunch there - stew, pap, potato salad.



Here is Diane cooking on the new stove. God bless these people!



More pics at Flickr!

5/17/2009: Still Sickie

Everyone was still sick yesterday, including Fraaaancis and Gordon, so our plans to go to the Jesus Film were shot. We stayed at home and watched movies and wallowed in our sickness (nasty by the way - lets just say the mop has gotten a workout).

Today we went to Mass, where I reflected again on the inanity of contemporary Catholic hymns. Ugh. Banal. Anyway, I digress...

We drove to the "Atterbury Value Mall" (I think that's what it is called) so that April could go look at Craft Market (consignment craft store) to get ideas for gifts to bring back that will actually make it and not break in our luggage.

We were all famished, so first we stopped at Pizza Plus and had a Margherita pizza (tomato sauce and cheese only) and a Spicy Texan (hot dogs/viennas, jalapenos, cheese). Both were yummy, as was the homemade sweet chili sauce in the green Grolsch bottle. I think we polished them both off.



The Craft Market, where Mary couldn't resist the mirror.



Supper? Daddy made supper since mommy wasn't feeling well. What does daddy make for supper? Hot dogs (viennas). He helped himself to Old Dutch Master, cheddar, and Swiss cheeses however. Old Dutch Master is definitely a nibbling cheese, very rich, not real smelly or aromatic, but definitely not for non-cheese lovers...



...and he had a small glass of Landskroon Port 2007. Wow this is sweet, not really my thing. Tastes a lot like the St. Joseph's communion wine, actually.

5/15/2009: Sickie Sickie

Not too much blogging this week - Vincent brought home a stomach bug from somewhere and was pretty sick on Wednesday. It follows that I was feeling queasy the next day, then Sarah got sick on Friday, then Mary and April on Sunday. John is the only one who hasn't really felt sick.

In any case, Sarah was pretty worn out today since the sickness was festering - so worn out that she fell asleep at the table:



The other kids were worn out as well:



April made some tortillas for a fund raiser at the Irene Library and we dropped them off on the way to get groceries. The two ladies working the fundraiser bought them on the spot and didn't give anyone else a chance. HA! I waited in the car with the kids and noticed that the (crappy) car next to me was really protected! That's a "Club" on the steering wheel, and I don't know if it is visible, but there is another "Club" connected from the bottom of the steering wheel to the brake pedal. Hilarious. Even more hilarious because the car is about 20 years old and is in poor condition. High theft rate for cars of questionable value in South Africa? Guess so...



I decided that since we were feeling poorly today, and John wanted to watch Star Wars: Clone Wars at 18h00, we would buy something as a treat at the grocery store and just stay at home for our "night out".

I took the opportunity to drink my gift from zee Germans - a Hasseroeder Pils Export. This has to be one of my favourite German beers. It was heaven when compared to the beers available here in South Africa, which has been almost completely overtaken by SAB Miller. There's a reason why SAB bought Miller - their beers are just as crappy. Actually, I would venture to say that SAB bought Miller in order to improve their own beer quality! I'll drink Miller Lite any day over these other SAB beers (Hansa, Castle, etc.) Even Windhoek is weak and gives me the winds. Bummer.

I got "pizza cones" (see previous post) for the kids, and some Windhoek (Namibia) salami and pastrami for a "mega-Dagwood-sandwich" for April and I to share.



The "mega-Dagwood" on rye - three types of salami, pastrami, cheddar, Swiss, avo, boiled (rather than fried) egg, Miracle Whip, and mustard!



Now THAT is what I call low-fat, low-cal! :D



Sarah was sickie, like I said, and therefore very ornery.



See the look on her face here? Even after I busted out the most expensive bottle of wine I've purchased in South Africa! R70! Viljoensdrift RiverGrandeur Pinotage 2006 was my favourite so far - April didn't like it, as it was very aromatic and heady. Our stainless-steel wine glasses rule.

5/12/2009: Mexican Night

Tonight April made some Mexcian food. Her tortilla making skills have definitely been honed - even the tortillas stuck in the fridge come out soft! We had refried beans and ground ostrich (which costs just about the same as ground beef but a whole lot less fat).

For a wine, I brought out the Fish Hoek Pinotage 2007. It is pretty inexpensive and just a real nice wine. It is tied for first with Beyerskloof and Meerkat.

That's my salad down there - pico de gallo, meat, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, etc. One of these days I'm going to lose some weight, dagnabit!



Sarah's new trick is to take the bottle or pacie out of her mouth and put her hand up so as to say, "tee hee hee". She was doing it right before I snapped this pic, of course, then dropped her head to act shy. Still cute if you ask me.



One thing we've noticed about (black) Africans here in SA - they dress up for everything. We really enjoy seeing both Philemon and Lydia's clothing selection. They come to work dressed nicely, change into work clothes, then change back into their nice clothes to get on the three hour bus/taxi ride. Philemon puts on a nice sweater or jacket for dinner. We really feel honored that he takes the time to make himself ready for a meal with us.

5/10/2009: Mother's Day

Today started beautifully with cinnamon rolls for the kids! April and I didn't partake, as we're good Catholics who don't eat after midnight before Mass. Yes, the gauntlet has been thrown. :D




Mass was nice, with the priest making a point of encouraging people to step up as extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist and lectors by distributing communion by himself. HA! I'm considering being a relief minister, but it's kind of hard since we're only here for three more months. The kids asked on the way in if they could take a picture on this tree, so here it is:



We spent the day at Menlyn Park Mall, where we watched Star Trek, which we highly recommend, ate some kebabs, and watched the kids play in the play area for a good two hours.

Afterwards we took April to her favourite restaurant - Doppio Zero - so she could have the Pollo pizza, which consists of chicken, sweet chili sauce, and coriander (cilantro). I tried the South African version of a Long Island Iced Tea - that was my first and last. Ouch is all I can say. We also had a bottle of Beyerskloof Pinotage 2007 (of course), which, as always, was delicious.



This is the view I got when I walked into the men's restroom. Thanks Vin. (He's waiting to be wiped after using the toilet. Nice, huh?)



All in all a wonderful Mother's Day!