Our home here in South Africa

Since we are expats we move about every 4-5 years to a new country. We like that kind of lifestyle, but it is a big thing to move your whole household to the other side of the world. Dirk and me are 18 years together, 14 of these years we lived abroad. We started humble with 2 suitcases each. We moved to Spain, the Canary islands and the maximum of weight was 20 kilo's. We lived on the islands Tenerife and Lanzarote for about 1,5 years and moved for another 9 months to Rhodos, Greece. We were very young at the time, 23 and 24 and just had these 2 suitcases. From there we moved to the USA, (Dirk did his MBA at the UofO in Eugene, Oregon) with again 2 suitcases and lived there for a little bit over a year, and came back to the Netherlands again with our 2 suitcases. It was actually a very free and exhilirating feeling to have nothing to worry about! We rented an apartment, decorated it with goods from Goodwill and hold an Open House at the end, sold everything, packed our suitcases and left the country with only those 2 suitcases!

Moved back to Holland, got married...yeah we lived in sin almost 5 years ;-O and moved to Thailand. This time we had a bit more... a 20 ft container. But the house we had in Thailand was so much bigger than the teeny weeny apartment we had in the centre of Breda, the Netherlands. When we left Thailand to move to the USA we had a 40 ft container with us. Now 5 years later and 2 children we moved from the US to South Africa with a 40 AND 20 foot container. We had almost 600 boxes of stuff with us!! I don't know if this cycle of adding stuff will ever end, but I am working on it to really get rid of stuff we don't need. I still have boxes not opened since we left Thailand, more than 6 years ago! This is rediculous and my New Years resolution is to get rid of a LOT of stuff.

My friends all over the world ask me how we live here in South Africa, a lot of people have different ideas about that. So I will show you some pictures of our house. It is not a Zulu hut or some other simple shack, it is actually quite nice, more than you expect from an African country...believe me we don't have a bad life here!

I'll walk you through it from front door to the upstairs sun deck, the only room I don't have pictures of is the sauna, since it is still a work in progress....



1. First we were thinking to go all the way for a traditional Zulu house, the only problem it had was that our 600 boxes wouldn't fit, not even in the whole village....


2. So we opted for this contemporary house with a palm tree lined entrance.


3. African lady with baby on back greets you at the front door.


4. Hallway with canvas from NYC street scene. A bit of everything we have in our house; Asian, American, European and African pieces.


5. View from TV room, a fireplace opening up to both sides of dining and sitting area.


6. Sitting room, here we drink a vino with guests or read a book.


7. TV room.


8. View to front door and my future photo studio, still waiting for my lighting.


9. Dining room with fireplace.


10. Open kitchen, acutally the whole house has an open floor plan.


11. Kitchen, view from other side.


12. Full bar, you order we serve!


13. Our 'wild' animals protecting the bar area ;-)


14. Outdoor Lapa with gas Weber BBQ and charcoal braai.


15. Pool and garden.


16. Guestroom with en-suite bath.


17. Playroom girls, with a first; their own TV.


18. Girls bedroom.


19. With their own bathroom... I certainly didn't have that as a child!


20. Crafts- and computer room.


21. Master bedroom with fireplace.


22. Master bath with bush bath and almost outdoor shower, it has a glass rooftop.

23. Sun deck off master bedroom (plan is to put a jacuzzi here).

So quite the difference with our first house abroad, although I have to say, we are not more happy than in those first years. It was quite the adventure to travel just with 2 suitcases for a few years. Less headaches and worries about your STUFF!!

A big house is nice, but it can be a golden cage if you are not happy. Luckily we are happy and we enjoy our life style, but many expat families I've met over the years had a big house, great car and everything you think you would want in life, but weren't happy. And then it is sad, because the only thing they want is to go back home and don't see the beauty of that new country they are living in and experiencing...

Have a good one, I hope you enjoyed the peek into our African abode.
Mireille

Bombarded with Baboons!

At our Tshetshepi Lodge we had a chalet next to the river, where many baboons and small monkeys lived. During the day you wouldn't see them much but at 5 am you would hear them screaming, fighting and running in the grass in front of our chalet and climbing on our roofs, checking out our decks and looking into our bedroom window! Yes, they are that cheeky!! They really came upon our decks and were standing at our windows and checking us out!!





So the first morning we noticed that they would come that close, I mean only a thin window was between us, but I didn't have my camera next to my bed and so I missed the opportunity to photograph them. The next morning though we were prepared!! I had opened my bedroom window, so they would wake me up with their screams and we put Jasmine's lion cub in front of our bedroom window. Now we were laying in bed and watching them come passing by. But they didn't pass by as the other morning, no they noticed the lion cub and starting talking to each other. You could hear the change in their voices, amazing to hear! And suddenly about 50 baboons came closer and closer to our window. They were so curious to see what that lion cub was about?? Pacing and pacing in front of our window, while my mom was in the other room and didn't understand why the baboons were not coming in front of her bedroom window....because they were all in front of ours!! So I sent Jezz out to my moms room to come in our room and the 4 of us lay in our bed and just sat there quietly and watching the behaviour of the baboons and the little monkeys.

Look at the 2 baboons in the back, one is checking out the butt of his friend ;-0

Then at a certain moment a big baboon realised that my window was open, had only the mosquito netting in front of it, and they can easily push that open. So then I got scared...although I was behind the glass on the other side, these animals are wild and strong. He walked towards my window and wanted to come inside to get the lion cub, so I stood up from my bed and yelled and waved with my arms. The baboon ran away and all the others as well. I closed my window and we waited again. Here they came again, slowly but surely. Closer and closer to the lion cub. We changed the position of the lion cub to the front window, so the 4 of us could see them better. First we had it on the side, since that window was without a frame I could take better pictures. But I was afraid that such a big window could easily break if a baboon pushes to hard onto it....

Here he comes towards my open window...now I get scared, and chase him away!

So now all the baboons are on our deck pacing along the window, looking at the cub (which by the way really looks real) then I realized that these sliding doors we have in the front of the bedroom who open up to the deck weren't closed. I mean I closed the door, but didn't put the latches on, so just one push of these big baboons and they would be standing in our room. And we heard already from the people of the lodge that many times that happens, if you leave a single window open they are in their within seconds! So after another 15 minutes watching these baboons and they got closer and closer and more cheeky I got scared again (not showing the girls though) and told Jezz to stand up and scare them, so she did. She stood up on the bed an screamed and made waving movements and the baboons went a bit back into the bush, still watching us...I mean the lion cub.... and we closed the latches. Now I felt a bit more comfortable to let the baboons come as close as they wanted and I took all of these shots. But since it was only 5 am I put the camera on night vision, so my flash wouldn't go off all the time.



The left one is ready to grab the lion cub, and the other ones are starting to run away, it was getting more and more agressive and at this point Jezz scared them away!

We had 45 minutes of fun watching these big baboons and little monkeys at 5 am in the morning! We still had a game drive on our schedule and we already had so much fun. What an adventure it was!


And these were the little monkeys that are very curious as well. When we came back one day from our game drive the girls had their stuffed lions in their arms and the monkeys try to come as close as they possible could. Just to see what the girls are having in their arms. So cute!!

We had a great time at Tshetshepi Lodge, definitely worth going back!!
Mireille

Oma and the girls on safari

For our safari trip this time with Oma we went to the Welgevonden Game reserve in the Limpopo province. It was only 3 hour drive from where we live. Since Dirk was not going with us and I don't like to drive that far, we went to Clearwater Tshetshepi Lodge in the Waterberg region. Malaria free, which was important to us as well, since we all didn't need to take medication.

Wow, we had a great stay! The lodge was hidden against the mountainside amongst lush indigenous trees with each chalet enjoying the tranquil trickle of a mountain stream - the ultimate bushveld hideaway! Exactly what I wanted for my mom to experience. The real bushveld. It was gorgeous. We were the only guests, since school had just started for the Afrikaanse children, so we were pampered like Queen's and Princesses. Actually that is how they called the girls the whole 3 days we were there; Princess. And the girls loved it of course ;-)

Each day we would do an early morning game drive and at sunset we would do another. The lighting is gorgeous at those moments and the animals are most active. During the hot day they are asleep, so we wouldn't see much.

So you start driving around in your open Jeep hoping to come along the big 5 and many other animals that freely roam the game reserve, which in this case is 150 000 hectares. And nature is just gorgeous!!
And about mid-time you get out of your Jeep and have in the morning some tea or coffee with rusks and in the afternoon you get some Amarula or other drink you like with some biltong, dried fruit, nuts and some other goodies they manage to bring along for us. While we are standing there on one of the open plains I always wonder if there are eyes in those bushes around us who are watching us. I know we are watching them, but are they watching us as well? ;-)


The Waterberg has been described as South Africa's best kept secret. Its rugged beauty, together with its diversity in plant and animal life, has led to the development of several exciting eco-tourism projects such as the biosphere reserve, the Waterberg Nature Conservancy. The 75 mammal species include big game such as elephant, lion, white and black rhino, hippo, leopard and buffalo. African python and the Nile crocodile are also resident, and it is a birdwatchers' paradise with more than 300 bird species.


I love the giraffes they are one of my favorites, so gracious and elegant, with those huge eyelashes (if it is a girl) really nice. It is funny when you stop with your Jeep how they stop what they are doing and just stare at you, most big animals tend to do that. Stare at you, perfect for us to take a picture ;-)


The animal that doesn't do that though is the warthog. They just run away, with their tail in the air, like an antenna, it is a sign for their fellows to follow. We saw many times warthogs, but I could never ever catch them on my camera. Just this one, so I am proud to show you this picture. I have so much respect now for photographers who can capture a warthog (in the wild of course) not in a zoo... since these buggers are fast!!


We were also lucky to see the hippos. There are only 2 in the whole game reserve and they liked the pond close to our lodge. There are a few ponds and they tend to travel from one to another. We drove close by the little lake and they told us we were too close. Started watching us and giving us signs to move back a bit, since this is their territory!! (Our guide told us this) He said that hippos can come out of the water and start chasing you if you come to close, and they are surprisingly fast on land! Luckily I had my zoom on. More than their nostrils, ears and eyes you hardly see...


We saw the Rhino's quite often, there was a group of 2 and a group of 3 grazing close by our lodge. They are very relaxed, don't move much ground, just stay at one field and graze...all day. But don't you dare to come to close with your Jeep and they are not so relaxed anymore!!


Kudus are just amazing beautiful antelopes. With those big ears and beautiful stripes on their bodies. They are just amazing! This is a female kudu, the males have dramatic, long spiralled horns. The females stay in herds with the younger ones, which we indeed saw many young ones with only 4 females. The males leave the breeding herd at around two years of age.

We got the opportunity to see many zebras. Although we saw so many I am still loving these little horses in their pyjama stripes!! Did you know that their stripes come in different patterns unique to each individual. They are generally social animals and can be seen in small harems to large herds. Look at the baby one, still a bit unsure of its legs ;-)


This is a picture of a lonely Wildebeest (or sometimes called gnu) with a herd of Impalas or as they say in Afrikaans: Rooibok since they are reddish-brown in color. The name impala comes from the Zulu language. Impalas are the prey of the bigger predators. When frightened or startled the whole impala herd starts leaping about in order to confuse their predator. They can jump distances more than 9 meters (30 ft) and 2.5 meters (8 ft) high!

These were not all the animals we saw. We saw many many species of birds and other smaller animals. Although we didn't end up seeing the elephants. We heard on the radio of the Jeep one afternoon that a big Elephant bull was spotted, so we drove there and saw his tracks, but we didn't end up seeing him. The same was for the next morning, a group of 4-5 elephants were spotted by another ranger and we rushed to the plains, saw many fresh tracks, and big piles of poop, but again didn't end up seeing or finding them. You would think such a big animals they must me somewhere?? And on the plains it is a wide open field where for miles you can see, but no signs of the elephants. Well, we have to go back and do it again.

Also we didn't end up seeing the lions, tracks yes...lions no! So we ended up going to the Lion park close by our house after our safari. More pictures and stories about that in another posting. But first I will tell you more about our safari adventures tomorrow!

Have a good day,
Mireille

J&J reenact scenes from Mama Mia

My mom left last night, she is on her way back to Holland. We had a great time with her and were sad to see her leaving again. We spent 3 weeks together and did a lot of sightseeing here in SA. We made tons of pictures, and I put them on a CD for her. So she can look back at a great time with us.

Bye OMA! We will miss you!!

The girls did a performance for her and us as a memory on this great vacation and time we had with her. JJ and Jezz got the movie Mama Mia for Xmas and they LOVE to reenact the scenes as you see in the movie. So funny, we had tears in our eyes while watching it. I hope you will enjoy it as well ;-)

However, uploading a video takes about half an hour, and it didn't succeed, so here is the link to YOUTUBE where I uploaded 3 videos and they work better! Check out my videos at YouTube under the name Funkydoodledonkey. or click on this link. But if anybody can give me a hint how I can incorporate the video directly from YouTube on my blog, please drop me a line!


Have a great week!
Mireille

Soweto tour

We visited Soweto, the biggest black township in South Africa. It strethes out over more than 130 square kilometres southwest of the city of Joburg. Soweto is a combination of 21 townships, each with their own history and population. Soweto was proclaimed in 1904, and intended to house the black workers in the Johannesburg gold mines west of the city.
In the 1930s when the economic situation was bad and unemployment high, thousands of rural black set for Johannesburg trying to find a job. Orlando, one of the first townships, changed rapidly into a squatter region with the erection of corrugated iron huts on any piece of vacant land. For years local government could and would not meet the needs of those people.
Throughout the 1940s more and more people streamed up to this ‘native location’ south-west of the city. Situation even got worse when the Nationalist apartheid government in the 1950s started to re-locate black people by force from Sophiatown and other places within Johannesburg to Soweto. New suburbs as Meadowlands, Dobsonville, Kliptown and Pimville were born.
Life in Soweto was tough, pollution was high, mainly because most of the township lived without electricity and people had to rely on coal until the mid 1980s.
Services were limited and over-crowding immense. On average of 15-20 people were living in a single four-roomed matchbox house.


A painting on the side of the street of an old lady.

Kids heard we had candy, so they were more than willing to pose for us ;-)

Inside a corrugated shack where a family of 7 lives, mom, dad and 5 children!

A boy in front of his house.

No running water or electricity in these homes, this was the only waterpump for 1 whole street!

Day care centre.
The difference between rich and poor is very obvious and in your face in South Africa. These townships are hard to believe. That people still live in those conditions. Makes you sad and wanting to help, but it is in such a grand scale, no single person can help. Hardship, sorrow, sickness and poor living conditions is something these kids face every day. But still when we visited them they had a smile on their face and were happy to receive some candy and sweets we brought for them.

We also saw the High School where students on the 16 of June 1976 protested against Afrikaans as the official educational language. A bloodbath followed as the police fired at the students. We visited the Hector Peterson museum, build in remembrance of one of the students killed, a 13 year old boy. From there we went to Vilakazi Street, the only street where two Nobel Peace Prize winners lived: Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former president Nelson Mandela.

We drove by the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital (Africa's largest teaching hospital), and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's R4 million mansion, although it has a stone fence around the house, so we couldn't see that much.

At the end we went to the Apartheid museum, but we were so tired, that we didn't feel like getting into it that much, it was a bit too long a day for the girls. So I have to go back to this museum again and see more of it.

A long and warm day, but interesting!
Mireille

Being pampered the African way....

I am a little behind with my blogging since my mom is still here and we're are doing so many things....

On January 2nd my mom and me went to have an African revitalization day at the Mangwanani day spa at the Indaba hotel here in Fourways. The spa has been chosen many years in a row as spa of the year. Well, I can tell you it was divine!! Since we had this big New Years bash we were ready for a relaxation extravaganza. Let me walk you through the treatments we got.

We started the day at 8:30 am, everybody got a thick robe and slippers we had to change in and then they served us this healthy yummy breakfast, with fresh squeezed juices and yogurt with muesli and a fruit skewer. Every group was seated at a different table and this was your table for the day. There were at least 50-75 guests there at one time. And as much massage therapists there. A huge spa but very well organised!

We started off with a Izimanga; a Full Body Massage with hot stones. Just a great start to completely relax the whole body, in the room were 2 beds with a bamboo screen in the middle. And 1 side was open to the nature, so while we were getting our heavenly massage we heard the birds sing songs for us....what a great start!


After that we got Neo Maoto; a Foot Massage. An African Royal Foot Gift (from toes to knees) with a Rose Petal Wash, Sugar & Grape Seed Scrub, and then at the end they applied the Mangwanani Massage Cream and kneaded all those knots out of my feet. This was one of my favorite massages of the whole day, it was SO good!

In between the different treatments we would walk to our table again to have a new drink, a sip of water ore one of the juices they had waiting for us and then they would come and fetch us again at our table for the next treatment.

Well, the next was Molala; an Ancient African Head & Neck Healing & Relaxation Treatment with Sesame Oil. This was actually not my favorite, my shoulders were hearting the next day of the pressure. Although you had to make a choice how you liked the pressure (mild, medium or strong) I chose medium, but this one was to heavy duty for me and I felt it big time the day after!

Then we got the UBUSO; a Renewing African Facial Spa with Pressure Point Massage and a mask. Again we were laying in these private rooms with one side open to nature and I heard my mom snoozing a bit behind the bamboo curtain. After the facial cleansing they left us laying there with a mask and it was just heaven on earth...so relaxing! Life is good ;-)


Now with a clean face, relaxed body, super soft feet we had a delicious lunch with a grilled chicken salad and again some nice juices and wine, what more can we ask for, knowing we have a few more treatments left and just enjoying all this pampering! While we were having lunch the massage therapists all came to join the lunch area with us and starting singing and dancing traditional African songs...it was just magical!


After lunch we started off with TLHAPISO; Full Spa Body Works with a choice of Body Washes or Salt Scrub Body Brush or African Mielie Meal Body Exfoliation. Wow, she scrubbed my body with a salt mixture which smelled like roses, oranges and herbs but my body glowed and felt as soft as a baby. Needless to say I needed a little rest after this, it takes a lot of energy out of you these massages ;-)

So it came in handy that we had the pool and relaxation time after this. We just lay by the pool, enjoyed a glass of wine and realized that life is good ;-) And it was also time for a snack time with some French cheeses, fresh fruit and crackers. Glass of wine or fruit juices.


And last but not least we had NEO MATSOGO; Traditional African Royal Hand Gift (from fingers to elbows) with a Rose Petal Wash, Sugar & Grape Seed Scrub, and to top it of a Mangwanani Massage Cream. Almost as good as the food massage, still divine and a very nice and relaxing way of ending this perfect day of heaven on earth!

And to end the end we got a glass of Amarula (equivalent of Bailey's) with a chocolate. By now it was 5:30 pm, we had spend a whole day having 6 treatments and a relaxation time, heavenly and fresh spa food and we can conquer the world for the new year!


What a great way to start the New Year...thanks Dikky Dik!! It was a gift from my dear hubby ;-) How nice is he?!

More about our African adventures tomorrow!
Mireille

Underwater shots with our new camera

Dirk got a new camera for Xmas, an Olympus 1030 SW. The Stylus 1030 SW is one tough camera. The Shockproof till 6.6 ft, Waterproof till 33 ft, Freezeproof 14F and Crushproof 220 Lbf, is indeed a camera I thought would be just perfect for Dirk! So you can throw it in the water and let it fall now and then nothing happens. However, it doesn't have a rubber case it just looks like a normal camera, but it can go swimming with us in our backyard pool. So we tried it out... a bit reluctant but it worked!!

Here are some shots Dirk made while he was in the pool with JJ and Jezz, isn't it funny?? The 3 of them had a blast while my mom and me where lying by the pool on our sunbeds.... we are still having our Xmas break and enjoying the sun and warm weather very much!!

Our house, a view from the pool.

JJ as a fish.

Jezz at the bottom.

Dirk in the back, JJ left and Jezz right.

JJ left, Jezz right.

Jezz in the front.

Fun this new toy Santa brought us ;-)
Life is good ;-) and we are happy and grateful, hope you had a great Xmas present as well!

I am waiting for my confirmation for our safari either tomorrow or the day after.
Ciao, Mireille