Irene Market

Last Saturday we went to this incredible market with Lee's boss and his wife, Eric and Lisa.  Irene Market (pronounced Irene-ee) is not too far from here, but you have to get up really early to get there before the crowds.  There are about 300 vendors all winding through this shaded area out in the middle of what seems like nowhere.  We took Rugby along so she could get out and about since she doesnt get to do that much.  And she was the star of the show.  Everyone loved her and wanted to stop and as about her and pet her.  She loved every minute of the attention, as always.

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As soon as we got there, we had to run to the Egg vendor.  Eric and Lisa told us about these eggs, and said that if you dont get there first thing, they will be gone.  So you show up, pay for your eggs and then they give you a number so you can come back and get them after you walk around.  But let me tell you, these eggs are HUGE!  Twice the size of normal eggs and they all have double yolks.  And I think they are pretty.  Cant wait to make deviled eggs and dyed Easter eggs with these monsters.

One of these eggs is not like the other...

Irene market egg on left, normal egg on right

 You could spend hours and hours here.  But I was a bit nervous because it was a pretty hot day.  Luckily, you are shaded by these enormous trees.  Doesnt look much like Africa, huh?

There were things here for every person.  Antiques, African crafts, artwork, purses, beautiful African wood pepper mills, clothing, etc.  They even had an area for camel rides!  Unfortunately a lot of the vendors dont want you to take pictures of their things.  Then there is a section of prepared foods where you can sit for lunch and eat from any of the many vendors.  We bought some veggie spring rolls to eat as we walked and man they tasted good!  I could have eaten 10.  I wanted to get a pancake (which is what they call Crepes) with strawberries and nutella.  But I opted for the mixed berry smoothie instead and it was a nice refresher. 

African musician

Just like NYC.  If you want a pic, you have to pay

The last section we walked through was the food area where you can buy any kind of cheese, fresh fruit juice, fresh baked breads, spices galore, etc.  We didnt spend much time there because we had to wait so long for our smoothies, but I will spend some more time next weekend or whenever we go again.  I did buy a beautiful herbed foccacia that we had with dinner the next day and was very good.  We also bought some spices (Madagascar Cinnamon and a House Blend of Meat & Veggie Rub).  We used the meat rub on our chicken and it has a very different flavor, but I really liked it.  The spice guy was really nice and let me take pics of the bagfuls of spices on the table.  I felt like I was in India!      **I am a bit upset, because on my computer the spice pics are very vibrant.  For some reason they arent showing up that way on the blog.  But I promise, they were beautiful.**

This one is for you mom!  Lee wished he knew about this for your Birthday book letter.  It would have fit nicely with his theme.  Although I hear there is a spice where we are going this weekend called "Mother-in-Law Exterminator!"

Aside from that, we some distressed frames that were old window panes and a rusted sign that says "Familie" in cursive.  That means family in Afrikaans and we thought it would be cool to hang in our house.

So we are out and exploring the sights, getting to know what kinds of goods they have here so we can start deciding what keepsakes we want from here.  I could have bought a million things.  But we are hopefully going to Durban this weekend and supposedly they are known for their crafts and African souvenirs.  So many we will find some good things there.  If not, Irene is open every other Satr

Lion King, without the Lions

Katie has dreamed about going on safari, probably since she first saw the Lion King.  I’m pretty sure she didn’t imagine doing so while riding in the luxury of a 2004 Mercedes-Benz C180.  Not what you would typically consider an “Overlander”, but it was all we had to work with.  We bought the Benz surprisingly because it was a good price, much better than the Toyota’s we were finding.  Cars are very expensive here.  VERY expensive.  You can plan to spend 2-3 times more on a car in South Africa than you would back in the states. 

But who cares about that!?  Lets get to the adventure, the danger and the excitement that we were able to experience by fulfilling one of Katie’s life long dreams.

Saturday morning Katie and I woke up and had decided the night before that we were going to travel to Pilanesberg, one of SA many national game reserve parks.  Kruger is the largest and most famous of the game parks, but Pilanesberg is just about 2 hours away from our house.  It is still big though (135,000+ acres). We had heard it was excellent and you can see everything you want to see without driving the 5-6 hours it takes to get to Kruger.  We will surely go to Kruger at some point, but its great to be able to go up and back in the same day.

Pretoria, isn’t really that big of a city.  Which is surprising, because of all of the things available in the city.  I often forget that I am in Africa.  Therefore, it’s almost shocking how fast you can find yourself in the “real” Africa once you get out of the city limits.  We quickly found ourselves in the middle of the country were everyone lives very humbly.  Shacks made of corrugated steel make you imagine just how hot it can get inside one of those poor homes.  I am grateful to have been blessed with so many conveniences and luxuries in our lives, but there is something to admire in the simplicity of those who live so humbly without worrying about such petty materialistic things as we do in the states and even back in Pretoria. **For the newcomers to blogging (mom and dad)!!, you can click on the pictures to make them larger!**

On the drive from Pretoria to Pilanesberg

The landscape of South Africa is amazing.  It seems to change every kilometer.  We drove through plains that looked exactly like what you would see if you were driving through the back roads of rural Oklahoma or Tennessee, then they would change to rolling hills with big red rock formations to mountains ranges in the distant horizon.  Even the clouds looked more dramatic.

We got to Pilanesberg just about 11:30 and as soon as we entered the park we saw a small herd of zebra dash across the road.  I knew from then, we were going to have a good day.  We had no idea where to go, so we just randomly picked a road and found ourselves on a dirt road winding through the tall grasses.  I thought to myself from time to time that a lion could jump out of that grass at any moment and we wouldn’t even see it coming.  We drove for probably only 700 yards and came up on a family of Giraffes.  There were two adults and two babies, just enjoying lunch.  I get the impression that they pretty much enjoy lunch all day long every day.  They have to eat a lot to maintain those big frames. 

 



Just to prove we were there

  

Baby zebra



We never drove faster than 20 km/hr because we were afraid we would miss something.  We came up next on a few Impala as they were crossing the road.  Again, it was a mother with some little ones out and about.  I don’t even know how many Zebras we saw, but we snapped a few photos of some calves that were really cute.

Mama or Daddy trying to get rid of flies

We saw a pretty large group of wildebeest, but they were just lying around in the grass.  They couldn’t have cared less to see us there.  Some of the other smaller animals we saw were; Springbok, Warthogs, and lots of birds.

Wildebeest

Springbok

Impala with crazy horns

We were driving for a while and we were getting a little frustrated that we weren’t seeing any Elephants.  I mean, something that big can’t be hidden very easily.  I guess I’m wrong, because we were driving around, came around a corner and there she was, bigger than life, a huge elephant.  It is really awesome to see them in the wild.  She was eating leaves off of a tree, and when she saw some leaves she wanted but were out of her reach, she would just push everything in her way over, effortlessly, to get what she wanted.  Really cool to see, but she quickly went further into the brush where we couldn’t see her so we moved on.  Luckily we saw two more a little later that were not as bashful.

Elephant butt in the trees

The Rhinos were hilarious to me.  They were all just lying around under a tree.  They reminded us of Rugby, because of how they positioned themselves when they are resting.  One of them had a HUGE horn.  It’s sad that these big guys are poached for only their horns.  Seems really dumb, but SA is doing a lot to crack down hard on illegal poaching.

Hanging out near the Rhinos were some Zebras and Warthogs.  The Warthogs were the funniest because they would get down on their front “knees” to search for food and would just walk around like that.  It was really hilarious to watch. 

We stopped at the center of the park to grab lunch, which was very disappointing.  But they had a fenced area with zebra, wildebeest and warthogs.  By the time we were done we pretty much started heading out of the park.  We saw some cool birds right before we left.  All in all it was a great day, and we made it home before dark.

This was our first mini trip and I am sure there will be more to exciting locations.  I just don’t know if we will be taking them in the Mercedes anymore.  That car isn’t built for off-roading.

Since we got back we have really wanted to get a 4x4 vehicle as our second car to make sure we can get wherever we want to go.  But with how much we had to spend on the first car, the second car we were hoping to get on the cheap.  Sadly cheap and 4x4s don’t seem to go together.  Katie spent a lot of time today looking for good deals online and at the end of my workday she sent me a link to a 1989 Land Rover Defender 110.  It is a super good deal and pretty much my dream “Africa Car”.  I’ve always wanted a Defender but knew I could never afford one.  But this one is in great shape and at the right price.  Hopefully we will pull the trigger on it in the next few days.  The problem is, we are afraid it won’t fit in the garage (we pretty much know it won’t).  But, I think that is just a fine problem to have.  

We have many more pictures, but will have to put them on Picasa or something later for you to see them.  But we hope you enjoy the few we have here. 

Pretoria: Week 1

Well, we made it!! We just recently got limited internet, so this post will be quite long to catch you up. Hopefully in the future they will be shorter.

South Africa is beautiful. After a 15 hour nonstop flight from Atlanta, we arrived on Wednesday, January 19th. A little word of warning if you ever come to visit us: ** DO NOT sit in the back of the plane. The 777 was so bumpy the entire ride. Almost made it unbearable.** Our sponsor family took us to dinner that night and they have been a great help in getting us settled.

We are currently in “temporary” housing until our permanent house is ready (should be 2 weeks from now). It is a great house. Much bigger than we need or want. But the yard is amazing. We have a pool that I have been taking advantage of and the yard is huge with beautiful trees and flowers.



This is as soon as you drive in the gate



The pool



The "garden"



The length of the backyard with the garden at the far end



This is just off the kitchen. The laundry room and maids quarters building is to the right, just out of the picture.



The front yard



And we have come full circle through the rest of the front yard


We have spent the first week trying to find cars, get internet and cell phones, learning how to drive on the left hand side of the road, etc. There are many little stories in there, but I won’t bore you. I will just say that cars are super expensive here and it is hard to find a used car that will be reliable. Some of the most expensive cars are the Toyotas, Fords, and VWs. Believe it or not, we are getting a Mercedes because that is affordable and will hopefully be reliable!

We were able to go to Church on Sunday and think we will really like our ward here. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming. There are several Americans, but it is mainly South Africans, which presents a bit of a problem because it is sometimes hard to understand their accents or certain words they use that are different. But I love the accent and wish I could pick it up myself.

Rather than continue on about what has happened each day, I have put together a list of things we have learned or want to share with you about Pretoria. I know there are many more to learn and I am sure we will frequently be sharing them with you.

PRETORIA LIVING: 12 Things We Have Learned

1. After a few days of driving on the left hand side of the road, you get used to it. It is getting in the car on the right side that is the hard part!

2. The Afrikaner (white South Africans) children DO NOT wear shoes. Anywhere. The mall, school, walking down the street, etc. Blows my mind.

3. Things at the grocery store are a bit different: mince meat= ground beef, streaky bacon= what Americans call bacon, treacle sugar= brown sugar (but still isn’t the same)

4. Beggars, hawkers and mimes at every intersection.

5. There are no outlets in the bathrooms, so I have to do my hair in the bedroom.

6. Weather is most like San Diego.

7. When someone tells you, “Now”, “Just now” or “Now Now” it doesn’t mean what you would expect. If someone tells you they are coming over “just now”, that could mean tomorrow!

8. Don’t ever order Iron Brew as a drink. You would assume it is their version of Root Beer. Big mistake! It tastes exactly like cough syrup.

9. Eggs are sold in the store on the shelf, unrefrigerated.

10. Nothing is the same here. I bought a Twix the other day for something familiar. It had the same wrapper, looked exactly like what I am used to, but tasted nothing like a Twix. And the ice cream is pretty nasty. Which makes me very sad!

11. You tip the parking lot “helpers” because they “help” you back out of your parking space (like its your first time backing up)! But hopefully they also keep an eye on your car so nothing happens to it while you are shopping.

12. Everyone seems so nice and friendly. It is going to be hard to remember to keep your guard up because there are real dangers here, it just doesn’t seem so on the surface.

We really are loving it here and are excited to see so much more of the country. Hopefully tomorrow we will get to go to a Nature Reserve that is about 15 minutes away that has giraffe, zebra, and other animals.

But of course we miss all of you too. So come visit!!

PS- Lee felt the baby move for the first time this week!! He acted like it freaked him out, but secretly I think he thought it was really cool!

The Other Carnell

In non-Foreign Service related news... we thought we would post some pics of the "other" Carnell, Rugby.



Look at that profile


Polo is a little too small. And she hated it!


Dog days of Summer




First camping trip. She loves the great outdoors.


A little firednly match of tug-o-war at the bulldog meetup group.

A little taste of South Africa

We heard that there was a fast food chain restaurant from South Africa in downtown DC! So we decided to go check it out with our best buds Mike and Courtney. Nando's is a worldwide chain, but was started in South Africa. It is an African-Portugese grilled chicken joint. They use a chile (peri-peri) found in Africa in their marinade and you can get it in several different "heats." Lee and Mike had HOT, which is the 2nd hottest and it was definitely a sinus cleaner. But for a fast food place, the inside is really nice and cool. It wasnt the best food I have ever had in my life, but it was a fun experience and at least now I know that there will be one place in South Africa I will like to eat!

The Fronces!

mmm! Peri-Peri sauce

Nando's decor