African Journal: My first full week in Mbabane

[thatcrazycajun]

Coming to the end of my first full week living in Africa. Experiences had since last entry:

• Visiting the US Embassy clinic for medical check-in...and dozing off in the middle of it, right in front of the poor nurse conducting it. Referred to doctor for consult on frequent drowsiness since arrival.


• My first time driving on local streets, test-driving the SUV my beloved is planning to purchase from a retiring fellow Fed expat, with her and the owner as passengers, since I will likely be doing most of the driving. Not as fearsome as I'd dreaded, though I did end up turning onto the wrong side of the road at least once; also kept reaching for the turn signal on the wrong side and ended up setting off the windshield wipers by mistake...several times. Driving a vehicle with a starboard-side driver's seat is definitely going to take some getting used to.


• Going into downtown with a hire driver to purchase a SIM card and some airtime for the cell phone SB is letting me use. Trying to set up a method through Skype or some other intermediary whereby US-based people can call that number without either of us incurring hideously expensive phone bills.


• Stopping on the way home from another drive into town to buy wood for the fireplace, after dark (not recommended here, especially for non-locals and even more especially for white Americans) and having the car mobbed by about four different strangers all very loudly trying to sell us some wood. Had to yell at them to back off as SB was getting nervous...and so was I. We finally bought a pile from one guy, took names and phone numbers of the others and piled the logs awkwardly in the front passenger seat and foot-well (the trunk, or boot as it's called here, being full) and backed out of the enclosure unmolested, then made it home and off-loaded the wood. The wood ended up being too wet inside to burn easily, but we expect it is drying out over time. By using lots and lots of paper scraps as kindling, we were able to get a halfway-decent fire going.


• Visiting SB's office on the Embassy campus (fairly near the house) and meeting her co-workers, some of whom I had met previously at the braai last weekend. They were all quite friendly and willing to chat about their work, and all African locals save for three or four expats (one of whom is her boss).


• SB's air shipment arriving on Wednesday in a single, surprisingly small pallet box. Some of the household goods we'd wanted to have that are hard to come by or too pricey here, as well as clothes, linens and cat stuff, were eagerly unpacked and stored. My own air shipment is expected by month's end, and the larger sea shipment containing the rest of our stuff that didn't go into storage for the duration is to come in the middle of next month (if we're lucky).


• Trying a soft drink called "iron brew" at the local supermarket, canned. Tasted vaguely like some sort of carbonated fruit juice (raspberry?), supposedly very popular in South Africa.


• Using a public pay toilet at the local shopping mall. You pay a small fee at entrance and get a few sheets of toilet paper (there are none in the stalls, perhaps to ensure payment). About as clean and safe as you'd expect an urban public W.C. to be.


• Attempting to make French toast (or as we Cajuns call it, "pain perdu" or "lost bread") with the local Swazi-baked crumbly wheat bread on 4 July, with SB off work for the holiday. Failing miserably at getting solid slices cooked in a skillet, we tried oven-baking it and got at least edible results.


• Getting up to feed the cats this morning and finding the entire kitchen floor covered with broken glass. Seems one of them (our resident carb-fiend Ari the Humongous Orange Tabby™, I suspect) had finally noticed the leftover apple crisp SB had baked two days ago, in its covered Pyrex casserole dish on the counter, and dragged it to the edge to dump it on the floor in hopes of getting the lid off and licking up the tasty-smelling contents. Your Humble was forced to spend the better part of an hour sweeping up glass shards and slivers on top of cleaning their usual litter-box messes. I had thought the casserole dish was too heavy, too far back on the counter and too well-sealed for any of them to mess with; evidently I had underestimated the drive of feline instinct once again. Now we have to buy a replacement (it was part of the "welcome kit" provided by the DoS to residents for when they first move in, before their shipments arrive, and has to be returned thereafter). Not at all happy campers we were, no sirree.

So...how was your week?

Comments

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

Overall that sounds really positive, other than the cats being cats. I assume that none of them ingested glass from the dish?

I'm enjoying these slice-of-life reports.

*far away hugs*

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

As far as we can tell, none of the cats has ingested any glass; of course, this may be because we swept it all up the instant we discovered the cat-astrophe. We went over the floor again today with a vacuum cleaner, just to be sure, as we are still finding the odd tiny fragment of glass here and there.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

Question

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

Are you perhaps referring to IRN BRU, which is "made from girrrrrrrrrders"?

Re: Question

[asg-qa-s7.livejournal.com]

You beat me to the question! I thought it tasted like bubble gum, only not in a good way.

Re: Question

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

I happen to like it and its commercials!

Re: Question

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Not sure; the one I tried was called and spelled "Iron Brew" and is a product of Coca-Cola South Africa. Irn Bru may be a different drink, but I can't swear to it based on what little I've read in researching it.

Re: Question

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

Reason I ask is because Irn Bru is the national soft drink of Scotland and that's what I thought you were referring to. Though now, since you say it's a product of Coca-Cola South Africa, I know we're not talking about the same thing because the people who created Irn Bru told CCE "No" when it came to selling the rights.

[asg-qa-s7.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing the kitchen floor is a ceramic tile? NOTHING makes shrapnel like dropping glass onto tile. Horrible cleanup job.

Enjoying your reports, even while wincing in sympathy!

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm glad someone is enjoying this stuff. The kitchen floor is indeed ceramic tile, along with the bathrooms, living room and foyer...and SB tells me that much of the carpet elsewhere in the house will be replaced with tile shortly. Makes for easier cleaning up after cats, but much harsher treatment of any falling objects.