More catch-up, but now to back when we arrived.

The picture shows all of the important components of our living arrangement in Cape Town. You know who the woman is, and that's LRW once again. The car is our rental from Imperial Car Rental. It is a Toyota Corolla with automatic transmission (something I am immensely grateful for). We are supposedly getting the discount rate through the garden, and if this is the discount rate I can't imagine what the nondiscounted rate is. I have never had balances due of this magnitude on my VISA! What the heck, we are in SA!!! And behind all of the person, LRW, and the car is The Garden Room. The window over the back of the car is our kitchen window. The second picture gives a better view of the actual cottage.



And the third shows the main house to which we are attached. This is where Jenny, the owner from whom we rent, and her two daughters live. Notice the ADT sign next to the main door. Security is a big item here. The house and cottage are alarmed and the neighborhood is patrolled. Upon our arrival Jenny made it clear that crime has been on the upswing and one has to be very careful. Do not leave items in the car. (That means I take LRW out of the car every night and load it back in the car every morning. Guess I should consider this my new exercise routine!) Pay close attention to your surroundings and the people about. This was stated again by Lynn Jackson when we ate lunch at her place. This is a time of great change and in some ways stress in South Africa. There is a large segment of the population that is unemployed, there are many immigrants from other poorer African countries, and this is a country trying to make a new democracy work. And it was said that there has been an increase in the presence of organized crime activities, very sophisticated car theft operations and even illegal harvesting of natural resources such as abalone. And the government has limited resources to stop such activities.


As one drives around this concern about security is evident everywhere. Homes are behind walls and gates. There are security signs posted on almost every building. There are security company personnel and vehicles ever present. Stores and parking lots have security attendants. But people seem to go about their business as we would but with this added layer of concern. Does make one think about what we take for granted.

What is also very evident is the disparity between the different segments of society here. Even is small towns it is very clear who has resources and who does not. The differences in living conditions is very stark in many cases. Not far from a very posh development behind its high fences and gates are shacks in all states of disrepair. Contrasts!

On a brighter note, directly across from our cottage is something of a park. The hill begins to ascend somewhat steeply up toward Table Mountain. As mentioned earlier where we work is just up the hill from us. Between here and there the hill is covered with a great variety of plants of all sizes, many of them blooming at present. There is a little stream that runs through this area and the sound of the running water is one of our background sounds.The others are the guinea fowl that are here almost all the time, the red-eyed dove (Marcia has a different opinion as to which dove is around), and the fly-overs by the noisy hadeda ibis. The guinea fowl are everywhere, in the front yard, in the back yard, on the roof, in the trees, and they call all the time. And then when the wind blows! But it gets quiet at night and there is not much traffic on our street.

Now to driving and shopping. On the first Saturday we were here we got directions to a nearby shopping area so that we could get provisions, that would be cash and groceries. So we load ourselves into the Corolla and prepare ourselves for our first venture onto the streets of Cape Town. And remember, I am driving from our passenger seat and I am driving on the left side of the road! This is not easy. At every intersection I have to consciously think about where I am, where the traffic is, and where I am trying to be, and for the first few days I have to turn off the windshield wiper that I turned on thinking it was the turn signal. It takes some time before I realize I have a rear view mirror in the car as I have to look left to see it. I have this knot in my stomach that won't go away and actually only gets tighter when I round a bend in the road and there are cars coming at me on my right side! By the time we make it to the shopping center I am tense and exhausted. It took a great deal of concentration to keep things together this first time. I only had one close call, fortunately.

We begin by visiting Melissa's for lunch. It was quite good. Purchased a few treats and then headed to the grocery stores after withdrawing the limit from the ATM, R3000. That is about $415. Guess where we head to start our grocery shopping. None other than Woolworths. Yep, Woolworths. If you want to know more, go to Wikipedia and look up Woolworths. You will learn some interesting things!! Purchased some of what was on our list here but decided to get the neccessities at the more reasonable Pick'nPay store. Headed there and shortly after we did the announcemnt was made that the store was now closed. What was happening? Seems stores close at 5 PM on Saturdays and it was now 5 PM. We scurried to get what we could and then made our way to the till, register, to leave. Very interesting.

We had an uneventful ride home, though it took my full concentration to do so. We unloaded the car and then settled in for the evening. Think we had some bangers for dinner.

As we had more shopping to do, on Sunday morning we asked Jenny what the hours of the stores would be on Sundays. Seems they open from 10 to 2 on Sundays. So off we go again, along with most everybody else. It was very busy, but we got what we needed and did so before the store closed around us. Made a pharmacy stop as well and then headed home.

Can say the driving has gotten easier and less nerve-wracking. But I still have to think about what to do when I arrive at intersections. And rotaries, roundabouts, are great fun! But I am managing. I have driven a few times at night and really do not enjoy that. Then I really have to be focused as everything seems very much more out of place. I am sure that this will get easier, but at the moment it is a bit too stressful. And security issues also increase after dark. Another reason to get off the roads before the sun goes down.

Okay, I believe I have covered most of the procedural things. That should make it easier for me to stay current with my entries about what we are doing. I will work on a review of what happened last week tomorrow. It was a busy week!

Later,
Edward

P.S. Here is what the inside of the cottage looks like!