The Bubble

Just because I moved nearly 8,000 miles (13,000 km) from home doesn't mean I don't get stuck in my own little bubble sometimes. Poking a sharp object at the walls of your bubble requires constant focus and effort I think, no matter where you live. We all get into routines. We like to eat at the same restaurants over and over, we like to have friends who are similar to us and who think the same things are laugh out loud funny even if we've already laughed about those same things a hundred times before. 

In Joburg, being adventurous carries an extra element of complexity. Because of the crime problem, most of us, expats and non, spend a lot of time looking over our shoulders, staying put in our own neighborhoods and avoiding talking to people who could possibly be dangerous.  And that's the funny thing about moving to Joburg, you're automatically brave for doing it but you can easily end up living in a bubble surrounded by other expats, guards, gates and walls. 

Of course I want to be safe but I don't want to live in a bubble. So I try to take small steps on a regular basis to make sure I'm not getting too comfortable.  

Recently, I stopped to talk with a guy who has set up a "shop" on the side of the road near our house. He sells potted plants and paintings. I think his art was originally created to market the potted plants but it's my theory that over time he became more excited about the art than the plants because although the plants remain more and more paintings appear.

I had been driving by this guy almost daily for a while and wanted to stop and talk to him but there seemed to always be a reason that I couldn't or didn't. Back to safety for a moment, I don't consider stopping to chat with this guy to be putting myself in a dangerous situation as he is set up right along side of a busy road and of course I would only stop during the day, but I do think this is a good example of a situation that some others would avoid. If for no other reason than they might think we should not be encouraging this person to set up a make-shift shop on the side of the road in our nice community. Also, it appeared that he was living on the side of the road in a sort of lean to that he created out of found items. I am sure this is frowned upon by many of his permanent-dwelling neighbors. 

The man's name is Sisepho. He came here from Mozambique. I bought two of his paintings. The paintings are made on a white coated press board, similar to a shelf that you'd find in a closet. I asked him to sign the paintings and he said he didn't have a pen to do so, so I drove the three minutes back to my house, grabbed a sharpie and brought it to him. Even though he said his name is Sisepho he signed the paintings with another name which looks like S larlosmama. He explained why but I really couldn't understand the reason. He also wrote "30" in a few spots which I understood to be his age. 

The first painting I bought was clearly designed to help him sell plants. The second is a large painting of a snake which now proudly sits on the mantle in my living room. It's been about a month since I bought these paintings and I am loving the snake painting more and more everyday. To quote the TV shows on HGTV, this painting really "pops!" I asked Mr. Deep the other night if he didn't just love the snake painting and he replied that no, he really doesn't like it at all. 

The plant painting I bought.

If you know me, you might be surprised to learn that I'd put a painting of a snake in my house because I don't like snakes. But that's the whole point. The snake reminds me to keep getting outside my comfort zone. 

Snake painting. It pops! 

Mozambique: Parte Dois

Benny and Mr. Deep. More about Benny later.

Mr. Deep and I visited Vilankulos Mozambique recently. In addition to the details of the trip that I shared in this post we had several other fun (and funny) adventures.

First, the currency situation. Mozambique uses the metical. The hotel was unable to exchange more than a little bit of money for us. But word quickly got out and soon various hotel staff were approaching "the white guy with dollars and rands who is looking for meticals" and were offering to exchange money for Mr. Deep. It seems many of the staff were excited to get their hands on some South African rands. The whole exchange process became pretty informal as Mr. Deep and various members of the staff negotiated exchange rates.

Next, the hotel. The Dona Ana has a pretty art deco style and unbeatable views of the ocean. The hotel staff were all very kind and helpful but many things were funny. Need a towel for the pool? Ask and then wait 15 minutes for someone to bring one. Need a fork to eat your breakfast? Just grab one off another table. Also, a funny thing about the hotel was the choice of music that was playing in the bar and by the pool throughout our stay on a repeating soundtrack. The song that stands out the most that we kept hearing over and over was "Tell Laura I love her."

I don't mind searching for a fork when I am enjoying this view.

The hotel wasn't the only establishment we visited which operated at a slow and less than efficient pace. We went to a really fun beach bar called the Casbah which couldn't have been more cool or in a more beautiful location. But, if you ever visit Vilankulos and go to the Casbah be aware that you should order your food about two hours before you get hungry. If you do this everything will be timed just right and you will get your food right when you are ready to eat and before you get too drunk. I also nominate The Casbah to be featured on a TV show that Mr. Deep and I used to like to watch back in the USA called Bar Rescue. Bar Rescue stars a bar business expert named John Taffer as he visits various bars and tries his best to whip them into shape in a short time. It's like the show with Gordon Ramsey only about bars. John Taffer should visit this place as the whole time we were sitting there having drinks and waiting patiently for our food, the owner (as best we can tell she was the owner) was also sitting there having drinks and chatting with her friend while the rest of her staff were working like crazy and the chef was seemingly cooking one meal at a time. 

The beach next to the Casbah.

Hopefully this post does not sound too bratty. We loved Mozambique and enjoyed its quirky and less than stellar attention to detail. We liked being off the beaten path in a place where tons of tourists aren't flocking. If we want to go somewhere where everything runs perfectly there are plenty of other places that we can visit. 

In our older age, Mr. Deep and I are getting a lot better about doing nothing for at least part of the time when we are on vacation. Our vacation M.O. used to be trying to cram as many activities, and usually physical activities at that, into our trips as possible all while laughing at and making disparaging comments about other holiday goers who were lying around all day by the pool and on the beach doing nothing. As illustration, we went on a trip to Tulum, Mexico a few years ago and were beyond proud of ourselves that we ventured outside of the all inclusive resort daily to do things like visit Chichen Itza, hike around other various ruins, rappel into caves to swim in cenotes and zip lining all while the rest of the guests at the resort did nothing but lie in the sun drinking, ordering food and maybe getting up periodically to visit the bathroom. When we drove out of the resort each day the guards were baffled asking us "where are you going" unable to imagine guests actually wanting to leave the resort. But that was then. Now we are a bit better and we do enjoy a half day or even a full day of sitting by the pool and doing nothing when we travel. And that's exactly what we did all day Sunday on our trip, until we had to venture out to eat. 

Gorgeous pool at the Dona Ana.

We visited the Bar Nyeleti to have a few beers and get some lunch. The food we were anxious to try is called matapa. Matapa is a Mozambican specialty. It is a seafood stew that contains ground cassava leaves, ground cashews and of course seafood. It is served with rice. Unbeknownst to us, we arrived at the bar just in time to grab seats and order our matapa before the place filled up with locals wanting to watch Mozambique vs. Ghana in the World Cup soccer qualifier. Unlike a sports bar in the U.S. where there are many TVs and various sports being broadcast and everyone is eating and drinking, this was a more serious event with everyone moving their chairs to face the TV and no one bothering with any distractions such as food or drink. Most of those who were drinking were drinking Coke from 2 liter bottles and even seemed to have brought their own cups to the bar.

matapa

Having a 2 liter Coke and intently watching the match.

After eating our matapa (I loved it, Mr. Deep didn't) and watching some of the game, we ventured out into the street to walk around and see what else was going on in town. I should mention that it was Easter. We came upon a guy named Benny who was standing in the road when we walked by. He asked us if we knew how to play any musical instruments. We said no even though technically I know how to play the French horn. I decided not to share this tidbit because a) it's entirely not cool and b) I felt pretty confident that he wasn't standing out on a dirt road hoping a French horn player would stroll by. And I was right. When we followed him into a house party, there was a band there but no French horn. Yes, we followed him into a house party because sometimes you realize you are in a situation that could turn bad or even dangerous but more likely will be interesting and fun and we decided (by glancing at each other in agreement) that this would likely (and hopefully) be interesting and fun. Even though Benny was disappointed that neither of us played guitar, drums or could sing, that didn't stop him from asking Mr.Deep to join his band. So Mr. Deep air-played the keyboard for a while and that seemed to make Benny happy. 

Note the man in the white hat.

HAHAHAHAHA

Mozambique: Parte Um

Over the Easter holiday weekend, Mr. Deep and I took a trip to Mozambique. This was our first time to visit to an African country outside of South Africa. Technically Mr. Deep has been to Mozambique before IF you count the time he snuck under the fence and crossed the border into Mozambique when we were at Kruger Park.  As that type of behavior is frowned upon, we will count the Easter trip as Mr. Deep's first visit to Mozambique.

Vilankulo is a small town with a very small airport

In a previous post I described how after the trip was paid for in full, I learned that Americans need a visa to visit Mozambique. As Americans we are not used to needing a visa to go on vacation, so Mr. Deep and I were a little taken aback and we had to scramble to get the visas in time. We visited the Mozambican consulate with all our visa paperwork in hand only to learn that Mr. Deep did not have enough blank pages in his passport to get his visa. The consulate website said three pages were needed but at the consulate we were told it was actually six (three front and back.) Mr. Deep then had to make a few visits to the American embassy to get a new passport. While all of this excitement creates endless amounts of blog post material I do feel that the inability to easily complete tasks is becoming more and more frustrating over time. 

Therefore I am going to declare that the number one thing you need to know if you are moving to South Africa (in my opinion) has nothing to do with safety and security as you would think from reading about the country. Instead, I think the first thing that anyone moving here needs to understand and accept is that you will rarely, if ever, be able to fully complete a task on the first attempt. Even though the Mozambique visa debacle technically has nothing to do with South Africa, the whole thing took place on South African soil so I am lumping the experience into my nothing is easy in South Africa rant. Things like renewing your car registration or getting someone to come to your house to fix something and other seemingly simple tasks usually require multiple attempts before you achieve success. It's always something. The system is down that day, you have the wrong form, they can't process whatever it is you are trying to do at that location, the electrician just doesn't show up and doesn't bother to call and on and on. If your hobby is completing tasks in a quick and efficient manner than you are likely to be repeatedly frustrated.

Besides the race against time to get the visas, the other topic of pre-travel discussion was whether or not Mr. Deep and I should take malaria pills. While there is no malaria in the part of South Africa where we live, you can get malaria when visiting other parts of the country and continent. We already had the pills as we filled a prescription prior to visiting Kruger, but then decided not to take them.  Of course neither of us wanted to risk getting malaria but we have also heard bad things about the side effects. Ultimately, we decided to take the pills this time. The ones we had require you to take one pill per day with food for 11 days.  At first we didn't notice any side effects. In hindsight I think that was because we were eating huge breakfasts every morning at the hotel in Mozambique and therefore taking the pills with lots of food. But then, after we returned home and started having just green smoothies for breakfast, we both started to feel sick and nauseous. It took us a few days to realize that it was likely the pills making us feel bad and so we suffered through the remaining days and started to feel better shortly after we finished taking them.  

But I digress. We got the visas and flew to Vilankulo. When we landed at the airport we immediately saw that we could have obtained the visas at the airport upon arrival. We had received mixed information about this as several people had told us we could get the visas upon arrival. But, we also read information that said although you used to be able to get visas upon arrival that now you cannot. I would estimate that three quarters of the people on our plane were getting their visas created at the airport. And the line to create new visas was moving at a rate about three times faster then the line for those of us who already had visas which made no sense because the new visas required quite a bit more work including processing applications and taking photos. The person working the line for those of us who already had visas - whose job it was to look at the visa, type some information into a computer and then stamp the visa - was incredibly slow. He was seated behind a high counter which I couldn't see over the top of so I couldn't tell if he was even working on a computer or if he was just reading a book or texting with a friend or something. 

Finally the visas were stamped and we headed to our hotel called the Dona Ana.  The Dona Ana is located right on the beach and has amazing views of the Indian Ocean. As shown in the map below, Mozambique is a long skinny country with 1430 miles (2300km) of coastline. We chose to visit Vilankulo at the recommendation of a friend who used to live in Mozambique. I don't really enjoy doing research about trips so I am happy to take a recommendation from a person who knows and just go with it.

Vilankulo is a small fishing town named for an African tribal chief, Vilankulo. Since the Portuguese apparently don't use the letter k in their language, the name of the town can also be spelled Vilanculo. Portuguese is the official language of Mozambique but everyone spoke enough English and we did not have any trouble communicating. 

These guys are all fishing on the beach by the hotel. They are line fishing without rods or reels which is why their arms are all bent.

This is a wooden dhow boat. When the tide went out the boats would remain on the sand waiting for the tide to come in again.

Pretty landscaping at the Dona Ana Hotel

In front of the hotel

Another picture of the hotel

Lots of boats and fishermen

Saturday we took a snorkeling trip out to Maguraque, one of the six islands comprising the Bazuruto Archipelago. The archipelago is located just a few miles from Vilankulo. We rode in a wooden Arabian style boat called a dhow out to the island. It was raining slightly when we boarded the boat but soon it cleared up and became a gorgeous sunny day. 

The dhow and a cloudy sky

On the dhow.

Mr. Deep's beer on the dhow. When in Mozambique the beer of choice is called 2M.

The boat crew included the skipper and a chef. The chef began working right away preparing our lunch even though we were not going to eat for several hours. In the middle of the boat was a huge charcoal braai (braai is a grill in South African lingo) where he cooked everything.

The chef cleaning fresh calamari

In addition to calamari, we also had barracuda for lunch.

The braai

Depending on what aspects of snorkeling you enjoy, the snorkeling could be described as either really great or really poor. If you are looking to view brightly colored fish and pretty coral then the snorkeling was pretty bad because it had rained that morning and the water was still cloudy. BUT, if you like snorkeling in very warm water with a current so strong you don't have to do a thing except plop yourself in the water and be carried along the reef without expending a bit of energy then the snorkeling was great. Since I am not a very strong swimmer I did love just lying there in the hot sun and warm Indian Ocean just floating along easily even if we didn't see much of anything. 

After the snorkel, our guide talk us for a walk around the island of Magaruque. The island is only 2.4 km long and up to 1 km wide. It is largely uninhabited although it contains a guest lodge of some kind. 

Maguraque

Mr. Deep and our fellow trip goers walking along the beach on Maguraque

Lots of camera shy crabs on the island. This guy was was trying hard not to have his photo taken but we managed to get a shot of him right before he exited the frame.

After the snorkeling and the walk it was time to eat before we headed back to the mainland.

Lunch was calamari stew, grilled barracuda, rice, bread, bananas and salad. YUM!

We had several other adventures in Mozambique and there is more to come in my next blog post to be titled Mozambique Parte Dois (that's Portuguese for part two.)

Ops Never Stops

Purple Rocks Purple Rocks

I can't believe it's been over a week since I published my last blog post. I didn't start this blog to market myself but I do hear every marketing person I have ever known in my head telling me, "you have to be consistent with your brand" and "you must communicate with your audience regularly" and "be sure to use engaging content." I realize I have probably let my readers down by going longer than normal without publishing. I don't really have a good reason for my lapse but I have been very busy lately with a lot of different things. Things that I will share with you over the next few posts. 

And what is it about marketing people that you can always hear them talking to you in your head? I guess they are good marketers and know how to make their message stick!

This week, I have been extra busy with my Ops work. No, I have not joined an elite special forces team. Ops is how I refer to any project or task associated with the Deep Household Operations, all of which I oversee. If there is a question in our house concerning which one of us needs to handle something the answer is that the Ops Team needs to handle it. Keep in mind that Ops is a very small team consisting of one person.

Ops has many different departments and functions. They include but are not limited to:

• travel, social functions and entertainment
• house and garden maintenance including staff management of cleaning lady and gardener
• licenses and renewals
• health and medical
• automotive cleaning and care
• food and nutrition 
• other as requested by Mr. Deep

You will notice that anything related to financial matters is excluded from the Ops scope of work. This is due to the team's marked deficiency in mathematics. Mathematics are handled by our CFO, Mr. Deep. Ops sometimes has to approve invoices for Mr. Deep to pay. Invariably Ops forwards these invoices to Mr. Deep without even looking at them which leads to scolding and a discussion about the need to be thorough.

I'd like to share with you about a day in the life of Ops but each day is a little bit different. So I am going to combine the experiences of a few recent days into one example to illustrate the vast array of projects I am currently managing.

1) Wake up at 6:00 a.m. Say hello to Mr. Deep who wakes up at 5:30 a.m. Mr. Deep requests his morning green smoothie. Make his green smoothie (if you want the recipe I can share it.) 

2) Check emails and look at Facebook while waiting for Mr. Deep to go to work

3) Clean up all smoothie making materials and put away dishes from last night's dinner

4) Clean the water feature. We have a water feature in our garden and somehow many of the bricks have turned purple and green. Use gloves to protect manicure. Use a scrub brush and bleach to try to clean bricks. Realize the purple and green is some kind of algae. Hope that I don't get infected with a brain eating amoeba. Realize that I need to remove all water from the fountain. Use a bucket to bail out water. Stand in the fountain and clean out remaining debris. Hope that I don't step on a snake or other kind of creature in the dirty and cloudy water. Hope that I don't contract cholera. Refill the fountain. Realize that there is a serious drought and that I am not supposed to be using the hose during the day. Continue using the hose while feeling guilty about it. Get frustrated that the purple growth remains on the bricks. Pour a whole bottle of bleach directly on the bricks. Let the bleach sit until the purple pales to a light shade of lavender. Decide it is much better and end the project due to running out of bleach.

Ugh I had to stand in this to get the last bit of water and dirt out.

5) Email the South African office of the Mozambican consulate. Tell them the Deep family would like to visit Mozambique and ask them how we can get a tourist visa. Hope that it does not take long to get one since the trip is already booked and fully paid for. Consider it to be an Ops failure that the visa piece was not discovered earlier. Decide that it's dumb that people need visas to go on vacation. Expect not to hear back via email and decide I will call them at noon if I don't hear back.

6) Receive an email from security advising that the pine trees in our back garden need to to be pruned because when it rains the branches are touching the electric fence and causing security havoc. Call a tree feller (that's a guy who chops down trees not fellow spelled wrong) who I saw working at a neighbor's house. Feller says he is in the estate now and can come over. Meet with feller and agree on price. Set tree trimming date for Thursday.

7) Try to renew the Deep family TV license. (FYI as best I can tell a TV license is a money making scheme in South Africa. You have to buy a TV license or give a license number when you buy a TV. You must then renew the license every year for about R250. I am not sure what happens if you don't renew it. Does your TV just stop working one day?) Review email received from Mr. Deep regarding the license renewal. Note that his email says he tried to pay the fee online but was not successful. Review list of retail outlets where the license can be renewed. Go to a TV store listed to try to pay the fee. Wait 15 minutes while the salesman tries to help me. Argue with salesman when he says my passport number is supposed to have a letter in it. Go to a grocery store. Wait in line to renew license. Get frustrated when cashier tells me that I need an EZ pay number (license number on the email does not suffice.) Go to the store where we purchased our TV and our original license. Learn that they are unable to process renewals. Go to another store in the same shopping center. Wait online only to learn that the TV license renewal system is offline. Wonder if it's too early in the day to have a glass of wine. Decide instead to eat lunch. Make a poor eating choice and eat a burger due to being hungry and frustrated. Decide not to get chips because that would be gluttonous. Eat burger in car while driving home. Notice that it is dripping with tomato sauce (ketchup) and that I have gotten tomato sauce all over my clothes. Return home and change clothes. Receive email from Mr. Deep saying I can renew the license online. Remind him that he told me he tried to do so and was unsuccessful. Remind him again when he seems to have no memory of any of this. Imagine a peaceful life without TV. Successfully renew license online.

8) Call Mozambique consulate. Learn that we can get the visas Monday - Friday from 

8:00 -12:00 p.m. Email Mr. Deep to see check on his availability.

9) Review email inbox. Learn that my South African visa situation has officially been "rectified." Feel good that Home Affairs has finally acknowledged that I am here accompanying my husband and not my father. Rejoice that once again I am officially a dependent spouse in the eyes of the South African office of Home Affairs.