"Normal" Life?

Sorry for the long silence!  So often at the end of the day I get the kids into bed and just want to sit down and knit or not do anything at all.

We've been settling in...as much as you can settle in without a house or a car of your own.  The Beckleys have been so wonderful and have made this experience the best it could be.  Still, we look forward to getting our own place and really settling in.  We've been looking at houses and there is one in particular that I just love.  But...we're waiting on some paperwork on our house in the States to go through and our financial hands are tied until then.  Oh, but that house has such a lovely garden!

We've also been looking at cars and have narrowed it down to one or two.  But...given the condition of the roads here and the unscrupulous nature of so many we really need to get a new or certified used car from a dealership.  And what dizzying expense!  For a car that will fit our family we're looking at around $45,000 to $50,000.  Yikes!  And that's not for anything fancy.  We knew this before we got here, but actually seeing what you get for the money is still jarring.  Even the used ones start at $40,000.  Why so expensive?  Probably location- no matter which way you do it, imported things are expensive here because of the shipping costs.  So, toys in general are really expensive.  A set of Legos that would sell in the States for $30 here goes for $100.  So yes, you can feel free to send the kids Legos.  :)

And as long as I'm talking about money, let me explain a little about the exchange rate and whatnot.  Right now the rate is hovering at about 8 rands to 1 dollar.  So, when shopping I'm forever dividing by 8 to see how much things cost.  It's kind of fun to go grocery shopping, use my American debit card, then come home to see what exchange rate we got.  Most of the time it's about 8.2 or so, but the other day I bought a knitting pattern online and got 8.49!  We've been told that this is a really good exchange rate and it's normally more like 7 to 1, so we'd really like to get our big financial matters taken care of sooner than later.

In the meantime, the kids continue to enjoy being outside.  Dominoes are a favorite right now as are umbrellas for the girls.  They have also enjoyed climbing a mango tree and just plain running around.  This evening they made parachutes out of paper for their toys and launched them, with varying success, off the driveway ramp.

We've had some trouble with Liam being destructive in the garden and have found a punishment that works well for him: work.  Last week he ended up spending an entire morning sweeping leaves off the driveway and sidewalks.  Why all morning?  Because the first hour or two was just too much fun for him.  Even after that experience he still enjoys sweeping the brick!  

So that's what we've been up to.  We're here.  We're happy.  We really do love it here, even if we do miss everyone back home.  I've got a great idea: you can all just move over here and that will solve everything.