A South African Holiday Season

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Happy Holidays to all of our friends and family!!

Friday, December 21, 2007

Wow, it's been an amazing few weeks. So much has happened.

We had a pretty crazy time looking for a new place to live. We knew that we had to move out of our Tamboerskloof apartment on the 11th of December. We started looking on the 28th of November. We rented a car, wow it was a total trip to drive on the opposite side of the road. I (Sarah) did most of the driving at Ben's request, though Ben definitely had his turn! At first it was really scary - it took me a full three minutes of waiting for the exact right moment. . .the right break in traffic. . . very . . . very long break in traffic before I would even pull out of the car rental company garage! Then we explored the rest of the Cape Peninsula for a couple of days. We headed down to the False Bay side (Southern Suburbs) and the Northern Atlantic (Norther Suburbs) to check out towns. We mixed site-seeing with scoping out new hoods for us to live. It was actually a really great way and excuse to check out neighborhoods in which we would have had no other reason to venture. The Southern Suburbs were great. Mostly close to the beach, the water is slightly warmer, though almost imperceptibly. We loved the town of Kalk Bay. Unfortunately, we didn't see anything available there. We checked out a couple of apartments in Muizenberg; however, the town felt really depressed, and it was so windy the day we visited, that it tool us three days to get all the sand out of our hair! 😊 The best part of that whole trip was getting to see the African Penguins in Boulder Beach, just west of Simon's Town. They were so funny. Since they are monogamous, you could see the majority of them all paired up and hanging out in the nest holes. As one would be digging the sand out of the hole, the penguins around seemed to be getting just a little upset from having sand flung at them over and over again, so the partner penguin - the one not digging - would stand in the path of the sand so that the other could dig unfettered. I could definitely be anthropomorphizing.

Given the lack of perfect places and the distance from the City Bowl, we decided to cross the False Bay side off our list of possible new places to call home. Then we started looking in the Northern Suburbs. We found a two bedroom place, only slightly more than we wanted to pay, though definitely less than we budgeted for ourselves, only 1 block away from the beach, with great beach views, etc. Ben really, really loved it so we decided to go for it. Apparently, the landlord is a bit fickle since moments before we were to sign the lease and place a deposit, he just pulled out and decided that he wanted to rent it as a holiday place. See, the problem with finding a place this time of year is that it is now summer and all the kids are out of school, and it's the Christmas/Boxing Day/New Year's season to boot, so everyone comes to Cape Town for vacation. This means that people are willing to pay for one night only slightly less than half what we're willing to pay for a whole month!!! Everyone keeps saying - come back to me in Feb and I'll be able to find you a great place. Okay, we say, knowing full well, that we need a place now, so that doesn't really help. Subsequently, two more places that we thought were "for sure" places, ended up falling through. As we went to bed on the 10th, the night before we're supposed to move out, we had no idea where we were going. Luckily Ben and I were able to just stay in the moment, and keep affirming that the Universe would lead us to the perfect spot. We ended up spending one night in a hotel down the street, and the following day, we found the most perfect of places.

So, now we're staying in a little area called West Beach. We're three blocks from the beach, perched up on a little hill, renting a one-bedroom apartment from Jacqui, a wonderfully sweet woman who lives in a house on the same property. We're livin' in the 'burbs! Quite an experience for Ben - who has never done so. Funny for me, too, since Ben and I always swore we would never live in suburbs whenever we drove through them in the states. However, when you find the perfect place and you know its the perfect place, all those "I'll nevers" don't really mean anything. Our apartment is larger, less expensive, closer to the beach, and safer than anything else we looked at. And, we get a dog, a boxer named Dominic and a pool!!! 😊. Our little 'granny cottage', as it is called here, has it's own entrance, and our back door opens out into the center courtyard. The weather is so nice this time of the year that we often choose to hang out poolside reading a book and catching a few rays. When we do head out, we travel on bikes, since we do not have a car yet. Actually bikes are perfect for this area. It is fairly flat, except where our house is situated, and everything, from the beach to the wetlands to the shopping center are all within a 5-10 minute bike ride away. And yes, we are being very safe. We even bought a lock and some helmets.

On the whole job front. We've been able to register the name of It's Yoga Cape Town!!! Very exciting! We met with an accountant and an immigration specialist this week. So the business should be registered by the beginning of the year, and the immigration specialist gave us lots of homework, but it sounds like we may have a couple options to explore. We'll definitely keep you posted on that.

I've (Sarah) now been offered two positions to teach yoga. One at a studio in the City Bowl called Karma Space (www.karma-space.co.za), and the other in conjunction with a guest house in Big Bay (a 10 minute bike ride - along the beach - north of here).

I, on the other hand, have been corresponding with a few agencies and organizations, and have submitted quite a few applications. Since it is the holiday month, I will not hear from them until January 2, 2008; that's alright with me; it's the holiday season for us too. I also will be volunteering at SACCOB (the South African Conservation of Birds); they are like the Marine Mammal Center for birds; so I will be helping with the surveying, tracking, and care-giving to sick and inured birds. Fortunately for us, we live in such close proximity to a number of wetland restoration and community organizing projects that I am hopeful that my consultation and expertise in the field will land me a job.

It's been constantly amazing how everything is working out. We feel so lucky to be here and are just soaking up every single second.

Sometimes, though, we have to remind ourselves that we're in South Africa. Just last night we were having a conversation about how important it is to be grateful no matter what is happening. Our daily lives in the US were perfect, and it became easy to take that for granted. Well, our lives here are perfect, too, and as our daily life starts to become just our daily life, it has the danger of becoming *just* our daily life, which could be happening anywhere at all, Oakland, Junction City, Grass Valley, or Atlanta. However, we have to remind ourselves that we really are on another continent, having this amazing adventure, and that everything is part of the adventure, even when we're commuting or dealing with immigration bureaucracies. We realized that the fun and exciting parts aren't just sitting on the beach or going to a new garden or music event - the fun and exciting part is all of it - just simply being present for every single moment of it, no matter what that is. What all this made me realize was that our happiness is tied to whether we decide to realize how amazing life is in every moment, so much more so than where we are when we realize it. (Sorry Moms and Dads, this still doesn't mean we're planning on moving back anytime soon.) 😊

May everyone everywhere be happy, peaceful, and free.

Happy Holidays!!
We send everyone so much love!

Love, Sarah and Benj

PS- We just bought our Christmas tree and it's perfect for us. It's not a Christmas Pine, but a Christmas Fern; colored lights and all





Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Well, the count-down has begun. We're technically on the self-proclaimed "vacation" for 2 more days. (We gave ourselves permission to have the first two weeks to simply be on vacation.) Then the weekend, and then we'll really get to work on finding yoga spots and opportunities to teach, and registering It's Yoga Cape Town, and Ben a "proper" job. 😊

Yesterday we spent a fair bit of time at the internet cafe (M@in on Kloof Street - I highly recommend it!) both in the morning and the evening. Then in the middle we walked through the Mount Nelson hotel - the last bastion of unfettered, unapologetic colonialism in Cape Town. The buildings are all amusingly pink, and there's always a man standing at the main entrance (of extremely large columns that begin a long entrance road lined by manicured gardens and towering palm trees), ready to salute you as you enter, via your car of course, since very few people without at least a modicum of money do not have a car -- unfortunately that's still very few people in comparison to the larger population! The grounds of the Mount Nelson hotel just happens to be the shortest distance between our apartment and downtown. We enjoyed the beautiful gardens and pool area. As we were checking out the pool, one of the staff asked us if we'd be joingin them at the pool today - no clue we weren't guests there. Of course we said no, since we didn't even have our suits with us, and we also had other plans, but it left us wondering, "What would have transpired had we said yes?" Would we have been actually shown to a set of chairs, provided a towel, waited on poolside? Who really knows, since we probably won't go back to join them poolside, but curious nonetheless. Who knows maybe at some point, we will find out. We continued walking through the grounds and emerged at the large columns onto Victoria Street -- named for the Queen, of course - 😊

Then we ventured across the street into Company's Gardens, a long stretch of gardens, greenery, and other stimuli that transverse the main part of the city running North to South. Walking down Government Ave through the gardens is so beautiful. Architecturally Victorian buildings line the West side of the street, and larger open spaces line the Eastern side, both are just beyond the magnificently large trees shading the walk. It reminded me of a mix of the panhandle - because of its shape - and Paris - because of the groundswork of the gardens, the open air cafe (under a large baobob tree), and the various government buildings and museums. We sat on a bench next to a fountain/pond in front of the South African National Gallery and ate our lunch that Ben had packed for us: nutloaf and beet sandwiches. . . delicious! We continued walking through the Gardens, meandering and sniffing our way through the Rose gardens (in full bloom!!), peaking through the aviary gates (even trying to identify the various birds - parrots, parakeets, etc., until we realized that because they were caged, they were likely *not* South African and thus wouldn't be in our book), and strolling down the tree-lined walkways until we emerged until Adderley - one of the main Cape Town streets with very large Christmas light decorations strung across the six-lane street. (Also, the street on which the main bus and train station is located (the one we immediately identified as Sketch Central the week prior). We walked only one block down Adderley to LongMarket (completely avoiding Sketch Central's intersection) through the Southern end of Green Market Square, a bustling market of local goods - mostly artistic and touristic in nature - surrounded (again) by European style architecture. (That has to be one of the most bizarre parts of Cape Town, as I reflect on it: here we are in South Africa, and we're seeing as much, if not more, old European architecture than in San Francisco. We're completely clear on the historical reasoning why this is, it's just very bizarre.)

From Green Market Square we continued along LongMarket to Bo-Kaap the primarily Muslim area of Cape Town. We took several pics of the brightly colored houses (where Ben is standing in between Orange and Chartreuse houses). We popped into Rose Corner store to ask a few questions and get our bearings, and then went on to Atlas Trading Company a couple doors down. Atlas is a wholesale store that Pam said to check out for spices. This place is the most diverse and plentiful spice shop I've been to outside of the Berkeley Indian shops. We picked up some garlic powder and ginger powder. The process of acquiring the spices was quite interesting. There are many bins with builk spices and different types of flour and beans, etc. Then there are premeasured bags that are of a more limited, though still quite extensive, variety. You're supposed to give your grocery list of spices to one of two men in blue uniforms. They acquire everything for you (we didn't know and just grabbed our own - though maybe they only do that for the bulk items), then you stand in a short line to be rung up by one of three women at registers, then you take your goods and your receipt to another line to pay your money to a women behind a big plexiglass window with the case register. All of this is taking place in a room that can't be bigger than 5 Safeway checkout stands - not that large for requiring standing in so many lines. At first I thought it quite an inefficient process; then I thought that perhaps it was a way to employ more people; then I realized that it was probably for safety. Having only one person actually deal with money, and putting her behind a large window, ensures that she and the money are safe, but if she is the only one ringing people up, then the lines would be enormously long. Therefore, the labor is divided to increase efficiency.

After Atlas we sat on the sidewalk for a few minutes watching a group of kidsride and skate a skateboard before we headed up te street to Biesmillah to eat some yummy local Cape Malay food. We're not actually sure the real origin of this food, nationally or regionally speaking, but it seems to be served mostly by Muslims, and has a definite Indian flair - but is not exactly like Indian food. I had a drink called Falooda, which we were told Muslims use to break their fast, and I can see why: it is packed with calories. Rose flavored syrup coats the bottom, then some kind of milk is poured on top, foowed by a scoop of ice cream - that tasted just like Kenyan ice cream, kind of like ice milk, but not exactly - then topped with more rose syrup or water, and then nuts. The milk part was delicious, but when it got to the ice cream or syrupy part, it was too sweetly gross. For food: as a starter we had "chillie bites," which are a lot like a combination between falafel (in texture) and pakoras (in taste): baked, some kind of bean flour, maybe chickpea, with herbs, made into balls that are tastily crusty on the outside and moist on the inside. We ate the chillie bites with a variety of condiments brought to our table: 1) diced/minced onion with flecks of jalapenos (but not spicy - btw, jalapenos are pronounced with a hard "j" and no ~ over the n, definitely funny for us Californians), this tasted more like pickled onions, very delicious.2) shredded beetroot (or beets), and 3) a peri-peri sauce, which like Kenya's pili-pili (pronounced peely-peely), consisted of small red and green chili peppers in oil, however, unlike Kenya's, wasn't the least bit spicy. It was very tasty, and totally original; it was mixed with so many unidentifiable herbs and spices that we recognized very little about it. Our other starter was a couple of samoosas, very similar to Indian Samosas, but here they tend to be less fried, more baked. For our meal we shared a vegetable curry, again the flavor is not like Indian curry or any other curry we've ever tasted. This one had a definite kick! No peri-peri needed there! Filled with green beans, eggplant, butter beans, bell peppers, and some other veggies, it was all so delicious! This was served with Roti - for those who know (Kate), it's exactly like Kenyan chapati. To explain to those who aren't familiar, I can't say much; it's somewhat like a tortilla, but made with wheat flour, not white, and not as light, and more flaky - perfect to scoop up mouthfuls of curry with!

We emerged from Biesmillah just in time to hear the melodic call to prayer fill the neighborhood from the numerous mosques throughout the neighborhood. We hadn't heard it like this since living in the Muslim neighborhoods of the Kenyan coast. Such a welcome sound, that brought back a number of beautiful memories! As the many mosques used their towers and loud speakers to alert everyone to the time of day (e.g. the fourth time to come and pray), Ben and I just stood there and soaked in the experience - such beautiful sounds and smells and sights - truly lovely.

We made our way back through the Tamboerskloof neighborhood encountering the second person that day to ask us for money. It actually happens a lot less here than it did in Kenya, and even less so than in the Bay Area. As hard as it is to say no, we've set a pretty hard line against giving money on the street. Ben and I have never been acustom to saying no on the street, as long as we had it, we had it to share. But we've heard too many stories about people getting roped into stuff on the street here that we just decided a hard-lined stance was much better for us until we felt more comfortable with our surroundings and could be a better judge of who just wanted some food and who may be using the ploy of asking for money for food as an excuse to get our attention elsewhere. It's more just like a safety mechanism we're using while we get to know all the nuances behind body movement, stance, and eye gaze, that are so uniquely a country's own - that part of living and interacting that you don't even realize is a part of your daily unspoken conversation with everyone with whom you share the sidewalk because you grew up knowing nothing else but that unique manner. So, until we master that I continue to stand ~10 feet away with my eyes on Ben as well as scanning all around us while Ben respectfully and politely lets the person know that we are not sharing anything at this time. Sounds so cold and hard as I write it, but it definitely feels like the right thing to do at the moment.

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Photos

Simon's Town
Here we are in Simon's Town hanging out with the African Penguins

Two Oceans Aquarium
Sarah is hanging out with Nemo; you know the Clowns (clownfish, that it)

our new house 1
Here is a series of pics from our West Beach House

our new house 3
cute and comfortable

house-living room
Ah yes, great place to nap

our new house 5
I didn't think that I was THAT short!! Cooking dinner while standing on a stool.

Christmas on Aderly
The Christmas Lights shine beautiful on Aderley Street- one of Cape Towns main thouroughfairs

Canal Walk Xmas
We are getting our holiday shopping fix at the Canal Walk- Africa's largest mall; and it is big. Not only is it the largest mall we have ever seen, there is a wetland and a fun park. It's like disneyland for the shop-a-holics

Canal Walk Madness
Aw yes, the maddening food court at the Canal Walk. Gots to git me some fast food.

Comments

[Zoé]

Love you guys!
Hey B&S Just wanted to say I love hearing about your exciting adventure. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you both! Love you lots Zoé

[Ninong]

Happy Holidays to you...jingle, jingle, jingle
Masterful peice of literature here........sounds like you both are having fun, even during those many challenges you mentions.....that's part of life, but, your experiences are very unique...not many of us in our young mind would look and seek adventure as you both......we're proud of you and what you have already accomplished in your new environment. Continue with this positive attitude and you will both have a long and fruitful journey. Just remember us back here and keep us all posted. We certainly care very much about you both.....so be safe. Ninong-Ninang

[Liz Schwarte]

Happy 2008!
Wonderful blog, Team Stone Francisco! (Are you gearing up for the Amazing Race??!!) Thanks for keeping us all informed of your adventures. I loved reading the entries. Keep thinking positively, and much happiness in 2008. Love, Liz