Is this English? More adjustments...

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History doesn’t repeat itself, it rhymes.

(Mark Twain)

Greetings from South Africa. We are still in Johannesburg, for a week as of yesterday, and it is beautiful. We have been busily looking for opportunities and trying to talk with people, even with the internet down for 3 days and the cell phone snafus. Our phone can apparently receive international calls but not make them until we switch from a prepaid service to a contract service, which requires an address. Also, the service is spotty in this country. We plan to use Skype for international calls (phone calls over the internet), and I have been told that if you are also on the Skype network, we may be able to make calls for free.

We are occasionally having translation issues, which is to be expected, even in English. Don't ask for a napkin - you may receive a diaper. What you want for wiping the peanut butter off your mouth is a serviette. We bought a printer that works here, and Bob printed some things that he wanted to cut with the paper cutter (which he calls a shear). He went to the office and asked if he could use the shear, and they sent him to the groundskeeper. He said no, he wanted to cut some paper, so they said, oh! You want the guillotine! Not thinking of executing anybody, he had neglected to ask for a guillotine . Everything is in English/Afrikaans/Sesotho/Isizulu/etc. When I called the cell phone network, I listened to lots of Isizulu (language of the Zulu people) until I got a friend to ask them to change the default language to English. Apparently they ask you in Isizulu if you want to change to English - how would I know?

Bob and I have both learned to drive on the left side of the road and shift left-handed. The turn signal lever is on the right, and the windshield washer arm on the left, so we often turn on the wipers when we're trying to turn. This arrangement is not consistent on all cars even within this country. We have the best-tested wipers around.

This week we have been learning as much as possible and getting lots of reminders that things move more slowly here - it often takes both of us to do what one of us could do in the States, such as renting a car or picking up groceries, or other basic errands, and it may take all day to accomplish something that would usually take a couple of hours in the US. We had to show our passports about 10 times in the process of picking up the bags we had shipped from Amsterdam to here. On the plus side, the people are all wonderful and friendly, and the climate is great.

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