Spurs that Jingle, Jangle, Jingle

I'm going out of order here, but I missed an excursion where I snapped some nice shots of the kidz.  The week before Dorothy's soccer game, I went with Lucy to a birthday party of her classmate, Sean (turned 6, American, mom is a teacher at the school, and they moved here from the Czech Republic, where she taught at an American International school.)

Pretoria is big on restaurants with dedicated play areas.  It lets the parents eat and socialize while the young-ins keep busy in a contained, usually outdoor, space.  I guess we have Chuck-E-Cheese in the States, but that's not a place you want to go more than once in a while (or lifetime).  Here the food is usually good enough if not stellar and the activities are quite wholesome.  (The model is that it's free to enter; you just pay for the food and special activities like pony rides.)  The party was at Jingle Jangle, a garden nursery with a restaurant and a random assortment of kids activities, including swing sets, motorized bikes, face painting, a trampoline and bouncy castles, and just in case you get bored, some farm animals.  The best are the chickens who wander about under your feet (good public health policy?).  Adam and I thought this could be a real opportunity for the States (minus the loose poultry), but our fancy friend who works at the World Bank said the required liability insurance and labor costs would be too high.  We've now been to these places lots of times and Lucy always gets excited to go.  Seems worth exploring.

 Jumping on the trampoline with two of her schoolmates (Senna and Sofia)

Apparently I wasn't allowed on.

Lucy makes her Aunt Susie proud!

 Birthday party time.  (They go all out over here.)

 Lunch was tofu tartar with a polenta radicchio salad. 

(Not.  Chicken Nuggets and some questionable juice liquid.  Maybe Grandude Stan could help us with our new Jingle Jangle venture in the States.  Healthy food that kids want to eat and parents beg to pay for!)

 Lunch was quickly over.  Back to the swings.  (Lucy is in between Senna and Max)

 The draw of face painting was too great.

 The butterfly princess.

 I mentioned the random chickens walking around, yes?  (Another time we visited, Noah tried to eat one of the chicks.  Just kidding, but he seemed to consider it.  Would that be chicken tartar?!)

The party is over. Lucy enjoys the bubbles in her goodie bag.

Back at the Ranch 

The kids get reacquainted...

(P.S. Could our government-issue couch be any uglier?  You're allowed one furniture swap.. we haven't requested our yet.  Beggars can't be choosers and it looks OK in certain light (i.e., the dark).

Braai Time 

The next day, with some friends in town, we had a barbecue (or "braai" as they call it here) at the US Embassy community center.  (Yes, we do work sometimes, too.)

 

Ami and Lucy decide the baby swings are more fun than the big kid ones.

 

The (in)famous Thu-ha, visiting from Atlanta.  (She's the one who threw the Pho party.)

 Heather Menzies, a South African also in from Atlanta, was visiting.  Noah looks up at our friend, Heidi.  (She and her husband, Brian, work at CDC and moved here from ATL many years ago.)

 

Noah loves Heidi.

 

Chef Brian manages the grill.  (He later went on a 21 day cleanse which surprisingly didn't involve any Afrikans boerwurst.)

Jetson's time again... Before bed, we triple Skyped with Uncle Josh and the Mo'town G'parents.  (See Lucy in the bottom middle...)  Now we need to try this with Janet, Sue and the Bflo G'parents!

Quiet quickly descended over the veld.  xo,

Glenn

Soccer Star

Dorothy, Noah's nanny and our housekeeper, is on a women's soccer team.  She told us many of her teammates are also domestic workers who live and work in the surrounding neighborhoods, and they've been playing together for years.  (This seems ripe for a good book or PhD thesis.)  She had a game in mid-March (on G'ma Marcie's birthday, in fact!) and we went to cheer her on.  It really felt like we were out of the ex-patriot world.  A crowd gathered to watch the game, but the only other white folks happened to also know Dorothy.  Lucy thought it was exciting and Noah quickly made friends.

The best part was that women started chanting before the game to get the team pumped.  It took me by surprise and yet it seemed so natural to everyone around them.  They danced periodically throughout the game and I compiled a quick video. (It's a bit long, sorry, but feel free to skip ahead by dragging the video timer.)

Click to view a larger version in YouTube.

 The team and its new mascot!

(Dorothy is in the back row, 3rd from the right)

We wait for the game to begin.

Noah gets a ride.

 The game begins!

 

Fancy foot work.

The coach talks to the team during half-time. 

We'll have to pick up some vuvuzelas. (Let us know if you'd like us to send you one.) 

Market Day

Earlier that day, we went to the Hazel Food Market, an outdoor event that occurs each Saturday in Pretoria.  Lucy loved it because it has a bouncy castle (like a Moon Walk).  Noah enjoyed the plastic forks.

Who are you calling a Housewife?

Yes, I do most of the shopping (like any good member of the Berger Tribe), and like any good shopper, I appreciate convenience.  But I'm not sure how I feel about the pre-weighed bags of bananas they sell at our local grocery store ("SuperSpar!").   FYI, the price is 8.99 Rand, which is about $1.30.  (But the exchange rate is getting noticeably worse.)

Shopping through the bush. xo,
Glenn

P.S. Dorothy's team won!

Noah's Drinking Problem

Hi, all.  Hope you had a great Passover or Easter or both.   (Wait, am I supposed to be eating matzo still?!)  I know it's been ages since I've posted.  I had to get our taxes done (Ad owes me big time, eh?), Adam went to Kenya for work [supposedly], and Noah has started climbing onto everything, so life got busy.   N recently climbed UP his high chair, all the way to a standing position. He was extremely pleased with himself. I imagine the view was quite good from his perspective. "Ah, that's where Lucy hides all her secret toys!"

Feeling on top of the world after (and forgetting the trauma of) his first haircut, Noah thought he was big enough to start drinking out of a glass.

 What's that you got there, Pops?

 I'd like that, please.

 

Is this how you work this thing?

 I think sticking my hand in it might help.

 Water pours all over Adam.  Noah likes this game.

It's important to stay hydrated when on a safari.  xo,
Glenn

Snip, Snip! (Noah's First Haircut)

Even without Grandma Marcia close by, I knew it was time for Noah to get a haircut.  There was much discussion at Playgroup (see Scones...) about who should do the cutting, when the cutting should occur, how short to go, etc.   I finally took him to a salon nearby owned by a very nice Swiss man named Guido (pronounced "Gi-do") who is gay (imagine that) and has lived in SA for 20+ years with his partner.   The salon is part of his house, which is quite common for businesses here.  Lucy takes swimming lessons at a woman's house who has a gigantic teaching pool in her backyard.  (Given the high walls, the neighbors probably don't hear much, but I did get scolded the other day by an elderly Afrikaner woman when I blocked her gate with the car.  Oops.)

 Noah walks in..  Has no idea what is about to occur.

Noah, "Oh, who is this nice woman?  This seems like a nice place."

 Noah, "What are you doing to me?!"  

Let's just say that the little guy was not pleased and cried the whole time. 

 Poor guy!  But we didn't cut it too short.  Soon it was over and he was whisked off to the recovery room (the backyard) to look at the colorful birds Guido has in cages.

TA DA!

Noah is ready to attend the Royal Wedding. (No invite yet... maybe they don't have our new address.)

He seems to have forgotten about the haircut and is back to his old self (i.e., happily dropping food on the floor that he doesn't care to eat).

I took Lucy the following week.  It's a real beauty salon (with a wall of salon chairs and mirrors) and they even washed her hair beforehand.  She loved every second of it!    (Sorry, no pics. Forgot my camera.)   Curious about the price?  80 Rand... ~$11.

The safari is looking its finest and ready for action.  xo,
Glenn