Asche

It's December but you'd never know it in our house. Outside the sun is blazing in full African summer glory. A little science tidbit for you: We are studying astronomy this year in school. In our investigations of the seasons, we learned that the earth is about 3 million miles closer to the sun during the Southern Hemisphere's summer than the Northern Hemisphere's one. We can feel it! Inside of our house the A/Cs are on full blast... nothing too unusual. Christmas in Miami is not such a far stretch from this reality. But what is noticeably missing are the Christmas tree, the Christmas lights, the hand-lettered stockings, a dozen years' worth of collected keepsakes and handmade ornaments, cards, and Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas is You." Even though we packed out our belongings from La Paz in May, and HHE (house hold effects) typically take about 2-5 months to get from one post to another, we are now outside of that time frame with no word on an arrival date. The kids have long outgrown their clothes; their hand-me-downs are in transit. Indefinitely. So the pajamas pants are now high-waters and all their shirts look like muscle tees and the dresses need leggings... at least we can make a Christmas tree out of the cardboard from the airfreight boxes that were abandoned at our house after delivery in August.

School is going really well. The kids have worked really hard, keeping a rigorous academic schedule, despite missing out on the breaks of the extracurricular activities to which they'd become accustomed. We've tried to make up for it with field trips. One of the more memorable outings was to the Mantenga Cultural Village. The hosts of the village preserve native traditions such as celebratory dances and models of the traditional homes from the Swazi tribes. 

Traditional Swazi homes had small openings that were low to the ground. This forced intruders to enter in head first, making it easy to bludgeon their heads if they were enemies. Despite the low regard for women in traditional Swazi hierarchy, the paternal grandmother of the family unit is considered particularly honorable in the community and her hut would be designated with a skull. Every wife would have her own hut and the grandmother's hut would be situated between them to help keep the peace. As we visited around the village, in keeping with Swazi tradition, the men on our tour, which are deemed more "valuable," would enter the buildings first. It was amusing to see European men smugly enter and leave their insulted counterparts behind. 

  During one of the dances, a girl pulled Noemie up to the front to teach her the iconic shuffle. It was one of those moments that you can really appreciate the gift that is this crazy lifestyle.

Danny played the hero a few weeks ago with another field trip. He coordinated our first foray out of the country and into South Africa, specifically to Ballito, a beach town on the "Dolphin Coast" where, indeed, the kids woke up to see dolphins out past the waves on our second day. It was a seven-hour drive but seven-hour drives in South Africa are way cooler than seven-hour drives through Florida. 

You see pick-up trucks going 80 mph with kids and adults bumping along in the bed of the truck. The roadsides are dotted with people trying to flag down strangers for rides, as hitchhiking is a totally acceptable and common form of transportation, since cars are cost-prohibitive for most. Cows graze on the grass that grows on the edge of the pavement, and children wave sticks as they walk along the shoulders of the highways. We even had to stop at a vehicular border crossing, which was a first for me. And thus we made a very picturesque drive to Ballito. 

We stayed at an AirBnB where, for the first time in months, we had a stable, decent speed of internet. How is it possible I've become so dependent on something I never had growing up? Having the option to visit a monkey sanctuary or a waterpark with waterslides, we chose instead to spend the cool, overcast days soaking in the Indian Ocean goodness. 

 Not so much the freezing water with its strong surf and threatening rip tides, but rather the sand and sun and salty, fresh air. There was a troop of lifeguards in training who braved the waves and we all watched to see if they would all make it out alive.  Given the weather and the fact that winter break was two weeks away, it was no wonder we had this vacation hot spot to ourselves.

 One of the interesting features of the Durban area beaches are tidal pools built into the rock cliffs where the water is supplied by the ocean flowing over the walls, allowing the water to keep from becoming stagnant, and allowing swimmers to swim in safety, assuming they don't step on one of the sea urchins that have made their homes in these man-made pools.

At the bay, the kids had a blast doing what homeschoolers do best- getting lost in the discoveries of the world around them. There was rock climbing galore, mussels by the bucket load, and at some point, Toby wandered off and had his own imaginary battle against the ocean a la Fantasia's "Sorcerer's Apprentice."

They clearly had a fantastic vacation, as short as it was, and on the way home we caught sight of a little critter having lunch on the side of the road. 

 Now when I say school is going really well, I might have to make an exception for Gigi for whom school and learning never seem to go hand in hand. She doesn't complete any worksheets and getting her to sit still remains a perennial struggle. Yet she somehow manages to shout the answers to Toby's oral review questions from the next room before he can come up with the answers.

Danny: How can I help you do better with school?

Gigi: You should quit your work.

Danny: If I quit my work, then we wouldn’t be allowed to stay here anymore

Gigi: Why do you say that?

Danny: Because my work is what brought us here.

Gigi: What?? Who hired you?!?