Action Packed Week!

We've had quite a busy last week here in Joburg. Terry and I kicked things off with a charity event at theh Johannesburg Country Club, a morning of croquet and pimms on the lawn to sponser a great charity organization caled Starfish that is based here in South Africa and works to provids for AIDS orphans here in South Africa. It was a fantastic event and very well planned. Given Terry's slightly competitive nature (oh yeah and he decided to dress up for the event in his old school blazer) our foursome was the most hotly contested game on the pitch and lasted a good 30 minutes longer than any of the other games but we followed the rules and really let ourselves become immersed in the cometitive and slightly passive aggresive nature of the game!

After our morning of colonial opulence Terry and I headed off to the filmset of a friend's movie currently titled Jerusalem, about building hijackings in Johannesburg. Yes, in Johannesburg a building can be hijacked by less than savoury individuals who then demand that rent be paid to them rather than the rightful owners. It wouldn't be as big of a problem if the laws weren't set-up as they are. With the current law systems it can often take an owner months to regian the legal rights to a buliding once it has been hijacked. We arrived on the set in downtown Joburg (a slightly seedy area of town) and watched from the sie lines as they filmed about 20 security guards and police storming a hijacked building. It was a lot of fun to see everything in action and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the finished product in about another 18 months.

After that we went to visit our friends Cliff and Elsje who had a baby last week, Cayden, and had just brought him home from the hospital. It's always amazing to see how small a new born is! But Cayden is looking strong and Terry and I have made his parents promise to keep us up to date on all of his progress given that we are leaving this week, but at least we got to meet him before heading out!

We also had a chance to have a lovely leisurely lunch with Terry's cousin Sonia and her kids Nicole and Theo who flew out to Joburg from Austin for a visit with the family here. It was a bit odd seeing them so out of context but great to catch-up and see how much the kids are growing.

Last night was our official going away party and we had a fantastic turn out here at Terry's parent's house. About 30 of our friends came by to wish us well on our next adventure and to make me promise to keep up the blogs so they can follow us and our adventures in the US. Thanks to loads of help from Mimi we had a fantastic night. This morning we hustled Terry off to the airport and I am following in three days time.

The itenerary in the US is for Terry to fly (via Dubai) into New York and immediately down to Florida from there for a conference he is then going to DC to meet up with me and some of our very close friends from business school for a long weekend reunion. From there he is off to Boston and New York for work and will then fly to San Jose to get stuck into work. My plan is to fly into New York; spend a day there (hopefully without doing too much damage) and to then take the train down to DC for the reunion. From DC I'm off to Austin for a few days with my family (I have to make sure they still are able to recognise me after all this time!) and will then fly onto San Jose to start settling us and sorting out our lives there!

It should be an interesting few weeks!

Guess What?! We're moving!

Yes, yes, believe it or not Terry and I are moving next week to either San Jose or San Francisco for a very interesting but risky opportunity Terry has decided to try out in California. Despite past false alarms on this move it looks like this time it is really going to happen. We are actually very sad to be leaving Joburg; I know some of you don't believe that I'm really saying that, but this city does have a tendency to grow on you... And although a but overwhelmed and nervous about all of the unknown we are looking forward to our next adventure, this time in the bay area. I have a feeling that the blog posts may be a bit less exotic for a while, sorry guys!

So if anyone is in the San Fran area from late July onwards drop us a line or give us a call (my cell number is staying the same).

Cheers!

Genevieve and Terry

What I've learned about life in the Big City

After our many raves about Cape Town (which can really be more like a distant suburb of Western Europe) I feel like it may be time to explain life in Johannesburg, a city where you know you are in Africa. It is very different but does have its beauty and as long as you go into it with a sense of humor you will usually manage. You may wonder what I mean by this, let me explain...Some of my favorite examples:



1. Terry whispering to me to discreetly take off a piece of jewelry or hide it when we go into an iffy area.
2. Having to stop on a busy road the other day to let 3 chickens across the cross walk.
3. Learning to drive on the other side of the road (over all I manage well but sometimes walk to the wrong door when I'm getting in).
4. Constantly looking at stops, or things that look like they should be stops to make sure the light is working or hasn't been knocked over by a drunk driver (knocking over traffic lights is a national sport here in SA), and if it is knocked over following the color of the light as it lays on its side in the dirt, assuming of course that it hasn't been stripped yet of its working parts
5. The frequent and random power outages (now I know how all you Californians must have felt a few years ago when you had all those rolling blackouts). It teaches you that it really is helpful to maintain power stations... The SA commission that reports on such things announced recently that last year there were only 1,500 significant outages in SA (only up by 400 from last year). People really get used to operating with no power, I have walked into grocery stores that were nearly pitch black only to find it full of South Africans acting as though everything was completely normal, some of the old ladies had even whipped out their mini mag lites to check their lists as well as the labels on the food. I was rung up by a very tired looking owner with a hand held calculator...
6. Learning the unwritten and completely senseless rules of the black taxis (old vans that are held together by wire and duct tape and then stuffed with about 20 commuters rather than the 12 they can actually hold). Defensive driving takes on a whole new meaning with these guys around, they pull some very impressive and gutsy moves on the roads here. But don't worry, there is a new program under way to try to create more of a cohesive system for taxis here.
7. Avoiding armored trucks at all costs. In the month of November there were 23 cash in transit heists ('tis the season, with all the Christmas shopping to be done and all...) most of these occur either with guns or when the gang bashes the armored truck off the road. Oh and also don't neglect the 420 other heists/hijackings that were reported last year.
8. Calling the phone company when our line went out and having the person on the other side of the line tell us that someone would definitely be out "sometime in the next week", but that they couldn't narrow it down any more for us. Makes the "we'll be there between 12 and
4" answer in the US sound just plain decadent!
9. Winter fires in Joburg. I have never seen so many small wild fires being completely ignored in my life!
10. Learning all of the new name for things in the grocery store, its a wonder my Thanksgiving pies came out tasting good and the right color. I often stand in an aisle scratching my head and looking really dumb trying to make sure that treacle sugar is really like brown sugar or that corn flour is really corn starch or that bicarbonate of soda is baking soda (thank God
for college chemistry), I could go on...

But like I said, just take it all in stride and be able to laugh it off. All of the above being said it really is a wonderful city when you learn to see past and appreciate the craziness. The majority of people here are genuinely kind, attentive, and willing to help. It is AMAZING to have a maid, especially our maid Daphne, thank goodness we found her. The food in this city is wonderful once you know where to go. Waking up to the unusual sound of Ha-di-das (I have no idea how to spell this) which are very unusual burds that make a niose a lot like their name. And the conquer at all costs mentality of the culture is inspiring, and has given rise to epic events such as the Two Oceans, the Argus, the 94.7, and of course the Comrades- all true endurance events. It is the people of Joburg really make it what it is, as Joburgers like to say, "Cape Town may have its beaches but in Joburg people are our beaches".