Our New Home

We moved in our new home a week ago.  It is north of the city in an area known as Fourways. Click here to see some info on Fourways. It is very suburban--shopping malls, car dealerships, grocery stores.  The commute can be long for Jon, depending on traffic.  Though it is only about 10 miles, it took us over an hour this morning to get to his office.  I came to his office today to use the internet so that I could update the blog, check email, etc.  We are waiting to get internet at our new house. Internet will not only solve lack of web access but will also get our "home" phone number finally working. This is a Vonage # that needs internet access to transfer US calls to our home phone in Jo'burg.  I will post the number as soon as it is working. We have been a little frustrated by the pace in which things get done in South Africa.  Connections don't go in when scheduled, power outages (rolling black-outs are common) affect traffic lights and businesses. Jon's building has been without power most of last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  When we talk to the locals about it, the answer is always the same....."Welcome to Africa." Anyway-this is the reason that blog updating has been so sparse. 

But back to the house! We are in a complex called Tezula. It has about 50 homes. The entire complex (called an estate in SA) is walled and gated with 24 hour guard service.  Each individual home is also walled. These homes are fairly new and modern.  Each home has a small garden and a small dipping pool within their walls.  Each home also has a covered patio with a built-in BBQ (called a braai in SA).  Cooking on the braai is very popular here because the weather is so good almost year-round.

The home is not large but it is open and feels spacious.  We are very comfortable.  The owner of the home has moved to Cape Town for business but upon talking with him about the rental, he stipulated one thing: that we keep on his domestic help that he has had with him for the last 3 years.  In SA, domestic workers are very common.  It is considered your social responsibility to hire domestic help if you can afford it. This way you are doing your part to help South Africans (especially blacks) find employment.  Our domestic help is a young man from Zimbabwe named Clinton.  I will tell you more about him later.

Here are some photos of our new home:

That's our house behind the wall. The upstairs balcony is off our bedroom.

Our outdoor space-the dipping pool and the covered patio.

Our living room with the only heat we have-a fireplace.
You can see the braai on the far left outside.

Our master bedroom. That's a carpet-not grass.
We didn't pick it out but it's actually nice on the feet.

Our kitchen.

The view of the neighborhood from the second floor.