Well, I knew it would happen. The excitement of living overseas, of visiting 3 continents in 3 weeks, of "the most perfect weather in the world", has finally ebbed (nay, died) and reality has set in. Winter does come to Africa-at least in the most southern part. And while most of the year the weather is almost perfect, winter nights here get flat out frigid. Freezing, in fact. And houses with no heat other than one small fireplace get frigid as well. Jon and I have spent the last week buying room heaters of various sizes. We have a giant LP gas heater for the first floor and of course I have asked all the requisite questions: Is it safe? Are we going to explode? Die of carbon monoxide poisoning? Does it (the heater) have to sit right there in the middle of the room? We have also bought electric mattress pads and lots of firewood, kindling and starter sticks. It isn't that I mind the cold, I just wasn't prepared to be Laura Ingalls and relive my favorite episodes of Little House on the Prairie every night. And with the extra demand on electricity comes the rolling black outs. We have lost power twice this past week. One night Jon came home very late (around 11:00 pm) and yelled up the stairs at me to turn some lights on. I told him I wished I could but the power was out. I think he was so tired he didn't notice the entire neighborhood was dark when he drove in.
We have done without water this week as well. No official explanation but we were without water for 24 hours. I put my gym membership to good use (finally) and packed up a bag and went to the gym for a shower after a day without water.
The good news? Life in Africa is still an adventure and a learning experience. I have learned to use the sun and the glass windows to harvest heat during the day. I have become a much better fire builder than even my dad would have believed. We are not the only people to have to go to three different places before we can finally find a full LP gas tank. The power and the water always come back on at some point.
And what did I realize yesterday as we drove around the highveld (pronounced high-feld and means high plateau, on which Jo'burg is situated)? I realized that even though it is cool and dry and there is a beautiful breeze there is also a heavy layer of smog across our province, Gauteng. Why? Because there are literally millions of people in South Africa and tens of millions of people in Africa that do not have the financial resources to buy heaters and electric mattress pads. Their only source of heat is a wood fire. Their only source of wood is the wood they collect and/or chop themselves. The smog is created by the millions of cooking and heating fires being built each day, fires that are necessary for survival.
Not so glamorous but so very grounding.
Love to all-Jody
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