Day 24 – Sunday in Cape Town

Not much went on today. We ate cereal for breakfast (the milk was much better here than in Brazil), and I had Raisin Brand while Reese had Kellogg’s Corn Flakes. Some things are universal!

For lunch Reese fixed us some salad with cooked chicken strips on it and it was quite good. We have all the pots and pans we need, but there is no dishwasher and only a single sink with a side for putting dishes to dry. It reminded me of cleaning up back in the late 50s or early 60s in the States and I was a bit indignant that I had to do more than load it into the dishwasher! But, I developed a methodology and kept at it until it was done.

We have a lot to get used to and a lot to organize yet for ourselves. People that have not moved much, especially abroad like this, don’t really appreciate all the hassles involved in getting things to the point where you feel comfortable. It used to take me up to three years, but now I can expedite it in a few months. The advent of technology has helped a lot in this endeavor, both by having cell phones and Internet availability.

We are 9 hours ahead of Seattle in terms of time zones, so we called home that evening to speak with Susan. She had gone to church and personally filled out a donation form into which she placed the $50 trillion bill we got in Zimbabwe. She told him that she wanted Pastor Joe to know that the Ishmaels have now given the largest donation ever to the church, and Pastor Joe told her that he thought for a minute he was talking to Barrack Obama when she started throwing around trillions of dollars!

We use Skype to call the States. You sign up, get a screen name, and buy some airtime from which each call deducts a bit. If both people have Skype it is completely free, but if we have it and call a regular phone number in the States, it has a cost attached. However, we can talk for up to an hour for under $1 US, which is unbelievable! That sure makes things easier.

Reese was supposed to complete some homework before his first day of school tomorrow, so he spent the better part of 6 hours learning his material and answering it. We don’t have a printer (ours was broken in transit), so he had to write everything in long hand. By the time he was finished it was time to go to sleep.

One of the things I discovered when we got Internet was that my motorcycle was never shipped from the States. The company I had employed dropped the ball and it is still sitting there, so I have to come up with another alternative. Darned! What to do?????