7 quick takes...

05 November

7 quick takes...

Better together.

Yesterday was Monday, I know. But I pretended that it wasn’t because Hartmut had come home the day before and he didn’t go to work (he worked, just not in his office). I just really wanted to do as little as possible to enjoy the fact that we were together again. He was gone for ten days and it was fine. It really was. We eat, we slept, we played, we learned and we had fun. But we are better together. Maybe it’s good to be reminded about that every now and then. It helps us not to take each other for granted but to really value and appreciate the role each of us play in the clockwork of our family.
A cake was baked, a welcome-home poster was made. The best dresses came out (whatever the best dress is depends on mood and time of the day) and a big party was planned. Of course a party was planned. Sophie is head of parties in our house and she will not let any opportunity for a party go by uncelebrated. I mean, she plans a welcome home party if Hartmut is gone for the day, so it was only fair that the end of a ten-day absence got celebrated with a big party. Now I want to leave too, not because I so desperately want to get away from the girls, but just because I want to come back.
If it wasn’t Hartmut’s arrival, it would have been the content of his suitcase that we would have celebrated. At least, I did. Odd tasting Chinese sweets, a book about the forbidden city, a Chinese newspaper and ingredients for in my kitchen. Shaoxing wine, peanut oil, oyster sauce, dried shiitake mushrooms and a big cast iron wok. I have been practicing lots of Chinese recipes lately but struggled to get most ingredients so this will really give the cooking a boost and I am so excited! Sophie loved the newspaper. We did a China project and learned some characters. She scanned all the articles with a strong determination to find characters that she could read. Such fun!
I wasn’t lonely while Hartmut was gone. For three days we had a Dutch family stay with us. They are going up North to the lodge that we used to manage to check out if they want to do for a season what we did too. It was really nice to be able to talk Dutch but also to share all the exciting stories about life on the lodge.
There is not much to soak up but we do it anyway. Every little droplet that falls on our skin gets savoured, like every little droplet that falls on the dry soil gets taken in. I always say that we don’t get rain from the end of rain season in May until rain season starts again in December but that’s not entirely true. In October and November, nature sends a little teaser to get the world excited about what’s going to come. They call it the ‘mango rains’ and those rains are usually some short showers, not enough to make much of a difference to a place that is yearning for water, but enough to get us all excited. October had some dramatic rain clouds but stayed dry but this morning, as the girls and I were eating breakfast outside , we felt the first splashes of water on our skin. You cannot imagine the smiles on the girls’ faces. Rain is so exciting and we cannot wait to see the world around us change from a dusty desert into a green oasis.
Ten years ago I moved to South Africa and rugby, the national sport, made me giggle. Let’s be fair, a group of grown men bumping each other over just to get an odd-shaped ball over a line seemed a little pointless to me. Fast forward ten years ago and you would see me cry because South Africa won the rugby world cup. In those ten years I learned the rules of the game and I learned to appreciate it. But not so much that the game in itself would make me cry. I cried because this win stood for some much more than just ‘winning a cup’. I cried because I know that a broken and divided country like South Africa needs something that unites, and that’s exactly what rugby does. I cried even more because I hope it gives a new generation new role models. For too long, most people of colour in South Africa were gardeners, house helps and cashiers. Although they are all heroes in itself, seeing a black man lift that massive gold cup because he is the leader of the winning team etches an image that speaks louder than words. It tells a story about ability and race that South African kids (and adults) so desperately need.
I need to stop. Sophie is raiding the treats-cupboard again as she is looking for more gifts to wrap for Doris and I need to stop her before she takes everything and we have nothing to eat until the 3th of December. Doris is also asking when we are going to start school so I think now is a good time. We closed our short China Project and started a new project on ‘now and then’ with a big focus on knights and castles and princesses. Today we will design our own coat of arms and learn about the different parts of a castle. . I am looking forward and so are the girls. Have a great week!