Dandelion Juice and Fruit Pouch Angst

We are counting our victories around here.  We remembered tonight to take out the trash that we think will be picked up tomorrow morning.  I think we have the recycling system figured out here.  (And in South Africa you can recycle just about anything, and none of this “What number plastic is it?” nonsense.)  David and Timothy will eat packed lunches tomorrow that are way improved from a week ago when we first arrived.  The worst lunch snafu last week was when Timothy, as a sweet present, gave me a bunch of dandelions and grass in a water bottle.  Then the water bottle made its way back into the cupboard.  Then I took it out and put juice in it for David, and David drank about half of it before he realized he was drinking juice infused with dandelions and grass.  (Although they do have a dandelion burdock soda here in South Africa that we did get to sample…not as terrible as you might think it would taste.)  David in his wisdom opted to pack a drink box for tomorrow’s lunch.

In my good moments here I am feeling super thrifty/sustainable living/content-with-less a la Philippians 4.  In these moments I wash out Ziploc bags to reuse them and hang them above the kitchen sink to dry.  We are composting way more.  We don’t have a dryer so we hang stuff on the line to dry.  We have a fraction of the toys for the kids to play with here, and they are totally content with that.  And picking up toys at the end of the day (when toy pick up happens) goes way faster.  All of these are things that I’ve wanted to do in America but I have failed many times, because hanging laundry on the line takes major will-power when the clothes are coming out of the washing machine and a dryer is sitting right there.  But don’t get me wrong…we “cut corners” here too, just in different ways.  In the States, when the kids get into their PJs, their clothes they wore that day go in the dirty laundry bin.  Simple.  Since laundry is so much more work and we have fewer clothes here, the clothes get a looking over first.  If they don’t look dirty, then they go back into the drawer.  And my definition of what counts as actually dirty enough for the laundry hamper just may be slowly shifting each time I hang clothes on the line.  Don’t judge me until you have no dryer and then it was cold and/or rainy when you tried to hang clothes on the line.

In my not so good moments here, I am grateful for the strength of the American dollar and that I can buy things to make my life easy that the average South African (even middle class South Africans) would not buy.  Exhibit A is fruit pouches for the kids.  In America, I give these to the kids way more than I would like to admit.  But they are so easy, simple, portable, healthy, and clean (never mind the fruit pouch stains on our back car seat of our car in the US).  In the States, fruit pouches at Target cost $0.89/pouch.  In my middle class, suburban existence this is fantastic and affordable.  And Target has half of an aisle devoted to fruit pouch consumers, so I know that I am not alone.  Needless to say, I was thrilled to find that they also have fruit pouches here in South Africa for the same lovely price of $0.89/pouch.  But, for the average, middle class family here in South Africa that’s an outrageously high price, which would explain why there were a total of just 8 fruit pouches on the shelf at Spar (the grocery store in Hilton).  Except that I bought out half of their shelf stock, so now they’re down to 4.  And although my thrifty/sustainable living/content-with-less badge was tarnished with that purchase, I cannot say that I regret it.  Although maybe I do feel a bit guilty.  Argh.