1) Yesterday I was at David and Steph’s house (where they are
kid and house sitting for their neighbors) when I noticed from across the room that Matthew was putting something that
looked like a big plastic toy in his mouth.
He was sitting just outside the door of a room that was strewn with kids
toys…nothing out of the ordinary here.
No problem, let the kid explore with his mouth. Then Stephanie shrieks something about an
animal being in his mouth. I wonder if I’m
having hearing problems, or maybe Steph was referring to the dog outside having
caught something? Stephanie runs to
Matthew to rescue him and I figure I ought to follow right behind. When the locals are shrieking I should
probably be concerned about something, right?
Stephanie explains that the thing in his mouth (that still does not look
like an animal to me) is actually a bug called a shongololo. They’re about 4 inches long, a type of
millipede, and they roll up into balls…something like a gigantic pill bug, but
in a spiral shape. So when it clicks
that he’s eating a bug I try to spring into action and stop Matthew from
biting this millipede but I am overcome by how gross it is I can hardly touch
it, never mind that my son is chewing on it.
So Steph to the rescue convinced Matthew open his mouth, she extracted the
creature, and tossed it out the window.
Note to self: South Africa has 4
inch millipedes that, when rolled up, look to me like plastic toys. And also maybe my eyes are worse than my
ears.
2) David finishes work each day at 6pm, so that the last 4
hours of his work day line up with Eastern time zone work hours. A few days ago we were trying to get to David
and Steph’s house for small group by 7pm, so we decided to find a restaurant in
Hilton to have a quick dinner before small group. Hilton, however, could be described as
BedAndBreakfastLand…a sleepy town that apparently does not believe in restaurants
open past 6pm. Except for one called “Jaxx:
Food with no attitude” (still wondering what that means). We walk in and see that this is a nice place
to eat, maybe the kind of place a couple would go to get away from kids and
enjoy a fancy dinner out. But, for us,
it’s this or rummaging through the car for leftover Marie biscuits (sort of
like graham crackers). So we take a
seat. Apologies to the table with the
beautiful arrangement of flowers…maybe Matthew throwing food on the ground will
be in the background of someone’s engagement photos. We learn that this is a place that takes its
food very seriously; the kind of place that serves food on huge plates and just
a tiny piece of food in the middle with lots of garnishes artfully placed with
some drizzle of sauces all around. It felt
sort of criminal to feed this to a 1 and 3 year old who are happy with fritos and canned peas…but kids need to eat too. In
the end it all turned out okay enough. They
brought out two free “kid-chinos” – a tiny mug of frothed milk with chocolate
sprinkled on top. The kids were still
kids, but overall we all held it together.
And the crazy thing was the final bill to feed 2 adults and 2 kids,
including tax, tip, a dessert, beverages, and everything: $37. (Easily a cost of $100 in the States.) The lower cost of food here relative to the States helps to offset the $88 I paid to fill
up the tank of gas on our 5-passenger car:-)
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