Reality bites.....

Boa tarde (good afternoon)

As the heading suggests and also as people had warned me - week 2 was challenging to put it politely!

The intitial excitement of new surroundings, people and lifestyle suddenly turned into me missing  home, friends, family, Woolworths and other luxuries that I thought I could do without!

To make matters worse Johan went away to Maputo on business  for three nights. So I was feeling very sorry for myself - even though I have made many friends, who have been very kind to me.  It could also have had something to do with the Japanese disaster - we are all so vulnerable! 



Anyway, I managed to find my own way to Shoprite and got incredibly excited when I spotted fresh lettuce - yay! I almost rugby tackled it I was so excited - I haven't had a salad for over a week - anyway, I got the precious lettuce home, gently washed it and packed away very carefully in the fridge so as not to bruise it etc. I made myself a salad for supper - wonderful! However, the next day I found the precious remaining lettuce frozen solid in the fridge! I couldn't believe it! The fridge was set at its coolest temperature - so everything was freezing. Ho-hum I'll just have to wait until lettuce appears again - who knows when that will be. How we take things for granted.

However, I have a back-up plan - sprouts.....



Alpha-Alpha sprouts happily growing!





I'm trying to sprout Spring-onion seeds?








I know sprouts aren't really a replacement for lettuce but hey, at least they are fresh.
Anyway, I find it quite a satisfying past-time. 

I was stopped (as did my heart, almost) by the cops after dropping Johan at the airport - she asked me for my license which I proudly gave her and then she wanted a "booka" I thought that meant passport/ID, which I didn't have. Keeping in mind that I've been hearing all kinds of horror stories about being chucked in jail for the smallest offence - eventually, after many hand signals I realised she wanted a book for the car - which luckily I found in the glove compartment. Phew what a relief.

I've forced myself to do a fair amount of driving around town - not really knowing where I'm going and most of the time just driving round and round the round-a-bouts until I recognise something, which I usually don't!

Town is like a rabbit warren of narrow lanes which seem to go nowhere.

I was invited to a birthday tea here in the complex and couldn't go empty handed so someone explained how to get to the only flower shop in Beira. I got there - but what should have taken me 15minutes took an hour, to make matters worse there are NO shop signs. I was looking for a blue shop on a corner - well, hello, there are loads of blue shops and loads of corners....I was so happy to find flowers even though I paid the equivalent of R50 for 3 very sad yellow roses and a bit of greenery.



The Grand Hotel then....



On my way back from art today I took some photo's of the "Grand Hotel" - which was grand back in its day. It was opened in 1954 and was billed "The pride of Africa" - the last event it held was a New years Eve party in 1980/81. Now its 'home' to hundreds of homeless people.





The Grand Hotel now.....

There are the most amazing buildings in Beira - it must have been the most glorius city back then!







An example of the old, the new and the restoration -  right next to one another

They are trying hard to restore what was - but it's going to take time...

This is for my arty friends .......I'm in love with the dhows as I think I have mentioned before  - I'm busy working on a painting it has a long way to go, hopefully, by the next blog I'll be able to show the finished product......

While at drawing class this morning I did a drawing too......

I have made an 'arty' friend here by the name of Jo. We've decided that we are going to look for a dhow carver to make some miniture dhows for tourists ..could be a another source of income for them. Watch this space.



Adeus until next time.......

'Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live'