HAPPY VALENTINES DAY POST

BLOG POST 14 FEB 2012
Happy Valentines Day from Swaziland !!
Yes we do celebrate Valentines Day here, though a bit muted from the observance in the USA---or the USA simply too much “over the top” as it seems to be with a lot of things ? Anyhow, we have prepared some Valentines and put them on the beds of each of the children, so that they will have a nice Valentine Day surprise when they return home from school.
Ah yes, school. Thankfully school did start on time on 24 January….and since this break was about two months, and we have 29 schooling children, we were as you can imagine quite happy to see school start up again….in spite of the odd rumours that schools would be delayed, no money to pay teachers, etc etc. Bottomline is the schools opened as planned, and we are grateful for that !
As it is now mid-summer in Swaziland, the maize craze has taken hold again. You might remember that maize—corn—is the staple of the Swazi diet..and frankly, prior to coming to Africa we wondered if we would be eating maize, and only maize, three meals daily. I am happy to report we have quite the nice well rounded diet---but it is maize time again. In Ohio we used to say”” knee high by the Fourth of July”’…but here it seems we plant at beginning of summer (November?) and by about early January the corn is six feet tall, and now everywhere you go you see eating—we would call it “corn on the cob”. Basically, it is maize (corn) roasted in the husk, usually over an open fire, and then eaten hot…not unusual to see hawkers selling hot corn on street corners, or to jump on a bus and find a LOT of people chewing on corn cobs. I keep having visions of what Columbus, Ohio would look like in July/August if lots and lots of people were walking, meeting, driving….while eating corn on the cob. No butter or salt used here, and instead of holding on to both ends of cob, the preferred method is to hold ONE end of cob, like a baton, and simply knaw on the corn…..YUM YUM !
BIG NEWS BIG NEWS---Ellen ( our daughter) and Kevin ( her husband) are coming to visit. Plans are for them to arrive in Africa 1 April and stay about 11 days, and we are really excited about the trip….it is a LOOOOOONG plane trip, 16 hours in a jet from Atlanta to Johannesburg, but well worth it. We can not wait to see them here, and show them a little bit of our world.
ELECTRICITY in SWAZILAND—PAY AS YOU GO
Here is an interesting concept. We buy our electricity on a ”top up/pay as you go “ basis….just like top up phones in the USA. Works like this…we have a meter-in our kitchen!!—that shows us exactly how much electricity we have left….at this writing we have about 50 kilowatt hours. We use about 2.3 kilowatt hours daily….so we have about enough electricity left for about 22 days. So sometime between now and 22 days from now, I need to buy more electricity…go to shop tell them I want to get, say 400 kilowatt hours, hand over the cash, and they give me a receipt with pin code…I come home, load the 400 kilowatt hours..and we are good to go for another few months. Of course this is a boon for electric company—no billing needed, no fighting with customers about bills, no turning off elect if a customer not paying, and they get all the money in advance of use…but I also like it because no messing with bills or paper, and once every six months or so, I go buy six months worth of elec and we are done. Side note—for us, one kilowatt hour is about 10 cents USD….so we spend about 23 cents daily on electricity….or about $ 7.00 per month. Not bad. And we do have fridge, elec stove, lights, etc etc.
Not too much else today. Hope all good in USA, and the winter remains mild as we have heard.
Cheers, and love to all. Mike and Gail