From Alpine, Utah, USA to Sandton, Guateng, SA

Hello dear everyone!  We are getting settled in our new home in Africa and very much enjoying it!  Though we miss all our U.S. friends, we appreciate the well wishes we've received from you!

Now that we finally have internet capability at our house, we can send this brief photo recap of the past 2 whirlwind weeks...

Mar 12...Jeff returned to Alpine!!!

Mar 15...We bid fond farewell to wonderful friends at an open house hosted by Melanie and Kathleen

 Mar 16...We enjoyed a beautiful dinner with Michele's parents at The Roof Restaurant in 

Salt Lake City

Mar 17...We celebrated St. Patrick's Day with the Barlows

Mar 18...Last Utah LeMon family dinner "until we meet again"

Mar 21...Said goodbye to fabulous schools, Ivy Hall Academy (Kate) and Mountain Ridge Junior High (John), and fabulous friends and teachers

 

Mar 22...After a sleepless night, we were shuttled to SLC International Airport at 4:30am.

Somewhere between Mar 22 & 23...Kate and John made friends in "high" places.

As you can tell, John wouldn't mind one of these business elite seats in his bedroom!

Mar 23 (at least that's what the calendar said)...We arrived at OR Tambo International Airport at 4:30pm.  Here is our awesome driver, Steven, helping us with our NINETEEN pieces of luggage.

This is our new home!

Mar 24...We attended the Fourways Ward.  John was warmly welcomed by the three young men in attendance.  Kate was happy to become reacquainted with her friend Nomthi who we met in October.  I recorded each of our impressions after 24 hours in SA:

• Jeff:  "Africa is so much better with my family here."
• Michele:  "I don't remember moving before and feeling so peaceful about it so quickly."
• John: "Africa is cooler than I even thought it would be."
• Kate: "I like the echo of the house, the playset at the park, and the pool in the backyard."

After church, we walked in the park behind our house and checked out the bird sanctuary.

Mar 25...John tested for Dainfern College (aced it btw, so will start 8th grade here once his SA study permit is approved) and Kate began her trial week of school at North Sands Academy.  ...All of this while overcoming some significant jetlag.  What troopers!  

...We are so happy to be here!  We love our new home and all the people we've met.  Kate has learned that her tennis shoes are "takkies" and is already trying out a new accent.  John has settled into his new room which he calls The Secret Sanctuary and can easily discern the call of the Hadada Ibis.  Jeff truly loves his job.  And I am so happy to feel warmth and moisture in the air, to sit on the veranda and enjoy the garden, and to have my family all in one place again!  We feel truly blessed!!

Sending much love and gratitude for your friendship, Michele

One picture from Luanda

I'm posting a picture I took in Luanda, Angola from my hotel room, because I felt that it highlighted much of the contradictions and conflict that I see in my travels.

In the upper left hand corner, appropriately behind everything else, are all the ships in the oil fields. Although they look peaceful, this is the source of much conflict in Angola, and across the region. I heard, although cannot confirm, that oil was what allowed the government to defeat the rebels in the 38 year civil war. Another contradiction is with the beautiful palm trees that dot the shoreline of the beautiful beaches here.

I was also struck by the cranes that dot the skyline, especially across the top of the picture, with the hopeful feel of growth and support and by the contrast to the slums you see lower center. The slums are everywhere, and everything is so expensive. A 0.5 liter bottle of water was $13 US Dollars! A cheeseburger and fries, $45.00. So much wealth and growth, and so much squalor.

I was also struck by the disparity, and by the DeBeers building (center left). Here is a sign you won't see in the US as it's a cartel that is openly manipulating the diamond markets, including blood diamonds that fuel so much conflict in the region - an open symbol of corruption in my mind.

What other contrasts do you see?


I am a bit behind and owe a post from my last trip to Nairobi and Accra. I'm headed back to the states this week and will pick up my family and then we all come back to ZA!

Hope all is well
Jeff

Technical Difficulties

Hey everyone, when I posted Jeff's writeup and photos, everything looked good.  An hour later, the photos were gone and I have no idea why!  I've tried to add photos back where I can.  Sorry about that!

Africa Contingent Update

Early Adventures in Africa

by Jeff

Well, I've had some great times so far...I've arrived in Africa, located a home, our church, a bank account (they charge for EVERYTHING here, including if you make a deposit - I don't think I will complain about Citi again!), a car, a laundry AND done some actual work for my new job...not too bad for a short time on the ground.  Oh yeah, and remind me to tell you about the Angolan visa process sometime.

Then, since things were getting a little routine, I decided to go to Nigeria.  I started off in Lagos on Sunday and part of Monday, packed up and went to Port Harcourt on the Niger Delta for 2 days of meetings, and back to Lagos for a day.  Then I caught the red eye home (which is now Joburg, South Africa).

Nigeria is really cool.  It has a sense of energy and optimism that is unbelievable.  But it is a little more difficult to travel in.  I've got some pictures to share.

     I flew from Lagos to Port Harcourt on Arik Air, which is a bit like Southwest, complete with a free full-body frisk as you head up the steps to the plane.  

This is the Port Harcourt INTERNATIONAL Airport

Arrival & baggage claim

     Ok, so I've never waited in a baggage claim TENT but it was very cool!  There is amazing growth in Port Harcourt.  I was speaking with a Nigerian about the massive shifts in the economy over the last decade that are driving some of the changes from an agrarian lifestyle to a fully industrialized one.  It's interesting to observe.  People are very friendly and like to talk and exchange pleasantries as well.  I really enjoyed my visit.

     Another very interesting item for me was the security.  My company likes to keep folks safe, and so I had police escort and lots of guards.  I felt a bit disconcerted, but also, what guy doesn't occasionally dream of having a full security detail?

    

     Finally, I just wanted to let you know that Nigeria won their semi-final match against Mali today:

 4 to 1!  (Shout out for Brian J.) and are in the Africa Cup Finals.

Utah Contingent Update

So, Jeff left for Africa 3 weeks ago.  Here are a few things we've been up to while he's been gone...

Kate--skiing every Monday at Sundance with her school and Courage Reins
horseback riding

John--Oquirrh Mountain Temple w/Corbin & Kayden and "test driving" a SmartCar 

 Michele--"Africa Night" with my awesome book club and reconnecting with Breeann and Desiree whom I worked with 20 years ago in Milwaukee when they were in the 12-14 year old class at church!

All with the backdrop of more snow than we've ever seen since moving to Utah!

...3 weeks down and 5 to go till we're all together as a family again.  Yeah!! 

OK....This is a little different than our other moves!

Moving Day (Stage 1) has arrived!

17 January 2013

By Guest Blogger - Jeff

Home sweet home is now mostly wrapped in brown paper and packing tape.  Tomorrow, our furniture and a lot of other stuff will be loaded into a crate and begin its journey to South Africa.

...So most of us have moved at one time or another.  If you're lucky, you open the door to the house and tell the moving company "Take it all, and careful with Grandma's china."  Then, a day or so later, you hop in the car and drive across the country to where you're going.  Shortly thereafter, your stuff shows up at your new place.

Turns out, moving across the globe has a few differences.  After you decide what will fit in the space the company gives you, you have to plan the move in three stages - 

First, what's going in your suitcases (limit 3 per) the day you fly from SLC to JHB - you probably can guess - it's mostly the clothes you will need to wear until the rest of your stuff arrives.

Second, what's going in the "air shipment" - we get an LDN container (which may sound big, but it's only the size of a pallet).  This will contain the computer and other odds and ends the family will need to use immediately.  The air shipment takes about 2 weeks to arrive in SA.

Third, you get a 40' shipping container for the cargo ship.  This is a good 15 feet shorter than the normal moving company truck - which means we're not taking Grandma's china, Jeff's library or the family's food storage.  The shipping container will take 3 months to arrive after sailing from Oakland to Shanghai and across the Indian Ocean to Durbin.

These steps happen in reverse order - They come pick up the boat items first, then the air shipment items, then your suitcases.  And if it's big or heavy and it misses the first stage of loading, it gives new meaning to the phrase "You missed the boat."  Literally.

So if you're doing the math, you probably have figured out that my family will be living in our Alpine home for the next 2 months with only folding chairs and lame kitchen utensils.  Not a problem for me, as I'm headed out to Africa Monday, but my fellow bloggers might have a few words to say about that....

Seriously, a big vote of thanks for my wonderful Michele who orchestrated this move and has been totally amazing while I've been largely absent.  And will hopefully continue to keep the home fires burning while I'm in Africa the next 2 months.

I'll return mid-March to pick up the family and we'll all head out to our new home in SA, hopefully JUST as the shipping container and air shipment show up in the driveway of our hoped-for rental home.

A big thanks to friends and Michele's parents for meals, childcare, probiotics, and help with driving as we've prepped for the movers the last few weeks!

This is #3

See December 16, 2012.

...Still thankful!

(And frankly, a little surprised that Enterprise continues to rent cars to us.)

Merry Christmas Everyone!!