1st week's 1st impressions

           Since moving to Africa 2 weeks ago I wanted to write down my 1^st impressions to see how they would differ over the time we will spend here.  As I expected most aspects of life are the same as in Kansas City.  Pretoria is right outside of Johannesburg so it is a very large city which reminds me of home.  Tall buildings, highways, different types of stores and homes, nothing out of the ordinary at first glance in my opinion. 

When I began writing this entry I noticed it would be too long for a blog so I have divided it up and will speak to housing first.  The first full day in Africa we spent house hunting with our relocation rep, Kathryn. We were able to see about 10 homes, plus the one we are staying in so I have been able to see some differences in living.  Homes in South Africa do not have smoke alarms.  I first noticed this when I was cooking bacon which usually creates smoke since I like it crisp.  Once I saw smoke I immediately looked for the smoke detector and was surprised I could not find one anywhere.  And now that I think about it more, I have not seen a fire station anywhere either….I must explore that more.

The homes also do not have standard American closets with bi-fold doors or walk in closets, but wardrobes.  Several small closets with their own doors mixed in with drawers make up the dressing area in each bedroom.  I have not seen any stand alone dressers.  This frees up quite a bit of space in your room and really makes sense to have all your clothes together when dressing….why do American’s split it up.  Maybe we just need that much more counter space for more junk. 

Wardrobe/Closets

I have also not seen any combo tub/showers in Africa.  Each home either has a bathroom with a separate shower and tub or a tub with a shower hand-held extension, but nothing like the walled units in America.  The bathrooms also do not have electric outlets in them, so if you want to blow dry your hair or trim your beard you need a separate vanity in your bedroom for that.  Another bit of info about electricity, all of the light switches are located outside of the room you want lit.  All of the plug-ins have a switch to turn on the electric current into them, otherwise if you just plug in your toaster it won’t work w/o the switch being on. 

wall plug in with switches above

I have yet to see a home in South Africa with central heating and air conditioning.  The ones I have seen have under-floor heating and a device called an Aircon which is like a wall mounted heater/air-conditioner combo.  This is why it is very important to have a house which has lots of windows that face the north to let the most light in to warm up the room during the colder months.  But honestly we are here during the colder months and only use our Aircon at night.   

Aircon

During our house hunting we looked at about 5 different gated communities and most of those homes provided domestic quarters which can consist of a variety of amenities.  Some have a bedroom and bathroom that is separate from the main house for a domestic worker to live in.  Others simply have a bathroom for your domestic worker/gardener/pool cleaner to use.  I can understand a utility type bath for the gardener or anyone else working outside but why does the woman helping you clean your home and watch your kids need a separate place to use the bathroom.  More coming up in another blog on why I feel like I am living in the movie, “The Help”.

This has been my first impressions of homes in Pretoria and I am happy with what we have found for our home.  Move in date July 15^th!