Getting Settled

We've now been here for one full week. I wouldn't say that I feel "settled" but I can say we finally are in a routine with Findley. Considering the time difference and the several weeks of living in different places prior to our departure, there was no schedule or routine. The first four nights were a nightmare. But we survived and we are thrilled with the results. Candy - if you are reading this, you would be pleased! Bed-time is 7:00 and he takes a nap in the morning and one in the afternoon. As much as I hate being tied to a schedule, it sure makes a nice difference for Finn. He is now one happy little booger!!!

We love our house but we can't seem to get the electrical stuff all figured out. For example, we were watching a dvd the other night. Suddenly, smoke started pouring out of the dvd player. The next morning we heard a strange noise coming from the guest bedroom. The lightbulb in the light fixture hanging from the ceiling exploded. A few hours later, Ian plugged in the microwave and we lost all our power. The electricians came out and said it was just a short circuit. I asked if we were using too much power and they laughed at me. But then, as soon as they left, I plugged in something else, and we lost power again. I know how to use the fuse box, but it shouldn't happen every time. When they came out again, they found a problem with one of the converters we were using. Let me tell you....we have to use converters for everything! Even the stuff we purchase here....because it is all imported. I wish there was just a standard converter that would work for everything. Guess I just need to be patient until we get it all sorted out.

The other challenge I am currently facing is understanding the language here. As I wrote before, English is spoken here, but it might as well be a different language. I really cannot make out what people are saying. I feel so rude asking people to repeat themselves 20 times. But if I don't I seem to put myself in awkward situations. For example, the security people called and said they were testing our system. (I only had to ask them to repeat that one time:) Then they asked me to press the pound key (so I thought). She asked again so I pressed it again. She then said nothing was happening so I should find the other pound keys in the house and press them. Other pound keys? What? How can there be other pound keys? At this point I realized I probably wasn't making out what she was saying. I told her we had only one pound key. After sending out the technical crew, I quickly realized she was saying "the panic key." I felt so stupid - but in the long run it wasn't a problem because some of them weren't actually working.

The last issue, which is minor, is that we haven't hired a maid. Apparently everyone here has a maid, a gardener, etc. Most houses, including ours, even come with a separate maid's quarters. And trust me, I do understand that we should hire one so that we are providing someone with a job, etc. But it just hasn't been a priority. Ian and I have often talked about what would a maid do all day? We certainly don't have enough to keep her busy all of the time. You all know what a neat freak Ian is and our house isn't that big. It's almost like we would have to make messes to provide work. Anyhow, back to my issue. EVERYONE that we meet, either on the street or at Ian's office, or people who come by the house ask us why we don't have a maid yet. Then they ask for a pen and paper so they can write down the name of their sister or cousin or friend who is a "good, dependable maid looking for work." Even the women at the supermarket come up to Findley and go goo-goo-ga-ga and then proceed to tell us we need to hire them to be his baby sitter.

I guess I need to get on the ball. Finn and I did go to our first play group this morning. It was the Sanitas Tea Garden (described in previous entry). We met several nice women and lots of cute kids. All of them are from the UK or South Africa. They were quick to tell me that Gaborone is a wonderful place to have young children. Anyhow, Finn had a great time watching the little ones play on the playground and I enjoyed meeting these women. Hopefully we will continue going to this play group. There is another one on Friday that we hope to check out as well (kids that are closer to Finn's age).