Well, we have been here for a little over a month. With every day that goes by it seems harder and harder to try to capture all that is going on, but I’ll just jump in with a few tidbits:
Spring is coming to Pretoria. Beautiful trees and shrubs are starting to bloom everywhere with an amazing array of colors. Although the temperatures seem warm to us, we had a “cold snap” today: it was in the low 60’s. I was scheduled to host a tea for regional community development leaders this afternoon, who were meeting next door in the US Embassy Community Center under an open pavilion. When I got there the group of 65 was shivering and wrapped in anything they could find, including the table cloths! So we quickly adjusted and invited them to our house earlier. Betty and Brenda and I were all in the kitchen loading up trays and frantically getting things ready 3 hours earlier than expected. The community folks couldn’t have been sweeter – they all wanted photos, especially the combination of me standing with them next to the flag and holding a photo of Obama! They adore our President and I have learned that one of the easiest and most fun parts of our job is to mention anything to do with Obama. With every photo, instead of saying cheese, they all shouted “OBAMA”!
We had another amazing event at the house a week or two ago. The NBA hosted a workshop for budding basketball stars from all over Africa, so we invited the whole group over. We had the tallest group of young men here that you can imagine: one at a time they marched up the steep steps that lead to our house, very proudly and shyly telling us where they were from. It was so touching and by the end of the night, everyone, including the Ambassador was relaxed and shooting hoops on the Community Center court. Our 3 boys were incredibly thrilled to spend the next day with the American NBA stars, including Dwight Howard, Dirk Nowitzki and, our favorite, Dikembe Mutombo..
We toured a slum area called Kliptown, outside of Soweto, with the NBA players. The juxtaposition between these enormous NBA stars winding their way through the narrow alleys lined with tin shacks, led by beaming young South African dancers and singers, all with press in tow, was way too much to process. The South African kids were amazing performers with incredible life stories and it was quite something to watch the NBA stars totally humbled by these kids.
We’ve also been to our first rugby game to cheer on the Pretoria team, the Blue Bulls. We were given our first team gear, a hat with blue horns, and the snack of choice, biltong, which is really tough beef jerky. My favorite moment was when the crowd got pumped up by singing “We Are Marching to Pretoria”! It’s not the Broncos, but we are adjusting…..
Our boys are also adjusting to their new and very different school. They have jumped into new sports (volleyball, running club) and a range of activities (hiking club and Model U.N.). Model UN is this weekend with kids from all over southern Africa. It is quite appropriate, as their school alone has students from over 73 countries. If they are not falling asleep at the dinner table, their stories about the day at school are extremely entertaining!
Don is also embracing an incredible array of responsibilities and issues that are crammed into each day. The last few days have included everything from major security issues that closed the Embassy, to visiting Peace Corps sites to swear in new corps members, to presenting the Purple Heart to the South African mother of a soldier killed in Iraq. Next week he finally presents his diplomatic credentials to President Zuma.
I’m wearing a lot of “hats”. I’m slowly mastering the roads, learning the city, understanding the non-profit sector and meeting an incredible array of people, all of whom have been warm and gracious to us. The days are still fairly exhausting, but an interesting blur for us all.
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