The Toilet Election

So as you may be aware today was Election Day in South Africa, they were voting for Municipal Elections. As South Africa is a three tier system, representatives are elected at the national, provincial and local levels. Today's elections are for local representatives and so the focus has been upon how well basic services are provided like water, sanitation, electricity, refuse and clinics. Since the end of apartheid some of these services have improved a great deal with 90% of households now with access to running water and 70% with electricity. However, as you can imagine, compared to the UK these are big issues, as in some areas some services are not provided or poorly maintained. 


The two main parties are the DA (Democratic Alliance) and the ANC (African National Congress). The latter have been in power since Mandela was voted in in the first democratic vote in 1994. It seems to be of growing opinion that the ANC are not following through on their promises to provide services for the townships and rural communities. Therefore, some voters are questioning their loyalties to the ANC, who have had a huge majority of the vote since 1994, largely as a result of 80% of the population being black African. Nevertheless, the ANC still represent the fight against apartheid, and they make sure this remains in the voters mind and use it to their advantage. 


For example a BBC article wrote:
Last week, President Jacob Zuma warned his countrymen that their ancestors would never forgive them if they voted against the ANC, which led the fight against white minority rule.




The DA have a white female leader but also have representatives of all races. They hold the province of the Western Cape, probably largely due to the population here being predominantly  coloured (mixed-race) and a growing feeling that the ANC favour black Africans over those of other races. However, the DA have a long way to go. To many the idea of a white president representing the rainbow nation is still very hard to imagine. Sadly this often grows out of a fear that apartheid could return.


While some black people seem to be voting for a party other than the ANC, having spoken to our cleaner Sylvia, who lives in a township called Mamelodie in Pretoria, it seems there are also many who are refusing to vote rather than change their side. Their attitude, and I wish politics did work like this, is that politicians should act on their promises before they ask for votes, rather  than the other way around. Sylvia told me of the road outside her house which is in a terrible state (I am sure it is worse than the potholes on British roads) and that the houses built for them have such poor foundations that when there is heavy wind and rain her house slides around. 


I have yet to explain the title of my blog. You may have already read it in the papers and know why. In the last week,  the elections have centred around public toilets. To cut a long story short the ANC announced that they had discovered that the DA had built 50 unenclosed toilets in a township of Cape Town, embarrassing the DA in terms of providing public services equally. However, it was then discovered that the ANC had also built unenclosed toilets months ago and so the slander campaign has left both parties smelling.... well not of roses that's for sure!


While today's vote may not be ground breaking, it is very interesting to watch the politics evolve and hopefully start to move away from an underlying current of race and towards issues that effect voters lives.


If you want to read some articles:
http://mg.co.za/article/2011-05-13-voting-gets-down-to-basics/


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13144324

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13427900

Our Second Christmas

Hi All

Right again I am being a bit rubbish at catching you up with what has happened since we arrived, I have been trying to find something to fill my time while I am here which is surprisingly difficult but lots of emails have gone out and hopefully something will come up.

So I am going to tell you about our second Christmas, or as it is more boringly known - the arrival of our heavy baggage. We were the enzy on the compound when people heard that our heavy baggage was waiting for us in Johannesburg before we even arrived in South Africa. Most people end up having to wait months for  theirs having packed it up just before they left and then lots of issues with the transport. But no we had packed ours up about a month and half in advance because most of it we had just bought and we had gotten used to living out of a suitcase over the last few years. We tried to explain this situation to the green eyed folk around us but I am not sure there was any sympathy for the nomadic lifestyles Nick and I had had back in England. To be fair poor Jill who moved here a month before us is still waiting on her heavy baggage.

So we organised it to be delivered on the second tuesday we were here. While Nick was at work I had the task of coordinating the unpacking - this was not much of a task. The only stressful part was their arrival which I just had to catch on camera because it was pretty entertaining/terrifying.

So they arrived in their bakkie (thats what those flat back things are called over here) with a huge wodden crate with all our beloved belongings strapped ( but still wobbling) on the back. Having reversed up the driveway outside our flat and being about a millimeter from taking out the side of our neighbours car in the process, they park outside. One then climbed up next to the box and unstrapped in the other on top of the cab of the van (you can just about see him in the photo) and started to wrench the side of the box off. This ended up in just ripping that side to pieces. But none of  this phased them and soon they were bringing all the boxes up as I ticked the boxes off and kept them happy with water and biscuits. The photos tell you the rest of the story and give you a glimps of our flat before our things started cluttering up the place.

Here are the guys trying to smash open our shipment - not worrying at all!

Here is the flat once al the boxes had been unloaded. I had to wait for Nick to get home  before we could open any - the temptation was pretty great! But I did get to construct a fun corridor to the kitchen. By the way this is our dining area and front door, to the left is our kitchen and behind the camera is our lounge. 

This is our lounge with patio door (with a sliding gate on the inside) out to the balcony (we dont have a garden until we move to a ground floor flat).

This is the view from the dining area you can see the L-shaped sofa and patio doors.

Part of the kitchen which opens out to the dining areas

Our kitchen, it has a big utility room behind the camera

The Wednesday after the boxes arrived was Freedom Day in  South Africa, so we made the most of the bank holiday and spent the day unpacking all our goodies! This is me about to open a very special box marked *soft toys*.

And Eeyore was free!!! 

And so was Yoshi! They had had an adventure but luckily not had to use the scuba diving kit that  was conveniently packed in the same box! (well that's what they tell me anyway)

Nick also unpacked his favourite items - his teapot, golf clubs and the brand new TV!

Our tea break out on the balcony complete with our own mugs (very exciting!) rather than the boring white ones we had been supplied with from the commission. We are also eating hot cross buns which were surprisingly in great supply over Easter.

Nick adding the homely touches to the fridge with our magnets - there are a lot more than this actually, I dont know how we have collected them given neither of us had our own fridge before! This seems like a small boring act but this is our first home  together so to us it is things like this which are exciting.

Me adding the homely touches to my feet! I dont know how I coped without these guys for so long.  We have just turned the underfloor heating on though so they are not quite as vital as back at home when my feet go odd shades of blue.

Nick decided to send me back to England, see you all soon!

Our flat mid unpacking!

And again. It no longer looks like  this you will be glad  to know . We only have a few boxes left that we will open once we are in the new flat. We have yet to make a fort out of the empty boxes which are currently in the garage.  I would say we are leaving the fort for a rainy day but apparently we wont have one for a few months! So I better start bugging Nick to play forts with me. I will put up some pictures of our flat as it is now with all our homely belongings soon but I will wait until after our cleaner Sylvia has been as she does such a great job!

I do Hope you are all well, we miss you all.

I'll blog again soon!

Kat

xx

Our arrival and the Royal Wedding.

Hi everyone,

I realise my first blog has come nearly 4 weeks after our departure but there has been lots of jumping through hoops to get to the point where we have active internet. Well, we have it now, which means I am connected to the outside world and I am very excited about it.

Well, I shall start with out departure as you all know how excited I was to be going first class. Our lovely driver (who I have now forgotten the name of as it has been five weeks and a lot of introductions since then) picked us up in Romsey, gave us a murray mint to soothe the tears and swiftly took us to Heathrow. Here we were greeted  with a momentary wobble of "but you are travelling to South Africa and we do not have a return date for you, we cannot check you in". After explaining that it was quite difficult to give a return date ('eerrr we are moving there for 3 years") and giving the diplomatic status letter a quick flash, our luggage was checked and we were in the Business lounge. It was pretty nice to say the least and we had a quick bite to eat and a cocktail before it was time to board the plane (mental note: if I ever fly business again get there hours and hours in advance to make the most of the lounge).

The flight was smooth, which was helped by the continuous supply of champagne offered (but actually only accepted once by both Nick and I). The food was definitely better than the stuff I usually can't stomach and being served it on your own little table (with linen tablecloth and napkins- Granny and Grandad will be pleased) on actual crockery and with metal cutlery was seriously exciting! We then reclined our seats to the flat bed position (something they boasted about but was actually still pretty uncomfortable as you lay in the foetal position in your little pod like area between two divides) and watched numerous rubbish films as I slept on and off. Breakfast was served in an equally civilised manner and then before we knew it, it was time for landing.

Having collected our luggage safely and strapped it together (a handy security tip - I'd like to see the reaction of a sneaky thief who is after one of your bags and ends up trying to get away with 5 heavy suitcases all strapped to one another).

We were met by a driver with a 'Mr Monkhouse' sign and Graham (Nick's preprocessor) and driven to the High Commission and then housing compound where we were left in our flat, number 8 Oakthorn (photos to come).

So that was our arrival and the last few weeks have been dotted with invites to social gatherings. Firstly, we had Graham's leaving drinks in an odd casino complex come fake old italian town place complete with fake sky. Here Nick had his first South African steak and we got to know a few faces from the High Commission while we contemplated why anyone would spend their money in a casino (yes Ad - unless free food and drink was provided). We were invited over to our 'buddies' Lisa and Jason's house for dinner which was really nice and they gave us the travelling bug and advice to go camping if we want to make the most of the bug. 

Graham had another leaving do we were invited to and this meant going to the infamous 'Eastwoods', which my university friends will appreciate as it has the same fantastic name as my first year university accommodation block - what a name!!! Here it is a sports bar conveniently close to the High Commission. Another restaurant, another steak. This time I joined Nick having been recommended the 500g T-Bone steak! Yes it was pretty big, but there was a lot of bone and here it is all about the meat so the plate was taken up but the impressive lump of meat with only a small amount of chips hanging onto the edge. Having only just met the people we were out with they were doubting my capabilities of eating the lump of meat in front of me. Only Nick, knowing me well, had faith. Naturally I finished it all and proved those doubts wrong. It was at this point I met John Smith (yes he is a real person) who is the head of the Climate Change team and has his own blog which my mum reads so thought I better mention him.

The first couple of weeks involved a lot of bank holidays which we used to borrow Jason's car and explore Pretoria - this largely means going to shopping malls where we found things we needed and are some of the only places you can walk around this car orientated and slightly unsafe city. These are not all as bad as you would imagine if you pick them carefully and find those with outdoor cafes etc.  When Nick actually went to work I busied myself with meeting some of the spouses on the compound. This meant I ended up spending more time with little kids and babies than I have done...well ever, but they were all lovely women with nice children so it was a good chance to get to know people and hear about the life they have had out here.

However for a short while after these encounters I had become to believe the rumours that every woman gets pregnant out here as it is 'in the water'. That is until we heard that several babies were born at the same time recently following a series of power cuts 9 months before. So the stash of candles and board games in the cupboard has eased my fear a little!

So we have had quite a few social events since we have been but the most formal was on the day of the Royal Wedding. I hope you all enjoyed your casual afternoon of drinking in the sun, mine came with the official request to wear a hat! This seemed quite exciting (if a little formal) at first, that is until our lack of shopping knowledge meant we only knew of one hat shop which turned out to only stock hats too small for my apparently big head! So having found other accessory shops in the particularly crowded and maze like shopping mall, I proceeded to complain about the stupid bouncy fascinators I was trying to prop onto my head and not feel like an idiot. Eventually I found the least offensive one out of the bunch and on the day didn't feel too stupid as I was surrounded by women with a wide range of head gear on (I know Mum would have enjoyed judging all those hats with me just like Ascot ladies day on TV, but I am afraid most of them were not as impressive). The best hat moment was when the High Commissioner's blew off in the middle of her speech  -  oops, caught on camera and everything! Apart from the hats at the garden party, there were flat screen T.V.s showing the key moments of the wedding and weirdly brutish canepes - cucumber sandwiches, beef and horseradish wraps and mini scones with cream and jam.

There was minimal networking by both Nick and I as we mainly stuck to our new friends who were very enthusiastic about the wedding (especially Kirsty who cried a couple of times and gave very enthusiastic quotes to any media person who asked). After we headed over to Neils's (Nick's manager) house for dinner which was great and we met even more people and his white Labrador, Enzo, so I was happy!

Well this has been quite a long first blog and I have so much still to tell you about the last few weeks but that will be for the next post.

In the mean time I will leave you with some of kirsty's photos from the Royal Wedding party.

Me & Nick waving our flags!

From the left - Me, Jill - has only been here for a couple of months and lives in the flat below us, John Smith - Head of  Climate Change, oh and that's just Nick!

Nicola the High Commissioner and her husband  as the National anthems of South Africa and Britain were played.

Kirsty looking very excited.

One of the flat screens showing the wedding, that is Helen waving.

All the ladies!

Kirsty was desperate for a photo with man who is apparently a big deal in  South African  radio (which is probably not saying a lot by the way) and I went along for support.