Every day observations from a friend

An American friend of mine works here in South Africa and wrote about what she sees as she drives to work and back every day. I thought this was excellent and worth the read to get a glimpse of what life is like here in South Africa from a different perspective.

Top Things I see going to work and coming home everyday.
Sept. 11, 2009 from a friend

10. I see the same little African boy walking with his Mom to work, trying to keep up everyday. He is maybe only 3 at the most and his Mama keeps moving to get to work on time. So he runs, runs and then he has to walk a bit. But he never stops and he never cries, he just keeps going until he catches up with her.

9. I see little girls at the traffic lights with their moms. They have paper cups to fill with coins. Braids in their little heads and dirty mismatched clothes. The bad part is the exhaust pipes on the trucks are just the height of their little faces so they get blown in the face with exhaust all day long.

8. I see women walking to work in their high heel shoes, you know they were hand me downs from someone that had 1/2 size bigger or smaller than the right fit for her. The shoes are dusty as they walk in the dirt on the side of the road. The poor blisters that will be there by the time she gets to work and then has to turn and walk the same way home.

7. The guy with the pink and purple jacket. I have to chuckle when I see this guys, but he loves that jacket because it is the only one he has.

6. The babies on the back, and the bags on the head. It is amazing to me how much a African mom can carry. They wrap the babies probably up to 18 months with bath towels around their bodies. they carry bags in their hands and then will balance another on their heads. Now that is one strong woman!

5. The guys in the back of the trucks. The construction companies or any manual labor seeking workers and will pick up guys and let them in the back of a truck, They will sit on the edges, they will squeeze in tight so their friends don't to have to walk. And maybe they will end up someplace they can make a little money. I have seen Africans that looked as tall as my husband all jammed up sitting in traffic and know they are not even close to their destination.

4.. The guys that pass out the fliers (advertisements) on the side of the road. Well I can't say I always take a flier because I am just not sure it is always smart to roll down my window, but I do always smile, wave and say no thank you. But I see the disgusted looks on their faces of the people who are rude and ignore them or say something rude to them. They always smile when I smile.

3. My fruit salesman that sells fruit outside our complex. This guy makes me laugh every time I see him. He is a really hard worker. I always pay him a little extra and he always tries to give it back. When you can buy 7 beautiful fresh Papayas for the equivalent of $2 bucks, I feel like I can at least can give the guy .50 for his trouble! What a nice guy and he always responds with Thank you Mommy! Even though I am not his momma!

2. And on my way out I see our gardener, swiping his card to come and tend to the garden. I think that our domestic worker, makes him some tea and bread before he starts his work. But every morning I try to wave, but our gardener, is what I would call a little skew. Don't know if he is looking at me or not. But even though he never waves, I still wave every morning I see him just in case one of those eyes is looking my way.

1. And every morning as I am pulling out of the drive I see our domestic worker, running out the door yelling Mommy, Mommy, you forgot your cell phone or you forgot your coffee, or you forgot your laptop. I would forget my brain if it were not for her! One morning I tried to walk outside with my fluffy lamb slippers, lucky she did not let me get in the car that day. I never have been much of a morning person.

Have a good day, and be thankful for where you are and who you are. Best Wishes

September Reflections

Angela feeding one of the Lipizzaners after the show. These horses originated in Austria and were transported years ago to South Africa, near where we live in the Kyalami area.




The Lipizzaners Show & Welsh Male Voice Choir. I loved the horses and Stan loved the choir.




Angela during her first horseback riding lesson. This stable is actually close to where the Lipizzaners train and show.






Angela at a cooking birthday party. She loved it.

Reflections from Paulette


I cannot believe that it is already September. We have been here in South Africa almost 7 months now. I never thought I would feel so comfortable driving around town on the, "other side of the road". When making a turn, instead of right on right, it's left on left..... You have to re-train your brain. I will need to re-train my brain again when I return to the U.S. or I will be having some near misses.....

It's springtime here (remember the seasons are opposite from the U.S.) and it will be close to 90 degrees today. Spring does not last very long.

Picnics are a huge deal here. It is not difficult to find a reason to gather people together outside with food. Just last night we met our church small group at the park overlooking one of our beautiful ponds in our community. We were the only Americans there and sometimes, the South Africans would start speaking "African" to each other and realize that we did not understand a word they were saying. It sounds a lot like Dutch, but still very foreign to us.

The slow down of the economy is felt all the way over here in South Africa. People are struggling everywhere, it does not matter where you live. On a happy note, we are excited about our up and coming visitors. Stan's sister Lillian and husband Alan will be here at the end of this month for 2 weeks, and my Mom and Auntie Jean will be here in December for 2 1/2 weeks to spend Christmas with us. Lillian will be celebrating her birthday here as well as My Mom. Lots of special memories.

Christina's 12th Birthday Memories with her family

Christina blows out her B-day candles after we returned home from dinner. Her favorite Black Forest cake. Angela is in the background.


Christina tried on the family birthday hat. This hat must be worn at some point during your birthday.


Christina eats homemade gnocchi with red sauce at Boscos, an Italian Restaurant. For those that do not know what Gnocchi is, small pastas with potatoes in it. Major carb loading....:)


Christina goes to the spa after school on her birthday. She has one lady doing her pedicure and one lady giving her a facial. She also got a manicure. After that, Stan met us for dinner.


This is Christina on her way to school on her birthday. She wore a tiara at school. She got a lot of attention. Some high School boys said, "Hey Princess", when they passed her in the hall (her middle school is on the same campus as the high school). After that she took the tiara off.

Mom's reflection: Where did the time go? It seemed like only yesterday that I had an emergency C-section in a hospital in Dhahran, Saudi Arabic. Christina was born in 1997, the same time that Princess Di died. I remember the nurses all standing around the TV in my hospital room watching the news. She was the only non-Arab baby in the baby viewing room. I should of known then, that she would always stand out. She was also born 2 days before my birthday. I continue to say that she was the best birthday present I ever rec'd.

I remember friends visiting me in my hospital room for my birthday bringing gifts, balloons, etc. and all I could think about was, how much pain I was in from the surgery and wondering when my next dose of pain medicine was coming (I had some complications, after the delivery).

The end of August records many worldly happenings such as Princess Di's death, Hurricane Katrina (on my exact birthday), and Michael Jackson's birth (the same day and year, I was born). But the most important (to my memory) was the day I had our first child, Christiana Grace Shilling. A heritage from the Lord!

Stan and I waited 7 years for Christina to come into this world. Before then, we were both focused more on ourselves then others. God brought us to Saudi Arabia, to change our hearts, and grow us in Christ. He was preparing Stan and I to be parents (thank goodness for that).

Many of our friends had children already and their children were even in elementary school by the time we had our first child. Our friends, told us that, "children would change our lives (which scared us at the time)." Little did we know that having a child would be one of the biggest blessings in our lives (the other blessing was having our second child, Angela which is another story).

Christina is 12 now and becoming more and more independent every day and depending on Stan and I less and less. We are now her life coaches, guiding her as she makes many of her own decisions. My helicopter Mom tactics have had to cease and I have landed my helicopter. I now stand on the landing pad and praying for Christina and her heart. I pray that she will grow closer to the Lord, and seek Him as she goes through her day. I pray that she will have a servant's heart and focus on Jesus rather then herself. Stan and I learned that later in life, but we hope and pray that Christina will always have her best friend Jesus by her side and will turn to him during the storms of life.

Stan and I have started praying together every day again and most of our prayers these days are focused on Christina and her heart for others. It is so easy for pre-teens to focus on their outer beauty with all the media messages that present themselves as well the modeling from some of their peers. We pray for Christina's inner beauty and that others can see that as well. We pray that Christina's faith would be her own and not her parent's. A lasting faith that stays with her throughout her life.

We thank God for Christina and her life. God has big plans for Christina. Stan and I continue to stand at the helicopter pad and pray, offering guidance, whenever we can, with hopes that it will be accepted more times then it is ignored.

Mauritius Memories and other Shilling Updates

We just returned from a relaxing week in Mauritius, an Island country close to Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. We were the only Americans there at the resort. Most of the guests were either from India or Europe. The employees at the resort spoke mostly French and some English. We arrived Saturday early evening, and settled in.

On Sunday morning, I ventured out onto the volcanic reef and walked out quite far. I was taking in the beauty and lost my footing and fell. I ended up scraping up my leg. My leg was bleeding quite a bit, so I decided to walk back through the sea which was about knee deep. I was still enjoying the beauty of it all and noticed some beautiful blue sea urchins on the coral beds in the waters. I must of taken my eyes off of, where I was walking for a minute and stepped on a sea urchin. Two of the spines went right through my pool shoe and into my bottom of my foot. At first I did not realize what I had done, but soon figured it out. I managed to walk on my foot all that day and by the evening, it was really hurting (I found out later that the spines go deeper into the bottom of your foot, the longer they are in there).

I limped to the hotel infirmary (first aid room) and the attendant there said that the two spines had to come out and that if they stayed in, it would become infected. By that time it was too painful to pull them out without a local injection in my foot. The doctor was called and arrived at my hotel room about 9:45pm that night. He had to inject two very painful injections into the bottom of my foot to numb it so he could pull the two spines out.

What a relief to get the spines out of my foot. I had to stay out of the water for 24 hours and once I could go back in, I stayed by the pool and enjoyed the sea from a distance. The last day I went hunting for shells with the girls in the sea after I got my nerve back.

A few days later Stan got stung by a yellow wasp after telling Angela that if you do not bother them, they will not bother you. I mean seconds after he said that a wasp landed right on Stan's neck and stung him. He ran to the infirmary and had it treated. You should of seen the welt on his neck. I think we were on a first name basis at the hotel infirmary. They were probably mumbling under their breaths, "those crazy Americans"... :)

In spite of my foot and Stan's neck, we still had a lovely relaxing time. We never left the hotel grounds. Stan did his daily jogs and I worked out in the pool with my Aqua Jogger belt doing my deep water exercises. I read 3 books while I was there and Stan read a book as well. It was good to see him relaxing. The kids had a blast. They went snorkeling off of a glass bottom boat, went for a ride in an inflatable boat pulled by a power boat, canoeing, and they spent a lot of time in the tide pools formed by all of the volcanic rocks finding lots of treasures. Angela did some solo dancing on the dance floor that overlooked the pool and both girls did a lot of pool swimming. The food was all inclusive, so all we needed to do was remember what time was breakfast, lunch and dinner. 7 days of this. :)

The girls start school in a few days. I think we are all ready to get back to our routines. It is almost Spring in South Africa and everything is staring to bloom. I love to watch the bright yellow weaver birds weave their nests in a tree outside our kitchen window. They are busy birds.

Christina will be in her first ice skating competition here in South Africa at the end of Sept. Stan and I went on a wonderful date last night to a live theater and also a wonderful restaurant before the show. We received complementary tickets from the U.S. Consulate. I am now the American Society liaison for the American International School. It is my job to make sure that American families that are new to the American International School are aware of the American Society and have the necessary information to join. They have many American activities throughout the year for families, like Thanksgiving, 4Th of July, etc. I will also be volunteering at the Middle School with the school counselor helping her with many of the programs to encourage virtues, etc.

I cannot believe that we have been here for 6 months now. Time has gone by fast. I feel like I have lived here a lot longer then 6 months.

We are now settled into a church where the girls are happy in their Sunday school programs. Christina attends a Friday night youth group at our church and Stan and I are taking a Wed. night marriage enhancement class. that includes dinner. We are looking forward to getting to know the 15 other couples that will be there.

Catching Anchovies in Italy-by Christina

This is provolone cheese shaped like pigs.


Anchovies freshly caught


Christina in Messina


Another anchovie catching picture

The Shilling Family on the beach in Italy!

Hi! Today was a fantastic day! We spent the morning at the beach, then took a break so we all could take a rest from the heat of the day. I boiled up some homemade pasta from the supermarket and Angela and I enjoyed a fabulous lunch. We later hit the beach for more fun. My mom's back hurt, so she didn't come again to the beach, just this morning.

Angela and I tried to catch fish, but they were too fast for us. My Dad fell asleep on the beach, and all of a sudden, woke up and saw Angela standing in the middle of a huge seine net. People were crowding around the net to see what creatures the fishermen caught. It was amazing lots of little silver fish flopping around, anchovies! Check out the awesome pics!

Christina S.

A pictorial sampling of Italy

Stan and the girls on their way back from the beach.


Stan wishing he could take a ride on this boat.


The girls catching fish in the sea.


The restaurant that you must walk through to get to the beach.

A view of the beach from the restaurant.

Christina and her Dad.

Christina helps her sister build a sand castle.

Paulette drinks water from one of the spring mineral water fountains. There is one in each town near where we stayed. Everyone comes and fills up all of their bottles and takes them home to use.

Paulette's Dad's turn to have a drink.

Paulette and Father Benedino

Stan and our cousin Paolo

Cousin Meluccia

Christina, Angela and cousin Nilde at another fountain of mineral spring water.

Paulette's Dad, and stepmom, Judy.

Angela, the scuba girl A.K.A. FISH and cousin Nilde

Christina and cousin Nilde read magazines on the beach. Nilde helped Christina with her Italian and Christina helped Nilde with her English. Together, they were able to communicate.

Angela eats and enjoys an Italian pastry.

Christina with her cousin Anne Maria at a family picnic.

Paulette's Dad with his Aunt Maria, Christina, Angela and Nilde at a family picnic

Christina and Nilde.

Angela and Nilde.

Christina and Nana Judy.

Angela and Nana Judy.

Christina and Angela on their way to Italy.


Photos are in order from bottom to top.

Tomorrow we head to the city of Messina in Sicily and the Lipari Islands. More pictures to come, more family to visit, and more memories to make.

The Quilt and other updates

Here is the queen sized quilt that I have been working on. I still need to put the borders on (3 separate borders), and then, make the quilt sandwich with the backing and the batting. Last of all, start machine quilting it. No hand quilting for me. The kids go to school for a few more days this week and then they are off for the summer/winter, so there will not be as much time to finish the quilt. It is strange for the kids to be off that long during cool weather. Christina will have her first "winter" birthday at the end of August as will I :) It is always so hot for our birthdays. Angela will have a "summer" birthday at the end of December and it will be hot.

Getting back to the quilt. I plan to finish it over the kids "summer" break in between vacations and sleep away camp at Sugar Bay in Durban for Christina.. During the 2Nd week in June we will be going to Italy for 10 days to see my Dad and Judy and to stay at their house. In July we are planning on going either to The Seychelles Islands, Mauritius, or Mozambique. So we will get the beach in Italy in June and the beach again in one of the 3 places listed above. Can you tell this family loves the beach. The South African Rand exchange rate continues to drop to the U.S. dollar. It was 10 Rand to the dollar when we arrived at the end of Feb. and now it is under 8 Rand to the dollar. It all makes a difference when you are planning vacations.

In December, My Mom and Auntie Jean will visit for about 2 1/2 weeks and will be here for Christmas and my Mom's birthday.

An experience of a lifetime!

Angela sees a giraffe while sitting in the Game Drive vehicle.


The welcome sign

A pair of rinos get a little too close to us.

This is inside the game drive vehicle. We are up really high so we can spot the animals.

Mother and daughter.

A very aggressive elephant that charged us.

An itchy elephant.

The elephant finally takes off down the road towards another vehicle.

A beautiful view

The Shilling family at a viewing shelter.

A watering hole.

Christina and Angela walking out of a protected viewing station.

An Impala

A bossy hippo

An warning sign as you enter the park/reserve.

The kids at the hotel.

A giraffe munching on a treetop.

Christina and the giraffe

A lion in the middle of the road after he almost jumped into my open car window.

Another warning sign.

Existing the park.

Stan and the girls in Sun City

Christina in a hammock at Sun City in the Cutural Center

Angela in a hammock

A zebra walking along.

A wort hog after he crossed over the road behind us.

The Shilling family just returned from Pilanesberg. The Park brochure states the following, "Pilanesberg exists within the transition zone between the dry Kalahari and wetter Lowveld vegetation, commonly referred to as "Bushveld". Unlike any other large park, unique overlaps of mammals, birds, vegetation occur because of this "transition zone". As a result of the range of habitats and vegetation, there is a wide diversity of animal species, from the "Big Five" to 50 other species, 18 amphibian species and thousands of other interesting smaller animals.

The Shilling Family saw the following while driving through the park: Baboons, Elephants, Giraffes, Hippopotamus, Impalas, Jackals, Lions, White Rhinos, Springboks, Warthogs, Wildebeests, and Zebras. When I saw all of these animals, I kept thinking how small humans are compared to these incredible animals. Seeing these animals in movies, pictures, etc. is just not the same as seeing them right outside your car window. In fact one of the lions caught me by surprise and almost jumped into our car through my window. He came out of nowhere. We had to wait while elephants and lions crossed the road in front of us (not at the same time). We watched while the pride of lions just played with each other like they were little kitty cats. Just amazing. We sat watching while a giraffe munched on the top of a tree. I will remember it forever. This national park is only 2 hours from our house. We plan to go back often. The kids were amazed and touched forever by what they experienced. I hope the above pictures give you a glimpse of what we experienced.

Paulette