Victory

Some totally irrelevant photos will be included as proof that we have internet. And I'll take photos of our new geyser as soon as I can. 

This is to show the "before" photo of a chair and desk we bought in Salt River.

I knew we'd been a bit grumpy and down when I got the first comment I've ever received around complaining. We HAVE been grumpy. Sorry. Immigrating is hard, and it's no reflection on South Africa- South Africa is awesome- like the U.S. it has its quirks- but that's not the sum total of anything.

We've been praying for our house and for the things that had us down, and others have also been praying for us. I'm really encouraged, not just by actual concrete changes, but also by a sense that we are supported in supernatural (and natural) ways. We had a massive ant infestation that seems to be easing up. It's the little things...

Noah helps with painting, but he has to be naked for his craft to show through. (Don't worry, not the real paint).

First: Our solar geyser installation was completed. We knew our steep roof with old clay tiles and shared wall made installation difficult, but our neighbors graciously allowed the installation from their property with no complaints, and the process is (almost) complete. After a day like today, the water is almost boiling- the geyser will likely not use any electricity during the summer months. We're one of the only houses on our street with a North facing roof.

I'm hoping that, conservatively, the geyser will pay for itself in about 4 years. [On the one hand, we don't spend nearly as much on electricity as the average home (R300 vs. R1000); but on the other, the only other major energy cost in our household is the stove.]


Second: Just as the solar installers were leaving, two teenagers came and asked if we'd like new CFLs. CFLs, really? From Eskom (the national energy provider), for free. They changed out our bulbs for us. It was a small thing, but it felt like grace. We've been meaning to change out the bulbs but it's hard to throw away working bulbs, you know? Apparently they're recycling the old bulbs and helping people with the transition to CFLs.

Third: After phoning Telkom at least a few times a week for over a month, as of 4pm we had the line we needed to get internet. MWEB helped us the rest of the way. VICTORY!

Noah sits on daddy's head whenever he can. 

Mini-Retirements for Families: Could Semi-retirement be better?

[Still no internet, but I'm at my parent's house because the calls to Telkom take so incredibly long that they eat up all my cell phone money- yesterday R100 on hold to Telkom- so it gives me a chance to show you a picture of Noah =)]

Noah the Lion

In 2011, we traveled with our one year old for about two and a half months and eventually landed up in South Africa. During the first half of the year, while we were still living in Boston, we took trips to South Africa, Korea, and Mexico, as well as a local trip to Myrtle Beach. Apart from using a lot of fossil fuel, Eug and I thought a lot about the concept of mini-retirement and travel in the context of family.

We'd long thought that mini-retirements were the holy grail of awesome things to do. While I still think mini-retirements and travel are wonderful, our travel experience makes me tend towards a sustained decade of semi-retirement, particularly when our babies need us most. Here's why:

1) Being "minimalists" with a one year old and a pregnant member of the family still leaves you with too much stuff to comfortably carry about for anything more than about 1km. We could have traveled with somewhat less if we weren't taking pretty much everything we owned. So it's doable, but the key to making a mini-retirement affordable is not renting or having a vacant house anywhere.

3) Traveling isn't super relaxing with a one-year-old. Our most relaxing trip was when Noah was 13 months old and we went on a very short trip to Cancun, Mexico (after being refused entry to the UK), because we were able to swim for hours every day. I'd really advocate slow, swimming-friendly travel for people with little children (this is where elimination communication is very useful, because poop was never a concern). Myrtle Beach was also very nice, also because my mom-in-law watched Noah and we had extra support. The highlights of our trip on the Melody were the four swims we were able to take in Cadiz, Tenerife, Dakar, and Walvis Bay (Dakar was the most gentle and unexpected)- I wish there had been more opportunities. Even though it isn't super-relaxing, you can still travel with a one year old. Having children is not the end of travel!

5) Taking care of a baby is a full-time job. So it doesn't make sense to plan to take a mini-retirement where you work full time on your creative endeavors, unless you're NOT traveling or your spouse is NOT doing anything else.

6) We came to believe that part-time work for both spouses, and staying in one place, works better for us when Noah is so small. After about two months in South Africa, we're still not settled (we don't have internet, for example) and we're still spending more than we'd like. My take on this is that staying in one place long term (or being able to afford a furnished apartment or hotel hehe) is a good idea, as I think it'll be a while before we're able to spend a day now and then on the beach, or spend a day doing nothing. In the interim, we're learning to live on less, and gradually fixing up our house to be a welcoming place. Every day we have at least two meals together, and Noah is getting tons of time with both of us, both miracles I sometimes take for granted in what still feels like busy-ness.

You could also try to make money on your child's good looks

Semi-retirement
A decade of semi-retirement seems a bit obnoxious- who gets to do that?! I recognize that this only works if you have at least one partner with potentially location independent income, that it depends on education and the state of the market and unemployment and so many other factors. And it's extremely difficult to do in the U.S., where health insurance is so difficult to afford outside of employment. These limitations aside.... Eug and I each earned between 40 and $50 000 in the U.S.; the key to being able to work less was the two years we spent keeping our expenses low and working full-time before we had children. In those two years, we were able to pay off over $50,000 in student loan debt, and save enough for about 40% of the cost of our little house. We were then able to pay off the remaining 60% in the two years that followed.

Eug stopped work about 2 years before I did, which meant, essentially, a drop to one income for a time while he built up his business as a graphic designer. By having flexibility in one parent's schedule, and some flexibility in my schedule, we saved a lot of money on daycare and give Noah the benefit of one-on-one love from a parent. It also meant I was reliable at work, when a lot of women can't be, which in turn gave me the flexibility to work from very early in the morning until 2 or 3pm and to pump throughout the first year.

Two years later, when I stopped full-time work, I was able to get two alternate streams of income, which makes us at least partially location independent. Doing a PhD at this point in my life wasn't super strategic, but it's worked out very well: Noah and Tiny Blob will be close together in age, so being effective in full-time work would have not have been feasible, but getting a PhD just might be.

This Week's Menu Winner: Tomato-Basil Soup (As well as this week's menu)

Fruit and Veg City was selling 5kg of tomatoes for R20 last week (that's less than US$.25/lb), so we've eaten tomatoes in the form of lentils, pasta sauce, and Tomato-basil soup. The surprising menu winner for the week was Tomato-Basil Soup. The soup is really quick, easy, and tasty:

1.5 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
Around 20 Tomatoes
Fresh basil, chopped
A couple of cloves of garlic.
Simmer for a few minutes.

Add some heavy cream, if you have it.
Blend for about 2 seconds

Done!

Week of January 29
Monday Hake + Pepper + mashed potato
Tuesday Pasta with Tomatoes and green peppers
Wednesday Left over lentils + pan fried potatoes
Thursday Risotto with pine nuts + vegetable + garlic +SA Parmesan
Friday Steak and chips (Chicken wings were WAY too much work)
Saturday Left over risotto
Sunday Soup + sourdough bread