Realities and Delights of Hardship Posts

October 6, 2013

 

They don't pay big bucks for nothing.  Here are some of the hardships we have learned are part of the fair share Foreign Service officers are required to do every eight years.

Swaziland's Hardship 

Hardship #1 - Stress of learning to drive on the left size of the road, full of potholes, speed bumps, tight spaces and cars flying out of nowhere. You really need defensive driving skills. I got scratches not on my own car but on the duty vehicles. Planning to take a crash course from one of the office staff soon.

Hardship # 2 - When it rains be prepared for home phone line and Internet outage. Internet speeds are slow, expensive and unreliable.

Hardship # 3 - I spend my free time killing bugs in the house.  In my 5 years of Florida I saw 3 roaches.  In the month and a half, I have been in Swazi I killed 4-5.  Three of them at my entrance to the door...eeek!

I better stop sissing around! Another thing I am learning.."Figure it out on my own."  Yes, Ms. Bo has a tendency to keep asking people for answers! :-)   Number two, listen better, etc etc. I doubt by age 40, I can correct all my deficiencies. You take the good w the bad I suppose.

Along with hardships, we have to look at the bright side.  That I'm trying to do more.  They say settling in a new post takes about 6 months.  Many people curtail or find this period difficult as moving along brings new stressors one is not used to in their environment --it's a part of the nomadic life style.

Delight # 1 -- People in Swaziland speak English.  Yes, it may be a developing country but the majority of people I run into understand what I'm saying.  What's delightful is that 85% of our service providers are British.. Which makes it a lot easier to find things and communicate of course.  I've gotten into the mentality of speaking SLOWLY when I'm overseas.  Nice to be able talk normally.  Alyssa's judo teacher this coming Monday, is British.  Her new school Principal is British, her uniform store, our barber and last but not least, the horseback lessons she is signing up for, are owned by Brits. 

Definitely a delight - Nature

 

Here is Alyssa in her first horseback lesson ride

Delight #2 -- I haven't had my household help begin work yet but we got her finger prints done this past weekend.  Now we just need her medical exam and a few reference checks to make sure she's OK.  After all, she's going to be in our house and watch the girl so we must take precautions.  This should help me a great deal.  We have a gardener who takes care of our yard weekly.  All for a decent price...

Delight # 3 -- Yummy foods, not always having to worry about the quality of water such as bleaching your vegetables.  You get good cuts of meat for decent price here.  The shopping is not bad and we haven't ventured into Johannesburg or Nelspruit yet but I hear we can get McDonald's and many other amenities in South Africa.  Maybe if Jason becomes CLO (Community Liaison Officer), he can organize quarterly trips there.  Have people pitch in and all..it's two hours there, two hours back so be prepared for lots of shopping!!! 

Delight # 4 -- All roads leads to one.  It's hard to get lost in Mbabane.  You take one wrong road, it leads you back to the main one.  You don't need a GPS -- it has only so many highways and roads and then the mountains.  Definitely learning your way around here is easy, as the others who've lived here have said.

Delight # 5 -- Yes, the crime level here in comparison to Johannesburg is a lot less.  So you have the nice part of South Africa without the crime.  We can get to Mozambique in a short time which as people say, is the real Africa!!

Well, went to my first church service and it wasn't too bad.  The songs/worship is nearly one hour long.  I used to think Catholic service was long at 50 minutes and I barely got anything out of it.  I think my happy medium is a bible class - a little bit of everything and what's best, you get to discuss it with your classmates.  Well, I'm glad this weekend worked out well.  Still praying that everything back home is alright.  For those who had gone to my Smug Mug web site, my trial period ended.  I have to see if I want that web site as it is slow to load and I'm in Africa.  I pay a high price for dial-up speed so for now, I'll post pics here and there..Mostly Facebook and a few in my blogs.  Alyssa and I did our favorite activities and put it in a jar..That way, we get o choose what we like to do and most of it are what Alyssa, Jason and I like to do.  Can't go wrong!!