highlights...

Guess what? The sun has been shining brightly the last two days! E and I hit the big road as fast as we could to do some more adventuring. Although... this isn’t a post about highlights from those adventures…it is instead a very brief trip down memory lane. Do you all remember the Highlights magazines? I don’t know if they’re still being published today, but I absolutely loved them when I was young. I never had them delivered to my house, but I always grabbed them up while waiting in the doctor’s or orthodontist’s office. My favorite part was the Hidden Pictures game! If you don’t remember, maybe this will help…

Anyway…I thought I’d do a little “find the pictures” game on here to keep things exciting :-) Because I’m sometimes a sucker for product packaging designs, I’ve found it pretty interesting to see the different brands and appearances of things here. So…the following pics are ones of “different” things here….different brands…different forms of things…different ways of doing things…hopefully I’m not the only one who thinks it’s interesting :-)
So...find the...

Cereal boxes~ although we have found Cheerios, Corn Flakes and Frosted Flakes, these are Choco Scoops and Otees
White, brown, and red packets~ when ordering coffee with sugar, you may be asked if you would like white, brown or red (white sugar, brown sugar, or artificial sweetener)
Silver button~ this is the flush button on top of our toilets. You’ll notice one half has one raised dot, while the other has two. Not exactly sure what this means, but I’ve got a good guess. I’m going to ask if I can remember.
Mickey D’s fries (or chips as they are called here)~ this is a picture of our table top at McDonald’s. It’s quite a bit more stylish here than at home. Notice there’s a fashion magazine on the table.
Reusable grocery bags~ it’s nice to see how many people use these here. I think it’s mostly on behalf of Mother Earth but I’m learning that part of it is so that we can sling them over our shoulders for the long hike back home :-)
Mandarin oranges~ okay…you can only see the middle 1/3 of this picture, so picture and additional 2/3 of oranges. On the way home from the lion park the other day, local folks were selling these on the side of the road. The cost….drum roll please…17 rand…that’s a tish over $2.00!
Snacks~ Jungle oatmeal, Tuc crackers (delicious), and Glen tea
Receptacle~ this is what our receptacles look like here…E loves the little switches at the top and drives me crazy turning them on and off! You’ll notice we have an adapter in one side of this one. We have a couple of different adapters and different plugs work in different ones. Trying to get everything plugged up and working makes getting ready a challenge sometimes.
Faucet~ notice our faucets have separate hot and cold knobs. The hot water is unbearably hot and the cold is frigid. I have yet to figure out how to easily rinse my face each night.
Water bottle~ at restaurants, still water often comes in cool bottles such as this one. You must specify still…these folks drink lots of sparkling water or sparkling anything for that matter! While we’re on the topic, the sparkling apple and grape drinks are amazing!

Coca-Cola~ I’m gonna miss this. When you order a Coke, this is what you usually get…a nice cold glass bottled soda…there’s just something about them :-) And, notice there are always lemons.
Super M and Parmalat~ Chocolate milk and long-life white milk. E now recognizes the big M quickly!
Cookies~ Tim Tam and Iced Animal cookies.
Diapers~ we’re still using these at night…notice they’re called Nappies.
Soap~ we’ve resorted to Dettol because we’re already out of the Dove from home…not too bad, though.
Pickles~ for those who know him, you know E is a pickle man! He’s not eating these Miami dills quite as fast, which is probably a good thing.
Restaurant~ this is McDonald’s.
E in the swing~ all of the swings around here are made from recycled tires, which is really neat. They’re actually much more comfortable than our typical swings at home because they have a back rest and more than just the chain to hang on to.
Chip bags~ Bubbles…yummy, yummy cheese puffs in all kinds of flavors. In fact, it’ll be a while before we have these again…they were eaten way too fast this week! E loves them and the name...”I thought we just blow bubbles, not eat them, Mommy…giggle, giggle”

Before I go, thanks for all of your prayers and words of encouragement since my last post. They mean so much!