Guest post: Ben, snacks

Let's start off with Jumpin Jack. The first time we got it, the flavor was White Cheddar. The next time, the only flavor available was Cheese and Green Onion. Our first thought was that it was going to taste gross, but it was actually the best popcorn I've ever tasted. We now eat one bagful every day.

Next, let's talk about Liqui Fruit. We almost always have two bottles in the house, yet every time we go to the grocery store, we have to buy more. My favorite flavor is mango-orange. Abby's favorite flavor is also mango-orange. The other flavors we've tried are peach-orange, breakfast punch, litchi and berry blaze.

Next, in Plettenberg Bay, at a restaurant called Ninteen89, we ordered an Oreo milkshake. It came with an Oreo ice cream bar on top! It was the best ice cream bar I've ever tasted. It was so good that at the next gas station, we got the Oreo ice cream bar again. Now my mom looks for them everywhere we go.

We were at a restaurant one time when I ordered a Orange Fanta. The server looked at me weird and said, "You mean a Fanta Orange?" As we have now learned, they say Fanta Orange instead of Orange Fanta. If you say Orange Fanta, they have no idea what you are talking about.

 These have been our favorite snacks so far.

When your teen requests a hike instead of a phone (by Jennifer)

Abby claims that she shouldn't write her birthday post; that I should.
I already mentioned the incredible seal watching and the joy of running down the sand dunes (on our 7 km hike around the Robberg Peninsula) and some of my thoughts on the day so I'll just add in a few more pics here (because when I finish this, Ben10 is supposedly writing a post...and he's put it off for a couple days and several hours now....so I've got to keep this quick!). 

After our incredible hike, we relaxed in our apartment for a while and Abby FaceTimed with Cindy (and, yes, we made both kids shower). Then headed down the beach in Keurboomstrand for dinner at Enrico's Restaurant.
Our walk to dinner looked like this:

And then, this:

Enrico's is that building behind the kids on the beach

Abby and Ben enjoyed this foccacia bread: 

And then we came home to a cake made by the owner of our cute little Airbnb apartment. 

Ben gave her a beautiful shell he found on the beach. 

Chris and I gave her cards. 

She doesn't have a social media account yet.

She used my phone to call her two best friends on her 13th birthday.

She requested a hike.

She truly appreciated the shell from her brother.

....we are fortunate. 

Homeschooling, worldschooling, unschooling...??? (by Jennifer)

Since the calendar turned to September, it's been clear we're doing something weird. The only other people out on the trails and in the restaurants with us are retirees and the occasional honeymooners. In the quiet moments between steps, I've been trying to decide what were doing.

When Ben sheds real tears onto his math pages (and later notes that those pages may not be burning well in the fire because he "cried on them") or throws a pencil at the wall so hard that he breaks the lead right off (separate occurrences on separate days - and we haven't even started the writing instruction yet 😱), it feels a lot like homeschool.

When we're discussing Nelson Mandela, or the devastating, lasting effects of Apartheid, or the 17 different species of antelope (that we didn't know existed a month ago but now can easily identify), I think: this is worldschooling.

Eland: one of the weirdest of the antelope species

And, while I've never claimed to really understand what unschooling is, as we walked the sandy shores of the de Hoop Nature Reserve looking at scores of shells and limpets we had never seen before and Chris and I debated whether a (regularly occurring) aqua blue jelly-like thing was a plant or an animal (and called the kids over by saying, "come look at this weird thing"), it occurred to me we may have to call this "unschooling".

And then....When Chris announced that he had spotted yet another southern right whale (in their natural breeding ground not far off the South African coast) and ended his assessment of the joy in watching these large mammals play by saying, "I love it when they stick their paw up and slap it on the water," my first thought was: yep, definitely unschooling.

To learn about this fascinating species we had never heard of (Hint: They don't have paws - they don't even have dorsal fins.): click here

Whatever it is, as I sit with Ben and teach him math, I am reminded of how much I enjoy teaching... all children....but, especially, my own.

Sorry Dad. Turns out, it's not a zoo!

Thankfully, fate was on our side this time! My dad is notorious for getting flat tires on a certain dirt road in Washington, but here, he has managed to weave in and out of the many potholes along the dirt roads in Addo Elephant Park without a flat. 

After the rental car incident, we drove up to a citrus farm near Addo. Part of it had been turned into a Bed & Breakfast. I have no idea how my mom found it, but it was super cool. Mom and I cooked dinner in a very badly stocked kitchen, but it turned out great. The next day, we drove into the park for our last game drive of the trip. We saw a bunch of new animals. A tortoise, two Black-Backed Jackals, a Red Hartebeest, an Eland, and a whole herd of Cape buffalo; just to name a few. In the earlier drives, my dad said that it felt like a zoo, because the animals were fenced into the park. He only took this back when we saw the herd of Cape buffalo bathing themselves in a water hole. It was a great day full of family time and fun.

From Addo, we drove to Jeffery's Bay. I know my mom gave most of the details, but one of the highlights was the Oreo milkshake at Kitchen Window's. 

Ben closed his eyes right before mom took the picture. Standard.

After Jeffery's Bay, we went to a small town near Storms River Village called Tsitsikamma, pronounced "titseekamma". After a day of rain and puking, we attempted to go for a hike nearby. Key word being "attempted". The river had flooded over on to the trail, so we just sat down and had a snack instead.

The next day, we went into the national park and hiked the first part of the Otter Trail, the most famous backpacking trail in South Africa. It was amazing. The view of the coast was stunning, and the water was a beautiful shade of aquamarine.

Tsitsikamma was wonderful (minus the puking incident), and I would love to go there again some day. The next post will include my birthday and the De Hoop Nature Reserve. (It turns out, ostriches are really weird, and should not be considered birds.)

Bye for now!

-Abby

Favorites (by Jennifer)

My favorite things about SA:
1) Oreo milkshakes regularly on dessert menus. (And they are so good.)

American restaurants have such poor dessert menus.

2) Collectively, the most comfortable mattresses I've ever slept on.

3) Hot water "bottles" in bed with you. (And on my lap when I type blog posts.)
None of the places we've stayed have had heat (other than little portable heaters)....but, heat or not, the kids and I may never return to beds without hot water bottles. 

13 Years Ago (by Jennifer)

Her 12th birthday hit me hard, harder than any previous. It was the 2nd day of 7th grade, the first day of volleyball tryouts. (And with homeschool the year before, I had spent much of my waking time with her the past year.) Luckily, it was late start Wednesday, so I got to walk her to school. But she didn't arrive home until 5pm - it was the beginning of the "teenage life", in which they are working 8am-5pm, even if you aren't. I was filled with sadness at the thought of "losing" her.

As her 13th birthday approached (a couple days ago), I told her that in lieu of birthday gifts this year, she could choose the next part of our trip (where we went and what we did for the days around her birthday).  She chose to hike the Robberg Peninsula to celebrate her 13th trip around the sun.

So, here we are in the tiny village of Keurboomstrand, SA for two nights.

As we hiked, she and I talked about how she will likely spend (at least) the next nine birthdays at school (and after school activities). As we listened to the seals bark on a rocky outcropping, ran down the sand dunes, and watched three seals surf the waves while we ate lunch today, I clung to the moments as they passed.

Will our parents still be married by the end of this trip?

While I am sure we all enjoyed my mom writing, I have decided to give her a break, as my yelling during math has been very exhausting. Also, I would like to point out that this yelling/crying phenomena only occurred on day one, and I am now enjoying my math.

Welcome to the smallest airport in the world!! The Port Elizabeth airport is not actually the smallest, I totally made that up, but it was very small. It was also very crowded, as the World Ironman Triathlon was happening just five days after our arrival in Port Elizabeth. They also had a very wide selection of rental car options. You would think that getting a car there would be easy...

The night before we left Johannesburg, dad went online to get us a rental car for the rest of the trip. After a long search, he finally found a car through Hertz. They sent him a confirmation email, so we thought we were all set. The next day, Thulani drove us to the airport, where my parents then proceeded in arguing about whether or not we needed to get an adapter. After that little episode, we went through the fastest line of security I have ever seen in an international airport. My dad got an email as we were sitting down on the plane from Hertz. They somehow didn't have the car that they told us they had. There was nothing we could do until we landed, so we settled in for the two hour flight.

When we landed, our new guest house driver was waiting for us. He drove us over to Hertz so that my dad could sort things out before us needing a car the next day. My dad came back, and told us that we didn't have a car, but at least it wasn't a scam. We got to our house at 7pm, and my dad tried to call the car company. Unfortunately, it was based in the UK, and they put him on hold for so long that he ran out of international minutes just as they were figuring things out. My dad was really grumpy, and my mom was annoyed that he was grumpy. Ben and I were in the thick of it, so we did the only thing we could think of. Hide. We spent the next hour playing Uno and Cribbage in the bedroom we were sharing. Oh yeah, we were also eating a bunch of gummy bears because we hadn't had dinner yet, and weren't sure if we were going to. Finally, mom came in at 8:30 and announced that we were going to go get some pizza. I'm sure you're thinking "Good, they figured out the rental car thing!" But no. Apparently, they had gotten nowhere. We walked to dinner in the dark; not the safest thing to do in South Africa. We also got lost, which makes the situation even less safe. But no worries, we got to dinner at the early time of 9pm. We had delicious pizza, despite the fact that my parents were grumpy. Once we got home, we all just went to sleep. Still without a rental car.

Mom and Dad finally figured out the car thing, so at ten (checkout time everywhere in SA), we walked down to the beach. We got lunch at a cafe that overlooked the water, and then walked back to our house to collect our stuff. From there, we got an Uber to the airport to get our rental car.

Now for the scary part. Driving ourselves on the wrong side of the road. The car was a stick-shift, so my dad drove. The whole left side of the road thing has only been problematic in parking lots, but the hardest part for him is the stick being in on his left side, rather than his right. Other than one stall in the middle of a four-way intersection, we haven't died so far. Yippee!! 

The next post will be about Addo Elephant Park, Jeffery's Bay, and Tsitsikamma (Yes, that is actually a place.) Oh, plus a flooded river that led to a failed hike.

Bye for now!

-Abby

P.S. My mom would like you to know that Ben has started his math. We will keep you posted!