The Beach House. . ..ahhhh. . .

We arrived in the lovely town of Southbroom at around 11am Friday morning.  This is a small ocean front area full of permanent and “summer” homes.  The lovely family(friends of our soon to be brother-in-law Adrain, huge thanks Adrian!!) we are renting from actually lives in Johannesburg but uses this as their holiday home.  When we walked through the doors of the home I think we all breathed a collective sigh of relief.  The space is gorgeous and at least 10 times larger than our place in Durban!  Tile floor,  LARGE kitchen, a dining room table(we can finally sit and eat at a table!), 4 bedrooms with their own washrooms, a roomy living space with enough comfy seats for all of us, a BBQ, an outdoor dining and sitting space and much to D’s delight 2 BATHTUBS!!   

Indoor and outdoor living space! 

Lots of outdoor space for D and Z to play.

Elize, from a rental company in town let us in and showed us around.   D happened to ask where Z’s was going to sleep as she didn’t see a Pack’n Play and Elise said she just had one dropped off at her office and we could pick it up to borrow.  We also inquired about getting some internet for one of our computers and Elise said we could use her business’s.  The office is just up the street and there are picnic tables out front.  So hopefully I can get a couple of posts in while we are here  Again we are amazed at how God’s hand is upon all aspects of this trip.  Even Pack’n Play’s and internet!

We aren’t sure exactly how long we are staying here and we are so grateful the owners have said to just keep them posted.  When Z’s passport comes in we will reassess the situation but for now we are just happy that one person can read in a quiet outdoor space and another person can watch TV without sitting 2 feet away from each other!!

We have now been twice to a lovely coffee shop in town that makes REAL coffee.  South Africa is not big on coffee we have found out.  There is now a great place up the street that also serves a delicious spiced chai latte much to my delight!  Our server the first day just so happens to also be a hair dresser so I’m hoping to have D’s hair done while we are here as well.

There are plenty of monkeys here!  We are told to close our windows when we leave the house and avoid leaving fruit out as they will likely help themselves thus making a big mess. They are apparently quite tame. At the coffee shop the one day there was a large amount of them in a tree nearby.  D and I went to investigate and they chucked food at us from the tree!  Super funny!  Pretty sure they are as bad as raccoons in a campground. 

Lots and lots of troublesome monkeys!

D finally got to experience her fist dip in the ocean and LOVED it.  Unfortunately she found out that it is a little salty and does not taste so great!  Did not deter her desire to go in but she is much more careful about putting her head in.  The water is pretty rough here right now and she loved wave jumping with her dad.  Her continual question now is “can I go swim in the ocean?” as the beach is just a short walk up the road.

We attended Margate Baptist Church on Sunday morning.  We joke that Gene googled “grey haired church in Margate” to find this place as they fit right in.  There was a small population of kids there and even a children’s message as well. The message was on knowing that we will face trials as Christians and how we need to cling to God even more during those times. 

We are praying that we hear news of Z’s passport this week but for now are trying to be thankful for the beautiful place we are living!