A Tour of Middleburg

I got up yesterday and started to run when my feet hit the ground, well, almost. There were those 2 cups of coffee to open my eyes. Mari was here bright and early to show me the town of Middleburg and the surrounding areas. There are so many differences as well as similarities here. I "see" parts of the US in many of the places I've been. The only way to describe them would be to equate them to what I know at home. The section of South Africa that Santi and family live in is much like the rural South in so many ways! Middleburg is an older town. Like so many of our towns the center is the oldest part and as the city has grown around "downtown" you'll see newer buildings and places where the older buildings have been replaced with newer more modern buildings so you'll see contrasts within the downtown area. As the circle around downtown radiates, you'll find older housing with newer housing. I guess this is pretty typical even at home and it's fascinating to see the changes as you drive around the city. As you move out of the inner city area, it changes to a more rural area. Families have enough yard to have goats and chickens. There are gardens much like you see in the south, with a little corn and other veggies planted. I did see goats not so far from town yesterday. I say not so far out of town but since this city isn't as mobile as our society, we would consider it "not far".

What seems so strange to me is that they drive on the "wrong" side of the road for Americans! Yes, we've all seen it in movies and on television but until you sit in that passenger seat (known at home as the drivers seat) and see them turn into on coming traffic, you go for that brake pedal that isn't there! LOL Oh my! And Santi thought it would be a good idea if I got an international drivers license! Ha! I don't know how Peter did it on their last trip! I used to laugh at Santi when we would go to get into the car when we traveled together. She would constantly walk to our drivers side of the car. I don't know how many times I handed her the keys and said, "You can drive!" Now it's her turn to laugh at me!

Although I'm lucky enough to get my tours from the family and I have an opportunity to see things that are not on any tour group, Mari and I did hit a few of the "tourist traps" as well. There are reasons they are where they are! There is a lovely tourist hotel that has, attached to it, a craft fair for the tourist. I did enjoy watching the ladies as they worked. They were very proud to share about what they were doing. The beaded collar was extroidnary. The lady said that it takes them about a week to make 1! Mari said that they were very inexpensive for the amount of work that goes into them. Keep in mind that I'm still fussing over the currency here. I feel like Santi when it comes to "change" though. They are all "pennies" and I've put Santi in charge of pennies!

It's like when we take our visitors to our local attractions. Take, for instance, visiting the Grand Canyon. The Native Americans have their shop set up for the tourists to come share their money! It's much like when I went to Cherokee, North Carolina. The residents maintain this area as much as they can to celebrate their own culture and traditions, but that part of the reservation is not easily accessible to tourists. What you do see are all of the vendors who work openly and invite you to watch. While our Cherokee there want to maintain as much of their traditions and culture, they also know they must survive in the rest of the world. As I said, many things are familiar in concept.

Once we returned to Santi's it was off again, this time to visit Elsa. If you've been to her website, www.elsasdesigns.com you will see that she has uploaded many of the beautiful photos she has taken! It's amazing what an eye she has for photography! She also knows more about my camera than I do and she has graciously offered to take me for a day of photography lessons at a local preserve. I'm excited about having that opportunity! I love photography and have this very cool camera that I leave on AUTO settings because I haven't learned enough about it to start pushing buttons and changing things! I'm very lucky to have this time with her and learn from her!

Oh, for our Southern ladies, I fried up a "mess" of okra for Peter and Santi last night. Santi said that it's a fairly "new" vegetable to South Africa and it's mostly used in soups and stews. I talked to my step daughter, Jany, last night and told her about it and she was jealous! She told me that I never make fried okra for her! So I've put that on my list to do later this year when our own okra comes in.