Wonderful rainbow in Serowe I saw the whole thing, both ends!
But unfortunately could only capture one side in the photo.
The day I returned from the States I was sound asleep at a friend's house in Gabs, when I was awoken at 1 am by my security company in Serowe calling. Apparently my house (as well as three other houses in the compound) was broken into at midnight that night. The robbers must have been very disappointed because, though they searched the entire house, (while the alarm was blaring) the only electronics equipment they found was an old MP3 player. They also took some kitchen knives for good measure. It seems they were also interested in my yoga mat and some make-up as that was all packed up, ready to be taken, on my coffee table. But luckily the security company arrived and scared them away. Despite the fact that they broke into 4 houses, they did not manage to steal anything other than a cell phone from the other houses. Still it is scary to think that someone was in my house, I'm just so thankful that I wasn't there.
The next day when I returned to Serowe all of the tenants met and we came up with a list of improvements that needed to be made. We presented these to the landlord and he has actually been pretty responsive. We now have crossbars on the backs of the doors, metal plates over the door jam, better padlocks on the bugler doors, and increased lighting outside the houses. Baylor also hired a security guard and decided that I should no longer be staying there alone. So, I now have rotating roommates (other PAC docs who come for a week or a few weeks at a time). It has been nice to have company and though the house has some drawbacks, I have discovered some real positives about the location.
First, when I look out my house I see 3 trees.
They look like plain trees, but upon closer inspection at the right time of year...
I discovered MANGOES (and lemons)!!! The tree in the foreground of the top picture is a lemon tree, and the one above is a mango tree. The third tree is just a pretty purple flower tree. The mangoes are not ripe yet, but I had a delicious lemon and it looks like the mangoes might be ready soon. As mangoes are one of my favorite fruits, I definitely have developed a new level of appreciation for my house!
Second new discovery was my neighbor's garden. He lives several houses down from me and last week invited me to see his garden. In just three months he has managed to plant quite a lot. He has tons of cabbage, spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, some carrots, beets, etc. And he insisted that we take a bunch. It was the freshest head of lettuce I have ever had and made delicious salads for the rest of the week!
Finally, on a totally different topic....We managed to celebrate Halloween! It is not a holiday here, except among expats. I did not come prepared with a costume, and my mother was visiting (at the end of her two week stint in South Africa), so we needed two costumes. We decided to be each other, the subtleties of which were lost on those who did not know my mother, but we still found it fun...
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