Mexican Food

My wife and I finally broke down and started making Mexican food from scratch. We can't buy decent pre-made tortillas or canned refried beans or anything like that so we literally have to make everything from scratch.  Kind of cool.  For our meal yesterday we made our own tortillas, salsa bandera, chile rojo con carne.  Before you know it we will be making posole, menudo, and tamales.  To see a complete post with pictures see the following link to my wife's blog.  She has a little more time than me.

Top five things to think about, ask yourself, or investigate before you decide to move to Cape Town.

     Most of these things to consider are related maintaining the quality of life you enjoyed in your homeland.  Before we moved here my wife made it a point to read expat forums and travel blogs.  I got the impressions that there were two types of commentaries.  The first type came from people who obviously loved Cape Town and for the most part only had nice things to say.  The other type only focused on the negative and tried to convince you that if you came to Cape Town you would most likely be robbed, raped, and then murdered.  I’m not really in either camp, I think Cape Town is beautiful and has much to offer but am not so in love with it that I will ignore the negative parts.  

    1. Can you really afford to live in Cape Town?  

Simply converting the salary from Rand to American Dollars, British pounds, or Euros or whatever your currency you’re used to is not enough.  Even though you can buy R 6.65 with $1.00 American dollar, that doesn’t mean that R 6.65 will buy you $ 1.00 dollars’ worth of goods.  When it comes to food or wine, I would say the R 6.65 would go farther than the dollar you’re used to.  When it comes to almost anything else it will not go as far.  Evaluating cost of living is tricky for many reasons.  Before the move, I partially relied on the cost of living page provided by my university’s human resources webpage.  These are the figures they give for rental prices for middle income housing in Cape Town.

Renting a house/flat

3-bedroom flat (unfurnished) - R5 000 upwards
4-bedroom house with pool - R6 000 upwards
3-bedroom townhouse - R4 000 upwards

    

     Although we have found housing close to these prices, there were times when we went to visit those houses and we just kept on driving.  We would call the person to tell them that we were not interested.  The reason for this drive by is that I wouldn’t have felt safe unless I had a squad of my Army Ranger buddies with a combat load accompanying me.  Most housing which we found to our liking is either beyond our means, even on a lecturer’s salary which would go very far elsewhere, or would take an unsatisfactory commute on the parking lot which is Cape Town’s road system during peak hours.  Personally I like walking to work; it’s good for my health, my wallet, and the environment.  In order to walk here I will have to relinquish well over half my paycheck once I’m kicked out of temporary staff housing.  Other things related to this question deals with how much everyday things cost.  Things produced in this country seem reasonably priced; anything originating elsewhere is amazingly overpriced ranging anywhere between thirty and one hundred percent higher prices than what I paid in Tucson.  There are also all kinds of hidden costs we are just finding out about.  For example, did you know that there is a television tax you must buy if you are in possession of a television, even if it is broken and gathering dust in a closet?  WTF? 

    2. What kind of Visa will you have and what will that mean to you and your family?

    

     Even though the job I took in Cape Town is a permanent position, I moved to Cape Town on a 3 year special skills visa.  Although this type of Visa allows me to work, it does limit what I can do in this country in ways I didn’t anticipate.   I don’t have personal wealth to speak of, so I am relying on my salary to live in South Africa; therefore any significant purchase requires a loan. Although a friend was nice enough to lend us a car for now, I really don’t want to abuse this kindness.   For the last few weeks my wife and I have started looking for a car.  We thought we would use the money we got when we sold our cars in the U.S. as a down payment on a car we couldn’t afford when I was in graduate school.  After all, I now have a “real” job with a “real” income.  It turns out that we will probably end up buying an older crappier car than the ones we drove in Tucson, even though back then I was bringing home a teaching assistant salary.  There are two reasons for this, first, cars are expensive here, and second, I can’t get a normal car loan here.  Well I guess I could but I would have to finish paying it off three months before my visa expires.  This short time frame and relatively high interest rates in this country combine to make unaffordable monthly payments.   The other option was to take a personal loan from the bank.  They would lend me three times my monthly take home pay, have the same timeframe I just described, and charge something comparable to high credit card interest rates.  This still leaves me with unaffordable payments.   I don’t know what we are going to do.  I think I might start bringing this up to my superiors at work.   

    3. Do you want to ship or do you want to buy household goods?

   

     My suggestion is that if your employer is paying for the shipment, send everything you might want.  For example, I regret not shipping my grill.  My wife suggested I call it a braai since that is the local word for it, but I don’t care, I’m calling it a grill because I’m in a sour mood today and not totally in love with everything South Africa at the moment.  This mood is partially due to the gloomy weather and experiences I had this last week trying to get a loan.  Anyways, I ended up giving my old one to my sister, thinking I would buy one when I get here.  Grilling is one of my favorite ways to cook and mine was getting old and I could use a new one.  I have been here for over two months and have resigned myself to the idea of not having a decent grill any time soon.  The affordable ones are made very cheaply and the only other option is the extremely expensive six burner, brushed stainless steel variety I couldn’t afford in Tucson much less the inflated prices found in Cape Town.  If your employer is not paying for shipment, you still might consider shipping some of your more expensive items. 

    4. Public transportation

    

     For those of you thinking that some of the problems I mentioned so far can be solved with public transportation there are things to consider.  Of course there are trains, and buses which are available but they aren’t up to par with the major cities I’ve been to like New York, San Francisco, or Vienna.  The public transportation here isn’t as reliable, comfortable, and I’m pretty sure not as safe.  I have the impression that the infrastructure is overburdened and not well thought out.  My wife and I had to rely on public transportation for a few weeks and can’t imagine having to rely on it long term I’ve heard stories from colleagues who have waited for hours for a bus, only to find out that the next one is already full and cannot take any more passengers.  Another option, I described on a previous post, was riding the minibus cabs (I’m not sure what their official name is).  We rode them for a few weeks and they were fun for a while, but they would not replace a car.  We couldn’t find a map describing their routes and didn’t know where they went.  We were confined to one or two routes and life sucked.  We tried the trains, and we found the wait times between trains surprisingly long for a major city.  Once we got on the train it was overcrowded and I felt very unsafe. More than once I felt like someone was trying to pick my pocket and I didn’t like the looks I was getting from people.  

    5. Security and Crime?

Security is a big concern here.  I don’t want to scare people off with this; I think it is manageable but still something to consider.  The first thing I noticed when I came to interview was the bars on my windows and the concertina wire  placed on top of the fence surrounding the bed and breakfast the university placed me in.   I have now been here for over two months and I still feel like security is a major concern.  For example, I used to dislike when my wife would call me at work back home in Tucson. Mostly because I HATE talking on the phone and I didn’t like the distraction.  Here, I ask my wife to call me when she goes anywhere.  I want to know where she is going and I ask her to give me updates when she is coming home and when she is home safe.   Although this probably will not prevent anything from happening to her, it gives me some piece of mind when I know she is home and safe.  As for crime, everyone I’ve talked to on the subject has had some personal experience dealing with being burglarized, held up at knife point, or threatened with bodily injury.  For example, one man described an incident where a man was panhandling and when he didn’t have anything to give him he became very aggressive and pleaded with him to not make him do crime.  Luckily the person escaped into a public place before he was robbed, beaten, or killed.    Thankfully we haven’t experienced any of this.  I truly hope this is not only due to dumb luck but due to something we can control.  Some personal attributes such as our careful behavior or my physically intimidating physique (lol).   


If you want to see my wife's point of view, not necessarily on these topics, you can read her blog.

Car Buying Woes

Buying a car here with a loan is going to be harder than I thought.  According to the bank, we have to have a South African drivers license.  We talked to a guy at a dealership and he said that obtaining that license might prove to be a bridge to far.  The daunting mission would take a day or more waiting in lines followed by a several month wait for the actual license.  I'm going to have to do some more research and find out if this is true.  Another option is to get an international driver's license, but my bank didn't say if that would suffice. 

Another hurdle is my three year Visa; our loan terms can not be longer than my Visa.  Since I have already been here a few months, I might be stuck with a 24 month loan.  I might not be able to afford a decent car that is less than five years old with loan terms that are this short.  Car prices, even used car prices, in South Africa are just silly.  For example, we saw a used Jeep Wrangler Sport at the Jeep Dealership in Claremont which sold today.  It was a four banger soft top bare bones Jeep, it was not a Rubicon, and it went for the equivalent of $43,000 used.  I'm feeling like the traditional financing option is not going to work and I'm feeling OK with that.  The last and only time I ever financed a vehicle it made me feel dirty and used.  I felt like I was getting screwed from every direction and swore I would never do that again.

Another option mentioned by my bank was to get a personal loan.  My bank will lend me three times my monthly gross pay.  This might turn out to be the best option and save me money for several reasons. With this type of loan I don't need a South African driver's license, I can buy the car from a private seller, and it can be older than five years old.   I may be able to avoid a 14% Value Added Tax (VAT) on a private sale.  I might also be able to afford a decent vehicle if it over five years old. The only setback with this loan is that I can't get one until my account is three months old.  This will make it impossible to buy the Defender 110 I mentioned in the previous post, since it will probably be sold today.  Another guy came with cash in hand.  I guess I will be keeping my eyes out for similar deals and hope the interest rate on this type of loan is decent.

Western Cape Getaway Show

Yesterday, we went to a trade show held at a wine estate.  For an off-road enthusiast like myself, the equipment being shown outside the large tents was by far the best part.  I especially enjoyed the neat little tent trailers.  My guess is that since the geezers who can afford toys in South Africa can't buy a Ford F-350 to haul a fifth wheel they invest in these little trailers that can be pulled by a Ford Ranger. Here these little trucks are considered a large bakkie (truck).  They use them in every role a full size truck would be used back home.  Everything from serving as a tow truck to a dump truck.  The trailers seem rugged yet refined and well designed.  Everything you will need for a luxury outing in your 4X4 has been thought of.  They even have places to store your wine glasses.  I definitely want to buy one of these trailers and take one back to Arizona when we decide to move back.

I even started looking at off-road vehicles again.  I currently have my sights set on a Defender 110 which is kitted out for a Cape Town to Cairo trip.  An American came down, bought his Land Rover got it ready for the trip and decided not to go.  I think recent events in Egypt might have played a role.  He is asking R 95 000 (~13,000).  For this I would have room for four or five, a roof top tent, freezer, refrigerator, roof rack, two jerry cans, bull bar, kitchen, a newly overhauled diesel engine, and a power inverter with enough wattage to power a television (why would I need a television?).  If I can get a car loan for a private party sale, I just might buy it. Pictures of this vehicle can be seen at the following link.  I'm also looking for Jeep Wranglers, I really treated my last one horribly and it refused to die.  Now that they come in a four door version, my wife is even open to the idea.  I'm also intrigued with the diesel engine option we can get over here.  I always wanted to do an engine conversion on my old jeep, and diesel was one of the options I was thinking about.  The only problem with the Jeep idea is that I can't find a used one which is reasonably priced.  I guess the brand name adds a few extra thousand Rand.

It's Been Some Time

I know that I haven't written anything in awhile.  My wife is so much better at keeping up with her blog at withoutcomplexities.blogspot.com.  I actually haven't done much I would consider interesting.  Mostly getting up going to work and coming home, mostly writing grants and acclimating to the university.  We have only been on two real day trips.  The first we went on a drive across False Bay and visited one of the two African Penguin colonies on South Africa's mainland.  On the second trip we went to a restaurant called the Brass Bell (http://www.brassbell.co.za/) in Kalk Bay.  The food was good, I especially enjoyed the calamari (best I've ever eaten).  Unfortunately the mood was soured when we were forced to wait an inordinate amount of time to pay for our bill.  We cheered ourselves up by going to the Muizenberg beach where I saw surfers, for the first time, in their natural habitat.  I'll try to do better.

Driving

Up until a few days ago my wife and I have been relying on public transportation.  The cheapest way we found to move around town was by using what people call cabs.  These cabs are very different from the cabs Americans might picture when someone says "I took a cab."  These cabs operate more like buses, but with a little more hustle.  They have a route,  with semi-regular stops, but instead of keeping to a schedule, a team of people try to cram as many people in the cab as possible.  The team is made up of two people, a driver and a cashier of sorts.  The driver's job is to drive as fast as possible down the route, honk the horn to attract passengers, and stop when the cashier tells him too.  The driver also seems to have the job of angering and competing with other cabs with his driving.  The cashier obviously takes people's money, but also facilitates more business.  During stops, he whistles and runs around looking for passengers.  If a passenger is on the other side of the street he might jump in the middle of traffic and stop it so that passenger can safely j-walk across the street.  The cab might even wait for more passengers to fill the cab, which is quite annoying if you're in a hurry.  While they are driving, the cashier spends his time yelling out the side of the cab "Kip Taun" or something like that.  After a few days we realized that he was saying "Cape Town", which is the last stop on the route.  I was told that most of these people who run the cabs are from the Cape Flats area of Cape Town and that they have a very distinct accent.  These guys must be the hardest working people in Cape Town.  The best part of this whole experience is that the cabs are little Volkswagen Micro-buses and they often stuff sixteen passengers or more in the thing.  Including the two operators that is eighteen people who have been working up a sweat running around town.  Needless to say it gets a bit smelly in those things.

A few days ago we got access to a car, a nice little Mercedes-Benz hatchback.  I'm not going to say that I will miss riding in the cabs, but I will say that it was a worthwhile experience.  We've only taken the car out twice, once to the grocery store and once to the gym. We're kind of afraid to drive on the wrong side of the road in crazy traffic.  I can't wait to see more of Cape Town with the freedom of a car.  Since cab route maps were not available we only used one route.  Now we can go wherever we want.

Hike Number 1

We have been in South Africa for a little over a week.  The week has been filled with running around conducting the business of setting up a new household, opening bank accounts, and most importantly setting up internet.  I contemplated writing about the joys of the bureaucracy here in Cape Town but thought better of it. Yesterday my wife and I took our first hike.  Luckily trails leading into Table Mountain National Park are a ten minute walk up the hill.  We walked up to the Cecil Rhodes Memorial just up the hill from the University of Cape Town.  We then continued our hike from there up a random trail.  The trail we took initially went up a nice incline following a spur.  We came to a t-intersection at what must have been an old military road leading up to an old military post I saw on the map.  We continued on the road heading north and ran into quite a few mountain bike riders.  I can’t wait till our stuff gets here.  On our right was the city of Cape Town and on our left was some of the most beautiful country I have seen in a while.  As we walked the view of the city changed from the southern suburbs, made up of a group of neighborhoods with names like Mowbray, Rondebosch, and Clairemont, and continued until the City Bowl and the docks were in view.  We could see the new stadium, signal hill and the peak of Lions Head.  We even got to see a few Zebras through the binoculars my father in law gave us before we went on our trip.  All in all it was a wonderful hike even a novice hiker could handle.  I was surprised I didn’t see more people on it.