Once, years ago I was on a train in England on my way from Sussex to London. It was late afternoon and the train was full. The woman sitting next to me must have found me quite a strange traveling companion and because of my accent she quickly wanted to know where I was from... On my " South Africa" answer, she informed me that she always wanted to live on an African farm. I thought it funny, because I then was living on an African farm and did not always find it so amusing or romantic ... Years have passed since then, and after a move into first a town and then the city, we are now back on a farm in Africa.
A farm, where wild animals still roam freely and this morning I decided that we have to share our story...
I hope you enjoy it... and love it as much as we love living here...
Rooshoek, the name of our farm translates to "corner of roses"... however don't be fooled, life on the farm is anything but the proverbial "moonshine and roses".
The event this morning that made me decide that I am going to keep a daily blog about our life here ( and get Misha to help writing it) was... wait for it... the coloring of my grey roots...!!
At six this morning, I was jerked awake by gunshots... not quite unexpected, because we had hunters overnight. Finally giving up all pretense of being asleep, I decided I might as well color my grey roots. Grey roots, which I for days have been trying to hide, by giving my hair more body when blow drying. The dye applied, I joined Misha for breakfast when Grandma arrived at the breakfast table and informed us that there was no water in the taps. "Not to worry though," she said " Jan has already gone to look at the water...". Since you are all new to the farm, I have to give you a bit more back ground information.
Jan is our foreman. To look at the water he has to drive up the mountain. Our water comes from a fountain about a kilometer away from the house. The fountain is quite a bit up the steep slope of the mountain, but twice a day Jan, or one of the other workers, will do the trip up the mountain to make sure that all filters are clean and the water is running. This trip to the water can be quite exiting as well, since they can and have encountered leopards, snakes and baboons on the way. These encounters are blogs for another day.
Today however, I think Jan's trip was a little less exiting than what was going on while I waited for the water.
Usually the half an hour waiting time is always too long for me to be sitting around, I get irritated, but would you believe, today it passed amazingly quickly. So quickly that before Jan could get the water running again, it was time to rinse the hair and I was in trouble. I gave it ten minutes more, but still... no water.
Undressing and hoping for the best I got under the shower, but the few drops of water in the shower pipe was just enough to have a lot of dark hair dye spread all over me. I feverishly opened the hand basin tap and lo and behold another liter of water came forth! Soon this water was just as mud dark as the dye and I had to pull the plug on that idea as well. I tried the other basin ( his and her basins) and another few drops came forth from the pipes... however not near enough to get the dye rinsed of.
Desperate now for a solution I grabbed the only option still open to me... the dog's drinking water. I didn't even stop to think about Oscar's slobber... No way.. I grabbed it and rinsed my hair. Hair that by now felt as dry as winter grass. I slathered on the conditioner because surely the water can't be too long in coming though the pipes. Twenty minutes later I was looking at the toilet with anxious eyes, but I could not bring myself to put my head in the toilet and rinse it. I did however open the bidet's faucet and rinsed of the conditioner with the little water still in those pipes. I had to stand on my knees to get it done though.... And would you believe I just turban wrapped the towel about my now slightly darker, but very well conditioned hair, when water gushed from the still open taps?
Such is the STORY OF AN AFRICAN FARM.
