Another blissful lazy day today. We “slept in” until 8 and then putzed around the cabin. We played tic-tac-toe, hangman (dark for a child, how has this not been rebranded yet?), and drew pictures. Millie drew this instant classic of me wiping her butt. I’ve been trying to get her to do it herself recently but she refuses.

At around 11 we finally left and walked down the road to the farm next door, which is an animal sanctuary – farm animals who have been saved from slaughter to live out their remaining years in absolute heaven. It was free to enter but we quickly spent $10 on fresh vegetables to hand feed them. These animals seem to have better lives and diets than 98% of humans on earth.

This farm is famous(?) for being the home to “Pigcasso” before he passed. Pigcasso was, as you may have guessed, a painting pig. They sold prints and had videos playing in tribute to Picasso. 100% earnest and not a joke in sight. They even said that George Clooney owns a Pigcasso original. R.I.M. (mud), Pigcasso.

We walked home again for a late lunch, collecting sticks along the way as kindling for tonight’s fire.

We played some more and Nick took a short afternoon nap. We are still not feeling 100% and about a day or two from breaking into the antibiotics we packed.

We decided to have a braai (barbecue) for dinner and headed into downtown to get some food from Wooly’s (Woolworths). Look at me, speaking like a local.

Nick lit a fire outside and we opened some local wine. We started with “angel’s kisses,” something we first tried a couple of days ago at our first braai and have fallen in love with. Maraschino cherries wrapped in bacon and grilled. Sounds insane. Is insane.

We grilled chicken, corn, and made a salad while we watched the sun go down.

The Millie did a make-up movie night since we missed last night’s. Zootopia was the choice of the day. Nick brought in the charcoals from the grill and used them to start an inside fire.

It was cozy and for the 8th consecutive day I have had the thought “should we figure out how to move here?”. If you don’t think too hard, I can’t imagine there would be a better place to live… for a white expat from the first world. Unfortunately I am an overthinker and would struggle with the inequality. Last night I read that the wealth inequality here is a further spread than anywhere else in the world. We have been surprised by the level of security everywhere despite it feeling so safe. Last night I set our cabin’s burglary alarm incorrectly and accidentally set it off, which made the owner come running over to check if we were okay. They take it very seriously, because they have to. It is the fifth most dangerous country in the world. I’ve never been anywhere that feels so segregated. Being on this (wealthy, white) side of it is incredible, but at what cost?

Nick and I have had lots of late night conversations about this and what we always come back to is: how different is it than home? Here we are outsiders, and that allows us to be observers. We can see how strange the societal norms and dynamics are without being complicit. But at home, we turn a blind eye. Are we that much better as white Americans? I obviously have no answers, but want to share that we’ve done a lot of introspection in between the sunsets and wine tastings!