10 Reasons why I am staying in South Africa

Johannesburg weather this morning

South Africa. There a daily constant barrage of people/friends that's moving overseas, or are making their living already in another spot of the world. We have family overseas who are happy. Even my husband wants to move, but I don't. I love my South Africa. I love everything we have here, and I don't think people appreciate things that we take for granted here... I got such a positive feedback from a friend today who can go overseas because she has a passport already. She says she is staying. She wants to! It is difficult to stay (or staying positive about staying), but I know it is difficult moving as well. To each what makes you most happy!

This is my list of the things that makes me happy here in South Africa:

The toddler’s first meeting with her uncle

We saw my brother two years ago, just before the toddler was born. He has never met the toddler. He is now living in London and we keep in contact through IM mostly. Our family lives on different continents, with my sister and her husband also being far away in London.


It is not and never will be same to have your family staying so far from you. Although we have all the electronic means to be in contact constantly, it does not equate to the real thing. To be in each other’s company still is something that I think we value not enough. Until we have to talk across thousands of kilometres...

My brother was worried that the toddler would be shy of him, or that she would not respond to him. She does not know him at all.

But luckily his fears were unfounded. Mieka liked him immediately and enjoyed his company. We had such a great weekend with my brother.

Mieka says his name Wynand, pronounced as “Mytand”. Translated from Afrikaans it means ‘my tooth”. We have been asking her countless times to say it. Because it is so very funny!

We have seen before that she likes certain people and responds to them with a very easy acceptance. Maybe it is true that the little ones have an inherent ability to detect the true nature of a person? What do you think?

In any case, the toddler enjoyed his company and we had a lovely time. We had lunch again today at Silverstar Casino with the music water fountain show. In December last year Mieka was crying when the musical water fountain played. Today she was also frightened, but at the end of our visit she was enjoying it!

Families on different continents

It was great to see my sister Ronel and husband Anton during the holidays. They are leaving tomorrow after their visit to see the family and friends AND the South African Bushveld. They are now permanent residents in London. My younger brother Wynand has got British citizenship already, and he is also staying in London.
Sis Ronel planned the Bushveld holiday in detail (as she always enjoys to do), and we enjoyed catching up with them in the bush. We speak on a regular basis while they are there, but it is not the same as seeing each other in person. The family gatherings, especially, feel incomplete without them. It is a sad case of affairs that so many of us have to leave the country to make their livelihoods elsewhere.
I was struck by the fact that we who are staying in South Africa are not in such a bad place. There is the crime and the political and social situation that makes us uneasy, but it seems that there is not a place where they don’t have their own problems. We have our lovely weather and our space around us! South Africans start to complain after three days of rain… We are not used to being miserable! (Smile)
We now have a little one to consider again. We advise our children to prepare themselves to live and work overseas, but secretly we hope that they will be able to stay. We sometimes discuss our own emigration, but we do not have the same destinations in mind. I disqualify all the cold places immediately! Usually the discussion ends in limbo… Probably also because we don’t have the big bank balances or head hunters who are eagerly awaiting our skills in another country!
For now we are staying! Big bother! …. NOT! (Evil grin!)
But we are going to miss you, Ronel and Anton! Thanks for the lovely holiday with you!
(Photo: Sis Ronel and hubby Anton, at Kwa Maritane, lazing in the sun)