{"id":1602,"date":"2011-08-20T12:52:12","date_gmt":"2011-08-20T17:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/2011\/08\/20\/the-10-thing-i-miss\/"},"modified":"2011-08-20T12:52:12","modified_gmt":"2011-08-20T17:52:12","slug":"the-10-thing-i-miss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/2011\/08\/20\/the-10-thing-i-miss\/","title":{"rendered":"The 10 thing I miss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over all, I think most people would pretty amazed at how "normal" our life is in Swaziland.  We have a nice home in a safe area.  We can get pretty much anything we need at the grocery store.  We can drink the water.  The cost of living is quite affordable, and we make more than we need.  Of course if we lived in Manzini or Ezulwini or Mbabane, we would have access to even more amenities.  As one person explained it to me, Swaziland is "Africa Lite" and that is a pretty accurate portrayal.  That being said, there are still some things I miss:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The convenience of being able to eat out<\/strong> \u2013 There hasn’t really been any foods that I have craved yet, but I do miss the opportunity to not have to fix a meal, or to just pick something up on the way home. <\/li>\n
  2. High speed internet (or any regular internet for that matter)<\/strong> \u2013 Quite possibly the biggest challenge I knew of when making the move\u2026 especially to Cabrini.  If we were in town, we would have decently reliable access. <\/li>\n
  3. Being able to easily look up answers<\/strong> \u2013 This is related to the prior, but more specifically, I miss access to google \/ wikipedia \/ the library \/ easy phone-a-friend \/ etc.  I never realized how much I relied on the internet to supplement my knowledge. <\/li>\n
  4. Access to news<\/strong> \u2013 sure we have the Swazi Times, but unless you are interested in a strange combination of news, gossip and propaganda, you need to look elsewhere. (I have another post I am working on about the Swazi headlines, but I will save that for another time). <\/li>\n
  5. Interacting with a variety of people<\/strong> \u2013 Here at St. Phillips there aren’t many people, and those who are here are usually all bound up in the same things.  So it becomes difficult to get fresh ideas \/ perspectives \/ experiences. <\/li>\n
  6. Netflix and Pandora<\/strong> \u2013 Yes, I am back on the internet thing\u2026 but, most of my "entertainment" came from these websites. <\/li>\n
  7. Snobby Selection<\/strong> \u2013 I miss good wine, good beer, good spirits, good coffee, good cheese, good cuisine.  We can get some of all that, but not a great selection. <\/li>\n
  8. Ice Cream and Candy<\/strong> \u2013 you can get it here, but the selection is incredibly slim and it is very expensive. <\/li>\n
  9. Being connected \/ "in the know" \u2013 <\/strong>There is a very steep learning curve here.  Multiple times I have been told to complete a task that I have no idea how to do and with no guidance.  I am also having to learn names and relationships by the truckload.  I miss knowing what is going on.<\/li>\n
  10. Family and Friends<\/strong> \u2013 Without doubt this is what I miss the most.  We left behind some pretty incredible people and nothing can replace that. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    And, here is Beth’s quick list of 10 things she says she misses:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Getting things conveniently<\/strong><\/li>\n
    2. Good Coffee<\/strong><\/li>\n
    3. Kitchen Aid Mixer<\/strong><\/li>\n
    4. Reliable Oven<\/strong><\/li>\n
    5. Bath’s<\/strong><\/li>\n
    6. Friends and Family<\/strong><\/li>\n
    7. Internet<\/strong><\/li>\n
    8. Being able to "Go places"<\/strong><\/li>\n
    9. Ice Cream<\/strong><\/li>\n
    10. Having all her kitchen stuff and ingredients<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Over all, I think most people would pretty amazed at how "normal" our life is in Swaziland.  We have a nice home in a safe area.  We can get pretty much anything we need at the grocery store.  We can drink the water.  The cost of living is quite affordable, and we make more than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[140],"tags":[250,150],"class_list":["post-1602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-swaziland","tag-internet","tag-top-10"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}