Yesterday was a bad day. Well, it wasn’t all bad. Our consumables shipment (food, cleaning supplies) arrived in the morning and I had a blast unpacking my Sam’s Club purchases from over the summer. I discovered that I accidentally bought twice as much Nutella as we can possible eat, but the household help were happy to take the excess off our hands.
Speaking of household help, we had a little issue with that. I really, really wish I could share details with you all on this blog. Unfortunately, I don’t think that would be a good idea based on the people involved and other stuff. I posted about it on Facebook yesterday and got a lot of really interesting comments and messages about it. From my expat friends, I received a lot of support. From my friends back home, there was a lot of tough love. Now, I’m not saying my friends weren’t supportive, or that their judgment was uncalled for. I was very intrigued by their responses to this situation because it showed me just what a bubble I live in. (I deleted the Facebook post today because it was whiny and stupid.)
So I was sitting there feeling sorry for myself, drinking a glass of wine and letting the girls watch The Wiggles. (Don’t judge. I normally don’t turn on the TV all day. It was a rough day. Trust me.) And I was thinking about how much I missed South Africa and my friends and colleagues there. And then I looked out the window. I couldn’t believe I never noticed before, but we have a jacaranda tree right outside our house.
Why the obsession with jacarandas? Well, for one thing, they’re purple! In October, Pretoria is covered in purple flowers.
Right before we left, we bought an oil painting of the jacarandas from a local artist. It’s finally hanging in our living room.
When we unwrapped the painting, I nearly cried because I knew the jacarandas were blooming at that very moment all over Pretoria and I just wanted to be back in a familiar place.
Back to yesterday: I have no idea why I only noticed the tree at the moment when I was feeling so much self-pity. But it forced me back to reality. My situation was entirely fixable. It won’t be easy, but we’ve come up with a way forward that will hopefully work for everyone. (Again, wish I could share details so this would all make more sense!) And in the meantime, life is good. Really good. I have a scrawny little jacaranda next door, and I get to hang out with these little cuties all day:
