I’ve been in Pretoria for about a week now and what a week it’s been – figuring out the Guatrain (light rail), meetings with USAID and our other NGO partners (including the one that is lending me office space until I can get an office set up), meeting new colleagues, changing guest houses, renting a car, checking out lots of neighborhoods, and seeing a bunch of apartments and houses in the hope to find something a longer-term place to stay that Naama and I will happily call home (and will be comfortable for all of our guests – hint, hint) for the next few years – just to name a few.
Throughout it all I’ve had Pretoria’s wonderful jacaranda trees with their purple flowers that bloom in the spring lining the roads and around every corn. They call Pretoria the Jacaranda City and you can see why. Supposedly satellite images of Pretoria actually take on a purple hue this time of year. What a glorious season to arrive. Hope they’re still in bloom when Naama arrives!
– By Jon
