We have spent almost 12 years traveling the USA and around the world.  Living from van to tour bus to hotel and airbnb to camp ground, national park and more couches than we can count.  What started as a distant dream slowly, slowly bloomed into a dream we never could have imagined. 

There are plenty of pro's and con's.  And social media (and the internet in general) skews our realities into romance.  We walk between the peaks and valleys, trying to live as humble as possible.  We spent the whole year living in our van and saving our money so that we could come out to South Africa, rent a few AirBnb's at some of our favorite places and, of course, pay for the pre and post natal for the birth of our child.

South Africa is a special place for many reasons.
The diversity - biological and cultural to name a few.
Her beautiful coastline is not only the edge of the African continent but rough and rigged coastline that connects two Oceans. ​

Another thing that makes South Africa so special is how she is misunderstood. 
She bears the name of the magnificent African continent - which to some people in the western world, (Africa) carries a stigma of inferiority, or lack or poor when South Africa and the rest of this continent is far from that dogma. 

It was interesting to hear the words that came out of some peoples mouth.

We heard the "it's a dangerous place."
We heard the "it's not safe for white people."
We heard all about the "white genocide" being pushed by certain news media.
All of this came from Americans who don't have a passport and also have never been to Africa or know (really) anything about South Africa.

They just assumed we were going to have our baby out in the bush.
Which millions of people still do to this day.  And there is nothing wrong with that. ​

As I said earlier, we saved up our money all year to get a few really nice places (to us) so we could unwind after our tours and have a baby where we are comfortable and safe.

There were many people who don't understand that South Africa is, in a lot of ways, similar to USA, Europe and the rest of the western world. (Which is not why we travel here).

I hate saying this...
But too many times, the thing that made my fellow westerners pause their onslaught of intrusive you are a bad parent for going to (South) Africa to have your baby  interrogation was when Katie or myself would say the words "there are white people in South Africa! There are roads, and infrastructure and hospital (nice) hospitals, and healthcare and billions of people who are having healthy babies just like in America!"

Then we watch (over and over) peoples faces say exactly what is registering in their brains.
"Oh, there are white people and white culture there?? Ohh Uuhhh... maybe they (might) be safe after all." 

Why is it when my fellow privileged westerners learn that there are white people in (South) Africa that, all of a sudden, it's not as "bad" as we assumed it to be???

We never get to have that conversation though...

Africa is an extremely rich place.
It is more diverse than anywhere I've seen.
The people here and their faith in particular.
And I'm talking about all of their faiths.

Faith that comes from struggle.
Us privileged westerners can't fathom The Struggle here.
And the Rock Solid Faith that comes from that, in my opinion, is Richness that us privileged aren't privileged to feel unless we truly Struggle.

That is just my opinion though.
Katie and I don't measure a nation (or it's people) by it's GDP or how much money it has or doesn't have. Maybe that's just me though...

It was very important for Katie (and myself) to go where we were most comfortable.  Being in a safe place was the first priority.  Which is why we came to South Africa. :) 

There are problems here in South Africa.
Just like a few other places I know.

There are some thieves you do have to keep a look out for.

Hide yo kids.
Hide yo wife.
The baboons are everywhere!!

We just finished playing an awesome festival and went back to the free room they gave us. We're about to crawl into bed when I happened to look up.  (I wish I didn't).  See that "little dot" in the upper left hand corner?

Oh. My. God.    let me get the zoom lens...

So this guy was right above our bed... He was the bigger than the size of my whole hand...  The problem was that the ceiling was about 10 feet off the ground, so a newspaper wouldn't work. 

I thought about throwing a pillow at it, but then it dawned on me that it could probably catch the pillow and throw it back.  And, I definitely didn't want to piss it off before I turned off the lights.  (Plus, he had two somewhat smaller cousins on the other side of the room).

We sort of had a staring contest.  We agreed that we wont mess with him if he doesn't mess with us.

There are a few things that would warrant a new hotel room here in Africa.  Roided up tarantula's that make their homes above your head isn't necessarily one of them.  Especially if it's midnight, when there are probably no other available rooms anyway. 

Obviously there are more important struggles going on in Africa than this guy watching me while I sleep.  So, we just check our privilege and thank God that we woke up alive the next morning.  

#AfricaAintForSissies