An Early Arrival

I know I haven't been around in a while, but visiting my grandparents while I still had the chance before baby came, since we didn't want to travel too close to my due date.

Damn you, Irony!

Well.

As you guys know, I was 37 weeks pregnant on Wednesday. So Wednesday evening I got in bed late, as usual, and awoke two hours later (about 12:30 Thursday morning)... and my water had broken!

I'll tell y'all the whole story (with pics, I promise) later or tomorrow, but suffice to say that Logan Mika van der Merwe entered the world at 19:10 Thursday, 28 July at 37 weeks 1 day of age. She is soooooo tiny! She only weighed 2,67 kgs. That's 5,9 lbs, for those of you not on the metric system.

Although she's 3 weeks premature, she's absolutely fine, no problems whatsoever, and we came home from the hospital today. She's such a little beauty, though we do have some trouble feeding sometimes.

But I must say, I'm still STUNNED. We weren't expecting her for at least another 3 weeks, and even then I thought she'd be late as she's a first baby.

Isn't it the best surprise ever? I just thought I'd let you all know.

Religion and the Unsharkly Shark

For those of you wondering where I have been, the answer is simple: I've been visiting my grandparents for the last time before the baby arrives. While there, something curious happened, which I must confess, left me puzzled and very angry.

I had a conversation with my aunt about the movie "Shark Tale". I quite liked the movie, but she said that she was disgusted with it, because of the shark wanting to dress like a dolphin and not being "sharkly" enough, and the parallels it has to those of homosexual persuasion. She detested that the movie advocated that everyone get along, even sharks who aren't "sharkly", because it teaches kids that it's okay to be friends with someone who's "not normal", or even to *be* "not normal". This, she said, was not something she wanted to teach her kids.

I then pointed out (politely enough, actually, though it makes me mad when people are so short sighted) that we can't afford to teach our kids anything else in the world we live in, even if we don't agree (which I do), since they are the ones who'll have to function in a society where it's criminal to discriminate. She then said: "But it's against what the Bible says" (which, by the way, is an entirely different debate).

This got me to thinking, and after chewing on it for a long time, I concluded that most of the world's evils can be blamed on the concept of organized religion, no matter what religion we're talking about. It's the reason behind most wars, most terrorism, and most stupidity. Honestly. That whole concept of "My religion requires it from me" has been modified to "My church/fellow worshippers would expect it from me".

That's what horrifies most "religious" people about something like a pregnant unmarried: not so much the fact of the pregnancy and its implications, or even the failure to conform to the religion, but "What will the X's think", "What will the church say", "How can I ever look the neighbours in the face again".

And that just makes me sad. People who spend most of their time and energy judging others and wondering who'll go to Heaven or Nirvana or wherever, and losing sight of the actual religion and the actual deity they worship in the process.

I guess that's why I'm so agnostic. No religion, no rules, just pure spirituality. Besides, I'm such a rebel, I don't think rules and me were made to co-exist in any case.

The safety of hospitals...

Now, everyone who knows me, know that I have a very vested interest in what goes on in hospitals, especially since I have to go to one to have my baby soon (I wanted a home birth, but there are no midwives experienced in HB in a 50 mile radius from where I live).

About three or four weeks or so ago, the first reports of babies (started at 7, and soon it was up to 19, final death toll was 22 newborn babies) dying in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of a Durban Hospital, the Mahatma Gandhi Hospital, due to a strange illness. Read more about the initial report here.

Since Durban is one of the largest cities in the country, this was distressing in itself, but over the weekend, the results of an investigation launched were made public. In the investigation it was found that the outbreak was due to unsanitary and unhygenic practises in the hospital, dirty equipment and the like. 22 babies are dead because the hospital was unsanitory, giving the babies contaminated and infected bottles, IVs etc.

22 Newborn babies. Dead. I simply can't get over it.

Then you get those people who look at you and say: "But you are placing your baby's life in danger if you have a home birth", while the truth, according to science and scientific studies, is that a home birth (adhering to certain rules of safety, of course) is at least as safe or safer than a hospital birth. And this is in industrialized nations where hospitals are more hygenic, sanitary and staffed than they are here.

Then some people wonder why I get all angry! I wonder what they'd do if I walked up to the "hospital birth club", who insist that anyone who wants to give birth at home doesn't deserve to have a baby, and said: "It is scientifically proven that home birth is as safe or safer than hospital, and that's in countries like America, where the hospitals are clean for the most part. Who's putting their babies' lives more at risk: me who would choose to birth safely at home, following the "safety rules", or you, who go to a place that's proven to be more dangerous?"

Of course I would never do that, since I believe all women's choices are their own and has nothing to do with me, but I wish that they'd lay off me about my choices! I wish that I could have found a midwife who was experienced at home births and had my baby at home. And I hope, hope, hope, that nothing like what happened in Durban happens in the hospital where I'll have my baby. What else is there to do?

Saturday Night Potjie

Since it's Saturday night, and neither my husband nor me felt like cooking per se (we rarely do, come to think of it), he decided to invite some friends over to make a potjie (pronounced POY-kee). This is basically a stew made in a three-legged cast iron pot cooked over an open fire. See picture to get the idea.

Now, first of all, you must understand that this is not only a valued traditional dish, it's something of a ritual in itself. First, all the ingredients should be chopped as rougly and unevenly as possible. Then the fire is lit (in this case, at 6pm) and the Great Wait starts. The fire can't be too hot when you put the pot on, or the food will burn, see. So, after it is ascertained that the fire is ready (usually a few beers in, especially with it being Saturday, Rugby Day, but none of us drink or watch rugby), the pot is placed over the fire and the veggies and meat and stuff is added layer by layer in a secret way that is passed down from potjie-maker to potjie maker.

The reason potjiekos is so popular in South Africa is not entirely because of its unique and delicious taste, but also because of the good times and social behaviour associated with it. What makes potjiekos so unique, is that no two potjie's ever taste the same, the taste is decided upon by the chef and what ingredients he wants to put into it.

The ingredients are not to be stirred until the pot is ready to be eaten (after about 2 or so hours on the fire), and it's served with some rice. Hmm. Now I'm starving. And best of all, I don't have to do anything... besides wash the dishes afterwards.

On second thought, maybe I should complain to someone...

The War of the Mentally Unstable.

I've decided to not be just another news-commentary blog, but I simply can't resist mouthing a few words about Tom Cruise and his denial of the therapy currently in use for the treatment of mental illnesses. (For those who don't know, I'm about as unstable as they come, and have to use anti-deps even though I am pregnant). As if that wasn't enough, he went on to attack Brooke Shields for using anti-depressants and therapy to deal with her post-natal-depression.

Brooke defended herself and called his claims "ridiculous, as reported in this article here.

This just left me wondering: does the wonderful Mr. Cruise have talents/anatomical parts as yet unheard of? Some sort of qualification or research to back up his claims, or more pertinantly, some experience in PND? I would have loved to see him eat his words after he suffers from it, but since his kids are adopted and he himself can't exactly carry, give birth and suffer the hormonal fluctuations that pregnancy and children bring, I can't help but wonder where he gets the right to make statements like that and present it as truth on international TV.

Of course, everyone's entitled to their own opinions about things like this, but honestly, it's just stupid to open your mouth on international TV, commenting on things about which you know absolutely nothing but what your church tells you.

Perhaps we should put Telkom on his back and see him deny his own mental instability after months of trying to reason with them and get some form of service from them. Now that would be entertaining.

Damn the Man!

WARNING: Rant ahead.

This is life in South Africa. We have one, yes one single, telecomunications company, named Telkom (see telephone on image). Since they have no competition, they simply screw us with telephone call prices and internet pricing, because we have nowhere else to go. Example: Since we have nowhere else to get internet access from (not talking ISP here, talking actual lines and whatnot, all the hardware stuff you need), they simply charge us something like 300-500% of what other countries charge, and you still have to pay them for the telephone line usage and ISP services.

Then, 2-3 years ago, they finally brought out DSL connections, to the joys of many, since phone-bills were through the roof. Now you can pay a fixed amount (still costing something like $200) for "unlimited access". The catch: you are only allowed 3 Gig of bandwidth usage, uploads and downloads. For those of you, like me a few months ago, with no clue about what this is, it means you can only surf/download a (very) limited amount.

No one can do anything about it, because they are The Man, and The Man calls the shots. Any other company that wants to come into the game has to either lay out an incredible amount of capital, or use Telkom's lines, and be subjected to Telkom's pricing.

As if that wasn't bad enough, their simple call service is still somehting like 300% more than the rest of the world has to pay, analysts say. I haven't actually sat and worked out how much different countries charge for their calls, so I'll take their word for it.