What could possibly go wrong

12 Days to departure...
A lot of people ask me what I am most worried about.
I hope I am not being to unrealistic about the whole thing, because I am not actually that worried about anything.
Its not the sharks.
There are sharks, ragged tooth I believe.
Sonja even met a guy there on one of her visits who got badly bitten crossing the lagoon mouth in front of our hut. He was called shark boy. Nice one.But the odds there are very low, and ragged tooth sharks aren't very aggressive.
I reckon watching the kids swimming in the evening off of Fish Hoek is more risky.
There are great whites out there. No question.
I was keen to try and learn to surf while we are there, and will be cautious approaching this. I was also thinking of going spearfishing instead of angling, again, I'll just have to be careful.
Snakes. Snakes aren't too bad. You mainly get night adders. These are poisonous, but rarely deadly. You don't want one of the kids to get bitten, but then again Cape Town has a high population of cobra's and puff adders which are a lot worse.
You have to be a lucky snake to survive out there. Sadly snakes out there don't have the same protected status as they would here.
Lightning. This wasn't really on our radar originally. But then Dave told us about the family that was thrown out of their hut, the three cows that were hit and killed, and a man who was hit and killed. Now it is on our radar. Being the highest hut on the hill and with a metal roof and all.
So I have spent a bit of time googling "how to protect your house against lightning"
Oh, and then last week we found out about the dogs. Two stories about people being attacked and the dogs having rabies. Another new one. We'll keep an eye open for foaming mouths.
Our main dog fear, is our own flea bag coming in having rolled in something unspeakable.
Kids and the water is an issue. We have been drown proofing the kids like mad. Skye (9) can swim like a fish, Mila (5) is pretty good and also half fish. Caleb (3) has just got to the stage of jumping in the pool and swimming lengths. As far as he can on one breath. The breathing thing hasn't really got through to him yet. So we will have to watch them carefully because there is a lot of open water.
Boys are definitely slow learners. By three, Skye was already swimming like a fish.
Water born diseases is quite high up the list. Getting the kids to understand not to drink any other water than what is in their own personal water bottle. All of the village springs have various forms of contamination. If you drink from them without having grown up there, you will get sick. Very sick.That is a definite. Kak one.
I guess I am more aware of the politics. Not knowing when a word or action could ruin somebody Else's hard work.
I guess we will just have to be sensitive to that and not screw up.
But I am not really worried about it. More just aware.

There will be lots of crap times and pressure and madness.
I am sure being cooped up for five days in the rain will drive us all a bit barmey in only 40sqm of cottage.
Sick kids will be stressful with a 3 hour drive to Mthatha hospital.

But, if you weigh things up, there is probably less that can go wrong out there.
Then living in the city.

I am not going to be hijacked in my driveway.
I am not going to be burgled or robbed.
No traffic each morning.
My kids aren't going to get run over by a car.
How many times have you had to rush off to hospital in the last year.
The closest we come to noise pollution is a noisy cockerel in the morning.
And that even that has a definite solution and a tasty end.

If anything I think we are incredibly lucky. We are really privileged to have this opportunity. I don't mean that in a shallow sense. I really do feel lucky.
How many people get such an amazing opportunity and life experience.

So now I do have a worry.
Not to screw it up and waste it.