One of the strangest things in South Africa is that the houses don´t have heating. Although the maximum temperature is usually between 20 and 25 degrees celcius in winter, the nights are much colder and this cold creeps into the house through badly insulated windows and doors. As a consequence, the house is usually much colder inside than the outside temperature during the day!

Practically, this means we tend to open the windows wide during the day to get the warm air in. We also often eat breakfast and lunch outside, as it is warmer to sit on the patio than to sit in the dining room!

You have to be careful with the opening of windows and doors, though. Today, we had a monkey visit us in our kitchen. He came in through the open door and stole all (four) our bananas and a bunch of bread. When we found him on the kitchen counter, our noise scared him into knocking some dishes of the counter! When we went outside, we found the finished banana peels:

As well as a glance of the culprit who had entered the house: