Someone asked a while ago that I should show the hills that surround the valley where we stay in South Africa.
I decided to show some of them at sunset!
Hope you enjoy the shots!
Those are all single family mansions up on the hills. Some have 8 bedrooms, all with en suite bathrooms and walk in cupboards. The rich stay up on the hills and the poor like us stay below in the valley! Most of the streets at the top of the hills have security boomed entrances and 24 hour armed response! Non residents are not welcome and a few times I have been denied access with my camera, as it will be magic to take some shots from the top of a hill!
But here's the thing! We are two people in our small house. Me and my wife and of course our little dog "Troy" We have 2 bedrooms and one bathroom with a bath and a shower! We sleep in the one bedroom and the other one is our study from where I am typing this right now on my PC. I do not know what we would do with 4 bedrooms, not even to speak of 8 bedrooms. Maybe we can sleep in the different bedrooms each day of the week?
Monday one bedroom, Tuesday the next bedroom, Wednesday another bedroom and so on? Each bedroom can have a different theme such like one can be made up to look like the ocean, a next one can look like the jungle, a third one can look like the African bushveld, a fourth one can look like Disney World and so forth? I am just conjecturing here with a wee bit of humor, as the secret in life is to be happy with what you have. And we are very happy!
I would however be happier if I had free access to the hills with my camera Lol.
Thank you for visiting a post by @papilloncharity.
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Hello,
We have contacted you on your Facebook to verify the authorship of your Steemit blog but we have received no response yet. We would be grateful if you could, please respond to us via Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/ThePapillonFoundation/
Please note I am a volunteer that works to ensure that plagiarised content does not get rewarded. I have no way to remove any content from steemit.com.
Thank you
Who reported this? The people who upvoted your comment Steemcleaners? papilloncharity is legit! we've been in contact on the net since 2015 I think.
Yeah its verified as legit. No, it was reported by community members.
@steemcleaners Greetings and I have replied to you on my Facebook page! The Papillon Foundation, Reg. No: 022-158 - NPO is a legal Non Profit in Johannesburg (Rosettenville), South Africa. I am the founder of The Papillon Foundation and it was started in 2002. Again, as I did in my Facebook reply, I have to ask why I am being doubted as the author?
Btw, there are a few prominent steemians that can verify who I say that I am, as we are all Tsu veterans. Ask @uwelang, @dswigle, @tattoodjay @Jumowa and if you need any other form of identification, please let me know!
Confirmed - @steemcleaners - not sure what the issue is but Stephen aka @papilloncharity is founder of Papillon Foundation and i know him since at least five years - supporting his charity since a time where no one thought about Steemit.
Formally verified, thank you.
@uwelang, @jumowa, @guiltyparties Just to notify you that I have received a clearance message as being legitimate from @steemcleaners on our Papillon Facebook page this morning. Thank you messrs. @uwelang and @jumowa for your kind response to this unsavory matter! The question remains; "What can anyone stand to gain by reporting an innocent charity"?, or it's founder? Since we started The Papillon Foundation in 2002, people took note of our stunning successes in empowering the poor and many have tried to shoot us down. In fact a person came to our gate when we started and he swore at me and told me that we will close our doors within 3 months! It's now almost 18 years that Papillon has kept going and our tiny salaries and sacrifices for the benefit of the downtrodden continues to antagonize many disturbed souls, not even to mention the competition. It seems that the jealousy now also continues globally, even on steemit. I was about to rally the entire #tsufamily on steemit to verify our existence, as I am sure that there are many of Papillon's ex 5000 followers from ex Tsu that are now on steemit, but it's not necessary as we have been cleared! To those beings that reported us, we hold no grudges, we forgive you and we pray for you. Stephen Smith of The Papillon Foundation. A Bona-Fide Non Profit that is awarded and verified as a "Top Rated NonProfit" by Great NonProfits.com in the USA
Maybe they were worried you were a scam. It happens. I remember there were two or three charities on tsu that I found shady. One was under FBI investigation because they bought themselves houses with charity money, another charity was spending donations on parties, events and ads instead of helping others.
Hope you finally get more exposure and support here now that you are verified
Thank you gentlemen @uwelang and @jumowa . @guiltyparties I also hold nothing against you guys as it came as a bit of a shock that anyone would report us and you were only doing your job! Again I say that we have no hard feelings! Does steemit or @steemcleaners have "verified" badges that I can stick on our site? Blessings to all.
We're at a point where everyone suspects everyone because of the insane number of ID thieves on the platform. Half the Cheetah bans I do are ID thieves. I don't want to say that it reached epidemic levels but it's gotten to a point where unless the user is verified, no matter who they are, people aren't trusting him/her.
Sounds frustrating, thank you for your work.
Yeah I know @papilloncharity - I was talking to @guiltyparties about that issue. He works for Steemcleaners and it is their job to follow if anyone reports anything (no matter if true) to protect the platform. As long as we can solve it fine, in your case no idea who reports you but idiots and greedy people are everywhere.
these are perfect vies of sunset, upvoted
Thank you and I agree that the views are nice and warm, as it is winter here! Blessings!
I believe maybe you are more happy then the rich ones are. After all you got the love of your wife and a fantastic little dog named Troy. You have your camera, you have a pc ... what else do you need? (Accept for allowance with your camera up hill ... but besides from that) ... :D Nice shot's.
And no @hetty-rowan believe me when I say that I will never have enough money to stay on the hills and I will never make a heap of debt to go and stay there, but it doesn't trouble me at all. The only issue that I have is that the views shouldn't be privatized! But then again, with the bad security situation in our country, one cannot blame the residents for keeping the public at bay! Blessings.
Can you see the sea from your place? This alone is a blessing.
No, we cannot see the sea @johano, as Johannesburg is a city in the Highveld and the nearest sea to us is at a city called Durban, which is about 600 kilometers away! Blessings!
I wish you could. For some reason I thought you are close to the ocean.
You love birds. Look who came to see us this morning:
https://steemit.com/esperanto/@johano/neatendita-vizitanto
I commented and upvoted my friend! Well done! @johano
Great shots as usually I will really live to own a home in the hills someday. Thank for sharing sir.
Oh, @giftedwords, I myself are a mountain man, but I will never own a mansion. A little two bedroomed eco building perhaps near a sping with clean, natural water and the clean mountain air is more my thing! Besides, I like to pray in the high places! Blessings!
Good to see that the matter about being authentic has been dealt with @papilloncharity I would have stood together with #Tsu knowing your work from earlier days, glad others stepped in to assist.
Have been off line with a router and HDD go down, battling to get everything running again, nothing ever seems to go as smoothly with computers.
Living in a mansion; I would be lost, a garden with family filling up the house, keeps me happy and on my toes all the time.
Nice photography shares at sunset, we can't all fit in on top of the hill, but we can be comfortable wherever we are.
A great comment as usual Lady Joan and I must admit that the reporting issue came as a bit of a shock, but @steemcleaners are doing a good job to protect us and I have no hard feelings! Computers can certainly cause many headaches and all strength to you with your struggles! I think you know that we are relocating to the Cape and our little place looks like a storage container, as we have sold the buildings in Johannesburg and half of Papillon is now stored here until we move! And yet! I will replace it with no mansion! A Luta Continua! Blessings! @joanstewart