PC in SA

Pictures from the Travels

2008-03-10T19:33:00.000-07:00

Here are the pictures to go with all the stories, thanks for reading

Fish River Canyon, Namibia

Wild Horses in the desert, Namibia

Red Sand Dunes of Sousselvlei, Namibia

More Red Sand Dunes of Sousselvlei, Namibia

Flamingos in Walvis Bay, Namibia

Seal Colony at Cape Cross, Namibia

Spotted Hyena at Etosha Park, Namibia

Elephant coming down the road in Etosha Park, Namibia

Zebras at Etosha Park, Namibia

Male lion lounging at Etosha Park, Namibia

Elephants in line on their way to drink at Etosha Park, Namibia

Pride of eight lions, red in the face from just finishing lunch, Etosha Park, Namibia

Lion stare down, Etosha Park, Namibia

Makoro canoe trip on the Okavango River, Namibia

Elephant footprints, Namibia

Elephants and baby, Namibia

Bull elephant charge

Transparent gecko, Namibia

Victoria Falls, Zambia

Fish eagle catching lunch, Lake Malawi, Malawi

Adam learning to carve, Malawi

Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania

Beach, Zanzibar Island, Tanzania

Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia

Traditional long house, Borneo, Malaysia

Sunset over beach, Borneo, Malaysia

Orangutan, Borneo, Malaysia

Proboscus monkey, Borneo, Malaysia

Temple, Penang Island, Malaysia

Longtail boats, Phi Phi Island, Thailand

Island Paradise, Thailand

Tuk-tuk taxi, Bangkok, Thailand

Sculptures at temple, Bangkok, Thailand

Japanese roof top, Tokyo, Japan

Pagoda, Tokyo, Japan

Fish Market, Tokyo, Japan

Gate, Tokyo, Japan

Our Arrival on home soil, LAX

THE END

The End...What a Long Strange Trips It's Been

2008-02-26T16:21:00.000-08:00

The time has come (and obivously not soon enough for my mother) but we are coming home.

Its been a long while but we are more than ready to head home.

The last few years have been quite the roller coaster with experiences that we will never forgot and others we only hope to forget. Peace Corps was good. Living with our family, the Gaelejwes, was by far the highlight. They taught us not only about their lives, family, and culture but showed total strangers an enduring love and affection. It was amazing and we miss them a lot already! Without them, the two years would have felt a lot longer!

Our travels have taken us up Africa and into Asia as everyone knows. There are many highlights and here are a few
Africa
Swaziland: Our first safari and white water rafting
Lesotho: Trekking by horseback through the hills
South Africa: Our host family, spending a month in the bush
Namibia: Sousselvlei, Etosha Park's lions, Spending 4 days in the desert
Zambia: Rafting the Zambezi
Malawi: Kayaking along the shores of Malawi, learning how to carve an African mask
Tanzania: SCUBA diving and snorkeling
Asia
Malaysia: Seeing the oragutans and proboscus monkeys
Thailand: SCUBA, Thai food, becoming a beach bum
Japan: trying to figure out the dinner menu, sumos, samurai, our 'last supper'

Our fondest memories are from the village and our family. Boredom was often but the community we became a part of was great. We are famous there!

As all good things in life, things have to end. I am sure everyone is thinking by now that we should both get back to having jobs and a real life...but what's the hurry. Early retirement is very nice!

A home, a kitchen, a fridge, a bed, and (believe it or not) a job to call our own have all been something that we have been looking forward to. The biggest thing we have missed though are our friends and family (which is now bigger with Dominic in the picture). And, of course, my Mama Lib's cookies!

We are looking forward to seeing you...

With that, I sign off. It's been fun sharing our lives in a different place. I hope you learned something and I hope you enjoyed.

Sala sentle (Stay well)
Adam & Andrea

PS. Check back as we will post pictures

2008-02-26T02:05:00.000-08:00

Well, Adam scolded me yesterday because I forgot to write about a few of the more memorable things we have come across here. First though, an account of our last day in Tokyo. We started out early - ok, not as early as we should have, as we're still in a bit of the beachbum mentality - but early enough. Our early morning destination was the famous Tokyo fish market. We were too late to catch the auction, but wandered among hundreds of stalls selling all kinds of fish - some we never knew existed. There were shrimp of all sizes, miniature squid and their normal-sized friends, bright red octopus, pufferfish (for the infamous fugu sushi), eels, tuna that weighed as much as me that were cut up with 5 foot long knives, flounders, scorpionfish, and hundreds of other things we couldn't identify. Some were packed on ice, some deep frozen, some still alive - it was a maze of seafood, and chaotic with so many buyers running around and guys on little flatbed electric carts carrying the sold and packaged fish to and fro. Then you could wander around the corner to the resturaunts where they sell the freshest sushi imaginable. We went to look, but declined a sushi breakfast.

Our next stop was the National Sumo Museum. Unfortunately it's out of season right now, or we would have gone to a live match, but we had to settle for the museum where we learned the intricate process of making and blessing the ring, watched a few taped matches, and saw lots of old sumo art and photographs. A pretty interesting sport that we may just have to come back to see some day. We ended the day with a delicious meal where we cooked our own meat at the little grill at our table. It was delicious - the best beef I have ever eaten - it almost melts in your mouth. And we toasted our last supper as international travelers, although I guess tomorrow night's dinner on the plane may count as well.

So, on to the gadgets. First of all, the toilets here are crazy. Its winter here, and pretty cold, and many toilets have the extravagance of heated seats. No joke! It's over the top, but quite luxurious on a cold winters day! Plus lots of them have little control panels on the side so you can operate them. Many have bidet features on which you can control the pressure and temperature of the water, and a different kind of bum wash, though I haven't tried any of those. Most toilets have buttons for two kinds of flushes too, but my personal favorite is the 'flushing sound' button. No actual flushing, just the flushing noise... (?)

The only other one I'll mention is the menu machine. At some of the smaller resturaunts there is a vending machine looking thing out front where you order your food at the machine and pay for it before even entering the resturaunt. My favorite ones combine this with a display case containing plastic examples of all their dishes so you can see what they look like before you order. Aaaahhh, Japan. So entertaining...

Well, that ends it, I guess. Stay tuned for one more post which will go up sometime soon. We may also try to post some pictures at some point when we have the luxury of unlimited computer access. Thanks to all of you who have read this over the long journey. For now I will simply say sayonara " 'cause mama, mama I'm coming home..."
:o)
Andrea

2008-02-25T02:23:00.000-08:00

We are on the eve of our last full day in Tokyo and are getting excited for home. We have walked for miles and miles over the past few days, and have seen a few interesting places along the way. We have seen the gardens of the royal palace (the palace itself is off limits), a number of shrines and temples, some big parks, two art museums, and two science museums. We have seen the premier shopping areas of this city on the weekend, when people walk their dogs that are wearing full outfits that probably cost more than what I am wearing. Just walking around the city, gawking at everything is generally entertaining enough. Ordering food in a resturaunt hasn't gotten any easier, but we have had good luck with our pointing at pictures and everything so far has been edible even though sometimes we don't know exactly what it is we are eating. The language barrier here is pretty intense, mainly due to an unshared alphabet, I think, though sometimes we feel that some people know more english than they let on. We have met a few friendly people who have come to our rescue with fluent english when we needed them most.

Today we visited a man-made island just across the river (bay?) from the downtown area that is home to some futuristic-looking buildings. And we finally got to see a few robots at a science museum there. We spent the day in two pretty neat and very hands-on museums, one sponsored by Sony, where we got to play with computers and see robots and think about the future. Adam has come down with a cold, so our nights have been quiet - just wrapping up in a big blanket to ward of the cold and reading. We are both pretty excited to get on that plane and finally fly towards home. Only one and a half more days to struggle through and we've made it.
Stay Tuned...
Andrea

20 Feb 2008

2008-02-20T02:09:00.000-08:00

Well,

We arrived in Tokyo this afternoon after a long flight from Bangkok. The weird thing about the flight was before we left, we both were wearing shoes...those things for your feet and with socks none the less. That hasn't happened in several long months, probably 3-4 months ago!

Much to my surprise we have yet to see a robot or any flying cars or scifi stuff like that. This has probably been the most lost I have been in a forgien city. Knowing none of the language and not many of the people we have asked speak English. Dinner involved not one word of English with the waitress. Thank goodness that the menu was all in picutres and that I am a really good pointer!

Other than that, a nice city of what we have seen. And cold. Its nice though as we have missed the stiff cold air for 2+ years now.

Confused in Tokyo
Adam

19 February 2008

2008-02-18T23:05:00.000-08:00

Greetings all,
Today we find ourselves on the brink of another big move. We fly out at the painful hour of 2am from Bangkok, where we have been for the last few days, to arrive in freezing cold Tokyo in the afternoon. It will be the last stop of this whirlwind trip, and we are both grateful for that. Not that we aren't having fun, we are, but we're ready.

We didn't stay in Samui long - there wasn't much to do there, so we fled the next day to nearby island Ko Tao. We stayed on a beautiful little bay that would have been perfect, had it not been the end of monsoon season. This equals rough seas, which ruins the wonderful snorkeling that was right out our door. We braved the waves a few different times, but didn't last long. Adam did get a brief glimpse of a blacktip reef shark one afternoon though, which was exciting. Since we couldn't snorkel, we decided to do one last day of scuba, and good thing we did. We were alerted to the presence of a whale shark just as our boat pulled up to the reef, so we got dressed as quickly as possible and hopped in. We had seen a whale shark before back in mozambique while snorkeling, but this was a bit different as we were down in the depths with it. Unfortunately news spread fast and soon there were about 30 other people down there to get a glimpse and it became quite crowded. The whale shark could have fled if it had wanted to, but it stayed with us for quite a while. It was about 4.5 meters long - 13 feet - which was smaller than the ones we;ve previously seen, but quite neat to be underwater with nonetheless.

We came to chaotic Bangkok a few days ago and have enjoyed our time here, crazy as it is. Everything is dirt cheap and we have started collecting new clothes which are drastically needed. We have been to see many temples and the royal palace too, but mostly have just wandered and looked at things and eaten fresh fruit on the street. We fly out tonight and are mentally unprepared for the cold we know awaits us in Tokyo. We;re a week away from home - can't believe it!

We'll write again from Japan...
Andrea

11 Feb 2008

2008-02-11T04:58:00.000-08:00

Well, after a couple of days of nothingness. We decided to do a couple more SCUBA dives in the afternoon.

Very nice once again. Went to to small little islands with great coral reefs. We continue to get more comfortable underwater so you can see and experience things a lot easier. The highlishts of these dives were the two leopard sharks that we had close encounters with. The first one made me think of a coach potato as it was just laying on the bottom (even as we approach and get within a meter) and was having difficulty breathing or at least that is what it looked like. More Nemo and other cool fish. A shrimp which was cool because they are normally hiding in a hole. A jellyfish that floated by. And some more fish...

We have finally left my island, Phi Phi Island (I will never grow up) and we took a boat to Andrea's town, Krabi town. (hehe) From there some bus rides and another boat and we are now on Samui Island on the other side of Thailand, in the Gulf of Thailand. Nothing much yet as we just arrived, but big plans for more beach bumming.

Yup

Adam

09 Feb 2008

2008-02-08T21:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday

Woke up

Eat, lay on beach, snorkel

Repeat

A

06 February 2008

2008-02-05T21:41:00.000-08:00

Well, being a beach bum now (officially speaking) the only way I know the date is because the computer told me so. We are still in Thailand and still wearing my swimming suit for the 20th straight day! I know but someone has to do it.

We are currently on Phi Phi Island (pronounced Pee Pee). Insert joke here!!! All is good. The town itself is filled with too many tourist spending too much money. We found a cool little hotel on its own little beach with great snorkeling from the shore. We have been here for a while now (more than a week, I think) and have been having a good time.

Yesterday we went SCUBAing again. We went in the afternoon which was nice as beach bums don't really like getting up early. So we went out on a private charter (noone else had signed up for the afternoon trip, lucky us) . I was great. Our own personal dive master to show us around. Some of the highights were swimming through a 2 meter wide canyon with sea fan and fish abounding on the sides, a weird fish (African pompano) which the dive master didn't know what it was, the tiny ghost pipefish, lobster, lionfish, scorpionfish, pufferfish and a very playful hawksbill turtle that played around us for several minutes. It was two great dives! I think we are heading out again tomorrow.

Dving, snorkeling, reading on the beach and eating thai food takes up most of our time nowadays....that and counting the days until we get home!

Adam

28 January 2008

2008-01-28T05:19:00.000-08:00

Well, we had a great time in Malaysia - it's a beautiful country. After KL, we found a cheap flight to the island of Borneo, to the city of Kuching. We spent about a week and a half there at a great little hostel that felt like home. It was basically an apartment and for all but one night we were the only people staying there. Very nice. We spent a few days out of Kuching, in Bako National Park, which was a real jungle! We hiked a lot and when you hike in the jungle, you sweat constantly. It was so hot and humid, but we had a good time. We saw long tailed macaque monkeys and the funny-nosed proboscis monkeys. I don't know how the US got the short end of the stick when it came to worldwide monkey distrobutions, but being somewhere that has them makes you know what we're missing! Except for the naughty little bugger that stole a piece of chicken off my plate at lunch one day, and even that was quite entertaining. Another hilight of Borneo was the orangutans. We unfortunately didn't get to see truly wild ones, as those are few and far between and in hard to reach places, but we went to a wildlife reserve where they have trained formerly captive or injured ones to live in the wild again. They still have a feeding time each morning, but not all of them come back for it - some are self sufficient and find all they need to eat in the wild. We actually went twice, and both times were pretty cool. You stand in the jungle in front of a feeding platform where all kinds of delicious fruits have been laid out and then you hear the trees around you starting to shake, and orangutans come swinging into view. They are unfenced and can come down and walk among the people. We saw some mothers with babies, which were incredibly cute, and two large males as well. They know exactly how to shift their weight to make the tree branch sway just enough to reach the next one - it was incredible to watch.

The last thing worth writing about in kuching was a kayak trip we took on one of the many rivers in the area. It was beautiful floating downstream through the jungle. We didn't see much but had an interesting cultural experience. The kayak guide was a local woman, and also on our trip was a friend of hers from childhood who she hadn't seen in like 30 years. He grew up in Kuching but now lives in Australia. We happened to be in Borneo for the height of the season for the durian fruit, a local delicacy, that this man absolutely loved. The fruit is about the size of a cantaloupe, but is green and spiky on the outside. They grow on huge hardwood trees, quite far off the ground. They are such a great source of local income for the people in the areas where they grow that trees are passed down from generation to generation. The people who 'own' a tree will literally camp out underneath the tree day and night for the month long durian season, waiting for the fruits to fall so they can be collected and taken to the local market. There are laws in Malaysia pertaining to this fruit. It is actually illegal to eat one in a hotel room or other public enclosed space because they are a little stinky, and the smell apparently lingers for days afterwards! We got to taste a few (apparently different varieties have different tastes) and well, they're not so good! You cut open the fruit and there are about four compartments inside with about three seeds each coated in a substance that has the consistency of brie cheese. For the first one we tasted, our guide described the flavor as 'garlic custard' and the second one as 'chocolate', though I didn't agree! It was not good. The one did taste like raw garlic which is really not what i'm looking for in a fruit! The second one was better, but not at all like chocolate, and with a flavor that lingered for hours. These fruits are highly prized in Malaysia and they are for sale everywhere. Eating them is an art, but one that was lost on us, that is for sure!

We hit one more destination in Malaysia, but only for three days. We stayed in Penang, an island just off the mainland part of Malaysia but on the west side. It was nice there - a city known for its food and temples, both of which were quite nice. We went to an awesome and huge bhuddist temple one afternoon, known as the temple of 10,000 buddas, and I didn't count but I'm sure they're about right. It was ornate and massive and pretty cool to see, especially because they are getting ready to celebrate the Chineese New Year and there were hundreds of yellow and red paper lanterns hanging everywhere. Quite a sight to see.

Now we're in Thailand at the first of our destinations here, Koh Lanta. It's beautiful, and relaxing. Today we went scuba diving and had a great time. We did two dives and have finally gotten to the point where we can quit worrying so much about breathing, and relax and look around a little. There were thousands of colorful fish and corals, though the absolute hilight was seeing a hawksbill sea turtle. We have been eating some fantastic food here, but wow can it be spicy! We have a few more weeks here in Thailand, but a month from today we will be back in the states!! Can't believe it... More to come,

Andrea

15 January 2008

2008-01-14T18:47:00.000-08:00

Greetings, all, from modern, efficient, we're definately not in Africa anymore, Asia!

Our travels were long but went well, and we are happy to have moved on to a new place and a new experience. Our first hint that we had indeed left Africa came as we got off the plane for our overnight layover in Dubai. It was midnight, we were tired and giddy, and we were bussed from the plane to the terminal in busses that looked like hovercrafts! The terminal itself was absolutely bustling at 1am - full of people, all the shops still open, bright lights, moving walkways, and Dunkin Donughts, Starbucks, McDonalds, bookstores... wow. We wandered around wide-eyed for a while, then found a little piece of out-of-the-way carpet to curl up on and try to sleep, like hundreds of our fellow travelers. Caught a flight out at 10am, and arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at 9pm. Kuala Lumpur, or KL as it's known and as I'll write since it's so much shorter, was even more of a shock than the Dubai airport. First of all, when we arrived and got a taxi to our hotel, somewhat late at night, there were still people out walking around the city, seemingly unworried about getting mugged! They were out sight seeing, and looking for resturaunts or bars or whatever, which is just something you don't see in most African cities.

Our first day was just spent sightseeing in a slight daze - both because of being jet lagged and just overwhelmed by our surroundings. KL is a maze of huge, shiny skyscrapers, shopping malls, there's a monorail and a subway system, and a wealth of resturaunts, bars, street stalls, vendors and street performers. It was incredibly entertaining to simply walk around. And there are quite a few American influences - things we haven't thought about in two years, like pop tarts, eggo waffles, TGI Fridays, Chili's, Outback Steakhouse, pepridge farm cookies, A&W root beer, free refils on soft drinks... wow. It's a different world here! We spent three dazed days in KL and went to see the KL Petronas Twin Towers (the world's tallest buildings, kindof), the Islamic Art Museum, some big parks and a hibiscus and orchid garden, a tiny piece of old rain forest in the middle of the city, and all kinds of other exciting things. We somehow stayed our temptation for American food, and at more local cuisine instead - Thai, Japaneese, Chineese. I really need to work on my chopsticks skills, but should be a pro by the time we leave.

Yesterday we left KL behind and headed out to the island of Borneo - the third biggest island in the world, home of rainforests, orangutangs, the worlds biggest (and apparently stinkiest) flower, the world's only freshwater dolphins, and all kinds of other things. We'll explore here for the next week or so, and it seems like there will definately be enough to fill our time with. This place too, is quite modern (we're currently in the city of Kuching - the cat city!), and I think it's here to stay. I think we've adjusted quite well, though we are still easily wowed by things like the new i-pods, and tiny laptops. It's entertaining at least!

Until next time...

Andrea

2008-01-07T08:48:00.000-08:00

January 7, 2008

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Sorry we're 7 days late on that... We've been too busy laying on the beach! It seems like a long time ago that I sat down and wrote about Malawi. Our trip into Tanzania was long and exhausting and thankfully our last long haul in Africa. We took all kinds of transport - hitchhike, bicycle taxi, minibus taxi, medium sized busses, big busses, and private taxis - over the course of three days to finally arrive in Dar es Salaam. Thank goodness we don't have to do that again! We spent one night in Dar and then jumped on the ferry (another mode of transport to add to the list!) to Zanzibar, where things relaxed. Zanzibar is fantastic.

First stop was Zanzibar Town, also known as Stone Town. Zanzibar island is quite big and Stone Town is the main town on it. We spent only one night, as we had a reservation on the beach to make, but it was cool. The town is quite old, and it really shows. Some streets are so narrow that you can hardly walk next to someone, but somehow bicycles and motorbikes still manage to drive around like maniacs. Some streets are bigger, and cars even sometimes manage to squeeze through! None of these alleys (I do hesitate to call them streets) have names or are even arranged in a planned-out manner. They all just zigzag at all angles and directions from one another, which is incredibly baffling when you first arrive. Slowly though, you begin to understand some of the arrangement and recognize some of the more open areas, which usually include markets or a view of the ocean. There are tons of little shops that open directly onto the alleys, selling all kinds of things - spices, five kinds of rice, beautiful fabrics, fruits, and anything else you can imagine. Its peaceful in some places, and chaos in others and all the time you are looking around you, as there is so much to see. Many of the wooden doorways are intricately carved and decorated with brass designs, there are ornate balconies over your head, and muslim women in clothes of so many colors that it is quite dazzling against the dull, rundown buildings. It is a colorful place in so many ways, and seems quite exotic.

We spent New Years on the south-east coast of the island, near a village called Jambiani. The beach was lovely, though not very user-friendly, as it was very shallow water and not really good for swimming. There was an old reef just off the beach that creates lots of tide pools at low tide which were fun to walk around and look into. And the water is soooo beautiful - I have never seen the sea so blue! We went scuba diving on New Year's Eve day, which was really nice, and went to dinner at a very tasty seafood resturaunt right on the beach that night. We sat for a few hours with some other travelers and then walked down the beach to a bar where there was some dance music and some live drumming and local dancing. At midnight, they set ablaze '2008' in dry palm fronds on the beach. It was low key, but a nice night. On the First, we went to visit Jambiani Forest, which is home to the red colobus monkey, who is only found on the island of Zanzibar. They were quite entertaining. As tourists come to see them every day, they are quite ignorant of your presence, and continue feeding and playing in the branches above your head. They are cute monkeys (but really, which monkeys aren't?) with red backs and great Alber Einstein style puffs of white hair on their heads. The youngsters are quite playful and jump and chase each other through the trees. We walked in the forest, which is quite tropical feeling, and also saw a mangrove forest.

Our next stop was to the northern part of the island to a beach called Kendwa. This beach was quite picturesque - a wide, white sand beach and again, stunningly turquoise waters. I really don't know how they are so blue. We basically relaxed there although we did go out for a snorkeling trip on a dhow (traditional sail boat) one day.

Now we are back in Stone Town. Today we went on a spice tour - they grow all kinds of spices on the island - vanilla, cocoa, tamarind, cloves, pepper, cinnamon, coffee, ginger, and a ton of wierd fruits like breadfruit, jackfruit and starfruit as well as 27 different types of bananas and three kinds of coconuts! We got to go around to some different farms and see all these plants, and taste the raw spices. It was pretty cool! I think my favorite was seeing a pineapple growing! How bizarre!!

We are getting ready to make another big move. On Wednesday we leave Africa, after being here for nine days shy of two and a half years. I really can't believe it. It doesn't seem so long, looking back on it, but I know it has been a long time. We are ready to go, though. I will absolutely be sad to leave, but we are both just tired of how nothing is done easily here, and are ready to try somewhere else for a change. I hope we find that things are different in Asia. But I am really going to miss it, don't get me wrong! We have a long, overnight layover in Dubai, and then arrive in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday evening. Can't wait!

I feel like I have really glossed over our time here in Zanzibar, but don't know what else to say. Maybe Adam will have more insight as to what we did at a later date. So this is me, logging off from the continent of Africa, both sad and excited. The next time I write, we'll be in Malaysia, I hope! I hope you all had a happy New Year. We are slowly moving closer to home and can't wait to be there. Love to you all,
Andrea

December 28, 2007

2007-12-23T00:47:00.000-08:00

Greetings from Malawi!

We are still well and having a good trip. I'm just trying to remember where we last left off...

I think we traveled through a few big cities - Lusaka, Zambia and Lilongwe, Malawi, but there isn't much to write about that part. We have just spent a little more than a week in a place called Nkhata Bay on the scenic shores of Lake Malawi and loved nearly every minute we spent there. We had a great place to stay - good company (including a fun canadian couple we met way back in Livingstone, Zambia), good atmosphere, great food, and lots of fun stuff to do. The lake is absolutely beautiful - crystal clear waters alongside a sometimes rocky sometimes sandy coastline. We swam every day in the warm waters and did some snorkeling to see all the varieties of colorful fresh-water chichlid fish, many of which are endemic to that lake. The place we stayed also had a carving school, and Adam spent a few days with Masa (the teacher) carving mask! After about a week of relaxing, we headed out on a 3day/2night kayak trip! Going from Nkhata Bay to Kande Beach was a 60 km trip (20 km a day). Along the shore every few miles, were fishing villages and people everywhere on the beach. The men fixing their fishing nets and preparing their dugout canoes for the night, woman doing washing, and children everywhere washing, playing and yelling at the 'Mzungo' (white person). It was amazing to see the village life on the lake as EVERYTHING revolves around fishing!? The kayaking was great. Day 2 was the toughest as the lake was rough with a storm but we had two very good guides leading the way! After the kayak trip we countiued to head north. Spent a few days in the area of Livingstonia, Malawai. Two more on the beach with Christmas with our toes in the sand and one in the mountains at a great ecolodge! Christmas was quite (we missed our family and friends even more this time around....next year though!) but nice as the moon lite up Lake Malawi at night!

Today we made it to Dar Es Salaam...tomorrow we head to Zanzibar to celebrate New Years! Do some snorkeling, diving, and laying around....somebody has to do it.

Merry Xmas All (a little late) and Happy New Year

09 December 07

2007-12-09T01:59:00.000-08:00

Well, there was some wrong information in that last post, so I thought I'd give it a quick update. Adam had so much fun on the rafting trip of the Zambezi that he convinced me to skip the canoe trip and raft instead. So yesterday we went back - Adam to raft the river a second time and me as a nervous newbie. As I am writing this today, you can tell we survived! It was quite exciting, and at times scary, but we made it. On Adam's first trip, he only capsized once, and yesterday we capsized twice, and one other time Adam was swept out of the boat with one other guy while the rest of us remained in. The first rapid we lost it on was number 7, and it was a total wipe out. Everyone (there were 6 of us in one boat, with a guide - two were Peace Corps friends and two were friends from our long, long bus ride!) was totally thrown out - no one even hanging onto the raft and we got tossed around somewhat violently, but thanks to good life vests and an excellent group of 'clean up crew' guys in kayaks, we were all returned to the boat at the end of the rapid. The next flip was right before lunch on rapid number 10 and most of us remained hanging onto the safety rope of the raft and just floated along with the raft through the remainder of the rapid. Oddly enough, we flipped only on a class 3 and a class 4 rapid, and on none of the 5s! (Rapids are rated 1-6, 5 being the biggest one that you can raft commercially, 6 is deemed unraftable and there was one of those that we had to get out and walk around and good thing too - that rapid was scary looking!) The scenery in the gorge is beautiful - steep rock cliffs rise right at the river's edge, and there are rock fig trees and baobabs among others growing on ledges and some just straight out of the rocks above. Our guides were quick to point out the crocodiles basking on the rocks - no kidding! - which added another thing to worry about for the day, but thankfully they were all small ones, and they tend not to like the fast-moving sections. The afternoon was smooth sailing and we didn't swim at all, except in one place that you can just jump out of the boat on purpose and coast down a small rapid. We are a bit bruised and battered, but the better for it. I'm really glad I went and conquered my fear, and we bought little charms of the river god, Nyaminyami, as reminders.

Today we're off on the bus to Lusaka to take care of some visa business, and then onto Malawi. We'll write again soon,
Andrea

December 07, 2007

2007-12-07T00:25:00.000-08:00

Greetings, all, from Zambia!
We finally left Namibia behind, although the country almost didn't let us leave. Our already grueling 18-hour bus ride took a turn for the worse when our drivers noticed an empty radiator and pulled into a gas station to get it fixed. 1 hours delay turned into 18 as we sat in the parking lot in the small town of Rundu, jockeying for shade with our fellow passengers. It was not fun, but I think we made the most of it - chatting with some newfound friends, playing cards, and having political discussions with some eager young (and successful!) Zimbabweans. We finally pulled into Livingstone, Zambia 24 hours late, and exhausted! Yesterday we went to view the world famous Victoria Falls, which was quite beautiful to see but not what we expected. You always see those amazing photos of an immense waterfall, but that is during the wet season, and now it is the dry season. But it was beautiful nonetheless and we spent all day there, walking around and seeing the falls from all angles, even getting to walk around on top of the falls - not as dangerous as it sounds! We walked out onto the bridge over the Zambezi river between Zambia and Zimbabwe and watched a 50-year old Indian couple bunji jump together off the bridge which was funny to see. Today, I am being a big chicken and hanging out in Livingston (trying to plan where we're going next!) while Adam rafts the mighty Zambezi river with some Peace Corps friends we ran into here. I'm sure he'll write and tell you all about it at a later date. It's one of the largest, scariest, commercially raftable rivers in the world, and it was just too intimidating for me. But Adam's belief in the local Nyamanyama god of the Zambezi should get him through the day. Tomorrow we're going to do something a little more my pace and canoe on the Zambezi, where we only have the hippos to worry about.
Hope this finds you all well...

Andrea

Oh and one last thing. For those of you intersted, I just thought I'd let you know that we finally bought our plane tickets home. If all goes according to plan (yeah right!) our two year, 7 month journey will be coming to an end on February 29th. First stop will be LA, and eastwards from there. We still don't know where we're going, but that's not really important, right?

Elephants

2007-12-02T04:02:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,
We are back in Windhoek after two fantastic weeks in the desert. We volunteered with a group called EHRA - Elephant-Human Relations Aid, and had a blast. We spent the first week at their base camp, building a dam for the elephants nearby. The camp is set on the Ugab river, which for 99% of the year is just a dry, sandy riverbed. Usually they do projects that help strengthen relations with the farmers in the area and help protect their water sources from elephant dammage, but since there has been an extra-dry spell in the region lately, most of those water points have dried up. So we built an elephant-friendly water point instead. It was a lot of hard work, and the first day was HOT - 40 degrees C in the shade, which is well over 100 degrees F. The weather calmed down a bit after that though, thankfully and we were even shivering a few nights! The camp is quite rustic and in a beautiful location. We slept in an a-frame - basically just a wooden deck floor with a reed-thatched roof, open to the environment on the sides. There were outdoor showers and a composting toilet, and a kitchen area where we cooked over a fire every night and still ate very well! We knew it was going to be an excellent two weeks when about 30 minutes after we got to camp the first day, a herd of elephants came down the river and close to camp with two 2-month-old calves. We didn't see any more elephants for the rest of the work week, but for the second week we were out on 'elephant patrol'. Basically just traveling around the area in a big, old, beat up, modefied land cruiser, checking on the elephants in the area. We started near camp and found the two herds in the area along with a few solo males within the first day so we were incredibly lucky and got to head across the desert to another riverbed to check on the other herds. I guess they don't make this trek very often, as it is long and hard on the vehicles so we were incredibly lucky. We traveled for an afternoon and a morning through the desert, and camped out overnight in a fantastic place where nothing hindered your stargazing, not even a tree. Just the big mountains in the distance sillouetted against the sky. It was absolutely beautiful. In the morning, the colors of the rocks and sand were spectacular and we got to stop at a series of caves where the bushmen used to live and see shards of stone tools on the ground. The second riverbed was the Huab river, and we found two more herds there along with more solo males. Again we were incredibly lucky, as one of the females in the first herd had a less than 2-day-old calf. He was amazing to see - so tiny and still trying to figure out his feet and trunk. What a cutie! Since we were the first to spot him, our group got to name him and they settled on Homer as it was a little boy and the name had to start with an H. I wish I could post a photo, but we've been having problems with that later so maybe another time. I hope! One other hilight of the trip was while watching two big bulls feeding on the last morning. I was sitting on the top of the vehicle when one male decided to come inspect the car. He walked by, incredibly close, just watching us and when he got to the back of the car turned and stared me down for a minute, before reaching up with his trunk and feeding on the tree directly above my head. He was less than 5 feet away and it was absolutely an incredible experience! Some of our friends in the other car got a few photos which will be quite a memory to hold on to, as long as they remember to send them to us! Needless to say, we had a great time and met some fantastic people. This organization is definately an interesting one and we learned a lot in our time there. I'm almost out of time so have to cut it short here. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. We actually forgot until about 5pm that day, but oh well. Tomorrow we leave Namibia and head to Victoria Falls in Zambia for a few days. So until next time...

Andrea

15 November 2007

2007-11-15T06:13:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!
We continue to roam. Since Etosha, we spent some time in the Caprivi strip, that wierd little extension of Namibia that seems like it should belong to either Botswana or Angola. After quite some time in the desert, it was nice to be around water again. The mighty Okavango river runs through the area before dumping into the Okavango Delta in Botswana. We took a canoe out one night and touched ground across the river in Angola, and went on a short mokoro (dugout canoe) trip to see some hippos and lots of birds. There is a major highway that runs through the caprivi strip, which also happens to be a national park, which is quite interesting. There are giant signs warning of lurking elephants - try explaining that to the rental car company! We only saw a few, but it's a wierd experience.

From there, we jumped the border into Botswana for four days to visit the above mentioned Okavango delta. What a water-filled paradise! We took another mokoro trip - three days this time - into the delta. Just me and Adam and our guide, Sam. In the mokoro, you sit almost level with the water. The delta is hundreds of waterways that create islands of solid land. We camped for two nights out there and did some walking on some of the islands. On one of our walks, we stumbled across another group of people out walking who had just spotted some lions in the distance! After a moment's hesitation (unarmed group of people vs. 4 lions didn't seem like good odds!) we set off after them. We were rewarded with a few glimpses through the brush as we walked really fast and sometimes ran after them. It was pretty exciting! They ran from us, but you couldn't help thinking about what would happen if they didn't! Our guide who has been guiding there for more than three years said that it was his first time seeing lions out there as well as his first time not seeing elephants! We did see lots of other stuff though - giraffe, zebra, honey badger, red lechwe (an antelope endemic to that region), and thousands of birds. it's definately a beautiful area!

Now we are in Windhoek, capital of Namibia, and are preparing for a special side trip. While out at one of the campsites, we saw a flyer for an organization that needs some help. It's called EHRA which stands for Elephant Human Relations Aid, and is based in northern Namibia in a place called Damaraland. They do research on the desert-adapted elephants that live up there, in a very sparsely populated area. The people that do live there, however, struggle sometimes to live alongside the elephants, as the elephants tend to destroy any fences in their way and can do dammage to water points and windmils that people set up for their cattle and sheep. The project aims to not only do research on the elephants, but smooth the relations between farmers and elephants and help farmers protect their water points and farms from elephant dammage. So they need volunteers and we're going to jump at the chance. We'll spend two weeks out there - one helping repair water points and doing educational outreach stuff, and the other actually tracking and monitoring the elephant herds. So that should be exciting, some actual work, and maybe we'll learn something too and make some good connections. If you're interested, you can check out their website at www.desertelephant.org

until next time...
:o)
Andrea

7 November 2007

2007-11-06T23:45:00.000-08:00

Well, well, well....since last time?!

We have been to all ends of Namibia.

After spending a few days in a town, we headed to Cape Cross to check out the seal colony there. There were lots of seals there. Several hundred if not on upwards of a thousand. And lots of black-backed jackals as well, who supposedly eat lots of the seals!? The seals were cool to see in their natural environment aka no Sea World! Happily playing in the waves and fighting for their space on the rocks!

After the seals, it was a long drive along the Skeleton coast. Known for the ship skeletons that wash up here after marooning along shore. Neat area as there is NOTHING there! Then onto Twyfelsfontein which a site for rock engravings. Very cool old (they aren't sure but 2000+/- years) engravings mostly of animals and footprints.

From there, Etosha National Park. We spent the last four days driving around and testing out our new found knowledge on animals. The park was amazing. We had encounters with hyena, jackal, lion, elephant, rare black rhino, honey badger, yada, yada, yada.

After only an hour in the park, we came upon a curious spotted hyena at a puddle in the road. After watching for about 20 minutes, the hyena decided to come right up to the car for a look. It was amazing to see the hyena in the rear view mirror smelling and rubbing against the boot (that means trunk!?)

Herd of elephants walked by our parked car (10m away) and one of the younger male elephants decided to try and show off and display his power at us. He shook his head in our way but meant nothing by it as he was still very small....for elephant standards.

Lions....wow! The lions in the park were in abundance. We saw about 9 sets of lions ranging from 1 male to a pride of 8! We followed this pride of 8 for about 2 hours just watching them move across the field. They finally made their way to the road we were on. 8 lions at 5 meters with faces of red from the kill they had just eaten the night before. One of the favorite spots for predators in the park was the same tunnels under the road as there is no sun and it is cool during the day. This pride of lions wanted to enter the tunnel but there was already a female lion in there. They weren't friends! After quite a bit of growling and some fake attacks the lone lioness finally allowed the pride into the shade. It was awesome to hear!!!

I could go on...but I won't.
Til next time
Adam

30 October 2007

2007-10-30T07:03:00.000-07:00

Yearning for a ski slope.

You would figure that if I was traveling around a desert, snow is the last thing on my mind. Well is has been until today. We went Sandboarding. Think snow boarding in the sand and you got it right. We had a quad bike take us to the top of a dune and then boarded down. What a blast! No worries of injuries as the sand is oh so soft. Turning was the only problem as it is difficult to master!? I tried!

Makes me yearn for ski slopes and skis (now a snowboard as well) and carving an edge. It will have to wait but it has been 2 years without snow :(

Check out this sight as this is who we boarded through.
http://www.duneseven.com/

Cheers,
Adam

29 October 2007

2007-10-29T06:26:00.000-07:00

Well, that is the date that people tell me it is?! We are a week into driving around Namibia and this is the first town, Walvis Bay, that we have been in with more than 2000 people!? Namibia is BIG and there is A LOT of open space around here. It is staggering how few people we have seen and we have driven over 2000 km in the last week.

We started out visiting the Fish River Canyon in southern Namibia. It is supposively the 2nd largest canyon in the world next to the Grand Canyon. We did some hiking up the bottom of the canyon the first night along with swimming in the pool with the 65 degree water from the hot springs. Day 2 at the canyon involved driving around to different viewpoints to see the entire canyon. Beautiful.

Next stop was a sea town called Luderitz. Nice little town and we did a great drive along the coast. Our two door Corsa Lite handles the off road condition quite well!!!!

Then we headed to a place called Sousselveil (I can't spell) which is famous for the stunning red sand dunes. Huge sand dunes that are giant. You can drive and walk around (on some) of these massive mountains of sand. Quite a scene...but we are glad we are early risers as it means getting to the dunes with the rising of the sun and finishing hiking around as the sun becomes hot and painful.

Other than that, we have spent a few nights on Namibian 'farms' camping and taknig in the vast, and I mean VAST, expanses of this country. We have hiked around these farms seeing some wildlife and the endless horizon.

Week 1. Done.
Adam

19 October 2007

2007-10-19T00:53:00.000-07:00

Where to begin?? We just finished our month in the bush, and had an absolutely incredible time. Our camp was situated in the northernmost part of Kruger National Park – a place where few tourists wander into. It is still the true wild up there. We stayed in a camp, but not as rustic as one may think. Our ‘tent’ had wooden floors, a thatched roof, and a bathroom complete with running water! But it had canvas sides, so still qualifies as a tent, I guess! We did the class with 15 other people of all nationalities, backgrounds, and ages, and met some fantastic folks. The daily routine was quite rigorous and went something like this: Wake up at 5am to beating drums (except for every eighth day, when we were ‘on duty’ and had to wake up at 4:30 to set up breakfast, boil water for tea, and do the drum beating at 5), have some cereal and tea and head out at 5:45 for a 3-4 hour walk. Brunch at 10. Lecture at 11 until 1 or 2pm. Some free time until ‘high tea’ at 3:30. Drive out in the bush looking for animals from 4-6:30 or 7. Dinner at 7:30. Collapse exhausted into bed before 9:30 (most nights!) We alternated walking and driving in the mornings and afternoons so that you could experience both times of day on foot and in the vehicle. Adam and I went out every chance we could get – rain or shine. We learned to drive the 4x4 open land rovers, got to sit on the ‘tracker seat’ on the hood of the car, and learned how to shoot a rifle. Adam was the best shot in the class – how scary is that? And I can even shoot a bullseye on a 7 inch target at 10 meters, when I have enough time to aim properly (which is the one thing you don’t have when being charged by an elephant!). It was not your typical holiday. We had to take three written tests, one field evaluation, give two presentations, and also a game drive evaluation. But we both passed with flying colors and learned a whole lot too.
As far as animals go, we saw a ton. Elephants, lion, leopard, buffalo, hippo, hyena, kudu, nyala, eland, impala, bushbuck, steenbok, grey duiker, klipspringer, rock dassies, scorpions, crocodiles, warthogs, zebra, baboons, vervet monkeys, bush babies, genet, civet, one wildebeest, a porcupine, an elephant shrew, lizards, geckoes, dung beetles, termites, and even a black mamba! We saw awesome birds of prey – they have so many different types of eagles, hawks, vultures, and we even saw a bird called Pel’s Fishing Owl, which will be a point of envy for any avid birder. And some other beautiful birds too. One of our teachers had a big soft spot in his heart for birds and so we had one day devoted to seeing as many bird species as possible – we wrote down every bird we saw and in the end had 105 different species on the list. Think of how many different birds you see in one day – is it anywhere near 100? It says something about the incredible diversity of life supported in the area where we stayed.
I don’t even know where to start telling about our experiences. You’ll really have to sit down and talk to us about it sometime. I’ll just pick out a few of my favorites. One of the first few days there, we came upon a big bull elephant who was in musth. This means that it is prime breeding time for this guy and he therefore has very raised hormone levels and is a bit more arrogant and irritable than normal. We met him at a water hole and at first he seemed fine to have us there, but then started being a little aggressive – coming slowly at the car with his ears flared out, tossing his head. He stopped at a tree, about 20 feet away, and started to rub his head on the trunk, staring at us the whole time. Every once in a while he would stop and just stare. Our guide, Brett, would tell us to hold still, but we didn’t need to be told. When he stopped rubbing his head we would all freeze and hold our breaths, hearts pumping, until he relaxed and started scratching again. It was a very close encounter with a very big elephant, and was awesome. Eventually he had enough of us and advanced a little more, at which point Brett starts talking to him, telling him we were sorry to bother him and that we would be going now. And so we drove off and left him alone.
One night Adam and some of the other guys were sitting around the camp fire when an elephant approached (the camp was unfenced) and browsed from the tree right near where they were sitting. They just carried on the conversation and he eventually wandered away – he had just been over to say hi. A few nights later he reappeared in camp during dinner and our other teacher, Garth, had to go out and shout at him and convince him to leave camp. About an hour later we were both out at the campfire with a few friends when he returned. This time he was obviously interested in us and approached without the ruse of being hungry. He came quite close and we had to again shout at him to convince him he was close enough. This elephant continued to visit our camp on most nights. I really think he enjoyed the company, or something. I mean he has the whole bush to wander around in, why else would he hang out around our camp? On the night of my birthday, an elephant woke us up as it was eating from the tree right outside our tent (not sure if it was the same guy or not). We got out of bed and went to stand on the porch, and he passed by, less than 10 feet away, pausing to sniff at us – he knew we were there. It was a moonless night and he was so close that we could still see him in the darkness. He continued around the side of the tent to a different tree so we climbed back in bed and pressed our faces up to the screen window of the tent to see him. While we were sitting there he was only a few feet away, and he passed his trunk over the canvas on the tent, right in front of our faces, smelling us, before carrying on with his feeding. It was the best birthday present I could ever imagine.
One day there had been a lion sighting and we wanted to go find him, so we drove out to the area where he was last seen. There were lots of vultures in the trees nearby so we suspected he had made a kill. While stopping for a smoke break nearby, we heard him roar at the vultures who were trying to sneak in on his dinner. So we all hopped back in the car and drove the road again, searching for him. Still couldn’t find him so what do we do? Park the car, load the rifle, and jump out to search for him on foot! Crazy!! The bush was too thick though, and we still couldn’t find him, and weren’t stupid enough to wander into the thick bushes, so we hopped back in the car for one last try. Adam was driving and as we passed by a certain point, the girls in the back saw him peeking through the brush on the side of the road. So we reversed and got to see him. He was almost hidden in the bushes, and just stared at us. Then he decided he didn’t want us there and growled and advanced towards the car, but the thick brush prevented him from coming much closer. It was pretty spectacular though, to get growled at by a lion!
When you walk in the bush, you walk in a single file line, guy with a rifle in front, and in silence so you can hear everything going on around you. We were walking one morning and Adam and the guys at the back of the line noticed something so they snapped their fingers to get Brett’s attention. He stopped and turned around and Adam asked if this stuff on the ground was fresh blood. As soon as the question was out of his mouth, there was a loud rustling in the bushes next to us and the thunder of hooves. Brett immediately loaded the rifle and was on full alert. Two buffalo bulls had been lying in the heavy bushes right next to us and we never would have known it if they hadn’t been spooked by the sound of Adam’s voice. They ran away from us, however, luckily for us and them, but it really got our heart rates up, and was the only time the rifle ever had to be loaded and ready in the month we were there.
One evening it had been rainy and not many people wanted to go out for an activity, but some of us piled into a car anyway and headed off. We stopped to try to remove a tree that an elephant had pushed over onto the road, and realized that we were in the game drive vehicle without working headlights and that we had also forgotten the spotlight. Darkness was approaching so we cut the drive short and headed back towards camp. It was getting darker and ahead on the road we could see the lights of another vehicle so we pulled over on the top of a hill to let them pass. It was a vehicle from one of the two lodges in the area and as it came around the corner at the bottom of the hill we hear the trumpeting of an angry elephant behind them. The car comes up the hill and stops – the guests were laughing and saying “we just got chased by an elephant!” Our teacher, Garth was driving and asked the other car to carry on, just as the elephant appears in the road at the bottom of the hill. So they drive away and we sit there, engine off, waiting for her to wander away. But she comes up the hill, and about halfway to us, walks off the road and into the trees on the other side. She keeps approaching and it was getting darker and darker. She had only one full tusk and we could just see it almost glowing, white in the fading light, as she walked through the trees. We could hear rustling behind her and guessed that it was a herd of elephants with young ones, and this was the matriarch of the herd, just trying to protect them. We tried to sit quietly and not move, hoping she would just go, but she was pretty angry and wouldn’t let us be. She was level with us on the hill now, just off the road in the trees, when she let out an incredibly loud trumpet and charged. Garth shouted at her and banged his hand on the door of the car to try to drive her off. She stopped and regarded us for an incredibly long 30 seconds and then charged again. Again, more shouting and banging and she stopped; incensed and staring. Finally, she turned her back and moved into the woods with the rest of the herd. We started up the car and moved off and could see the herd in the trees, circled around the calves as we drove away. This was a truly frightening experience that happened because we were at the wrong place at the wrong time. Incredible to think back on but I wouldn’t wish it on anybody. Everyone in that car was seriously scared! I already respected elephants, but some of the experiences we had with them just underscored it even more. They are so powerful and can be so gentle, but don’t ever cross one! The elephants in this area reacted so differently to cars and people than any other elephants we have seen in our time here. Our camp was about 2 km south of Zimbabwe, an unfenced border, and the elephants roam freely across the river that divides the two countries. Sadly, hunting and poaching occur there and this explains a lot of the elephant’s over-protective behavior. One night we heard over the radio that a bull elephant had been spotted with a snare wrapped around his trunk. When we left, the park staff still hadn’t found him, but the guides in the area would spot him every once in a while and report him. When they find him they think they will probably have to put him down, as the damage will most likely not be treatable.
Another aspect of being close to Zimbabwe was the influx of people across the border. We would see footprints on the roads of people who had been passing through. One night we actually came across a small family in the middle of the park. A grandmother and grandfather (too old to be the parents, I think) a boy of maybe 6 years and a small baby. We stopped and talked to them – they claimed to be South Africans visiting their daughter in a nearby village and had just gotten lost and taken a wrong turn into the (heavily fenced) park. They were carrying two suitcases, and the little boy was barefoot. We had to radio them in to the park headquarters and someone came to pick them up. I am sure they were sent back into their deteriorating country, only to try again another time. It was quite sobering to see. My country would have to be in pretty bad shape for me to take the chance of walking through Kruger National Park with my grandkids to try to make it somewhere better.
Well, this is getting quite long, and my fingers are starting to ache from typing, so I’ll have to end the accounts there. It was a fascinating place in so many different aspects and I enjoyed almost every minute I spent there. We got to camp out one night in the dry Limpopo riverbed, and swim in the Luvhuvhu river with elephants and baboons wandering nearby. There are so many more stories, but you’ll have to get those in person some other time.
For now, we are back in our village – tying up a few loose ends and saying one last goodbye. On Monday, we head out towards Namibia and the next part of our journey. I don’t know what our internet access will be like from here on out, but we will try to update this as often as we can. Stay tuned…

12 September 2007

2007-09-12T02:15:00.000-07:00

12 September 2007

Well, that’s it. As of today, we are no longer Peace Corps volunteers. We’ve spent the last week in Pretoria – Adam got a new front tooth, I took the GRE, and for the past three days we have been poked, prodded, and interviewed in preparation for our departure from Peace Corps. So far, no reports of any parasites or diseases so I guess we’ve done well. Though a part of me feels like I really didn’t get the true African experience if I don’t walk away with a parasite!

We left our village on Wednesday of last week. It was sad, but we’re going to stop in again as we pass by again in a month, so it doesn’t feel very final. Our schools got together and had traditional outfits made for us as a going away present, which was pretty cool. (see photo!) Other than that, I really don’t have much to say. We really won’t have internet access for the next month, as we are taking our field guide training course in Kruger National Park, so you won’t hear from us until the middle of October. But boy, we should have some stories to tell by that point! So until then, take care! Stay tuned for word of our travels…

Andrea & Adam

Our traditional Tswana outfits (no, Adam's pants aren't traditional - just the shirt!). This is the schoolyard of our village's school, and our little dog who followed us everywhere standing in our shadows!

25 August 2007

2007-08-25T01:57:00.000-07:00

24 August 2007

Well, that’s it. Two years have slipped away (and sometimes dragged by!) and our work in these four, small, rural primary schools has come to a close. All in all the week was quite anti-climactic. We’ve said our farewells to the teachers, and sadly didn’t get to say them to most of the kids. But I have found that saying goodbye rarely happens the way I imagine and you just have to take what you get. I felt sad, riding away from those villages for the last time, and am happy to know that in general, my memories of these years will be good ones. The schools have gathered their resources to get us a going away present. One day our Ma came home and asked if it would be ok if the school bought us a refrigerator! No? What about a computer, or a cow?! We thankfully were able to let her know that we wouldn’t be able to take those kind of things home on the plane (much less carry them around Africa for 5 months!), and made the suggestion of a gift of traditional clothes instead. So today we will be measured for our traditional outfits which will be made by a lady in the village. Photos to follow…

These last three or four weeks have been spent mainly on getting the libraries organized in the schools, and holding workshops to teach the teachers how to use books in their lessons and how to manage their new libraries. I want to say one more big “THANK YOU” to those of you who sent books to support this project. We really couldn’t have made it happen without you. I was very excited to get them all into the schools and they were met with excitement from the teachers and students when they arrived. I am confident that these books will be utilized and something learned from them.

It’s hard to look back and judge the work that we have done here. Definitely we have been disappointed with the lack of ambition and drive that some of the teachers have shown and we feel that we haven’t been used to the capacity that we potentially could have been. But I do think we have made some kind of impact here, though it is hard to put into concrete words. This last week and a half will be bittersweet. We are ready to go, but it’s going to be sad to leave this wonderful family behind. I feel a bit guilty about coming here, changing their lives, and then leaving again. Adam and I will go on to something new and exciting, but they will just carry on in their normal village lives, just without us! We don’t know how to say thank you to them, and I don’t think there is an appropriate way, but we will try! We also have the big task ahead of sorting through all the stuff we have accumulated and finding proper ways to dispose of it. Most things we will be giving away, which will be fun. We will take only a backpack each, and then be on our way!

We probably won’t write again until we hit Pretoria, where we will be subjected to all kinds of strange medical tests, and closing interviews. So keep us in your thoughts on the 5th as we leave behind two years of our life and a family that we have grown to be a part of, and as we set off to write the next chapter. Thanks for reading these simple accounts of our time here – we hope you have enjoyed it and learned something from it! Thanks also for the support all of you have given us. We are looking forward to seeing you again in a couple of months. Stay tuned for updates as we travel around the globe…

Go Siame,
Lerato

p.s. this next entry is one that I wrote a while ago, but didn’t ever post. Enjoy!!

BUGS!!!!!!!!!!

2007-08-25T01:40:00.000-07:00

A long time ago in a magical place called Madison, Wisconsin, I saw a friend for the last time before making the long journey to South Africa. As we said our goodbyes, surrounded by the carnival-like atmosphere of the Art Fair on the Square, she had one last parting request. She had heard tales of the gigantic bugs that roamed around Africa and she wanted some photos of them. Two years later this request is still in my mind and over our time here I have collected a few of these pictures. I’m sure some other folks out there are also fascinated by giant bugs so I thought I’d post them for all to see.
So Heidi, this one’s for you… It’s the Big Bug Blog!! Enjoy!!

Andrea

WARNING: the following images may not be suitable for the squeamish…

My foot for size, but there’s also a close up for effect! Some kind of heavily armored cricket, I would guess.

Somehow it doesn’t seem like those teeny wings could get that fat body off the ground!

Adam, enjoying the cuisine that nature has to offer.

This little guy found his way into my backpack, which I discovered when trying to pack for our very first vacation.

I have no idea what this is. Maybe an ant on steroids. All I know is that it was huge and made angry hissing noises at me when getting this photograph.

Giant millipedes of the Kalahari Desert.

No African bug collection would be complete without dung beetles! They sound like airplanes when they fly by your head!

18 August 2007

2007-08-18T02:19:00.000-07:00

17 August 2007
Well, we have 5 days of "work" left. I still am uncertain if I can ever have a real job again because "working" more than 8 hours a week seems impossible to me!!! Things are winding down. And are host mother is becoming sadder by the day as things will become quit quite when we leave.
Two weekends ago, we went to the next village over to our mother’s mother’s house (can you do that…two words with apostrophes in a row?!?!) The old lady (as she is affectionately known as turned 91. And she is still sharp as a tack and has a great sense of humor! I hope I am that funny when I am 91!!
Some excitement last week for us. Last Thursday was a holiday called Woman’s Day. [****WARNING A FUNNY JOKE IS COMING…MAYBE EVEN A LITTLE SHOVENISTIC but what can you do********] A day everyone should celebrate this ONCE A YEAR!!! (just joking ladies!!!) But anyways, Wednesday night I was told of the mission I was going to be assisting on with the host father and brother. We were going to the local farm to buy a sheep (for eating! as some family was coming to visit for the long weekend). So bright and early on Woman’s Day we head out to the farm in the new taxi (Our host father is back in business now. After giving his piece of crap car to the government for a R50,000 deposit on a new taxi, he finally received the new one. It is much BIGGER. He went from having a small van that can hold 15 passengers comfortably (20 uncomfortably) to having a 21 passenger bus that he can load with standing people and carry at least 30 people!) to buy the sheep. No luck though as the farmer had no small ones in our price range. So as we pull back into the yard, with the new bigger vehicle, we must avoid a tree. Papa then says to me, "we must cut that tree down!" By the time I returned 10 minutes later, one of the tree trunks of the tree was already down. So no slaughtering but I did get to chop down a tree on Woman’s Day! Friday was an uneventful day but there was promise for Saturday and a sheep. The sheep was delivered Friday night and we set out at 8 am to make meat. The sheep was for a small celebration for many things on Saturday. One was for the new taxi our father got, another was the little baby was turning 2 years old the following week, three most of the family was in visiting, and four it was a ‘last supper’ for us! We probably won’t see a lot of those people again. So it was a nice evening sitting around a fire and eating fresh sheep.
What a Woman's Day weekend, cutting down a treat and slaughtering a sheep!!!!
This week we have been working on assembling and teaching our school about the libraries that we were starting with you’alls help. (THANKS AGAIN) We delivered and taught some ideas on how to use the books to all four schools! It was exciting to see the things get set in place and we hope the learners will learn to be more literate and enjoy reading more!

I think that is all here.
Stay well
Adam

21 July 2007

2007-07-21T01:11:00.000-07:00

July 18 was Nelson Mandela's Birthday....the great man of this country turned 89!

Happy Birthday Madiba!

July 19, 2007

Our time here in South Africa is growing ever shorter. Finally though, the strike is over, so at least we are back at work! We also just finished up our last school holiday. The first week was spent in Pretoria, attending our Close of Service conference. It was one last time to hang out with all of our Peace Corps friends, and learn about the ‘right way’ to wrap up your Peace Corps service. We had a great time, spending a few days with friends at a nice lodge just outside of Pretoria. Many people, including ourselves, have applied to finish our term early, and some have even already finished and returned to the US. After the conference finished, we headed to Mozambique! What a beautiful country!! We had a fantastic time there – walking on the beach, playing in the ocean, and eating wonderful, fresh seafood every day. Our first stop was the capital city, Maputo. We wandered the city and ate delicious pastries (something you can’t find in South Africa!) and took a ferry ride across the estuary to a small fishing village on the other side. Our second night there, we wandered over to the fish market with a few friends. Here you can pick out fresh fish, prawns, mussels, crabs or anything else that swims or crawls in the ocean for you dinner, and then wander next door to an outdoor square full of small restaurants, where for a small fee they will cook it up for you with some rice and salad.
Our next stop was the small beach town of Tofo, and what a beach they have! This area is known for its unusually high concentrations of whale sharks and manta rays – two of the sea’s biggest creatures. We were eager to have a chance to see them, so the first day we headed out on an ‘ocean safari’. Eight of us piled into an inflatable boat with snorkeling gear and headed out to sea. One man sits up high on a tall chair and serves as the spotter. We first came across a pod of dolphins that were swimming all around the boat – clearly visible in the clear waters. Then our first whale shark was spotted. We were told to put on our masks and fins as they positioned the boat in its path and then we slipped quietly into the water. You can’t miss a whale shark! Immediately upon putting my face into the water and looking down, there it was – a 7.5m (23 feet) long shark! Not as scary as it sounds though, as they eat only tiny plankton, hence the whale part of their name. The whale shark swam along – a uniform grey with distinctive white spots – completely unbothered by our presence. We stayed with it for a half an hour, just swimming alongside it as it fed near the surface of the water. It was an awesome experience to be dwarfed by this gigantic fish. I noticed then that the other people were starting to head back to the boat, so I took one last look, turned around, and came face to face with another whale shark! It had been swimming along behind the first one, I guess, unbeknownst to me, and I actually had to back peddle just to get away from its big mouth. It gave me quite a shock! Back on the boat, we set off again and shortly found another whale shark. Adam and the others got back in, but I was feeling a bit seasick at this point so decided to stay on board. This one wasn’t quite as friendly though, because as soon as they spotted it, it dove down into the depths of the ocean and away from the pesky people.
Back on shore, we only had an hour to rest before setting out for our first scuba dive. We did a somewhat shallow dive first, to get re-acclimated to diving, as it was the first time we had done it since we learned back in December. We went out to a reef called The Salon and had a fantastic dive – our first in tropical waters. I’m still not to the point where I can totally enjoy myself down there – I spend most of my time reminding myself to relax and breathe, and trying to get my buoyancy correct so that you just float neutrally in the water and don’t sink or rise. But we saw a huge moray eel, some lobsters and tons of colorful fish – it was a good dive! Adam sucked up all his air super fast though, so we had to cut it a little shorter than the others. We surfaced with one of the guides, and I rose way too fast because I forgot to deflate my vest first. It was ok though because we weren’t diving very deep, so no, I didn’t get the bends! It was also good that I rose fast because the effects of my day on the ocean were starting to catch up to me and as soon as I hit the surface I had to feed the fish. Not fun, but seeing the reef in those clear waters was well worth it. We were supposed to do a deep dive the next morning, but a storm came in that night a churned up the ocean, making it too rough to launch the boat. So we took a day to relax and the next day headed farther north to Vilanculos – a bigger village, also spectacularly located on the beach. (On a side note, they launch the boats – inflatables with engines on the back – right from the beach. You all have to push it out into the surf until it’s floating, then jump on and the skipper picks the right moment to cruise over the cresting waves. Then on the return, they drive the boat as fast as possible right at the shore, not cutting the engine until the very last minute, when the boat beaches itself on the sand and comes to a full stop. It was a tad frightening the first time, heading full throttle right at the beach, but was a source of excitement once you knew what to expect.)
In Vilanculos, we wandered the town and the big market there on the first day. Adam had a pair of pants made by a tailor in a tiny stall at the market who used an old pedal powered Singer sewing machine. To buy the fabric and have the pants made cost around $10! The next day we set off on a dhow (traditional sail boat) trip to the Bazaruto Islands National Park, about 15km offshore. We traveled with four South African guys, a British couple, and two local guides. The first night we camped on the beach on one of the islands, and then the next day got to explore the island and go snorkeling on a reef just near the beach. The current was super strong that day, so all you had to do was get in the water next to the reef wall and just let it carry you along. It was some of the best snorkeling I have ever done. The water was quite cold that day but the number and variety of fish was amazing. I saw colors of fish I had never imagined – almost glowing with orange, purple and blue - it was quite spectacular. We sailed back to the mainland in the afternoon and spent one more night in Vilanculos before beginning to work our way (slowly) back to South Africa. That night we ate at a nice resturaunt overlooking the ocean. Adam and I both ordered fresh fish, which came with rice, fries, salad and fresh bread and cost around 200 meticas – about $9. Adam pointed out that this fantastic meal (including a local beer!) cost about the same as a Fillet-o-fish value meal at McDonalds! I’ll take Mozambique any day!
We stopped again in Tofo for two more nights, and arranged for one more dive. This time a deep one, to a reef called The Office, where there is a manta ray cleaning station. (The dive instructors had a good time of it, joking ‘oh, just another day at the office!’) This time we would be going to 25m (75 ft) and would be with an instructor the whole time to get our deep diver certification. The water was absolutely clear this day – from the surface you could see all the way down to the reef. It was amazing. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get my ears to equalize (you have to keep popping your ears all the way down to keep the pressure in your head the same as the water) and therefore couldn’t complete the dive. I tried for 10 minutes and then had to return to the boat. Adam was successful however, and had a good dive in amazingly clear water and got his deep diver certification. There was a manta ray cleaning station at this reef – meaning a place where the rays come to be cleaned by tons of little fish – but unfortunately there weren’t any rays in the area for the dive. They eluded us this trip, so maybe we’ll have to go back sometime to try again. We stayed one more night in Maputo and then made our way back to South Africa. I stayed with Adam in Pretoria for two days before heading back to the village. Adam stayed for another few days to have a dentist appointment as he cracked his front tooth while eating a salad at our Peace Corps conference!
Now we’re both back in the village and back at work. The teacher unions finally came to an agreement with the government for a 7.5% pay raise after striking for 4 weeks. The original government offer was 6% so teachers stayed away from school for four weeks for a 1.5% raise. Not worth it if you ask me! But our teachers were really starting to get frustrated about the strike too and I think they’re all glad to be back at work. As I said before our time here is beginning to run out. We will be leaving the village around the 4th of September, so only have 7 weeks left. I can’t believe it! Looking back, I think two years has gone by pretty fast, and this next month and a half is going to absolutely fly. Many people have been asking about our post Peace Corps plans, so here they are. Starting September 17 we are taking a month long field guide training course in Kruger National Park. Adam and I have both loved the time that we have spent seeing animals in the national parks here, so we signed up to take a month long class where we will go on game drives and walks every day, attend lectures about the plants, animals, and environment, and live in a bush camp in the park. It is the first level towards becoming a certified South African field guide, but lots of people take it for fun too and for me at least, it will look interesting on the resume. After that is finished in October, we are going to once again hit the road. We both feel that we don’t really have too many responsibilities in our lives right now, which is a unique situation, and that we should take full advantage of that fact. So we are going to travel for a while around southern Africa, starting in Namibia and heading east, then north, and if time and money allows, hit Southeast Asia on the way back to the States. At this point we don’t know how long we will travel for, so you’ll just have to stay tuned. Yes, we want to avoid the real world for as long as possible! After the travels are complete and we are just about broke, our life remains up in the air. I am currently studying to take the GRE (on September 7th!) and am going to apply to a number of graduate schools for a Masters in environmental education or environmental studies. If I am accepted, then back to school I go (starting fall 2008) and Adam looks for a job wherever we land. If the grad school idea doesn’t pan out, then Adam looks for a good job that is to his liking somewhere in the US and I tag along and find something wherever we land. We are really looking forward to finishing up our time in Peace Corps and starting the next big adventure. Yes, we miss all of you back home, but we just can’t pass up this opportunity to see a part of the world that we may not come back to. We’ll keep the blog up and running and update it as we can on the road.
For the time being though, we are focused on wrapping up our projects here, and trying to make everyone understand that we will soon be leaving. It is going to go so fast, I just know it, and although we are ready to leave it will be sad to go. I hope that all of you are well and happy back there in the states. Until next time…
Andrea

Playing in the sand!!!

At the fish market

The Dhow

22 June 2007

2007-06-22T04:58:00.000-07:00

Well....we finally left the village out of boredom. Now in Pretoria waiting to attend our Close of Service conference. We are finished on 6 September!

As for life here...the strike continues on. Day 22! It is starting to get old. The government offered their best deal on Tuesday (7.5%) but only gave the unions a day to decide....this and they said if they don't except this offer it is back to their first offer which was 6.5%. Well, they didnt take it and the strike continues. I think it may go on forever as both sides are being very stubborn and aren't giving much. Unions are great.

At least we are now in a city. Running water. Good food. And some friends to hang out with.

Adam

18 June 2007

2007-06-18T03:33:00.000-07:00

Well still at it....boredom has set in BIG time....

12 June 2007

Well, its Tuesday and the strike is still on. What does that mean…we haven’t done a thing for a while. Schools have been closed for 9 school days now. The public hospitals have also been greatly understaffed as well as nurses and police are still striking as well. Tomorrow is supposively a big day, according to the union leaders. The are asking EVERYONE else to strike with them. It is called a sympathy strike…kind of funny. But this is a one day country wide strike with as many people that will support it!? The other interesting thing is the union leaders said yesterday on the news that the government (by not giving them the 10% (yes, they drop from 12 to 10) raise that they want!?!) is forcing them, yes forcing them, to use violence to achieve their goals. This is NOT the right thing to say. The mass action here already can turn violent without getting a green light from the boss to use violence. CRAZINESS. I often feel like things here are very childish and this is the top of the pile for childishness if you ask me. Top down no one really knows how to behave…weird, never thought I would be the mature one!

What has the strike meant. Well for one, the hospitals are chaos (don’t worry o’worrying mother, use have access to the private hospitals) as many of the personnel necessary to run the place are outside picketing. I believe the number is at least 3 of people that have died due to the lack of care at hospitals. The news reported an expecting mother who had a miscarriage because no ambulance could be dispatched as there were no drivers. Supposively, the nurses that didn’t come to work today would be fired as there is a law that essential employees can not strike. We will see what happens with that. Others things…the mid term exam, which are important to grade 12 learners have been postponed indefinitely. That and all of the children have been on holiday for a week and a half without a end in sight…school holiday starts at the end of the month.

Believe it or not, we are MORE bored (can I say that). As we don’t do much as school as least there is always a hope that someone will ask us for pertinent help. Now, nothing. I do enjoy sleeping in though, especially since it is COLD when we wake up. The sleeping bag and two blankets make it so warm and cozy.

So, tomorrow could turn into mass chaos. We don’t know what PC will do with everyone but we think there is a chance we may get a evacuation if anarchy starts. Only time will tell. I think we will spend the day at home as the march will be happening in town.

Yup yup! 10% raise…to use that means $26, FUNNY!
Adam

1 June 2007

2007-06-01T02:13:00.000-07:00

28 May 2007 (Happy Birthday, Kelly!!)

For the past week and a half we have been out at our friend’s village, helping him to paint world maps at his two schools. Our time there started out happily enough – we got the base coats down and started painting countries before the weekend hit. Then, Sunday, disaster struck… winter came! Noooooooooooooo! All through the day on Saturday it was chilly and windy, and then the clouds rolled in, blocking our heat source. Overnight, temperatures dropped fast and we huddled into as many layers of clothing and blankets as possible. In the morning, there was a layer of ice on a water bucket left outside. We had been dreading the return of winter, and now here it is. All last week the mornings were freezing cold. We would sleep in, as our fingers would freeze to the point of aching if we tried to paint in the early mornings. Thankfully, one of the map walls received afternoon sun, so we would suffer through painting the shaded map in the late morning, take a lunch break, and work on the sunny map in the afternoons. And so far, we’re surviving. Adam and I are both sleeping in our -20degree sleeping bags at night, with a thick furry blanket on top. And we’re once again drinking mass quantities of tea and cocoa. We finished the painting the maps on Thursday and headed back home. It was fun staying out in our friend’s village – it’s quite a bit smaller than ours and even more rural. His host family is great – the two little girls of the family, who were afraid of us to the point of crying upon our arrival, quickly warmed to us and then followed us wherever we went for the rest of our visit. It was a nice break from our regular routine, and I think we might go back out there again in a few weeks to paint one of the school’s crests above their new map.

There are some potentially exciting events brewing here in South Africa that may have a huge impact on us in the coming weeks. Public servants – teachers, police, and nurses among others – are threatening to strike. Last Friday, there were demonstration marches held in every town and city in South Africa by the biggest and most powerful teacher union. They are demanding a 12% raise, and will seemingly settle for nothing less. The government claims to not have enough money, and has offered 6%, which the unions rejected. Both sides are stubbornly holding their ground and the unions say that starting this Friday they will begin striking indefinitely, until the time that their demands are met. So we were advised by Peace Corps to stay away from school last Friday and will possibly be doing the same, indefinitely, starting this Friday, June 1st. The two groups go back to the negotiating table this week, so possibly something will be resolved in the nick of time. We shall see. It’s interesting to live in a country where unions are so powerful. I don’t believe US unions are nearly as strong. We have seen a number of strikes in our time here thus far, and unfortunately they tend to turn violent on occasion, which is why we are supposed to stay away from our work on strike days, even though some of the teachers didn’t participate. Unfortunately, the only ones really suffering through all of this will be the children whose already poor education will only be hurt more by a strike. It will be interesting to watch events unfold though, and this could lead to a boring last couple of months of our Peace Corps service!

(Update – 31 May 2007)
Well, it’s Thursday and still no agreement. The two sides have been negotiating all week, but the government has only raised its offer to 6.5% (although on the news they said this wasn’t an official offer…just speculation) and lots of other benefits that don’t include a salary hike while the unions still demand 12. I guess this is what they call negotiating! So unless there is a last minute reconciliation (which seems quite doubtful!) we will be out of work until this is resolved. So, I guess we will be reading even MORE books than we already do, and maybe escape to a neighboring city for a few days. I assume this won’t continue for more than a week, but in reality I have no idea how long the two sides will hold out. We’ll keep you posted!

Hope everything is well and good back there in the land of sanity and dedicated teachers…

Andrea

30 April 2007

2007-04-30T03:23:00.001-07:00

29 April 2007

This past weekend was a new event in the village to us. The Tombstone Unveiling. See, many times when people pass away in rural South Africa, the family doesn’t have enough money to pay for both the funeral and a tombstone, which are both an expensive events. So what happens is when the family eventually raises enough money to buy one, they throw a big party and invite the whole village to come see it. So this weekend was actually a party for the unveiling of three tombstones – our father’s father, our father’s nephew, and one other relative of whose exact relation we’re not sure of. The events started for me on Tuesday, when my host mother asked me to help her make some cakes. Cakes here are cookies in American English, and during these big events there are many cookies on hand to feed the hungry workers in between meals and for out-of-town visitors to take home on their travels. So I knew she wanted to make a lot of cookies, but I didn’t know exactly what I was getting into. 6 hours later, we had enough cookies to almost fill a 5-gallon bucket. And then she said that we’d make another kind the next day! So again, I show up in her kitchen after school and watch her mix together a huge batch of cookies – just dumping in flour, sugar, baking powder and butter to her own specifications and then mixing in other things, depending on what kind of cookie she wants to make – coconut, orange juice and lemon extract, or ginger. My job was getting the wet ingredients together – 12 eggs per batch and a bowl full of milk! It’s really quite impressive to watch and an amazing amount of dough. So after day 2 (only 3 hours of baking this time) our host ma informs me that Thursday will be the last day of baking. So again I come and help bake cookies – 5 hours on the third day. Baking really can be quite tiring! 3 days, 14 hours and cookies to fill many buckets.

(Adam) Thursday was slaughtering day. I stayed home from school to help out at our Grandmother’s house! 5 sheep and a cow – more meat than they had for even our brother’s wedding! The day started out the our host father showing up in his taxi with a new kind of passenger…5 sheep. All the men that had gathered pull the sheep out and get in a line. Our host father then sharpens his knife and cut the throats and leaves!?! With 5 dead sheep, the 8 men and I get to work skin and butchering. Now we have 5 sheep carcasses hanging from a tree. The one man asks me if I know how to slaughter the cow…not the intro I was hoping for when the cow is next. After chasing a cow around the corral and tying a rope around its neck, 5 different men try to wrestle the cow into position. This involved chasing it, or was it chasing us, around a tree until it didn’t have any further to go. Then the butchering and hanging from a tree. So 5 hours later, we have 1 cow and 5 sheep hang from a tree and the intestines in a pot being cooked from lunch….yum!

I on the other hand went to school to avoid it.

Friday was a holiday – Freedom Day – so we got to spend the whole day helping to prepare. Unfortunately, winter decided to show up that day too, so everyone was bundled up and crowded around the cooking fires all day. The women of the family stayed up all night cooking, but we opted to sleep. After helping to cut up 15 pumpkins and being in charge of cooking 6 pounds of pasta for pasta salad, that is!

Saturday morning was clear and cold and we arrived just in time to be given front row seats at the church service which was being held in a big red and white striped tent in our grandmother’s front yard. The crowd was so big that they had to take down one wall of the tent to allow people gathered outside to watch the service. It was a short service at home and then everyone piled into cars or walked to the cemetery where each of the three tombstones had been covered with a white cloth. Everyone crowded around the first tombstone and after a song and a prayer, a relative removed the cloth and read the inscription out loud. The priest then blessed the grave with holy oil, incense in one of those swinging ball things, and holy water sprinkled onto the grave with the branch of a tree. More singing, prayers and a speech from another family member, and we moved on to the next grave to repeat the service. When we returned to the house, it was lunchtime. By that point, we estimate that there were about 300 people there, waiting to be fed. I was one of the servers, serving my pasta salad, and watching the masses of food slowly disappears. The rest of the day was devoted to washing dishes and cleaning up, and then there was a braai (barbeque) in the evening for the remaining family. It was a busy and tiring day and so we have now fled to Kimberly to relax for the rest of the weekend. Monday is a school holiday and Tuesday, another public holiday (Worker’s Day) so we still have a few days to recover before heading back to school.
Andrea

The ladies and their cookies…it was just the beginning!!

The slaughtering line…Next!?

Blessing one of the tombstones

The old lady aka Grandmother

30 April 2007

2007-04-30T03:23:00.000-07:00

21 April 2007

2007-04-21T01:55:00.000-07:00

18 April 2007

Last week brought the end of yet another vacation. That seems to be all we ever write about, but hey, I’m not complaining! This vacation brought my Mom and her boyfriend Matt to South Africa. But I’ll get to that part in a minute. First, I need to give a Longtom Marathon report!
On March 30th, we made the long trip up to Sabie, a small town about 4 hours east of Pretoria where about 60 Peace Corps Volunteers gathered before race day. We were up before dawn the next day and piled into combis (minibus taxis) to take us to the start line. The drive took about 25 minutes and drove up the course that the ultra marathoners would soon begin – and it’s completely up a mountain! We were dropped off at the peak for the ‘easy’ part of the race – 21.1 kilometers down the other side of the Longtom Mountain pass. It was quite chilly at the top, waiting around for the race to begin, but the excitement and crowds of people helped dull the pain. The cold left soon after the race began. This being my first half-marathon, I was quite nervous at the beginning, but once I got into the rhythm of the run it was ok. I enjoyed having lots of other people running around me which encourages you to keep going and really enjoyed the water stops where people were handing out all kinds of food and drink – little bags of water, cups of poweraid and coke, bananas, jelly beans, and candy bars! I skipped the coke and most of the sweets, but did indulge in some chocolate about halfway through when my 5am oatmeal had worn off. For me, the run was tough – this was definitely the longest I had ever run in my life, and it didn’t take long to start feeling the effects of the constant downhill – something we couldn’t really train for out in our flat part of the country. But the scenery was great, as was the encouragement I would get from the other runners around me. 2 hours and 8 minutes later I dragged my tired legs across the finish line, happy to be done and proud to have run the whole thing. Adam had a good run also – his second time on this course – and finished in 1 hr 38 minutes! I would like to take this opportunity to thank those of you who have donated to the KLM foundation. We didn’t run this race only for fun, but as a fundraiser for a great organization started by two former South African Peace Corps volunteers. Adam and I raised over $500 and were the 2nd highest fundraisers pre-race day. THANK YOU!! Donations are still being collected, so if any of you still want to contribute just use the information we e-mailed out to you or contact us if you don’t have that info.
My Mom and Matt arrived on the night of the 30th and since we were running the race the next day, they bravely wandered the streets of Pretoria alone until we could join them Sunday morning. We met up with them at the famous Sunday market and wandered through the stalls looking at goods ranging from African crafts to clothes and hats to CD’s and books. They made some nice purchases that morning and then we hopped in the car and drove up to Pilanesberg National Park a few hours north. We spent two nights there, just driving ourselves through the park and getting some pretty good sightings. We saw lots of rhino, elephants, zebra, and giraffe – not to mention all the little antelopes. We also got glimpses of hippo, the rare and endangered Sable antelope, wildebeest, jackal, and best of all, our very first black rhino sighting. We were sitting in a hide near a watering hole one evening when a mother and calf wandered out of the bushes and down for a drink. It was quite exciting as they are very rare to see. On the last morning there, we went for a drive before breakfast and were delayed by two huge male elephants that were browsing the trees on the side of the road and wouldn’t get out of the way! After trailing behind them for a good half an hour, we had to turn around and take a half hour detour in order to make it back in time for breakfast and checkout.
The next stop was Madikwe game reserve, a few more hours north, quite close to the border with Botswana and Gabarone, their capital city. We stayed in an excellent safari lodge there where we were driven around to find the animals and pampered with too much food and excellent lodging. The lodge’s grounds remain unfenced from the rest of the park and at night after dinner you are escorted to your room by a ranger carrying a big gun. We wondered if this was simply for show, but on our way to sleep on the last night, we walked only 50 yards away from a bull elephant browsing in the trees. Mom and Matt also enjoyed a mid-afternoon visit by a troop of baboons on their porch one day! On our drives here we saw much of the same animals, except for being able to view lions on every drive we went on. They weren’t too active, just sleeping constantly, but we got pretty close and were able to see a mother with her three older cubs. In the park there were also three African wild dogs – a very endangered species – awaiting release in a boma, a large fenced enclosure where the animals can get used to their surroundings for a few months before being released into the park. They were being transferred here from another park to try to establish a second pack of wild dogs in the park. Other highlights included seeing a tiny elephant calf and its mother drinking at a water hole. The guide estimated the calf to be around 2 weeks old and we laughed as it tried to gain control of it’s trunk and struggled to climb up a muddy bank. We were also able to briefly spot a herd of buffalo, bringing Mom and Matt’s Big 5 sightings up to 4, with only the leopard remaining elusive to them. And to Matt’s dismay, we finished our animal-viewing portion of the trip without having seen any tigers. :o)
The village tour was next. We spent two nights there, showing them around our town and village and eating more traditional meals. They met our host family and got the privilege of playing UNO with our host brother Paseka and helping him to celebrate his birthday a few days early. Mom and Matt bravely stayed with us, in our ‘guest room’ in the unused and un-electrified part of the house! They did fine without running water for two days, though I think they were pretty happy to see the shower when we arrived at our next destination, Kimberly.
In Kimberly, we stopped to view some very old San rock engravings depicting all kinds of local animal and people figures. There were hundreds of engravings just etched into the rocks that are strewn about the ground on top of a small hill – a site believed to be sacred to the San people. It was my first time there too, and very cool to see. As Mom is now a jewelry saleswoman and certified diamond expert, we had to visit the Big Hole in Kimberly to learn all about the diamond mine that used to be in operation there. The place has been upgraded nicely since Adam and I were there last, and there is now lots of interesting information on display in a museum, a film to watch about the height of the mining era, and of course a nice little vault of diamonds on display, including the first diamond ever discovered (by Europeans at least) in South Africa. We stayed at a little B&B in a historic home, and in the morning as we drove out of town, did a little sight seeing of other historic buildings and the old De Beers mine.
On Easter Sunday, we took the long drive from Kimberly to Magaliesburg, where we were staying for the night. We were supposed to take a hot-air balloon ride the next morning, as one last adventure but unfortunately it was canceled due to weather. This did however allow us to have a relaxed breakfast, a leisurely morning walk and some time at a nearby craft market – a calm morning after being on the go for most of the trip. Back in Pretoria we had time only for lunch before the airport shuttle arrived to whisk Mom and Matt back to the US. We had a really great trip and saw a lot. It is really neat to be able to show people around South Africa and our lives here. Thanks so much for coming – we had a great time! Anyone else out there who wants a hand-crafted South African tour had better get their requests in soon – 5 more months and we’re outta here!
Adam and I took a bus that night to Umthatha, a town famous for being one of the places where Nelson Mandela grew up. We actually passed by a house we were told was his – a big new place he has apparently just built. It was the worst bus ride ever – driving too fast on windy roads and blasting gospel music until 3am – didn’t get so much sleep. From Umthatha, we took two taxis to get to a very remote backpackers on the south-eastern coast. Well, actually the taxis didn’t take us there. The last taxi dropped us off at a small shop in the middle of nowhere and us with instructions only to ask for the ferry. Not knowing the local language, we communicated with only the Xhosa word for ‘ferry’ which we had gotten off the lodge’s website, and lots of gestures. From where we were dropped off, there was no water to be seen and I was a little worried that we were in the wrong place. We were told to follow a woman and we wound through a very picturesque village set among rolling green hills. We walked in silence, wondering what we would do if we were indeed in the wrong place, miles and miles of terrible roads between us and the nearest town, when the woman finally said “Oh, you going to David!” We didn’t know who the heck this David guy was, but yes, we supposed we did want David. So we said “sure, yeah, David” and kept walking. We eventually came around a hillside and there was the river where we sat to wait for the ferry, which was unloading people on the other side. The ‘ferry’ turned out to be a very rickety old rowboat, rowed by a young man. Adam and I, our guide, two young girls, and two old women all piled into the little boat, and we entertained them by taking photos of this comical river crossing. On the other side, we continued our walk, led by this very gracious young woman who took us to the gate of the place where we were staying and then continued her own walk home. As we crested the last emerald green hill, we were rewarded with a spectacular view of where we would be staying – a series of round huts and other buildings set on a small hill right next to the Indian Ocean.
We spent two nights here, called Bulungula, and I could have stayed for a week. We got the first night free, as we had come by public transport – a feat that not many travelers attempt. Most are shuttled in by a 4x4 vehicle – the only other way to get there. We walked on an empty beach, ate fantastic meals, and took a canoe trip up the river one day. We had great weather and it was super relaxing. Around the campfire at night we met some interesting people, including a woman who ran an organization that brings doctors from other countries for 2 years of service in rural clinics, a girl from Michigan who was doing student teaching in Durban, and the 3rd youngest member of South Africa’s parliament! The stars were amazing at night and there was a beautiful view during the day - I really could have stayed there a long time. But alas, we had a free ride back to Kuruman waiting for us – an opportunity you don’t pass up – so we had to leave. The free ride was from a guy that Adam has met who lives in Kuruman and runs many different businesses in town. He currently has a piece of property inside Addo Elephant Park, near the city of Port Elisabeth, that he has asked Adam for help with selling. So we met him there to go see the property – an old farm where he grew up – and take some photos before heading home. If any of you are interested yourselves or know someone who might be interested in buying a piece of land in a national park in South Africa, let us know! There are a few old buildings on the property already, but it would be a great place to put a safari lodge! We rode with this guy’s wife, two kids, one employee, and a dog for 12 hours back to Kuruman, arriving exhausted and possibly actually glad to be done with our vacation – or at least glad to be in one place for longer than 2 days.
Now we’re back in school and trying to get excited about the second term, but already looking forward to our next vacation! Next weekend is a big family event here, so I’m sure we’ll have some exciting stories to tell next time. Until then… Cheers!

One of the big fellas blocking the way… MOVE! Get out the way!

A Giraffe

Rhino ahhhhhhhhhh!

‘Bras….strike a pose

The queen taking a rest in the shade

Mama elephant and her clumsy little fella

San rock art engravings of an elephant, duh!

The young lady and the younger lady at the natural spring in town

Adam on the “ferry”. Our guide is on the left and obviously, the ferryman paddling away in the middle.

Bulungula from the beach

21 March 2007

2007-03-21T01:10:00.000-07:00

15 March 2007

Hello family & friends. No, we have not fallen off the face of the earth, we just haven’t really had anything exciting to write about lately. But we finally got to do something out of the ordinary last weekend. We took a road trip! Two friends accompanied us to the Kalagadi Transfrontier Park – a big game reserve that lies way to the north, right next to Namibia and straddling the border of Botswana. We camped out for two nights, and had great weather. The park is known for their black-maned lions, but even though we strained our eyes looking for them, we didn’t even get a glimpse. We did see lots of other cool things though – springbok (antelope), wildebeest, lots of hawks and eagles, tortoises, mongooses, ground squirrels, meerkats, huge ground birds (they probably stand about 3.5 feet tall) called kori bustards and secretary birds, and of course ostriches. One of our highlights was seeing gemsbok for the first time. They are huge horse-sized antelope that look a bit horse-y too. They are grey brown on the body with starkly contrasting black and white faces, and the shoulders of a linebacker, complete with a thick neck. They have a long tail that turns hairy and horse-ish halfway down and they have amazing horns – probably 4 feet long that come straight off their heads in a V shape. We’ll include a photo – they’re pretty crazy looking! The other highlight came literally within the last 15 minutes of our time in the park as we were heading back to camp for the night. We almost ran over a snake on the road, and it wasn’t noticed until it reared up next to the car. Our friend who was driving slammed on the brakes and after a short discussion on spitting cobras we cautiously reversed to get a better look. We believe it was a cape cobra (thankfully they don’t spit!) – pale green, about 4 feet long and angry! It was all puffed up around the head, hood spread and everything, but it just moseyed along on its way across the road and into the bushes, where we watched it climb up into a tree. It was quite impressive and I think that was everyone’s first encounter with a cobra – what a beautiful snake! We all wished we would have spotted it a little earlier – then maybe we could have snapped that perfect angry cobra photo! Maybe next time.
Life in the village carries on as always. The weather is slowly starting to change – days are getting shorter and nights are getting cooler although the days are just as hot. Soon winter will be on the way and I don’t think either of us is really looking forward to that! The first term is almost over – only two more weeks - and then we’ll be looking forward to my mom & her friend Matt coming to visit us for 9 days. You’ll all hear about our adventures in a few weeks. I can’t wait! School is going ok. We are working on getting our library project in order and two schools have already started the process that we outlined for them to receive the books. I have stayed home a few days to organize, clean, and fix up the books we have already gotten and am really looking forward to handing them out.
Sadly two more friends left here recently. They both just decided they missed home, weren’t getting what they expected out of their service here anymore, and wanted to go back to the promise land that is America. They both decided this at the same time (I think they just gave each other the courage and support they needed) and so we journeyed to Vryburg a few weeks ago to see them off. It was quite sad – our numbers our here are really dwindling! Darcy & Michelle, I hope home is everything you hoped it would be – happy, productive, welcoming, accommodating and comfortable. We miss you guys out here!
I think that’s about all that has happened in the past month. Like I said, life has been a little ordinary, I guess, which doesn’t leave us with much to write about! I hope you are all well. Take care!!
Andrea

Photos from the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

Ground Squirrels

The beautiful Gemsbok

A now angry Wildebeest

Yellow Mongoose

Black Backed Jackal hunting a mouse

14 Feb 2007

2007-02-14T02:27:00.000-08:00

February 7, 2007

Hi everyone!
I thought we’d give an update, this time around, on some of the projects we have been working on that you all have helped us with. First up is our toilets project at Rebogile Primary School in Skerma Village. In October last year, we applied for a Peace Corps Partnership Program grant to build toilets and a partition at one of our schools. Some of you helped fund that project, and in late November, three shiny new latrines were constructed at the school. The kids are happy that they don’t have to run across the street to go in the field, and we are happy that this is a little more safe and sanitary than the terrible old toilets. During the school holidays in December, a partition was built of bricks to divide the big open room into two separate classrooms. It was plastered and painted and by the time school started again there were already posters hanging on it like it had always been there. It looks great and the teachers and kids are happy with the new additions to their school. We have yet to receive a list of donors, but know some of you did contribute so thank you, thank you, and thank you to whoever you are!

Our library book collection project continues to go really well. So far we estimate that we have received about 500 books. This week and last week we have held meetings at our schools to tell them about the books and give them a ‘to-do list’ that they need to complete before they can receive any of the books. We want them to do a little work before we give them anything, just to make sure they really want the books and will use them. We don’t want them to just become dust collectors! The to-do list includes making a plan on how they will use the books in the classroom, who will have access to the books and when, if students will be able to take the books home or use them only at school, setting up a maintenance schedule, and also a disciplinary plan for if books become lost or damaged. They also have to apply to one other book donation project to receive additional books. Adam and I plan on doing a few workshops sometime in the future to show teachers how to use books in their classrooms. So far, all the schools have shown interest and we expect all of them to receive books from us. Thank you so much to all of you who have sent books, and you are many! We have been excited about the response we have gotten from all of you, and will keep you updated on the progress. Thank you!!

On that same note, we would like to start to bring the book donations to an end. We are done here in September and want to make sure all the books arrive and are settled into their libraries before we leave. So if any of you are still planning on sending books to us, we would ask that they be sent by the end of the month (February!) if at all possible. The books take about 3 months to arrive and then we will have sufficient time to sort them out and give them to our schools. Please let us know when books are on the way, and remember to ship by M-bag. Thanks again to all of you who have sent/will send books. The response has been great and we are ready to get these libraries rolling!

Other than that, life continues as normal. We had the exciting experience of the village water pump breaking down for an entire week. It was damaged in a thunderstorm last week and was finally fixed yesterday. The natural spring in our village and the school’s windmill were the only water sources to be found, and it became a regular sight to see young girls and women walking to and fro with 5-gallon buckets full of water balanced on their heads. Quite impressive – and no, I didn’t try it! I have carried a few things on my head before, but I just don’t have the neck muscles – must be something you have to start at a young age.

We attended the area track meet last week, in which kids from two of our schools participated. 6 kids from our village’s school and 7 kids from another school of ours won their races and will continue on to the next meet which will be held this weekend. They did a great job, and all without shoes! It’s not because they can’t afford them, they just choose not to wear them because they are so used to running and playing without them.

It has been ridiculously hot lately, and most of the time we feel like we are melting, but thank God for ice and freezers. I think that is the only thing keeping Adam alive right now! Oh, and our fan! There has hardly been a cloud in the sky recently and the heat and the dryness and the sun have been relentless. I talked to my mom the other day and she said the high was going to be -1 degrees. I was pretty jealous, but know if I was there I would probably be longing for this heat instead!

I hope all of you are well.
Take care,
Andrea

We are proud parents of the Three Little Latrines

20 January 2007

2007-01-19T23:47:00.000-08:00

16 January 2007

Believe it or not but we are back at home and back to the grindstone (or something of that sort!?). Hope everyone had a happy holiday season. 2007 is already here. This is the year we are dubbing, “the year we leave South Africa!” Its crazy that we are far over the halfway hump.

Everyone wants to know about our short travels. That is why I am here. This might get kind of long but it wasn’t the shortest vacation that we took!

First stop was Cape Town. Definitively the most famous city in South Africa but probably in all of Africa. The great part of staying in Cape Town was our hosts, Stefan and Christine. They are a South African family that we met while we were in Kruger and they graciously hosted us in the home. The view of the famous Table Mountain out the front door was awesome!

Cape Town as a city was nice just not very African. It is a European city with A LOT of Europeans living there!? The location is pretty awesome with Table Mountain, the Cape of Good Hope and the ocean right there. The food was awesome, very westernized. We ate out every night and had great meals, again the European influence.

Beside the usual walking endless miles around a city, we took in the sights. We tackled Table Mountain one day. As the weather can change in a heartbeat there and the Southeasterly wind was unbearable at times, we held off on two days that looked questionable. But finally we got the courage and somewhat decent weather and hike up the side of Table Mountain. After about 2 hours of pretty strenuous climbing, we made it to the top. Once there we almost blew over several times as the wind is Chicago windy and we almost froze, as we didn’t expect it to be cold and didn’t bring much gear. After looking around up top and check the views of the city and of Robben Island, it was hiking it back down. As the cable car was not running on our summit day due to the high winds (see I wasn’t over exaggerating)!

Another day was spent hiking up another peak right next to the city center. Not as strenuous and definitely not as windy, it was a nice little hike up Lion’s Head! Other activities of Cape Town were the lovely city gardens which seem to be the place where everyone who gets married in Cape Town gets their after wedding photo shoot. Kirschten Bosch gardens was another little day trip. A beautifully manicured gardens on the other side of Table Mountain. A nice place to just lay in the grass and enjoy the plant life.

The waterfront was another interesting location. Just like any harbor, kind of reminded me a lot of California’s various waterfronts. There were seals to entertain the wife too! The waterfront was the location of departure for Robben Island. Robben Island is the location of the prison where during the Apartheid, they sent all of the political prisoners (aka Nelson Mandela). If you haven’t read his ‘A Long Walk to Freedom’, do it. After the hour ferry ride out to the island we quickly took a tour the island seeing where the lime quarry (read the book, but where they made the prisoners work mining stones that they never used), house, church and the jail were situated. Then a tour through the prison with a former inmate of the prison. The man was jailed because his part in the anti-apartheid army that the ANC had formed. The tour showed the small cells and small spaces where the men were housed. And yes, we saw Nelson Mandela’s cell.

Another highlight of the area is Simon’s Town. And their Penguins. At a park called the Boulders, a colony of African penguins live. Quite amazing creatures to watch. There were a couple of boardwalks that snaked their way along the beach through the penguins’ habits. Interesting to see although they weren’t too playful as their molting season was just ending!

Hiring a car, it was to the east along the coast (prime whale watching country). We stopped in a town called Hermanus, but didn’t see anything. We continued down the coast to Gaansbai and sat along the cliffs. After about 15 minutes, several miles down the coast two whales are surfacing. We aren’t sure what kind, as it was the end of the season and they were far out to sea. It was either the Southern Right or the Humpback whale. After watching this oddly fascinating activity, we headed as far south as possible to Cape Agulhas, the southern most point in Africa. Very exciting, not really but kind cool to go all the way down there! It is also (debated) the point where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet…or so they say.

The following day was devoted to a small nature reserve, De Hoop, along the coast. Know for having the rare mountain zebra and again a great place to spot whales. My personal favorite was the white faced Hartebeest. The mountain zebra was pretty cool as it look like a zebra but you get dizzy faster looking at these because of their stripes! We did spot whales again. A lot farther out but these guys were a lot more playful breaching quite often.

(Andrea here – Adam developed carpel tunnel and I had to take over) Our next stop was a small town called Knysna. Not much exciting there – we wandered around the town trying to do things but a lot of stuff was closed. We did successfully hike up to the top of a big hill overlooking the town and the bay to some old fort ruins, and there was a street fair one night that kept us entertained. As it was a few days before Christmas, the street venders were really trying to sell their stuff. One woman stuck out – a Muslim woman in a traditional dress and veil (not over her face, just around her head) who had a santa hat flashing ‘2007’ on her head, a flashing pacifier sucker in her mouth and a light up toy gun in her hand. Wish I had my camera.

The next stop was Mossel Bay where we undertook quite an adventure – a 4 day SCUBA diving class! A friend came to join us, which was fun. The first day was classroom stuff all morning and then we went to a public pool where our instructor verified that we could actually swim. The next day started with classroom stuff again and ended in a different, thankfully private, pool where we donned our scuba gear for the first time and swam around this tiny underwater area for a few hours, learning how to breathe and do things like recover our respirator if it comes out of your mouth or clear water out of the mask. The next day was d-day – the first day in the ocean! We first had to do a snorkel to again prove that we could swim in the ocean, and then we put on all the gear (it’s so heavy!!) and walked in to the sea! It was a little scary at first. The visibility was not very good and as Adam and I were trying to descend (you always dive with a buddy!) to the ocean floor to join the others, we looked around and realized we didn’t know where the others were! But our instructor came to get us and show us the way. It was pretty crazy just sitting there on the ocean floor in a circle, reminding yourself that it was ok to breathe and listening to your breath escape in bubbles over your head but hearing nothing else. The surge was moving us around a little and it took some concentration and practice just to be able to sit upright and not fall over backwards! We had to go through the same drills all over again – learning to share air with our diving buddy in case of emergency and how to communicate when you can’t talk. That first day we saw lots of fish, an octopus, and a small pajama shark. The next day we did two more dives and the conditions were about the same. It’ll be nice to go somewhere with visibility that allows you to see farther than 6 feet! We saw some neat corals and fish as we tried to relax, get used to a completely different environment, and learn to control our buoyancy so we can swim up off the bottom, but don’t shoot up to the surface. It was a very neat experience and I hope we get a chance to continue diving. Mossel Bay was a nice place. They have a beautiful rocky coastline, and did I mention they also have the world’s second highest concentration of great white sharks?? There is an island just off the main beach where thousands of seals live – a great white’s favorite food! We didn’t see any, but we were assured they were out there. If you ever get the crazy notion to go shark cage diving, this is the place to do it, I guess! There is also some neat history to this town. As early as 1600 ships trying to reach the West Indies would stop in the sheltered bay where there was also a fresh water spring. There is a very huge and old tree where the passing ships would leave notes and packages for other ships to take back to Europe or carry to India.

Plettenburg Bay was next. We went sea kayaking on a beautiful, calm morning and paddled for an hour or so without seeing anything. Then our guide who is just ahead of us starts shouting at us to paddle fast and points out to sea. Coming fast towards us and parallel to the shore was a big pod of dolphins, periodically surfacing and leaping completely out of the water. We paddled hard to get in front of them and then turned the kayak to travel with them. It was amazing – they were all around us and there must have been at least 50 of them. They surfaced right next to our kayak, some were jumping out of the water, and swimming around and underneath us, and then they were gone, traveling so fast we couldn’t keep up. Turns out they were common dolphin, a species that is rarely seen so close to shore and even our guide was pumped up after the experience and he got on his cell phone (yes, he had his cell phone in a dry bag around his neck) to alert others in the area of their presence. It was an awesome experience – I can’t even describe the beauty and thrill of it.

We headed to a place called Tsitsikama National Forest for the Christmas holiday. It’s a strip of indigenous forest right alongside the ocean. Christmas day we hiked out to a beautiful and pretty remote cove with big green hills droping into a river mouth. A bunch of other people had the same idea though but it was still lovely. We had a big dinner that night with the staff of the hostel where we were staying, along with the hostel owner’s family and a handful of other families. It was a great meal – turkey, chicken, ham, stuffing, American style gravy (which we have never seen here!), vegetables and some amazing deserts – plum pudding flambé with brandy butter and a trifle with homemade ice cream. It was quite a feast and even though it wasn’t our family, it was nice to be around someone’s family and some other friendly travelers who became our family for a night. On Christmas Eve we had met a woman who worked at a nearby elephant sanctuary who gave us free passes to come visit. So the next day we had the cool experience of getting up close and personal with a small herd of young-ish elephants who were rescued from various strange situations (one was a house pet who got to big – duh!) and will one day be released into the wild again. We got to walk with them, trunk in hand, and get up close to see their ears and feet and tusks and in their mouths. They are amazing creatures!

We picked up another rental car to allow us to drive out to Addo Elephant Park near East London. It’s a big national park that has lots of, you guessed it, elephants! We expected to see a lot of elephants there but we really weren’t prepared for the amount of elephants we actually saw. The first morning we were there we saw a few at a small water hole, and one herd along the road. Then we stopped at a bigger water hole to eat lunch in the car and see what came along. Two solo male elephants wandered in from opposite directions and got fully into the water to roll around and splash mud everywhere. Then across the plains we could see two more male elephants come in. Then a whole herd appeared old mothers and young babies. Then two more herds. And another, and another. At one point there had to have been at least 100 elephants of all ages and sizes crowded around this big, but not THAT big water hole. They were all splashing and playing, a few of the adolescents were mock fighting with each other, and the babies were squealing and trumpeting while they played. Members of different herds greeted each other and enjoyed the cool water and mud. It was pretty cool to watch – I could have sat there all day, and we did indeed sit there for a long time. We spent a day and a half in the park and definitely got our fill of elephants. We also saw lots of zebra, kudu, hartebeest, buffalo, and others. We had three new sightings there too. We saw a fox at one of the watering holes, and a jackal on two different occasions. And we were driving down a road the last morning and found a big safari truck and one SUV parked on the side of the road so we pulled up to see what it was and there was a jackal mother with an adolescent cub just laying on the side of the road in broad daylight! They soon got up and slowly loped away, looking back at us as they went. That was the first hyena we have seen – weird creatures, but very neat. They definitely look powerful and a little menacing!

Next up was Coffee Bay where we would spend New Year’s. We drove in on a very, very scary road through the mountains with people, herds of sheep, goats, and cows wandering on the road alongside potholes bigger than our car (really.). Throw in a light rain and fog and we had a terrible and stressful trip! But we thankfully arrived safe and sound. We knew that a few other Peace Corps friends were going to be in Coffee Bay also, but upon arrival we bumped into 6 other people from the newest group of South African volunteers, and later found out that 6 others from our group were staying in the hostel across the street from ours. So we got to spend New Year’s surrounded by friends which was nice. New Years Eve day we took a small trip with the hostel to a beautiful spot on the coast where we took a 3-hour hike and got the chance to do some cliff jumping into a river. Adam did the highest one – they said it was 9 meters (27 feet) high, but I chickened out a little and only did the 7 meter one. It was scary up there as you look all the way down, and even though I had seen lots of other people do it and live, I just couldn’t make my feet jump! The area around Coffee Bay was beautiful – big green hills dropping off into the sea. We saw an African drumming show on New Year’s Eve, and then a DJ took over, who forgot to do a countdown to midnight!! What’s New Year’s Eve without a countdown?? We just heard corks popping all around us as people realized it was after midnight. Oh well. We hiked the next day along the coast to a place called hole in the wall, as it is a big rock cliff in the ocean with a hole in it.

Leaving Coffee Bay, we wanted to visit two isolated nature reserves on the coast that we had read about, but after driving for 3 hours on terrible roads (better weather this time though) we made it there and found that there was really nothing to see without a 4-wheel drive vehicle. That was a big disappointment. But we hiked to a waterfall and saw the ocean, had some lunch, and carried on to Cintas, another small town on the coast. A very windy place – great for the kite surfers there but it doesn’t make swimming or walking on the beach much fun – feels like you’re being sand blasted! We took a canoe up a river one day and then fought the wind to get back out. The moon was full one night while we were there and we took a walk on the beach. As we headed back in we walked across a patch of sand with a thin layer of water on top of it. Adam was in front of me and as he stepped on it, lights went off under his feet and spread out in a small circle. There were phosphorescent creatures in the water that glowed when agitated by our footsteps. It was really neat – with every step you took this weird green glow would radiate from your feet.

Our last adventure of the trip was a big one – a 6-day, 100 kilometer hike through the Amatola Mountains in the southeastern part of the country. The hike was a challenging one, but fun. The scenery was great and quite variable over the 6 days. We saw waterfalls every day, walked across open fields, through cultivated pine forests, and wonderful indigenous forests with towering trees. It’s not quite as hardcore as it sounds – there are huts along the way, and you sleep in a bed each night. They provide firewood for cooking and fresh water and there’s even a shower. Don’t get me wrong though – we hiked about 18 kilometers each day (about 10 miles) and were exhausted by the time we got to the hut. And food is heavy! Our first two days went well aside from sore shoulders and feet. We arrived at the hut on the second day just as it started to rain. We naively thought ‘hey, this can’t last all night’. I awoke several times throughout the night to pouring rain and thunder. Still raining the next morning, we put off leaving as long as possible, hoping it would stop or at least slow down, but no. Still thinking ‘hey, this can’t last all day’ we set out. Wrong again. We stayed semi-dry for the first hour or so and then we had to cross the waterfall. I’m sure on a regular day, the waterfall crossing would be no big deal, but it had been pouring for over 12 hours and the waterfall we crossed was raging and angry. We crossed on a tier of the falls – water shooting down from a ledge above on our right, and water tumbling off another ledge to our left. Kinda scary, but we plunged in, got soaked, and made it across. The rest of the day was terrible. The rain did not stop. It was supposed to the day where we saw some of the best waterfalls, but we chose to bypass that route and take forest roads to the hut. It still took us 7 hours of hiking through the pouring rain, not stopping because we got too cold when we stopped moving, to get to the hut where we climbed into dry clothes and right into our sleeping bags to warm up before cooking and eating two meals in four hours. The rain finally stopped in the evening and the next day the sun broke through and came back to warm us. The rest of the hike was great – again, beautiful scenery. We stumbled into the town of Hogsback, named for the mountains with rocky cliff tops that look like the hair on the back of a wild pig, on day 6, hungry and tired and glad to be done, but it was a good hike. The area where we were hiking is rumored to be a place where JRR Tolkien spent some time as a child and they say he modeled some of the landscapes in Lord of the Rings after that area. As we were hiking, it definitely seemed like it could be true. Walking through those indigenous forest with enormous trees towering over your head, it’s hard not to feel a bit like a hobbit, and I wouldn’t have been shocked if one of those trees bent down to talk.

Our adventures over, we started the long trip home. It took us three days. It could have taken two, but we lingered in Kimberly for a day for one last shower and the chance to pay someone else to do our laundry. Back in the village, school started again for the teachers on Monday and for the kids on Wednesday. We have a few plans of things we want to accomplish this year, but can’t help looking forward to September and our time here being finished. Our schools have been declared free for all who want to attend, which has led to an increase in roll. The first grade class at our village’s school has 51 kids. One teacher. One classroom. And 90% of them haven’t attended school before. (There is a preschool in the next village over run by the Catholic Church, but it costs money and only the well off kids, or kids whose parents know the value of an education, go there). So imagine that, all of you who teach or have experience with first graders. Things are different here!

A few things changed at home while we were away, mainly our sister, Malebogo left to attend school at Mafikeng, about 4 hours from here. She’s going to be studying catering. Her son had just learned to walk when we left and was at the cutest stage, but he has gone to stay with our mom’s sister in the next village over so the house seems empty without the both of them. Our brother Paseka has passed to the third grade and is doing well. He got the chance to go see a friend in Johannesburg over break, which is quite a trip for a boy from the village. He was ecstatic because he got to go to a soccer match at the big stadium in town.

Well I hope this letter finds all of you well. No, we didn’t go MIA over the holidays, just a long vacation and limited access to computers. Hope you didn’t miss us too much! I hope you all enjoyed your holidays and had a chance to relax and enjoy life a little bit. We missed our family and friends, and thought of you all at home eating Christmas-time treats and were jealous! Love to you all. A & A

See mom, not that far!?!?

Penguins at Simon’s Town

Table Mountain and the city from the ferry to Robben Island

The place of Two Oceans

Rare Mountain Zebra

SCUBA Divers!!!

A beautiful cove at Nature’s Valley

Elephants at Addo Park…Awesome

The Wild Coast

The Amatola Mountains

A couple of the stunning waterfalls

10 December 2006

2006-12-10T07:41:00.000-08:00

05 December 2006
Already December…and today was the last day of work for the year. YEAH! We are very excited about our trip. We venture out tomorrow to see Cape Town and the coast of South Africa.

The past week has been jammed packed with our host brother’s wedding. This wasn’t a few day affair. Preparations began months ago but they turned to full speed beginning last Monday, 27 Nov. There were a minimum of 15 people working about 15 hour days preparing for the coming home of the bride.

The beginning of the week involved finishing any projects that could be finished (did some grout work along with some tiling of the front steps) and extensive cleaning (the kind of cleaning that would bring even my mother to tears). There were woman everywhere cleaning everything in their path. As Saturday (wedding day) neared, so did the number of people. Part of the unwritten agreement is if you help with the preparations, there is a hot meal reward. So the giant cast iron pots were in use for a week, turning out huge amounts of food. To get all this food, meat was needed. You don’t get meat from a store here, you make it yourself. Thursday was slaughtering day. It started in the morning with a sheep. And then another sheep in the early afternoon. But the excitement was still on the way. A cow was on the menu. I was interested because slaughtering things smaller than you isn’t a problem seeing as you can hold it down. I was interested to see how things work for large animals.

Boy, I wasn’t disappointed. The cow was delivered in the back of a small pickup truck. Once arrived, the slaughtering began quickly for a couple of reasons. One being is the sun was setting fast and it is easier to butcher something with light & two, the man with the truck still had two more deliveries to make…a goat and a sheep. As the cow laid tied up, it was killed with a knife to the back of the neck.

Then about 10 men started the process of skinning, gutting, and section up this big boy. It was a lot more work that a sheep just because of the size…duh!? But highly fascinating. My knife sharpener (thanks UB&AN) was used a LOT because these old men helping have knives that I don’t think you could cut through butter with. But everyone worked on. When the knife or even the saw was too dull to make the grade, someone would grab a large dull axe and start wailing away on the carcass. Things don’t seem too amazing as much anymore. One of out host father’s favorite saying for the week was, “there is more than one way to skin a cat!” Oh so true in rural life.

Saturday finally came…after working until about 1am both previous night!? It was very exciting. The day starts with both families meeting in a room with the bride and groom. The parents are not allowed to talk and the aunts and uncles lecture the new couple about how to treat each other along with other life lessons. Once that is complete, the bride leaves again for her main entrance.

The way the ceremony starts is the bride and her family begin walking from several blocks away. The groom leaves his house with all his family. Both groups are singing songs and walking towards each other until they meet in the middle. Joining together, they then walk as one big family back to the groom’s home where the tent was setup and the ceremony was to commence. My favorite part was after they had finally met in the middle, and a song broke out with the lyrics something like, “Bride show me your figure”, at which point the groom would spin her around to loud screams. This was a traditional wedding and both the bride and groom were decked out in modern traditional dress. The bride was once again stunning.

The ceremony was nothing out of the ordinary. There was a short church service done by the local Father. Then several speeches by various friends and family. The service began about 11 with the tent filled with people. By 1, the tent was packed and overflowing with people and children from all over the village. People just take a while to get going and get to the party. There were probably 400+ people by the time the food was being served. The children were sent to the back of the house to be served and everyone had a delicious meal served by those dedicated men and women who had been running around all week preparing!

Following food was pictures at a park. Followed by a BBQ at the house. The party ended kind of early (10) due to the fact that all of the workers were walking zombies by the end of the day. But don’t worry, Sunday morning, 6:30 things were up and running and large amount of food was again being cooked. Sunday was cleanup day…as the house and yard was trashed from the party. So all the people that had spent a week preparing, take all day Sunday to clean up and reassemble the house as it was.

By Monday I was so tired I took two naps and still went to bed early. The wedding was a great success and a lot less chaotic to the other weddings that we have been to here. We had some guests as well, as an old friend of Andrea’s from high school and his wife (aka Erik and Rachel) came and joined us in the festivities. They are in SA for a few weeks of their around the world honeymoon (sounds like fun…they gave us some good advice!) They had some good timing to be able to join us for the wedding and it was fun to share all this craziness with them.

And today, the schools close for the year!!!!

Road Trip!!!
Thabo

Lots of Food means Lots of GIANT pots and lots of FIRE

Cow Head Anyone

Bride meeting the Groom on the streets of the village

The happy couple

Us and the African Parents

10 December 2006

2006-12-10T07:32:00.000-08:00

29 November 2006

Happy Belated Thanksgiving to you all. I hope you got to celebrate with some loved ones and eat some good food. We got to do exactly that. All of Peace Corps South Africa was invited to Pretoria to celebrate with our new ambassador and his wife at their home – definitely a mansion by my current standards, and probably even my old ones. Their home is set up on top of a hill in a ritzy neighborhood with a great view of the city of Pretoria below, especially for those of us no longer used to hills. As he welcomed all of us, he gave us news that almost brought tears to my eyes. He said we deserved a traditional American dinner, and that they had even gone so far as to have Butterball turkeys and Kayro syrup (which doesn’t exist here) flown in from the US. He said he had been working with his Mozambiquan chef for the past few weeks to perfect pecan and pumpkin pies and things like stuffing and cranberry sauce. Then he told us to feel at home, go explore the house and the grounds, and pointed us in the direction of the two open bars. What a guy!! We thought it was going to be a large dinner for all the Embassy staff as well, but it turned out to be Peace Corps Volunteers and staff and a handful of others. We had a wonderful time, and ate until we were stuffed, and then had large platefuls of dessert. The pecan pie was to die for!! Thank god for Kayro syrup. When time was up, none of us wanted to leave – partly because it was a wonderful place with great food and free drinks, and partly because our stomachs were too full to move. Needless to say, it was a fabulous and very American experience, and we are forever indebted to this guy, even if he was appointed by Bush. :o)

We spent an extra day in Pretoria, allowing our stomachs to shrink back to normal size and using cheap internet and then headed home to our last full week of school. It’s a chaotic time, where teaching doesn’t exactly happen, but educators rush around trying to fill out last minute forms and report cards. The big happening in our life at the moment is the upcoming wedding #2 for our host brother. This Saturday, he will bring his bride home to her new family and they will basically have another wedding all over again, this time in our village. The number of people at our house increases daily as people come from near and far to help finish projects like tiling the front and back porches, cleaning EVERYTHING top to bottom, gathering all the giant cast iron pots from the neighbors along with enough firewood to keep them cooking for 3 days straight, and many other preparations. It’s organized chaos, and maybe not even so organized. I went to get a pitcher of water out of our family’s big water can yesterday, and instead came up with a pitcher of traditional beer. I can’t keep track of all the changes! We are also very excited to host my friend Erik from high school and his wife Rachel, who are in South Africa for part of a long honeymoon and are going to travel very far to visit us and experience this wedding chaos first hand.

I would like to say thanks to those of you who have sent us children’s books for our school’s libraries. We are keeping them all at our home for now, and plan to begin with the libraries next year. It is a project I am very excited about. I would just like to request that anyone else who wishes to send books does so by M-bag at the post office. We have had regular boxes sent and have had to pay LARGE fees to pick them up from the post office for whatever reason (customs and what not). And it’s cheaper for you, the sender, to send by M-bag as well – it’s $1/lb of books. Also, when they ask how much the books are worth, try to keep that amount small, especially if they’re used books, as we think the declared value has something to do with the amount we have to pay for pick up. Thanks!

Lastly I would like to give two quick shout-outs to friends at home. I have heard two pieces of happy news lately, so just wanted to say congrats to Katie H. on her engagement, and another congratulations to Andy & Colleen on their marriage. I wish you all the best.

Andrea

The Spread

The Pad of the Ambassador....USA!

18 November 2006

2006-11-17T23:35:00.000-08:00

17 November 2006

Time keeps on flying by, at least most of the times. The school year is coming to a crashing halt. Actual teaching has been done for a few weeks. Tests are ending now too, but there is still two more official weeks of school!? I am confused to. People here are also realizing that we only have 9 more months of work here to do. They are scared that they won’t get all the things they wanted out of us…funny how that is because we have spent the last year sitting!

Last Saturday was the pre-Turkey Day Turkey. Yes, it involved turkeys. Two of our friends lost the life to a delicious afterlife on our dinner table. Their names where Thomas (because it starts with a T and so does turkey…!) and Monate (Setswana for delicious).

The happening took two day. Day 1 was slaughtering day followed by Day 2 (can you guess)…Eating Day (my favorite!)

Slaughtering day was exciting as usual. The event started out with myself, Jeff and Matt handling all the activities ourselves. This is kind of scary since I am the most experienced slaughterer and I honestly don’t really know what to do. I do know the first thing to do though!? Looking all over for the ax (the nicest way for a turkey to go) was priority number one. After not finding the family’s ax, I asked the neighbor for an ax. After about 5 minutes the boy brought an ax…if that is what you want to call it. I would have called it a hammer. I know people aren’t big on having sharp things to slaughter their animals but this ax was more round than sharp. Not a good recipe for peacefully killing our dinner. Alternative number two. Knife. After catching Thomas, it was the inevitable faith of dinner. The knife was sharp…as it was mine! After killing and defeathering, our backup finally arrived. The lady a stones throw away came to help out. Which is good, because she actually knows what she is doing. That sped things up. After Thomas was gutted and hung on the clothes line to dry, it was Monate’s turn. Thomas was a petite bird…Monate on the other hand was the big poppa!

Day 2 started out early. Getting the birds prepped for their big day of being slow roasted to deliciousness! We started cooking at 8. Ate at about 15:30. The only major obstacle AND scare for that matter was the brief power failure that we experienced at about 12:30. This could have turned into a bigger problem…but lucky it was only for 1 hour! So at 15:30, 9 of us American sat down to an old fashion Thanksgiving dinner (we are going to Pretoria for actual Thanksgiving Day to celebrate with the ambassador and his friends.) It was great to come together and reflect on the last year…and look forward to less than a year!

What Jeff here is thinking, ‘Yes, the head just fell right off…I don’t know what happened!’

Our little Indian girl

Grabbing Monate and taking him to the cutting block (or tin panel?)

10 November 2006....it's been a while

2006-11-09T23:42:00.000-08:00

Three weeks of silence on our part and not much to show for it. We have been away from home for quite a while, attending two different workshops at a lodge near Kuruman, and in-between, attending our mid-service conference in Rustenburg. The mid-service conference was fun because we got to stay at a nice hotel, eat excellent food, and hang out with all the other PCV’s from our group for a week. The food was so amazing – they even had a Mexican-themed night – you just don’t find Mexican food in South Africa – complete with taco shells, guacamole and salsa! And they had blueberry muffins in the morning with real blueberries in them! Another thing I have never seen here… Afterwards, we headed up to Polokwane to visit our old host family from training. It was great to see them again and they were so excited to have us back. A lot has changed there, and all for the better. Our father has retired and spends his days herding the cattle, sheep and goats out to the fields and back, which he enjoys. Our sister has gotten married and has been in training to become a security guard, and the brother has become a taxi driver and seems to love it. They have painted the house, put in new tile floors and gotten some new furniture so it seems as though they have been successful.

Back on the home front we are nearing the end of the last school term. We recently applied for a grant through the Peace Corps Partnership Program, to build new toilets at one of our schools, and it was funded less than a week after being posted on the internet, so thanks to all of you who donated. We are purchasing the materials today and hope to start building next week to be done before the end of the school year. It’s pretty exciting to have something like that in the works – visual progress!

Thanksgiving is fast approaching and we have been invited to the new ambassador’s house to celebrate. Our family here couldn’t accept that we wouldn’t be having that big party with all the good food, though, so we decided to hold a village celebration as well which will be happening this weekend. I think we’re going to have 7 other Americans here this year, and our host father has succeeded in tracking down two fat turkeys for us, which are happily living in the chicken pen, unaware of their fate. I’m sure we’ll have some photos and stories to share next time. Until then…

The early bird for the early Thanksgiving.

Our two friends that will be our dinner tomorrow

7 October 2006

2006-10-07T01:54:00.000-07:00

Aah, where to begin? I think the appropriate place would be at 2:45 A.M. (yes, in the morning) on the 21st of Septmeber, when we were roused from our peaceful but short slumber to begin the journey to our host brother’s wedding. Why 2:45 you ask? I think that’s something I’m still trying to figure out. See, we had to arrive in time to purchase and slaughter sheep…so maybe that’s the answer. In any case, we piled into the combi (van) with the entire family and then some. And just when we were thinking that the van was packed to the brim and could not fit anyone else, we picked up two more people along with their giant suitcase and about 6 20-litre (5 gal) buckets full of cookies. It was so crammed in there we could hardly breathe, let alone get any sleep. But we made it safely to Bloemfontein in a record 9 hours (and I mean the slowest record– the trip usually takes about 6) and that’s all that matters. We bought some sheep and arrived at our sister-in-law-to-be’s house to the joyous singing and ululations of her family. The women went inside to have tea and cookies and a chat, and the men went out to start the slaughtering. We basically hung out in various villages in and around Bloemfontein for the next two days, and the wedding began on Saturday. Most of the time we didn’t know what was going on or where we would be dragged to next, but all in all it was a good time. The wedding was of course beautiful – both bride and groom looked exhausted but radiant. Photos followed at a park (anyone who goes to the wedding will go to watch the photos be taken), and then on to the reception, which was held in a giant tent at a soccer field. The reception includes about 10 speeches by various family and friends, a couple of toasts, some traditional dancing, lots of singing, and ends with a big meal. South African weddings are unique in that you don’t have to be invited to come. There were a couple of hundred people there, and the free food enticed a few more to join in. Later that night, we found ourselves exhausted and waiting for a bus that was an hour late, fighting to stay awake until we could make it to our seats. We slept on the bus and woke up in sunny Durban to begin our vacation.
There is a large Indian population in Durban and no one can get away without sampling some fine cuisine. So our first stop was to meet up with our two friends who would be joining us on our vacation at an Indian take-away joint and eat some bunny chow. Bunny chow? Yep. No idea why it’s called that, but it’s a hollowed-out ¼ loaf of bread filled with the curry of your choice with the middle part of the bread put back on top. It’s basically edible Tupperware – genius! And quite tasty. We rented a car and headed north, up the coast to a touristy town called St. Lucia. The town is set on an estuary where a big river flows into the Indian Ocean, and is home to many, many crocodiles and hippos. We hiked out to find some when we arrived, but discovered nothing aside from our fear of finding a hippo out of water as it was getting to be dusk.
That night we joined in a bonfire on the beach that our backpackers had arranged and I got to dip my feet into a new ocean (Indian) by the light of the moon and stars. The next day called for some hiking in a nature reserve. We were following the path through a big open field when we come to a huge electric fence with wooden stairs leading up and over and a large sign with this warning: “DANGER! You are now entering a dangerous game area. You could encounter animals such as buffalo, rhino, buffalo, hippo, elephant, leopard and crocodiles, which occur in this area and are very dangerous. Please note that you walk in this area at entirely your own risk.” So up and over we go! The path leads out to the river where we find a nice little crocodile basking on the bank and can see and hear a pod of hippos out in the water. Don’t worry – we kept our distance and therefore still have all our fingers and toes, and arms and legs. We spent that afternoon on the beach, playing in the powerful waves and then headed out on a hippo cruise in the evening. The river cruise was pretty cool – we came across about 4 different pods of hippos with maybe 15 adults in each. They were starting to get ready for their evening on land and we saw some younger hippos play-fighting with each other, jaws wide. We also got to spot some very cool birds – such as the goliath heron, the largest heron in the world, the beautiful and majestic fish eagle, and the malachite kingfisher that was repeatedly hovering over and plunging into the river in search of dinner. We also saw a crocodile on the bank that had to have been 8-10 feet long.
That night, we learned from the staff at the backpackers that if you drive around at night you can spot hippos out grazing and wandering around the town. So we piled into the car and drove off, but didn’t see anything except for the tail end of an otter. Our companions were tired, but Adam and I set out again a little later and just as we were about to give up, we come around a corner and our headlights catch the glowing eyes and massive bodies of three hippos out on the prowl. There they are, two adults and a juvenile right on the side of the road, chowing down on the grass! We followed them for a while but kept our distance – we were in a rental car and were a little wary of getting too close to Africa’s deadliest animal (hippos kill more people than any animal in Africa…don’t get between them and the water!!!). They ended up just grazing through some people’s front yard! Who needs a lawnmower, just get a hippo! They literally don’t stop eating – those big bodies need a lot of fuel. The next day held much of the same – hiking in the game reserve again where we saw impala, wildebeest, and zebra and then hitting the beach in the afternoon. We drove again that night in search of hippos and found two more, just grazing away in a river-side park. Insanity! Some locals said that especially in the summer, you will be just walking down the street after a night at the bar and see hippos strolling down the street too. There were signs all over the town – especially near grassy fields warning about hippos and crocodiles.
The next day, we headed a little farther north to Sondwana Bay, which is famous for its diving. We don’t dive (hopefully we are going to learn next trip), but thought the snorkeling would be good there too, but it really wasn’t. There were some shallow reefs right at the beach’s edge and we got to see an eel, some lionfish, and Adam saw an octopus, along with some colorful fish. The weather wasn’t great though so we didn’t really get our money’s worth, but it was still cool. The beach was beautiful with green hills fading into sand dunes and into the sea. We stayed a night there and the next day headed inland to Hluhluwe-Imfolozi (try saying that three times fast) National Park. We toured around in our car on our own and saw tons of rhino, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, buffalo, impala, nyala, elephants, monkeys and baboons. The first elephant we encountered was a large male just strolling down the road right at us. That made me a little nervous and we quickly reversed to safety. A little later on, we saw a few more elephants in the trees on the side of the road and stopped to watch. There was a noise that sounded like a dog barking and then the whole herd emerged from the trees, crossed the road right behind us and disappeared on the other side. There must have been 30 of them – all sizes and ages. It was really amazing to see all these elephants materialize out of the trees and then just disappear again. The park was really lovely with green rolling hills and those classic African acacia trees.
The place where we stayed that night has a family of bushbabies that lives on the grounds and they feed them bananas at night. They are these strange primates that look like a cross between a monkey and a squirrel with huge, staring eyes. Kinda creepy but cute at the same time. Unfortunately we had to head back to Durban the next day. We hung out on the beach for a few hours and came across the FIFA beach soccer world cup qualifying matches being held there. It was free to get in so we watched Cameroon beat Egypt. The next day we began the long, long trip home by spending 15 ½ hours in a combi to reach Kimberly. Now we’re back in the village. The last term of the school year is underway, as the holidays quickly approach. Can’t believe it’s already October! Well, those are our latest adventures. Hope you are all well and happy wherever you are.
Lerato

The bride, groom (host brother) and our proud host parents

Our two host brothers (aka our brothers from another mother) and us

Take a walk on the wild side…this ain’t no walk around the block

Sneaking up on a field of impala, zebra and wildebeest

Hippos in the water

Close up

More close ups

Duh!?

Rhinos (It’s not my rhino!!!!!!!!!)

Field of rhinos, giraffes and zebras…just how I imagined Africa

Bush baby

15 September 2006

2006-09-15T01:37:00.000-07:00

September 14, 2006

Last week we had a not-so-exciting trip to Pretoria for our mid-term health exams. What a joke! We both saw the good doctor for about 5 minutes, which involved taking our blood pressure, feeling our major organs, and asking if we were ok. You get what you pay for I guess...the health care is free for a reason. Then we were declared fit. Whew! So glad we traveled 10 hours one-way to Pretoria for that (but I know our moms will be happy to hear it!)! We did have a dentist appointment too, and I got new glasses as mine had broken the week before. The highlight of the trip was eating some scrumptious Thai food and hanging out with a few other friends who were in town for the same reasons. Monday was Adam’s birthday, I’m sure you noticed the date, and we celebrated with some homemade chocolate chip cookies (complete with REAL brown sugar!) and a coconut cake with chocolate frosting. I tried to make it special but sometimes special days here feel like just another day. Or maybe that’s just because we’re getting older and birthdays aren’t the celebration they used to be. Regardless it was a celebration, and yummy! (It was a special day…the wife made it that way. I was king for the day!)

Other than that, the last weeks have been business as usual, which means there isn’t much to report. One of the village youth asked Adam to help him set up a village volleyball team and they had their first ‘practice’ this week. We both played and have the red forearms to prove it! South African volleyballs are painful! But it was fun, and just nice to see someone with initiative. There isn’t much to do for the youth in this village, and it’s great to watch someone come up with a way to occupy his free time, organize his friends, and DO SOMETHING!

Another piece of news from this week was the delivery of brand new computers to three of our four primary schools from the Department of Education. The teachers are excited about it, but it’s coming at a bad time. Two of these schools have yet to receive their annual budget from the Department (on which they heavily depend), and have pretty much no money in the bank. Two of our schools don’t have adequate theft protection and are worried about the computers getting stolen, but can’t do anything about it because they have no money. But they go on and hope and pray they are still there the next day, and will probably end up moving them someplace else until they can strengthen the school’s security.

I’m sure some of you saw that South Africa was in the news lately, from the world AIDS conference in Toronto. The wonderful minister of health of the country with the highest number of infected people in the world, set up a booth that advocated natural items such as garlic, lemon, and beetroot as practical alternatives to ARV’s (Anti-Retro Virals – the current best medication for treating people with AIDS). She was subsequently ridiculed by many leading AIDS experts at the convention, and every day in the news here are stories of AIDS groups calling for her dismissal. It’s interesting to watch and to see what will happen.

I feel like we talk a lot about what we do here, especially with our free time, but that we don’t really describe village life all that much and the challenges people face. I’d like to start talking about other things and guess I’m starting today. I know a lot of you are curious about what this place is really like, and if you have questions that you want answered, just drop us and e-mail and we’ll see what we can do to answer it. We finally got our hands on some Census statistics of our villages (we only have stats for three of the four, however). The numbers were really interesting and to give you guys a better view of what these villages are like, I’ll pass some along. First up is the population. The largest village is the one that we live in, which has almost 1900 people. The others weigh in at 820 and 340. Pretty tiny! The vast, vast majority of people never completed high school. In fact in our host village, only 173 out of 1,900 people graduated from, or exceeded high school. In our host village, 1,370 people have no monthly income (I think this excludes government pensions and child support grants which is what most people live on), and the other two villages have similar unemployment percentages. Only 9 households in all three villages have a flush toilet. And the majority dispose of all waste by disposing of it (most likely burning it) somewhere in their own yard. These stats are from 2001, so I’m sure some things have changed a little, but it was our first glimpse into any kind of statistics on these villages. Pretty interesting, and at the same time overwhelming. It really outlines how much farther this government has to come to create true equality and help its poorest citizens rise up. It’s quite a challenge.

Well, I think that’s about all this time around. I hope you are all healthy and happy and enjoying fall as we greet the rising temperatures of spring. Take care,

Lerato

Birthday Boy getting older AND WISER!!!

Look at me…and my BLACK tongue (yes she was sick today)

08 September 2006

2006-09-08T07:13:00.000-07:00

5 September 2006

Another week gone. Last week we (meaning me, Andrea and our friend Matt) finished our first World Map. It turned out well…looked pretty much like the world, so that is good. The learners were eagerly watching (sometimes too eager…) and telling us what countries they know. Brazil seems to be the big winner so far, this due to their famous soccer team.

We learned a lot about what to do and NOT to do with this project and our second school’s map went a lot faster. School number two’s was also a lot bigger of a map (being about 2 x 4 m). Again no major problems…and any small problems you just paint over, wish life was that easy! It was very enjoyable because we are having some learners help by painting different countries. The schools have done fundraising by selling the opportunity to paint a country. So we have had grades 1-7 helping us paint some countries. Some learners are very meticulous while others are far from it. Some do a very good job and other need some of that touch up. Touch up is a great thing along with being a bad cartographer. Some countries may acquire new land all through the stroke of a brush…what can you do!?

Off to Pretoria tomorrow for our yearly check up. They will check our pulse and send us on our way!

The first world map…School 1

Step 17, Paint Countries

Step 28, Paint Countries

Number Two and the Crew

26 August 2006

2006-08-26T01:04:00.000-07:00

23 August, 2006

It’s springtime here in South Africa, and you know what that means. Flowers! And not just any flowers, desert flowers. Last weekend we grabbed two friends, took a taxi to Upington, rented a car, and drove west to Namaqualand. The spring flowers of Namaqualand are legendary here. We were near a town called Springbok – about 3-4 hours west of Upington, and let me tell you there’s not much between the two. We drove through some of the emptiest land I have ever seen, and yes, I have driven through Nevada. We barely even saw other cars, and maybe 4 farmhouses. It was beautiful though, in a rustic way. We camped out in Springbok – some of the only people in the campground in an actual tent, not the giant RV complete with TV, fridge, stove and toilet that most Afrikaaners call ‘camping’. They were the smart ones that night though because it was COLD! There was frost outside our tent door in the morning. But never fear, the outrageous South African temperature swing had us in shorts and t-shirts by noon. We set out early for the nearby national park. We were too early – the flowers hadn’t woken up yet. So we headed out for a hike and watched the flowers open along the way. They were everywhere! Every color and variety you can imagine and even some you can’t. Flowers were blooming on every patch of dirt in sight and some even right out of cracks in the rocks. It was quite amazing. After the hike we went on a little drive. The most spectacular displays are in the open fields, which are just awash in orange and purple, yellow and white. It was really incredible and I have never seen anything like it. I really can’t find the words to describe it, so I’m going to include some pictures too.
Back in the village, life is busy. We have started the World Map Project, the calling card of any Peace Corps education volunteer. It involves - you guessed it - painting large maps of the world on an exterior wall of the school, as a resource and decoration. This week we started painting the first of our world maps. We have only had one minor problem so far – the realization that overhead projectors don’t work really well in the middle of the day. So Tuesday evening we hopped on our bikes and rode the half-hour to school to trace the projected map after the sun had gone down. That attracted some attention! But we got it drawn, and then had a wonderful half-hour ride back home in the pitch-black African night. I mean we could hardly even see the lines on the road, much less those cows and donkeys that wander around all the time. But it was a cool experience, alone on our bikes in the dark, quiet, veld, and we made it home safely. A friend is coming next week to help us paint at the rest of our schools, in return for us helping him paint his schools too. We’ll include some photos soon.

Take care,
Lerato

18 August 2006

2006-08-18T00:06:00.000-07:00

18 August 2006

One year down…
It is one year today that the plane touched down on African soil. Since then, we HAVE looked back, forward, and all around. And we have even looked at the same wall for hours on end. Life has changed, sure, but that is why you live life, no? All is well here. We are healthy (a few more bowel movements than anyone should expect) and happy (there are good and then the not so good times)! Culture shock has been quite the experience with a lot of head shaking and disbelief. But learning to live with it and enjoying it is half the fun. Learning to laugh at yourself, even more than normal, is essential. The thing that we have always been the most worried about is not going from home to the third world, but after the next year…coming back to the hustle and bustle of home and a job! That is the scariest thought. If I actually do three hours of solid work in a WEEK, it has been a VERY productive week. I have worked until 16:00 three days this week…very uncharacteristic!?(Yes, I put my good three hours in this week!) Just imagine having to work 8 or 9 hours in a day…NOOOOOOOoooooo! Life here has taught me how easy a life I have had growing up. Never having to worry about where the next meal will come from (it is hard thinking about how some of these kids sleep with hunger), always having the love when I get home (it’s usually tough love here…), and things to do (kids just don’t have a lot to do in the village). And I have learned that education probably is the most important thing in a kids’ life (thanks mom and dad for giving me a good one!) and that is one of the only ways to lift these kids up.

On the South African road of life, there are many potholes, bumps and bad shoulders, but with all of that…the scenery is beautiful and that is a real lion roaring at night.

“Life is a journey, not a destination” -Aerosmith

Things we miss from home
Hot showers everyday
Central heating
Fresh Bagels with cream cheese
Not crapping in a hole with flies on my ass
Brown sugar
Chocolate chips
Mama Lib’s famous chocolate chip cookies (please send some…)
My bikes
Family
Friends
Beating Les in racquetball
Meyer’s Dairy and all of its wonderful goodness
Recycling
Variety of restaurant
Barnes & Noble
Sports
Water coming out of a faucet IN your home

Things we don’t miss from home
9 to 5 work day
Only 10 days of vacation a YEAR (not every 3 months?)
Driving and traffic
Abercrombie & Fitch and the like

Things that we won’t miss after two years here
Eating liver
The village walk a.k.a. walking so incredibly slow that you are more tired than if you would have sprinted to the same location
Being lied to regularly.
Garbage blowing in the wind
Eating liver
Being offered feet, head or intestines of an animal
Having no clue what is going on
The WIND
The extreme temperatures…either it is WAY TOO hot or WAY TOO cold!
Watching where you step…you don’t know which animal walked here before you
GOATS (My archenemy here!)
Afrikaaner ‘rock’ music
Cramming 15 people into a van

Things that we will miss after two years here
Working maybe 3 hours a day (a good day)
Donkeys everywhere
Traffic jams consisting of goats, sheep, cows and donkeys
Baby chickens
Our host family
Look on the children’s faces
Being offered feet, head or intestines of an animal
Lending a much needed hand
Slaughtering dinner
Steam bread, stew, fat cakes custard and other favorites that our African mom makes!
Being the minority
Being able to say hello to everyone you walk by in the village
Having no clue what is going on
Slaughtering Thanksgiving dinner
The sunsets, sunrises, and stars
Asking what I’m eating and why
Cramming 15 people into a van

Cheers to 1 year in Africa!
Sharp,
Thabo

12 August 2006

2006-08-12T00:30:00.000-07:00

Another day, another dollar (literally).

Last weekend was taken up by my attendance of our host grandmother’s 90th birthday party. She is alive and kicking quite well. She still has many of her teeth which is more impressive than one would think considering half the population over 50 are missing most of theirs. She is still quite sharp and would give her say of things without even thinking about it! Being 90 means she was born in 1916, which is crazy. But the funny thing is she speaks English pretty well.
It was a two-day party…and one goat did lose its life! It started Saturday, which was her official birthday. Although here, people tend to not really know when they were born, both day and year! Saturday was a family bbq with a giant cake. They really like really big cakes here, not a bad thing for a sweet tooth. It was a small gathering with a lot of family and a few friends. Nothing over adventurous…she is 90 after all.
Sunday consisted of an at home church service (perks of when you are 90, church comes to you!?) to celebrate 90 years and then eating an entire goat with samp(boiled corn stuff). Yes about 30 people were able to eat an entire goat…quite impressive. I helped but I can’t do anything compared to the big mommas here!
School was a normal (at least South African normal) this week. The highlight was when one educator asked me “How long is a meter stick?”…welcome to my world.
I have been helping my African parents with wedding invitation for the oldest brothers wedding in September. They think that I am a magician with the computer. And at one point (as everyone already knows….!) during the week, my host mother called me “perfect”. It made Lerato roll her eyes and gag. She said it went to my head, but I just like hearing it every once in a while!!!

The Birthday Grandmother (yes it’s a wig) and some (I lost track at 10 or so) grandkids

Sister’s Brother’s Aunt’s Mother-In-Laws Cousin’s Daughter…or something like that. The Family trees here are crazy…anyways, the kid is cute

Host mother wearing a wig! Funny

Grandma with cake smeared on here face…its some sort of weird tradition!?

04 August 2006

2006-08-05T00:48:00.000-07:00

04 August 2006

As I now have younger brothers (Paseka is 8 and Tlalefo is 1 in August), I can now see what it is like to be a big brother. And as I slowly grow up (let me emphasize the slowly) and become an adult I am beginning to see things in a different light. It cracks me up…

Paseka is 8 and in Grade 2. He has more than a vast majority of the children in the village and most of the time he deals with that gracefully! He is what I would consider tall and skinny. Actually I would consider him a twig, and I am guessing this was how I was built when I was that young. I can’t really remember back then, though. I do remember high school as time of eating…and lots of it. I assuming when I was younger I has a big appetite as well. BUT Paseka would eat all day. His biological mother visited this past weekend. What that usually involves is a trip to town (that is a big deal for the kids in the village and doesn’t happen very often at all) and some new stuff. She usually brings clothes for him so he can look sharp. He usually gets to pick out a toy while in town. Along with the most important thing…going grocery shopping. What this usually involves is A LOT of sweets. And when I say a lot, I mean I couldn’t consumer them in a week a lot. But starting Saturday afternoon, he has been consuming cookies, candy, chocolate at an alarming rate. Saturday and Sunday he was living any kids dream. No one cared what he was eating. He didn’t eat his dinner because he had and was eating sweets ALL day. Yesterday was the best though. After eating about half of his actual dinner. He ate a piece of cake, some biscuits, and custard. I had made authentic (now that my mother brought real brown sugar from home) chocolate chip cookies, He had two of those and then hit the half. He could really talk or eat any more (yes, it goes back to that one time in high school when I ate so much food at Patty’s restaurant that I went to the bathroom and puked because I literally couldn’t fit anymore food in me!)! He was distraught and defeated…all he could do was lick his wounds and go straight to bed. Hoping tomorrow he will feel better and attack the sweets one more time.

Pretty crazy when you think that it is already August. 18th of this month we will have been in South Africa!?!

Things are going well except for the weather. This week started with such promise. Saturday was nice and Sunday was summer like. Things change quick on the weather front in the middle of nowhere. By Wednesday the terrible chill was in the air with cold rain and STRONG wind. Friday it is finally starting to get nice again but they are once again predicting nights below freeze…I like my sleeping bag even more now!

Thabo

22 July 2006

2006-07-22T00:58:00.000-07:00

22 July 2006
Well, I don’t even know where to begin (it’s been a while!?). The first week back at school for term 3 has been going good (still a lot of down time but I did accomplish a few things this week!!!) I am all alone this week as the other half is somewhere else preparing for the new group of volunteers that will arrive at the end of this month. All I know is she is somewhere doing something while I slave away at home.
It’s been a while because we had school’s WINTER break. It’s the whole southern hemisphere thing you just won’t understand. The highlight was seeing the parents for the first time in almost a year (I’m sure my mother could tell you how long its been to the day but…..) So it was good to finally see them!
Our trip started out a few days before the folks arrived. We headed to the Northern Drakensbergs, a mountain range that cuts through South Africa providing some stunning scenery and great hiking opportunities. Getting there was a bit of a hassle with the public transport (that vans that they pack 15 people in) being less than reliable. We were broken down for a while on the side of the road. Fun times let me tell you. After an extra day of traveling we finally reached our destination of the mountains. It was COLD…I guess that is why they call it winter break! We spent almost 3 days relaxing and hiking A LOT. It was a lot of fun and the scenery was beautiful and very varied. Changing from dense forest to grassland in a matter of steps. Saw some great birds (Lerato is becoming quite the ornithologist) with one eagle soaring away with a snake in its talons. Took a guided trip up to some very well preserved Sans rock art. The San people are one of the earliest settlers in southern Africa and their art is pretty impressive to see and be explained (think cave man paintings!)
After the couple of days in the mountains it was off to Pretoria to meet up with the parents. They arrived well (there was a bit of a problem with the airport pick but we won’t go into detail) and weren’t as jet lagged as I thought they would have been. The first day we spent resting up for the safari.
The safari was incredible. (A few logistical problem, again not going into that) We spent the first few days cruising around Kruger National Park. One of the biggest and best game reserves in all of Africa (so I have been told). We sighted a lot of animals from impala and other antelopes to a few lions 100 m away. Elephants, buffalo, yellow-billed hornbills, giraffes and zebras. Kruger was a great place but the next three days were amazing. We stayed at a private game lodge and had amazing guides! The lodge itself a great little place with a maximum capacity of 10 people. No electricity (but running water!) and set in the middle of the bush. Lerato heard a lion roaring the one night and the antelope and other little critters often walked through camp.
The first day see were 10 feet away from a couple of rhino brothers out browsing. And then the fun started with the guides tracking a pride of lions. We turn the corner in the Land Rover and their sits a pride of lions! Seeing as it was dusk, they pride was starting to get up and moving. The LARGE male walked up right next to the truck and makes his territory and then rambles on. Madness!
The next morning was more craziness, as there were leopard prints in the riverbed right outside of the camp. After tracking it brief to no avail, it was off to the location were others had seen the other pride of lions feasting on their kill. As we approach the kill sight, there is chaos in the trees. There are hundreds of vultures sitting around every tree in sight. Waiting and hoping the lions will leave the carcass and they can have a nice meal! Yes, we pulled up to about 20 meters of the lions eating a huge wildebeest. Several of the lions are lion 50 meters away with huge stomachs napping while two or three of the other are gnawing on the body trying to get that filled. We could see the guts and hear the bones crunching…awesome!
Another highlight, we come upon a pod of elephants that are on their way to the water hole. Following them to the water hole, we sat an watched 20 or so elephants drink, splash and play with each other in the mud and water. An amusing site to see. As we are leaving the group of elephants, a big bull is out in the clearing. This bull was ENORMOUS. The biggest living thing I have ever seen. While watching him, he proceeds to uproot a fairly decent size tree out of the ground. Then proceeds to peel the bark of the roots and eat it! Pretty amazing to is a giant animal rip a tree out of the ground with its trunk then peel the bark off the roots.
More highlights include a nighttime tracking of two different leopards. The guides had a general idea where the mother was, and as we turned onto the dry riverbed, fresh tracks were in the sand. As we proceed down the riverbed, there is momma leopard walking along. As she heard the vehicle, she started to get moving not wanting to pose for photos on that night! The guide decided to try for the other leopard, her son that was also in the area. After some tracking and driving off-road (this had my father and I in tears we were laughing so hard. The guide would literally drive anywhere and over anything. There were point that we figured he would drive around some of the trees, but no! He drove right over some rather large tree and as the would come out the back, they would pop back up straight as if nothing happened! It was quite funny) we found the male jetting through the bush. After more attempts to locate him, the guide decided to move farther down the riverbed. As we turn back into the riverbed, there he stands. A beautifully huge leopard looking for something to do…or some food. He wasn’t vary photogenic and it was dark so no good pics!?!
The second afternoon, we went for a walking safari with the guide, giant riffle (just in case) and all. We got to see tracks, dung, insects and other interesting things that aren’t really seen while in the safari jeep. It was also nice to walk!!! We did get within 50 meters of a herd of buffalo (one of the most dangerous mammals in Africa!) which was pretty amazing.
The other highlight of the safari was the last day when we went back to the lions and their carcass. The thing I remember most about that second day is the smell of the sun baked rotting flesh. The lions didn’t seem to mind as they were still chowing down. And the vultures were still waiting.
After the excitement of the safari, it was off to the village to see a different side of Africa. Driving out to the village was exciting (the drive on the wrong side of the road). Our arrival was meet with some of the students welcoming my parents with traditional dance, our host mother making a delicious meal of steam bread and chicken stew and my parents meeting my African parents. The next morning was spent showing my parents around the town and the village with highlights of the natural spring, graveyard and the school (we live in a village not a bustling metropolis!)
All and all, the parents visit was great. They saw both the animals and the village. The Africa that we came to experience. After their departure, we spent a couple of days unwinding and then I headed back to the village for the first week of school! All is still well.

Brother rhinos

Rhino with bird flying into ear

Bird pecking at rhino’s head

Lions out lounging

Thirsty lion

Dinner

Don’t you even think about eating it

Ribs are my favorite too

Baby in the line of elephants

BIG bulls uprooting the tree

The crew at the private game lodge

Big poppa, whatcha lookin at

The head is all yours

My parents and my African family

15 July 2006

2006-07-15T00:45:00.000-07:00

Back from vacation....had a great time. Parents came and went and the safari we took was incredible. Will write when I have more time but all is well here.

To give you a tast of a safari....here is one of the lions that we watched feast on a buffalo.

Thabo

23 June 2006

2006-06-23T04:04:00.000-07:00

Greetings all,
Well, the end of the school term has come, and with it bitter cold! Brrrrrr! We woke up today to strong winds and we think the coldest day we have had so far. At least it’s sunny! So this afternoon starts a month long vacation which we are completely looking forward to. We need a break. Plus, we are eagerly anticipating the arrival of Adam’s parents on the 30th – a week from today! Our first visitors! We are meeting them at the airport, and from there going to Kruger National Park for a few days to see some wildlife, and then heading out to our little village to show them our life. We are super excited.
Other than that, it hasn’t been too exciting. Last weekend was a 3-day weekend due to Youth Day – a day of remembrance for a group of young people who were killed during a huge protest by students who were forced to learn Afrikaans in their schools and preferred to learn in English. Our friend Matt came to visit us for a few days and we spent our time cooking good food and playing Monopoly. The downside was that Adam fell sick over the weekend and proceeded to pass his germs on to both myself and Matt. What a guy! So we spent a few days sick at home – never fun. But we’re better now and ready to travel!
Hope all is well with all of you. You won’t hear from us for a few weeks as we will be out and about in the country. So take care and we’ll tell you about all of our adventures in a few weeks!
Love,
Lerato

09 June 2006

2006-06-10T01:02:00.000-07:00

June 9, 2006
Greetings One and All,
Well, we had a sad occasion last week. Our good friend Andy decided to go back home. We knew it was coming for quite some time, but it was still sad to see him go. He left for various reasons, but missing his dog (Truman) and the comforts of home (Taco Bell) were high on the list. So last Wednesday, we took a trip to Vryburg to gather with a few other friends for one last lunch together. He will be greatly missed in our little group. So Andy, thanks for the fun and for sharing all of your embarrassing stories with us over the last 10 or so months (and there are many). Hope you are enjoying the good life again and that Michigan is everything you remembered it to be – maybe you can sell us a car someday. :o)
So after seeing Andy off, we stayed the night in Vryburg just for the joy of using a hot shower, and then headed off to visit another friend, Matt in his village. Wow, and we thought we lived in the middle of nowhere! Matt’s village is TINY. And far, far away from anything else. He took us on the grand tour (it took about 10 minutes) which included his two schools, the shop, the graveyard, the bridge, the sheep corral, and the ‘mighty Moshaweng river’ – which he says is a dry riverbed most of the year, but it still has some water in it from all the rain a few months back. Matt has a nice host family, with two really cute young girls. We were only there for two nights and a day. We passed the time by playing cards, and playing with some Play-Dough that a friend had recently sent him, and we even did a little bit of work. Matt and Adam played some snooker (South-African for pool) with some young locals at the shop one night too. I was slightly intimidated, being the only female in the room other than the shopkeeper, and so just decided to watch. The second night we introduced Matt’s family to burritos, which I think they enjoyed. Then on Saturday morning, we crawled into the back of a pickup truck for the long ride to town. Matt’s taxi was pretty interesting. It’s a pickup truck with a cab on the back. Inside, there are benches along the two sides and against the cab. Keep in mind this is just a regular sized pickup truck. By the time we were 30 minutes into the ride, there were 13 people crammed in the back of that thing. It was pretty amazing. I found it slightly humorous, but Matt said that doesn’t last long. And indeed it didn’t. His village is about 80K outside of Kuruman, 70K of which is on bumpy dirt roads. It gets uncomfortable pretty fast. Kudos to him for being able to do that every weekend! It took us 2 hours to get to town, which he said was relatively quick. I think we’re both glad its him and not us. I can’t imagine the trip back home, when all 13 people have a week or two worth of groceries with them. Yikes!
Back in our village, life is pretty normal. We started the computer classes with all of our Primary school teachers on Monday. We had a bit of a poor turnout, but hopefully that will improve, and it went well for the teachers that were there. Our Country Director, Lisa (the big boss!) came to visit us on Wednesday. She was just out visiting some of the volunteers in the area and stopped in for a few hours to see how we were doing. And that’s about all the excitement we have had in the last two weeks. Hope life is good back in the US. Until next time…
Andrea

25 May 2006

2006-06-03T01:30:00.000-07:00

25 May 2006
Well, another two weeks have whizzed by us…and we are now on the entrance to June. Everyone knows what June means. More vacation beginning the 20 something of June!!! The past two weeks continued to be interesting to say the least.
The lobola party was exciting to say the least. The family got the payment and clothes and food and livestock…and we proceeded to eat 2 or 3 sheep on Sunday. I was part of the malome (Setswana for the eldest uncle who plays the important role in the payment of the lobola) which is the men! I consider myself a man’s man but even I was out of place. For the lobola party, the men and women eat separately – I don’t know why, it’s just tradition. So being a man and seeing as our host father wants us to experience the culture, I was out back with the men when the food was served. Let me talk about the food first…my gosh it was A LOT. 2 sheep and dombe (which is a traditional bread made over the cooking meat kind of like dumplings and my personal favorite) and I don’t even know how many pumpkins! When the food was ready the men circled up the chairs out in the back of the house and a giant bowl with the chest of the sheep and a mound of dombe are place in front of us. I sit there waiting for the plates to come out but everyone else starts clawing at this huge hunk of meat with their bare hands. So, being hungry I too dug in. The uncle next to me sees that I am not as ferocious as every else and asks if I am ok. Sure I am, I reply. Then he asks if I had brought a knife. Interesting question….but no I didn’t as I thought it would be included with the meal. But the host father stepped in and allowed me the use of his knife so I could get in there and (no not fight the others off) cut off some good chunks of meat. Suffice to say, I now know what lions are thinking when they are all standing over the kill!
This last weekend included a funeral. It is just the second we have attended but people have been dying all over the place in large number in my eyes. The village celebrates the life and then continues on. Sunday they buried a mother to four of the learners at our host school. One of the boys I play soccer with all the time and it is just sad to see these kids as orphans now. Our host mother may adopt one or two. We told her that we would be more than willing to give her some money to do so. I think $30-40 will feed one kid for a month (think about that).
In the land of our lives getting more bizarre, yet another step has been taken. Our host family is wealthy according to village standards, but they are still working on getting running water in the house as it is a big expense to get the well drilled and the water tank up. They have built a bathroom with a tub for when they do get water. Running water would be, for me, one of the first things get. NOPE. A family friend gave our host family her old TV. This TV has AV inputs on it so they can now hook up the DVD player along with the Playstation (our host brother left it at home when he came and visited at Chirstmas). Yes, I now can play Playstation but have to crap in a hole….bizzaro world.
Other than that, the bone chilling temperatures continue to persist. They say we are in a cold spell, I believe them. The nightly temperature when going to bed is around 45. And again…that is air temperature in the room. And bed time is like 9:30. I don’t know what the low is for the night but it takes a good 2 hours of sun to melt off the frost (frost in Africa….what the #$*%^#*$)! Good news is the days warm up to 60s and I get a lot of use out of those 3 long sleeve shirts! People keep telling us they have never seen it this cold…great! Boy, I miss central heating…or any heating for that matter.
Thabo

12 May 2006

2006-05-13T00:59:00.000-07:00

12 May, 2006

Last weekend took us to Kimberly to celebrate birthdays, and lots of them. Adam and I are the only ones out of our group in the area who haven’t had a birthday in the past month and a half. So naturally, that calls for a get-together. We stayed at a new and quite nice hostel there and basically spent the weekend as we would in America. We went shopping at the new mall, watched TV (MTV, ESPN, CNN, and Saturday Night Live!!!), played pool, went out to dinner, ate too many sweets, and just hung out. It was a nice weekend.
Other than that, the last two weeks have been quite normal, I think. The one new thing has been the start of us teaching computer classes for the high school teachers. We have had two classes so far – the topic of the first one was how to turn the computer on and off, and open Microsoft Word. The topic of the second was learning the keyboard. The teachers have a wide range of computer knowledge – from literally never having touched one before, to knowing how to use basic programs like Word. It was really interesting to watch them learn. It seems that mouse coordination is the biggest challenge so far. That and helping them get over their fear that they will do something wrong and break the computer. Just think about how long you have been using a computer. For those of you our age, you probably learned quite young. I still remember when we got our first computer and learning to type, but now it’s all just second nature. Do any of you even know anyone who has never used a computer before? I’d guess probably not. It’s funny to watch everyone chicken-peck at the keys, and then giggle when they see that they’ve spelled their name. Adam has been the teacher so far, and I go around the room helping anyone who has a problem. It’s pretty exciting, and I really hope that they stay interested and keep coming to class. Right now it’s just the high school teachers, but soon we hope to start with the Primary and Middle school teachers too.
Last week we learned some interesting family news. Our host mother received a letter in the mail from some people she’s never heard of informing her that she has another grandchild. Our host brother, Aobokwe, has a 2 month old baby girl, and I guess was afraid to tell his parents about it (he’s 27, and lives on his own!), so the girl’s family wrote and sent photos. What a way to hear about a grandchild! The girl’s family also is asking for ‘damages’, a terrible-sounding way to ask for help paying for the pregnancy and the care of the new baby. All in all, I think it’s not as big of a deal as Aobokwe thought it would be, and our host mom and dad want to go meet the child.
Tomorrow we are having a family party in honor of our host parent’s niece who is going to get married soon. In this culture they still practice the tradition of paying lobola – money paid by the groom’s family to the bride’s family. I guess traditionally the bride becomes part of the groom’s family after marriage, and so they have to re-pay the bride’s parents for the money they spent raising and educating her. All of the little traditions around paying lobola are pretty interesting. First the families get together for negotiations. The groom’s family has to come to the bride’s family on a chosen date and they come in the middle of the night. The idea behind that is so the neighbors and others in the village don’t see them there before the engagement is announced. Negotiations last throughout the night and are pretty much only done by the bride and groom’s aunts and uncles. Their parents aren’t allowed to speak, and neither the bride nor groom is present. Prices vary depending on the amount of education, age, and beauty of the girl. There are also little quirks like the groom’s family has to wear a jacket (or shawl for the women) to show respect, or else they can be fined by the bride’s family. Some amount of money has to be placed on the table (literally) before negotiations can begin. The bride’s uncle can refuse to speak at all until they have placed money on the table. Once a price is agreed upon, a date is set for payment, everyone eats a huge meal, and the groom’s family goes home. The price can only be an even number (in thousands of rand) it’s bad luck to settle on an odd numbered price. And some people still pay in cows, which is pretty funny. On the payment date, the groom’s family shows up very early in the morning at the bride’s house (before sunrise). They have to bring two entire outfits for the bride (everything – two hats, two dresses, two pairs of shoes, two bras etc.) and a few other things like a blanket and gifts for the bride’s mother and father. The payment is made and the groom’s family sneaks back out of the village before the sun comes up so no one sees them. Then there is a big celebration, which is what we will be attending tomorrow. The engagement is announced to friends and family and everyone has a big feast. It’s an interesting tradition and one that is apparently on the wane. A lot of people don’t pay lobola anymore for lots of reasons. I think it’s kind of neat, and Adam just likes to speculate about how many cows I would have been worth.
I hope you are all well and happy. Lots of love,

Andrea

01 May 2006

2006-05-06T01:23:00.000-07:00

01 May 2006
Another long weekend, another cool trip. This time we headed to Malealea Lodge in the country of Lesotho. Man, it was beautiful. Beautiful mountains with deep valleys and crystal clear water running through the bottom. The landscape is green, green, green…something that is now foreign to us. The couple of days we spent at the lodge were great. The first day we did a hike. The supposed 3 hours turned into 5 plus hours with a little trauma of getting severely lost at dusk!? But with the help of a local herd boy, we managed to climb, crawl, and push our way back to the lodge. The scenery was great and there was a side trip to the natural rock pools that the river has carved. Yes, we got in...and yes the water was COLD!
Day two was the main reason we headed to Lesotho…pony trekking. It was awesome. No one fell off and our butts were a bit sore. Seeing as I have only been on a horse once in my life…that I can remember, I did pretty good. It was actually pretty easy because the horse knows where to go, it is kind of like auto-pilot. We even got to let the horse run or whatever the proper term is canter or gallop or something like that. He was a pretty fast horse. We rode for about 2 hours and had a stop off at a high waterfall that we hiked down to the bottom.

Thabo

26 April 2006

2006-05-02T06:15:00.000-07:00

26 April 2006

Well, it’s the second Wednesday of the term and does everyone know what that means. Correct, a five day weekend?! Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.
The big news since last time is the weather. You might be thinking he talks about the searing sun a lot. About how, in the sun it feels as though your skin is about to melt…but not anymore. The sun is now our most sought out friend. With day after day of extreme and constant summer, the weather has fallen into the weather black hole. We now endure warm days basking in the sun and COLD nights curled under blankets. They tell me it snows once every 20 years and that it doesn’t freeze here…which is good but that also means it ain’t going to get any colder. On Monday the temperature on my watch going to bed read 50° and when I woke up it was down to 45°. No my watch isn’t sitting outside but right next to me. Makes me happy that I invested in a good sleeping bag because at least it is warm in there. One thing I find funny is the amount of clothes (including Lerato) can wear at once. It is pretty amazing to see someone wearing three jackets!
Warm thoughts,
Thabo

21 April 2006

2006-04-22T01:02:00.000-07:00

21 April 2006

Hope everyone had a good Easter. Ours was good and eventful, to say the least. Getting back from our trip, we needed a few days to decompose and smell better. So we decided to relax for a couple of days.
Good Friday was interesting. We told our host sister we would go to church with her. Upon arriving to church, we noticed that everyone was wearing black. I know it is suppose to be a somber mood and I had thought about wearing darker clothes but it seemed as though we stuck out even more than normal!?
Saturday was uneventful until after dinner. Our mother wanted us to make a turn (this is South African for go to church, funeral, wedding, etc. for what is believed to be a short time…and ends up being a long time!?) at the church that the minister lives right behind us. We wanted to because this is the only other church that we have not yet attended. So we arrive, and it isn’t church but something called festival. A kind-of fundraising talent show where you can pay money to make some go up front and sing and dance and you can also pay money for making them stop. Most were children from 5-18 that would sing and dance. There was one point that the 10 year olds were dancing a little to provocative…for church at least!? After about an hour or so, we were getting ready to go but we wanted to donate before we left. Well, like everything else here, it turned into a bigger ordeal than we thought it would. Some talking with our host mother and the emcee, we pick a guy that lives behind us that like to partake in alcohol every once in a while. So this guy comes up front, takes his coat off and places the KNIFE in his pocket on the floor. The man is smart, he is about to dance and it obvious that dancing with a knife in your pocket is dangerous…..it is just not something that I am use to seeing. I am not taking about a pocket knife that is folded but a large steak knife!? No worries though, he is a nice guy and he likes us (I hope!!!)!
Easter Sunday was good. Back to the same church as Saturday. No knives but plenty of dancing. The service was unusual for a few reasons. One, it was in Afrikaans not Setswana so there was NO CHANCE of understanding anything. It was a nice service, or at least I think it was. TWO, and it is a big two, is that the service almost reached 5 hours in length. Yes, five! The number preceding six and following five. The plan said on it the service was from 9 until 12. We arrived a bit late 9:20 and things hadn’t started and didn’t leave until almost 2 (or I think it was about that time, I was so delirious that I am not quite sure what time it was!) So yeah…it was long and it and even stranger language to us!
School is back in so you all can stop being jealous about our long vacations! I have actually been busy (at least African busy) which is exciting!!!! Other than school the other major event is my magic that I have performed for our host family…which they still can’t get over. Our host family has a lemon tree in their front yard. Lemon, cool I thought. So I mage myself lemonade one day. Very tasty. Made it again the next. Again, tasty. So then I thought to myself, I need a bigger container to make it in. So I borrowed a 5 liter jug from the family and made 5 liters of lemonade and offer them some. WOW…it was amazing. They loved it. And had never had it before. They have a lemon tree but have never had lemonade…weird. I have shown them the light. So the story continues on. The first 5 liters I made by hand, gently squeezing all the juice out of each lemon. So, I thought maybe they have a juiced. After some description of what a juicer is, we believed they had one and just didn’t know what it was. So after some searching through the cabinets, I found a very nice glass juicer. Upon finding it, I showed it to our host mother and she said she thought it was an ashtray. Suffice it to say, I washed the juicer and have been amazing everyone with the magical drink called lemonade! (You are thinking, what did they do before with all the lemons…gave them away to neighbors and make a cold remedy with it consisting of slicing the lemons and putting them in hot water!?)

That is all...next week is a 3 day week so check back for more stories after our long weekend!

Thabo

12 april 2006

2006-04-13T01:59:00.000-07:00

12 April 2006

Back from our Journeys!

We arrived home yesterday after a few days on the road! Nothing says home like that warm cozy bed, good home cooked food, and yes, crapping in a hole! Our journey was awesome, great, and incredible to just name a few. It is nice to be home though; we were both starting to drag a little with all the stuff we packed in. So what has been new since last time….a lot.

Before we left we were able to accomplish quite a bit…it was kind of weird. We spent Human Rights Day helping our neighbors (the people that live behind us and put up a tent every Sunday for church) build the foundation of their new church just down the road. We helped haul rocks and fill in the holes as they were pouring the cement of the foundation. Yes it was a good time and hard work but it was all made better with the assistance of a donkey cart. Our first authentic transportation in a donkey cart!!! Very exciting and that is now crossed off my list of things to do.

The school term also ended on a couple of high notes. One school, the smallest, was excited about some of the fundraising ideas that we had come up with. They pushed the ideas at the parent meeting at the end of the term and the principal was excited that it was going to work. They hope to raise money for a photocopy machine and to pay for a school trip. This would be great because I think some of those kids have never been to town and it would be a great achievement for the school. The other high point was a meeting at the high school. We were invited over to see and discuss the new computer labs at the high school. The high school got 50 computers (30 from one company and 20 from another). I think they all work and the 30 group is brand new with an encyclopedia and Office and some other good stuff. The only problem is that only a handful of the 20 educators at the high school know much about how to use them. This is where we come into play. We are going to begin training the educators, and then (hopefully) the learners on how to use a computer. Anyone out there that may have some good ideas on how to teach computers, please let us know. We are starting with people that have never used a computer….should be interesting.

So with school out, that means hitting the road for our first African holiday. I know what some of you are thinking, you have been on holiday since you left….yes and no. This was our first holiday in our bigger holiday, or something like that. After a quick stopover in Pretoria (I am planning the visit of my parents in June and that includes a safari, so I was get safari packages quoted and such. No need to worry Joel, everything is under control!?) it was off to Swaziland!!! The beautiful little country pretty much encapsulated within South Africa. Swaziland, known for its King, the greenery, craft markets and white water rafting! After another quick stopover in the city of Mbanane…nothing there to see, trust me. We got to Mliwane Game Reserve and our backpackers (hostel) situated on the south end of the game reserve. Great location let me tell you. We got to the main camp in the reserve and took a 15 minute hike through the park to the backpackers. I am sure some of you are thinking that I am crazier that you ever thought I was because who would walk in a game reserve in Africa without a large riffle. That is the great part of Mliwane. It is a game reserve without any predators…with the exception of hungry hippos and crocs, but they are easy to avoid. Don’t swim in the ponds! This place was great we took several hikes within the park and saw lots of animals: zebra, impala, nyala, warthogs (the parks main animal and very humorous to see in person) hippos, crocs, fish eagle, lots of other cool brids and on and on and on…. On our first night at the backpackers, we were treated to some traditional Swazi dancing at the main camp with lots of drums and some traditional stick fighting.

On our third day in Swaziland, we signed up for an adventure caving trip. This was a blast. Our guide took us and we did some serious spelunking - kind of like the cave was giving birth to us!? After about a 45 minute hike up a mountain, we finally came upon the entrance to the cave. Zipping up our sexy overalls and donning our hard hats and lights, we ventured into the cave. And this ain’t no stairs and handrail cave. When we got in, we got down and dirty. Crawling, slipping, inching, squishing and clawing our way through holes and cracks in the cave. Yes we got dirty and yes it was from bat droppings (YUM)! After about 1 hour of this fun we made it back (with a little help from the guide) to the opening of the cave. By this time it was about 7pm and dark. The hike back down was more exciting for the senses with the sounds of the creatures of the night. The headlamp lit our path back to the car and it was off to the Cuddle Puddle. The Cuddle Puddle is a natural hot spring that we stopped at before heading home. A great way to end a day of crawling around in bat crap is by sitting in a natural hot spring. The night was finished off nicely with some hot pizza and a cold beer!

The next day it was off to Mhkaya Game Reserve and to the nicest place we have ever stayed. We splurged for one night and stayed at the Stone Camp. The visit started with a game drive where we saw giraffes, wildebeest, zebra, impala, nyala, kudu, hippos, crocs, tons of birds not to mention coming face to face with both elephants and rhinos. During the first game drive, we were cruising along one dirt path when the guide asked if anyone saw the mother and baby rhino. No one had…and we were expecting the guide to put the car in reverse to see them. Instead, he put the car in park, turned the car off and said “let’s go.” So the eight of us in the group got out of the Land Rover and proceeded on foot to the two rhinos. The rhinos were standing under a tree in the shade from the African sun. We slowly walked up to 20 feet away from two wild rhinos…crazy I say! I guess they aren’t too active in the heat of the day and don’t mind people looking at them. Once safely back in the vehicle, we continue on and arrive upon a herd of elephants 30 feet away. After parking the car (we stayed in this time but the guide warned us if we ever felt uncomfortable to let him know because the elephants usually come REALLY CLOSE to the vehicle.) and waiting a few minutes, the elephants started to come closer and closer and closer until the were all around the car. I could have reached out and touched on if I wanted to start a fight with an elephant. It was pretty amazing to see them grazing…and so close! After our first game drive, it was off to lunch (awesome) and to see our rooms. We stayed in open sided hatched roof huts inside the game reserve. It was gorgeous. No electricity but running water…and the view from the toilet was like those in my dreams. After a short nap, it was our evening game drive with more great animal viewing and spotting a 3 week old and adorable baby rhino. The little guy was kind of shy and ran at first sight of the truck. Upon arriving back at camp at dusk, paraffin lanterns lit the way to dinner and our room. The morning consisted of a dawn game drive and a great sunrise!

The last exciting thing in Swaziland was the CRAZY white water rafting we did on the Utusu River. Grade III and IV rapids in a two-man inflatable boat was quite the rush. These rapids were huge and we viewed many of them in the water itself seeing as it was difficult to actually stay in the boat! It was a great time. Downside of the rafting is the injury Andrea sustained while trying to stay alive in the rapids. She banged her leg on a rock while being swept downstream. But don’t worry, she’ll live!

The last leg of the trip took us to Sabie, an outdoorsy city in Mpumalanga Province for the Longtom Marathon. 21.1 km race that we did to help raise money (if you haven’t gotten an email from either of us to donate money, ask us to resend it…but we really need help in raising some good money for this great charity! It’s not too late to donate!) I was able to run but due to the white water rafting injury Andrea had, she was limping (and cheering) on the side lines. After a week of traveling and not much sleep, I completed the 21.1 km race with a time of 1:43. Respectable, if I do say so myself. I was the third Peace Corps volunteer to finish! And I have been walking (hobbling is more like it) around for the last three days but it was good race with great scenery and great friends.

Now we are back home and just doing the village thing until school starts on Tuesday. Hope everyone has a Happy Easter and is doing well….and please donate to the charity.

Thabo

23 March 2006

2006-03-25T00:47:00.000-08:00

23 March 2006

Hello all,

Well, we had quite the exciting weekend this past week – meaning we didn’t just go to town and do laundry! The excitement began on Friday, when there was an emergency evacuation drill for Peace Corps. There is a whole long procedure in place just in case we would have to flee the country for some reason, and since they hadn’t tested it in quite some time, we got to have a drill. We got the call Friday morning, so skipped school and went to our evacuation point – a nice hotel and game park outside Kuruman. We got to hang out there all day with our friends who live in the area, and even spend the night, compliments of Peace Corps. I went for a run in the morning on the trails through the bush and had the pleasure of coming across a huge herd (at least 50) of impala. I also saw some hartebeest and two zebra! I tell you, the possibility of seeing African wildlife while out jogging just makes it so much better! And thank God they don’t have any lions. In the afternoon, some of the owners of the hotel took us out on a game drive through their land. Basically this involves standing in the back of a pickup truck that has bars around the outside and driving around. We saw all of the above mentioned animals and some other types of antelope as well. The only problem is that most of the trees and bushes in this area tend to have thorns. Large thorns. And while driving in an open pickup on narrow trails, you tend to get hit by a branch every once in a while. Lets just say we all came out with scars. We also got to climb up this huge windmill that sits on top of a hill and you can just see for miles. Another great thing about this place is that they have a small troop of vervet monkeys that run around terrorizing the guests. Really, if you leave the window or door to your room open even a little, they’ll come in and steal your tea and sugar packets. One came to visit us Saturday morning – check out the photo below. They add a bit of fun to a hotel stay, that’s for sure.
The next morning, Adam and I headed northwest about 6 hours by car, to go see a waterfall in the middle of the desert. Augrabies falls is just north of Upington (look it up on the map…) and is in the middle of the Kalahari. Because of all the rain we have been getting, the river is quite a bit larger than normal. According to the national park, about 10 times more water than normal is flowing over the falls. It was quite an impressive sight. The name means ‘place of thunder’ and according to a friend it is the 7th loudest waterfall in the world, although it didn’t really seem that loud. We went to take a quick peek at the falls on Saturday before heading to the backpacker’s where we were going to stay. When we got to the backpackers, we found a film crew from a South African TV show called ‘You’re Hired!’ which pits two people against each other for a job. The backpackers where we stayed is also a place that does rafting and hiking trips and they were hiring a new rafting guide through the TV show. So we got to hang out with the host and crew and contestants a little that night, which was interesting.
On Sunday morning, we hiked around the Augrabies Falls National Park and saw all kinds of wildlife. A klipspringer (a small antelope), tons of rock dassies (a furry, marmot like creature that is somewhere along the way related to elephants), two black eagles, and a large water monitor lizard. It was an excellent hike, as we didn’t see anyone else for the entire time. In the afternoon we went on a rafting trip. Due to the swollen river, the rapids weren’t as exciting as they could have been, but it was fun to just paddle around for a few hours. We saw lots of birdlife, and that’s about it. It was a holiday weekend, so we traveled back on Monday and just took a much needed day to relax on Tuesday.
Tuesday was Human Rights Day here in South Africa. Under the Apartheid government, all blacks were forced to carry a passbook at all times which contained their personal information, as well as any work permits and travel permits they may have had. I’m not sure of the year, but at some point people got fed up with this and decided to get together and burn their passbooks in a city called Sharpeville. Well, the police, as you can assume, didn’t like this and ended up firing into the crowd, killing some 60 people – most shot in the back. So they celebrate Human Rights Day as a remembrance to those who lost their lives in the fight for freedom, and to ensure that all South Africans retain their human rights from now on.
So that’s about all that’s going on around here. The school’s first term will come to an end next Thursday, and so we are busy planning our first real South African vacation. You might not hear from us for a few weeks while we are out gallivanting around the country, but I’m sure we’ll have some good stories to tell when we get back. Just a reminder to all of you that we are running in the LongTom half marathon on April 8th. Just contact us if you are interested in sponsoring either or both of us on the run. And keep us in your thoughts that day. It’s going to be a rough one!!

Monkey at the window

The falls

Lizard...duh

More falls

Cheers,
Andrea

16 March 2006

2006-03-16T23:09:00.000-08:00

16 March 2006

Well, another day another dollar (literally!) All is well here. The first term ends at the end of the month, and you know what that means…traveling! We are in the mist of planning a trip to Swaziland before we head to the race on April 8. Last week we got home from our in-service training and spent the weekend relaxing. Then we headed off to the only local resort, Red Sands (the only resort in the area) for another workshop (this is the standard form of getting anything done here…) on peer education with two of the educators from the local high school. The workshop was three days so that means we had three nights at the resort…and running water. It is still amazing to me. The workshop was good and I hope that it gets some implementation because the kids in the village need people to talk to with all of the problems here. The program hoped to help with such topics as: HIV/AIDS, teen pregnancy, violence, drugs and alcohol…just to name a few of the major ones. Let’s hope for the best!
The resort was nice and it had animals roaming around. When we would head out for our dawn run or head back to our room after dark, impala and hartebeest would be out roaming. Monkeys would also be seen at dusk and dawn too! Great place and only 40 km away. We will be back tomorrow for our first emergency evacuation practice. We are practicing for if we ever have to leave South Africa in a hurry for any number of reasons: political unrest, crazy bird flu cases etc. So we will be celebrating St. Patty’s Day with our friends in the area. And this weekend is a long weekend (YEAH, traveling) because Tuesday is Human Rights Day. We are heading out to a place called Augrebies Falls to see (I guess) one of the world’s loudest waterfalls….who knew that is how they categorize them!? But everyone who has been to the place has loved it…so hope it awesome because there isn’t much living in the middle of the desert!

Monkey See Monkey Do

10 March 2006

2006-03-10T23:35:00.000-08:00

10 March 2006

I guess I have to put a disclaimer on this to cover my butt...
These are our thoughts and may not be the same as the Peace Corps

Hello All,

Wondering why you haven’t heard from us in a while? On Wednesday we returned from almost two weeks of training in Polokwane – the same town where we spent the first two months of our South African stay. It was a chance to come back together after being in the country for 6 months, and share ideas and stories with the 40 other education volunteers that we swore in with. We got a few more vaccinations, some good information on getting funding for community projects and all kinds of other things. Aside from Polokwane being VERY, VERY far away, we had a really great trip. It was fun to hang out with a lot of other Americans again and hear everyone’s success and horror stories. We had a lot of laughs. It took us two days of traveling to reach Polokwane, but we got to stop off in Pretoria (capitol of SA) for two nights on the way there. Pretoria feels a lot like any American city. We got to go out to dinner, to a coffee shop, to a craft market, and even heard some live music one night.

Training was long, but like I said, just fun to see old friends again. For the last three days of our training, we were allowed to bring a ‘counterpart’ from our village for Life Skills training, so we invited our host mother. Life Skills training in general is an HIV/AIDS awareness program directed at teenagers, but it also teaches other things like self confidence and how to make a good decision, and about gender roles and self-esteem. It seems like a pretty good program, and I think we will try to get a group of middle and high school aged kids together to teach after school at some point in the future.

Also during training, we made a pretty rash decision. Adam and I both signed up to run the LongTom half marathon on April 8th – a short month away. The race is a benefit for a foundation started by two Peace Corps volunteers about two years ago. They raise money to send an underprivileged child from a rural village to a top-of-the-line high school. The first child started school in January, and I guess is doing quite well. We both try to raise $1000, so you’ll probably be hearing from us soon with fundraising details for those interested. I am a tad intimidated by the thought of running 21K (about 13 miles!), but I have a training program in the works and I’m trying to think positively. So far, I have only been training for about 5 days, so there’s not much progress to report yet. The race is somewhat famous, I guess, among ultra marathoners. There is a half marathon and an ultra marathon on the same day – no, neither of us are attempting the 56K ultra marathon. That would be insane. It’s held in a small town called Sabie in Mpumalanga Province. The marathon falls over our first school break, so it will also provide us with a reason to travel around and see another part of the country. Before the race, we are planning a trip to Swaziland to maybe do some white water rafting in a crocodile infested river and some caving as well. We also hope to visit a few game reserves and see some of those big African animals. Can’t wait!! It will be our first real South African vacation.

Andrea

The IST fun...

Where you eat?!

Me and Shamus

Dan in a shocking surprise

The Ladies

Don't Ask

I think he is just constipated

20 February 2006

2006-03-10T23:33:00.000-08:00

20 February 2006

Sunday the 12th Lerato and I went to the best church service! It was a dreary Sunday morning with the rain continuing from the night before. Everything was very wet and the rain didn’t seem to be letting up. Our host father, and brother and us got into the combi and head off to the next village over to go to church. To our surprise (not really, because they say church starts at 8 but no one shows up until 9:30) no one was there and the church was locked. Papa got on the phone to see what the matter was. As he was phoning the preacher for the day (the Father of the church alternates between different churches so some Sundays he is elsewhere) pulls up and unlocks the gate. We proceed inside and wait for a few minutes and then the church service starts….yes, with the four of us. A prayer, a reading from the bible, another reading done by Lerato, another reading, prayer, offering and the end. We were in and out in 20 minutes in my very first personal church service!

This last weekend was somewhat exciting. We meet two of our friends in Vryburg on Friday afternoon. Hung out for a while and did a little shopping. Cool thing happened while shopping….we are walking out of the mall and this lady comes out of Wimpy’s Restaurant (kind of like a Steak and Shake) carrying a cat in her arms. In front of her was a man carrying a baby bottle. After a double take, I said out loud, ‘Is that a cheetah?’ In which the man turned around and said, ‘No, it’s a lion, where are you from?’ Which began a short conversion of where we are from and why these people are carrying around a 3 week old lion that we were able to pet!? They knew of Chicago and had visited there…I am assuming to the outdoor show because this couple along with their parents run a safari on a lot of acres on the border of Botswana. Supposedly, the mama lion had abandoned the baby and they hadn’t taken it in. We chatted for a while and the lady was telling us how the baby still can’t see but they have two older babies that are 3 months old that are becoming naughty?! I guess they chase the dogs and cats around the yard…just think in another couple of months they will be eating the dogs and cats in the yard. So this is my first fond experience in a mall. Baby lions…crazy!? At the bed and breakfast we stayed at Friday night, the owner was taking care of a barn owl that was hit by a car. So we got to pet that too although it was still in shock with a mangled wing. The owner said he was going to keep it as a pet. On the way home, it was rhinos running in the bush along side the road…seeing deer on the roadside will never be the same.

The reason we were in Vryburg was to see three of our learners compete in the next level track meet. We had 1 take 1st place, one take 3rd place, and one take 4th place. So everyone was happy…and I think 2 will proceed to the next level!

6 months in South Africa on the 18th…crazy we have been gone for that long!

Peace & Love from South Africa
Go Siame le Sala Sentle (Be alright and Stay Well!)

Thabo

15 February 2006

2006-02-16T23:17:00.000-08:00

15 February 2006

Greetings, everyone!
These past two weeks have brought more rain than I ever thought the ‘desert’ could get. We’re not quite in the desert, but close enough to expect sparse rainfall. Last week it rained from Sunday to Wednesday, pretty much around the clock. It was quite an impressive display. I don’t even know if I have seen it rain like that back in the US. I never thought I’d be so happy to see that burning African sun. It finally came back out on Thursday of last week, but we have had rain showers and thunder storms since then, which doesn’t allow the ground to dry. It makes it slightly miserable at times – we would get drenched going to and from school, and wouldn’t dry. The humidity was so bad that our shoes and towels wouldn’t dry, and pictures and maps on our walls wilted. When the sun wasn’t out, it was chilly. There were HUGE (and I mean big enough to swallow a donkey) puddles all over the ground – especially in the ruts of the dirt roads. It made quite an obstacle course of riding to and from school. It was so wet that one of our unfortunate neighbors had the back wall of their house collapse, and a few other entire houses in the village followed suit. Apparently it hasn’t rained like that in 18 years. Thankfully our village is relatively flat and didn’t experience any of the flash floods that plagued other parts of the country. We didn’t know if the rain would ever stop, but thankfully it has. With the recent sunlight, the plants have grown about a foot. At least it will be good for the village’s crops, as long as they didn’t drown.

We are preparing to give our first official workshop to our teachers, starting tomorrow. It is called ‘Effective Classroom Management’, but if we didn’t want to be so P.C. it would be called ‘Ways to Punish Your Students Without Having to Beat Them’. Yes, even though it has been illegal to beat students for 12 years now, the practice of corporal punishment is still happens. So we have made it our mission to do everything we can to stop this practice and provide some alternative ways to control the classroom. It will be a challenge. It doesn’t happen a lot, but it really shouldn’t happen at all. We’re going to see if we can provide some insight and alternatives and stop the practice once and for all. Wish us luck…

Other than that, life carries on as normal. As of Friday, we will have been here in South Africa for 6 months. I can’t believe it – time really flies. This place is really starting to feel like home at times, and it’s a welcome feeling. I hope life is treating you all well. Until next time…

Lerato

Well, I have been busy waiting and watching my learners run in two track meets (consider them like a conference meet where different schools get together and compete). I say watch because I would stand on the sideline and watch. I say wait because for every minute that I watched a learner run, I spent one hour waiting. Waiting, waiting, waiting. For those of you don’t know, I am not the most patient person. So for every minute of watching, I spent 60 minutes waiting….not the best odds for organization. The first meet was on 04 February. A Saturday. We arrived at the track at 8. The meet was supposed to start at 8. The first runner from an elementary school was 11:30. For those of you bad at math that is 3.5 hours of nothing! Some learners from our school won a few races, yada, yada, yada, at 19:30 we finally left. Yes, we were at a track me in the blazing sun with 25 elementary school kids for 11.5 hours! 7 learners from our host school and 2 from another one of our schools advanced. Exciting! The races consisted of a mass chaos start, fast running and one quarter of the children falling over at the finish live from the heat and sun. The judges carried them into the shade!? And that was that. In total a 14 hour day with 12 hours of waiting! Organization, man do I miss it.

The next track meet was on 10 February. This was the second round of the conference meet. Again, I waited and watched. I am guessing the ratio stands pretty firm at 60:1 here too! I was meeting the learners and educator in front of our host families house at 5:30 (yes, in the morning) because the bus was supposed to be there around that time. Suffice it to say, I waited on the corner until the bus came at 9:00. Yes, again 3.5 hours! As the other meet, this one was supposed to start at 8. We arrived at 9:30. Meet started at 10. Ended at 12. Waited another 2.5 hours to get our ride back to the village. I was proud of the learners…not proud of how disorganized the event was. Of the 7 from the host school, two advanced to the area meet on 18 February. One boy advanced from our other school. So there are three runners for the upcoming meet! This meet is in the town 1.5 hours away….so I think I will be doing some more waiting this weekend!

Other than that, just trying to stay positive and out of the sun. I don’t understand how it can be so hot!

Valentines Day (yes, they have it here…which I won’t necessarily say was a good thing) was yesterday. Kids wore red to school. We had a lovely BBQ. I like this place because: a) you have BBQs at important holidays where I am normally inside from the cold b) our host father LOVES meat on the grill. BBQ and a candle light dinner with our host family. They were kind enough to give us a gift too!?

Hope all is well and let me know how everyone is doing.

The Team

Running the 1200 m (shoes? Who needs ‘em?)

Yes that is a big bug, and yes Lerato’s feet smell

One of the rain damaged houses in the village

Thabo

03 Feb 2006

2006-02-06T23:25:00.000-08:00

03 February 2006

Dumela,

Well, the month of January has come and gone with the blink of an eye. Nothing of great importance or excitement happened. School started for us. And the first few ensuing weeks gave gone from chaos to more chaos. Some of the schools have settled down but don’t run at an efficiency that I would consider acceptable.

Last Friday, our host school held an Inter-school track (what I mean by track is the dirt soccer field) meet. (I was told that the school competes in track and field. They have various running events and no field events!?) The day started off overcast and kind of rainy. The day ended prematurely due to excessive wind and rain. The day began by walking over to the field by taking whatever path that the students liked. Once arrived, and after a few directions, the 80 m race began. Separation of the runners is not done by grade but by age (1993, 1994, & 1995), this is due to the fact that there are 15 year olds in grade 3 and 12 year olds in grade 6. After the 80 m race, it was the 100 m race. I am pretty confident to say that the 100 m was double the length than the 80 m, but who is counting really. Either way the kids were enjoying themselves. After the 100 was the 150. This event probably added another 10 m at most, but again who’s counting. With the start of the 150 came cold rain. And since half the kids didn’t bring a coat, the event had to be cut short so less of the students got sick. Tomorrow, 04 February is the area track meet. 25 students from the host school will compete against other schools (I guess, don’t really know what will happen.) in different track events. I think there is a good chance that a few of them will be victorious, too. The thing that still amazes me is the running full speed over rocky dirt and fields with thorns and broken glass in their bare feet. Some have shoes but a majority doesn’t. If you are running 800 m and you step on a thorn, you stop for a second, pull out the thorn, and sprint off to catch the others that didn’t stop.

The races

After the track meet we took a little weekend trip to see our friends and watch two of them, Andy and Mark, compete in a 30 k race (Mark and Andy finished the race with smiling faces!) in Kimberly. Kimberly is a big city (think Madison WI not New York City when thinking of the term big city). It has several malls, a movie theater, and stores that are open on Sunday (this is a HUGE novelty, normally nothing except the grocery store for a couple hours is open. When I say nothing, I mean ghost town nothing.) Kimberly was built because of diamonds. They used to mine diamonds in one location, which hasn’t operated since 1914, and is now called affectionately ‘The Big Hole.’ As one can see from the pictures, the name is right on. There were a lot of diamonds dug up here. It wasn’t too exciting of a weekend. Just hung out with some friends and did things like we were used to back in the States. Did make a purchase of Monopoly South African Style with all new properties and using the Rand instead of the good ol’ dollar.

The Big Hole

The Big Hole

Facts about the Big Hole

Quantity of total diamonds removed from Big Hole in Total

The little host brother is getting big. He has learned to sit up, but has not learned what he can eat and what he cannot. Anything that he can grab goes straight to his mouth. He is a good little eater though.

Big boy

Go Siame,
Thabo

Q & A

2006-01-18T01:06:00.000-08:00

Last Written: 11 January 2006

I hope to add to this occasionally, so check back ever so often. I will date it when I do.

Many people have been asking me questions, here are some answers along with some rambling about things.

Here is a little background on schools and how they function. The school day is nothing like what you and I are use to in the States. That is part of the reason the Peace Corps is working with the Department of Education in the Republic of South Africa. Since 1994, when the apartheid was destroyed and a democracy was set into place, the rural villages (where we are) have been trying to catch up with the urban school systems. During the apartheid, the government place many restrictions and regulations on many things for the blacks and coloureds. Among those was the education of the blacks which was not nearly as high as the whites. As a result, the system that they used to teach with was terrible and they are implementing a new curriculum. This is where are main job lies, helping with the implementation. The teachers here were taught with Bantu education which was where a teacher would stand and the front and dictate what the students need to learn and questions were not to be asked. What the teacher said, whether right or wrong, was taken to be true. Group work, projects, and outside the box thinking are now among the ideas that are trying to be instituted into the classroom. This is difficult for many reasons. One, it is hard for someone who was taught in one manner to teacher others in another manner. This will slowly become better for the fact that the new teachers are better at this type of education and subsequently be better at teaching it. Resources are another problem, because it is hard to conduct an experiment with no supplies. Another issue is work ethic and parent and community involvement. A majority of the parents are not educated so the children don’t have any help or support at home. The parents honestly don’t care what there children achieve in school. This is a huge hurdle to overcome.

Books and stuff
One of the best biographies and books for that matter that I have ever read is A Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela. I HIGHLY recommend it, although its large in size it is a smooth read about the life of Nelson Mandela. It starts from his childhood all the way through his election as the first president in a democratic South Africa. An amazing man. And as I talk with the people here, they speak of him as being the work of God. The place has come a long way in just 12 years but still has a long way to go.
Another good resource to see into what life is like here is a movie, which I believe won some awards, called Yesterday. This is a depiction of a woman living and dealing with HIV/AIDS in a rural South African village in Kazunal-Natal. AIDS is a huge problem here. Number for 20-30 somethings is anywhere from 20-35%, crazy that 1 in 4 or 5 in that age group have AIDS. I, along with our other American friends here, often look around a room filled with people and just wonder how many people have it. Crazy to think about! It does seem to be getting better from a standpoint is more people are talking about it but it seems like people still aren’t getting tested which will solve the problem. Like anywhere also, the youth have that fearless attitude and don’t think that it will affect them.
Parent involvement is a problem. The parents meeting held once a quarter at our host school of 220 students is attended by 20 parents. That is not a good turnout and of those parents, not many actually want to help the school out at all. There is a parent governing body but the parents on this board don’t really want to be on it. They are elected into it, sometimes against their will. School fees are a huge problem. Parents don’t want to pay the fees for schools. Last year at our host school, over 10,000 rand ($1≈6 rand) in school fees were not paid by the parents. This is a very significant amount for schools that already don’t have much money to work with. This amount could buy a lot of supplies here. The schools fees are no more than 100 rand per year. This can be a significant amount but money budgeting is very poor here. There is a government program that allows a parent not to pay school fees if their income is below a certain amount. This doesn’t total that amount that wasn’t paid last year.
More to come in the future.

Here are some questions sent from Dave D at Carl Sandburg High School. Check back because I think I will add more thoughts as time goes on and as I get more time.

1) What does the average student wear? Brand names?
At school, uniforms are worn.
Boys: Gray or black slacks or shorts
Gray or blue button up collared shirt
Girls: Gray or black skirt, mini skirt or those all in one dress thingies (I’m a guy and don’t know any technical terms)
Gray or blue button up collared shirt
Depending on the day, the colors change. As far as cleanliness and tatteredness of the clothes, this depends on the parents and their situation at home. The ones with more money have the nicer, well-kept uniforms.
I am assuming the uniforms are a lot like those in Catholic schools at home, but I didn’t go to one so I will never know.
As far as dress around the village goes, the same applies. The wealthier (I use this in terms of the village) children have nicer and more clothes. Some children will be better dressed than me (which usually is hard) and some where the same thing for 5 days straight. I would say the styles aren’t really that much different than what you see at home. Appearance is quite important here, some people like to dress nicely. Trends come from the States and Europe. Most people have TVs too (4 channels) and there are American sitcoms (My Wife and Kids, Friends to name a few), American music and music videos, and, most importantly wrestling, WWE. Almost boys, and men for that matter, have at least one wrestling shirt with Eddie Guerro, John Cena, and the others. Girls tend not to wear shorts or pants due to tradition but this is changing with the younger crowd.
2) Are there problems with famines....epidemics?
I think the biggest epidemic is AIDS.
Food is also a problem whenever you enter a third world place with poverty the way it is. Our host family eats a pretty healthy diet comparable to back home. But both my host parents work and therefore have money for health food. The staple food here is bogobe, also called pap and porridge. This is made with fine ground corn meal. To make it, boil water and added the corn meal until it because thick, almost like mashed potatoes. This is all some eat for dinner. Although it is fortified with some vitamins, it isn’t a balanced diet. Chicken is the staple meat here. The wealthier families will eat bogobe and chicken and possibly gravy made of tomatoes, onion and other available veggies. Rice is also a common staple food. My family will have something different each night. Anything from pasta, gravy, and sausage to bogobe, cabbage, and chicken. My father is the biggest meat eater I have ever know. He like eating all kinds of meat. One of his favourites: sheep’s head (no I am not lying). Other favourites here include chicken’s feet and heads!
Schools have a feed scheme for the children. Every child will get a plate of food during the day (although one problem with it is, the government only funds it for 4 of the 5 days of the week.). This will consist of rice or bogobe and gravy. For some children, this may be their only meal of the day.
3) What are your classroom settings like....for example are there classrooms of freshmen through seniors together.
I have yet to visit the high school (but am hoping to get over there soon) as I work primarily with the primary school. The education system starts at grade 1 and goes through grade 12 before the student go off to university. The handful of student, again whose parents can afford it, will go to kindergarten which is run by the Catholic church in the village next to ours. Primary school is grade 1-4or 6 or 7. Middle school is from grades 7-9. High school is from grades 10-12. There is then a test at the end of grade 12 that you have to pass to graduate. The pass rate this year for this test was about 68% for the country.
As far as the classrooms themselves, we have four schools and all are very different.
Manyeding: ≈220 students Grades 1-6 6 teachers (1 is also the principal)
Gamasepa: ≈200 students Grades 1-7 6 teachers (1 is also the principal)
Obontse: ≈70 students Grades 1-7 3 teachers (1 is also the principal)
Rebogile: ≈40 students Grades 1-4 2 teachers (1 is also the principal)
As you can figure out, some of the schools are multi-grade classrooms. High schools are better in that I think they always have separate classes for each grade but not positive.
4) What do the students do for entertainment, and what do they have in terms of video entertainment.
This is kind of part of the problem if you ask me. There is nothing to do in the village. This is why drink is such a big problem even into high schoolers and younger. During the day after school, most people sit in the shade. At night, go home eat and watch TV.
5) How long is your school day?
7:50 to 1:30 for grades 1-3
7:50 to 2:40 for grades 3-7
This varies because the teachers can, and will, leave whenever. If they have an errand to run or their only transportation back home is early, then class is over.
6) What is the average diet like?
See #2
7) Are their extra curricular activities?
They have sports which includes soccer for boys, volleyball, netball for girls (kind of like basketball without the dribbling and backboard?!). The high school also has softball.
There is usually a choir and a traditional dance club. We are trying to start a chess club too. These activities are hard because the teachers don’t get paid extra and therefore don’t see a reason to stay much longer. There are a few dedicated ones.
8) What kind of traditions do you have?
All kinds. I can spend hours on this one. Weddings. Funerals are a week long event that involves all night vigils during the week. The traditional dress are still prominent. Other traditions having to do with babies and such. I will add more later.
9) Do you guys play sports....football?
Yes, the sport that you can get going at anytime is football (not the American kind). Soccer is HUGE in the village. If one of the people with a ball (me and two others in the village) doesn’t show up, you can walk around the village and see kids playing soccer with a ball made of plastic bags from the grocery stores. When I want to play soccer, I tell my 7 year old host brother and start walking to the field with the ball in the air. My host brother will run around yelling and by the time I arrive at the field (a dirt clearing in the middle of a field with poles as goals) there are a dozen kids ready to play. Running is something that we are doing and the kids like to run with us. Since kids don’t really have toys, they make there own out of sticks or wire. Hand crafted wire cars with soda can wheels are ‘driven’ all around the village by boys. Also old car ties are rolled around for a good time.
10) What is the weather like....?
Hot. Hot. Hot. So far it has been hot. And the sun is INTENSE. During between around 1-3 or 4, if you are outside, you are in the shade! I have never felt the sun to be so searingly hot than it is here. It is like a giant is holding a magnifying glass and the beam is pointing to you. Did I mention it was hot. The evening though are usually quite pleasant and it cools off nicely.
11) Is their a lot of poverty....?
Yes, see earlier answers.
12) What part of South Africa are you in?
Northwest province (actually they have changed the borders so I will be living in the Nothern Cape province soon). My village is called Manyeding which is 25 km ESE of a town called Kuruman (you should be able to find it on a map!)
13) What kind of music do the students listen to?
AfroPop is big. Band like Malika and Mafikizolo (I can’t spell) are the South African Pop bands. And American music, especially R& B and rap. 50 Cent, Eminem, Usher, and Destiny’s Child to name a few.
14) Can your students ask questions for us to answer...? (We would like to start a correspondence) I am still working on that. It maybe a while longer. You can ask me as many questions as you want though.
15) Do your students care about sports in America...for example, the World Series Champion Chicago White Sox
No soccer is king in the villages (and 2010 the World Cup will be here in SA). I have been told by South African’s that the blacks like soccer and the whites like rugby and cricket. Its funny though because you can buy a Sox hat on the street and you will see other teams thrown around. I think it is whatever the bootlegger brought in on the shipment they sell. The gardener for our host family sports a SF Giants hat, but he has no idea who it is.
16) What is the main religion where you are at?
Christianity. People are very religious here. Sunday is truly the Sabbath with nothing but the grocery stores open. People go to church (sometimes for 5-6 hours)
17) How is South Africa different from America...this is more of a question for you Adam.
I answer this one with everything I write.
18) Do they have fast food?
Yes, in town (Kuruman). Once you are in town, things pretty much look like they would back home. I have been told you can tell how big a town is by what fast food they have. Small towns have KFC (Kuruman does!?)
Middle towns have KFC and a local burger joint called Steers
Large Cities (like Pretoria) have KFC, Steers, and McDonalds. Yes not need to work, you can eat McDo here to.
19) What kind of responsibilities do the students have around home?
This is a tricky one. The kids here have a lot more responsibility than I ever remember having. From cooking and cleaning, to taking care of the animals. Some of this is due the larger number of orphans. In which case the grandparents are the caretakers. In school this is also the same. Since there is no janitors, the child clean the school every morning. From sweeping out classrooms to clean the school latrines the students are the cleaning crew. They also do the yards work and at one school are clearing a soccer field.
20) Are there a lot of stores to buy food and clothing...or are there a lot of farmers that grow their own food?
Yes. The grocery stores in town look like those in the States, just smaller and with different brands. You can pretty much get anything you desire. The Mountain Dew tastes different though and Pepsi is hard to find. Coke has a stronghold on the soda industry. They do have a Fanta Pineapple which is awesome.
Clothing is the same to in the towns. You can go to a Mr Price or Jet and keep up with the latest fashion trends.
21) What are the foods you eat for fun?
Watermelons can be bought now for about $1 now that they are in season. The fruit here is good. I am becoming and even better cook from scratch and make all kinds of sweets that are always dubbed Monate (delicious).

11 Jan 2006

2006-01-14T00:47:00.000-08:00

Dumelang Everyone! 11 January 2006

Hope everyone had a great holidays and is starting out 2006 with a bang! We wish everyone a Merry Belated Christmas and enjoyable new year! With the holidays means lots of family and friends were in town (I guess I should say in village, since we really don’t live in a town). Our two older host brothers came and stayed for a week or two. One is 30 and works in another city and the other is 26 (he is only a few months older) and was moving to Cape Town as part of his Air Force training. Also in town were random sisters (who aren’t really sisters in our the sense of the word), brothers (who aren’t realty brothers), aunts (who aren’t really…), uncles (who aren’t really…), and cousins (who aren’t really…). And with all of them, were all their friends, which I think most of the time they can call cousins because pretty much everyone is somehow related to everyone else, and if they aren’t, they will marry into it!? It was fun to have some of our age people in the village! The reason there are no longer 20-somethings (or at least not more than you can count on your hands and maybe toes) in the village is because most go off to university and see how exciting life is with things to do and never come back unless it is to visit.

Here are the cliff notes of our holiday break!
Two wedding in two days (one was nice and the other was World’s Worst Wedding (WWW))
Violently ill from some food that we ate at WWW’s BBQ
Laid in bed for several days
Christmas BBQ at host grandmother’s house
Trip to Taung for New Year’s to visit some friends
Week of nothing
School starting back up

So as one can see we kept ourselves busy!?

Here is the longer version…

The first event that we had to deal with was two weddings in two days. I am sure that you can sense my excitement here saying that I got to withstand two weddings of people I have never meet over a 48 hour period most of which is in the language that I still can only say my name!? The first wedding was fine because we only had time to go to the reception. This wedding was a friend of our host brothers which we had never meet and probably for that matter never will. It took place on Friday and was actually the first day of their two day wedding (Friday was a white wedding and Saturday was a traditional wedding which we weren’t able to go to.) The reception was nice but one thing about these white weddings is that about 10 people have to give speeches at the reception. When I say have to I mean HAVE to. And when I say speeches, I mean not a little toast to the happily married couple but a short book about anything and everything about the couple and just about life. So you do the math…if at least 10 people give speeches and they are a minimum of 10 minutes long, how long before Thabo gets to eat? Yeah, quite a while. For all you out there that thought I had no patience, one thing I am learning here is PATIENCE….and a lot of it (whether it is the 2 hours of speeches at weddings or the 3 hour church service). But anyways, this wedding was nice and we were only there or 3 hours and I got a good meal out of it.
The other wedding is a whole different story. This wedding involved a cousin, in the literal sense too! So what that means is the wedding event actually started on Thursday for the Saturday wedding. Thursday was slaughtering day, I however was too late in my arrival due to my soccer playing and only saw the carcasses in the tree. There were a total of 5 sheep hanging out to dry. But it turns out that I wasn’t completely out of luck. Friday morning involved getting up and heading over to the next village over where the wedding was to be held. Weddings here are big events but they usually don’t occur at a hall of any kind. The hall is a giant tent which is set up in the family’s yard. So this was the destination for the morning. And to my joyous surprise, they had decided to slaughter 2 more sheep, fearing that the five they had already slaughtered (and one cow!) wouldn’t be enough. So my host brother and I lent a helping hand. No details here…your imagination can run wild. But as everyone was looking for a knife, all they could find was….yes, a dull knife not longer than 3”. (***A special thanks to my aunt and uncle in PA who, I am guessing here, felt some pity for the animal and sent a thoughtful Christmas gift of a knife sharpener! Thanks, I will use with pride and hopefully the animals will feel less in their last moments!***) Once, finished with the skinning of the sheep, it was in the car and off to the wedding (see above). And yes, we went home to change, I don’t slaughter in my Sunday bests.
After the wedding (see above) it was back to the other wedding prepping. Catering here for weddings is also a little different (if you haven’t noticed a trend, most things are the same in a different sort of way). Catering here means that you gather up all the aunts and friends (mostly women) and you stay up ALL night and you cook and cook and cook and cook for a lot of people in GIANT cast iron kettles (that weigh several hundred pounds) over a fire. So all the food is homemade and hence the reason for all the dead sheep! When I say a lot of people, I mean a lot of people. But another different little thing, you can invite all your friends and family totaling 200 but you have to cook for 400. Because the wedding is held in a backyard in the village and since no one is every really doing anything of dire importance, neighbors just show up and they show up in numbers. So you invite 200 and get 400, crazy. Anyways, we didn’t stay all night helping with preparation, but we did stay until at least midnight (which is VERY late in the village)
On Saturday, the wedding itself went a little something like this. Got up and was told we were leaving for the wedding by 9:00 because it started at 10 and our host brother, who was driving, was in the wedding. No problem. Arriving a little late 9:15, we find the bride in hiding, the groom nowhere to be seen and the tent that was suppose to be finished getting decorated last night to still be half done. So since we had nothing to do before the wedding started, we hastily helped organize. After about the fifth time changing everything around, the boss finally liked what she saw. By this time it was 10:30 or 11. I know what you are thinking, you missed the wedding. But no, everyone was just standing around waiting for the groom. YES, the GROOM was LATE to his OWN WEDDING. It still makes me laugh. But 11:00 passes, 11:15, 11:30 (we are now starting to wager on if and what time he will show up), 11:45 (now I am getting concerned because the rations we packed were going to hold out until later afternoon which I was now forecasting we were going to eat.) and finally noon rolls around. But with the clock hitting 12, a car rolls up and the rumors that the groom was actually in it. YEAH! After parading over to the church (thank goodness it was only across the street (street in the sense of the word that cars drive on it not in the sense of a paved road that you are thinking of)) Church was crammed with people but thank goodness there aren’t many white people from the US at the wedding because we get the VIP treatment and actually get a seat. This is a good thing because we have seen home videos and the church service can run on for HOURS. But, to my surprise, along with a lot of others (meaning everyone) the service was only 15 minutes. That is the best part. The worst part involves the late groom looking bored out of his mind with his hand in his pockets for the whole service. Hands in his pocket as the priest reads a prayer and blesses the rings. The groom then proceeds to give his bride the wrong hand to put the ring on. After much commotion, the ring was switched. The 15-minute church service, although nice, was terrible. No vows, no reading, no kiss, and a bored groom! The bride was lovely and always had a smile on her face (by the middle of the day, people were discussing why they were getting married because it didn’t seem like the groom wanted to get married?!)
After church, it was back to the tent and the reception. But the good news came when they were changing the schedule so the food wouldn’t go bad and we would be eating after a few speeches (aka 5!?). After speeches and food, yeah, it was off to the photo shoot at a park. Problem was we got lost going there, oh well, we eventually made it. Photos…nice, then back to the reception to hear more speeches. But a problem arises again when the groom takes an extra hour longer than everyone else to get back. When he finally arrives, they do the traditional wedding with traditional outfits. Neat to see. After some traditional dance, there were more speeches in the tent. And then they read everyone’s gift card out loud. Yes, they opened the envelopes to everyone’s gift and read the cards out to the people sitting in the tent.
This pretty much concluded the reception but there was a late night BBQ for the young people. And being a young person, I was inclined to go. These events were to start at 9pm. I am guessing by the way I have told the story that you are assuming since everything else didn’t start on time that this wouldn’t either. Well, you are correct sir! After waiting for another THREE hours, the party finally started. And for those of you wondering, yes, the groom was late! The party consisted of another 5 speeches (double yeah) and food. All fine and well. We left after nothing very exciting happened at about 2am. According to the accounts from our host brothers that stayed later, the groom eventually got into a fight with the bride which prompted everyone to leave immediately.
Upon arriving home, my stomach started doing somersaults. Subsequently for the next 20 hours I made numerous (at least 12) trips to the latrine! Oh what fun! I now know why they are called the runs. And let me tell you, it isn’t a short run! Don’t worry, I wasn’t the only one affected, Lerato was right next to me the whole time. We were thing of installing a revolving door on our latrine! It was something at the BBQ that hit us.

Andrea Making a Huge Loaf of Bread

Prep work being done on the meat before the wedding

The huge cast iron kettles that cooked the wedding feast

Our host brother and the bride parading to the church

We were glad we had a full week to recover before Christmas. It was about Thursday, when I started feeling better (read when I got my tenacious appetite back!) It was also Thursday that a sheep was tied out back for, you guessed it, slaughtering. And yup, I was a part of it. Although I wasn’t main guy (next time maybe), I did lend a hand. This furry friend was to turn into fire-seared Christmas dinner. Sheep are bigger than turkeys and have fur. This makes them a bit different to slaughter!? But every animal is always new and exciting. My favorite part is the washing of the intestines which involves pouring water in an orifice and then blowing in that orifice to push the water through to the other end. If you don’t know what the orifice is, go back to anatomy class!
Christmas itself was good. Started out with a (long if you ask me and short if you ask anyone here, 2-2 ½ hour) church service. Nice, and I even knew the tune of one of the hymns. Then there was a quick lunch of cold baked beans and fish in tomato sauce on warm bread. Off to grandmother’s house aka the old lady for a big get together of the extended family. The BBQ was a lot of fun and there had to have been 5 or 6 generation of our host family. About 40 people in all. It involved sitting in the shade (which people do a lot because the sun is SO warm). After that a quiet evening of digesting all the food.

Thabo helping at the BBQ stand

The Old Lady, enjoying her company on Christmas

The day after Christmas is also a holiday here and since we didn’t have time to give out presents to our host family, today was the day. Christmas here is a little different to for the fact that a lot of the people don’t have any spare income that they can spend on presents. To some people in the village, it seemed like it was just another day which was kind of disheartening. But we spent a small amount of money on our immediate family for gift because they have been so very gracious to us. And the excitement in their faces, all of them, was well worth the $4-5 we spent on them!
A couple days after Christmas, we hiked a ride to Taung. A village about 80 km away where 4 of our friends are stationed for their two years. These are the same friends that made the trek to our village to celebrate Thanksgiving. After a couple of days of staying at the house (she is living high on the hog with running water, flushing toilets and a bathtub that even I can fit in!) of one of those friends, we headed to a bed and breakfast in a nearby town (yes, not a village!). New Years was spent partying near the pool (go figure, we have been at site for several months and the sun has not stopped shining once) on an overcast and cool (75) day. Not prime weather for one of two days with a pool! But we made the best of it and had a great party that culminated with shopping cart races!

The following week before school starts involved lying around and being the bum that I am!
School is finally back in which means that we are looking forward to our next break which will involve traveling!!! (We will finally be off our travel restriction!) The first two days was without students. And the first school I visited the teachers accomplished NOTHING. They literally sat there and talked the whole day (with the exception of one who I helped work on the computer!). The next day as a little more productive but not very. But the children are finally here and I hope today goes like many others. The teachers were in class most of the day (yeah) and the kids were excited (they are always willing to learn!)
That is about it….its been a while but those are some of the things that have happened to us. I am sure I left stuff out but you’ll have to wait for next time. We should start writing more now that we can get to a computer more.

Happy 2006!

Archives....the old stuff

2005-12-12T23:46:00.000-08:00

These are old letters that some of you might have...pictures will come with time

14 October 2005
Dumelang borra le bomma! That is how I would greet you all in Setswana. Greetings are a big thing here. Everywhere you go, you are expected to greet the people you see, even if they are all the way across the street in the very back corner of their yard. If you see them and they see you, you must shout out a greeting of some kind. And people get upset if you don’t – like you are ignoring them on purpose. It is a nice concept – saying hello to your neighbors and strangers alike – something we don’t do in the US. Even we, as weird foreigners, are greeted everywhere we go. Think about how many people you greet when you walk down the street – only those you know, right? Maybe you mumble a hello to a stranger every now and again, but probably not often. In the big cities here you don’t greet everyone, but here in the villages it is rude not to.
The hospitality we have received has been astounding. Two families now, have taken us into their homes and treated us as family. The Kgadima family, at our training site, and now the Gaelejwe family, where we will be living for two years. We are living in an entirely separate house, next door to our host family. Our host father’s sister used to live there but she passed away a few years back and the house has stood empty ever since. The house is huge – 4 bedrooms and a kitchen, but they have sectioned off two of the rooms for us and fixed them up, and it will make for a good home. We still have to get some things to get settled in completely – like a small stove and fridge so we can cook for ourselves, but we are so glad to finally be in one spot for more than three weeks. We have a pretty large yard that the neighborhood goats, turkeys, and dogs like to wander through. I think we are going to set up a compost heap, and a pit for burning our paper trash, as there is no waste pickup. We have a lovely little pit latrine out in the corner of the yard too – no running water inside. We have installed a water storage tank – also known as a (clean) plastic garbage can – in the hallway, and will only have to carry water from the spigot down the road every couple of days. We do have electricity though, which is more than some of our friends have, so we are lucky. There are no street lights in the village, just little lights to illuminate the yards of the homes in the village, and nothing but the African bush surrounding our village, so we have some spectacular night sky viewing. Currently, there is a full moon, so we haven’t really gotten to take advantage of it yet, but the moonrises have been pretty awesome too, so it’s ok.
We are just beginning work in our schools – we will work with four in the area. One is close – in the same village that we live in, but for the others we will have to travel through the bush by bicycle to get there, which should be pretty awesome. Two of them are about 7K away from our village, and the other is about 5K. We will definitely get some exercise. It gets pretty darn hot here, and it’s not even really into summer yet. We are creeping up on the rainy season, and can’t wait. The dust here is unbelievable. It is a pretty dry climate, as we are on the fringes of the Kalahari Desert. Sometimes it gets really windy and these huge dust tornadoes form and blow through town. They are quite impressive. But the dust should calm down some with the advance of the rainy season, and things will hopefully turn green too. We want to plant a garden and grow some vegetables, and I can’t wait to see everything turn green. Right now the landscape is mostly browns and yellows, but we hear that things turn green, and that there are even flowers at times. I can’t wait. It has only rained twice in the two months we have been in South Africa, but they were pretty spectacular storms. The sound of a pounding rain on a tin roof is so loud, that you can’t talk to someone sitting next to you. You just have to wait until it passes.
I hope you are all able to see the photos we have attached. The first one is of our host father in Moletsi with a pen that Adam made and we gave to them as a gift. The next one is our entire Moletsi host family – Me with Johannes in the back (he’s 21), then Adam with our host father and mother (Michael and Makwena) and Daphney (25) in the front. Then group photo is from our swearing in ceremony – those are our friends and ‘neighbors’ – the other 8 volunteers in the NorthWest Province. Then there is a photo of Adam climbing a large rock outside of our village, one of me on my birthday, a photo of the dusty soccer field near where we trained, and the last is of the Jacaranda trees in Pretoria. They line the streets there – it is quite amazing. We were there at the right time! So enjoy! We will send more when we can. So until next time…

Hugs & Kisses,
Adam and Andrea

October 28, 2005
Hope all is well back in the States and work is going well for everyone. Things in South Africa are well. We completed our 7 weeks of training on Oct 13 and have been at site since. Training was pretty painful in the fact that it was extremely disorganized and long and boring! But that is all done now. The bright part of training was getting to know all the other volunteers from the US (88 in all) and our host family (the Kgadimas) that we stayed with. We stayed with a family that treated us very well and we were said to leave.
So we are finally at are permanent location for the next two years. It is a small village called Manyeding. The village is about 25 km outside of a great little town called Kuruman which you should be able to find on the map. It is on the border between the Northern Cape and Northwest Province. It is considered the Kalahari Desert where we are!? We are currently working with 4 different primary schools around our village. They are 1, 3, 5, and 8 km away from our home so I will get to ride a bunch while I am here. The people have been great and our host family (the Gaelejwes) here has been more than hospitable. We have a home next to our host family’s home. It is a brick house (large bricks) that we have taken over two of the rooms as our living quarters. We have a great long drop out back (pit latrine)! We don’t have running water however there is a consistent tap that we can fill up everyday. We do have the luxury of having electricity so that is nice because we have a small electric stove and lights! We really haven’t done much yet (as we aren’t really suppose to do much in the beginning but show our face and make contacts) we are helping a few things. And at the beginning of Dec is a month and a half long school break. We are on travel restriction from the Peace Corps (can’t travel for the first 3 months) so we will be in the village looking for stuff to do when that happens. I am hoping to get a soccer camp together to fill some of the time. That along with lots of reading and looking at donkeys. Our village is overrun by donkeys and goats….it is pretty amusing. The are donkey carts taking people around the village. Our village doesn’t really have any tar roads so it aint a bad options of transport but sadly I have yet to ride one. The village is just off a tar road though but not many cars travel on it. The stars at night are incredible though because of the lack of light pollution. I have never seen so many white lights in the sky! The only lights outside are those from a few of the houses with outdoor lights (one, two at the most) TV is a favorite pastime at night although we don’t have one. They are crazy about a few things on the tube: wrestling, yes WWE Wrestling which no one believes me is fake, soccer of course…..which South Africa is holding the World Cup in 2010, and soaps! They have a few from the states along with some south African version the most popular being Generations. One other crazy thing about the tube is the languages. Some shows like Generations the actors use at least 3 different languages with subtitled English and the news is done like 5 times in 5 different languages. South Africa has 11 official languages…so yeah, that is a lot.
The food is good. And we have been feed very well by our host families. The one staple food is called bogobe which is a kind of porridge that most people eat EVERY day! It is easy to make and it CHEAP and filling. It is made with water and processed corn meal. Boil water and mix in corn powder…stir! That’s it. Variety is not a big word in the diet scheme although you can find pretty much any food in the big towns as it is back home.
We have seen some wildlife so far but not in abundance. Lions in a cage at the one place we stayed for two days. Baboons giraffes warthog zebras and impalas along the roadside on one of our many trips to around South Africa during training.
What we were sent here to do was be a resource to our schools and thus far we have been doing a lot more this early on than I expected! School here is different to say the least. Two of the four schools we will work with have multi level classrooms (which I am guessing the older ones in the group may have experienced, haha) in which say, grade 3 and 4 are in the same class with the same teacher!? It is crazy. That along with the fact that the resources are quite limited and the teachers really don’t understand the new curriculum. There are a few obstacles to overcome but I really think there is a lot of promise in getting these kids a better education so that can achieve things. Another problem is just keeping the teachers in the classroom…on payday almost all the teacher will leave early 10 (school starts at 8) to go to town to pay bills and buy food!?
The beginning of the school days is my favorite part of school. It is called assembly and all the children live up according to grade and saw prayers and sing in unison. You the say “Hello learners” and the children will reply “Hello teachers, thank you”. Then they start a left, left, left right left and march off to class. I will eventually take some pics and video to share but that will be a while.
So this letter is so long because we have access to computers at 2 (no 3 now) schools now. We usually have some time to kill to so hopefully everyone will get a letter every once in a while. We hopefully will go to town 3-4 times a month to use the internet so I can actually send the letters to all of you. Hope no one is offend at mass sending of letters written by me (my African name is Thabo which means happiness) and Andrea (her african name is Lerato which means love) but we are hoping to keep in touch with everyone on our adventures through space and time. Sorry if you are getting repeat info too….I forget who I talk to and what I say. If you want to contact us by snail mail….we enjoy getting things in the mail

A. Liberatore
PO Box 2239
Kuruman 8460
Republic of South Africa

That is all for now. I have no real travel stories yet. All the traveling to this point has been planned out by Peace Corps. Once our first three months are up we will be traveling to some awesome places…I cant wait. I think the first stop will be Transfrontier Park and trying to catch a glimpse at the big five animals of SA. This park is closer than the famous Kruger Park (we will make it there too in time) to us. I can’t wait to travel because of all the possibilities.

Adam
November 4, 2005
Greetings all.
We had a pretty slow week here. We are still getting used to our schools, and they are still getting used to us too. We are working with four separate schools – all of them are primary schools. The one in the same village where we live, Manyeding, has about 225 students, grades 1-6, and seven teachers. It is our host school, and the one we spend the most time at. Our host mother is the third grade teacher here. It is probably the school with the most resources that we work with. They have a computer and copier, a staff room and principal’s office, a small and VERY disorganized library, and even two extra, unused classrooms. This contrasts quite a bit with another one of our schools, which is about 5K away. It only has grades 1-4, and about 50 kids, but there are only two teachers, and one big open room. They have no electricity (which isn’t as big of a problem as it sounds – at least not in summer), no computer, no staff room, and toilets with no doors. But life and learning seems to carry on there also. One of our other schools has about 170 kids, grades 1-7, with 6 teachers and a secretary. The school is a little run down, but they have a working computer and copier also, electricity, and really nice, new toilets. Our fourth school is another smaller one, with 80 students and three teachers for grades 1-6. One teacher has grades 1-3 in one classroom, and grades 4&5 and 6&7 are together. Multi-grade classrooms are something that we have never experienced before and which will provide quite a challenge. It seems to me that two grades in the same room is somewhat manageable, but three is another story. If any of you have any bright ideas for managing a multi-grade classroom, we’d love to hear it!
All in all, the school day is pretty similar to what we have in the US. The day starts with assembly, which is something the US doesn’t really have, where all the kids gather outside in the courtyard of the school to sing hymns and pray, and get school announcements and whatever other information they need to know about the day. (Kids with non-christian religions don’t have to participate in the hymns & prayers if they don’t want too.) Then they all march, and they do actually march, off to class. The school day is from about 7:45 to 1:00 for the younger kids and 1:45 for the older ones. All schools require uniforms – usually a black dress or pants with a blue or white or kakhi collared shirt. Another thing that is pretty different from the US is that after assembly and at the end of the day, the kids clean the school – sweeping and wiping off all chairs, windows etc, and watering the gardens if there is one.
One of the biggest problems we face are teachers who aren’t in the classroom enough. They enjoy chatting with one another, basking in the sun, or doing their lesson plans and grading during the time that they should be in the classroom teaching. It’s a pretty big problem, and one that we don’t really know how to handle yet. The school system in general needs quite a bit of help – especially in these rural schools, which is why we’re here, I guess. South Africa is changing over to a new kind of teaching – more like American classrooms, with lots of group work, and critical thinking, and hands on projects. Before the new curriculum, teachers just stood at the front of the room and talked, and made the students write it down and repeat what they said. The word of the teacher was the word of God, and you weren’t allowed to question it, or ask questions at all for that matter. So it’s a hard transition to make. Things were even worse during Apartheid, when the government thought that it wasn’t necessary for black South African’s to know any science or math. And all of our teachers grew up during Apartheid and were taught in that way, which makes it hard for them to turn around and teach in the new way. So we are here to help them make the transition, as well as just help them develop their resources and develop their math and science programs. Three of our schools have small libraries, which just means that there are some extra textbooks and a few (maybe 30) reading-for-fun books sitting on a shelf in the staff room, collecting dust. Most of the reading-for-fun books are in English, and not setswana, which is also a problem. Classes are taught in Setswana until fourth grade, where it is supposed to change over to English. In grade 4 it is probably half English, half Setswana, but will be totally English by the time they reach high school.
At times it feels like a big challenge, but other times I can see some of the steps we can take to slowly change things. Right now, we are just getting to know the schools and the staff and students. We are reviewing school policies and budgets, and teaching 50-year-old teachers, who have never seen a computer until a year ago, how to type. The school year is almost over, so we will probably not get into anything too big until next year. Next week starts final exams, which will continue until the end of the month. We are going on a field trip next week with one of our schools to some historical sites in the nearby town, so that should be fun.
We have been pretty busy at home too. We are cleaning up our yard, trying to goat-proof our fence, and start a garden. Yesterday we made a screen door out of our iron security door and some mosquito netting. We have started baking for our host family too – we made rice krispie treats, chocolate chip cookies, and banana bread so far, and they loved them all. Life is pretty slow here sometimes, but we haven’t gotten too bored yet. I think I will enjoy having time to bake and cook yummy meals and work on all kinds of other projects. Adam is going to pick up a guitar and will be a rock star by the time we head for home. Maybe we will come back with all kinds of skills we didn’t know we had.
Well, I hope life is good back in the US. We still haven’t had much time at the computer to use the internet when we are in town, so sorry to those of you who have sent e-mails. We will get around to responding one of these days. Hope you all had a great Halloween – it was a holiday sorely missed by Adam and I. Maybe next year we will introduce the idea to our village and see what happens. We are moving into summer now and it is weird to think that it is getting much colder for all of you.
Take care and we will write again soon…

Andrea

The photos are of a cool sunset the other night, and one of our host school and some of the kids…

Another weekly installment of the Adam and Andrea newsletter. Or Thabo and Lerato, as we are known here. Those are our Setswana names. Adam is Thabo, which means happiness, and I am Lerato, meaning love. Awwwwww, isn’t that cute... Today, we have a brief tour of our house for you – complete with photos. As I think I have said, we live in a pretty large house, that had been sitting empty since our host father’s sister passed away a few years back. The entire house is empty, but we only occupy two rooms of the house, as that is all we need. Here is the view from the front:
We made a screen door out of some mosquito netting that the Peace Corps gave us, and wrapped it around the security door that we have on the front door. It works quite well… Here also is our entry-way and you can see our lovely water storage container – aka trash can and our PC issue bicycles.
This is our living room and kitchen – they are in the same room. We have bought a small stove/oven – it’s about the same size as a microwave, so that we can cook for ourselves when we want to, but we have found that most of the time we eat dinners with our host family and cook only breakfast and lunch for ourselves. Also seen here is our bedroom – on the other side is only a bed, so there is no photo of that. Yes, that is a guitar…there is much free time and Adam hopes to FINALLY figure that toy out! It’s not very exciting.
Next you see our ‘tub’ – literally – that we bathe in, which is also in our bedroom. Yeah, baths are interesting – I think I speak for both of us when I say that we miss showers. Don’t take that for granted!! Baths are usually concluded with smelling of one’s self to make sure that the bathing has satisfied the removal of odor. One of our friends here has already set up a shower with a solar camp shower and I hope, no am, going to do the same once I get my hands on the right materials and a little more time. And the moment you’ve all been waiting for, the toilet! Our lovely little outhouse. What Lerato calls an outhouse, I like to call an office where most of my thinking goes on. :o)

And finally I’ll include a few photos of our family for you too… Our host brother Paseka all dressed up for church and the baby, Tlhalefo. And check out this sunset! We have to reduce the quality of the photos, but this is an awesome photo, I assure you. The house is a rondoval – a traditional African house that belongs to our neighbor. Monate! (beautiful!)

Otherwise, the week went very well. We went on a field trip to town with one of our schools on Wednesday, which was fun. We went on a tour of the post office, library, bank, the natural spring ‘the first eye’ that our town is famous for, and an old mission just outside of town. The mission is where the first bible was printed in all of Africa, by a man named Robert Moffit – and his daughter married David Livingstone, who many of you may know as someone who explored much of southern Africa. We took about 65 kids on a bus, all over town, and without ever taking roll from the moment we left school, we managed not to lose any of them. I think. We had another huge, noisy thunderstorm last night. So much for sleeping when those things come rolling through. It’s pretty awesome, though. Well, that’s about it for now. Final exams have started which basically means half days for the kids. They last about two weeks, and then it’s the end of the school year. That’s about it for me, I’ll pass it over to Adam for a few words…

The kids getting on the bus

One fun thing this week is that I have finally started to exercise regularly which a good thing. I am now known as the one who runs and ALL the children want to join in. Some days that means that I run a little slower to let all the other children follow….the thing is I am the only one wearing shoes and we are running on gravel at time!? Actually some of the kids like to wear slippers when running!

That is all for now this week…

Peace & Love from South Africa
Thabo & Lerato
Adam & Andrea
18 November 2005

Dumelang,
Well like I like to say another week another weekend!? All is still well in South Africa. The temperature seems to be a bit on the rise which means the hot will be getting hotter and then the hotter will be getting really hotter! My english has been improving. Last weekend we watched our host brother (well I guess he is our host nephew...the child of our host sister) get baptised! It was an exciting day for him and the braai (which is South African english for BBQ) afterwards was great. Lamb and cow...mmmmmm! The church service is what I would have considered to be a little long (at least for my taste). I know you are thinking that I can hardly sit still for the long 1 hour church services at home. So how long was this service you ask? And might I mention first that the service is Setswana….and although my Setswana is getting better and I know the general idea of what is happening in church....4 hours is still long for a service. Yes that is not a misprint, the church was four hours long. Got there at 9am and left at 1pm! And for some unforeseen reason I was not gnawing on my arm!? Surprising I know. Tlhalefo was a handsome little guy in an all white outfit complete with vest and bowtie!
Running around the villages continues and the other days we had 20 children with us! At a parents meeting at our school, our host mother encouraged the parents to tell their children if they see us running to come and join. It is pretty entertaining to be a part of. I think if I were to run and jump off a bridge the kids would too...but no need to worry for there are no bridges anywhere near. I should try jumping on a cow or something though.
Schools are going even more chaotic now since grades 3-7 are in final exam periods. The children arrive at normal time 8 and then have anywhere from 1-3 hours of free play time until the test starts. We are trying to convince the teachers to have class before the exam but have yet to prevail!?
Other good news is that we have pets....two different kinds. There is a natural spring in our village so there is an abundance of pond life. I am going to rig up a fishing pole one of these days and fish for the pan fish that are swimming around. But the pets that we got are tadpoles...just something to watch and talk to!? It is more exciting talking to tadpoles than to myself!? Our other lovely pets are two turkeys, Dr. Hyde and Mr. Jekyl that our host father bought for us the other day. These guys won't live the happy life the tadpoles will. Next weekend the 7 other NW volunteers that we became friends with during our training will come and celebrate Thanksgiving with us in the village of Manyeding! One of the turkeys will meet his fate on Thursday. Our host father will teach me how to take a live turkey and turn it into a delicious Thanksgiving meal! My first Thanksgiving slaughtering experience. I can now cross that one off my list....much to the dismay of the wife!? Our host father also promises me to take me hunting in the field....not sure to hunt what but he promises that we will kill something.
So the letters may get longer and more frequent now…over the last two weeks I have been figuring out how to use, and teach how to use our host family’s computer. I am using the term computer very lightly here. I have calculators that are more powerful and my camera has more memory! But it takes me back to the old days when we got our first computer….and were running from a DOS setup. I typed most of this letter in Word Perfect 5.1 on their computer last night and thank to Bill Gates and Windows XP, I imported it right into Word. The computer is very slow and quite interesting to figure out all the old commands and not having a mouse. I also have setup the printer….which is an old dot matrix that is supposed to use the continuous feed paper of the olden days. I got it to print…although not the most beautiful. It uses an old ribbon for ink like typewriters used!? But our host mother wants to learn to type and it can definitely do that. It seems like everything here is back a few decades! The computer also has a few classic games!! California Games being one of them!

The baptism….part of the marathon church service along with our host dad and his grandbaby…and a close up of the handsome little guy

Our friends, Mr. Jekyl and Dr. Hyde…aka Thanksgiving dinner and a back up!

Peace & Love from South Africa
Go Siame le Sala Sentle (Be alright and Stay Well!)
Thabo & Lerato
Adam & Andrea

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This message contains images and descriptions that may be unsuitable for those who have heart disease, diabetes, weak stomach or other aliment that doesn't like carnage of innocent animals to make delicious feasts!?
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02 December 2005

Dumelang Everyone!
Happy Belated Thanksgiving!
I hope your feast was as big and monate (delicious) as ours was! We were busy all last weekend cooking and entertaining our friends who came to visit. There were 7 Americans that came and celebrated Thanksgiving with us on Saturday! It was quite the event and the food was awesome and plentiful.
The event of Thanksgiving actually started on Thursday (actual Thanksgiving) when I took part in slaughtering both Mr Hyde and Dr Jekyll. It was quite exciting although it wasn’t as barbaric as I thought (or probably hoped) it would be. But, I did finally pass into manhood by slaughtering my first animal! Finally, no more little boy here. Although this is kind of gory, it is much better than buying the one in the store...and the vegetarian even ate a little turkey on the account that the birds lived a happy life and died a noble death!?
Slaughtering from the eyes of the slaughter goes a little something like this:
1. Discuss whether to use a thipa (knife) or selepe (axe).
1a. Boil water with fire in giant cast iron pot
1b. Go into kraal with someone else and chase turkey down
1c. Grab by wings and carry over to slaughtering log
2. Decide on axe
2a. Place neck of turkey on log
3. Use axe to cut throat
4. Hold bird until blood drains out and stops moving
5. Take bird and place in giant bowl (I mean giant)
6. Pour boiling water over turkey in bowl
7. Remove every feather by pulling
8. Put turkey in another bowl filled with lukewarm water
9. Bath turkey as if it is a small child that is very dirty
10. Take knife (and let me tell you the knives here are no where close to being sharp....maybe five years ago but not now!) and cut off head and feet (for those of you thinking that these don't get eaten here...think again. The neighbor lady that helped with the slaughtering took both the heads (turkey heads, turkey heads, eat them up yum!) and feet of the turkey as payment...and was going to eat it for dinner!? We have tried chicken feet a couple of times, not very exciting, and Andrea is not a fan at all. It is weird that what you are eating looks EXACTLY the same as it does on the animal. The problem with the feet (haven't tried heads...yet, although our host sister tells us that if we eat heads we will get smarter, eyes and we will get better sight and ear to hear better.) is that there isn't that much meat and you have to eat around the nails. Imagine eating chicken skin off the feet of a chicken....yup that is it.) The heads were then taken and skinned in a way. She didn't take all the skin off but if you think of what a turkey head looks like, it ain't pretty and has weird skin growths that need to be picked off. Exciting! The feet also need the top layer of skin or shell or armor or whatever it is that is on them. Now think chicken feet 10 times bigger. After soaking in the boiling water for a while, you grab each toe and pull. You pull until the outer skeleton slides right off. It was pretty wild to say the least. Then proceed to do the rest of the toes and right up the leg! If I were to ever imagine what a dinosaur leg would look like, that is it. Moving on...
11. Make an incision near the butt
12. Pull out the insides (again, the lovely neighbor lady was very excited to have more dinner) and wash and clean. Cleaning the insides involves empting what Mr Turkey had for dinner yesterday and the day before.
13. Cut off neck farther down
14. Carefully cut out stomach from the top, meaning where the head is. (Again, neighbor lady excited about food and again you can see undigested food this time!)
14. Hack a hole through one leg
15. Take some wire and thread it through the leg
16. Hang turkey from tree branch for about an hour to dry out
17. Repeat with other turkey
18. Place in freezer
19. Dream about eating them
20. Put in refrigerator
21. Daydream about eating them
22. Cook them
23. Eat them up, yum
That is it folks, the day and the life of Thanksgiving Day turkey!
Now, what it must have been like from the eyes of the slaughteree:
Just spending another quite day in the Gaelejwe's kraal feasting on some delicious corn and water with epsom salts...yum. The chicken are once again entertaining us with their theatrics and one of the other males turkeys from the neighborhood is back on the other side of the fence trying to act all tough and say this is his land we are treading on. He has come everyday we have been here raising his tail feathers like he is some kind of king of the world...but he can't hurt us because he can't come in and we can't get out. Oh wait...who are these two humans coming into the kraal....they are not the normal guy with the yummy food. Ut oh, it seems like they want to play. Yeah, chase me around the kraal...this is fun. Playing is so much fun. I will run away so they can't catch me. Maybe hiding under here...nope, they got me. Be gentle there big guy....my wings are delicate! Ah, maybe we are going somewhere fun. Easy big guy. No its alright I don't want to lay down...especially on this hard pillow that looks like a log. WAIT....what is going on, no no no..........
Andrea's viewpoint: I am not going to watch!
See, at least my viewpoint has a happy ending!

Friday was a school Farewell & Choir Celebration at our host school. It was a farewell function for a educator (their word for teacher) that had retired in 2003. So the party was right on time for South Africa. There is always a running joke about whether the time for an appointment is actual time or African time because African time is anywhere from 2 hours to 2 years later!? The party was also to celebrate the achievements of the school choir that achieved 1st place in three different languages (English, Afrikaans (kinda like African German), and Setswana). The party started right on African time. Everyone was told 9am but it didn't start til 10am...let me tell you how much patience I have acquired in just the first 3 months!? The party involved speeches (and a lot of them) and singing from the choir, and traditional dance. The traditional dance was great. Our host mother is the organiser of the dancers and they did about 7 different dances. About 2/3 of the way through (12:30am..this was one long party) the party the MC of the event and an educator at our school asked me to give a speech (sure why not!?) about the educator that was retiring (this lady that I had talked to for five minutes and I didn't know at all and had just had 7 others give at least 15 minute speeches about in Setswana)...sure why not. But I gave a short speech (1 minute) which I think one other person understood (Andrea) and then sat down. The party ended and the meal was finally served at 2. We were told the party would be from 9-12...instead 10-2:30. We finally left because we had to get started on the pies for the Thanksgiving feast on Saturday and all our friends were coming.
Saturday was Thanksgiving South African style. We started cook the meal at 8 or so. We cooked one turkey normally in the oven....which was delicious. And the other one I was in change. My host mother and I cooked it in a big cast iron kettle (that some people still cook all their meals in) outside with fire. Are you surprised that I volunteered to cook with fire!? It was a lot of fun and a good thing to learn, and I got to play with fire. We first cooked it in boiling water and then cooked it in a couple of inches of oil to give it some extra flavor....it was extra tasty! I also made the mashed potatoes in the cast iron kettles, although it was a bit smaller than the turkey one. I also took another step into manhood…carving my first and second turkeys (extra manly)!
The feast was huge and consisted of about 10 things. And we fed probably about 30 people. Every time I went back in the kitchen for seconds or thirds or fourths, there were new people trying the turkey and sides! But all the Americans sat down and enjoyed the feast with our host family. The desserts were also delicious and the pumpkin bread was to die for! After dinner, a couple of the girls that are always over at the house came and sang some songs as a thank you for tasting the feast. After that, and as we were about to head next door to our place and let the triptofin set in, a different group of girls came over and said they wanted to do some traditional dance for us. After about an hour of traditional dance on the porch, the place turned into a dance party with music and people coming from all over to have a good time. It was kind of crazy. There were 40 or so people on the lawn and the porch dance until it got dark out!? After that….we finally had some time to let the triptofin set in!? Sweet, sweet full stomach dreams.
That was our Thanksgiving weekend....it was a different, but that just goes along with who I am I guess. Hope all had a good Thanksgiving and took time before their feasts to share what they were thankful for. We did here....everyone was thankful for everyone back home and everyone here that makes this place as close to home as it can be! It was a great time.
That's is all and I will hand it over to the lady so she can tell her side of the story.
Peace love and slaughtered turkeys!

Hey all,
Well, Adam talked quite a bit there, and covered just about everything, (sorry for so much talk about the turkeys - he is so proud of that, and rightfully so, I suppose.) so there isn't much left for me to say. We really did have a great Thanksgiving. It was so much fun to have all the other Peace Corps folks here. It was the first time seeing many of them since training, and it was fun to hear everyone's stories about their schools and families and villages. We literally cooked from 8:00 in the morning until 2pm. It takes a lot of work to make a meal for 30 completely from scratch, and mostly without recipes! And I mean we used an actual pumpkin for the pies and bread. It was so rewarding to work that hard on cooking and have it turn out so well. Everyone here was really impressed and had a great time. It was definitely a Thanksgiving we will remember forever.

I don't really have much else to say. Just another quick note, today (Dec 1) was World AIDS Day. I think I will write an e-mail about the AIDS epidemic here some other time, but I'm guessing most of you didn't even know about AIDS day. It is always Dec. 1st (I can't believe it's December!!) so put it on the calendar for next year. We had a small candle lighting and prayer service at school, and then Adam and I went to church with our host mother for a special service. There were huge gatherings all over the country to remember those lost and pray for those who have the disease. I will leave it at that, and talk about it another day.

I hope you all had a great holiday and had fun going out Christmas shopping too. I definitely don't miss packed malls during the Christmas season!! School ends for the year on Tuesday, so we will have LOTS of time to write very soon. :o)
Love to you all,
A&A

Peace & Love from South Africa
Go Siame le Sala Sentle (Be alright and Stay Well!)

Thabo & Lerato
Adam & Andrea
1 The turkey meeting his match
2 Defeathering and bathing the birds
3 Neighbor lady showing the prize
4 The insides
5 The birds hanging out to dry
6 Me and my pride and joy
7 Golden brown fried bird!
8 Host ma and I watching the kettles
9 Carving
10 Table set for a king
11 Giving thanks before gorging
12 The table all set up
13 Traditional dance on the porch

12 December 2005

Greetings one and all!
Well, we are officially into our school break now, and I think I am speaking for both of us when I say we are officially bored too! No, it’s really not so bad – we are making a few improvements to our house like putting up shelves and hooks, goat-proofing the fences, and just taking time to read and hang out with our host family. So far, it hasn’t been too bad. I have successfully coaxed a few plants to grow in our garden, so I am hovering over those little green pepper plants and trying not to let them die again. I think they’re actually going to make it this time. They have been planted for about two weeks now and the sun hasn’t burned them to a crisp yet so I think they’ll be ok. It is watermelon season here, and they are CHEAP! (10 rand, which is about $1.50) Our host family bought one the other day and we ate it in the yard and then just threw the seeds in the ground and for some strange reason, they sprouted! So now we’re growing watermelons too. They’re outside the garden fence though, so pretty soon the goats will take notice and probably gobble them up. Hence the fence improvements I have spoken of earlier. Unfortunately for the goats, Adam also purchased a slingshot over the weekend, so hopefully we can fix the fence and spare them his wrath.

We took a little overnight trip to the next closest town, Vryburg, on Friday just to have a look around, see some new scenery, and visit with 4 of our friends who live in the area. We stayed in a nice little hostel for the night and had a braai, or barbeque, out on the patio and just relaxed in the company of fellow Americans. The highlight of the trip though, by far, was that our room at the hostel had a shower!! I don’t miss it so much when I’m at our house and taking ‘baths’ in the tub, but showers are just sooooooo much better! Don’t take them for granted – I think that is one of the things that I miss most!

Adam and I got to meet the Chief last week. When the new government was formed, they incorporated the local chiefs into the government system because it is such an old and established system that they couldn’t just do away with it. They basically serve as the local representatives, and still preside over the village court system too. The chief of our area isn’t particularly loved and respected by his subjects, but it’s just a good idea for us to meet him, so we went with one of our school’s principals last week. We had to wait about 2 hours, and then met with him for about 5 minutes before he had to meet with someone else. He seemed like a nice enough guy. We talked a little longer with his wife, who seems to want our help with a few things, so we’ll see where that goes. We found out when we got back home, that our village’s youth (who are fed up with the chief because he is never at his office and apparently doesn’t do anything) had somehow gotten the keys, and locked him and his staff out of the Tribal Office that day. Ooops. But we met his daughter, who is about our age and studies in Cape Town. She was really nice, so at least maybe we’ll make a friend out of it, and maybe have a place to stay in Cape Town.

Last week, school ended for the year on Tuesday, and we headed to a park in town to have a BBQ (yeah, we’ve been doing a lot of that lately!). The park was packed with teachers from surrounding schools there to celebrate the end of the year. It took about 2 hours to cook all of the meat that they had bought – for only 10 people! When we served up the plates, everyone received about two feet of sausage, three rolls, two slices of steak, and salad. The plates were literally overflowing. Adam and I just looked at each other like ‘are we supposed to eat all of this??’ but everyone just laughed – apparently they just usually make enough for everyone to take a bunch home with them for the next day or for their families. So we carried a huge bag of meat and bread home with us.

Well, I think that’s about all the news and stories for the week. We had some milestones, but not much really happened. I hope you are all well, and we’ll talk to you again sometime soon.

1 Meattttttttttttttt!

2 Andrea and some teachers

3 Like a lion...Adam too enjoys meat
4 Boy is getting BIG

Peace & Love from South Africa
Go Siame le Sala Sentle (Be alright and Stay Well!)

Thabo & Lerato
Adam & Andrea