August 25

Today is one of those days for my family that often gets a little ignored. You see, August 25 is often move-in day at either MTSU or BSC or is a big football game, etc., etc. So, August 25 often passes by without much fanfare.

And yet, August 25 is a very important day in our family--Daddy's birthday! So here are just a few words to celebrate my dad.

I often tease my dad for many reasons (all of them justified, of course): wearing tube socks, preferring Indiana Jones-style hats, reading Adler while listening to Brahms while watching a football game. The list could go on, but I'll stop it there. But the one thing I don't say often enough is how much I respect my dad. He has more integrity than most any person I know. He is often faced with difficult decisions at work and seems to always make the right choice which will bring the most dignity to the situation. He has an incredible way of being both respectful and stern in order to ensure that the matter is dealt with in the most appropriate way.

I have learned a lot from my dad. He coached my softball teams and sat in every choir performance and bad high school theater production (though he did create an alliance with his friend Tom and make fun of people in the audience to get through it, but I digress). He always tried to be there for me, which was no small feat while running a small city at the university.

He has endeavored to teach us to respect each other. I often tease about the psychological warfare that goes on in our house--I would much rather be spanked (which I never was) than reprimanded for being disrespectful (which I often was). But I was always treated like an adult.

I will always treasure Saturday mornings with doughnut runs, cutting down real Christmas trees, and going to student affairs parties with college students who treated me like their little sister and my dad like their dad.

All this to say, Happy Birthday, Daddy! I hope it's a good one, even if you are moving boxes at BSC all day!

Love you! (Though not too much to put up this picture...I think it reinforces the thing I said earlier about integrity.)

SA Snippets

perThis post is just an amalgamation of thoughts I've been having for a while now, things you might or might not want to know, tidbits of cultural knowledge which I've picked up over the past 7 months (can you believe it?! 7 months!).



1. It is getting warm here. This is good, because I have been entirely unsure of how to dress during the winter. We typically have what you might call "Indian summer," except that it occurs all in one day. A normal day goes something like this: wake up--it's FREEZING. Usually somewhere around 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Walk/drive to work in the cold. Still freezing. All morning, it's as cold as ice in my classroom which is made of concrete. Lunchtime--warming up. Generally around 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Walk home--HOT. Now, it's not really hot--only about 72--but it feels hot because I had to walk to work in such cold that I am layered up to my eyeballs. Shed layers and go to class. Still quite warm. 4pm--in class. All of a sudden it's FREEZING again, and I have shed layers and left some of them behind in expectation that I won't need them again. Oops! By 5pm, it's back under 50 degress Fahrenheit. I don't know how people cope.



2. Schools in South Africa. Schooling in South Africa, and often across Southern Africa, is very different than schooling in the U.S. First of all, everyone pays for schooling, whether in a public (government) or private school. The idea behind this is that if everyone pays something, then everyone will be more invested in the education of their children. It is still a debate as to whether or not this is actually the case. In addition, everyone wears a uniform. In fact, I've never heard of a school here that wears civies (non-uniform). I actually really like this idea. At my school, McAuley House, we have students who are from vastly differing economic backgrounds; however, I have no idea which students fall into which category. Students often are tagged by teachers due to their socio-economic status, so requiring learners to wear uniforms reduces some of those tensions. I certainly can't speak for the inter-student tensions, but I imagine it reduces those, as well. In addition to uniforms and school fees, a major difference is the power differential between teacher and student. Let me give you an example: when someone walks into my classsroom, the entire room stands and says, "Good Morning, Mrs. So and So." Teachers seem to have a much more formal relationship with their students. This is likely due to the colonial-style schooling of the past from which we still have a few throw-backs, such as the prefect system. Very interesting.



3. At the moment, we're having a bit of a meltdown in the Ministry of Health. On August 8 (consequently the day before National Womens Day--a public holiday in SA), President Thabo Mbeki fired Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala Routledge on charges of making an unauthorised trip to an AIDS conference in Spain. Madlala Routledge contends she had verbal approval which is typically given far before written approval which usually arrives after the fact. Anyway, the whole thing reeks of set-up.

Backstory: Health Minister Manto Shabalala Msimang has repeatedly denied an AIDS crisis in SA, even though over 1 in 4 people have either HIV or AIDS. Many of you may remember that she went on public news two years ago saying that HIV does lead to AIDS. In addition, she made the claim that proper nutrition can be more beneficial to the fight against HIV/AIDS than anti retroviral treatments (ARVs). Of course, the health profession has been up in arms against Shabalala Msimang for years now, claiming that she has single-handedly spread HIV/AIDS by promulgating false information. Unfortunately, President Mbeki and Health Minister Shabalala Msimang go way back into the apartheid era when they were in the same group of exiled students sent to the UK for education. So, every time Shabalala Msimang has said something daft, Mbeki has defended her.

Continue story: So, Deputy Health Minister Madlala Routledge suggests that she has been set up and punished for speaking out against the AIDS epidemic and not "towing the company line" which is that there is not a problem. The public seems to agree. Now, there is public outcry for the removal of the Health Minister. The Democratic Alliance (the main opposition party within SA) has found records that Shabalala Msimang stole a watch and other medical items from patients while working in a hospital in Botswana during her periods of exile. In addition, the Sunday Times has purported that her recent medical records (after her much-publicised liver transplant) show evidence of an alcohol problem. They also seem to suggest that President Mbeki might have illegally arranged for Shabalala Msimang to "jump the queue" in getting a liver. So, it seems that we have a crisis on our hands. A very interesting, shady crisis.

And you thought US politicians were the only crazies out there! For some fun editorial cartoons on the subject, you can visit the following link which will take you to my favorite cartoon. Others are on the same site.

Wishing you all a good laugh!

This African Life

I've been doing a pretty sufficient job of telling you about my travel life over the last few months. I haven't, however, been keeping you posted on the day-to-day interests of my life. Now that I have far less travel going on, I think I'll be able to keep you posted a little easier.

One of the big parts of my life which you may or may not be aware of is my involvement in re-chartering the Rotaract Club of Johannesburg. Rotaract is the 18-30-year-olds version of Rotary. It is a service club which is made up of students and young professionals and there are all kinds of things which we can do. There are Rotaract Clubs in most major cities. If you're interested, check out www.rotaract.org. You can also check out our Rotaract website at www.rotaract9300.org.za (our district's website) or http://rotaract.johannesburg.googlepages.com. We're not listed on the district website yet, but we will be.

Anyway, we've been re-chartering this club which was once thriving and now defunct. As in most major cities, the populus of Johannesburg has moved to the suburbs (can anyone in Birmingham say "over the mountain"?), leaving the city center to languish. Nonetheless, like many U.S. cities, Birmingham included, there has been a renaissance in the city center, and many groups are making a concerted effort to move back. This is true for both our Rotaract club and our sponsoring Rotary club, the Rotary Club of Johannesburg (consequently both the first Rotary and Rotaract Club on the continent). We are attempting to get involved in the inner city and help with the rebirth which is already occurring.

One of the projects which our Rotaract Club has adopted is NOAH, or Nurturing Orphans of AIDS for Humanity. Desiree, the president of our club and another Ambassadorial Scholar, works as a research assistant at NOAH and has put us in contact with some exciting service opportunities. One of these opportunities, I shared with my mother and sister when they visited from the States. We saw the Kliptown NOAH Ark, where 50-75 AIDS orphans and vulnerable children (children whose parents may not have died but who are still affected by the disease) are given daycare. We delivered some jerseys (sweaters) knitted by the ladies of a local old folks home (nursing home--don't you love the SA use of non-PC terms?!) to the Ark, which the Ark managers loved. There are hundreds of these Arks throughout South Africa, and they are caring for the over 20 million AIDS orphans in Africa.

Yesterday, our club ventured out to the Daveyton NOAH's Ark, which is between Jo'burg and Pretoria (in BFE, in other words). It was well worth the trek! We brought six laptops and six desktop computers from our members and the NOAH offices and set up basic computer skills for the Ark workers. Each Ark is equipped with a computer, but most of the Ark managers are residents of the community where the Ark is located. These places are mostly townships where having a computer would be unheard of. Most of the people whom we worked with had never touched a computer before. Those who had knew only the basics. We talked about the different parts of a computer--the mouse, the desktop, the start button, and I made ridiculous analogies like "the start button is like that big file drawer in your desk that holds everything" or "the hourglass is your mother telling you she hasn't had her morning cup of coffee so you're not yet allowed to talk to her."

By the end of the day, everyone knew how to turn the computer on and off, how to use a mouse, how to open Microsoft Word, and how to make letters capitalised without using the CAPS LOCK key. Some even learned how to draw a table. It was incredibly humbling to see someone whose mouse finger was shaking from nerves transformed into an avid computer enthusiast by the end of the day. I heard countless exclaimations of "OH!" and "Wow." By the end of the day, we had made new friends and were being asked when we would next return. We all decided that we could make this a monthly event.

You see, without computer literacy, it is impossible for someone to get a job which isn't as a labourer. If you can't type, you can't be a lawyer, a secretary, or an accountant. You can't get any of the jobs which most Americans take for granted. You certainly can't get these jobs when you can't even turn on the computer. I have sat many times waiting for a computer in the lab only to watch someone take 10 minutes to type a two-sentence email. Computers are a huge benefit to the lives of those on the African continent, but they are not yet readily available, affordable, or accessible. Just something to think about as you, no doubt, spend all day today online.

I am so excited to be involved in a group which really cares and which really attempts to make a difference in the lives of others (as well as of ourselves!). A good day in Jo'burg, for sure.

Kruger, round 2

After leaving Maputo, we drove for about an hour to the border of Mozambique and South Africa. When we got to said border crossing, you would have thought that we had reached the promised land from the line we encountered. After a line of an hour and a half, we drove over to the SA border patrol which we slipped through within 15 minutes. Don't ever let me say that SA is inefficient ever again!! EVER!!

We then drove for hours until we reached Kruger National Park, my promised land for real. I won't bore you with more Kruger wildlife trekking stories, but suffice to say that we saw lots of birds, no big cats, tons of elephants (literally), and a black-backed jackal which is a new find for me (pictures of all will be posted when my computer loves me again). Also, we slept in a rondavel (one of the round African mud huts you see in the movies) and made a braai which we then danced around singing "Rehab" to the bemusement of our neighbor children. We met our new friends Tilda the male elephant, Long John, and several others, and Niv almost froze to death on our morning drive. We really did have a great time. Like I say, Kruger is a magical place.

We all returned to Jo'burg tired but still friends (pretty good for such close quarters for so long!). Then the Cape Town gang left the following morning and I got back to research (aka my life).

So now I'm here, enjoying a new semester and a new routine. School is well, classes are interesting, and I'm not totally stressed or lost yet. More to come on that shortly! My love to you all!

Maputo, the beginning of Under African Skies

Sorry this has taken so long to post--I've had a long week with classes beginning again, but I'm back and not too stressed! My literature review was looked over by my professor who called it "fantastic." That really was fantastic considering that he doesn't use superlatives--ever.


On to recount some travel journeys for you.


After our time in St. Lucia was over, we got on the road to Maputo. You can't travel straight through SA to Mozambique because the roads are simply not good enough. Most are gravel and a 4X4 is advisable. So, we decided to go through Swaziland. We didn't realize at the time that Swaziland, directly translated, means "land of the ubiquitous speedbump." After hitting them all, we ended up on a national highway which, it turns out, is unpaved. After an hour and a half on an unpaved road in the middle of Swaziland where we rode through a riverbed populated by a herd of cows and not seeing people for almost the entire drive (are you beginning to feel the desperation here??), we found our way back onto a paved road and to the border. The exciting part about being in Swaziland was another stamp on the passport, and a visit to my first monarchy!





In this picture, you can see the dirt road, and you can barely make out the river and herd of cattle...

The border crossing into Mozambique wasn't too bad. We think we might've gotten taken for a ride a bit with the car entrance fee, but we're naive Americans, so what could we do?? After about 20 minutes, we were into Mozambique and on our way to Maputo.

Now, I don't know how many of you know this about me, but last year I spent a month in Mozambique, a little less than a week of which was spent in Maputo. I love Mozambique. My entire trip to SA has hinged on excitement about going to Mozambique again to visit. And while I didn't get to visit the orphanage in Cambine or the guest house in Chicuque, I did get to hang out in Maputo and visit with a dear friend, but I'm getting ahead of myself. As we drove into Maputo, we circled a roundabout, and suddenly I knew where I was...Avenida 24 de Julho, the main drag in Maputo. I actually knew my way around! And not long after that, we drove past the Methodist Guest House where I stayed last year. Of course, every emotion you can imagine passed through my body. I really wished that my companions from last year were there with me to experience the joy at returning to Maputo. Maputo marks the beginning of my true love for the continent of Africa, so this visit was incredibly important to me.

My traveling companions on this journey were a little taken aback, however. You see, we live in South Africa, better known as the United States of South Africa. We have most luxuries, cities are at least relatively clean, etc. Maputo is a bustling city full of vegetables, shoes, and tires being sold on the street, garbage everywhere (the typical method of disposing of trash is throwing it out of wherever you are), and people galore. Also, the driving is horrendous. I was exceedingly glad that Niv was in the driver's seat and I was not. We finally found Avenida Patrice Lumumba (100 points for the person who can identify this African liberation leader), and after circling the block a few times, we found the Base Backpackers, a meager, but very quaint backpackers with a great view of Maputo Bay. We disembarked to find my friend Kristian at the backpackers waiting for us.

Maputo Bay

After checking in, we all piled back into the car and drove to my all-time favorite seafood place in the world (and I can say that), Costa du Sol. Costa du Sol sits on the Indian Ocean, and the seafood only hits the pan in between the ocean and your plate. It's wonderful. Also, if you've ever heard of Mozambican prawns, you've only had them done right in Mozambique. Each prawn is literally the size of your hand! I was in paradise, once again. And, once again, I was missing Mama Bette, Maravilla, Naftal, Telmo, and my BSC traveling companions. But Kristian and I reminisced and were quite content.


The next morning, Niv, Emily A, Alli, and Emily K departed for Tofo. Kristian and I bid them farewell and set out on our own adventures in Maputo. Maputo is very different than South Africa in that the crime rate is quite low. So, we felt very comfortable walking most anywhere. Our goal was the art museum, but we wandered a good deal before getting there, making our way toward the central market, having a great language exchange with my broken Portuguese and a non-English-speaking woman at a beautiful shop, buying some fabrics, etc. We finally made it to the art museum and had a great time analyzing the art. Most Mozambican art, we have found, carries the themes of scarcity of resources, overcrowding, and revolt. It was quite interesting. Most of these works of art were pre-civil war (which lasted 20 years), while the post-civil war artworks often had themes of reconciliation, uncertainty, and still crowding. It was a beautiful morning.

Statue of Samora Machel, a Mozambican liberation leader.

This tree starts out as one kind of tree, a vine grows on it, and eventually the vines reach the ground and take root. Then the tree gets enveloped by the new vine plant and eventually a new tree has grown!

The next day, we struck out for the Saturday craft market, where we found some gems. I bought a nativity scene set in a baobab tree, Kristian bought a more conventional nativity scene, and also a procession of refugees carrying their belongings on their heads (she has been working with the refugee department of lawyers for human rights) from a man who is apparently relatively famous for his work. I also bought a journal covered in capalana cloth and two long, thin batik cloths. Kristian made it away with a piece of driftwood carved to look like an elephant after some very shrewd bargaining on her part.

Kristian reading on the deck of the backpackers

For lunch, we headed to the park nearby and ate at a local restaurant. Of course, the menu was entirely in Portuguese, so we had to be clever in our ordering. I ordered chorico (known to you as chorizo) sausage, but Kristian ordered "moelas estufadas." I wasn't sure what that was, but she insisted on ordering it. Turns out, moelas estufadas are chicken giblets. Nice. After our lunch, we watched a few tennis matches at a local tennis club.

That evening, we went to another art gallery to see some more contemporary art. I had been waiting for a year and a half now to see the Mozambican conflict art which is made of old automatic machine gun parts. I really enjoyed it. I think my favorite was the one called "Libertas" which was a bird with tail made of springs. Beautiful. After eating some dinner at a very elaborate Thai restaurant (with incredible prawns, pictured below!) and seeing a show at the art gallery, we met up with our old friend Naftal.




Naftal is the director of Volunteers in Mission for the United Methodist Church in Mozambique, and he coordinated both Kristian's and my visit to Mozambique from Birmingham-Southern. When Naftal pulled up to pick us up, he got out of the car, gave us both hugs, and said, "Lisa, is it really you?" I was so thrilled to get to see an old friend. We went back to the backpackers and had tea and a good chat. Naftal will soon be moving to Zimbabwe to begin courses at African University in Mutare. For those of you who are aware of the situation in Zimbabwe right now, you will understand that he is a bit nervous. But he is going with his wife and two children, and I am sure that they will be just fine.


We also discussed all of our friends from our visit and Naftal gave us updates on each one. Mama Bette is still well, as is Maravilla. Telmo is still driving for the UMC, but hasn't improved much on his English. The orphanage in Cambine has moved into its new compound and is doing well, and the next day Naftal was sending a medical group to the hospital in Chicuque. CMC is not yet finished with construction, but will be within the year. We were so glad to hear of the progress being made and to get to have some time with a dear friend.




Me, Naftal, and Kristian (Kristian and I look pretty good for no shower all weekend--our hot water was broken!)

We didn't realize that the excitement for the evening wasn't over. Apparently there was a French hotel nearby, and being Bastille Day, they shot off fireworks! That was pretty nice since my 4th of July was quite devoid of such things.

The next morning, Kristian and I walked to the local Anglican church to see what it was like. They had an English service, and we were intrigued. The service itself was pretty typical of an African Anglican church in my experience. What was really special about it, though, was the invitation we received after church. A family with four girls (and probably 14 other children who were related or friends) invited us to lunch at their home in Matola, a suburb of Maputo. Kristian and I gladly obliged and were treated to the most wonderful home-cooked lunch with a loving family who enjoyed our stories about the US and from whom we were given stories about Mozambique and Tanzania. It was really a treat.

We returned home in the early evening and met up with the other weary travelers who had just returned after a long journey from Tofo. We ate dinner at the Indian restaurant across the street and turned in early for a departure to Kruger in the morning.

I awoke early on the next morning and drove Kristian to the bus station to catch her bus back to Pretoria. As I was returning to the backpackers, I had a strange occurence--a chicken crossed the road in front of me! Imagine that you're driving in the capitol city of your state or province and a CHICKEN walks in front of your car as if it was no big thing. Crazy!


I recovered from the shock, bought the group some breakfast, and we departed for Kruger. More on that later.


Views of Maputo. Now imagine the chicken!



Love to you all!

St. Lucia

As we drove into St. Lucia, all we could see around us were trees. It was actually relatively odd, because we didn't feel like we were at the beach at all. In retrospect, this is because 5 ecosystems meet in St. Lucia--and one is the mangrove. Skye and Johnny, you'll remember my fascination with these from environmental science. Anyway, this was the forest part.

We drove into the small town (which resembles most small beach towns in lower AL) and checked into our backpackers only to have the owner say, "don't unpack yet, we're going to watch the sun set and have a drink." He only had to tell us once. On the way to see the sunset, we also saw vervet monkeys playing in the streets of St. Lucia. What a lovely place. We walked down to the Protea Hotel which has a deck overlooking the estuary and watched one of the most beautiful sunsets I've seen in a while. Come to think of it, I haven't watched enough sunsets lately. We met some new friends, including Wolfgang, resident beach bum and weed enthusiast who proceeded to smash people from TN. When informed that there was a Tennesseean present, he said, "well, at least you're not from AL!" Double whammy, my friend. We did meet some other generally pleasant folks, as well, including Bree, a teacher from Australia who joined us on our night safari.

While cooking a lovely dinner of chicken spiced with the spices Niv bought at the Victoria Street Market, the owner of the backpackers burst in and said, "if you want to see a hippo, there's one across the street!" And sure enough, there was. Just grazing along. What a lovely place.

We embarked on our night drive at 8 and stayed out until 11 searching for animals, which we found...buffalo, hippo, and even this chameleon that our driver spotted while driving 50 kph in the dark! Good eyes!

The next morning, the girls and I loaded up for a kayaking trip on the estuary. Our guide was a former poacher who had decided to begin working for the tourism industry because it makes more money. I was glad to hear that. His major interest is birds, so we were fast friends! Now, I should remind you that the estuary isn't just your typical body of water. This is a croc- and hippo-infested body of water--two of the most dangerous animals in Africa. YES! Hardcore..it's how I roll. Sure enough, we found a large pod of hippo in the middle of the channel just sunning themselves. Of course, we kept a good distance from them for safety. You may have laughed when I said that hippos are very dangerous. In fact, they cause the most animal-related deaths in Africa every year due to their extremely territorial nature. Since those hippos were a bit in the way, and we weren't going to ask them to move, we turned around to search out some crocodiles. On the way we saw two beautiful fish eagles, which look much like bald eagles, but are bigger.

We finally found a crocodile on the bank of an island in the estuary. It was probably 6 feet long and clearly not hungry since two huge herons (one a Goliath heron--one of my faves) were hanging out there with him. We decided to go a little farther in search of another croc when the fun really began. We did, in fact find a croc--a big'un. And just as we rounded the corner, we hear Emily K say, "Um, I think we're sinking." In fact, they were! She and her rowing partner, not the brightest crayon in the pack were just rowing along when Emily noticed that they were getting further and further behind and rowing was becoming more and more difficult. When she turned around to ask her partner about it, she realized he was sitting IN the water. So our guide had to pull their kayak onto the island not 30 feet from the croc and proceed to empty the water. Luckily, we all remained unscathed. Lesson learned: kayak on cold days when crocs aren't very movement-oriented due to cold-bloodedness.

We returned to Niv in the backpackers to lay out for a while. Here are some pictures with our canine friend who decided to come with.

We then went on a walk to get a better view of the estuary. We also found this tree with odd green growths. No, they don't seem to be fruits. Any botanists amongst us?

We also found these wonderful signs which pretty much sum up St. Lucia. What a lovely place!

Next, we went for a walk along the beach which turned out to be a Broadway sing-along. That's what you get for taking me and Niv on vacation. Turns out we know all, and I mean ALL, of Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof, Evita, Les Mis, and several others.

Dinner was at a local restaurant which served pizza with bacon, banana, and pineapple. Niv and I couldn't resist. Turns out, as bad as it sounds, it tastes pretty good.

We finished the night with a power outage and a Zulu singing group which was wonderful. We sat and chatted with some friendly, witty Brits, and then headed to bed to prepare for the long journey in the morning through Swaziland to Mozambique.

A hard life, but someone's gotta do it...

Before I describe to you my glorious, fabulous holiday, I just have to give a little public thank-you to my wonderful aunt, uncle and cousin who sent me a sun-care package in the mail this week! I am now the proud owner of Clinique lip/eye SPF 30 sunblock, Super City Block SPF 40 for my face, and UV-Response Body Cream SPF 50! THANK YOU! It is always needed here in Africa where I apply sunscreen daily! It was such a treat...and, you know that my mother is heaving another sigh of relief by being able to check off one potential threat on her list. Skin cancer, take that! Now, we face the crocodiles. More on that to come...

On July 7, I left for Durban and was picked up at the airport by my friend Kate Meyerowitz who is an outgoing Ambassadorial Scholar from South Africa, headed to San Diego in less than a month. She and her family have a cottage in the Drakensberg Mountains which they were visiting for the weekend and they kindly allowed me to join them. So, we drove up on the evening of the 7th and spent the entire day Sunday there and part of the day on Monday. Here are some pictures of the hike I took up the mountain with Kate's parents. The stream at the top is so clean that you're officially allowed to drink from it!

The picture of the aloe is, of course, for Carl.

On Monday, Kate and I went to see a birds of prey show on the mountain. Very cool. My favorites were the Long-Crested Eagle and the Cape Vulture pictured below (isn't the picture of the Cape Vulture awesome?!).

After returning from the Drakensberg on Monday, we retired to Kate's house to shower up and do some laundry. Kate's brother Andrew and I even got to watch the Braves take on San Diego (to whom they almost lost in the bottom of the ninth!). We then went out to dinner to meet up with my fellow travelers, Cape Town Ambassadorial Scholars Emily Avera and Emily Kenney, Emily K's sister Alli, and my friend Niv. We had dinner at the Harbour and heard the band Love Joint (I think that's correct) which is a relatively big-time South African band. We then retired to our backpackers.

The next morning we awoke early in order to get some breakfast and head to the Victoria Street Market. We bought some spices, etc., but I must show some Jo'burg pride and say that our Oriental Market is far superior, regardless of the vast Indian population in Durban. We then retrieved our rental car and began our journey to St. Lucia. Of course, we made sure we had a music selection first, knowing that we would not have radio for much of the journey. This meant that we bought a few community CDS: A #1s compilation from the 1980s to today, Amy Winehaus, Bob Marley, the new Maroon 5 album, and Cape Town Jazz. We figured that gave us enough that we probably wouldn't be so sick of them by the end of the journey. The drive to St. Lucia is through rolling hills of sugar cane plantations which makes for incredibly beautiful scenery. We passed through small villages, etc., and in a little over 3 hours made it to St. Lucia.

And that is where I'll leave you for now, friends. More to come soon, I promise! Love and miss you all!

Don't feel like dancin'...

We're home! I made it back to Jo'burg from holiday, which was lovely. Really, really lovely. We saw hippos, crocodiles, and vervet monkeys in the wild at St. Lucia, ate street-vended pineapples and cashews in Maputo, talked with Naftal, scouted zebra and elephant at Kruger, and returned home in one piece.

Now, I have to get back to work, and in a serious way. I have to go to school tomorrow and give my kids their mostly abysmal grades. Luckily, it seems they did equally poorly in all of their classes, so they may not be too shocked. I still won't like it, though. Then I have a literature review due on Monday--aaah! Classes begin Tuesday, and then life starts up again in full swing. So, the song which we played over and over on our roadtrip rings in my head--Scissor Sisters' "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'." But I will soon enough.

Promise pictures soon--I just wanted to let you know that I was safe and sound in Jo'burg.

This is the last post before I leave, this time I promise, but I had a few minutes and knew you'd appreciate a post. I happened to realize that I didn't give you a detailed breakdown of where I'm going on my vacation! So, here you are:

Today: I leave at 3 for Durban. My friend Kate is picking me up at the airport and we're driving to the Drakensberg Mountains to her family's cottage there. Here's a picture of the Drakensbert Mountains:

As Natalie says, "geez, Lis, it's a tough life." It is tough, but someone has to volunteer for it.

After two days in the mountains, I will join my friends Emily A., Emily K., Alli, and Niv in Durban where we will stay overnight. If you're interested in seeing more about Durban, follow this tourism link.

The next morning, we're leaving Durban for St. Lucia, South Africa. St. Lucia is in the middle of a huge nationally-protected estuary. It's basically a small beach town with lots of crocodiles and hippos and birds. I should be in paradise! I am going to see if I can't convince the group to go on a whale-watching expedition. It's whale migration season in this part of the world and I've never seen a whale, so I think that should be on my list of to dos. Here's a link about St. Lucia.
In St. Lucia, we're staying at BiB's Backpackers, which looks pretty cool. Check it out. My favorite part are all of the "freebie" activities.

From St. Lucia, we'll drive on to Maputo, Mozambique. Yes, I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. I've already talked to Naftal on the phone and I'm just counting the days. Here's a link to info on Maputo. While in Maputo, the group will go on to Tofo, and I will stay in Maputo with my friend Kristian. Then the group will return after a couple of nights in Tofo and we'll all head to the Kruger National Park. You don't need a link to that--just go back a couple of days in my posts and see pictures. Ok, just kidding, I found information on the birds you can find at the camp where we're staying, and even if Laurie Glenn is the only person to ever look at that, I'm satisfied. I've been wanting to see a broad-billed roller. And just so that my nerdiness is complete, I went out and bought the cutest tiny little binoculars yesterday. They were only R160 and they can fit in your pocket (with some difficulty--womens pants are not made to carry things right now). I'm super excited about using them. I may drive the rest of the crew crazy with my birdiness, but I'm okay with that. They already love me unconditionally, so I think we're fine.

So, I'm pretty excited. We're going on another great adventure with great friends--what could be better?? Ok, yes, if Orlando Bloom volunteered to come with, but I don't see that as much of a possibility, so I'm looking at the bright side of things. Plus, my accompanying friends are much cuter than I--there'd be no guarantee that Orlando would be all mine. So, no, this is the best possible vacation! See you in 11 days!

Strike update

Well, we're finally done with our public workers strike--7.5% is the final offer. Sounds pretty good, except that government got 50%. At least we can all get back to work now.

On the other hand, ESCOM, one of our power companies, has officially gone on strike. When will it all end?!

DMV on crack

For all of you pampered Americans who think a visit to the DMV is possibly worse than going to the dentist and whine about it for a week preceeding and following your five-yearly visit to renew your license, let me introduce you to DMV on crack.

First, I should preceed all of this merry-making with the fact that Desiree and I bought a car. It's a 1995 Nissan Maxima (yes, that's almost exactly my first car), maroon with black interior. It's an automatic in a sea of manual transmissions, we got it for a good deal, and we're excited about being independent. Well, at least codependent but not on Rotarians. Anyway, back to my rant.

So, when you buy a used car in SA, you have to have it re-registered with the Vehicle Registration Centre. This happens to be downtown where 20,000 other people are getting their licenses issued and renewed, and any number of other oddities are occuring. So, you arrive, bright-eyed and busy-tailed at 9:30 figuring you'll be out in two hours. Five hours later, you've eaten your cheese pita and drunk your sparkling Ceres grape juice and done all of the lesson planning you care to do. You have watched every white person who comes in yell at a receptionist and seen every form and been hit on several times. You wait, and wait, and wait. Only to have your name called at the end of the five hours, and to be handed two sheets of paper. TWO. And they are NOT embossed with gold. I could've done better on my laptop.

And, for those of you who think that you have a problem with the receptionists not speaking Spanish, try 11 OFFICIAL LANGUAGES. That's right. DMV on crack.

Crazy Week

Since I've been updating you on my trip with my family (which ended almost a month ago, can you believe it??), I haven't been updating you on what I've been doing. Don't worry, this won't take long.

1. "Marking" papers. That is the word used for grading here. I graded 127 exams and 127 projects and about 40 homework papers. My highest class average was a 64, which isn't off track at my school, so I felt secure but not satisfied with my teaching efforts. My next task is to plan for the next term.

2. Researching. My literature review is due on July 23, but since I'm leaving Saturday for Durban (more on that in a moment), I've been studying non-stop to get as much done before-hand as possible. I don't think I've told you my research topic, but I'm sure you could've guessed it: Human Rights Education in the South African School Curriculum. If you're interested, I can post some good articles on the subject. I'm certainly reading plenty.

3. Weekends--I've spent several weekends with my friend Kristian who is working in Pretoria for the summer and our mutual friend Katy Ginanni. We have visited some great restaurants, the Rosebank African Craft Market, Museum Africa and the Market Theater. Katy and I spent a weekend at the Pilanesberg Game Reserve (not Kruger, but a closer option. It'll do.) and did a lot of birdwatching. Call me a nerd, but in Africa my favorite hobby is bird watching! Last weekend was a Rotary weekend with the District Governor induction Saturday night and our club president's induction on Sunday afternoon. AND, our very own mom Lynne Ward was given a Paul Harris Fellow Award for her outstanding service to Rotary! For you non-Rotarians, that's a heck of a big deal!

4. Trip planning. On Saturday, I leave for Durban to meet up with an Ambassadorial Scholar friend in Durban and to go to the Drakensberg Mountains (again--wooohooo!) with Kate's family to their cottage. Then on Monday, I'll meet back up with Cape Town friends Niv, Emily, Emily, and Alli and we'll head to St. Lucia which is a little town in the middle of a National Park on the coast between Durban and Maputo. Did I just say Maputo? Yes. If you know me well enough, you know that no trip that close to Maputo would see me not driving to the city to see my friends! On our family trip to Kruger, it was all I could do to stay in SA! So we'll spend two days in St. Lucia and then head to Maputo where Kristian will meet us. The group will go on to Tofo and then I'll stay with Kristian in Maputo and visit with Naftal, Telmo, and other friends. On the 16th, we'll then head to Kruger for a couple of days and then back to Jo'burg. The major benefit about this trip (other than it being breathtakingly beautiful and exotic and full of great friends, blah, blah, blah) is that it will be WARM. Forget warm, it'll be HOT! I heard that in Maputo tomorrow it's supposed to be 80 degrees F!!! I can't wait. My swimsuit is ready and so am I! Bring on the sun.

So, I won't be posting for a while unless I just have some good time with the internet at some point during my trip. Hope you all have a great two weeks!

Kruger--final installment!

A final post on the Glenn women trip! And you thought it would never come...

We rose early on the morning of the 6th to head to Kruger National Park, about a five hour drive from Jo'burg. About five minutes after entering the park gate, we were greeted by about ten giraffe grazing on bushes right beside the road. Kruger, like many SA game reserves, doesn't require that you be in a game-viewing vehicle to be in the park. You can hang out with lions, etc. within the comforts of your own vehicle!! This is truly the life. After having our moments with the giraffe, we continued on, only to find a huge white rhino a few km up the road. Wow. What a good start to the day. We got out of our car at the camp lodge and saw three vervet monkeys climbing on the telephone wires. We were in the right place, for sure.

We then headed to our cabin. The "bungalows" at Kruger are quite nice with several beds in a common area, a kitchen area, and a bathroom. They even had soap with the SA National Parks logo, a male kudu, with which Mommy was thoroughly impressed! We settled in for the night and began to watch Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil...and then we paused it to make sure that noise was really what we thought it was...yep! A lion roaring in the distance! Definitely in the right place. We went to bed at a whopping 9pm in order to be up in the morning for our morning walk.

The morning began at 5:15 for a walk at 5:45. We greeted our two ranger friends, Surprise and Lourens, for a walk through the bush. Katie was a bit concerned about the rifles the two men had, though to be honest, I think we were all glad they had them! We were the only three on the hike, so we got lots of personal attention. This is good since we're an inquisitive bunch. We learned about every kind of dung you can imagine (for a good story, ask Katie about white rhino dung), dung beetles, elephant tracks, and flowers. We were in nature nerd paradise. We only saw a few impala, but we learned how to know when predators were around from Grey Lourie calls and how to locate honey from the Honeyguide's song. We then returned to our bungalow to shower and get in the car for a bit of a drive on our own.

After the drive, we had lunch/dinner, and had our evening game drive. Sadly, it was a bit cold and rainy for that one, but we still saw some great sights. In addition, we had a sunrise drive in the morning where we saw some more game before departing. Here are some pictures of our time at Kruger:

Do you see this lion? I was really five feet from him. We got that close, the driver stops the OPEN AIR VEHICLE in which I am in the front and LOWEST seat, and stops the engine. I didn't like it one bit. And then I accidently took this picture with a FLASH! I thought I was a goner, for sure.

Vervet monkeys outside our bungalow!
Pictured above is a scrub hare--an African bunny!

Cute baboon family to the left, hey? See the baby on the mom's lap?

These elephants crossing the road nearly trampled a car! It was fabulous!

On the night we returned from Kruger, we had a delightful dinner with my friend Katy Ginanni who took us to a wonderful Thai restaurant near her house. Katie Glenn found out that evening that she really enjoys duck!

The next day, we headed to McAuley House School to see the primaries do their assembly and to show the fam where I work. We then went out to lunch with Lynne and Peter. Here's a nice photo of almost my entire family!

And so, the Glenn women returned to Murfreesboro (minus Lisa, of course) with only a partially hair-raising experience in NYC with US customs. All in all, a trip well-spent! Anyone else want to come visit now??

Cape Town and beyond--Installment 3

Just because I knew you'd want to see the less than 1/4 inch accumulation of snow in Jo'burg:

Wednesday was the first time that many of my friends had ever seen snow--and boy, were they cold! It hadn't snowed in Jo'burg since 1982, apparently! No, I wasn't born then. Yes, it seems like yesterday, even so. You old people are too predictable.

Now, to continue on with the holiday update!

After the market, we got into our cute little rental car and headed for the Cape of Good Hope by way of Boulders Beach. You may remember that the last time I went to Cape Town I went to these places. The drive to the Cape takes a little over an hour, so it's nice to break it up by getting out to see the penguins at Boulders Beach. Not that we would have missed that, of course. Unfortunately, it was a little cold and it's breeding season, so most of the penguins were in their little burrows. But it was really cute to see them there! Who knew penguins burrowed?! Anyway, here are some pictures:

I PROMISE I told her it was cold first. She just never believes a word I say. It's not my fault this time.

Penguin eggs!

Then it was off to the Cape of Good Hope. As we drove in, we saw some beautiful landscape:

And we saw where the wildfire that I saw last time I was there had destroyed a good portion of the park. Sad.

Looks like a moonscape, hey? Once we arrived at Cape Point, we went to lunch at the Two Oceans restaurant at the Cape of Good Hope (where the two oceans meet). We met these pesky little birds who wanted to steal Katie's food: They're pretty, all the same. Red-winged Starlings for those of you who care. After defending her food, Katie decided she wanted to fit in--look! A monkey!I should know better by now than to think that she won't take my dares. And then we began our ascent.

This plaque points to all the nearest cities. I like this place--the nearest cities are nowhere to be found!

Katie, just four words...I told you so. After we enjoyed Cape Point to its full extent, we traveled back down the mountain to the actual Cape of Good Hope.

Yes, the BSC shirts were on purpose. I wasn't an admissions personnel for nothing...The protea, SA's national flower.

This is a great picture of the fynbos plants, a type of plant which grows only in SA. On our way back, we took the famous Chapman's Peak Drive which is much like California Highway 1, along the water. It was sunset as we drove, and oh, what a view!Pictures at Chapman's Peak:

Apparently they allow spear fishing. It seemed odd that the fish would be smiling about this...A good day had by all.

The next morning, we headed to the Cape Town Aquarium which is quite impressive. It only rained that one day--and we were inside! What luck. We then flew back to Jo'burg to leave for Kruger National Park in the morning.

Ok, folks, this has taken me almost an hour to complete due to all of the pictures. So, you'll get the Kruger update later. Hope you're well! I'm spending my weekend doing research and going to Rotary functions...story of my life! I did happen to check my mail today and I had four notes in my old mailbox--one from Grandmommy, one from Natalie, one from Carrie, and an extra special wedding invitation from Farley and Owen. Thanks to all of you for the thoughts! I love you all.