Doug and Paisley in SWAZILAND

Departure Day

2011-06-14T19:38:00.003-02:00

Plane's arrived and we're ready-to-go. Over and out.

House on Fire

2011-06-14T19:13:00.004-02:00

Our final weekend in Swaziland was the annual Bush Fire International Music Festival. The festival was also going on during our first weekend in Swaziland, so it was the perfect bookend. As we are now safe and sound back in the United States and preparing for our transition to San Diego, I'm going to sign-off the blog and I thought a beginning and end photo would be a great way to wrap-up, 'Doug and Paisley in Swaziland.' Thanks for following our journey. XO

Our first weekend in Swaziland

Our last weekend in Swaziland

Tell me we look exactly the same! Ha.

Girl's Hike

2011-06-14T18:30:00.005-02:00

When Doug was in Lesotho for the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI) annual network meeting, Keri and Laura organized a 'Girl's Hike' in celebration of their May birthdays. It was a beautiful day and a great way to spend time with girlfriends on one of my final weekends in Swaziland. We hiked to a waterfall in Pine Valley and schlepped-in a 5 course picnic!

Like most hikes in Swaziland, the way in is 'down' and the way out is 'up.' I prefer the up, up, up at the start so that the homestretch is all downhill; but, with 8 other women to chat to, even the way out went quickly.

Beautiful views

The top of the falls

Bottom of the falls

Picnic lunch

Judgement Day

2011-05-27T12:48:00.004-02:00

There have been a lot of billboards around town announcing the end of the world; therefore, our friends Joe and Garrett decided to take advantage of one final opportunity to host a blow-out party. I mean, there was a 'schedule of events' including a pig roast, bouncy castle, fireworks, drumming, a troop of dancers, a silent auction, and a flippy cup tournament.

My scheduled event was the silent auction and we took advantage of the opportunity to unload all of our household goodies that won't be coming home to the United States with us. I only included the electronics and most desirable items in the silent auction and everything else was priced for a garage sale.

You know you are moving when your house is totally empty and you are laying everything out in the yard for other people to purchase. Sad. Sigh.

Part of the silent auction including a heater, fan, toaster oven, blender, beach umbrella, tent, camping chairs, grill, speakers, etc.

Kitchen wares

Keri helping me to man the fort and to model the camping chairs

Open for business! Customers, customers, customers

All of the money we raised will be used to support a couple of children we sponsor through Young Heroes and to pay school fees.

Mbuluzi Game Reserve

2011-05-27T09:45:00.006-02:00

Coincidentally, it happens that the first couple of things that we ever did in Swaziland also happen to be the last couple of things we'll do. For example, our first weekend EVER in Swaziland we went to a music festival called, BushFire. This weekend will be our last weekend EVER in Swaziland and we will be once again attending the BushFire music festival. Additionally, our second weekend in Swaziland, we went to a small game reserve called, Mbuluzi, with another PAC doctor and his family. Earlier this month we returned to the game reserve with our friends Keri and Eric in celebration of Keri's birthday. Bookends, I tell you. Bookends.

We stayed in the tented camp and it didn't disappoint. Our friends, Matt and Stephanie, were actually building the camp when we were in Mbuluzi the first time. So, it was fun to see the camp completed and especially to get to enjoy the luxurious set-up.

Outside of #3

Bedroom in our tent

Bathroom

Outdoor shower

View from our patio, overlooking the river

In addition to the 3 tents, there's a main house (called a Boma) and it boasts a well stocked kitchen and common area for guests to share. Nobody had booked the third tent; therefore, we have the Boma and grounds to ourselves.

Boma patio; we ate all of our meals out here

There's also a pool, fire pit, wood-fire stove and a lot of other amenities to enjoy around camp

It was a particularly peaceful weekend as we just played games, read and did some birdwatching. Doug enjoying his book in the sunshine

Eric using his super strength binoculars

Keri and I went running in the reserve on Saturday morning and came across a giraffe! It was the first time in my life that I've been running and come across a giraffe! After our run we walked back with the boys to show them our find. Keri and I tried to pose with him, but the giraffe was timid and you can barely see him over Keri's left shoulder and next to the tree. Oh well.

Doug got nice and close

Later in the afternoon we came across a group of 7 giraffe and were able to get a couple of close-ups

The boys had to leave early on Sunday morning to go to Lesotho for the annual Baylor Conference; therefore, Keri and I went for another run and lazed around for a while longer in camp before checking out about noon.

Doug Adventures

2011-05-05T10:09:00.008-02:00

As we enter our final month in Swaziland, Doug has gotten really nostalgic about his running and biking routes. Living in the mountains means that beautiful landscapes await every time you exit the front door. Doug usually seeks out the tallest mountain and runs (as fast as he can) to the top, or carries his bike up an impassable trail so that he can mountain bike along a ridge he's driven by recently. I (on the other hand) take a totally different approach. As in, I try to find the smallest mountain to run (around) and the flattest route possible (there's just no hiding from the hills when you live in the mountains)! Alas. I'm in much better shape for it.

Anyways. Doug has been so remiss about leaving his favorite running and biking routes that he's been taking the camera along on his workouts this past week. So, here's a collection of photos from Doug's workouts and the area immediately surrounding our house. Beautiful. Simply, beautiful (and really mean if you are running). Okay, I'll stop.

If you exit our house and turn right, you enter 'Pine Valley.' These photos are from the left side of the valley and along the ridge that looks across to Sibebe (largest exposed granite dome in the world). There she be.

Close-up (with mountain bike)

Views along the ridge

Sunbeams

It's kind of awesome to be able to ride wherever you want; into the great wide open...

The next day, instead of riding along the left side of Pine Valley, Doug drove down to the base of Sibebe and carried his bike up to go biking along the right side of the valley. Let me just say that this is a 45 minute hike up (when not carrying a bike on one's back). My husband is a total nutter.

Bike posing once again at the base of Sibebe

About halfway up and looking into Pine Valley

Nearly there

Made it to the top!

Now it's time to actually ride the mountain bike! And the route possibilities are endless

Following the cow track and old jeep trails

Doug ran into some friends hiking while biking on Sibebe on Monday and they took a couple of pictures of him with their camera

Doug's happy place

Easter in Durban, South Africa

2011-05-05T09:35:00.008-02:00

Doug and I got a last minute cancellation at a B&B in Durban and zipped out of Swaziland for the 4-day Easter weekend (gotta love a 'Christian' Kingdom that recognizes 'Good Friday' and 'Easter Monday' as public holidays!). The weather has turned abruptly towards autumn in Swaziland, so heading south down the coast to the beach and for a dose of 'city' life was the perfect plan. It wasn't our typical vacation as no camping, hiking, or real 'exerting' was done. Personally, I thought it was a welcome change. We arrived mid-afternoon on Friday and checked-in at LaLoggia B&B in Umhlanga Rocks just a few kilometers north of Durban city center. Umhlanga Rocks is the 'Beverly Hills' of Durban and boasted some seriously insane properties. I tried to take pictures as we drove past, but the fortress like gates and speed of the car made it a challenge!

We stayed in one said mansion that had been converted to a guest house.

Bedroom

Bathroom

Balcony

Pool

On Friday night we went down to the boardwalk (about 3 blocks away) and picked one of the Cancun-esque hotels for dinner

The restaurant was right on the ocean so we requested a table outside and enjoyed lots of seafood. I usually eat too quickly and forget to snap a picture, but after living in a landlocked country for 2 years, seafood is a real treat! So, here are the prawns that I had as my main entree. Calamari appetizer didn't last long enough for a photo shoot. Yum.

We had heard about a 'big' mall called, 'The Gateway,' so we ventured over after hours to check it out (and to secretly track down some ice cream - another key food group missing in Swaziland). It was actually kind of nice to be able to visit the mall without having to deal with holiday crowds because it is safe to say that it has been a long, long time since either Doug or I have been exposed to such a shopping extravaganza. I think the whole of Swaziland could have fit inside the mall!

There was a 30 cinema movie theater, 4 gelato shops, car dealerships, a wave pool (as in, you can rent a surf board and ride a wave inside), a multi-story climbing wall, and every shop known to man. Nuts.

Cinema

Climbing wall (dark pillar in the background) and entrance to the wave pool

On Saturday we went to the beach all morning and in the late afternoon headed into Durban proper to see the Durban Sharks play. On Doug's 'bucket list' before we leave Swaziland he had wanted to attend a professional rugby match, so after checking the Sharks schedule and seeing that they had a home game over Easter, we set out to make it happen. It was actually way easier than expected (in comparison to say attending a Redskins game) and we enjoyed watching the Sharks win!

Mr. Price King's Stadium

Doug, day-dreaming about being a professional rugby player

Not your average 'cheerleaders.' They were called the, 'flashers' (and I'm not kidding)

Game time!

On Sunday we spend another morning at the beach and then went out for a 3rd seafood dinner and a movie (Water for Elephants). It was a proper 'date night' and the perfect cap to our 'city scape' weekend as we had to make the 6 hour drive back to Swaziland on Monday morning.

Sometimes a little 'cush' vacay ain't all bad! It's not every time that we need to schlep up a 19,000 foot mountain in a blizzard and in the middle of the night!

Cousin’s Club in Swaziland

2011-04-16T08:12:00.011-02:00

Two of my cousins, Beth and Margel, took a ‘Spring Break’ trip to the continent in March. Beth and I grew up together through celebrating holidays and family vacations, but I hadn’t seen Margel for at least 10 years, so it was a ‘Cousin’s Club reunion’ of sorts. It was an awesome opportunity to reconnect and to spend time together. Beth and Margel arrived in South Africa on Friday 10 March and spent 4 nights in Cape Town enjoying all that the city had to offer. Then, on Tuesday 14 March they flew to Swaziland to hang out with Doug and me.

We tried to jump right in with our adventures in Swaziland on Wednesday, but the weather didn’t cooperate and instead of going to Malalotja Game Reserve to do the canopy zip line tour, we went souvenir shopping, instead. We went to Swazi Candles for lunch.

I’ve been subbing for spin instructors on vacation at my local gym, so on Wednesday evening Beth and Margel joined my spin class. Here’s a picture of the spin studio; just in case you’ve wondered what a spin studio looks like in Swaziland. Yup. The same.

On Thursday, the sunshine returned and we went to Malalotja. As with every blog entry about Malalotja, I have to say how much I love it. It’s one of my favorite places in Swaziland and the day that we had didn’t disappoint.

We got into our gear

And drove to the start of the canopy tour; passing the beautiful views along the way

Margel and Beth also saw their first zebras and blesbok

Our guides

Nice helmets

Margel zipping

Beth zipping

Ridiculous spider

Views from the zip line

Bridge

All done

This chameleon cracked me up. It was clear he was trying to hide from us, but his hiding spot was a little too small

After the canopy tour we hurried back to town to meet Keri and Lauren at the Pick-n-Pay to do a big grocery shop prior to our trip to the beach. It wasn’t really a blog worthy event, but I thought some might be interested in what the grocery store looks like (so I included the picture). Yup. The same.

On Thursday night we took the cousins to our favorite restaurant, Mantenga Lodge. Of course we had the traditional dish, iyasha inyama and thoroughly enjoyed an evening on the patio

On Friday morning we went to Ngwenya Glass Factory to squeeze in a little souvenir shopping before joining forces with Keri and Eric and their visitors (Pete/Dawn and Dave/Lauren) and heading to the beach in Sodwana Bay, South Africa.

Margel’s shorts were a tad too short for Swaziland, so she wrapped herself in the traditional Swazi wrap featuring the King

Then, it was off to the beach

We stayed at Mseni Lodge (where we’ve stayed twice before) and got settled into our respective houses before having dinner at the Lodge. Our 5-person bungalow

Mini-kitchen

Doug and Paisley

Margel and Beth

On Saturday morning, Doug and I went scuba diving and everyone else went to the beach. The beach at Sodwana Bay is one of the most beautiful beaches, ever. Completely isolated and you can go the whole day without seeing another person

In the heat of the day we escaped from the sun and went to the local craft market

Then, in the late afternoon, as the sun was setting we returned to the beach. Cousin’s club

Surfer Doug (note the moon setting)

On Saturday night we had a braai and roasted marshmallows (over the braai) to make s’mores

On Sunday, after a few more hours of beach time, we had pizza on the roadside before returning to Swaziland. This is the second time we’ve stopped at this particular pizzeria. The owner is from Italy and built a wood fire oven literally on the side of the road and makes awesome thin crust pizza

On Monday morning, Margel and Beth, embarked on their Kruger National Park adventure with Bongani

To see all of the animals, check out Beth’s Facebook album. They saw the big five on the first day! https://www.facebook.com/stampingonthelakefront

On Friday, on Beth’s last day with us, we went to House on Fire for lunch and finished up souvenir shopping.

House on Fire

Baobab Batik

On Saturday morning, Beth headed to the airport to fly home and Doug and I took Margel to Mozambique for the weekend to see our friends, Dan and Teena. Without Beth to motivate our picture taking, we didn't take any pictures in Maputo! Sad. Okay, or for the rest of the week. Sigh. Margel and I climbed Sibebe on Monday and went mountain biking in Mlilwane. Then, on Tuesday, I left for a 3-day work trip and Margel volunteered with Teen Club at the Baylor Clinic. So, she wrapped-up her time in the Swaz with Doug before flying home on Thursday.

A good time was had by all and I'm looking forward to a reunion with the full cousin's club over the 4th of July in Midland, Michigan. That's not a typo: Midland, Michigan. Look out.

Vusumnotfo: Ongoing Training, Monitoring & Evaluation

2011-04-01T08:46:00.005-02:00

As a supplement to the training that I’ve been doing with rural pre-school teachers, I have been visiting them in their classrooms every other week to observe and to support them in implementing the ideas taught during training. As previously mentioned, the main ideas taught revolve around assisting the teachers in understanding what a 3-5 year old child should be able to know/do based on child development, how to plan and how to teach said concepts, and finally how to assess whether the child has mastered said concepts. It all goes back to ‘vision, assessment and planning.’

Due to the fact that rural, community pres-schools in Swaziland operate in a ‘resource limited setting’ in every sense of the definition, I have had to be particularly scrupulous when sharing ideas for activities or strategies for instruction as to not recommend things that require ‘materials.’ In the instance that I do use materials, I am sure to make them ‘reusable’ so that the teachers get a lot of use from them.

I have really enjoyed working with the community pre-school teachers and have gained some credibility with them because I magically appear in their classrooms (in the middle of NOWHERE Swaziland) every other week. The pictures below are just a compilation from my most recent trips.

Nkosingiphile ‘labeling’ the parts of the body on a pupil volunteer

Constance, showing off her ‘phonics’ hangar

Planning tool in use! Hooray!

Since writing is a challenge for some of the teachers, I developed a tool that they can use for planning that requires them to move tiles around, as opposed to writing. The color coding represents ‘standards’ (like Identity of Self, Sharing, Counting, Classification, etc.), special events (like a field trip, sport’s day, graduation, etc.) or non-teaching time (like school holidays, professional development workshops, etc.). The goal of the calendar is to ensure that at least one ‘standard’ is taught every day and that the order in which they are taught is given some consideration.

And since it is pre-school and children learn through play, it is always nice to capture the fun stuff, as well

Outdoor games

Smiles

These boys have made a racetrack out of blocks and are using the smaller blocks, turned on their side, as cars. Boys will be boys; even without a car or track in sight, they have figured out a way to play

This is a tippy-tap; because many of the schools don’t have running water, this is a ‘faucet’ that can be operated by stepping on the wooden pedal and causing the 5L jug to ‘tip.’ There’s a hole in the top of the jug, next to the cap, so the water only flows when the jug is brought to a ‘pouring’ position with the foot pedal. Genius. Genius, I tell you.

Some of the classrooms that I visit have 10 pupils from the community; while others have 40. I’m not kidding. Here’s a group that can barely fit if they sit down; therefore, during ‘lessons’ they have to remain standing

In contrast, this class only has 8 pupils; therefore, they have all of the space in the world and using magazines is no problem (because they can share a couple of magazines between them, as opposed to needing at least 12-15 magazines for the class with 40 pupils. I’m including these pictures because anyone who has visited us has been asked (by me) to bring over ‘US Weekly’ and ‘People’ magazines. Most people make fun of me because that’s what I miss…pop culture. Oh well. But, I just want you all to note how helpful these recycled magazines are in assisting children in identifying the parts of the body.

Thank you Mr. Smith and Mr. Depp

Thank you for providing endless hours of entertainment for a 4 year old working on the fine motor skill of cutting

The teachers are just as resourceful as the pupils…no babysitter? No problem.

Last, but not least. You gotta love the 2 year old who is too young for pre-school but who comes and sits in the doorway, anyways

I have two more ‘monitoring’ trips and one more ‘training’ trip before our departure in early June. I am hopeful that some of the things that the teachers have learned from me will ‘stick’ and that they will carry-on in my absence. That quotation, ‘everything I needed to know I learned in Kindergarten’ is kind of true…

Leta and Carol’s Southern African Adventure

2011-03-31T09:38:00.006-02:00

Doug’s Mom returned to Swaziland at the beginning of March and brought along her cousin, Carol, as a traveling companion. Leta and Carol’s itinerary included five countries over the course of 19 days! We served as their ‘home base’ as they came/went from our place in Swaziland. The ladies arrived on Friday the 25^th of February in the late afternoon, so our first outing was to Mantenga Lodge for dinner.

Carol and Leta

With Doug in front of Executioner’s Rock

On Saturday the 26^th, Doug took both Carol and Leta to Teen Club in Hlatikhulu. The ladies were up at 6:00am to travel to Hlati and spent the majority of the day helping with sign-in, nametags, picture-taking, sandwich making; you name it and they did it! I think they both enjoyed seeing Doug in action and participating in one of the support groups that he has worked so diligently to start and operate for HIV positive teens.

On Sunday, we had brunch and Swazi Candles and spent the majority of the day souvenir shopping. To wrap-up our Sunday we drove through Mlilwane Game Reserve to give them their first taste of ‘safari,’ Swaziland style.

Wildebeest

Zebra

Blesbok and warthogs

On Monday, Doug went to work and Carol, Leta and I got to enjoy a morning at the Mozambiquan Embassy in order to secure our visas for our upcoming weekend trip to the beach! It’s illegal to photograph the Embassy or to take any pictures in/around the building; therefore, you’ll have to take my word for it and know that it was awesome (drip, drip)(that's my sarcasm)(the Embassy blows).

The rest of the day we ran around to do final souvenir shopping between Gone Rural and Ngwenya Glass Factory.

Glass blowers

On Tuesday (and for the rest of the week), both Doug and I had to work, so we arranged for Carol and Leta to be picked-up by ‘All Out Africa’ and taken to Shishangeni Private Game Reserve in Kruger National Park for a 3-day safari. The private reserve came highly recommended and the ladies were well taken care of by the couple who ran the lodge. They even saw lions mating! MATING. I’ve never seen anything mating in the wild. Boo.

To celebrate their return to Swaziland, we went to the Royal Swazi for dinner; the fanciest place in all of Swaziland! I say this, yet, there was still a cat in the lobby…

On Friday, we whisked them away to Mozambique and to the beach in Ponta D’Oura. Doug took Friday off from work at the clinic so that we were sure to be able to drive the entire way in the daylight.

We stayed at our usual digs, Coco Rico, and got upgraded to an ‘ocean view’ because one of the air conditioners in our original unit was broken.

Coco Rico

Bedroom

Family Room

View

It was a really relaxing weekend as we spent our days on the beach and our nights eating seafood! I partially turned into a prawn due to the amount of prawns eaten over the course of the weekend.

Views of the beach

Upon our return on Sunday evening, Leta and Carol unpacked and re-packed and got ready for their Monday morning departure. It was at that point that we parted ways for good as Leta and Carol continued on to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and then to Chobe National Park in Botswana to round out their Southern African Adventure.

Safari in the Serengeti

2011-03-13T02:31:00.027-02:00

After summiting Kilimanjaro, our group separated for various adventures. On Thursday morning right after breakfast, Risa, Dave, Keri, Eric, Doug and I traveled to Arusha to meet with Serengeti Select Safaris for a 3 day safari. Our guide’s name was, Audix, and we were SO excited to be going on safari in Eastern Africa as we had heard it was different from our experiences in Southern Africa.

Risa, Dave and Doug ready to see some animals!

Unfortunately, we had quite a journey to our first destination, Lake Manyara, and we quickly lost steam. Risa, Dave and Doug sacked out (this photo was not staged!).

Whenever we travel, I am always curious about the ‘day-to-day’ life; therefore, I snapped a number of pictures of the roadside views along the way.

Check out the toddler sacked out on the front stoop of the shop

Transporting bananas on a really nice, wide, paved and SAFE sidewalk. I might send this picture to the King to campaign for a similar design in these parts...

Rice fields

Recycled concrete shop

Clothing store

Selling bananas

At last, we arrived at Lake Manyara National Park where we checked in with the park service, ate our boxed lunches, and then began our safari

Snoozing baboon

Crazy birds; a little blurry, but too cool to pass on posting

This is the local version of the ‘Steinbok or Dkyer,’ called the ‘Dik Dik.’ Hilarious, every time you call out that you’ve just spotted a, ‘Dik Dik.’ Mature, I know

Elephant

One of the biggest differences between Tanzania and Southern African safari is the landscape. In Southern Africa, there is a lot of ‘bush’ and underbrush. It makes spotting animals a bit more of a chore, but it also means that you might see animals closer because they have a bush to hide in and to feel safe. This picture represents the ‘great wide open’ that is safari in Tanzania. These are a couple of giraffe. Not very close, but very easy to spot!

The termite mounds are insane. Here’s Doug helping to put into perspective the size of this particular termite mound

And last, but not least, our friend the ‘Baobab Tree.’ Doug’s favorite

On Thursday evening we stayed at a Lutheran Guest House in between Lake Manyara and the Ngorongoro Crater. We arrived a little later than expected because Audix hadn’t been there in a while and forgot the turn-off; but, we were quick to ask for directions and eventually made our way.

Bathroom

We had a simple meal at the dining room and played cards while everyone took turns taking showers in order for the hot water to recuperate in between showers.

On Friday morning we got up early and headed toward the Ngorongoro Crater, the Mecca of all safari spots. The Crater is a large, unbroken, unflooded volcanic caldera. It was formed when a giant volcano exploded and collapsed on itself some two to three million years ago, is 2,000 ft deep and its floor covers 100 square miles. Basically, it's like a breeding and feeding ground as the majority of the animals never move out of the crater bottom. Doug liked to refer to it as the 'colloseum' for safari animals.

We saw a lot! So, I will try to do the highlights of the day…

Buffaloes

Wildebeest far; you can see the crater wall in the background

Wildebeest close

Hyena! This was my first hyena sighting. Usually hyenas only come out at night and scavenge, so it was very exciting to see these sinister little fellows up close!

Warthogs

Zebra; I love how his mane is a continuation of his stripes!

Our safari vehicle had three openings in the roof that allowed us to stand up and to get a better look. This is how we spent most of the day…Risa and Dave

The ‘DLT’s’ in Tanzania were different from ours in Southern Africa; this is a Thompson’s gazelle (kind of close to an impala, but not the same…you’d have to ask Eric the difference)

At lunch, we stopped by this watering hole to eat our boxed lunches

After lunch we were lucky enough to cross paths with two, black rhino. This was also my first time seeing the black rhino. The black rhino is more aggressive than the white rhino and also less common

As we were driving out of the crater we came upon a lioness who had just stolen a kill from a cheetah. She was prancing away with the gazelle in her mouth and we watched her cross the prairie and then hide in a bush to eat her prize.

Audix turned our vehicle around and went in search of the cheetah. Eric was the first to spot her lying in the grass nearby where the lioness had come from

Since my camera only has 12x zoom, I tried to take another picture through the binoculars...you get the idea...

Being satisfied with our cheetah sighting, we continued on our way up the crater wall and on to Ndutu National Park

We saw this elephant in the distance as we climbed the wall

Here’s a view looking back at the crater from the rim

Group photo

After leaving the crater we continued driving toward Ndutu National Park where we were going to stay in the bush camp for the night

There really wasn’t a road, so it was like we were just driving across the expanse

We saw a lot of jackals; Risa had special radar for the jackal and spotted them every time. You can also see the ‘great wide open’ in the background of this picture

As we approached Ndutu we saw a couple of giraffe up close and I’ve included them here because their spots and coloring were so different

Flamingos

Leopard in the tree; easiest way to 'spot' him is by his tail hanging down

After a solid 12 hours of safari we went to our 'bush camp' for our last night. While finding it was a bit of a debacle, it was well worth the wait.

Here's a view of the exterior of our palatial tent

Interior

Bathroom

Shower

Shower origination

Breakfast table

Still sleepy

On Saturday, we drove back through Ndutu and around the rim of the crater and all, all, all the way back through Arusha to the airport in Moshi. It was one, long continuous safari and our morning started with multiple herds hanging out together; for example, zebra, wildebeest, and giraffe

Giraffe family cruising along

Amazingly, we also saw three lazy cheetahs sunning themselves in the early hours of the morning

Close-up

Gross. Vultures feasting on a zebra

And one of my favorites; lionesses, spooning!

Rolling around

And being serious

After leaving Ndutu and on our way back to the Ngorongoro Crater we tried to catch a glimpse of the 'wildebeest migration' whereby millions of wildebeest move clockwise around Tanzania and Kenya

Eric really, really wanted to see the migration; therefore, he spent a lot of time out of the roof searching

While I thought we saw quite a few wildebeest, Doug and Eric informed me that it wasn't 'the' migration. Regardless, there were still a lot of wildebeest

The final furry friends we encountered included a lioness and her three cubs

Brave little cub

Snoozing

At 5:00pm Audix dropped us back at the Kilimanjaro airport and we began our journey home to Swaziland after an amazing safari experience. Unfortunately, do to munitions explosions at a depot nearby the airport, numerous flights had been cancelled in the days prior. This meant that our flight was oversold as the airlines booked delayed or stranded passengers from the previous days. So, Doug and I didn't get on our original flight and we had to be rerouted through Nairobi, Kenya. It wasn't really that big of a deal, but it did add a little drama to our return journey. We spent the night in the Dar eSalaam airport (not the cleanest place on the planet) and then connected back to JoBurg where our car hadn't been stolen (yay!) and we completed our travels with a 4 hour drive back to The Kingdom. And then our adventure was really over. Boo.

Day 5: Down, Down, Down

2011-02-26T12:26:00.009-02:00

On our fifth and final day of our journey, we descended from Horombo to the entrance of the national park, some 12,775 feet down, down, down.

It was cold and rainy; therefore, I put my parka underneath my raincoat and resembled the 'State Puff Marshmallow Man.' I didn't care, though, as long as I was WARM. There comes a point where 'cold and wet' works its way into your bones and the opportunity to be warm cancels out everything else!

It was particularly hard on the joints on the way down; I honestly felt exactly like I do the day after a marathon, in terms of soreness, stiffness, and muscle aches. So, while it seems like the up, up, up part would be the most difficult, the fifth day was no walk in the park! Of course, we were motivated by a shower and an alcoholic beverage so our spirits were still high despite our awkward gaits.

Keri actually made up a song and it went like this: 'Shower and wine, shower and wine, it's almost time for shower and wine!'

We set off from Horombo just after 8:30am. While we took the 'lower' road to Mandara, we could still catch a glimpse of Mawenzi Peak and Kibo was not the only mountain to get dumped on the previous night!

As we were hiking down, it was our turn to see other groups on their way up and to be the 'wise and experienced' hikers. Many had thought ahead of the smart remarks that they would make if someone asked 'how it went' or 'if we made it.' My favorite was, 'in one word, it was good.' And in 'in two words, it was not good.' Awesome.

Crew members hauling up gear for another group

After a couple of hours we were out of the moorlands and back into the rain forest. Here's a shot of Keri cruising on down; just imagine her singing her song...

We made it to Mandara Camp (where we stayed our first night on the mountain) and had a hot lunch. Here we are posing on the steps of the dining hut

Another two hours or so and we were back to the entrance to the park!

Doug and Paisley about to cross over the threshold and successfully fulfill one of Paisley's dreams! Woo hoo!

We took a couple of shots with our favorite guide, Simon, as well as with Chief Kamili

And of course with our good friends Risa and Dave who traveled around the world to join us in this adventure

As we waited for other members of our group to finish hiking, I took the opportunity to take a couple of pictures of the 'Points to Remember' signs at the start of the trail. Let me just say, if you are just learning of these points for the first time at the entrance to the trail, you are screwed and should promptly turn around.

After receiving our certificates from the National Park Service all of the 'Swazi' members of our group took a shot with the King in an effort to get into the local newspaper, The Swazi Times

Then, it was back in the pick-ups and back to The Marangu Hotel for a hot shower and a celebratory drink with our crew. All 28 of 'em.

Before our showers, the girls in our group took a shot of our luscious locks after 5 days without showering...

All of our guides in prominent seats of importance and ready for the celebration to begin

Doug receiving his certificate from Chief Kamili

Keri, realizing her dream of a shower and wine

Alison and Laura, all suited up for their beach vacation in Zanzibar

Singing and dancing!

And a beautiful sunset to cap off our journey and the day's celebrations

Goodbye, Kilimanjaro. Farewell, my friend.

Day 3 and Day 4: Horombo to Kibo Hut

2011-02-24T18:25:00.011-02:00

Our third day was our longest and hardest day, by far. We gave all of our extra gear to our porters and after breakfast we departed from Horombo Huts just before 9:00am.

The weather was not cooperating. It was cold and raining.

Fortunately, there were a couple of signs along the way that boosted our spirits because it felt like we were making progress towards are final destination

Here we are along the trail

There was a rock outcropping that was black and white striped and named, Zebra Rocks. So, we took a pee break and snapped a couple of photos, as well.

Risa and me

Girls

Boys

Like I said, we liked the signs that pointed the way!

As we gained elevation, the clouds settled and we hiked the remainder of the day in intense fog. It was so cold that Alison donned her ‘serial killer’ hat.

Here’s Doug hiking in the fog. If you turned left or right you’d have been lost forever!

Just before 3:00pm the clouds lifted a bit and we could see the base of the final peak of Kibo (they don’t call the mountain ‘Kilimanjaro,’ rather the peak is Uhuru Peak on Kibo Mountain).

There is only one hut at Kibo and this was our first glimpse of where we’d be napping prior to our final ascent.

And of course, with every hut picture, here’s the toilet. Special.

We had a late afternoon snack and then got all of our gear ready for our attempt at the summit.

Since it had been cloudly all day, we didn’t have many vista shots; therefore, when the cloud lifted to reveal Mawenzi Peak, I ran out of the hut to get the shot.

After laying out our clothes and packing our day packs, etc. we had an early dinner and were all tucked in for a nap by 6:30pm. Our guides woke us up at 11:00pm and we layered up as the snow was already coming down. We began our climb at 11:45pm.

And so it begins

Because of the weather, we didn’t take many breaks on the 6 hour trek to the first peak, Gilman’s Point. Although, we did stop under this large boulder for a pee/snack break and since it was like 3:00am and dumping snow, I felt the need to try to capture our experience.

At 6:00am we reached Gilman’s Point at 5681m

Risa and Me. Who knew that in middle school when we were sharing headphones in the back of the bus and rocking out to Garth Brooks on the way to a basketball game that one day we'd be in Tanzania on a mountain in the middle of the night and in a blizzard? Not me.

Dave

Our Chief Guide congratulated us all and then said, ‘okay, let’s go down.’ At which point I was like, ‘ummmmmmmmm, Kamili? Can we at least try for Uhuru Peak and the true summit?’ At which point Kamili said, ‘no, the snow is too high.’ At which point I begged. And so, 4 members of our group were battling with altitude sickness and made the choice to descend while the remaining 10 of us made an agreement with Kamili that we would try for Uhuru and if he decided it wasn’t safe that we’d agree to turn around and descend.

Here’s what we were walking into; nothing but white, white, snow…

[N.B. Doug was not a fan of this whole exchange between me and Kamili. But, I’m just going to say that we had come SO FAR and the true summit was only 90 minutes away…and it just seemed like we should at least TRY before throwing in the towel. ]

Happy (or delirious) hikers

Our resident serial killer

Chief Kamili wondering why we were stopping to take pictures! Documentation, Chief. Proof. I wanted it.

Views along the way; here’s the glacier

And finally after climbing 4000 feet UP, Uhuru Peak! 19,298 feet. Giddy-up.

For the record, I know that had something gone wrong, it would have been on me for doing the begging, but fortunately, all 10 of us made it to Uhuru Peak just after 8:00am; snapped a couple of pictures and got the HECK outta there. Seriously. We didn’t even take a group shot. Sad.

And then it was nothing but DOWN. Slip sliding away.

Another peak at Mawenzi

We arrived back at Kibo Hut 12 hours later; just before noon. P.S. I didn’t turn into a vampire. That’s sunscreen all over my face.

Last members of our group to descend. Congratulations one and all!

This is the mean part. We didn’t even get to nap. Our guides made us pack our gear, eat lunch and then we were back on the trail by 1:30pm for another 10km back down to Horombo Huts. I’m not going to lie, I was hurting. At that point, I had been hiking for 18 out of the last 24 hours.

Girls

More Mawenzi

We arrived back at Horombo at 5:00pm and promptly ate dinner and went to bed. I was for sure sound asleep by 6:30pm and that 12 hours with my sleeping bag never felt so good!

Day 2: Mandara to Horombo Huts

2011-02-24T18:01:00.006-02:00

On Sunday morning we got up, had breakfast and packed our day packs for our first, full day of hiking between Mandara Huts and Horombo Huts. Our planned hiking time was about 5 hours and our elevation gain was 1020m. The vegetation went from rain forest to moorland; therefore, we were still wearing short sleeves but carrying extra layers for both rain and cold in our day packs.

Just like on Saturday morning the different crews were a flurry of activity as preparations for the day were made

Risa, Dave and I getting ready to set-off from Mandara

Doug, Matt, Garrett and Nick showing us the way to Horombo

View along the trail. Notice the porter passing our group even with gear on his head

Another view from the trail; we were finally out of the rainforest and into the moorlands

Check out the Dr. Seuss cacti

We stopped at a scenic viewpoint overlooking the Maundi Crater and I took the opportunity to pose with our Chief Guide, Kamili. Kamili was over 50 years old and has been climbing the mountain for 30 years. He didn’t drink any water along the way and wore the same number of layers every single day (except for the night of the summit). He was one tough old dude.

Crater

After lunch the weather started to change and we got some rain and then colder temperatures

Along the way to Horombo we had our first views of Mawenzi Peak which is one of the neighbors to ‘Kibo’ (which is the name for the tallest peak of Kilimanjaro)

By late afternoon we caught our first glimpse of Horombo Camp

Two thumbs up

Each day when we arrived in camp we’d wash-up, have tea and an afternoon snack, and then hang out for the short while before dinner

Our porters would meet us at our hut and drop off our gear since they’d arrived hours ahead of us. Here’s my porter, Anized, and Doug’s porter, Judas outside of our hut

And with every hut picture, there must be an accompanying toilet picture. Here’s Risa modeling how low the toilets were at Horombo. They had a seat this time, there just wasn’t a base to the toilet; therefore, your knees were up around your chin

Doug, Dave and Risa at dinner. Doug is holding his ‘pulsox’ which took your resting pulse and oxygen saturation. It was a fun toy that everyone wanted to play with each evening until Doug wouldn’t bring it out anymore since people were getting nervous based on their readings the higher we went in elevation

And last, but not least, here’s a sample meal. This is lasagna with stewed vegetable sauce and cabbage. Honestly, SO yummy. But, probably only when you’ve burned 2000 calories hiking.

We played a couple of hands of Euchre and then it was another early night!

Day 1: Preparations and Mandara Camp

2011-02-24T17:24:00.011-02:00

Before I venture into the tale that was our ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro, I wanted to post a ‘before’ and ‘after’ picture of the mountain. So, here’s a picture of the mountain as viewed from our hotel on the morning we began our climb.

And here’s a picture of the mountain (taken from the same location) on the afternoon that we completed our climb.

For anyone who doubts the fact that there was a blizzard, you can see for yourself. Even this drama queen can’t make this stuff up.

Okay, on with the story.

After breakfast on Saturday morning we hauled all of our gear down to the courtyard of the hotel where our crew was busy organizing the gear, food and equipment for our climb. As a group of 14, we had a crew of 28 men including 19 porters, 2 cooks, 6 guides and 1 chief guide. The Marangu Hotel has the preparation piece down to a science and our role was to basically just stay out of the way!

Crew members gathering in the courtyard to receive their roles and to prepare for our climb

Kitchen items including gas stoves, water containers, and metal food bins

Each porter carries up a single duffle weighing no more than 15kg or ~30lbs. The porters were packing our duffles with extra items until they weighed exactly 15kg

Weighing the bags

If you’ve ever wondered how one carries fresh eggs up the mountain, look no further! Here’s a coffee can filled with wood shavings and fresh eggs. Genius.

Once the gear was ready and each crew member was assigned his role, there was a line-up and you can see one guy checking everything and everyone off of his list

My porter is the 18 year old wearing the red t-shirt. His name was, Anized and he carried my gear up and down the mountain for me

Then, it was time to pile into the pick-up trucks and to head to the national park entrance

After registering with the national park and all of our gear being re-weighed to ensure no bag was over 15kg (they’re serious about this weight limit), we posed for a group shot before beginning our 5-day climb

Here’s the signboard outlining our route. Take note of the elevation gain each day and especially of the different ecosystems

The hike starts in a rainforest at the base of the mountain and by the time you reach the summit you are on an ice cap! Rainforest...

We made it to Mandara Camp after about 4 hours and all 14 of us were in the same hut

Bunks

Toilets…I know that not everyone is interested in seeing a toilet, but these were a special treat; I mean, how much does a seat really cost that it’s better to have a hole with two places to put your feet?

After a hearty dinner we were fast asleep and dreaming of Day 2.

Kilimanjaro: Travel Day and Day 0

2011-02-22T15:38:00.007-02:00

It's been a month since my last blog entry as we had the 'post-holiday' lull (i.e. too broke to travel). I have to admit, I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed by the prospect of a monstrous 'Tanzania Trip' blog entry; therefore, I've decided to break it into daily chunks so that I can have the satisfaction of 'completion' even when I'm not finished. So, here goes: Travel Day and Day 0!

Ever since Doug was accepted to BIPAI and we found out that we'd be moving to the continent of Africa, I've been dreaming of climbing Kilimanjaro. I knew that Swaziland was nowhere near Kilimanjaro, but I didn't care. I wanted to go. Doug actually referred to the vacation as 'your trip' because he didn't really care either way whether we went or not (blasphemy). So, we left on Thursday 10 February for Tanzania and I was SUPER excited, while Doug was really just looking forward to the post-climb safari in the Ngorongoro Crater (think 'colosseum' for animals).

We flew through Nairobi, Kenya and landed at Kilimanjaro airport just before midnight. Our friends, Risa and Dave, and our friend Garrett's friends, Nick and Matt, arrived an hour earlier and were waiting for us to take the shuttle to The Marangu Hotel. The Marangu Hotel is owned and operated by our friend (in Swaziland) Antz's Mom and two uncles. Antz connected us with his family and they really looked after us and made our trip perfect.

Our room

Bathroom

The grounds of the hotel were particularly beautiful; lots of seating areas surrounded by flowers!

Believe it or not, there's a gazebo underneath all of those flowers

On Friday morning we gathered for breakfast and then laid out all of our gear for the climb. Marangu staff checked our gear and loaned us any items that we were missing/were necessary. We were each given a potato sack to pack our belongings for a porter to carry up the mountain, so after completing the gear check we were more or less ready to go! With the better part of the day remaining and the other members of our group enroute we had a beer at the restaurant bar and then hired a local to take us on a hike to a nearby waterfall.

From left to right: Dave, Nick, Garrett, Matt, Doug and Risa

Our guide took us through the nearby banana and coffee plantations and for a swim in the falls.

Banana tree

Wild Poinsetta (as tall as me)

On our way down to the falls

Underneath the falls

It was the perfect way to spend the afternoon as we didn't need to be back at the hotel until 4:00pm for our 'briefing' meeting. During the briefing we basically received a play-by-play of our pending trip up the mountain and had the opportunity to ask questions, etc. We left the meeting feeling a bit mixed as we were headed on a 5-day climb and two other groups were going for 7 and 9 days respectively; which made us feel like we were not going to acclimate and make it to the summit!

After a traditional dinner we went to bed early to prepare for Day 1.

Part III: Dillon Family Christmas Vacation

2011-01-11T10:51:00.010-02:00

On Boxing Day (Sunday, December 26th) we piled into Lemmy and made the ~4 hour drive back to Swaziland. Along the way, we stopped for a late lunch at Forester's Arms, as they have quite a unique spread and serve pretty yummy food (it's all relative).

After a quiet night of showing my Dad around town, unpacking, and playing cards (Euchre) we turned in early in order to get some rest for our big day planned on Monday.

My Dad and I ran around hilly Mbabane (so that my complaining about the route could be put into perspective) and then we had a tee-time at 10:30am at The Royal Swazi in Ezulwini Valley. Before we began the round we had to rent clubs (gasp) and organize our caddies and extra balls and tees. I thought that we should purchase 6 balls, but my Dad pushed for us to buy a dozen. Let the record show, we lost 10 or 11 balls throughout the course of the 18 holes, so, my Dad was right. As far as scores go, they weren't too shabby. My Dad killed us all, my Mom beat me by 2 strokes and Doug came in fourth (I'm laughing right now remembering him hacking it up. I love you, really!).

Club House

The course is truly beautiful. It is super hilly (no surprise) and quite a challenge, but the vistas are worth it.

You can analyze each of our swings

Views from the course

Then, on Tuesday the 28th, Doug had to go back to work (boo) and my Mom, Dad and I climbed up Sibebe in Pine Valley. It was quite an adventure as the route that I thought that we were taking was not the route that we ended-up taking, but everyone made it to the top and enjoyed the glorious views. Never a bad way to spend the morning.

At the start

Hiking up on the cow trails

View of the valley, on the way up

Side view of the dome

On the plateau

On Tuesday night, we met our friends Keri and Eric and Keri's parents (also from Michigan) for dinner at Mantenga Lodge. The patio of the restaurant overlooks Executioner's Rock; therefore, we took a couple of sunset pictures before sitting down to dinner.

My parent's last full day in Swaziland was Wednesday; and we reserved it for souvenir shopping. So, we ventured to Ngwenya Glass Factory, Swazi Candles and Gone Rural so that my Dad could see some of the products made by the rural women and so that my Mom could buy them...

We had lunch at Sambane Restaurant in the midst of the spending spree.

On Thursday morning, I took my parents to brunch before taking them to the airport and we tried a new restaurant in Mbabane called, Ramblas. Here are my parents on the patio on their final day of vacation (sniffle, sniffle).

Appendix I: Flowers of Southern Africa

I didn't feel like trying to name these flowers or trying to match them with the location in which they were taken, so I'm pasting them all here as an 'Appendix.' My Mom is really into plants and flowers (she's a member of a 'Garden Club'); therefore, she took lots of pictures of flowers! And, while I'm too lazy to do anything else with them, I thought that they were pretty enough to include, here:

Part II: Dillon Family Christmas Vacation

2011-01-10T10:08:00.020-02:00

I'm just going to pick-up, right where we left off!

On Wednesday morning (the 22nd) we were picked-up by a driver from our hotel in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and taken to a new hotel in Kasane, Botswana. With a quick trip through the border, we were settled-in and ready for lunch by about 1:00pm.

Our new hotel was called, The Chobe Marina Safari Lodge, and it was located directly on the Chobe River and about 5 km from the Chobe National Park. While the Marina Lodge was not as 'boutique-y' as the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, it had perfect amenities and a zillion activities on offer, every day.

The patio

More patio

Pool

We had a two-bedroom suite with an adjoining family room/mini-bar

Hand-painted sinks in the bathrooms

At first glance at the 'activity calendar' I thought that we might pick one or two safaris to participate in per day, but no, I was wrong and we went on 8-9 hours of safari/day. It just didn't get old seeing hundreds of elephants or lions stalking a buffalo or herds upon herds of antelope.

So, our daily schedule was as follows:

6:00-9:00am Game Drive
9:00-9:30am Breakfast
9:30-12:30pm Boat Safari
12:30-3:30pm Lunch/Nap/Swim/Read/etc.
3:30-6:30pm Either Game Drive or Boat Safari (choose your own adventure)
7:00pm Dinner

Now that you know the schedule, I'll just go ahead and tell the rest in pictures!

The Chobe River

Safari boat

Afternoon boat safari

Being on the river was really cool because all of the animals would come down to the water to drink and cool down. Chobe is known for its elephants. Huge herds of 'em!

In the distance

Breeding herd coming to the water's edge

Elephant getting a drink

Crossing the river to the marsh

Grazing on the marsh

Strutting his stuff and making himself look all big and fierce

Staring down Doug (this gives a little perspective in regards to how close we got to the animals via the boat!)

Rolling in the mud

Rough-housing

Baby!!!

In addition to the elephants, there are also lots and lots of enormous crocodiles and hippos

Lurking

Beaching it

Hippo posse in the water

On land

Close-up

Fighting

Probably the climax of our boating safari adventures came when Doug and I were the only two people on the boat (ironically). We saw four lions stalking an injured buffalo. There's lots of people in our circle of friends who have seen many an animal, kill, be killed, mate, give birth, etc. I'm hear to tell you, we are not those people. So, this was VERY exciting. So exciting, in fact, that we paid our guide to take us straight back to the hotel to pick-up my parents so that they could join us on the safari. By the time we got back to the scene, the number of lions had doubled and there was a head-on confrontation between them and the buffalo.

Here's where it all turned a bit sad. The buffalo was badly injured in his hind leg and couldn't put up much of a fight, so after some taunting by the lions and a couple of charges, he succumbed and laid down. Then, the lions ate him alive. Literally. It was really sad, but it was nature taking its course...so, here's the flip-book of photos.

Laying in wait...

Getting up to check things out

Circling

Getting ready to attack

Taking the buffalo down. The lions attacked from behind because the buffalo's horns are his greatest defense and with his injured leg he couldn't kick

Eating the buffalo

Sad (and kind of gross...check out their bloody chops!)

A little drink to wash down the buffalo

Then, it was the vulture's turn

In the land safari vehicle

Lots of creatures, big and small and in-between...

Fish eagle

Taking flight

Herd of impala

Single, male impala

Vervet monkey's with baby

Mongoose

Baboon

Water monitor

Lilac-breasted roller

Vultures

Giraffe

Herd of buffalo

Sable antelope

Warthogs

Blue heron, flying over the lily pads

Zebras

On one of our evening game drives we came across the family of lions in the meadow. This was a rare sighting because the lions are usually lying in the shade under trees and bushes and obscured from view, in some way

Male lion and two lionesses

One of the lionesses got up to chase a jackal

This picture is a little hard to see, but two lionesses were laying down when the third jumped on top of them. So, you can see the one sideways across the pile and then one backing out from underneath the playful lioness

Done playing, now it is time to be serious

Dinners at the Marina Lodge

On Christmas morning, after one last game drive, we were picked-up by our driver and taken back across the border to the Victoria Falls Airport. We flew from Zimbabwe back to Johannesburg, South Africa and stayed at one of my friend's houses for the evening. We had trouble finding anywhere (anywhere) that was serving dinner on Christmas Day; therefore, we made our own dinner at my friend's (she was with her family in Cape Town). It was a perfect place with a beautiful garden.

Mom and I roasted a chicken and vegetables and Dad and Doug watched David Attenborough videos until the both fell asleep!

Our Christmas dinner

And that concludes Part II of our trip! The final portion of our trip will be told in Part III!

Part I | Dillon Family Christmas Vacation

2011-01-05T13:39:00.018-02:00

On Saturday, December 18^th, 2010 we drove to Johannesburg to drop off our friends Ann and Andrew and to pick-up my parents. My parents treated Doug and me to a fantastic Christmas Vacation in Zimbabwe and Botswana where we visited Victoria Falls and Chobe National Park, respectively. It was truly a trip to remember! Since only my Mom had previously visited us in Swaziland, the second half of our trip was at home in Swaziland. All told, on my Dad’s first trip the continent we visited 4 countries in a span of 8 days!

Let me start by saying that there was no drama to report. Usually, I reserve all of our trials and tribulations for the blog (because they are usually funny stories); but, miraculously, this trip was blissfully ‘uneventful’ in terms of the drama department (much to my father’s pleasure). And I’ll continue by saying that over 1000 pictures were taken; so, I feel it is most appropriate to layout our itinerary and to tell the rest in pictures.

Friday, December 17 – JoBurg – Mom and Dad arrived and checked-in at the Southern Sun Hotel
Saturday, December 18 – JoBurg – Apartheid Museum and dinner at Thomas Maxwell’s Restaurant
Sunday, December 19 – JoBurg/Victoria Falls – Traveled to Victoria Falls and hung out at Safari Lodge
Monday, December 20 – Victoria Falls – Visited Victoria Falls and ½ day canoe trip on the Zambezi River
Tuesday, December 21 – Victoria Falls – Helicopter Tour, market, gorge zip-line, high tea at the Victoria Falls Hotel, and visited the falls at night to see the ‘lunar rainbow’
Wednesday, December 22 – Victoria Falls/Chobe Desert – Traveled to Chobe and took an afternoon boat safari on the Chobe River
Thursday, December 23 – Chobe Desert – Morning game drive in Chobe National Park, midday boat safari on the Chobe River and another game drive in the evening
Friday, December 24 – Chobe Desert – Morning game drive in Chobe National Park, midday boat safari on the Chobe River and another game drive in the evening
Saturday, December 25 – Chobe Desert/Victoria Falls/JoBurg – Traveled back to Zimbabwe to fly back to Johannesburg and made Christmas dinner at my friend Kadija’s house
Sunday, December 26 – JoBurg/Swaziland – Traveled back to Swaziland and had dinner at Forester’s Arms’ Restaurant
Monday, December 27 – Swaziland – Played 18 holes at the Royal Swazi Golf Course
Tuesday, December 28 – Swaziland – Hiked up Sibebe and had dinner at Mantenga Lodge Restaurant with Keri’s parents
Wednesday, December 29 – Swaziland – Went souvenir shopping at Ngwenya Glass Factory, Swazi Candles and Gone Rural
Thursday, December 30 – Swaziland/USA – Had brunch at Ramblas Restaurant and Mom and Dad returned to the United States

Outside of the Apartheid Museum

On Saturday the 18th we had reservations at this darling Bistro in Johannesburg called, Thomas Maxwell's

This is the the delicious dessert that my Mom ordered and we all ate; peach tarte

On Sunday morning the 19th we flew to Zimbabwe to visit Victoria Falls for 3 nights

We stayed at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge and I would HIGHLY recommend it if you ever find yourself in Zimbabwe

Our rooms had amazing views of the Zambezi National Park and the service was noteworthy (which in these parts, is not very common)

The pool was the perfect place to relax; which is exactly what we did after we arrived...

While Mom and I sat by the pool (reading and crocheting), Dad and Doug checked out the game viewing from the hotel's viewing deck. I got Doug the binoculars for Christmaskuh and he honestly kept them in his hand for the entire vacation.

Our first night at the lodge we had a really great meal on the veranda overlooking the reserve. I had warthog cutlets or 'Pumba.' Gasp. But, so yummy.

Being one of the 7 Wonders of the World, we were really excited to check out Victoria Falls. There are different seasons in which to view the falls due to the rainfall, and we were exactly in between the low season and high season (or at the very beginning of the rainy season). It turned out to be a perfect time to view the falls because they were running, but not so full that the mist blocked any view of the falls. At the peak of the rainy season the mist shoots 1 km up into the air (which is awesome), but can be so thick that you can't see the actual falls.

'Ma and Pa Tourist' in front of the falls. You can see the spray kicking-up on the right. It makes it 'rain' on the pathways through the National Park surrounding the falls; therefore, it has produced a rain forest alongside of the falls.

Group shot

This is the start of the falls and one of the places where the Zambezi river dumps over

Main part of the Victoria Falls

(Faint) double rainbow

From this angle, you can really see the spray in the gorge

After our morning at the falls, we stopped by the largest, southernmost Baobab tree (because Doug is obsessed with them) before returning to our hotel for lunch

On Monday afternoon we went on a 1/2 day canoe trip down the Zambezi River (above the falls). The Zambezi is famous for it's whitewater rafting (below the falls). Many rivers have to wait until the high season to run rafting trips, but the Zambezi can only run trips in the low season. Otherwise, the water is so high that it's too fast and too dangerous to raft. That's pretty nuts.

Here we are, all suited-up and ready to get on the river

Doug and my Mom

Dad and me

While there were 4 small rapids to contend with (small, as in Class II) the biggest obstacle on the river were the hippos! Our guides took these enormous creatures VERY seriously and could honestly spot them from a zillion meters away, even when nobody else could see them. During the safety speech pre-canoe trip we were given points about what to do if a hippo accidentally surfaces under your canoe and tips you over. Step #1 was 'don't panic.' Yeah, right. I'm pretty sure that that is the ONLY thing that would happen if I was tipped out of canoe by a hippo (P.S. the most dangerous animal in Africa. Yes, folks. The hippo.)

Fortunately, we didn't go head-to-head with any hippos. But, here's one pictured off the tip of our canoe. That's about as close as we got (intentionally)

At sunset, as we were driving out of the Zambezi National Park we saw a wild dog in the road. This is probably one of the only creatures left on our list of 'things to see' after a million safaris. It was pretty exciting, even if the picture is blurry.

For my birthday dinner we went to a restaurant called, The Boma, which promoted a 'traditional' Zimbabwean dining experience. As soon as you walk into the restaurant, they dress you in traditional fabric (basically a togo) and paint your face. Even my Dad (yes, George) got into the festive spirit (this definitely falls under the category of things that 'only one of his daughters can peer pressure him to do').

The buffet of food was insane and the meat choices were exotic. There was warthog, kudu, wildebeest, etc. on the menu. This was just an ordinary rack of lamb.

My parents bought me a present for my birthday from a guy carving animals in the restaurant. Meet my birthday hippo!

Doug got a certificate for eating more than one Mopani worm. Gross. Takes us back to the days of, 'http://www.What.Doug.Won't.Eat.com'

After dinner there was drumming and dancing

On Tuesday morning, Doug, my Mom and I went on a helicopter tour to view the falls from above

It was truly amazing to see the falls from an aerial perspective and I took A LOT of pictures. But, I'll just post a few as to not overrun this post with shots of rushing water.

The Zambezi River feeding the falls and an aerial shot of the spray shooting above the falls

Lengthwise view of the falls

The 'old' falls. The current Victoria Falls is actually the 8th set. The river cuts a new set of falls about every 10,000 years. You can see in this picture the zig zag of previous falls.

After the helicopter tour, my Dad and Doug returned to the falls for another visit while my Mom and I went to the market to find a statue for her garden. Recent visitors to Zimbabwe told us that the sellers in the market were just as interested in clothes as they were money; therefore, we brought a lot of donated clothes with us to bargain with. These two men are wearing a golf shirt and Michigan jersey that we gave them in exchange for a soapstone statue (along with some cash). They asked us to take a picture of them in the shirts, they were so excited!

After a quick trip to the market, my Mom and I geared-up for an afternoon adrenalin rush as we had reservations for the zip line over the gorge at 2:00pm

My 60 year old Mom totally wanted to go on the zip line and since Doug isn't that fond of heights, just the two of us went. This is the gorge across which we zipped! You can just barely see the wire cutting through the middle of the picture (vertically)

On the ledge, just before we went. We decided to go tandem just in case anything happened...

And then, we were off

My Mom was definitely NOT scared. She laughed the whole time.

The view from where we were seated in the middle of the gorge, once we stopped zipping

To close out a very eventful afternoon, we went to the Victoria Falls Hotel and had high tea on the terrace. It was really lovely.

Clotted cream is my friend

And to wrap-up a very eventful day in Victoria Falls, we returned to the falls after dark to catch a glimpse of the Lunar Rainbow. It happens once per month during the full moon, and we just happened to be in Victoria Falls during the full moon in December. Because the spray is not too high, the rainbow was intermittent, but we all caught a glimpse and really enjoyed being at the falls under the moon, anyways.

My Mom took this shot of my Dad, Doug and me looking on in the moonlight

And thus concludes the first portion of our trip and the first part of this blog entry!

Ann and Andrew Return to Swaziland

2011-01-04T12:11:00.011-02:00

Our dear friends, Ann and Andrew Jordan, came from London to visit us in Swaziland from the 10-18th of December. They are truly some of the best 'travel buddies' ever as they also came to our wedding in Belize and to our place in California...which means that they've visited us in 3 different countries, to date. They either really like us or just really like where we live (ha, ha)! As you already know, Doug is energetic (to say the least) and interested in doing anything and everything. Well, when Ann and Andrew are on vacation, they are exactly the same; and while they were here they didn't disappoint. While Doug was mostly at Teen Camp (sad for us, but happy for him and all of the teens), we took advantage of everything Swaziland has to offer...

We went to Malalotja and did the canopy zip-line tour. We went to Mlilwane and did a mountain biking safari. We climbed Sibebe. We went whitewater rafting down the Usuthu River. We played golf at the Mbabane Club ('club'). We ate out. It was fantastic!

Arriving in Malalotja for the Canopy Tour

Our guide

It's about a 25 minute drive from the registration office to the start of the canopy tour; therefore, it was a nice opportunity for a mini-safari

Antelope abound in Malalotja. I'm not quite sure which kind this is; I'm guilty of referring to them as 'DLTs' or 'deer like things'

On the trail to the first zip line

Views from the canopy tour

Andrew zipping along (he's the barely there dot dangling from the wire)

Ann zipping along

My turn

The scariest part of the tour was crossing this bridge! It wobbled and swung and swayed with every step

I know every time I blog about Malalotja that I talk about the 'layers of mountains.' It is just so beautiful; it never gets old...

Our next adventure brought us to Mlilwane Game Reserve in the Ezulwini Valley

It was a rainy Sunday, but we made the most of it and rented mountain bikes in the park

Despite the rain, all of the animals were out and we spent the first part of our journey following this herd of zebras

There was a baby zebra with the bunch and he was often sheltered by the herd, so this was the best shot

Mr. Warthog

It was more like London weather than Swaziland

We also had a lot of bird sightings; this tree is covered in bird's nests

They hang from the limbs and the openings are at the bottom; they are really neat. I think that the bird is a Yellow Weaver, but I could be making that up (I'm not much of a birder). Here's one going into its nest

After our mountain biking safari, we had a drink at the Hippo Hideaway Restaurant in the park

And overlooked the hippo pond which was more full of crocodiles and this nasty bird tree. It was totally infested; we counted like 4 different types of birds and were pretty far away.

This bird was sporting his 'mating' colors and was just in the reeds in front of our table. There's a yellow version of this little guy that I call the 'flying tennis ball' bird. Like I said, I'm not much of a birder!

Our third adventure was hiking up Sibebe (the largest exposed granite dome in the world).

Since it is the rainy season, the grass is green and the meadow at the top is aptly nicknamed, 'The Shire'

View of the valley from the top

Our fourth and most death-defying adventure took place in two-man rubber kayaks on the Usuthu River. Normally, when one goes whitewater rafting, one is in a large boat with approximately 8 people (including a professional guide). Well, scrap that on the Usuthu. Andrew and I were in a two-man rubber kayak (sans professional). Since the boats were nicknamed 'the divorce boat,' we decided I would go with Andrew and that Ann would ride with one of the guides. We also thought that this would mean that she would stay in the boat and since she was a little less excited about the rapids, this was a nice compromise. In the end, though, her boat tipped too, so the professional wasn't necessarily the secret weapon she was hoping for! As previously mentioned, its the rainy season; therefore, the river was running. Class IV rapids for 24 km and two time we had to porter our boats around Class VI waterfalls. One wrong turn and...

Because we didn't want to risk the camera on the river, we only have a couple of shots pre-trip. You'll just have to take our word for it that it was TOTALLY INSANE. So insane, in fact, that I'm not going to go again. I'm sending Doug at the end of the month on a 'boy's trip' since he had to work and I'm too scared (now that I know what awaits me) to go again. Scared, I tell ya. It was NUTS.

Don't worry, they were inflated before we departed

At this point, we have no idea what we're in for...

After whitewater rafting and going to bed at 8:00pm out of exhaustion, we opted for a more serene adventure on Ann and Andrew's final day. We played 9 holes in Mbabane and enjoyed a perfect sunshine-y day.

Andrew committed to taking a series of lessons upon his return to London

On their last night, Ann and Andrew treated us to dinner at Malandela's for my Birthday. We had a great table outside and under the stars and thoroughly enjoyed our last evening together. Since we were sitting on opposite sides of the table, it looks like we traded husbands in these photos!

Thanks for such a fun week, Ann and Andrew! We can't wait until you visit us next in San Diego!

Vusumnotfo Pilot Teacher Training

2011-01-03T13:47:00.006-02:00

The important part about this picture is the dog sleeping on my chair; his name is Rhino.

On December 7 and 8th I traveled to the northern region of the country and facilitated a two-day training for 8 community preschool teachers. It was the first training for a pilot group of teachers as a part of grant that I received in conjunction with a grassroots organization called, Vusumnotfo, from Open Society Initiative (OSI). The December training was a kick-off for the pilot teachers so that they knew what to expect in 2011 in terms of our work together. I was basically introducing them to the concepts of 'vision, assessment, and planning.' If you are currently working for Teach For America (or ever have) and are reading this blog, you are likely laughing right now. It is confirmed, you can take the girl out of TFA, but you can't take TFA out of the girl. Thankfully, all that I learned while working for the organization in Los Angeles applies to rural Swaziland. It truly is a universal, leadership model!

Anyways, back to the training. Since there are no 'standards' for early childhood care and development (ECCD) in Swaziland, I used the California standards for learning to help introduce the idea that there are certain skills and knowledge that every child should have upon completing preschool. It was really interesting to work with the 8 teachers because they are doing a lot of good work and many of the 'right' things (some with a dirt floor/mud hut of a classroom); they just don't have the 'terminology' or perhaps a full understanding of 'why' they are doing what they are doing. So, it was my job to really drive home the 'why' (based on child development) and to introduce the 'terminology' so that we'd have a common language for the duration of the project and for their continued professional development with Vusumnotfo after I leave in early June (gasp). As with introducing any new information, I started simply. I used three, guiding questions as the framework on which to hang everything learned throughout the workshop and modeled each of the concepts using activities that they already do with their pupils. Our priority outcomes by the end of the two days were that the teachers would understand: 1) the five areas of child development, 2) the California standards for ECCD, and 3) how the activities that they do on a daily basis are aligned (or not aligned) with the five areas of development and the standards for ECCD. Lastly, leaving the two days, the teachers needed to select 13 standards to begin teaching in Term 1 2011. Although there are 39 standards and all 39 standards should be taught every term, we are starting gradually and sticking to the promise of 'keeping it simple.' We're going to start with 13.

So, now it is January and I am writing activities and assessments for each of the 13 selected standards. Then, in February, I'll train the pilot group of teachers on the package of activities and assessments and perform follow-up observations in each of their classrooms (twice) throughout March and April. To wrap-up my participation in the project, I'll meet with the pilot group again in May and assist them in creating activities and assessments for the remaining 26 standards. The goal is for me to model with the first curriculum package and for them to use what they've learned to complete the curriculum - as to build capacity and make it so that the community teachers can continue to share ideas with each other monthly at their professional development workshops.

The last piece of the puzzle will be introducing 'tracking' of results (like I said, you can't take TFA out of the girl!). Since tracking is such an important concept, we're introducing 'assessment through observation' in the pilot phase and tracking teacher performance in order to model the concept that will be later applied to pupil learning. It blows my mind to think of the full scale implementation of the project, but I am confident that it will mean really good things for the community children who count on these preschools to get ready for primary school. It's just all about having a goal, knowing how you are going to measure the goal, and then making your plan to achieve that goal. Wish us luck!

When I travel to Pigg's Peak I stay at Kathy's and on Vusumnotfo property. There are two 'wendy' houses; one with bunk beds and the other is a kitchen. There's no hot water and pit toilets, so it is a bit different then our luxurious Mbabane accommodations.

Wendy Houses

Bunk House

Kitchen

Apart from community preschool teacher development, Vusumnotfo also does sustainable gardening projects; therefore, we eat a lot of fresh produce during our trainings!

Here are a few shots of the pilot group of community preschool teachers: Nkosingiphile, Irene and Catherine

Jabulile and Busisiwe

Babe Mamba and James work full-time for Kathy and Vusumnotfo. Since they will be implementing the project in the longterm, they participated in the training and will continue to do so. They are also very helpful when it comes to translating from English to siSwati (when necessary!).

Our classroom

Our guiding questions. Amen.

The first activity was about the areas of child development. I asked the teachers to list 10 activities they normally do with their pupils and then we aligned these with the corresponding developmental area(s).

Then, we grouped the 39 California ECCD standards into the same developmental buckets. This task was completed in two separate groups and the picture below shows us comparing the answers from each group.

Next, we selected the first group of standards to begin teaching in Term 1 (initially, we planned for 12, but then 39 was so neatly divisible by 3 and there are 3 school terms...so, we added one more. Not quite sure whey we picked 12 and not 13 to begin with?!).

Lastly, we introduced the concept of using observations to assess pupil understanding through a role play. If you'll notice, I even whipped out a little siSwati on my rubric poster to describe the 4 levels of mastery.

I mean, even though they are not quite ready for tracking, there can't be a vision and plan if there is no assessment...so, we're squeezing a little in during the pilot phase. Like I said, wish us luck!

Ponta D'Ouro, Mozambique

2010-12-02T10:37:00.006-02:00

Last weekend nearly all of Swaziland went to the beach for the weekend in Mozambique. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but seriously. There were like three different groups of expatriates and definitely at least 30 people that we knew including the doctors from the Taiwanese Medical Mission, 'the Italians,' the Baylor crew, and a bunch of other friends in between. Unlike in September of 2009 when we first visited Ponta with 24 friends, each group found their own accommodations and then simply met on the beach or in the bar.

Our group included Stephanie (PAC Doctor), Erin (PAC Doctor), Garrett (Clinton Foundation) and Cooper (TechnoServe). We rented a really nice place on the beach called, Coco Rico and had sweet, sweet air conditioning!

Our bedroom

Bathroom (also included an enormous tub and stall shower)

The drive to Ponta is 5 hours; 3.5 of which are on a dirt road, potholed tar road, or sand road. It's not THAT bad of a drive, expect at night or in 'weather' (both of which applied on Friday evening). It was a bit stressful between the fog and the dirt being kicked-up on the dirt road, but we made it in one piece (with one minor detour) and were all ready for a beverage by the time we rolled-in. For example, the last time that I drank was at Martin's wedding in October and yet I ordered myself a double, vodka and tonic.

Before

After

The town of Ponta itself is tiny. There are no paved roads, only sand and the local population is just enough to support the tourist industry which provides the economy for this remote destination.

A couple of picks to give you an idea...

The church

Tree in town decorated like a Christmas tree

Kikois shop (i.e. pashmina)

I purchased a kikois from this artisan as his set-up was quite impressive. He dyed his own string and then spun it on a bicycle

Then he hooked it up to his loom

And wove away!

While it was a quick weekend, getting away to the beach always feels like a proper vacation since it is so different from the landscape in Swaziland. Plus, you can't beat calamari for lunch and prawns for dinner.

Thanksgiving

2010-12-02T04:30:00.009-02:00

It's hard to believe that we just celebrated our second Thanksgiving in Swaziland (but, we did!). And just like last year, our friends Michelle, Stephanie and Erin opened up their homes to the droves of Americans in our expatriate community. Michelle, Stephanie and Erin live in neighboring apartments; which makes it convenient to cook with two, neighboring kitchens. Last year, Jason (of Jason and Fiona - PAC Doctor) and I cooked 3 turkeys and one 'turducken.' But, if the truth be told (one year later), Jason really cooked 3 turkeys and one 'turducken' and I ran around after him in the kitchen trying to help, but really just cleaning up. This year, with Jason and Fiona living back in California, I was nominated to cook the turkeys. Gasp. I'd actually never cooked a turkey before...I mean, it is a pretty grown-up exercise and with Liz Dillon around, there's really never been any need for me to take on this task. So, let the record show that 2010 was the year that I cooked my first Thanksgiving turkey. And, I cooked FOUR of them.

Despite a couple of frantic Skype calls to my 93 year old grandmother in Florida (where my parents were celebrating the holiday), everything went smoothly. I made all of the stuffing on Wednesday; which left Thursday for turkey preparations. My mom taught me well, because everything turned out dillylish (Beth, that was for you). Thank goodness.

We approximated that 75 people came together for our Swazi Thanksgiving celebration! The four birds went a long way.

Here are a few shots from my cooking extravaganza. Let's pretend this is a cooking show.

The key to good gravy is roasting vegetables in the turkey juices so that when it comes time to use the drippings as your gravy base, the drippings are extra flavorful.

You can easily make homemade chicken stock with the neck, giblets and any leftover celery and onion you have from the stuffing preparations

Here was my turkey prep station including butter, salt/pepper and fresh rosemary and thyme. The string was used to tie-up the legs so that the bird held together.

The herbs went underneath the skin and then I rubbed the turkey with butter and salt/pepper. In my case, I repeated this step four times!

If your oven doesn't close, just grab a chair to keep it closed!

Then you're done. Well, actually, if you live at altitude then you are done a WHOLE lot quicker. Forget the '20 minutes per pound' crap. Seriously, if it weren't for the meat thermometer 4 footballs would have been served. Without a doubt.

Yes, I am posing with my first turkey

Don't worry, I even forced Doug to take a picture with me and the turkey. Keri and Eric got in on the photo shoot with a homemade apple pie

Once everyone arrived, it was time for carving!

Dan (PSI), Nick (TechnoServe) and Doug took care of business.

Spread a la ping-pong table

Obviously, I was the first one through the serving line. Gobble, gobble

Malalotja – Michelle’s Going Away Party – Potholes

2010-12-01T05:24:00.011-02:00

On Saturday 20 November 2010 a huge group of us went to Malalotja for an overnight in celebration of our dear friend Michelle’s time in Swaziland. She’d been here working with Baylor for 3 years and made a lot of friends during her stay; therefore, it was a big, fun group. As you’ve seen on our blog before, Malalotja is one of our favorite places to hike. We’ve also stayed in their cabins once before for an overnight during our second weekend in Swaziland. On Saturday, we all gathered at the new restaurant that just opened in the park for a braai. Some people just came for the day; while others stayed overnight in the cabins and went hiking on Sunday morning (we were part of the latter group).

Table for two with bent shovel seats and Swazi baskets as decorations

Teena (PAC Doctor – Mozambique), Nick (TechnoServe), Erin (PAC Doctor – Swaziland) and Maya (Clinton Foundation)

Peter’s Mom, Peter (USAID) and Stephanie (PAC Doctor - Swaziland)

Piluca, Lucia, Doug and Michelle (all PAC Doctors in Swaziland)

Laura (Clinton Foundation) and Keri (Consultant, Special Education)

Erin, Stephanie, Michelle, Terry (PAC Doctor – Swaziland) and Solomon (Terry’s son)

The three Alison’s and Calista/Peter’s little girl, Aviva

The event was planned as a potluck, so there was not a lot of work and plenty of time for hanging out and holding babies (a favorite pastime).

Asher is Jessi and Uri’s little boy (a little lug of a 4 month old and so precious)! I try to kidnap him every chance that I get.

Sometimes, I’m forced to share him with Erin

Tao and Uri were doing some of the grilling. The piece of meat on the braai in this picture is called a ‘Texan.’ Literally, that’s the name on the package when you buy it in the grocery store. Oh how our American stereotypes travel far and wide…sigh.

There was also a little ‘American football’ action as dusk loomed

After the braai, the day visitors went home and the rest of us piled into our respective cabins in preparation for an early morning hike.

On the window ledge of one of the cabins there was a bird's nest with tiny, little eggs

And the mom wasn't even scared away!

We awoke on Sunday morning to hike to the ‘potholes’ which are a series of pools flowing from a stream and waterfalls in the park. Doug had hiked to the potholes once before, but it was my first time. It was a piping hot day so it was a perfect day for a swim. I am pretty sure I’ve never hiked with this many people! Rumor had it we were 28.

Hikers

Scaling the wall to make it to the first pothole

Pothole!

View of the gorge

Tao grew up in Swaziland and has been hiking to the potholes since he was 3 years old; therefore, when he took a flying leap off of the 30 foot ledge, nobody was surprised.

Duane jumped second and being a representative for the Commonwealth Games we expected some acrobatics out of him

Then, there was me (plugging my nose). I was the third person to jump and apparently (as I was later told) I was the person who opened the flood gates to all of the ‘normal’ people jumping. Great, thanks.

Doug also jumped as a trio with Duane and Tao, but I clicked the picture a moment too soon!

Peanut gallery cheering on the jumpers

The water was freezing, but on such a hot day it was a good place to be

The hardest part was actually getting out and climbing back up the rock face!

After a dip in the first pothole a group continued on to the second pothole while a smaller group turned back. Fortunately, everyone made it back safe/sound (even though some were sunburned and exhausted having bit off more of a hike than desired in venturing to the second pothole).

Olifants Trail Walking Safari – Kruger National Park

2010-11-22T13:56:00.019-02:00

Walking Safaris in Kruger National Park are difficult to book. There are only a few wilderness trails and each trail only accommodates a maximum of 8 people, at any given time. Given the limited number of trails and spots, booking a walking safari has to be done a year in advance. While we were not that organized, (fortunately for us) our friend Stephanie (PAC Doctor) was; therefore, from November 12-17 we visited Kruger National Park and walked the Olifants Trail for 3 nights and 4 days. It was awesome.

We left Friday the 12^th of November after work and drove to Malelane, South Africa where we stayed the night at a B&B called, The River Cottage. Stephanie, Michelle and I had actually stayed there before, last April, when we went to Hazyview to do the zip line/canopy tour. Because the park entrances close at about 4:30pm, the only option was to stay outside of the park and to drive-in via Malelane Gate on Saturday morning.

River Cottage

Malelane Gate/Kruger National Park Entrance

As previously mentioned, Kruger National Park is about the size of New Jersey. It’s big; therefore, we spent most of the day on Saturday making our way up to Olifants Rest Camp (~8-9 hours drive) where we stayed for the night; leaving us about a 2 hour drive in the morning to Letaba Rest Camp where we met our walking safari guides. An 8-9 hour drive in Kruger is not your normal ‘ride in the car’ as there are animals, everywhere.

This is what I looked like for 8-9 hours

A few of the highlights...

Elephant scratching her trunk

Same elephant crossing the road and giving her trunk a lift on one of her tusks. A ranger told us that a trunk can weigh up to 90 pounds, so I can imagine it gets heavy!

Leopard snoozing in the tree

Klipspringer

Impala booties

Mr. Zebra

Southernmost baobab tree (Doug's obsession)

Kudu eating

Bush-baby napping

Leopard turtle crossing

Giraffe eating

Unknown animal eaten

Time passed quickly and before we knew it we were rolling into Olifants. We rented two bungalows and took advantage of the communal kitchen to make a very tasty dinner.

View of Olifants River from our Happy Hour spot

Outside of our bungalow

Inside of our bungalow

Communal kitchen

Family dinner

On Sunday morning we drove dirt roads to Letaba and were able to get out at a couple of ‘outlooks’ with views of the Olifants River. Without too many animals to report (other than stubborn baboons on the bridge), we met our walking safari guides and group for a 3:00pm departure.

Sidebar: The ride to the camp was a couple of hours and very cold. So cold that I had to use the baby blanket that I am making for a friend as a real blanket! And, since I had this ridiculous blanket warming me on safari, I decided to pull out my ridiculous sun hat so that I could really look like I was going to Easter mass. Which meant that Michelle decided I should advertise her friend's salve in my get-up as her friend had given her the product to photograph around 'Africa' for marketing materials. Who doesn't want to buy salve (what is it?) from a Kentucky Derby hat wearing, baby blanket stealing wacko?

Back to the story: Our fellow walkers included a German couple on their honeymoon, Phillipe and Charlotte, as well as another German, Klaus. Klaus has been visiting Kruger National Park for the past 28 years and has done every single walking trail available. On this vacation alone, he had booked 3 different trails, back-to-back and was planning to be in the park for nearly 3 weeks. He was a die hard. Our guides were Piet and Samboku – both South African and both very well versed in the ways of the bush.

Piet encouraging a bamboo spider to come out of its home

Samboku loading up for the day

After a couple hours drive into the bush we finally landed at our rest camp just before dinner. The camp was awesome. Each person or couple had their own bungalow and there was even running water. LUXURY. The camp was seriously beautiful as it rested atop a cliff overlooking the Olifants River. The hippos put on quite a symphony with their snorting morning, noon and night. Not to mention the lions growling after dark!

Outside of our bungalow

Inside of our bungalow

Toilet

Campfire and dining room (background)

Our schedule for the walking safari went like this:

4:30am Wake-up

5:15am Depart camp via safari vehicle

6:00am Walk in the bush

10:30am Depart bush via safari vehicle back to camp

11:15am Brunch

3:30pm Depart camp on foot for sunset walk

6:00pm Return to camp

7:00pm Dinner

9:00pm Bed

Sunrise over the Olifants River

Snorting hippos in Olifants River (view from camp)

Another one of the things that I like about walking safaris is that you get to see lots of little things that you’d miss in your car. Also, you can track animals by sound or footprint and when you are by yourself on a game drive, you’re not allowed to get out of your vehicle or to follow animals off of the road. This particular walking safari was special because not only did we get to see the usual little things, we also stumbled across a couple of big things. Like rhino!

Some of the small things...birds

Birds that try to eat your breakfast

Eagle owl

Snakeskin shed in a tree

Remains of a jawbone (Phillipe)

Remains of a buffalo skull (Doug)

Long-haired buzzards (at a convention)

Jackal

Some of the big things...the rhino that we tracked

Turning to check us out

Dry riverbed

Day 1 Happy Hour included gin and tonics

And watching hippos fight

All while a crocodile looked on and warned us about coming too close to his nest

Sunset Day 2

The curious rhino who joined us for Happy Hour just after the above sunset

On Wednesday morning we came out of the bush and were deposited back at Letaba Rest Camp where we picked-up our car and drove all the way through the park and back to Swaziland. While we had already been in the park for 5 days, there’s always room for more safari! The highlight included three lions and a herd of 1000 buffalo.

Buffalo herd (biggest EVER)

These two made me laugh. Look how distinct their horns are...

And last but not least, LIONS! The loving couple

She was totally staring at the buffalo herd

So was he

Then he got up and gave her a little snuggle

And yawned

Which meant nap time for everyone

Sadly, Michelle and Stephanie are both leaving Swaziland for good this December. So, our walking safari adventure was a special way to spend time with them before their departure and as always, a good time was had by all. We <3>

Soweto Marathon and 10K

2010-11-20T08:12:00.009-02:00

Over the weekend of November 6-7, 2010 we went to Johannesburg to run the Soweto Marathon and/or 10K. There were about 20 of us caravaning from Swaziland and let me just say that approximately 19 of us ran the 10K. Which, as you can probably do the math, ONE person ran the marathon. Our friend Michelle (PAC Doctor) was running her first marathon, so we were going to cheer her on and at least had to do the 10K. One of our friends from Swaziland, Allison, had since been transferred to Johannesburg for her work as a consultant; therefore, we piled into her place. She was a very gracious host as every bed, couch and square foot of floor space was taken!

History Lesson: Soweto is an urban area outise of the city of Johannesburg bordering the city's mining belt towards the south. It stands for 'South Western Township' and its origin was as a black settlement during South Africa's Apartheid government. Black citizens were relocated to townships outside of the city and Soweto is the most populous of these with approximately one million residents.

Back to the story...On Saturday morning we went to the Expo center to pick up our race numbers and packets. It was definitely not the 'expo' that you'd experience at say the Chicago or New York marathons. This was the sign that awaited us upon entry.

So, we followed directions to the 'collections' table and retrieved our race numbers. I commented at the time that it was strange not to receive our 'race/goody bag' as on the registration form I had been asked to request a size for my t-shirt. This was actually foreshadowing for the next day, though, because there ended up being a riot and 100% stampede by 1000's (yes, 1000's) of people in pursuit of their race t-shirt. Doors were busted in, fences were trampled, and t-shirts were snatched. I am not exaggerating in the least and I am assuming that next year there will be t-shirt pick-up along with your race number. I hope.

After picking up our race numbers we went to the Apartheid Museum.

None of us had been, but many of us had always wanted to go, so we took advantage of the free afternoon and visited. On our way, we followed the signs that pointed us to the museum, but when we arrived, we were in the parking lot for an amusement park! It was quite the juxtaposition, the amusement park vs. the Apartheid Museum, and we decided that this would be a cruel joke for a kid (having to go to a museum, when there were roller coasters next door). Turns out, this was also a cruel joke for Doug. Okay, just kidding. Kind of. I can guarantee if we had more time (i.e. the park didn't close at 5:00pm) we would have gone after touring the museum.

Doug, me, Keri and Eric in front of Gold Reef City

Since the museums cafeteria was closed and we were all starving, we decided to run across the street for lunch prior to entering the museum for good. Where did we eat, you ask? Well, at the casino, of course. Because what Apartheid Museum/amusement park intersection is complete without a casino? Bizarre-o land.

It was just like Vegas, except that there were impala in the fountain

And gold-plated elephants

Keri and I took ZAR20 and played a safari slot machine without any luck...

After lunch we went to the Apartheid Museum for real and were impressed by the mutlimedia format and the history explained. It was a powerful and interesting exhibit, but much like visiting a holocaust museum, it isn't what you'd call 'uplifting.'

There were many art installations, like this one, which was supposed to represent the people past/present who have visited the museum.

And this one represented the many people illegally executed during Apartheid

Additionally, there was a special Mandela exhibition

On Sunday morning Doug, Michelle and I got up at 4:00am to make our way to the marathon start (because it gets so hot here, races start by 6:00am). Since Doug and I were the only ones in the group who had ever run a marathon, we were sympathetic to Michelle and agreed to accompany her and then to wait around for the start of the 10K.

Everyone had a successful race day and completed either the 10K or marathon. It was a really beautiful day and interesting course.

Keri and I after the 10K

After our race, Doug and I ran backwards on the marathon course to pick-up Michelle and to run with her at the bitter end when the finish line just can't come fast enough. We picked her up at the 38km mark and ran her in to the finish.

Finish line

Doug, Michelle and Steph (PAC Doctor) after Michelle finished the marathon

I would like to say that our day ended here, but (unfortunately) no trip to Johannesburg is complete without a car being stolen. And this time it was Tammy's (TechnoServe) white RAV-4 which bit the dust. You might think that I am kidding or that the rumors about crime in Johannesburg are exaggerated, but I'm here to tell you that this is the third car from our group of friends that's been stolen. THIRD. Needless to say, this put a damper on the day, but the good news was Tammy had full-coverage insurance (and none of the rest of us did). I'll leave it at that.

European Union Planning Meeting

2010-11-20T07:20:00.003-02:00

On November 2 and 3rd I was invited to attend an annual planning meeting for the Support to Education and Training Programme (SET) at the Orion Hotel in Pigg's Peak, Swaziland. Pigg's Peak is in the northern region of the country and is where most of the lumber is harvested and citrus groves are found. It is a mountainous and beautiful part of Swaziland. In addition, the Orion Hotel is the main casino resort in the country and is considered to be the 'nicest' hotel. I am not sure that I would agree with 'nicest,' but I am for sure that it is the most expensive! Thankfully for me, the EU was picking up the tab.

My room

The view from my balcony

The two-day meeting was scheduled such that it straddled the close of one budget cycle and the opening of another. We were asked to report on the progress of our programs in Program Estimate 4 (PE4) as well as to map out a plan for programming and spending in PE5. My boss, Maria, the Director of In-Service Education and Training (INSET) and I had thought that we had to come to the meeting prepared with a presentation on PE4 and then a plan for PE5; but, it turned out that the meeting was a 'working' meeting and that each of these tasks would be completed over the course of the two days. Needless to say, we were the darlings of the SET Programme as we appeared to be insanely organized and efficient. It was really just that we had done the work in advance...

The conference room

Maria presented our PE4 progress and then allowed me to present our PE5 plan. It was exciting to be able to stand in front of such a group as the highest people in the Ministry of Education, the European Union, UNICEF, etc. were present.

Our PE5 plan

It was a good learning experience and I got to check out the Orion Hotel (which I had always been curious about). I left feeling a bit overwhelmed by all of the work that is yet to be done in PE5, but that is always the case with these sorts of 'step back' and 'plan ahead' meetings. Just when you've finished celebrating your achievements you plow ahead to what's next.

I feel very fortunate to have found such meaningful work in Swaziland. I wasn't really sure what to expect or what type of opportunities would exist, but I love working for the teacher training department and with the Swazi trainers and teachers. I will definitely miss them and be sad to go next June.

Happy Halloween

2010-11-12T11:46:00.003-02:00

There were a few rumors about where the party was going to be and eventually it was decided that Nick and Gwenyth would host the Halloween shindig. Doug and I came up with last minute costumes and stuck with our tradition of a ‘pun’ costume as I was ‘pad thai’ and Doug was a 'Swazi Bean.' Both beer pong and flippy cup were played and it was all around a good night with good friends.

My favorite costume was our friend Shaun’s since he dressed up as Doug. I had seen him during the day and we were talking about what each other might be when he said, “I want to dress as Doug.” Since Doug was out mountain biking, I ran home and grabbed a stereotypically ‘Doug’ outfit and gave it to Shaun. And, if you know Doug at all, the outfit comprised of board shorts, a button-up, flip flops, a visor, and hair gel. Plus, Doug had left his wedding ring on his nightstand, so I even pinched his ring for Shaun to wear. Doug had no idea (and tore up the house looking for his wedding ring) and when he first saw Shaun it was awesome. Laughs all around.

Just a couple of pictures to capture the evening

Cooper was a ‘Swazi street light’ as many of the street lights in town have newspaper headline mini-billboards on them…and most of the headlines are totally ridiculous (think National Enquirer).

Our friends Garret and Joe were ‘sexy doctors.’ Yeah, I know.

Laura was ‘box wine’ and she actually had the wine on tap in her costume, which was a big hit.

Jaqui was Mary Poppins and you can also see my super creative ‘pad thai’ with a maxi pad pinned to one of Doug’s ties. I know.

Nick was a court jester and Duanne was a tennis star.

And, as previously mentioned, there were straight college drinking games. The two Doug’s ran the beer pong table for a while.

USA Part II: There’s No Place Like Home

2010-11-04T11:35:00.021-02:00

Only a few short months after our summer visit, Doug and I circumvented the world (okay, only halfway, but still) and returned to the United States from 6-21 October 2010. The primary purpose for our visit was for Doug to take his Pediatric Board Examination as the exam is only offered one (yes, ONE) day per year. Since we were planning to come home for this exam, long before we ever left we recruited our family to consider ‘October 2010 Reunions.’ Our families obliged and our visit could not have been better!

Our journey began in Miami where we rented a car and drove to Captiva Island, FL for Martin and Krystal’s wedding. Because Doug’s high school friends are not only his best friends, but unusually, also best friends with each other, 80% of Martin’s wedding party was identical to our wedding (and Preston’s and Katzen’s). This is to say, we were really looking forward to the wedding because it meant seeing some of our nearest and dearest friends. What could be better than seeing your favorite people all at once?! Since Krystal vacationed on Captiva Island growing-up, the wedding was held in the Sea Island Resort.

Sunset coming over the bridge

Liza, Berke, Neal, Doug and I stayed in one of the Marina Villas. No south Florida accommodation would be complete without floral furniture and mirrors on the wall.

Our bedroom

Kitchen

Family Room

On Friday, before the rehearsal, six of us played the 9 hold ‘Executive’ course (if you don’t know, that’s the fancy term for ‘Par 3’ course). Lisa, Katzen and Preston teed-off just ahead of Doug, Berke and I.

The boys

Doug got off to a hot start with par, bogey, par (I was sweatin’ it out, until he had a 12 on one hole)

Here were all three of our tee shots on the third hole. We were pretty pleased with ourselves

The course ran along the ocean and was very beautiful

The rehearsal was held at one of the island restaurants, famous for their ‘buffalo shrimp’ and fish tacos

All the ladies (L to R: Kristin, Morgan, Krystal, Lisa, Liza, Lynsdy, Paisley)

Doug and Berke giving their speech

Good times with good friends

On Saturday, the wedding was held in the late afternoon inside of the resort. It was a beautiful ceremony by the sea

The groomsmen (like I mentioned, they might look familiar)

Graciela giving Martin away

Exchanging vows

Happy couple

Another ladies' shot

Handsome men

Dance party

On Sunday 9 October, we flew from Fort Myers Beach, FL to Austin, TX for the Blank Family Cousin’s Club (affectionately known as ‘CC’10’). We had such a gathering in Hilton Head back in 2005(ish) and have pledged to continue the tradition as our families grow and we scatter further and further around the world. Jason, Sarah, Aoi, Max and Jack came from London; Marco, Kara, Anika, Hannah and Ava came from D.C.; Marissa came from New York; we obviously came from Swaziland; and Dan and Meridith planned the outing as they were local with their boys, Luke and Colt. All told, we were 17 including 8 children under the age of 7.

Dan and Meridith found a great lake house on Lake LBJ, just outside of Austin. It was 7800 square feet and had two kitchens, three refrigerators and even 2 dishwashers. The outdoor facilities were also perfect for our group as we were on a canal, had a huge pool, and most importantly an empty lot on the right side of the house fit for any game imaginable. We only left the house to go to the grocery store and for one outing to nearby caves.

Doug and I stayed in the pool house

Bedroom

Family room, bathroom, and kitchen

Canal

Patio

Master bath (just to give you an idea of the 'fancy' factor)

A lot of fun was had in the pool; Max in the inflatable kayak

Anika

Hannah and the noodle

Jack and his 'just in case you fall in the pool' outfit

Bead necklaces were strung

Stories were read

Fish were not caught, but not for a lack of effort

Kayaks were paddled around

And let’s not forget the lawn games

Or the bouncy house

There was a dance party

Lunch by the pool (meal times were a group effort, fo sho)

And a retired camera donated by Risy to the kids (got a lot of action)

Even the adults had some fun with the Wii Karaoke

Risy was the preferred back-up dancer

Family shots

Dan and Colt

Doug and Marco

Jason and Sarah

Ava, Kara, Aoi and Luke

The Big Blank Cousins

Some of the Little Blank Cousins

Our Swaziland friends, Jay and Hilary (they were in the Peace Corps in Swaziland and overlapped with us for one year; now they are back home in Austin)

And last, but not least, we had a real Thanksgiving on Thursday

And Max got a drumstick

Apart from our Super Shuttle not showing up at 3:45am to take us to the airport and us having to wake-up Dan in the middle of the night; it was a fantastic week. So much fun was had there’s been talk of another CC in 2012 (e can’t even wait another 5 years).

On Friday 15 October 2010 we flew from Austin to Los Angeles and joined a smaller ‘Dillon Family Reunion.’ We stayed with my cousin Jesse and his family in Long Beach. Tim, Nichole and Henry came from San Francisco, CA; my cousin Beth came from Chicago, IL; and George and Liz came from Midland, MI.

Tim, Nichole and Henry

George & Liz

Beth

On Friday evening we ventured to 2^nd Street for a meal at one of our favorite restaurants, Open Sesame. But, before we left, a Halloween costume that arrived in the mail had to be tried and of course, modeled.

Kate is obsessed with Star Wars (more to come on that topic)

Jesse, Kristin and my Mom at Open Sesame

Henry playing with his trains (that’s not a pout, it’s him making noises for the trains)

Dillon Family

On Saturday, we started the day at Kate’s soccer game

One of my best friends, Allison, her husband, Oliver, and daughter, Miri, joined us for the morning

After an unfortunate soccer loss, we ventured back to the house to play before lunch

Everyone loved getting a ride in the push car; Allison and Miri

Ben pushing Henry

Playing at the park

In the evenings, we usually had an early dinner and then it was time for the ‘evening routine’ for the kiddos

Including bath time, teeth brushing (Kate enjoyed a blue ring pop) and bedtime stories

On Sunday, we went to Pa’s Pumpkin Patch in Seal Beach

The 1-ticket super slide was very popular with Kate and Ben

While the Train was Henry’s ride of choice

My Mom and I also took Henry to the petting farm while the big kids jumped in the bouncy castle

The most famous ride at Pa’s is the ‘bathtub swinging tea-cup’ thingy. Doug and Kate have a history on this ride and neither disappointed

Then it was on to the face paint before a couple of family shots on our way to In-n-Out (YUMMY)

Dillon cousins

Sunday evening, my cousin Beth and brother-in-law Tim departed and Doug went to stay in the LAX Hilton as his Board Examination was Monday 18 October 2010. So, in between lots of errands and appointments, Doug and I went with Nichole and Henry to the Long Beach Aquarium.

Then, on Tuesday, they too left Long Beach leaving Wednesday for Jesse/Kristin/Kate/Ben to play hooky. I’ll give you one guess where we went?! Yup, DISNEYLAND. Ben was measuring 39 ½ inches – or 40 with his shoes on – which officially made him tall enough to ride everything in Disney Land. Brave little Ben went on Space Mountain, TWICE. It was the BEST day and the perfect way to end our vacation.

Paisley, Kate and Ben with the giant pumpkin

Doug took Ben on Autotopia while Jesse/Kristen/Kate and I rode, Indiana Jones

At the lightsaver training camp, Kate was selected and ended up using her lightsaver skills in a one-one-one duo

And just to prove Jesse went to the themepark, here he is with Kate on a ride

That night, we took a red-eye from LAX and began our journey back to Swaziland. I’m not going to go into detail because having lived through it once; I don’t need a reminder. Grumpopotamus Doug might chime in if he feels strongly enough, though…Guess we’ll have to wait and see…

Weekend Trip to Kruger National Park

2010-10-31T07:55:00.013-02:00

Every now and then Doug and I plan an outing for just the two of us. And since he had been nose-deep in Pediatric Board Examination questions for months, we decided to go to Kruger for an overnight on October 2 and 3, 2010. As you likely know (if you’ve been following the blog), cat sightings have been few and far between for us. We’ve seen lions once (in Hluhlue) and a leopard once (in Cape Vidal). Now, our friends on the other hand, have seen lions fighting, lions eating a kill, lions mating (for crying out loud), leopards, leopard cubs, etc. Basically, our friends can’t get away from the cats when they visit safari parks. So, in addition to getting away from Mbabane for the night, we were secretly on a cat mission. Let me just go ahead and kill the suspense and say that cats weren’t on the menu during our weekend in Kruger. Elephants were the main course, with a smattering of charging buffalos and canoodling giraffes. While we did see one lioness, she was lying down in the grass a million miles away and that just doesn’t really count. Overall, it was a lovely weekend with fantastic animal action; despite the elusive kitties.

We are very lucky to have one of the most famous parks in the world just 3 hours from our door. On Saturday morning, we headed out of Mbabane about 9:00am and arrived at the Malelane Gate just after noon. Because Kruger is about the size of New Jersey, it can take quite a while once you are in the park to actually arrive at your accommodation location; therefore, we spent our afternoon game drive making our way to our camp. We had made a reservation at Pretoriuskop Rest Camp and also booked an evening game drive. This meant we had to be at camp by 4:45pm.

The roughly five hours in the car in the park were filled with the animals captured in the pictures below. It is kind of a funny thing when you first arrive in a game park because you get so excited at the sight of any animal in the beginning, and snap pictures of animals even if they are very, very far away. You’ll notice in some of my pictures that there are such animals way off in the distance and ultimately others just about in the car with us. Tis the beauty of the game park; you just don’t know what you’ll get.

Our first animal sighting; that dark thing in the center, just left of the big tree is an elephant. Like I said, in the beginning, you'll take a picture of anything!

Mud pan a la rhino

One of the reasons that this time of year is perfect for visiting Kruger is because it is winter transitioning to spring; therefore, the underbrush hasn't filled in and the leaves don't block your view of the animals. Here lies a wildebeest under a tree. Had the leaves been full, we probably would have missed him.

Another shot of the landscape this time of year. Plus a lonely zebra.

Another one of the things that makes Kruger exciting is the fact that there is the potential to see herds of animals or mixed groups of animals. Here are a bunch of zebra, impala and also a buzzard (random).

Buzzard's nest

Our bungalow was rustic, but completely comfortable and it served its purpose for <$30/night.

After settling in, we met the safari bus for our night game drive.

Sunset from the safari truck

And out of the side window. This is one of those shots that reminds you of the Earth's beauty. There's a big ol' world out there.

On our night drive we started with a few buffalo

Saw a baboon family organizing before bedtime

And a family of elephants grabbing dinner

They just kept getting closer and closer

On Sunday morning we awoke at 5:30am and were in line with the other vehicles just before 6:00am waiting for the Rest Camp to open its gates. We spent the next 6 hours driving through the park enroute back to the Malelane Gate where we exited to return to Swaziland.

Our game viewing started with four, large rhinos

Who were this close to the car

We saw a kudu with a bird on its back

And an ever majestic bald eagle

And then it was the elephant show. For the rest of the day. We saw one herd of 30+ elephants. This one was fighting with another; but, it was too difficult to time the camera to catch the head-butting.

Then, the angry elephant literally walked in front of our car and Doug and I held our breath

For as big as they are, it is sometimes difficult to see the elephants. They just kept coming and coming and coming. A train of them out of the woods and across the road!

Out she comes

And across she goes

And a few more

And another Mom and child

And a warthog joined the crossing for good measure

After the zillions of elephants, we carried on to a loop that was an off-shoot from the main road. On this loop, we encountered a group of buffalo. As suggested by the rangers on previous drives, we cut our engine and tried not to appear aggressive to the buffalo. But, as you can see, they packed themselves closer and closer together (to appear bigger and bigger) and carried on towards us until we had to turn the car on and throw it in reverse to avoid a charging pack of buffalo.

And last but not least as we made our way out of the park we saw a giraffe having some lunch.

We feel really lucky to be able to getaway to such a cool place, just because.

INSET Teambuilding Day

2010-09-20T09:32:00.007-02:00

My primary role as a consultant for the European Union is to ‘build capacity.’ This is currently a ‘buzz word’ in the developing world (and quite an abstract concept), so I have attempted to give it personal meaning. Within the context of my role in the In-Service Education and Training Department, I ‘build capacity’ by training the trainers – that’s my job. Every quarter, I host a 5-day residential workshop during which time I train the trainers on a variety of topics, concepts, and strategies. Most of the time, I allow the trainers to create the agenda for the week, but once in a while I politely request (read, ‘demand’) that a topic appear in the agenda. Last week, during my 3^rd Capacity Building Workshop, I organized a full day of ‘teambuilding’ for INSET with an adventure company called, Swazi Trails. The reason that I persisted in securing such a day is because last month our team of 10 lost 4 members when they were promoted to work as ‘inspectors’ of schools. As a team of 10, we were severely understaffed – considering there are 580 primary schools in Swaziland and our team of 10 was responsible for providing the ongoing training for all teachers, we were overwhelmed. Couple that with the devastation of losing (about) half of your colleagues, and we were a meager group of 6 demoralized folks. No kidding. But, at the same time that 4 were promoted, the Ministry miraculously approved postings for 13 new hires to our department. Our Director had been actively recruiting and swiftly carried out the interview and selection process so that in a short period of time we went from 10 down to 6 all the way up to 19! Not only were we no longer understaffed, but we also had an influx of new, positive energy that comes with new hires. Phew. So, to kick-off our first Capacity Building Workshop with our whole, new team we ventured to Swazi Trails for a day of teambuilding. It was truly a splendid day of getting to know our new teammates, strengthening old relationships, problem solving and communicating. The highlight for me was actually the laughter. There was lots of it.

Our Teams [by color – we won, I’m just sayin’]

Red: Mpendulo, Nkosinathi, Paisley, Ivy and Dortia

Yellow: Peter, Graham, Bheki and Bongiwe

Green: Jabulani, Charles, Mandla, Maria and Nomsa

Blue: Boy, Zodwa, Mary and Njabulo

Our facilitator, Darron

Warm-up activity: word scramble = the phrase, 'Anything I can do we can do better.'

‘Crossing the River’ required all teammates and materials to reach the other side without putting a foot down…There were multiple strategies to start, and the Yellow Team really tried to make it happen in one crossing and as a group

Making shapes out of rope while blindfolded

Memory Game

Crossing the Mine Field…Blindfolded!

Even lunch was a competition. Each team was given the same starting materials and was awarded points for ‘presentation’ since the objective for everyone was to make themselves a tasty meal.

Before

After

And the smiles…Jabulani (coincidentally, his name means, 'happy' in siSwati)

Conciliation Prize

2010-09-17T11:28:00.013-02:00

Over the long weekend of September 4-6, 2010 (Swaziland’s Independence Day), thirteen of us were supposed to go to the beach in Xai Xai, Mozambique. Since I was already in Maputo for the OSISA Colloquium, Doug and a group of our friends were going to collect me on the way to the beach after work on Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, earlier during the week, riots had erupted in Maputo due to the currency’s drop in value and the subsequent increase in the cost of food. Local police were having difficulty controlling the community riots; therefore, the military was brought in force to restore order to the capital city. Meanwhile, we were on lockdown in our hotel and the city was boarded up. Because my hotel was on the same street as the Presidential Palace, our street was heavily militarized and I was never in any danger. Additionally, military escorts were provided for transport to the airport. So, to make a long story short, I had to be evacuated and we had to cancel our trip to the beach in Mozambique. Drama.

Alas, we are a resourceful bunch and never a group to waste a 3-day weekend; therefore, we diverted our trip to South Africa and to the beach in St. Lucia. You might recall back in early May when Doug’s sister, Meridith and our good friend, Taryn came to visit. We borrowed a friend’s beach house in St. Lucia following our walking safari in Hluhluwe. Well, Antz saved the day again and loaned us his house. So, instead of everyone collecting me on Friday after work, I was evacuated from Maputo and flown to Johannesburg, SA. Doug took the day off of work and drove the 4 hours to collect me in Johannesburg. Then, we drove another 7 hours in an attempt to join our friend’s caravan enroute to St. Lucia. Unfortunately, there was construction on the two-lane road between Johannesburg and St. Lucia – yes, for like 500km there was construction! Needless to say, we didn’t make it in time to join our friends on Friday evening. It was dark, construction ridden, and we were really tired – so, we elected to stop in the fine (read, ‘dump’) town of Pongola, SA. Miraculously, we found the only non-dodgy accommodation at the Pongola Lodge (this is totally the type of situation that my Dad made me carry an ‘emergency’ credit card for growing up). We enjoyed a nice dinner, watched a couple of movies on the TV, and slept in after a stressful day of escaping riots and driving.

Pongola Lodge

At last, we joined our friends in St. Lucia at noon on Saturday. The beach was a bit windy; therefore, we opted for an afternoon of food/beer at the estuary, instead.

The gang

Erin (PAC Doctor) and Garrett (Clinton Foundation)

Keri (MoET/SpED) and Eric (new PAC Doctor)

I mean, this might be almost like a real pizza

The restaurant was situated next to the estuary, so we had a lovely view from lunch.

We also took a stroll down the boardwalk path alongside of the estuary and were surprised by a large pack of hippos!

We had been warned.

But, it is more common that the hippos are hanging out just below the surface of the water (like below) as opposed to napping on the beach!

There were crocs, too

So, we became very busy trying to see as much as we could see of these hippos. We walked around the backside of them and were reminded again of the danger.

Hippo tracks

We returned to the boardwalk and watched them wake-up, eat, drink, swim and best of all yawn! One hippo gets up

Has a bite to eat

A cool drink

And then goes for a quick dip

Then, 4 wake-up

Daddy yawns

Baby yawns

While the rest continue napping on each other

After a nice lunch and afternoon of hippo watching, we piled back into our Rav-4 caravan and returned to the house.

Saturday night on the town

Joe messing with the classy decorations

Great white shark (scary), Stephanie (PAC Doctor), Paisley and Laura (Clinton Foundation)

On Sunday we went back to the beach, but this time we went to the beach in Cape Vidal. Fortunately, nobody left any car windows open so there wasn't another poop/run incident with the monkeys

Cape Vidal is such a cool place because on the way to the beach there are tons of animals. So, it is like a game drive and beach outing rolled into one.

Pumba

Kudu in the road

Random rhino

We also stopped at Mission Rocks Beach to take see the views.

On the way out, we exited Cape Vidal at exactly sunset so there was lots of activity plus a beautiful sunset!

Rhino mom and baby hiding in the bush

Finally, on Monday morning, Doug rented surfboards with a few members of the group while I went deep sea fishing with our friend Garrett. A few things about deep sea fishing: 1) I’ve now done it and will probably never do it again, 2) Primarily because I am deathly seasick, 3) But also because it was a bit sad for the fish and I’ve come to learn that I really don’t like to see my food alive at any point in the process, and 4) Because I am deathly seasick.

Case in point

Munn, the manager of our friend’s rental property also runs deep sea fishing charters. So, we went fishing with him and his friend, Fran. Since there were only so many fishing poles, straws were drawn to determine the order in which we caught fish. I drew last place and since Munn and Fran were a bit disgruntled at having a woman on the boat as it was, Garrett let me take his place in the fishing queue. Ironically, this ended up meaning that I caught the biggest fish. Ha. Ha. Ha.

Crazy reels

Fran reeling in the first catch of the day. Look at the tip of the fishing pole dive into the water!

Ta Da (a snooker fish)

Garrett also caught a snooker fish

For the record, these have to be the WORST pictures ever taken of me. But, they clearly demonstrate the effort put forth to bring my enormous fish into the boat. So, I have included them. Reluctantly.

Fran moving in a bit closer to see what's going to be on the end of my line. Me, still grunting

Fran stepping up his support levels so that I don't get pulled out of the boat

Literally

Finally, a yellow fin king fish is my prize

All of our loot

OSISA Colloquium, Mozambique

2010-09-16T13:59:00.009-02:00

In addition to my work with the Ministry of Education in Swaziland, over the past 6 months I’ve also been under contract with the organization, Open Society Initiative Southern Africa (OSISA). OSISA is the foundation which spends George Soros’ fortunes (http://www.georgesoros.com/) with the purpose of promoting an open society. Mr. Soros is aging and looking to ‘leave his mark on the world’ (literally), therefore, he is exploring areas for ‘legacy’ funding. Primarily, in Southern Africa, he is looking to fund Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD). Most people think of ECCD as ‘preschool,’ however, ECCD actually comprises of six factors which contribute to the proper growth and development of children from 0-8 years of age. For example, the six factors include: healthcare, nutrition, shelter, protection, psycho-social support, and education. Therefore, preschool is one component, but there are also programs like immunizations, growth monitoring, PMTCT programs, orphan and vulnerable children services, maintaining the rights of the child, counseling, etc. that are imperative to the development of a child. My role with OSISA was to write a report about ECCD in Swaziland in order to highlight the funding opportunities for advocacy and program development. I conducted the research and co-wrote a report with a colleague working in ECCD in the north of the country, named Kathy. Then, all of the researchers from around the region met in Maputo, Mozambique to discuss the priorities in ECCD with government officials, civil society leaders, and even foundations.

Here are a few pictures from the week. You’ll notice the number of pictures from the hotel. I think that I’ve been living in a largely rural and underdeveloped country for too long, because I felt like I was at the Ritz…

The lobby

My room

When was the last time you saw one of these?

Nothing like a mirror in the shower to motivate you on the treadmill!

Speaking of treadmills; check out the gym (more treadmills than in the whole of Swaziland)

View from the treadmill

So fancy

Rooftop pool

Views of Maputo; it’s always nice to get a little dose of the ‘city’

Because the colloquium was held in Mozambique, and Mozambique is a Portuguese speaking country, we had to wear headsets to hear the translation of various presentations. I felt a little like I was in a United Nations meeting flicking channels on my headset in order to understand the language being spoken

Here are pictures of the Swazi contingency at the conference. We had both public and private sector representatives

My favorite researcher friend – Josie! She’s from Tanzania, but she wrote the report about Zambia because that’s where she is currently living with her husband and daughter.

In addition to the colloquium program, rural preschool providers in Mozambique set-up a few ‘booths’ outside of the conference room in order to share their work with participants. I was particularly taken by the creativity of the teachers in such a resource limited setting. Rural Mozambique is about as poor as it gets, yet, the teachers are finding a way to create meaningful experiences for children.

These are letter cards made from sandpaper that support children with letter identification while blindfolded. The child traces the letter with his/her finger and then tries to name it.

This is a variation of the ‘Go Fish’ game that you see in the States whereby the child uses a magnetic fishing pole in order to catch a plastic fish from a battery operated, rotating ocean. This is a painted shoe box, bent wire and beads! It supports the child in developing his/her motor skills, in concentration, perhaps with color identification, etc. Also, it’s a game – and young children develop through play. You’ll notice that one box has large beads and the other, small. This enables differentiated opportunities for children to practice this skill with success.

A creative solution for assisting a child in holding the pencil correctly

Matchboxes and beans for understanding number sense

A tactile game including different textures of material; good for vocabulary development

A matching game

My favorite – a critical thinking activity for young children! There are cardboard models including various patterns and then painted, wooden squares which are used to replicate the picture on the model.

And finally, a group shot; key stakeholders in promoting ECCD in Southern Africa…

Dr. Doug in the News...

2010-09-16T13:55:00.003-02:00

The Times of Swaziland
http://www.times.co.sz/index.php?news=20752

The Swazi Observer

http://www.observer.org.sz/index.php?news=16164

USA – USA – USA (Chanting)

2010-08-18T07:48:00.018-02:00

[An appropriate 'theme' for our trip to the States]

Doug and I recently returned to the States for a visit. We had not planned to return until October, when Doug is scheduled to take his Pediatric Boards, so we frequently referred to this trip as our ‘bonus trip.’ It had been over a year since we were on U.S. soil, and while there was some ‘culture shock,’ let’s be real; we lived in the U.S. for 31 years and have only lived in Swaziland for one. It’s hard to forget what those 31 years were like, so the shock was short-lived. Happiness quickly took its place as the primary sentiment. I was a bit surprised how happy I was to be back, to be honest. I love living in Swaziland and have had nothing but a positive adventure, but I guess it just goes to show that home is home and that your family and friends are where it’s at. AND, this is coming from the girl who technically visited Doug’s family and friends; but, really, after 7 years of hanging around I’d like to think they are my family/friends now, too.

Our trip started with a bit of travel drama; which is probably to be expected when attempting to fly to the opposite side of the world. We made it from Johannesburg to London and then to Boston without a hitch, but our flight from Boston to Bar Harbor was cancelled due to weather. The unfortunate part of this was that it wasn’t cancelled for 5 hours, so we didn’t end up making alternative travel plans until about 8:00pm. And, after 36 hours of travel, 8:00pm was not an ideal time to rent a car and to drive 5 hours. Fortunately, there were a couple of other people eager to rent a car and to make the drive to Bar Harbor that night, so we joined forces with Terry (lawyer from New York who was trying to join his family for vacation), Judy (from England, trying to join her husband in Bar Harbor whom she hadn’t seen since May), and Charlie (17 month old who goes wherever Judy goes) and rented a Toyota Camry with a car seat! Needless to say, Judy couldn’t drive on the right side of the road and Doug and I had been up for nearly 2 days, so we shared the cost of the rental in exchange for Terry to be our chauffeur! Thankfully, we made it safe and sound at 3:05am. Ugh. The silver lining was that the hotel had given away our room and therefore upgraded us to an ‘oceanfront suite.’ Rough. And, did I mention that Judy’s husband was the captain of the yacht that was docked at our hotel?

Terry (our good Samaritan chauffeur)

Doug and Charlie at Hertz

The yacht

Friday morning we woke-up bright and early (for some unknown reason) and went hiking in Acadia National Park after breakfast. The hotel, the town, the park, the ocean – everything – was really beautiful.

Bar Harbor Regency Hotel

Stone House (where our suite was located and both the rehearsal dinner and brunch were hosted)

Pool House

The weather was perfect, too, as it wasn’t hot/sticky due to the northern location. Neal, Berke, Liza, Matty, Kristin, Doug and I hiked to the top of Dorr Mountain. It was really fun to catch-up with everyone and to get some exercise after so many hours being cooped up in transit.

Acadia National Park visitor's center

Happy hikers

It was like nature's stairmaster

Taking a photo break

The final stretch was pretty steep on the open rock face

Doug, Berke and I at the top

View of the Porcupine Islands

The highlight of the outing though, for me, was the lobster roll I had at the roadside restaurant. Heaven on a hotdog bun.

Lobster goodness

Friday night was the rehearsal dinner at The Stone House, which was on the property of the Bar Harbor Regency Hotel, where we were all staying. It was a lobster feast and once again, I was in heaven. The boys gave an entertaining speech in the form of the game, ‘I Never’ and roasted Katzen (mostly) and Lisa as a way of showing their love for the happy couple.

Some shots from the rehearsal dinner

Rainbow, sailboat and rays of sun

Morgan, Neal, Katzen, Preston, Liza, Taylor and Chris

Martin and Krystal (engaged to be married in October on Captiva Island, FL)

Bride and groom

The infamous 'Bethesda Cult' (minus Preston)

Bibs

The roast

Saying something heartfelt

On Saturday, we rented bicycles and went biking on the old, carriage trails surrounding Bar Harbor. It was another beautiful day and Doug and I even survived riding a tandem.

Doug, Kristin, Neal, Berke and Matty

Gorgeous lake

Saturday night was the wedding and reception at the Bar Harbor Club. It was a beautiful evening for an outdoor wedding and with great food, company and dancing the night was really fun. The only two little incidents included a pint of beer getting knocked off the bar and onto my dress and a certain walk home that ended with my foot being shut in the car door. Okay, that’s a lie, but it might as well have been at that point.

Bar Harbor Club

Chuppa

Rabbi and the Minister

Groomsmen

Flower girls

Bride (Lisa) and her father coming down the aisle

Vows

Cocktail hour

Reception

On Sunday, most folks flew home to return to work, but since Doug and I were on vacation, we stayed an extra day in Bar Harbor and had the bride/groom all to ourselves! There was a lot of napping off hangovers by the pool, but eventually we rallied and went on a sunset sea kayaking tour around the Porcupine Islands. One of the unique things about Bar Harbor is how extreme the tide changes. Within a matter of a few hours, the tide rises/falls between 6-8 feet. So, when we started the kayaking trip, this is what the beach looked like (below) and when we finished, it was completely covered by the ocean.

The Newlyweds and the Blanks go kayaking!

I'm so bossy...

Beach, pre-tide rolling in

On the open water

Katzen and Lisa

Our group at sunset

On Monday, Doug and I rented a car and drove to Boston to visit with one of my nearest/dearest friends, Adam and his wife Cheryl. Since we were flying through Boston to D.C. we simply pushed our flight back by one day so that we could spend one night with them and catch-up in person. Adam and Cheryl have two beautiful children, Sophia and Garrett. Sophia was a little shy to start, but by about 20 minutes in she was showing us her corvette, changing into her tutu, and inviting us up to see her room. After an awesome Mexican dinner we called it a night.

Garrett

Tutu-clad and in the kitchen

Family photo (sans Garrett)

Tuesday morning Doug and I flew to Washington, D.C. to spend the remainder of the week and our vacation with his family. We stayed with his Dad, Howard, and also visited with his Mom (Leta) and his sister (Kara) and her family. Kara loaned us her three girls for the day on Wednesday, so Doug , Howard and I took the girls to the pool, the park, 7 Eleven and back to the pool. With a lunch break, 30 minutes of the video, ‘Annie,’ and baths before dinner it was a crazy day. Kara’s girls are Ava, 4 and Hannah, 5 and her fiancé, Marco’s daughter is Anika, 6 so we were run ragged by three little girls. I’m still singing the rhymes they repeated ALL day long. Leta joined us at the pool in the afternoon and stayed on for dinner, so it was a true Blank Family day.

Ava, Anika and Hannah

Ava

The girls named Uncle Doug the 'sea monster'

Hannah

Uncle Doug and his nieces

At the park

At the end of the night, the girls put on a 'performance' and Marco provided the music while Howard served as the audience

The performance...

On Thursday we spent the majority of the day with Leta, including a euphoric trip to Target and a delicious sushi lunch. Shamefully, two of the things I miss most in Swaziland.

On Friday morning we squeezed in brunch with Doug’s Aunt Phyllis before heading to the airport. And, in between all of these visits, we managed to run in some of our favorite D.C. places like the Cabin John Trail and the Canal Walk. We got into such a rhythm with family, friends and favorite dining and running spots that Doug actually said that he wants to move back to D.C. someday. That’s when I knew that it was time to fly home. Doug, contemplating living without the surf for good??? Nuts-o. P.S. Nic, you guys need to get your tushies to SoCal in the next four years or I’m guessing that we’ll be headed to the east coast. Double nuts-o.

The Sibebe Survivor

2010-08-03T13:01:00.008-02:00

On Sunday morning the local Rotary Club hosted their annual fundraising event called, Sibebe Survivor. While I know that we have climbed Sibebe multiple times (for free), we wanted to support the event and enjoyed the unique opportunity to hike ‘in mass.’ One of the greatest parts of the event was that Swazis participated in addition to the expatriate community. Many companies pay for a ‘team entry’ and sponsor their employees to participate in the hike; therefore, there was a lot of team spirit, as well. P.S. I keep saying ‘hiking event/hike/etc.’ because it was not a race.

Doug, Stephanie and I drove down into Pine Valley for the start of the hike at 8:00am.

While there was a clear 'starting line,' due to the fact that it wasn't a race, most people started walking whenever they arrived

The beginning of the trail winds through a couple of homesteads

And it never gets old to see a random cow or two

Most of my pictures from the day include the long line of hikers because I was fascinated with the fact that so many people came out for the event. Last summer when we ran the breast cancer 10K there were only a handful of people, so I was pleasantly surprised by the turnout. Here's the view ahead of us

And behind us

Since we've been in Swaziland for a full year and we now know so many people in the community, we saw many of our friends and acquaintances along the way. Here's Todd and his son Jacob (who had just seen Star Wars [the original] for the first time and found a friend in Doug who knows everything about the movie [even years later]).

Once we reached the top, we headed across the meadow (aptly nicknamed, 'The Shire')

Doug and Stephanie hiking across The Shire

And finally at the turnaround point

From this picture you can see those still hiking behind us and those in front of us on the later half of the loop

As mentioned, there are numerous corporate teams; some of which dress in costume. I'm not sure what company this was, but there was a whole crew in 'lederhosen'

The Royal Sugar Company had the best kit with safari hats and all

On the way down the mountain

The finish line

The (long) walk back to our car and another random cow

Last, but not least, a couple of AIDS advertisements...always nice to see people willing to talk about the disease

The Royal Swazi

2010-07-30T12:56:00.005-02:00

On Tuesday, Jason and I took another lap around the links. This marked the third time we’ve taken our part-time employed selves out for a round of golf. And honestly, every time, we walk away saying that ‘we should do this more often!’ It is just that enjoyable. So, let the record show, for all of the tantrums I threw and for all of the whining that may or may not have taken place on the practice tee/putting green when I was little; thank you Mom and Dad. I am very happy that I learned to play this seemingly frustrating game VERY early in life because now I can enjoy it. As a kid, it was really the ‘being quiet and well behaved’ part that was slightly inconvenient. Golf etiquette is serious and not something that I really wanted to deal with as a kid. I mean, why can’t you run on a green? It is so nice and trim and just begging to be torn across. These were the thoughts that I remember having as a say, ten year old dragging my 6 clubs around 3 holes because that’s about as far as I ever made it. Alas, now I am an adult and seeking out this sport in Swaziland.

The first couple of times that we played, we played the municipal course in town. But, since we felt that we had graduated to the big times, we drove into the Ezulwini Valley and tee’d-off on the Royal Swazi. Lucky for us, it was a weekday morning and there wasn’t a lot of competition.

Not too much else to report – other than the Diet Cokes in the halfway house were ZAR17. They are usually ZAR 6 at a gas station or in the store, so this was quite a ‘Royal’ mark-up. And, we lost 2 balls on the FIRST hole (I blame the leaves on the ground). And, we might’ve had a ‘snowman’ or two…I can’t remember, exactly. But, the views were amazing and it was just another great day in Swaziland.

The Secret Spot

2010-07-30T09:47:00.009-02:00

Since our arrival in Swaziland (as crazy as this may sound), Doug and I have only gone on ONE vacation by ourselves. ONE. And, if you’ve been following the blog at all, you know that we’ve been on a million vacations and weekend getaways. The fact is, we have an awesome community of expatriates and we all like to travel. So, one way or another, it always goes from being a vacation for 2, to a vacation for say, 8 to 10 to 25. True story. Last September when we went to Ponta D’Oura in Mozambique there were 25 of us. Nuts. I know. So, last weekend, Doug and I took Friday off from work and skipped out of town on Thursday (since it was a national holiday in celebration of the previous King’s Birthday) and drove down the coast of South Africa to a place called, ‘The Secret Spot.’ I’ll let the secret out of the bag, now and tell you that it is 60km north of Durban on what is referred to as the ‘North Coast.’ Specifically, we were staying in ‘Shaka’s Rock,’ but like I said, Durban was just a few more exits down the highway. As anyone who has ever met Doug knows, he loves to surf (and even that might be an understatement). Considering we live around the corner from some of the world’s most famous surf spots from Richard’s Bay to Jeffrey’s Bay, etc. Doug and I decided to make our second vacation together a surf trip. You should probably read ‘surf trip’ and think ‘beach trip’ because one of us was surfing and one of us was on the beach reading, crocheting, napping – you know, generally working pretty hard to pass a lazy day in the sun. Rough.

We arrived just after 1:00pm on Thursday afternoon and the winds were pretty strong and blowing in the wrong direction (onshore = bad), so we checked into our little cabin at The Secret Spot Backpackers. Doug sorted out a board rental and spoke to the Spot’s surf instructor about good, local breaks for the morning. That night we ventured into the neighboring town of Ballito for dinner and had sushi (of course). It is safe to say that I love sushi as much as Doug loves surfing, so we were both pretty happy about our little weekend getaway at that point…

On Friday morning we got up early to catch a morning surf session before the tides changed and made the waves less favorable. We were out the door by 8:00am and headed to the first recommended break called, Salt Rock. After parking and checking out the waves, Doug went over to talk to the lifeguards before unloading his kit. Now, before I share what came next, let me just tell you that Doug has this reoccurring ‘nightmare’ in which he is trying to go surfing and keeps getting held up by errands (like, before he can go surfing he has to go to the grocery store – or to the dry cleaners – or worse yet, to BOTH). Like I said, ‘nightmare.’ With this in mind, you’ll now be able to feel some compassion for Doug as the lifeguards explained to him that the beaches were CLOSED all the way from ‘South Coast’ to Richard's Bay because the sardines were migrating and the shark nets had to be lifted.

Let’s just think about that for a moment. Beaches. Closed. All of them. For 100km in either direction. Sharks. No nets. Sardines. Sardines. Sardines.

It was a sad moment in the life of Douglas Blank, for sure. Alas, we decided to check out a couple of other breaks to see if anyone else was out (because it’s not like the lifeguards know anything, anyways), but nobody was. Deflated, we ventured back to the backpackers in order to make a new plan. I mean, the point was a ‘surf trip’ and there was seemingly not going to be any surfing. We got on-line and talked to a few other guests at the backpackers, including the owner, and the general recommendation was that the beaches were closed as a precaution because the sardines were in South Coast and we were just up the way in North Coast. After some pretty feverish but fruitless hunting for breaks further up the coast, we decided that we’d stay and simply try to go scuba diving to see the phenomenon of the ‘sardine run,’ instead. You know, to make lemonade out of our little lemons we’d just been handed. We made arrangements to get on a dive boat on Sunday morning and after a quick lunch decided to head out to the beach for the rest of the day.

I’m not going to lie; Doug did bring a surfboard, ‘just in case.’ Who can blame him? We’ve lived in a landlocked country for exactly 12 months and the boy is used to being in the ocean 2, 3, 4 times per week. I also know that some of you reading this are like, are you crazy? Sharks. No nets. Sardines. Sardines. Sardines. But, I assure you, after talking to lots of other surfers and locals, it seemingly was really just a precaution. So, off we went to Salmon Bay and off Doug went to ride a few waves. The only condition was that there had to be other surfers in the water, too, because this would decrease his chances of being the one eaten by a shark. Because that makes sense. Okay, I’ll stop.

Long story short, Doug ended up getting in 3 excellent sessions at Salmon Bay over the course of the rest of the weekend, and fortunately, no sharks visited us in North Coast (at least, as far as we know). It was touch and go there for a bit on Friday morning, but we rebounded and had a great time at the beach, watching movies and eating sushi – just the two of us. And on Sunday, when some weather rolled in and our dive trip was cancelled, we just hopped in the car and headed back for Swaziland all the while discussing whether we should come back again next weekend in order to try to dive with the sardines…I told Doug that we could only come back if we went to the grocery store and the dry cleaners, first.

Main entrance to the backpackers

Back patio

Shared kitchen

Pool

Our cabin

Bedroom

Zoe. She followed us everywhere! There were 5 assorted dogs on the property, but Zoe took a liking to us...

Please don't leave...

The couple who own the backpackers have three children - all grown. One of them, Tammy, has been cleaning-up on the girl's surf circuit in South Africa. For example, she's won every 'under 12, under 16, under 20, etc.' tournament ever. Here's her car...that's her on the side, a la the local Mazda dealership.

Driving to Salt Rock and our first sight of the ocean

Ballito

First surf session, Salmon Bay

Doug says that he was timing the set of waves to wait for the optimal time to paddle out, but I think he was contemplating his mortality...

Paddling out

Waiting for a good set

Paddle, paddle, paddle. Almost.

Surfing, at last. You can almost hear his sigh of relief...

Sodwana Bay, South Africa

2010-07-12T09:43:00.012-02:00

Thirteen of us escaped the frigid Mbabane winter this past weekend and dashed for the beach in Sodwana Bay, South Africa. It was a much needed respite from the cold and with such good company, scuba diving, and the final World Cup matches it was a great weekend. We all caravanned after work on Friday evening and arrived at Mseni Lodge just after 9:00pm. They were kind enough to keep the kitchen open for us, so we had a nice group dinner without having to do any work.

Due to our large numbers, we had two houses. Doug and I stayed with Stephanie, Michelle and Jenny in the 5-person house. The house was a two bedroom, but in order to squeeze another person in, they had positioned a single bed in the 'foyer' as you entered the front door and across from the bathroom. From the bed, one could open the fridge; however, you couldn't close the door. If it was a bedroom, it was a stretch. Jenny was gracious enough to claim this spot as her own.

Doug and I stayed in the double room

And here are a couple of more shots of the place, including the kitchen and bathroom

On Saturday morning, we had to be at the beach by 8:00am in order to prepare for our scuba diving adventures.

Sunrise from the balcony

We went diving in Sodwana Bay last December, but since the reef (named ‘2 Mile’) has multiple sites and is obviously 2 miles long, it takes a couple of trips to conquer the reef. We had enough divers to fill a boat, so it was really fun to be able to dive with all of our friends.

Erin (PAC Doctor), Tini (Economist), Jenny (Economist) and Stephanie (PAC Doctor)

'Kitting-up' as they say...or...getting ready (Erin, Garrett - Clinton Foundation, Tao - Computronics)

Getting into the wetsuit is the hardest part

Nick (Technoserve)

I'm sure I'm making some type of point, here...or just telling Doug what to do...

All ready (except Garrett, as he doesn't dive)

Dive boats

Loading the tractor to load the dive boats

Launching the boat

The diving was awesome over the course of the weekend. We saw a rare, leatherback turtle, an octopus, eel, swimming devil rays, and zillions of fish

After our Saturday morning dives, Doug, Shaun and Garrett rented surfboards. Doug surfed while Shaun and Garrett took a surf lesson

Shaun and Garrett posing as surfer dudes

Waiting for waves

Doug, riding the whitewater in

Getting out of the water

Posing with Little Lemmy. Doug is happiest when his car looks like this...

Garrett, waving his 'Big 5' towel - that cost $30 at the local super market. Ouch.

How an afternoon after the beach should be spent...reading and napping...

After another morning dive and surf session on Sunday, it was time to load up the cars and to make our way back to Swaziland in time for the World Cup Finals. Monkeys are very mischievous in Sodwana and Shaun accidentally left the rear, car door window open...which meant a little mischief for Lemmy. Here's the scene of the crime...

And the monkey running to the front seat upon my arrival at the back window

Returning to the backseat

Finally settled and wondering what I'm going to do with him

The little treat he left behind after eating all of our snacks and playing inside of our car. GROSS.

Another great road trip and beach weekend!

Hiking in Malalotja

2010-07-12T08:23:00.008-02:00

Last Sunday, Doug and I went hiking in Malalotja Nature Reserve with our friend, Shaun. Shaun is a writer and he’s on a Fulbright Scholarship in Swaziland for 10 months. He’s writing a novel and working with a non-profit organization called, Young Heroes (which Doug also works closely with to support HIV positive teens). Shaun is one of the world’s ‘good people’ and also seriously funny which made him an excellent hiking companion. It was a perfect day for a hike as it was sunny and cool. We left Mbabane pretty early in the morning because the days are very short and we weren’t exactly sure how far Little Lemmy could progress down the ‘service road’ once inside the park and therefore, how long our actual hike would be. After registering as day visitors in the park, we navigated our way toward an old mine where we left our car and picked-up the trail. All of this took a little longer than expected, so we decided from the onset of our hike that we’d only hike 3 hours out before turning back as to avoid hiking/driving once the sun went down. Since our original goal was to climb a mountain and the revised timing might not permit this, we opted to climb a different, closer mountain. This provided the 360 degree view we were seeking, but also guaranteed that we wouldn’t flirt with darkness in pursuit of a summit.

The 'service road' probably hadn't been used in a while and was a tad bit overgrown

Lemmy's parking spot

Big dork, 'er I mean Shaun, getting ready for the hike

We decided to do a loop and to walk 'out' in the valley and 'back' on the ridge

Valley (and cloud shadows)

Ridge

Malalotja is a large reserve and I always feel like I am discovering new territory when hiking there because it is possible to go without seeing another soul (even on a 5 hour hike). There are layers and layers of mountains that are truly stunning

We passed a waterfall

It was at this point that we decided to summit a different mountain. So, we made a sharp, right turn and went up, up, up, up, up (through really long grass)

When we got to the saddle of the mountain, Doug decided that he wanted to also climb the peak to the left so that he could see what was on the other side (one of his favorite things). I had had my fill of up, up, up and since we still had a stretch to go before completing the climb of our intended mountain, I took a nap in the long grass while Doug and Shaun ran up the neighboring mountain. They are the two little people in the middle of the photo

And finally, we were all at the top. Shaun celebrated. Doug checked his map (another one of his favorite things)

View from the top

It's difficult to capture the vastness of Malalotja, but I always insist on trying...We literally never saw a single person!

A little exercise, a lot of fresh air, some good company, and candy at the end of it all. It was a good day.

Homestead Hideaway

2010-07-08T13:20:00.006-02:00

Living as an expatriate in Swaziland is very different from how the majority of the population lives. I recently co-wrote a report on Early Childhood Care and Development in Swaziland and through my research read numerous reports, case studies, and surveys; therefore, I have a few facts to back-up my opening statement. For example, while we enjoy every western amenity, according to the United Nations Human Development Report (2010), 81% of the population in Swaziland lives on less than $2/day. And in terms of the basics like food/water/shelter: 64% of the population has access to drinking water from a potable source, 57% have access to non-shared sanitation facilities and 29.7% have household electricity. With 75% of the population living rurally, the everyday experience of the average Swazi is one of struggle. In order to better understand how traditionally Swazis live, we accepted an invitation to stay with our friends, Jay and Hilary, on their homestead. Jay and Hilary have been previously introduced in our blog, but as a reminder, they are currently finishing their 2 years as Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV). As PCVs, they live with a Swazi family on a rural homestead. The ‘man of the homestead’ has since passed, but his wives still reside there, as do their helpers. Polygyny is still common on the continent and 18% men in Swaziland have more than one wife. However, it is rare that the wives remain on the same homestead after the death of their husband, so Jay and Hilary’s Swazi family are progressive in this way. Because Jay and Hilary live near Hlathikulu, we spent the night with them on the same day that the Hlathikulu Teen Club opened. It was a really nice weekend…

Jay and Hilary’s homestead (rather, the Simelane’s homestead) is a little over an hour down a dirt road. A bumpy dirt road

Here are a few pictures of the view from the car – this is what the vast majority of Swaziland looks like: rolling plains, beautiful mountains and a few homesteads sprinkled here and there

The Simelane children are very successful and support their mothers generously; therefore, the homestead has cement buildings as opposed to ‘mud and stick’ buildings like many others.'Homesteads' are a collection of buildings where extended families live together. While the children have grown and moved to a more urban area, they still have a house on their homestead – hence all of the buildings

There is also a private water tap and rainwater collection tank

Jay and Hilary live in one of the buildings on the homestead and have endearingly named it, ‘The Hut.’ This is their kitchen

The shelf

The shower

Hilary giving me a tutorial on how to go about washing my face

And of course, the ‘Silver Bullet’ (their aptly named pit latrine). See what I mean about being spoiled? We have not one, but TWO flushing toilets in our place. I’m not sure that I’ve got it in me to use a pit latrine for 2 years…

I also took a couple of pictures inside the kitchen of one of the mother’s homes to give you an idea of the ‘old school’ nature of rural Swaziland. And, to have a stove is a luxury – most cook over an open fire in a cast iron, three legged pot.

On Sunday morning we woke up and went for a hike up the mountain behind their place.

And played with Mphamahle, who could have passed for one of Santa’s little helpers…

And last, but not least, the chickens. I’ll take this opportunity to dispel any myths about roosters crowing at the break of dawn. That’s a lie. A big, fat lie. The chickens and roosters began crowing just after midnight and DID NOT STOP until dawn. During the day = silent. Middle of the night = party. I promise. I am guessing it is like living in a big city – eventually, you get used to the noise. Let me tell you, these birds were noisy.

After thanking our gracious hosts, we returned down the dirt road and made our way back to Mbabane. Where I took a hot shower and was thankful for it…

Hlathikulu Teen Club

2010-07-06T13:51:00.007-02:00

As I’m sure most of you know who regularly follow our blog, Doug’s primary ‘project’ outside of his clinical responsibilities at Baylor is developing Teen Club. Doug has jumped in feet first with this project and following the lead of Baylor’s Teen Club in Botswana worked to secure funding and human resources in order to expand support to HIV positive teens in Swaziland. As an amateur grant writer, Doug has had a lot of success (who can say no to helping HIV positive teens?!) and has received grants to hire two, third year Peace Corps volunteers to work as Teen Club Program Coordinators. The development of these roles was necessary because Doug had recently also received funding to expand Teen Club to every region of the country and needed additional manpower to do so. Previously, there was only one Teen Club in Mbabane for all of the positive teens in Swaziland. This meant that teens traveled from every corner of the country one Saturday a month in order to participate. Now, I am happy to report that there are THREE Teen Clubs and a fourth coming soon in September (Doug’s long term goal is to have 8 in operation by 2012). Which brings me to the purpose of this blog post (besides cheering on my husband); the opening of the Hlathikulu Teen Club!!!

On Saturday, June 26 Doug and the Teen Club Team opened a third Teen Club in the southeastern region of Swaziland. There is a satellite Baylor Clinic in Hlathi and the doctor there had been actively inviting teens to attend the new Teen Club when they came in for their regular appointments. Additionally, Michelle was also inviting teens from her outreach site in a neighboring community. The hope was to recruit 50 teens by word of mouth to attend and to establish the foundation for the new Teen Club. I am happy to report that 99 teens registered on opening day! Ninety-nine! Fortunately, Jacqui, Kim and the Swazi volunteers had a beautifully organized program for the day and were able to accommodate the unexpected additions with ease. Doubly fortunately, I had visited the ATM that morning because the opening day budget was short E1400 when all was said and done including lunch and transport! Because public transportation is so expensive in Swaziland, the teens are reimbursed for the full cost of their transport upon their departure.

As usual, this story is best told in pictures…

Doug, Jacqui and Kim (Peace Corps Alumni/Teen Club Program Coordinators) standing next to the ‘Welcome’ sign one of the Swazi volunteers designed

The satellite Baylor Clinic is on the Hlathikulu hospital grounds (Little Lemmy joined in on the fun, too)

Baylor Clinic – Hlathikulu

Set-up

One important goal in operating Teen Clubs is to have Swazi volunteers actively involved. The objective is for Doug and the coordinators to take care of behind the scenes tasks and to have Swazis as the spokespeople. This is for a couple of reasons, but most importantly so that the Teen Clubs can continue to thrive when Doug and the coordinators return to the States. The point person for Hlathi is Mduduzi and he is a Swazi social worker who is working for Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF)(or ‘Doctors without Borders’). There are also a number of Swazi nurses, expert clients and other people interested in supporting the teens who participate each month.

Swazi Volunteers

Teens making their name tags

While the team was running the ‘front of the house’ operations, I was in the kitchenette trying to sort out lunch. Since we had only expected 50 teens and only purchased enough bread/fillings to make 70 sandwiches, we had to make an emergency run to the local market. While I made the first 50 bologna or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I had to bring in reinforcements for round two. Noxolo and Tenele were (thankfully) very eager to be of assistance. By the time lunch rolled around, the three of us had made and wrapped 120 sandwiches with two cookies and an apple per person.

Michelle and Stephanie are Baylor doctors who work at the satellite clinic or neighboring outreach clinic and made the trek south to welcome their patients to the new Teen Club.

Playing games

Working in small groups to determine the rules for the new Teen Club

Through the hard work of many, there is now a Teen Club in operation 3 Saturdays a month in 3 different regions of the country. Positive teens are coming together in a stigma free environment to learn and most importantly to have fun; because at the end of the day they’re just kids trying to cope with a grown-up disease.

The World Cup | Part II (Bonus Match)

2010-06-24T10:06:00.003-02:00

Yesterday morning, I was waiting for Doug to finish getting ready for work so that I could drive him (as I do) and then start my day. I checked my e-mail while I was waiting and saw that my friend Michelle was planning to play hooky from work and to go to Pretoria to watch the USA vs. Algeria game. So, at 7:13am I texted her to see if I could come, too. Fortunately for me, I only work part-time and wasn't scheduled to work Wednesday of this week. Perfect! Since Michelle had extra space in her car I went along with the intention of simply scapling a ticket once we were at the game. Our party also included Maya (US/Clinton Foundation) and Bryan (US/farm owner).

Michelle and Maya actually had a meeting planned that day as they are preparing to present at an AIDS conference in Vienna in July, so I drove the 4 hours to Pretoria while they conducted their meeting in the back seat! Pretty efficient, actually. And minimized the 'hooky' guilt.

Once we arrived in Pretoria, I prepared myself for finding a ticket with a professional, cardboard sign (isn't this how everyone else does it?)

On the way out of the 'park and ride' we met a couple of Algerian fans who wanted to take a photo with us; so, we obliged.

Walking toward the stadium the horse patrol were out in full force

And as expected, so were the American fans

These guys were some of my favorites in their backward spandex luge suits, or something...

Since Michelle and Maya had tickets together, Bryan and I scalped two seats and sat together. Our seats were my best yet - and for half price! We were 30 rows up from the field in the lower level between midfield and the goal.

We drank a lot of Budweiser

And then in the 90+ minute when we scored the winning goal, some of it got dumped on my head!

But, we took our win and our Budweisers and made friends with everyone. The guy on our left was from Long Beach!

And the girl on our right was dressed as the goalie. Apparently, I was dressed as a drunk girl in an American flag.

Bryan and I persevered and kept cheering even after the stadium cleared out. We were die-hards. Okay fine, we were just drunk.

But whatever...the USA WON and ADVANCED! Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!

Hopefully, there will be more surprise World Cup adventures to come. I'll keep you posted.

The World Cup | Part I

2010-06-24T08:40:00.017-02:00

I know that many of you have been eagerly awaiting this blog entry about the World Cup (because you’ve been e-mailing me and asking when it will be posted!). And, I know that my work stuff is not as exciting, but since I like to post chronologically you just had to wait. But, wait no more.

Last Thursday, June 17^th Doug, Stephanie (PAC Doctor), Jenny (UK/Economist) and I left Mbabane at 6:00am enroute to Johannesburg for the beginning of our World Cup festivities! We had been looking forward to the opportunity that living in Swaziland afforded and to attending some of the matches - LIVE! Back in January, I entered the FIFA lottery for tickets and received 4 seats to ‘Match 22.’ We’d later find out that that would be Argentina vs. Korea. This match was made a little more exciting by the fact that both Argentina and Korea had won their first games and secondly by the fact that Argentina is a frontrunner to win the World Cup, this year. Then again in Februrary, I entered another lottery for tickets to the USA vs. Slovenia game on Friday, June 18^th. I also received 4 tickets for this match. So, that was the gameplan – leave Thursday in time to see Argentina vs. Korea – stay over for Friday’s match between USA and Slovenia and then head back to Mbabane on Saturday. It was a lot of fun to be caught up in World Cup fever!

Driving into the city on Thursday I had the opportunity to take a couple of shots of the skyline because we were STOPPED in the middle of the highway. Apparently, the khombie (public mini-bus) in front of us wouldn't let the guy in front of him get over to exit the highway. So, the guy who couldn't get over literally stopped his car in the middle of the highway (totally not dangerous at all) and GOT OUT and tried to fight the khombie driver. He actually tried to pull the khombie driver from his car. Yes folks, road rage at its finest. Scary.

Once we were moving again, we proceeded to the 'park and walk' lot near the stadium. I took a picture because it seemed funny to be parking in a dirt lot at a 90,000 person stadium. Guess they ran out of money when it came time to pave the parking lot?

You could also take the metro. Who knew? Not us...hence the 'park and walk.'

On the way into the stadium Doug decided that he'd officially be rooting for Argentina. One of his favorite PAC Doctors is from Argentina so he decided that he'd support Francisco's team in his absence. So, Doug bought a flag.

Full view of Soccer City Stadium, Johannesburg (future site of the World Cup FINALS match)

This was the walkway leading up to the stadium. It was neat to see all of the different people from all over the world.

I'm not exactly sure what this nuclear reactor shaped thing is, but I thought it was funny that even it got a new FIFA outfit for the World Cup

Outside of the stadium

Just before heading into the stadium, we met one of the PAC doctors from Botswana, Andreas, and his friend for a ticket exchange as he was buying some of Steph's excess tickets for other matches (from left to right it goes Jenny, Steph, Andreas, Andreas' friend, and finally Doug).

Once inside we discovered that our seats were on the 'shady' side of the stadium. And really high up! It was okay, though, because our seats got better and better with each match and warmer and warmer, as well!

Happy Doug with his Argentinian flag

Cold Doug without his Argentinian flag

Paisley, sporting her FIFA paraphernalia and Erin's sunglasses

So happy to be at our first game!

Introductions and national anthems

During the national anthem, Korean fans spread an enormous flag over an entire section of the stands. It was really neat.

Since there were 20 of us, but only blocks of 4 seats all around the stadium, we sat in groups of 4. We sat with Jason and Fiona (PAC Doctor) and their friend Eugene (who was visiting from Hong Kong).

After the game, Doug and Fiona battled it out in a fierce game of coke bottle dumpster soccer!

And I took pictures of the empty stadium

And the lingering Argentinian fans. They won 4-1 and had lots to cheer about!

After the game we dropped Jenny off at her friend's house and then Steph, Doug and I went to a restaurant called Moyo to meet another group of friends for dinner and to watch the Mexico vs. France game. When we arrived, we were the first ones there, but our table was really far back (as you can see by how far away the screen was). So, we asked our waiter if we could 'move tables' so that we'd be closer and he literally thought that we meant 'move our table' so next thing we knew, we were in the front row!

Our table being moved to the front row

On Friday morning we left our frisbee friend's house (we were crashing at Dylan/Tina's place b/c accommodations were 1) insanely expensive, 2) unavailable for fewer than 3 nights, and 3) insanely expensive) at 9:00am to pick-up Jenny. We had to collect her tickets from the FIFA Office and our parking tickets, as well. The plan for the day was to run a couple of errands and then to have sushi for brunch (gotta get it when you can!) while we waited fro the rest of our friends to arrive at 12:30pm. Well...let's just say they were the best laid plans...that didn't get followed. To make a long story short, our friends were late, we ate lunch at a gas station and unintentionally drove circles around some of the shadiest parts of Johannesburg. Alas.

I decided to take a picture of this street corner because we passed it a gazillion times!

Here's a picture of an intersection to give you an idea of the driving madness that was the pregame situation.

We finally made our way to the 'park and walk' and united with all of our Swazi friends to go see the USA vs. Slovenia. We were proudly American and the atmosphere was awesome.

Our friend, Cooper, had this suit made in Swaziland. Uncle Sam would be jealous.

Walking through the neighborhoods to the stadium

Ellis Park Stadium

Soccer sculpture (and our 'meeting point' after the game)

Our seats were SO much better for this game. We were just right of midfield and only a few rows up in the second balcony. More importantly, we were on the sunny side of the stadium! Yahoo!

We sat with Matt and Farrell

And were very patriotic in our American flags

USA vs. Slovenia warm-ups

FIFA mascot

Doug, 'er I mean 'Captain America' after the game

After the USA vs. Slovenia game we hustled to Marble Arch in Johannesburg to watch the England vs. Algeria game. We had dinner in an plaza where the game was being shown on a big screen (finally got my sushi).

It was chilly (understatement of the century)

And this concluded our World Cup weekend in Johannesburg. One more cameo from Captain America...

Farewell Joe | Sibebe Camping Trip

2010-06-24T06:39:00.008-02:00

Over the first weekend in June, our good friend Joe held his farewell party on the top of Sibebe. You’ll likely remember Joe from numerous other blog posts as he arrived just three days after we did and became an immediate friend and traveling buddy. Joe was here for 10 months on a Fulbright Scholarship through which he studied how religious organizations and orphanages are attempting to teach family values in the absence of parents lost to AIDS. Joe also studied a lot of other things in Swaziland…like dagga, beer, ultimate frisbee, and a silver Opel. So, with his wild and crazy ideas, it was very fitting that 23 of us schlepped up a mountain to camp for the night in his honor!

Everyone hiked up the mountain at different times throughout the day while Joe convinced a friend or two with heavy duty 4x4 vehicles to drive the cow trail up with the beer, food, grill, etc. Personally, I had Doug to carry all of my stuff! He was actually quite a trooper, because that morning he competed in the Imvelo mountain biking race in Miliwane - 35 kil0moters! Some of the 'later comers' (including us) met at Tao/Alison's house at 4:00pm and raced the sunset up the mountain. Tao and Alison literally live at the foot of Sibebe, so while it was a very direct route, it was also very STEEP! But, like I said, I wasn't carrying a thing. Poor Doug.

At the foot looking up

Trying to capture the steepness

Coming over the saddle and across the field to the campsite

Setting up camp (Erin - US/PAC Doctor and Tini - UK/Economist with the Ministry of Finance)

Doug (US/PAC Doctor and Sherpa)

As dusk was approaching, people were still arriving, so the camp set-up continued even though the sunshine did not. Tao (Swazi/Computronics) and Alison (US/Clinton Foundation)

It was only fitting that Michelle (US/PAC Doctor) was one of the last to arrive (she tends to be a little more on the late side)

The rest of the evening was enjoyed around the camp fire telling stories, eating, playing games, drinking...etc.

Newly engaged, Matt (US/PAC Doctor) and Farrell (US/ICAP)

Joe (on the phone with his roommate Duane who had to make his way up completely in the dark). Joe and Doug eventually went on a rescue mission to assist him.

The next morning, it was another beautiful day on Sibebe. Here's the view from our tent when we woke up

The sun rising across the meadow

And then we climbed back down! Doug took a different route back, but I climbed down with Tao and Alison to get our car that was parked at their place. Still steep! But beautiful valley views.

Capacity Building Workshop II

2010-06-24T06:05:00.005-02:00

As previously mentioned in my February blog, ‘Capacity Building Workshop I,’ the European Union (EU) has funded three, one week workshops for the members of the INSET Department within the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET). The second of these three workshops was held from May 31-June 4, 2010 at Foresters Arms in Mhlambanyatsi, Swaziland. Just like the first, it was also a ‘residential’ workshop and since the accommodations were about an hour north from Mbabane, all of the participants stayed at Foresters Arms for the full week. In February, the workshop was held in town near Manzini and many of the participants scooted home after dinner (including me!). Being ‘sequestered’ for this workshop enabled relationships to be strengthened and team building to be a natural, positive outcome from the week. In addition, the Teacher Resource Centre (TRC) Coordinators selected a new logo for INSET – courtesy of my brilliant, graphic designing sister, Nichole, and also created ‘marketing’ flyers for the programs and services offered by their respective TRCs. Other sessions included Teacher Supervision, Reinforcement, Motivating Teachers, Being Effective in Your Role, Literacy Strategies, Composition Writing and a variety of other topics that the Coordinators had expressed an interest in learning more about. These workshops are definitely one of the highlights of my consultancy role with the EU; the third and final workshop for this budget cycle will be in August. Stay tuned!

This is the Director of all of INSET, Maria. I work most closely with her to support her work and numerous projects.

Mrs. Bhembe and Mr. Magongo (front row) and Mrs. Khumalo and Mr. Zwane (back row) made use of the 'computer lab' that we set-up in the workshop room to design their TRC marketing flyers.

There were also many resources for producing teaching and learning materials compliments of the EU! I heart school supplies.

As previously mentioned, Nichole designed about 16 options for the new INSET logo; therefore there was a lot of analysis of the different logos and a lengthy discussion to bring 13 to consensus! Mr. Sihlonganyane, Mr. Mndzebele, Mr. Magongo and Mr. Dlamini discussed the logo options.

As did Mrs. Bhembe, Mrs. Khumalo and Mr. Mavuka

Perhaps the only downfall of the week was the weather. Winter arrived during the workshop and we wee bundled-up in the workshop room from 8:00-5:00pm. However, it was amazing the heat that this one fireplace could provide; we huddled around it during every break!

OSISA Conference | Zambia

2010-06-22T07:13:00.007-02:00

Apart from my job with the European Union, I have also taken on a three month project with the foundation, Open Society Initiative Southern Africa (OSISA). I got involved with the project through my friend, Kathy, who runs a non-profit in the north of Swaziland and with whom I volunteer. OSISA is part of the Soros Network of Foundations which was founded by George Soros, the philanthropist. The main objective of the foundation is to build and strengthen the values, practices and institutions of open and tolerant democracies throughout Southern Africa. Specifically, OSISA supports advocacy initiatives that seek to enhance public policy and improve the situation of the most marginalized members of Southern African communities. They also support human rights defenders and other actors who seek to bring about social justice, pulling together diverse organizations and institutions, facilitating dialogue between key national players, and providing financial resources to organizations that promote open society ideals. Their efforts are aimed at building the capacity of civil society organizations to advocate for transparency, accountability and democratic practice, whilst supporting state actors who show a willingness to be held accountable to their citizens. [For example, OSISA paid for the lawsuit against The Government of the Kindgom of Swaziland when free primary education wasn’t implemented in 2009 as per the Constitution.] One of the current primary initiatives in the field of education is Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) or ‘preschool.’ OSISA is tackling this from a human rights’ perspective and trying to push policies that will increase the existence of ECCD programs as well as access to them. Because this is an area of interest for the foundation, OSISA commissioned 6 Southern African countries to write a report on the state of ECCD in their respective country. Kathy was contracted to write Swaziland’s report and she subcontracted me. So, that’s how I came to be in Zambia for an OSISA Conference!

The conference was more like a ‘mid-point writing retreat’ as each country presented their baseline findings and current drafts for discussion. The majority of the sessions were focused on unifying the different reports through common themes and also by identifying the areas which needed to be supplemented to ensure a cohesive final document. The conference took place in Lusaka, Zambia at a game reserve called, Lilayi. Because we were scooped up from the airport and taken directly to the lodge, I didn’t get to see much of the city itself, apart from the drive. But, to be honest, the countryside looked just like Swaziland and/or South Africa’s Kwazulu Natal providence! Nonetheless, here are a few pictures from my trip…

Lusaka International Airport

Lilayi Game Reserve, Lodge

Pool

My hut

Enormous tree at dusk

Conference room

Rumbidzai from Zimbabwe

The Angola (Sirajo, Juliana, and Doroteia) and Mozambique (Iria) country teams

Views from the shuttle bus

Shopping center

Downtown Lusaka

Bicycles! Very uncommon in Swaziland, yet very common in Lusaka

And to wrap things up, the final draft of our paper is due next week. Then, I will be traveling with Kathy to Mozambique during the first week in September to present our final research at the International OSI Colloquium. I’m very excited to be published…it will be my first time! Stay tuned!