January-February 2007 - Furman Trip

January 11, 2007 - in DC
Hi All,
Just wanted to let you know we made is successfully to Washington, DC and are now waiting to go to the airport and get on our very long flight. Just thought I'd say 'hi!' while I have access to the internet. I'll write again when we get there (and when I find internet access again)...
Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
Kristy

January 13, 2007 – arrived safely
Hi All,
Just wanted to let you know that we arrived safely after our 15 and 1/2 hour flight from DC to Johannesburg and an additional 2 hour flight to Windhoek the capital of Namibia. After checking the students in to the CGE house we (Don, Erik and I) made our way down to the Riverdell house where we will be staying. We were greeted by Tessa the very big guard dog who keeps us "safe" at night from the local machete wielding hoodlums. No worries, though, we travel in groups.

Today we spent the day touring Windhoek including the rather large shanty town which can only be described with pictures...haven't seen poverty like this since Caracas in the late 1980s. No electricity, one central water pump where people have to pay for water and an endless sea of "houses" made of corrugated aluminum. It is a little overwhelming to see poverty of that magnitude and yet we were greeted so warmly by the gaggles of little children coming to see the odd looking people who have arrived in their neighborhood. They especially liked seeing pictures of themselves on the digital cameras the students have.

The weather is quite hot (probably high nineties) and we're all doing our best to stay hydrated (I've had 2 liters of water already today and 1 trip to the bathroom so that gives you a sense of how much we are sweating without knowing it because it is quite dry). It's the rainy season so we're likely to get a shower this afternoon. Hopefully it will cool things off a bit.

That's all for now. Just wanted to let you know we made it and the adventure has officially started.
Kristy

January 14, 2007 – Making Contacts
Hi All,
Just finishing up the end of our second full day. Managed to make contact today with a friend of Bonnie Mullinax's from her time working in Namibia who may turn out to be a very helpful contact for my TB project. He is going to try to put me in touch with the Dean of Students at the University he works at that just coordinated an HIV/AIDS public awareness campaign for the students at their university, the director of a Center for Disease Control (CDC) funded project on AIDS/TB, and a woman who works for a non-governmental organization (NGO) on AIDS. So while I was unable to make any contacts successfully from home, I seem to be making some progress here. He also offered to drive me places since he is on "summer holiday" from the university, so that alleviates any fears I might have had about trying to make my way around the city alone.

Interestingly we ate lunch today (this guy Mike and I) at a mall that was very different from the mall we were in yesterday. While about only 10% of the people in the mall yesterday were white (I actually sat and counted people as they walked about of the food market in the mall...sociologists never sleep), today only about 10% were black (although maybe not an objective count because I had to chew and count today at lunch ;o) So while the apartheid era may have ended in 1990, some of the racial divides still seem to be apparent.

Tessa the guard dog still continues to protect me at night and actually sleeps right outside my door. Maybe it was the piece of "ham" (or what I presume to be ham) that I fed her at breakfast the other morning.
That's all for now.
Kristy

January 15, 2007
Had an interesting meeting today with the Dean of Students at the Polytechnic University who gave me a presentation about HIV/AIDS education that they do for their student body and some statistics including health stats from their annual report (they actively treat students with TB). One of the myths that Namibians have about HIV/AIDS is that if you sleep with a virgin that will cure AIDS. They also describe sex with a condom like eating a candy with the wrapper on. You'll be happy to know, however, that while Furman University does not have condoms available on campus, the Polytechnic University in Namibia does. They were quite informative and willing to just talk with me (over tea, of course) on a variety of topics including the war in Iraq and the next presidential election. They were shocked when I said I wasn't sure if many Americans were "ready" for a woman president...how could this be from one of the most developed countries in the world?????

I'm not quite sure why this guy Mike is being so helpful but he's really going out of his way to make contacts for me and shuttle me around to different appointments, etc. I currently don't have anything else set up but he had at least 3 more people he was going to try to put me in touch with before we leave town.

Half of the students are off to their overnight home stays tonight. They seemed exited but anxious. After the orientation lecture about "goat head soup" and Namibian customs of eating all of what is served to you, some were a bit freaked.

Well... I'd better go. While the CGE house has 4 computers with internet access, someone just came in who wants to use one so I'll sign off.
Kristy

January 16, 2007 – sex with virgins cures AIDS
OK, so let's see if your spam filter lets that subject line through.

This was one of the many things I learned yesterday when I met with the Dean of Students at the Polytechnic University. She said that part of her education on HIV/AIDS for the students includes dispelling myths like the idea that if you are HIV positive and sleep with a virgin, it will cure you of AIDS.

It was a very informative discussion where she explained that most of her college students do not have a basic awareness about how one gets AIDS or how to prevent it. This is especially troubling give that about 20-25% of Namibians are HIV positive. You will also be glad to know that while Furman University does not have condoms on campus; the Polytechnic in Namibia gives them out free. She also gave me their annual report from their health services showing the number of pregnancies there are and how many active cases of TB they're treating. One other interesting thing was regarding the successful campaign they had to get people tested to find out their HIV status... they gave out free t-shirts (with a local banks name on it) in order to encourage testing. It's amazing what a free t-shirt can inspire...

Today we challenged our students to think about where global inequities come from, when they really developed in the modern world and why they exist. I led a small group discussion and Ching did an inspiring lecture on Robert Marks book on the rise of the west (has anyone read this one? it sounded worth the read). This afternoon we had a speaker from the U.S. Embassy come to speak. He was quite candid and at one point in time, when discussing the Iraq war, said he had a response he was "supposed to give" about the war but even he wasn't convinced by it so he wasn't going to say it. He also said that 40-50% of what they do is trying to improve the HIV/AIDS situation.

This afternoon a few of us went with one of the locals to buy supplies for an orphanage we will do our service learning project at later in the week. We bought diapers, formula, food, cleaning supplies to donate to an orphanage that houses 20 kids whose parents died of AIDS. At least we can try to give them some supplies and help out a bit.

Haven't made any more contacts for the TB project but we still have a few more days in Namibia so hopefully something will work out.
I've got to go eat dinner.
I'll write more soon.
km

January 17, 2007 – wild baboons and tongue clicking
Just a quick update to let you know what's been happening today. We started the day with student presentations. They are quite good and Ching is keeping them on their toes with challenging questions (all of those who haven't presented yet are totally panicked). Next we took a quick field trip up to the Hero's Acre which as a pretty big memorial to all those in Namibia who died during their freedom struggle. Oddly it was built by North Koreans. We went all the way to the top of it (many many stairs) which was a challenge for some of our students (given that the city is at 5000 feet altitude so the air is much thinner). The most interesting part of the trip was the pack (or what ever you call a group) of wild baboons just running around in a field as we drove by. They were on a soccer field for a local sports club just running and beating on each other. One of them was even swinging from the goal post like a little kid. Maybe they were playing shirts and "hairs".

Our students have been enjoying their home stays. One set of boys, however, did have to share a twin bed last night... I dubbed that one, "brokeback home stay." But they've been real troopers with very few complaints even when food has been sparse or temperatures high or... beds small. Seems like a good group so far.

After lunch we went to the Catholic Aids Outreach Center. They are an organization that provides aid to the Katutura in a variety of forms including AIDS testing, after school programs for kids, and home health care for those suffering with (dying from) HIV/AIDS. We spent the afternoon bombarded by little kids who wanted their pictures taken, etc. I had a pretty interesting experience with a little girl; she looked to be maybe 3 but could have been older since, due to malnutrition, the kids are quite small. She sat down near me and we started looking at a picture book with pictures. When I asked her if she knew what the pictures were she would nod but not really say anything. So I would go through and say in English, "cat, pencil, horse, fork, etc." She would just kind of look at me. Finally, I she started to respond but in her own native language, Damara, which has lots of tongue clicking involved. So she would say what it was in her language and I would say English. It was pretty cute. I had no idea what
she was saying and she probably had no idea what I was saying. The Namibians are divided into ethnic groups each with their own distinctive language. Under apartheid, they were taught Afrikaans in school and so for older people, that becomes the universal language between the different ethnic groups. Now they teach English in schools so most Namibians speak 3 languages: their native language, Afrikaans and English. They seem to go easily between all three of these (except for this little girl, she was probably too young to be in school). Some of the languages are quite beautiful with all that tongue clicking.
That's all for now.
Kristy

January 19, 2007 – hunting for glass
While my family hunts for sea glass on Old Lyme shores every summer, I had the opportunity to hunt for glass of a different sort today as half of us spent the day at an orphanage cleaning up, bathing, feeding and playing with the 20+ kids that live there. While I typically suck at finding glass at the beach, I was pretty good today, probably due to the large amount of garbage in the back yard of this woman's home that she has opened to street children and AIDS orphans that have no where else to go. The story has it that this woman, Maria, was sick and tired of seeing all these kids wandering the streets with no food or place to stay so she took one in. Word spread and people kept bringing them by. Those whose parents had died of AIDS, some whose parents didn't want them and still others who were fleeing situations of abuse. Their ages range from a few weeks to teen years. We're not quite sure how she manages to care for them all on her own since she has no official funding (relies primarily on donations) or
regular help but somehow she does. She was thrilled with the large donation of supplies our group gave to her and happy to have help feeding them all (some nasty white corn based mash potato looking substances made in a huge pot over an open flame in the back yard) and bathing them. We had a real assembly line going with the baths but it didn't take them too long to get filthy again in the all dirt and rock back yard. They especially enjoyed the tire swing that one of our kids rigged up for them. They spent hours and hours taking turns spinning on it. At one point Maria sat against the back wall of the house in the shade on what looked to be carpet padding and started calling all of them one by one. They all gathered around her sitting on the ground calling her mama. Well over 20 were there since several of the local kids wander in for food and/or attention too. It was a sight to see them all piled up. While we took pictures, they certainly can't capture the gravity of the moment. She was truly their life line.
Kristy

January 22, 2007 – in Swakopmund
Yesterday we drove across Namibia west toward the Atlantic Ocean. It took us about 4 hours to get to Swakopmund. It was certainly a type of landscape I had never seen before. A mass expanse of dry desert with river beds with no sign of water and very tall termite towers as one of the only things that mark the landscape. The termite towers are made of sand and who knows what else (termite saliva?) matted into a type of clay substance that reach over 10 feet in some cases toward the sky. They are very strange looking and seem to pop out of no where. Beyond that we saw a couple of baboons and lots and lots of sand. At one point it was so hot in the van I was in that it seemed like we were standing in front of a blow dryer with hot air blasting through the windows. Fortunately, as we descended toward the coast the air cooled and by the time we reached the coast we had to change in to jeans and fleece jackets to go to dinner. It felt nice to feel the cooler weather for a change, but I don't think any of us are looking forward to the drive back on Wednesday. The most remarkable sight was the massive sand dunes that rise out of the horizon. You literally look down the street and see a huge sand dune (kind of orangey red in color) off in the distance. Tomorrow we'll have the opportunity to climb one (and then slide down...I'll let you know how that goes). We had a nice dinner last night and did a tour of the city today. It is primarily a tourist destination (where Brad and Angelina came to have their baby, for all those who keep up with pop culture). Lots of shops and restaurants and nice views of the Atlantic Ocean. Our accommodations were...interesting but once I washed the bugs down the drain, the shower was hot anyway...
Got to run. Erik is waiting on me to walk back up from town to our place.
More later must get back to the desert...
Kristy

January 24, 2007 – Dune 7 and a bug in my ear
Yesterday I had one of the most amazing experiences of my life in Swakopmund/Walvis Bay (not too far from where Brad and Angelina had their baby). We spend the afternoon climbing one of the biggest sand dunes in all of Africa. The thing was massive. The entire time there we kept driving by dunes and asking our drivers, is Dune 7 bigger than that? yep! that one's huge, is it bigger than that? yep! And then we see this massive sand dune off in the distance rising out of the horizon (rumored to be higher than the Eiffel tower - see if you can Google it and find out)... DUNE 7. And our plan for the afternoon... to go up it! OK...so we start climbing and the sand is hotter than hell, burning my little toes as it pours into my Teva's. For every twelve inch step you make you sink back down about 6 of those inches. It's like a stair climber from hell. You keep trudging and trudging but only make half the progress you should make. If you find yourself directly behind some one you end up in this cascading avalanche of sand just flowing down the mountain like water. Best to move out of the path of others. One step up, slide half way back and it is hot. No rest for the weary... I will make it up this thing. I can hear myself gasping for air. If you stop and look back down you see how steep this think really is. You can stand with you feet mostly buried about parallel to the side of the mountain. Let's try all fours... the spidery things escorting me up there seem to do pretty well on all their legs so, let's give it a try. Keep going... almost there... and wha la! one of the top 5 to make it up there... collapse at the top of the dune and catch my breath.

It was a very hard trek but definitely worth doing if not simply for the view from the top. Miles and miles of open desert with a several smaller dunes rippling off in one direction. The sand is orangey, yellow is... like I've never seen. Several of our students went up and down multiple times (the record was 6) but I preferred to stay on top and wonder around (it was like you were on another planet). You could walk at the very top of a given dune all across the "edge" (the wind actually blows a perfectly straight edge of sand at the very top... it's pretty cool). The way down is fun too... you can just run like crazy and the deep sand almost slows you down a bit (although one kid did take a total digger when he hit the bottom).

The other highlight of yesterday (for different reasons) was the bug flying in my ear in the middle of the night (5 AM to be exact). There I was peacefully sleeping under my damp and nasty comforter when I was rudely awakened by this buzzing in my ear, which I, unfortunately, promptly stabbed with my finger thus causing the little bugger to go deeper into my ear. I had however, wounded him because his buzz (while louder) sounded a bit pathetic in my ear canal... buzz... bbbbbuuuzzzzz... flap (I assume that was wings)...bzzzzz... OK, so now what do I do? Get up and hop on one foot hoping he'll come out (like pool water), no luck... hate to do it but I've got to try a q-tip... I get a little blood and what appears to be a leg!

Fortunately, I had the chance to go to a doctor today because we had a student with what looks like bug bits getting worse so I had the doctor look in my ear while we were there... all's clear, no bug parts or bite! That's good to know. No care from the doctor either (I think he liked my story!).

Finally, on our drive back to Windhoek today, I earned the award for spotting the most animals including a wart hog and (once I referenced my travel guide's animal section I realized) a black backed jackal. We also saw "troops" of baboons (learned that's what you call a group of baboons) including a baby riding on its mom's back... cool!
Got to run to go class.
Kristy

January 25, 2007 – Today I got peed on
Today we went back to the "orphanage". I've put it in quotes because it really isn't a formal orphanage but rather a house full of kids taken in by a saintly woman named Maria. Last time we were there we cleaned up the yard, washed the kids, fed them lunch and played. Somehow when we returned today, the yard needed cleaning again and the tire swing we managed to hang was already broken (less than a week). I guess that's what happens when you've got over 20 kids living there.

Today we helped with laundry which is quite the feat with so many kids and no washing machine. It is literally scrubbing clothes in a bucket and hanging then on the fence to dry. They get especially creative with the blankets and rugs. They put them in a big wash bucket and step on them with their feet (like making wine out of grapes). Then they get the water out of it by pushing it down on a grate that is about a foot and a half of the ground. It is quite the project.

I spent most of my day holding the cutest little 4 month old baby girl. She is the daughter of one of the older girls that lives there and it is unclear who the father is or how she got pregnant (there's some rumor that she might have been raped). The girl looks to be about 14 but claims to be 18. Unfortunately she isn't the best at being a mom. She seems pretty much disinterested in her and she basically lies around or is held by one of the older children. The baby also has developed a pretty significant case of diaper rash. As such, it's best to carry her around with her diaper a bit open to air out the inflamed area... hence, I got peed on today but at least I noticed her intense look while pooping and moved quickly to avoid that mess!

There are probably 7 or 8 kids there under the age of 2 who just really cling to our students if given the opportunity. They are clearly starving for attention so much so that they are unnaturally quite for such little kids. It is almost as if they figured out that crying doesn't get them anywhere so they've simply stopped doing it. Sorry if I already mentioned that to you in an earlier e-mail but it is truly remarkable and sad. Today one of our students actually got one of them to laugh and it was sadly an uncommon sound in a back yard full of dirt.

Our students have been incredibly generous with their time (they have an exam tonight but over half of them spent most of the day with the kids today) and their money (one of them paid for all the kids to have Kentucky Fried Chicken for lunch out of her own pocket - probably close to $90). There have also been rumblings of trying to get a group on campus to take the house on as a charity and send regular intervals of money. Let's hope that happens.

Also say the family cat trotting off with a mouse in its mouth (yum) and the scrawniest looking chickens I've ever seen just walking around.

Well, we leave for Botswana tomorrow morning at 6 AM (ugh!) so this will be my last e-mail until we get to Joburg (Feb. 5). Hope you all stay well until I talk to you again soon.
Love,
Kristy

January 25, 2007
It is fun to have Cat here with us. I'm glad she's here. We're really looking forward to the safari part.

The students for the most part are quite good. They have an exam tonight so when we went up to the "box" (there are a few of them staying up the street at a place called the "card board box" because they don't all fit in the CGE house), many of them were studying in the bar. Drinking and studying...but studying.

We're going back to the orphanage today (the one with the woman Maria and the twenty kids). We're going to help out with laundry, cooking, bathing the kids and cleaning up. I'm sure it doesn't take long for it to all get dirty again. Should be fun and it feels good to help out, even if it's a little.

We are preparing to leave for Botswana early tomorrow AM. We probably won't have e-mail until we get to Joburg.
I'll try to e-mail again tonight before we go.

January 25, 2007 – Until Joburg
Just wanted to write my last e-mail to you before I head to Botswana tomorrow AM dark and early (as opposed to bright and early). You've probably read the other e-mail about my adventures at the orphanage today. It was really heart breaking... sure you don't want to adopt an African baby (you can tell Barbara and Debbie that I can get them for them too if they're interested because sadly there are lots of orphans to go around)? This little girl today was totally cute and she is clearly not getting the attention she needs. Her mom barely acknowledges her and the "house mom" sort of leaves her to be cared for by her own mother (which is understandable given the number of kids there are to watch). If I could have packed her in my suitcase today...

We are all eagerly anticipating the next leg of our trip. We have properly stocked up on wine and beer (we have 9 bottles of wine and a flat of beer (24)) for the trip.

Kartikeya said the bag we got (that we thought would be so great) is actually pretty cheaply made so I hope it holds up now that the traveling will be getting harder. I've already lost two of the zipper pulls and it has a small rip in the back of it. I should have traveled with duct tape!

I'll be on line for the next few minutes so e-mail if you get this. Otherwise, I'll chat with you again in Joburg.
Take care of Shelby.
Kristy

January 29, 2007 – in Maun
Just a quick note from Maun, Botswana as we re-fuel the vehicles and buy supplies for our next few days. I've just got to say the safari camping portion of this trip has been awesome so far. We are in far more remote campsites than expected (as in... no fences, animals walking through the campsites at night, no running water and truly out in the wild). Early this morning we had jackals in camp making quite a lot of noise. Yesterday we were within 10-15 feet of a lion. He was amazing and I have the best pictures. I've got to run but wanted you to know I am safe and having a great time (I've not showered in couple days but who’s counting). I'll write more when I can.
Love,
Kristy

February 6, 2007 – arrived safely in Joburg
Yebo! That's hello in Southern African speak.
We have arrived safely back in South Africa after what has been one of the best adventures of my life. It was everything I thought it would be and more. We traveled around in muddy 4x4s through dirt roads in the middle of the Kalahari for 11 days setting up and breaking down camp most days in the most remote locations in the world. We occasionally had access to running water (toilets and showers a short walk away) but often we situated in areas unaffected by humans, the side of Tsau Mountain with kudu (antelope like creatures with curly horns) walking on the mountain behind our camp or at elephant sands camp ground where we actually had elephants within 20 feet of where we were camping just wondering by.

Our days were filled with travel between locations in 110 degree heat. Some days were unbearable hot and long but for the most part we did well. One day I got a bit overheated and felt like I was going to pass out because I was in a 4x4 with an out top and basically cooked for several hours while we traveled. We moved me to a covered vehicle and I recovered with no problem.

Dawn and dusk were times for game drives which involved basically going out into the bush to see what we could find. We saw everything elephants, giraffe, kudu, impala, hippos, crocks, zebra, African bulls, etc. It was amazing. Our big find were the cats and we were able to see both lions and a leopard in the wild. Joe, a native of Botswana was our key cat finder as he looked for foot prints, smelled the air and examined poop on the ground to see if we could track the cats. We finally found the leopard on our last day when he spotted a dead impala way up in a tree, the leopard's kill from the day before. We waited for him to return and he was absolutely the most beautiful creature I've ever seen...

Our nights were filled with strange noises of all kinds. Woops of hyena and guttural moans of the lions calling to each other. We were also fortunate to have traveled with Manu, our French cook, who cooked us fabulous dinners (there was no weight loss on this part of the trip for sure). Every night we had a rousing fork banging thank you for our chef. This woman single handedly made some of the best meals I've ever eaten over an open camp fire. Amazing!

In the mornings we were greeted by the sounds of tons of birds of all kinds. There were the most amazing birds I've ever seen. My favorites were the lilac breasted roller (with its turquoise blue wings) and the carmine bee eater which often escorted our 4x4s as we went through the bush. One day one of our guides actually reached out and grabbed on and brought it into the car.

Our days usually started by 5:30 or 6:00 AM and I've gotten into such a habit of it that today I was up by 6:30 AM even though we didn't have to meet until 9:30 AM. On that note I have to run. We go to the apartheid museum soon.
More later,
Kristy

February 7, 2007 – Apartheid Museum and Sandton
Spent the day yesterday at the Apartheid Museum and the Hector Pieterson Museum (named after the first school kid killed in the 1976 Soweto riots when kids protested about the use of the Afrikaans language in schools). I really enjoyed the layout of both museums with news clips, video footage, black and white pictures and many "object lessons" to learn from (i.e. pass books used by blacks during apartheid logging that they had permission to move throughout the city, or not). The experience was a little overwhelming when attempting to absorb the amount of violence that occurred and the sheer brutality of people against each other. Worth seeing but a little difficult to process.

Juxtaposed to this is our hotel's location in one of the wealthiest kilometers in all of Africa, called Sandton. We are in walking distance of several malls (I'm thrilled - not really!), and our students who have been shocked in the past 4 weeks by the level of poverty we've seen in places like Katatura in Namibia and the realization of how little we actually need to survive (by our time in the bush) have bounced right back into the materialism of American culture (many went for pedicures and massages today... which, of course, I'm not opposed to but seems sort of 'odd' under the circumstances).

Currently I'm finding the traffic noise a little disruptive.
Longing for the bush... (do you think I could manage a summer job here???),
Kristy

February 11, 2007 –given a goat in sheep’s clothes
Today was one of the more interesting days to date. We visited a Zulu village in Ulundi. We started the day with a walk through the village where we stopped with our local guides and chatted with people living there. We met a woman with her six children whose husband has just died and a hut full of young boys (maybe 8-18 years old) whose parents had gone to Joburg to find work and left them there to fend for themselves. We also visited their health clinic where the ubiquitous box of free condoms was found in the front entrance (that makes Namibia, Botswana and South Africa that all offer free condoms and you STILL can't get them on FU's campus!). We also saw a half naked woman in the laboring room (top half, our students were a bit freaked out) and our nurse/guide had a TB Awareness t-shirt on so I had a nice chat with her about TB (at least I got some research done today).

Once we left this small village and visited Shaka Zulu's father's grave, we went to the royal kraal where the royal zulu family lives. We were greeted by the elder and invited into a round hut with thatch roof house. We had to take off our shoes when we entered and sit girls on one side and boys on the other. It was fairly unclear as to what the purpose of the whole meeting. Lots of introductions as to who was a descendent of which Zulu king, all in translation of course and then toward the end. They went outside and brought in what looked to be a goat with a sheep's coat on (I swear it had a goat's head and they had thrown a sheep’s pelt over the top of it). Anyway... they asked Erik and I to stand up and they presented us with this gift of a life "sheep" as a sign of their welcoming us to their village. They also named us the "mama" and "papa" of the student group. Apparently my dismay was visible on my face as the students were all cracking up after the fact. I desperately feared they were going to make us
slaughter it or something.

Once we left the hut we were faced with the real dilemma as we could not, obviously, take the "sheep" on the bus with us but it would be rude to deny the gift, so Erik somehow negotiated with them to have it slaughtered on our behalf and fed to them (and us). Some of our students totally freaked while others wanted to see the "kill" but were prevented from doing so because it is rude to stare at the animal before it is slaughter. A couple hours later we were served up some tasty morsels. I felt obligated to eat some of it as they had sacrificed it on our behalf.

Needless to say, I've never been given a live animal before so it was quite the experience.
That's all for now. Hope your day was as interesting as mine.
Kristy

February 13, 2007 – scrawny
This morning we went to visit the Mayor of Ulundi. An articulate, competent, charismatic and "abundant" woman. At the end of the meeting she was presenting us with polo shirts as gifts from the city. She started with Erik stating how tall he was and needed a large shirt. Then Don went up, with no comment. Next was my turn and she looked at me and said "S" for small and then proceeded to pull on the front of my shirt near my stomach and spin me around a little and publicly commented that in Zululand I was much to scrawny and that I needed to be more like her if I wanted to get a man. I, as you might image, proceeded to turn completely red... what an adventure. I've never before been publicly called "scrawny" and by "her worship the mayor" no less. What an adventure.

We had noticed the Zulu preference for heavier women. In the village the other day, the heaviest of us, were a real hit with the locals. They especially liked the big butted ones and there were many offers of cattle for women for the more "abundant" ones of our group.
Off to Durban. More when I have internet access again.
Kristy

February 15, 2007 - Off to Cape Town
Just a quick note before we head off to Cape Town this morning. We'll take a flight (a little over two hours) and be there by this afternoon. Hard to believe we're on the last leg of our trip.

Our time in Durban has been fun. Met an author of a book we read and had the chance to swim in the Indian Ocean yesterday afternoon. The waves were wicked!

More from Cape Town once I find internet there.
Hope you all had a happy Valentine's day (I had 3 dates for dinner last night - Don, Erik and Peter our tour coordinator, so how bad can that be). The students also wrote each of us a poem.
Mine was:
Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
If we were Zulus
We'd slaughter a sheep for you too.

Kristy

February 17, 2007 – Cape Town
We've been having a great time in Cape Town. Yesterday we went to Cape Point and saw the penguins and had a nice lunch and drove up and down the cape of hope area. It is truly a beautiful area with great mountains to view and oceans (Indian and Atlantic). This morning we hiked up Lion's Head Mountain. It was a beautiful morning and the weather was perfect for a hike. It got a little tricky in parts (with chains used to pull yourself up in certain spots!) but worth the haul for the views at the top. Tuesday morning we go up Table Mountain which is suppose to be much tougher. Hope I can make it. I'm feeling today's hike in my thighs this evening. This afternoon we went to Robben Island (the prison where Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners were held for years). The ferry ride out was quite the adventure, lots of big swells (only a couple of students turned green). Really enjoyed to tour of the prison, especially the fact that our guide was an ex-political prisoner who served 7 years there.
That's all for now.
More later,
Kristy

February 19, 2007
Things are coming to a close here. Today we had 3 separate speakers and now they have to do 2 student presentations and their final quiz. I'm not sticking around for that. I think I need a nap, I might be getting a cold. Hope I feel well enough for the big hike tomorrow AM. It’s supposed to be quite tough (like Table Rock at home) but I really want to do it. Then in the afternoon we are suppose to go on a 'cruise' of the harbor. It got cancelled Saturday due to bad wind so it was too choppy to go out. Hope that doesn't happen again.

Got to run. Running out of minutes. See you Thursday.
Kristy

February 21, 2007 – Last Day, On Our Way
It's been a crazy last day in Cape Town. Started out at 8 AM for a hike up Table Mountain which was fabulous and exhausting and wonderful and inspiring. Supposedly there is more flora and fauna between Table Mountain and the rest of the Cape than there is in all of Europe. The biodiversity is second only to the Amazon Rain forest. As such, there were a tremendous amount of interesting plants and flowers to see once we ascended the 3000+ feet to the top (using ladders building in the side of the mountain and climbing on all four over a rock boulder gorge). It was a tough climb but definitely worth it.

From there, got back to the hotel and showered and then it was off to buy some last minute gifts, grab a quick beer and some lunch at Mitchell's and meet the bus again at 4:30 pm to go for our harbor cruise. Had a lovely sunset cruise with lots of seals and dolphins and a beautiful sun set. The dolphins were really putting on quite a show as they sprung into the air seemingly playing with our boat. From there we went to dinner at the African Cafe which was great but took way too long. Didn't get back until 11:45 PM.

So my bags are packed. Today we have a final debriefing with the students then it's off to the airport to begin our marathon travel day. Cape Town to Joburg (2 hours), Joburg to Washington DC with a stop in Dakar (17 hours!) and ultimately DC to GSP. If all goes well should be in by 11 AMish on Thursday (with the 7 hour time difference).
I'll let you know when I arrive.
Thanks for sharing in my adventure via e-mail.
See you soon.
Kristy

February 23, 2007 – home safely
Just wanted to let you know, in case I haven't talked to you in person yet that I made it home safely from the trip. 36 hours of travel and I'm a little jet lagged (was up in the middle of the night last night around 3 am and am now exhausted at 4:45 PM because it feels like 11:45 PM). Saw the most amazing African sunset from the plane...when can I go back?
Kristy