Finally posting photos

Finally got my photos organized and was able to post a few... hope to get some more out there next week... few of Bizana, a couple with some teammates, a couple from last weekend in the Drakensberg Mountains. Oh, and sorry for the finicky formatting, I'm having trouble with the tool today for some reason. Enjoy.


Here's a view looking down Main Street Bizana...

... and the perpendicular cross street how we enter the town

View of the estuary forming from Port Edward beach into the resort complex (my little villa is in the top right corner of the photo, upon the hill)









A photo caught of me doing computer skills training in one of our offices last week

Moude Cafe, a shabeen (local tavern) we drive past on R61. These shabeens are pretty common all along the way. We like this one because the wall outside reads "GREAT BEER - Just a day to brew"








Bryce, Heather, Lindsay, and I in the Drakensberg Mtns at Sani Pass. If you look all the way top center of the photo, right underneath the cloudless part of sky, we drove on a guided 4X4 tour to the top of that mountain, 9000 ft, apparently the 3rd steepest pass in the world, and the only entrance in the Drakensberg into the Kingdom of Lesotho...



Pulling up into Lesotho. This is border patrol - "Immigration Welcome to Lesotho" painted there on the building.

With Heather and Pete at Mama Africa in Cape Town

Mountain biking through the banana trees in the Umtamvuna Nature Reserve

Tidal waves and Oprah's new school

After I wrote my little piece on sports apparel I've seen here, I saw a Charlotte Hornets jacket on the drive home last night!

Fall has definitely come into effect here, the temperatures have really dropped within the last few days. About what it would start to be late September in Boston. But in comparison to some of the extreme heat I've felt here, it felt pretty cold.

In addition to the weather change, the ocean has been really rough and unbelievable to watch the last few days. There have been some incredible waves along the entire South Coast, some 20 ft or so high. We've been watching from The Estuary, as the tide covered the entire Port Edward beach yesterday, and the estuary into the hotel area was overflowing. The waves spanned the entire South Coast, beyond Durban and further north, and have been the news story of recent days, as tidal waves and flooding have done some serious damage to roads and houses in the coastal towns. The waves and ocean shift is due to some gravitational changes - apparently, last weekend the sun, moon, and earth were all aligned in such a fashion that only happens every 18 years causing the rough seas and waves.

In other news... American news in South Africa, Oprah opened her second school in South Africa last week in nearby Kokstad, which is really close to Bizana. I happened to be driving through Kokstad on Friday afternoon on my way to the Drakensberg Mtns, but didn't see an entourage flowing through town... Found a few articles about it:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17645539/

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=105&art_id=vn20070317093202446C236722

Sports talk

One of the funniest things that always catches my eye here is when I see somebody wearing something of an American sports team. It has most likely been left in the community by past travelers or volunteers like me, and most time it's somebody walking on Main Street Bizana or along R61. Over my time here I've seen somebody wearing... a Chicago Bears jersey, an Atlanta Hawks jacket, a New York Islanders t-shirt, a New York Yankees hat, an Atlanta Braves hat, a Cincinnati Bengals t-shirt, a Anaheim Mighty Ducks hooded sweatshirt, and this morning I saw a Chicago Cubs hat. A random assortment...

And while I am out of it in terms of my sports at home, I've really taken to the sports on TV here. Rugby is decent and I can watch, but I have really gotten into cricket and English Premier League Soccer.

Cricket is so hard to figure out and understand, but I have made some giant strides here over the last few weeks. Right now the ICC Cricket World Cup is being played, and South Africa is the #1 rated team, so there is always cricket on. And if it's not the World Cup, there's the Pro 20 (South Africa's major league). It's taken me awhile to understand balling, wickets, overs, how runs are tracked, etc. but it is definitely a game I'm starting to like. I understand the basics, and now I want to learn the strategies. My teammate Pete (from UK) understands cricket well and has spent some time trying to explain it to me. As does my pal Des (the chef at the Estuary hotel). Some nights I choose to just walk down to the Estuary hotel part of where I live, there is a restaurant and a bar where I will go for dinner. Many nights it's slow, so Des will come and sit at the bar with me and we watch whatever is on - mostly cricket, sometimes rugby. Des is a sports fanatic like me, so we have some good times watching.

But with all this SA sports talk, I am excited that the Sox will be in full gear by the time I return. Just need to solidify that bullpen...