Hello to everyone who has been following our team’s GSE trip!
keep checking out the pictures, more being added as I type this:
http://photobucket.com/gsesouthafrica
After two weeks of not having any time to post, fighting with the blog website, and just being too tired to stay up and type, I had just about given up on all things internet, but if this gets posted, my faith in technology will have been restored…
I did not have the opportunity to properly thank our hosts in George, and greatly appreciated Ian and Ferdi Rowan and their wonderful hospitality, conversation and shuttling us around. From there we traveled on to Beaufort west where I was hosted by the Van Niekerk family. The area looked and felt so much like home in the little Karoo desert, not much water, and also far less people. The wildlife viewing opportunities were amazing! We are now at the District Conference where our team along with the other visiting groups are staying in a series of chalets, and we are approaching the end of our journey.
I think our team members have described many of our other specific experiences. So I will continue to let the pictures speak for themselves.
We have discovered so many peculiarities and interesting things – a South African vocab list:
Bakkie: pickup truck; lekker – a word that seems to combine good, great, awesome, my favorite, nice, pretty – really depends what you are talking about; koffietee: your choice of coffee or tea; bok: just about any kind of deer or buck; biltong: beef jerky; braai: barbecue; droewars: dried sausage (kind of like a slim jim); and much more that I forget off hand.
We have also discovered there are so many things that we have in common: the diversity of a nation; the diversity of landscape; the contrast between extreme wealth and extreme poverty; education efforts ranging from expensive and privileged to just barely there. A variety of wildlife. Beautiful sunrises and sunsets; a smile and wave which crosses all cultures; that even the simplest politeness and kindness can make the day!
With just two days to go, while I terribly miss my family and have had to feel like I could not help with some situations at home that normally I would jump into, it has been great still have something to look forward to – a 36 hour plus series of flights home, and the smiling face of my wife and son! Can’t wait to get home and be able to rest in my own bed, see my puppies, eat some Mexican food, drink water on a regular basis, and the like. I am, however, looking forward to the last hurrah, dinner and a conference party tonight, our team’s presentation, seeing the South African team that visited Arizona and just recently arrived back here; and then our team heading back to Cape Town tomorrow with some of our previous hosts; and the next day, one last quick visit to one of the projects that we really enjoyed, and then hopping on the airplane!
My best to all – in Africa, at home in Arizona, and wherever else people are reading this around the world.
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