Rotary GSE to South Africa 2009

 

I'm writing from the Johannesburg airport---the wifi isn't free, but at least it's not terribly expensive. We still won't be home for another 30 hours or so, so  I'm having a cappuccino in hopes that there will be some good movies on the plane. Last night we spent back in Cape Town, but before that we were a few days in Oudtshoorn for the Rotary District Conference. It was nice to see a lot of the people that we had met along the way.

We went to the Kango Wildlife Park in Oudtshoorn and saw lots of animals, including this pygmy hippo. He wasn't very interested in us.

We had to give a presentation at the conference, and we wanted it to reflect our experiences over the past month. So we all got out our laptops and selected our top photos to put into our slide show.

Here's Jenny eating a "4 x 4," which was an enormous kebab with springbok, kudu, ostrich, and crocodile.

Here's some of the lovely scenery we saw on the drive from Oudtshoorn back to Cape Town.

I'll see you back in Tucson!

 
Beaufort West 05/08/2009
 

We arrived in Beaufort West on May 5, and so at the Rotary Club presentation that night we subjected the Rotarians to a little Cinco de Mayo festivity. Here's BJ pouring the tequila, of which everyone was more than happy to partake.

We spent a very cold morning at the Karoo National Park on a game drive. This is a kudu, one of the many animals we saw that morning. We've also tried kudu steak, which is not bad.

 
 

We spent about four days in George, though we spent as much of that time in surrounding areas as we did in George itself. We did visit some Rotary projects there and a primary school, pictured here. The typical class size is about 45, and it does go even higher than that. These kids were able to name a few places in the U.S. and knew the name of our president. I doubt the reverse would be true in a classroom at home.

The Knysna Rotary Club hosted us for a day and took us to Plattenberg Bay for lunch, of which this gigantic oyster was a part. Great with tabasco.

On May 5, we were driven to our next stop: Beaufort West. Here we are in the van. Amazingly, our group is still getting along marvelously.

 
Hermanus 05/02/2009
 

We just arrived in George after several days in Hermanus. Our first couple of days in Hermanus were rest days, and we were strangely excited about cooking for ourselves and doing our own laundry. The Pick n' Pay grocery store was similar to stores at home, but with labels in Afrikaans, a whole section of braai (barbeque) meat, and lots of instant coffee, which is the norm here. Here are Barb and I picking out spaghetti sauce.

On our most recent vocational day, Randy, Jenny, and I spent all day visiting projects of the Rainbow Trust. I figure it's mandatory that I include at least one photo of cute, underpriviledged children. These kids are at a preschool that has been helped out by Rotary funds, and the difference from some of the other preschools we visited is evident: these kids have much nicer facilities.

In Hermanus, BJ was being hosted by Jaco, who works as a veternarian. He took us to visit the cattery, a cat shelter adjacent to his practice. It was well maintained and relatively small, with about 25 cats and 5 kittens, who had their own room. It was nice to hang out with the cats, who were very social and let me pick them up, unlike my cat at home. A shout out to Forrest for taking care of Sinbad while I'm gone.