BAH!! Technology

Let it be said, I am irratated.  Since the day I left the States, each day one piece of technology (if not all of them) have been on strike.

First, on Day 1, my hair blow dryer shorted out.  Even though I used the heavy electrical current transformer that Jim bought for me and I hauled all the way here, the dryer started to smoke minutes after turning it on, and fizzling out seconds later.  From this, I have had wet hair for the last 18 days.  In the winter.  No wonder I am cold.

Then, we had difficulty with the converters - I didn't bring enough of them (I brought two and could have used four), except that we only have two outlets in our room.

Once that obstacle was overcome (buy more converters), my camera battery wouldn't charge, my beloved Blackberry went dead, my first wireless mouse went dead, the South African cell phone wouldn't charge and went dead, then the BB came back to life, and the ipod went dead, and so on.

Every. Single. Day.  something.

And I bet you all are wondering what it is today???
.
.
.
.
.
.

My camera.  We drove out to the Kalkfontein Township and was visiting a woman who runs a tiny medical clinic from her shack house (more on that trip later, no tangents today.) When our meeting was done, I went outside to the sand "street" to take some quick photos.  The children playing in the dust outside of her front door, the dogs lounging in the sun, the community that she lives in, all were screaming for me to photograph.  A couple of kids ran up to me wanting their pictures taken (which I have found these kids LOVE that) then wanted to see the photo.  It is my guess that when they were playing with the camera that some sand got into the lens, which now will not retract, nor will it take photos.

BUMMER!!!!!

I can buy a new camera, this one is insured, but the bother of doing that is almost beyond me today.  And at least I didn't lose my photos (which I have also been downloading to my netbook), so that is good news.  But I SO enjoy sharing photos with all of you.

Sigh .....

Dear Person who Folds our Socks:

Dear Person who Folds our Household Socks:

We have had many a discussion about what constitutes a "matched" pair of socks, whose socks belong to whom, and just because the sock is in your drawer does not make it yours.

With that being said, I would like to know, how a pair of Alex's black band dress uniform socks made it from the laundry room, into our bedroom, into my dresser drawer, into my suitcase and are now here in Cape Town, South Africa with me.

Meaning that I have one less pair of socks to wear, and one of the kids at the school now has one pair of socks to wear.

Respectfully -

Mom

Cape of Good Hope

I don't know about you, but just saying the name "Cape of Good Hope" gives me inspiration.  It seems like I was in the 6th grade or something, when we were studying Africa (the Dark Continent) in our Weekly Readers, and I first heard the name Cape of Good Hope and decided that somehow, sometime, I would go and stand there.  And today I did.

That's me, standing there, looking somewhat windblown.

(Disclaimer:  for the purists in the group, I am actually standing on Cape Point, which is about 1/2 mile from Cape of Good Hope,  COGH was a turn off from the road we were on, and entailed a 90 minute (each way) hike, and we didn't have enough time to hike out there, BUT.  Can we say "Close Enough?")

But let me back up.  The 2010 Teach with Africa Fellows only have two empty weekends.  The weekend just ended and the weekend upcoming.  These are our only chances to get out an see the countryside, beyond the LEAP School, Beluah Lodge, and the townships.  Yesterday, a group of us did Lion's Head, then the beach, including stopping at a nice restaurant and having a nice dinner (and wine!) and watching for the green dot when the sun went over the horizon (which I missed.) :(  THAT was a great day.

Today, we got up early, and Leon the Tour Guide .... wait - have I talked about Leon yet?  Leon has his back to the camera, in the pale green jacket, in the middle.

Leon can, and often does, talk non-stop for 20 minutes at a time.  That man is so FULL of information, it is unbelievable.  I don't know how previous Fellows found him, but he is a gold-mine.  He shuttles us from here to there (for a price, of course), giving us the background, history, and adding his own commentary along the way.

You perhaps can't see them all but left to right:  Subina, Mona's bottom, Josh, Leon, Kevin, Monica, and Vernon.

But back to our day.  We got up early (it is 9:00 am here) because Monica had set up a kayaking trip for us.  We got into our kayaking gear (for me that was my ski tights, favorite Mountain Gear fushia colored shirt, and sunglasses) and headed for the beach.  This town is Simon ....... something or other .....

We were reminded that it is perfectly fine to go barefoot, so we all took off our shoes (in the middle of winter), and clomped down the ladder to the boats ...   mind you, it is the "dead" of winter here in South Africa, which means that it is a rather balmy day.


Off we go for a couple of hours of kayaking .... because I had to leave my camera in the car (I didn't have a waterproof container), I don't have photos of the Fellows kayaking around the marina, or out into False Bay, or even of seeing the penquins.

Once we got back to the marina, most everyone went back to the lodge to prepare for Monday's workshops which they were teaching.  Because I am an MBA person, I don't have a workshop, so was able to play more :)

We ate lunch at a waterfront restaurant, had an outSTANDing burger with cheese and a salad, then Monica, her husband John, and I proceeded to the Cape of Good Hope.  (cue starting music)

We DID see some baboons ...  But we couldn't stop the car.  There were people, maybe they were Friends of the Baboons sorts of folks who shouted at us to keep our windows rolled up and the doors locked.  Really, we wanted to stop the car and be irresponsible people and feed the baboons apples and candy.

But we didn't.  I only got a photo of the sign...

Getting closer to the point, though.  Here's the entrance to the park -

(I am almost here ... anyone else excited????!!?)

We are here!!!!

That's Monica and me. Monica is the other Mom on this trip.  Note the clothes I am wearing are sort of damp from the kayaking.  I forgot to bring dry underwear and socks, so everything I have on is somewhat soggy.

But LOOK WHERE I AM!!

:)

On to the point -


Here it is!  The snub nose of the end of the continent.  Next available land mass - Antartica.  So in the space of 14 days, I have flown over the north pole, stopped in the Middle East, and walked to the tip of the African continent.

(disclaimer:  ok, I didn't actually walk out there, but is a photo good enough??)

It was a busy day to be sure.  Tomorrow brings a new week and a renewed focus on the projects that we MBA's have been assigned.  I feel the time slipping away, only five weeks left until we go home and there is SOOOO much work to do.

Onward.

Lion's Head

For the last two weeks, we all have been looking at the predominate feature in Cape Town - Table Mountain and Lion's Head.  This mountain range has shown up in many of my photos to date. With today being our first real day off, many of the Fellows wanted to get out and about.  One group headed up country towards the wine country for an overnight. One group set out to hike Table Mountain.  Our group (Kevin, Vernon, Subina, Katie and I) headed towards Lion's Head, with our Tour Guide - Leon - at the helm.

The trail head ...

Where we are heading to.  The tippy top. As Leon, the tour guide calls it, the tip of the pimple.

And THAT is a higly flattering photo of me climbing up the first set of ladders.  There were two more, and a set of cable to climb.  Now, most of  you know I am a pretty good hiker, but what you can't see is the sheer dropoff from this point.

I actually got to about 95% of the way to the top when the height got to me and I decided to let the group go ahead and just sit and wait for them. 

This is the view down into the valley, taken form the place I waitied for my group to come back down.

The peak of Lion's Head is 2,195 meters about sealevel, which is .... well .... my metric conversion calculator says that is 7,057 feet about sea level, and since we started not at sealevel but up a bit, let's round and say the elevation gain was about 5,000 feet. In two hours.  Which for all practical purposes, is just about straight up.

Beluah Lodge

Beluah is where I live.

That is what a thached roof looks like, up close and personal.  When I was in The UK in 2004, I tried to get a close up loot at a thached roof, with no luck. Now, here I am living under one.

This is the kitchen where 17 of us make dinner almost every evening, and do breakfast.  You can imagine that any more than 3 - 4 makes for a confusing kitchen ....

And the "living room" where we all hang out in the evenings ....








Then there are those nasty guard dogs two doors down who want to eat my face.  The last couple of mornings, they sit quietly and cutely inside of their gate, but they dont' bluff me.  I KNOW if i venture too closely or offer them a Kitty the Dog treat they will eat my hands off without a second thought.

The other thing I need to photograph is the key to the exterior gate.  The gate has a clicker, that a couple of Fellows have (I don't know how they got them and why we don't ALL have them) that opens it up so cars and come and go.  Then there is a small gate next to that for foot traffic.  One almost has to stand on their head to get the key into the lock then turn the key, then open the gate.  Quite the gymnastics required.

Yellow lab dogs - photo needed
Gate lock - photo needed

Duly noted.

The Mall

I am going to break my own self-inflicted rule about only having one post per day.  There feels as if there are a number of things I want to talk or post about, perhaps small, and they have been stacking up.  So bear with me, Dear Readers, there may be a number of new posts.

This post is short.  When Monica and I were at the mall last Sunday, I came across two stores, side by side.  The irony of the names of the stores was, I thought, worthy of sharing with all of you.

Store #1 - doesn't it look cute?

Store #2. Side by side. Blades and Triggers is just as the name suggests.  It is a small photo, but can you see all of the guns in the gun rack??  Can you see the cute purple one, about third from the right in the gun case? Can you see all of the camo gear?






I was thinking how the people of Marin County would react if this store was to open in the Northgate Shopping Mall .....

Random Thoughts #2

Or is it #3??

>  Stairs in South Africa are more narrow than ones in the States.  So, if you put your foot in the stair, in the States my foot fits, but here, I kick the board of the next step every time.  Coming down the stairs, I need to be particularly careful and sort of tilt my foot to the side so that I don't over-step the step and fall completely on my face.

>  South Africa wine has a higher alcohol content (generally speaking) than American wine.  Also, Pinelands (where I live) is a dry community, so if you want to purchase wine, you either have to order it (once a week) or drive outside of the area to buy it.  So now I have my little stash of wine bottles tucked away on my bedroom shelves.

>  What is this thing called "winter"???  Winter in Cape Town means beautifully sunny days and mild temps.  Temps are in the mid 60's during the day, enough that one can sit outside (in the sun) and be wearing shorts, but as soon as the sun goes down, it gets cold.

>  I have taken up residence in the conference room at the Lodge we are living at.  The nature of the work I am doing (have I yet posted about my projects??  That is a topic for a different day) means that I am doing quite a bit of Internet research, and having a quiet place to think and spread out is good.  Plus there is a heater in here. :) To be sure, I need to have a physical presence at the school, but it sure is easier to work from over here.

>The Spin Instructor is some sort of She-Devil.  I, me, personally, loves a good hard class, but really.  8 minute seated climbs???  And when I turned down my tension (so that the pedals go around easier), she called out to the class that "Anyone can sit here and make the pedals go around, but we are here to WORK, and this is a steep climb.  Crank up that tension!!"  And I did and now my quads are screaming at me, even though I am just sitting here.  And she uses techno-mixed music.  bleach!!  I may look for a different time and instructor.

> I haven't gotten used to all of the barbed wire or security gates yet.  One cannot gain access to ANY place, just to walk in, except maybe the grocery store.  Everything requires being buzzed in, and most of the buzzers don't work, or are that sketchy sort that the Fast Food places used to have.  The ones where you would say "A double cheese burger and a coke" and the person would mumble something back, and your order actually turned out to be a taco and a chocolate milkshake.  Those sorts of buzzer things.

>  Which leads me to keys.  In the space of 14 days, I have amassed a Key Ring. Surely, that almost makes me permanent here, having a key ring??  I have the key to my room, the key to the front gate, the key to the back door (since I am usually the first one up and my room is outside of the main house, I got a key to the kitchen), and a key to the office in the school that I am using.  They are all those big, old-fashioned keys.

> I keep forgetting to check, but I need to find out if, in the sink, does the water swirl down the drain clock-wise or counter-clock-wise??

Inquiring minds, you know.