This Part of the Osler Adventure Ends

The title post photo is of the day Jon and I spent in the long-term storage facility in Sterling, VA, claiming and identifying three years of our lives, which were packed away in 12 giant crates, stacked like the last scene of the movie, The Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Sadly, our adventure in South Africa has officially ended. We have settled in Reston, Virginia after a trans-Atlantic move, which included: having to travel without our kitty cat and collecting him at a later date from Customs; spending the summer in a corporate apartment while we navigated the crazy real estate rental market in the DC area; having Jonathan live with us for his summer internship in DC when we haven't all lived together for three years (woohoo!); and trying to re-adjust to life driving in the right-hand lane in the left-side seat of the car.

However, life is slowly returning to normal - I am back teaching at Williamsburg Middle School in Arlington, VA, where I worked for one semester before moving to SA. I was incredibly fortunate to be re-hired in such an excellent school system and wonderful school.  Jonathan is back for his second year of law school at William and Mary. Jon is back to his directorship of global accounts and has already returned to Africa twice since moving back. His first trip back in August found him stranded a day or so after the Nairobi, Kenya airport burned to the ground the day he was scheduled to fly in from Jo'burg. He made the trip back this week and reported that he cleared Immigration and Customs in tents erected on the site of the old burned-out terminal.

I say that life has returned to normal but honestly, my "normal" has been forever changed by an incredible 30 months in the Republic of South Africa. I am not eloquent enough to explain further but I hope all my previous posts hint at my meaning.

There is a huge part of me that will always belong to South Africa and its people, its animals, its beauty, its history, and its future. Even now, into September, South Africa still feels more like home to me than the US does, and I think I speak for Jon when I say that we would both have stayed longer if we could have.

People say you can never go home. But home isn't a place. It's a feeling. A feeling that comes from being a part of a community, a culture, a family. Right now - our address might be Reston, Virginia, but our home is still in South Africa.

All our best, Jon and Jody

A Second Trip Into The Bush

Our dining companions each night at camp.
I always tried to get a seat at the table with my
back to our little animal friends.
With a little more imagination, I could write
one excellent Goosebumps book!

It is hard to believe that March is almost over! As I pulled up my blog this afternoon to update it I saw my last post was two months ago. I’ve got some catching up to do.

After our family (Jon, Jody, Jonathan) trip to Mauritius for Christmas, we all returned to our jobs and school, a little more tanned and a lot more relaxed. You may remember last year's post about my middle school's trip to the bush for a 3-night team building adventure. We went again this year to the same camp, which the kids really enjoyed last year.  However, last year we went in March with just 27 students and 3 teachers. This year we went in February with 42 students and 6 teachers.  I mention the months because last year we were entering the fall season – very warm days but cool nights.  This year we went a month earlier and it was unbearably hot.

The bush is dotted with acacia trees which, while not big, offer the only shade on the veld. We would take turns huddling together under their small canopy waiting for instructions for the next activity, hoping to get just a moment to cool off. The photo at the top is exactly the landscape, not only at the camp but all over northern South Africa. This led to time spent with the first aid kit, cleaning scratches and punctures, as acacia trees are also covered in giant thorns.  Also because of the heat, we spent more time at the dammed pond using the zip-line and the rope swing, which the students absolutely loved.  But this resulted in slipping and falling, leech removal, an injured shoulder and on our last full day there, a trip into the closest town (45 minutes away) for a student who received seven stitches in the bottom of a foot. 

One of the workers at the camp loaded my student in the back seat of his car and drove us to, literally, the town doctor.  The doctor was a gray-haired Afrikaner who was so wonderful with Francesco.  When Francesco asked the doctor if he had done stitches before, he chuckled and reminded us that he was a country doctor in a farming community and had sewn up lots of people over the years.  Francesco was worried he would have to go home that day. He didn’t want to leave early because that night, our last night at camp, we were actually sleeping out in the bush.  Earlier in our trip our instructor Dirk had told us all to be very careful walking off the paths because of snakes and animals lurking in the bush.  He especially warned all of us to watch out for the Black Mamba, the most venomous snake in Africa.  Dirk’s advice if any of us got bit out there? “Drag yourself under the closest acacia tree, settle in the shade, light a cigarette, and enjoy the last ten minutes of your life.” One of my students actually asked Dirk, “what if you don’t smoke?” Dirk rolled his eyes and muttered something in Afrikans. Your guess is as good as mine as to what he said. But I bet we could all figure it out.

 After my return from the doctor, Dirk found me to tell me that a black mamba had been sighted by another instructor earlier that day, right in the area where we had planned to camp out. He felt we should not camp outside that night just to be safe.  The kids whined a bit. The adults were just fine with it. Instead, we did a night walk. The students were divided into small groups and set off on a very dark trail, no torches (flashlights) allowed. The teachers are bigger kids than the kids much of the time so you can probably guess that we hid just off the trail, scaring the kids as they each passed by us.  Each student fell into a category: the runner, the screamer, the statue, the disbeliever. 

We made it home the next day where Francesco debuted his badge of courage in the form of seven stitches, to all the younger students. And I went home and took a nap.

 

 

The Latest News from South Africa

There have been quite a few big news stories in South Africa over the last few months. Looking at the map above as reference, we live in the northern part of the Gauteng Province. To the north of Gauteng is the Limpopo Province.  The Limpopo River is known for having the biggest, most dangerous crocodiles in the world. And as of last week, there are about 15,000 more crocodiles in the river than normal.  Limpopo has has a very wet summer season, causing the river to overflow its banks. As the flood waters began to put pressure on the walls surrounding a crocodile farm, the owner eventually was forced to open the gates to ease the water pressure.  Needless to say, the crocodiles to advantage of the opportunity and swam away, into the river.  There are massive parties hunting the crocs and trying to get them safely back to their farm home.  It is reported that several  thousand have already been recaptured but that still leaves several thousand more unaccounted for. Hunting takes place mostly at night when you can see their eyes just above the water line.  As residents along the river spot the crocs, they call the local authorities to come out and remove them.

In the Western Cape Province there has been a farmers' strike for weeks now.  The farms in that area are mostly wineries.  The manual laborers on these farms are asking for a pay raise from their current daily wage of 69 Rand (US $7.72) to 150 Rand (US $16.78). 

In the Northwestern Province platinum miners began striking back in August of 2012 for similar reasons. This strike ended tragically with almost 40 people killed---miners, police, and picket-line-crossers.

Also in the Northwestern Province, another mining company is closing 4 shafts and laying off 14,000 workers.  With an unemployment rate of 25%, more strikes are likely.

On a happier note, South Africa is hosting the 2013 AFCON (Africa Cup of Nations) soccer tournament.  It is an exciting display of Africa's best soccer teams and the first time since the 2010 World Cup that many of these venues have been used.  South Africa has dedicated fans

In other news, it looks like we are heading back to the US in June of this year. We are not 100% sure of where we will be but as soon as we know we'll be letting you know.

Hope your 2013 is off to a good start.  Jody and Jon

Hi everyone -

We hope everyone has had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  Jon and I had the best Christmas present when Jonathan came to visit us for the holidays.  After his 16-hour flight from the US, we put him on another plane the next day for 4 hours when we all flew to Mauritius for Christmas.  Mauritius is a small island on the eastern side of Madagascar.  Click here if you would like to read a little more about the island from a tourism standpoint.

Mauritius has quite a history, beginning in 1638 when it was first colonized by the Dutch.  It has since been under French and British rule and has been an independent stable democracy since 1992. You can click here if you would like to read more about the history of the island.

We spent 5 nights in Mauritius in a beautiful resort on the east side of the island, called Belle Mare Plage. It was literally picture postcard beautiful - white sand, crystal water, giant palms.  It rained Christmas Eve and Christmas Day but the beach was still beautiful and Jonathan and I, as well as other tourists, flopped on our beach chairs under our tiki shelters and read, listening to the waves crash.

This is the first time I have ever spent a Christmas away on vacation, and while we did thoroughly enjoy ourselves, I am looking forward to being back in the US for Christmas 2013.

Hotel Lobby

View from our lunch table

Santa even comes to Mauritius

A beautiful evening, an almost full moon

Christmas evening and like every other dad,Jon is
wondering how he is going to pay for this come January!

Christmas Eve, Mauritius 2012

A Tough Day Today

I watched a man die today. I couldn’t do anything to help him. I watched as he bled from his nose and mouth and head, his eyes half open, glazed over. I watched as his body involuntarily twitched, his shallow breaths coming at greater intervals. 

I haven’t updated this blog in months. To be perfectly honest we just haven’t done much that seemed to warrant an entry. Jon and I have fallen into the same old routine – home to work and home again. Yesterday I had a doctor’s appointment at a nearby hospital which has a wing of doctor’s rooms, as they are called here.  I got there to find the power was out, and so I completed my new patient paperwork by lantern.  It didn’t seem to bother anyone, least of all the doctor, who simply pulled two chairs up to the closest window in his office to examine my hand.  I called Jon at work and told him about this funny little episode. He laughed and said, “Now there’s your next blog entry - another ‘welcome to Africa’ moment. “

It has been such an incredible adventure for Jon and me here in Africa. Our blog’s subtitle even reflects that. We are planning to return home in June next year and lately I have become torn about leaving.  Though the first year here was excruciatingly difficult for me, both Jon and I have come to like it here more and more. Yes, there have been lots of “Welcome to Africa” moments, those silly little incidents when we are reminded we are not living in a first world nation. We watch the news and read the papers daily and there is no doubt that South Africa is a “rough neighbourhood.” Our friends and family worry about us. Currently there are over 20,000 SA miners on strike. There have been protests, violence, riots and dozens of deaths. But we live a long way from these mines so it doesn’t affect us. There has been a trucking strike for the last few weeks. Violence and protests between strikers and those truckers who cross the picket lines left us with some empty grocery shelves, but nothing more serious. Closer to home, two more houses in our complex were robbed a few weeks ago. That makes four in a year. We are reminded by security to keep our doors and windows locked and closed, unless they have bars. We are told to stop when we come through the entrance gates so no one can tailgate in behind us. People here shrug off the corruption in government, steer clear of the growing illegal settlements, and turn a blind eye to the street hawkers and beggars. They blow their horns and gesture with their hands when seas of taxis disrupt traffic flow, create roads from medians, shoulders and sidewalks. Everyone knows they are a necessity for carrying hundreds of thousands of native Africans wherever they need to go. I’ve talked about the taxis here before, how there are gazillions of these rickety old tin cans on the road in Jo’burg, and all over Africa as well. The taxi drivers are callous and careless. They must meet a daily minimum in cab fare each day. Once the minimum is met the driver gets to pocket all the overage. This incentive has created an army of drivers who regularly run red lights, pass illegally, speed recklessly and behave rudely. But other than making me a much more careful and defensive driver, I have learned to ignore them, just like I do with the street hawkers and the beggars.

Taxi accidents are a daily occurrence. Fender benders, side-view mirror taps and paint scrapes are the norm. Occasionally the wrecks are catastrophic, with dozens hurt or killed. Two weeks ago Jon and I watched a taxi T-bone a Jeep, flipping it on its side. The taxi’s windshield was shattered and as Jon and I pulled over to help, we watched several women crawl out of the taxi, crying.  We stood with them, talking and hugging.  No one was seriously injured and so eventually we drove on, chalking it up to one more crazed taxi driver who should have his license revoked.

And then, there’s today. I dropped Jon off at 5:50 this morning at the nearest bus station where he catches the bus every morning for his ride to work. I always then head north for my 40 minute commute to Pretoria. While I was waiting at the light, second in line behind a van, I heard the crash. I looked up to see a white taxi and a blue car that had collided violently, a third car hit peripherally. The man in front of me and I jumped out to help.  The people climbed from the crumpled taxi; there were women’s shoes in the street, a car speaker, other car parts and glass. An older black woman about my size was clutching her head and literally fell into my arms. She was dazed and crying. I held her and guided her to the curb to sit down, rocking and talking to her. The sidewalks on either side filled with onlookers but no one came to help.  When the woman seemed to be okay, I ran to the blue car, the most damaged of the three vehicles, to see if I could help the man. I was crying and yelling for someone to help, but no one came. I felt like I was in one of those strange post-apocalyptic movies; it was eerily silent even though by now, there must have been 50 people standing on the sidewalk. I didn’t touch him because I wouldn’t have known what to do for him anyway. I just wanted to comfort him or do something to help. But I didn’t, remembering the high HIV population here. The man who was driving the van in front of me came over and looked in on the driver as well. He just shook his head when I asked him what he thought. And on this surreal Friday morning, I came to the realization that, for me, Africa no longer feels like an adventure. Today I know I am ready to come home.

 

 

The Elephant Sanctuary

The day before the last day of school we took the middle school students to visit The Elephant Sanctuary, about an hour's drive north of us.  You can visit the link to read more about the program but basically the three sanctuary locations are places to shelter elephants needing care. They are eventually released back to the wild or stay on at one of the sanctuaries as teaching elephants. It is a very interactive program where you learn all about the elephant's anatomy, get to feed the elephants and even pet them and receive a little peck on the cheek.  After having experienced that first hand, I can tell you elephants are slobbery, smelly creatures whose aroma stays with you long after you wash your face and hands! Other surprising facts I learned about elephants- they have incredibly long eyelashes, their skulls look like a honey comb on the inside. A solid skull would be too heavy for an elephant to hold up. An elephant's trunk has 100,000 muscles units in it and elephants use their trunks as a nose, a mouth and a hand. Without their trunks, elephants could not survive. Elephants use their tusks to scrape bark off trees to eat and will do this with only one tusk. If the right tusk is shorter, then the elephant is right-tusked and uses the right tusk for scraping. If the left tusk is shorter, the opposite is true. 

One of my smallest students feeding one of the biggest elephants!

GRADUATION DAY 2012!

What a spectacular day on Sunday, 20 May!  Four years in the making and it went off without a hitch! It was a whirlwind trip for both Jon and me. He flew in to DC on Wednesday night and I arrived on Thursday morning from Jo'burg. We met Jonathan on Friday afternoon in Charlottesville where we feasted on Mexican food at Guadalajara, Jonathan's favorite Mexican restaurant. Tex-Mex is about the only food you can't get in SA and we miss it so much. Saturday Bonnie and Brook (Jon's sister and sister-in-law) drove over from DC and Jonathan took us all on an extensive fact-filled walking tour of the campus that included a stop at his frat house. Yes, Animal House is alive and well.  We all had a nice dinner that evening, joined by Jonathan's girlfriend Ally.

Sunday we were up bright and early to stake out our lawn seats.  Families of graduates get only three tickets to watch the graduation from the Lawn. Other members have to watch from remote viewing locations. Big Jon bought two lawn chairs for Bonnie and Brook and set them up under a tree to listen from loud speakers. Ally and I grabbed 3 seats along the processional line in hopes of seeing JB, which we did.  There were an estimated 35,000 people in Charlottesville for graduation and the excitement (and traffic and parking nightmares and short tempers) was evident.  Jon joined us as the processional began. The colored banners representing each college came by with the degree candidates behind them. Many of the graduates carried balloons and had decorated their mortar boards with funny sayings or thank yous.  The procession went on for almost an hour as the more than 6,000 degree candidates(undergrads, grads, PhDs, MDs, JDs) began at the Rotunda and worked their way down the Lawn.  Katie Couric was the graduation speaker and she did a fabulous job. Each college was recognized and asked to stand by the dean of the college, the President conferred their degrees upon them and so on. Jonathan found his way to us eventually where we snapped a few pictures before Bonnie and Brook headed back to Lewes, DE where Bonnie was being sworn in on Monday as the newest Lewes, DE councilwoman!

Jon, Jonathan, Ally and I had a wonderful dinner and a beautiful country club just outside Charlottesville. It was the perfect way to end the day, celebrating JB's accomplishments and talking about his future. His future is somewhat certain - law school for sure. He is just not sure where. He has had several acceptances and is still on a few waitlists.  William and Mary is at the top right now, where he is assured a spot and has been offered some scholarship money.  He is still hoping to clear the UVA waitlist, which is his top choice.  We will wait and see. In the mean time, he has sublet an apartment in C'ville for the summer and looking for a job.

It seems like yesterday when he got off the bus after his first day of kindergarten in Gainesville, GA and told me his first day of school sucked.  Never did I think it would all go by so fast!

Ally straightening Jonathan's mortar board

Jon, Jonathan, Bonnie and Brook
outside JB's frat house, Chi Phi

Ally, Jonathan and his friend Gavin