During our time in South Africa we stayed with Josh's brother Jeffrey and his family. They were extremely hospitable and graciously took us into their lively home. With all the guests it sometimes numbered between ten and fourteen persons. These picture are from the Groenkloof Nature Reserve which is literally right next to the capital, Pretoria. We were able to ride bike from the house into it. There are only ungulates and birds there so you can walk and bike around without having to worry about being stalked by lions or trampled by an elephant. The only danger you could run into is if you are dumb enough to try and ride a zebra. Below is a enormous grasshopper like insect that we noticed around the area. It was about as long as my hand!
The twin boys Isaac and Eugene had a birthday party that we held at the American Community Center, which is a facility behind the Ambassador's house that Americans can use. I got back to my arts and crafts roots and made a pinata out of paper mache. It held true through several glancing blows before a young girl connected with one and then kept swinging as the children dodged the mop handle to grab for the candy falling on the ground. We are lucky no one lost an eye.
This is Esaie, Jeffrey and Rose's baby boy. He likes to wear what he eats especially if it melts.
This is a shot of the beach in front of the hostel we stayed in Mozambique. Amazing place and country. It felt much more like the Africa you think of than South Africa. The scuba diving was also other worldly. So much different sea life. There were giant manta rays and whale sharks being seen everyday.
We met a girl named Lydia at one of the boys' soccer tournaments who had played on the National Soccer and Basketball teams and was giving a motivational, Don't Do Drugs type talk. She invited us to come to Soweto with some of her friends because she partly grew up there. Soweto was the part of Johannesburg that was a black area during apartheid and is actually bigger than Johannesburg itself. In the past there had been a lot of violence and it has a bad reputation but nothing we saw or people we talked to would indicate that. Lydia also is working for the World Cup that is coming to South Africa in 2010 so we were able to see the new visitor's center and one of the stadiums under a remodel.
During our time in South Africa we stayed with Josh's brother Jeffrey and his family. They were extremely hospitable and graciously took us into their lively home. With all the guests it sometimes numbered between ten and fourteen persons. These picture are from the Groenkloof Nature Reserve which is literally right next to the capital, Pretoria. We were able to ride bike from the house into it. There are only ungulates and birds there so you can walk and bike around without having to worry about being stalked by lions or trampled by an elephant. The only danger you could run into is if you are dumb enough to try and ride a zebra. Below is a enormous grasshopper like insect that we noticed around the area. It was about as long as my hand!
The twin boys Isaac and Eugene had a birthday party that we held at the American Community Center, which is a facility behind the Ambassador's house that Americans can use. I got back to my arts and crafts roots and made a pinata out of paper mache. It held true through several glancing blows before a young girl connected with one and then kept swinging as the children dodged the mop handle to grab for the candy falling on the ground. We are lucky no one lost an eye.
This is Esaie, Jeffrey and Rose's baby boy. He likes to wear what he eats especially if it melts.
This is a shot of the beach in front of the hostel we stayed in Mozambique. Amazing place and country. It felt much more like the Africa you think of than South Africa. The scuba diving was also other worldly. So much different sea life. There were giant manta rays and whale sharks being seen everyday.
We met a girl named Lydia at one of the boys' soccer tournaments who had played on the National Soccer and Basketball teams and was giving a motivational, Don't Do Drugs type talk. She invited us to come to Soweto with some of her friends because she partly grew up there. Soweto was the part of Johannesburg that was a black area during apartheid and is actually bigger than Johannesburg itself. In the past there had been a lot of violence and it has a bad reputation but nothing we saw or people we talked to would indicate that. Lydia also is working for the World Cup that is coming to South Africa in 2010 so we were able to see the new visitor's center and one of the stadiums under a remodel.
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