The Happy Trees Guy- (Michael)

So, I haven't cut my hair since November and it's getting a bit unruly. My kids have come up with a new nickname for me- "The Happy Trees Guy"- referring to Rob Ross the famous PBS painter that was always putting happy trees in his painting.

In celebration of my new nickname we have a new contest on the blog:

*******CAN YOU TELL WHICH ONE IS MICHAEL LYMAN?********

The first person to post the correct answer will get free painting lessons when I get back to the states.

What I was really going for with my current mop was famous South African rugby player, Victor Matfield...So, is this a better comparison, though this is not really a fair comparison since he has a forehead and I have more of a five-head with my nicely receding hairline.

******WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING HUNKS IS ACTUALLY CAPTAIN OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN RUGBY TEAM????******

Hope you weren't too challenged by our fun blog games. See you in the next installment.

Soweto (Hailey)

The Desmond Tutu church

A couple of weekends ago we went to a place called Soweto. Soweto is one of the largest townships in South Africa and is located on the outskirts of Johannesburg. A township is where anybody who wasn’t white was forced to live during Apartheid. Because of various different reason; poverty, culture, and oppression, many people still live in townships. Apartheid oppressed these people to the point that even today many of them go without plumbing and electricity. AIDS and crime are some other hardships that they must deal with. We, along with our Grandma Eilert, were able to experience some eye-opening things while in Soweto.
Since Soweto is such a large and dangerous place, we knew we would need someone to show us around. One of my dad’s colleagues offered to plan and take us there. Her name is Poppy. Her husband and two children also came with us. We decided to go on a Saturday.
Now to get to Soweto, you must drive through Johannesburg, which is one of South Africa’s largest cities. Skyscrapers, malls, and bridges were all we could see from the highway. On the highway, there were BMW’s and Mercedes. Clearly we were driving through a 1st world country. And then the scenery started changing. Once we exited off of the highway, there was such a difference between Johannesburg and Soweto. There was a little bit more trash on the streets, and especially more people. But the biggest difference was the housing. Everywhere around us there was some type of housing. Many areas were covered with Informal Settlements. That is the name for housing when people don’t own the land, but instead just set up their house. These houses aren’t really houses. They really are just five pieces of corrugated steel put together to make a home. There are also regular houses. Some of those houses sometimes have corrugated steel homes in their yards. They earn some extra money by renting out the land. Other than that, the traffic was very crazy. A lot of the people unfortunately were on their way to funerals. The AIDS epidemic takes so many lives every week that Saturdays are spent at funerals. It was like a whole new world.

There were paintings of Mandela all over Soweto

After driving for a while, we reached a church where we had planned on going. I don’t know the real name for the church. I just know that it was where Desmond Tutu preached, and peacefully fought apartheid. Next we visited an orphanage where Poppy used to work. It was a very nice orphanage. There was plenty of room and it was very clean. We got to go into where the youngest children lived and played. I became the new toy because I would lift the kids so that they could touch the ceiling. They loved it so much and I ended up doing that almost the whole time we were there. My mom always had a baby in her arms and I know that she would love to adopt while we are here. However my dad does not agree. After waving good –bye to all of the beautiful kids we left. The playground at the orphanage

A big marketplace was the next thing that we visited. It is named after Walter Sisulu was the It Vendors sell their goods and people do their shopping at this place. We got out and walked around. We even bought some naartjies, which are like oranges. It was such a colorful and eventful place. The Walter Sisulu Market

The big highlight of the trip was to see the famous Nelson Mandela home. It is located right near Orlando, Soweto. Mandela actually didn’t spend much time in his home, because he was in jail. Still it represents him and how much he has done for this country. My Grandma Eilert especially loved it. She has always been interested in South African politics and has always supported Nelson Mandela. I don’t think that she ever expected to come to Africa and see his home. Because we live here, we have given her an opportunity to come and see everything that she has heard about. I know that she loved her visit here so much. We were able to get a tour of the house and also see many awards and letter that were written to Nelson Mandela. His home has been turned into a museum. On the exact same street as Mandela’s house, Desmond Tuto’s home also resides. He actually still owns it and some of his family still lives there. That street is the only street in the whole world where two Nobel Peace Prize winners lived.

Everyone at the Nelson Mandela House

Right before lunch we stopped at a memorial to honor Hector Peterson. Hector Peterson was killed in movement against Afrikaans schooling. During apartheid, all of the school children in South Africa had to do school in Afrikaans. On June 16, 1976, many people held a protest against this. Police officers tried to stop this and while doing that, some people were killed. Hector Peterson was a young boy who was accidentally shot and killed. He was the first one to get killed and also to be photographed. The picture of him is very famous. Even today, June 16 is celebrated as youth day in honor of all the people who protested that day. The famous picture of Hector Peterson

Lunch was at a fantastic place in Johannesburg. It was called Moyo. It is a really good place to get a good African experience. The food was absolutely delicious and we have even gone there a second time we liked it so much. We got our faces painted like traditional Xhosa people. It was so much fun. The decorating of the restaurant was so artsy and African. We are hoping to design our new home using some ideas we gained from Moyo.
The last stop of the Soweto tour was the apartheid museum. It was also located in Johannesburg. The coolest experience ever happened right before we entered. A big group of school kids were entering at the same time as us. Apparently we still stand out as Americans because they immediately asked us if we were Americans. Once we replied, “Yes” they just started jumping up and down and shouting, “OBAMA, OBAMA, OBAMA!!” We love him so much too that we cheered along with them, and then proceeded to the museum. Everyone got a card that decided what color we were. I stayed white, but others in our group switched colors. Depending on our color, we all went into separate entrances and got to experience a little bit of how people felt just because of the color of their skin. Eventually we came together again and proceeded to tour the museum. It is so large that we actually only had time to see part of the Nelson Mandela exhibit, which is just a small portion of the museum.
Overall, we loved the day so much. We were able to learn so much history of this country and also get to spend time with Poppy and her family. Not only did we learn about the past, we also learned about the issues that still are in this country and where they came from. I really enjoyed the day and will never forget all the wonderful things that we were able to see. They will be in my memory forever.

These smokestacks are famous landmarks in Soweto

Crime in South Africa [Amy]

We knew when we came here that crime was a part of every day life. We have prayed hard and been diligent in acting safely. We also have been greatly blessed and often feel prompted as to where to go when and where not to go. Aside from now two instances where somehow, someone has managed to get our credit card numbers, (while we are in possesion of the cards), and use those numbers to go on shopping sprees, we have had no run in with crime what so ever. I am grateful for this. Crime is here though and often we hear stories at church of muggings, attacks, etc. The people we know who have experienced violent crime first hand have an amazing spirit of perseverance. Hailey has an 18 year old girl friend who has lost 4 cell phones at knife point, walking to and from school, in the past year. As a mother, I'm not even sure how to process that.
I taught a lesson in church about Adversity and the saving grace of Charity. A young woman shared an incident where she was dragged behind some bushes while walking to work. The man took everything she had of value and then she asked him if she could go. He explained, in not so nice words, that he wasn't finished with her yet. She glanced down into her purse and saw a bag of chips that was supposed to be her breakfast. She handed them to the man and asked him if he wanted them. He looked at her very suprised and said, " Why are you giving these to me?" She answered, " Well, I just figured you were probably hungry." The man took the chips and ran off, leaving her physically unharmed. Every day I am able to think about all that I have and be grateful. I am also grateful and amazed at the people in this country who are hungry, who are choosing not to steal and mug. But I am also mindful of those who don't know what else to do. I am working to have compassion for both.
South Africa is buzzing with soccer fever. The Confederation Cup is taking place here in Pretoria as we speak with the World Cup coming here in 2010. In all of South Africa's wisdom and welcoming hospitality, crime has hit the front pages once again. The entire Egypt's soccer team's hotel rooms were broken into while they played Italy the other night. Thousands of dollars of personal belongings were stolen. Clearly an inside job, much like it is when your credit card is compromised by a dishonest teller. I don't know what the SA government plans to do about the Egypt incident, but soccer is big here, and this country needs people to come for the World Cup. Not a great start.
In a strange sort of way, this post is really about how much we love it here. There is a lot of hope within the bad things you hear about. I have never experienced hunger, hopelessness, illiteracy, apartheid, or anything close to some of these set backs. What a great blessing it is to know people who have, to be able to witness how they deal with it, and to recognize that there are people all over the world, who every day put one foot in front of the other, even when someone will kick them back to their starting point before their head hits the pillow, if they have a pillow.
Thanks,
Amy

Exams are Like Newts

We are in the process of finishing exams here at the University of Pretoria. Exams in South Africa really have no comparison in the U.S.
They are similar, however to the O.W.L’s and N.E.W.T’s given in at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series and many of you may be familiar with those. Let me give you an example…

In the class I gave an exam in last Thursday, the exam is worth 100 points, which is worth 50% of the student’s grade. Students who do not have a 40% in their assignments prior to the exam can’t even take the exam, i.e. you have to “qualify” to take the exam. The student must receive 50% to pass the exam and a 50% to pass the course. If the student is sick on the day of the exam, they can arrange to take a “Sick Exam”- which is yet another exam that the professor has to write for those sick students. (Fortunately, we had no sick students on
Thursday.) Then there is a “Supplemental Exam” (a third exam the professor has to create)- and this is where it gets complicated…but in a
nutshell- if you get below 40% on the original exam, you can take the supplemental exam, which is worth ½ of the points of the original exam.
You can then add the points from the supplemental exam to those from the original exam to try to get your score up to a 50%. I told you it was complicated.

Exams are very official and formal here too. I have to sign every exam
paper- exams are always short answer/essay. I have to have the exams checked by an “External Examiner” once I have graded or “marked”
them, as they say here.

There are some other funny words associated with exams. For example:

“Invigilator”- An invigilator is a person who gives an exam. There are internal invigilators- the ones who wrote the exam- and external invigilators- the ones who check the exams after they have been given. We don’t really have a word for this in American English. The closest example would be “proctor”, or the person who “proctors an exam for you”. I think it sounds more like the title for the technician at the proctologist who administers rectal exams. "Sir, it's time for you to see the Internal Invigilator." It is such a horrible sounding word.

Funny conversation associated with this word:

Dr. Lyman to Department Secretary: “Petronelia, do you know where the exam is being held today?”
Petronelia the Department Secretary: “Are you the invigilator for the exam?”
Dr. Lyman: “Whoa! Um not sure what that word means.”
(Fortunately Dr. Geyer walks in- a very knowledgeable chap.) Dr. Geyer: “What was the question?”
Dr. Lyman: “What is an invigilator?”
Dr. Geyer: “That is the English word for it. I could tell you what the word is in Afrikaans but that wouldn't help. It’s the person who gives the test.”
Dr. Lyman: “Oh.”
Dr. Geyer: “You don’t have such a word in America?”
Dr. Lyman: “Sometimes we say that someone “proctors” an exam, but invigilator is a new word for me.”
Dr. Geyer: “So why is the Afrikaner helping the English speaker with his English.”

“Memorandum”- This sounds like the American word for a written official business or administrative communication. It is not. It is simply an answer key. So, here is the funny conversation related to a “memorandum”.

Dr. Lyman: “So what do I do with these exams once I have marked them.
Dr. Geyer: “Well, you put the scores on the front of the exam packet and then you sign it as the internal examiner. You then attach a copy of the exam with your signature and an indication that you have passed it on to the external examiner. Then you attach your memorandum.
Dr. Lyman: “A memorandum about what?”
Dr. Geyer (looking very confused): “What do you mean about what?”
Dr. Lyman: “What do I write the memorandum about and who do I address it to.”
Dr. Geyer: “A memorandum is the thing where you write the answers to the exam questions.”
Dr. Lyman: “Oh an ‘answer key’. I get it.

Isn't it so fun to be a professor.

Updates from Amy

Hello everyone,

Where to start. I haven't blogged in so long. We are having such a great time, I rarely have time to stop and tell about it. Here are some updates.

Homeschooling-- It is going well, some days are hard, but we are adjusting. The kids have been working hard on a biology unit studying mammals, birds, food webs, biomes etc. We had a nice presentation to Grandma Eilert. The following is a list of what each child did for those that care.

Lydia- sang Puff the Magic Dragon and showed Grandma throughout her visit that she knows all her shapes, colors, numbers, alphabets, and can count in Afrikaans up to ten.

Ezekiel- read a book to Grandma called "More Pants", hilarious. Ezekiel is doing well with his reading and his math. He especially likes "take away problems" (subtraction) which he does with his counting blocks

Luke- gave a great oral report on hippos. Both he and Sarah had done a wonderful art project to go with their reports. Super school kids!!!

Sarah- gave an oral report on ostriches and Amelia Earhart. Sarah continues to be the one who keeps us organized and on task. I appreciate her so much.

Nathanael- did an impressive power point on Leopards, he's becoming quite computer savvy.

Hailey- performed a new piece on her violin that she has learned all on her own. Quite impressive.

Hailey and Nathanael also enjoyed a "book club" with their Grandma on Dickens' "Great Expectations." How fun to hear the insights of a veteran English teacher, it was great.

Activities update

Since our trip to the Garden Route, we have enjoyed some great times. I took 25 young single adults camping for two nights. It was amazing. Many of them have never been camping, and we got to see some big animals, also a first for many. It was fun playing outdoor Martha Stewart, cooking and organzing for 30 people. I was tired, but they seemed to love it. Here are some pics..

Lydia turned three!!! We had a fun family party, and she's so cute, I thought I better post some picutres.

We have an amazing day in Soweto to tell you about, but I will let Hailey do that later. I am still enjoying playing the organ at church, although it is not easy. I am also directing the choir, which I love. We just performed in church yesterday. They did so well. We sang, "Master the Tempest is Raging." They sounded beautiful. There are 30 people in the choir, only about 4 of them read music, but they have natural ears and great voices. It was very fun.

We are leaving now on a 2 1/2 week trip. We will spend a week in the Drakensburg Mountains, a few days in Durbin, and a week on the Wild Coast. We will blog it when we get back. Take care.

Grandma + African Safari = Adventure of a Lifetime

I had a pretty awesome experience last weekend. My Grandma Eilert is here visiting and so we decided to take her on a safari. First off I would like to say that I am so grateful that my Grandma came. She doesn’t really enjoy flying, but she came to see her six grandkids anyways. We are so lucky to have such an impressive and loving Grandma.
My family and I left Saturday afternoon and drove north to a place called Pilansburg National Park. We had reservations for a Night Safari (5-7:30 pm) and a cottage to sleep in overnight. But first we met our guide/driver and he explained to us the rules of night safaris. They can be very dangerous because of the animals hunting habits, but he promised that as long as we stayed in the truck we would be ok. We climbed into the truck and set off into the park. Almost as soon as we were in the park, Patrick (our guide) stopped. We were really excited and thought that he had seen something interesting. In reality he had just stopped to load his rifle! It was kind of comforting that he had a rifle with him, but at the same time I really hoped that he would not have to use it.
In the park there were antelopes called impalas everywhere. They were boring for us to see them…again, but my Grandma really enjoyed them. We continued driving further into the park and came across a large herd of elephants. It mostly consisted of mommy and baby elephants. Personally I think that the babies are the cutest so I loved it. The elephants were right next to our truck, but left us alone, because they were eating. It’s so fun to watch them eat because they just tear off a huge branch and eat it like stick of celery. Grandma really enjoyed them and said she would be satisfied, even if we didn’t see anything else all night. Well she was in for a treat!
Next we passed three white rhinos, but unfortunately only got a shot of their butts. Still we saw them and heard them snort. Patrick was very nice, and next allowed us to take a potty stop in the middle of the tour. (That really benefitted Sarah, Mom, and Lydia. Haha) There are toilets in the park that are fenced in so that lions and stuff won’t eat you. They also have things called hides which allow you to look out over lakes without the animals seeing you. Dad and I went out and looked at the lake. We got to see two white and gray owls fly and land on a tree. It was an awesome thing to observe.
We got back into the safari truck to search for our main goal: Lions. We have not been able to see any lions and how can you go to Africa and not see a lion? (Keep in mind that by now it is freezing cold outside and dark. We are driving really fast and so the wind blows through our coats. We eventually snuggled up in blankets. Who thought it could get this cold in Africa?) Almost as soon as we got into the truck, Patrick heard on his radio that a male lion had been spotted. We sped over to the place and found a traffic jam of safari trucks; a sure sign of a lion sighting. There is a certain etiquette that the guides follow. They allow each truck to have a turn looking at the lion. By the time we got there, most of the people had gotten to see the lion already, and so we moved right up to the front of the line. I can’t really express how majestic and beautiful the lion was. It was walking along the road like it owned the world. He was a young male, and had a small mane starting to grow. He didn’t seem to mind the lights and cameras flashing around him. He was walking away from us, so we didn’t really get to see his face. After about twenty minutes, he turned and walked into the brush. Our guide drove us away from the other trucks and we just stopped to look at the sky. Patrick turned off the engine and turned off all of lights. The stars here are so spectacular. The Milky Way is so clear and you can look up into it. It’s almost as if the whole sky is coated in stars with how many stars there were. So there I was gazing into the sky and I hear branches crack behind me. As soon as I hear that, our guide spun around and shined his light on the road behind us. There was the lion! He had gone through the brush and then popped out later back onto the road. This time, we got to see his whole profile because he was standing sideways. After “posing” for a while, he turned and walked around our truck and laid down in the grass to left of us. He was about twenty feet away. After shining the light at him, and then also what was further away, we discovered that there was a herd of wildebeests. It turns out that he was stalking them and so we decided to watch. Seeing a lion kill in the wild is really rare and we were pretty excited to watch one ourselves. After about ten minutes, we heard deep growl sounding-like things. Patrick explained that the sound was other lions talking to our lion. Apparently the other lions were telling our lion to come home or something like that because our lion got up and left. That was the last time we saw him, but it was still such an incredible experience. This the only decent picture of the lion and even then it pretty much sucks. But it was extremly dark and the lion was constantly moving. We also spent a lot of our time just soaking in the lion's presence! Unfortunately, it was time to head back to our cottage because the tour was over. Patrick drove us home, we ate dinner quickly at the restaurant and then fell into bed.
The next morning, we arose at six, so that we would be able to get into the park at the opening time. (Six-thirty) This time, we just drove around in our own car. It was rather squished because of how many people there were. (the eight of us and Grandma) There are only seven real seats, but somehow we managed. Anyways, our plan was to drive through the park until nine, pack up the cottages, go eat breakfast, and then go home. We started off driving and before we knew it, there were two other cars stopped. We looked to our left and spotted a full grown male and a female lion. We were astonished that we were able to see another lion! And this time it was two. How amazing!! They were just snoozing under a tree and behind a rock. After a little bit they both stood up and stretched. The male shook his mane and we were able to see it. What a remarkable experience. After having a satisfactory stretch, they trotted off further away from the road and soon we lost sight of them. It was incredible.
I don’t remember the order in which we saw things next, but I will still tell you everything.
We stopped at a hide overlooking a really big dam (lake). We knew it was where the main group of hippos lived, but we weren’t expecting to see any and we didn’t really feel like getting out of the warm cozy car. Working up willpower, we unloaded into the crisp morning air and walked out to the dam. There they were, seven, eight, or nine (it’s hard to count them) huge hippos lounging in the water. In our previous experience with hippos we have only seen their ears, nose, and eyes. This time we saw over half of their bodies. There were also some babies who were floating a lot more out of the water than the adults. We were content for watching them for a long time. We saw a couple of tussles where they opened their mouths wide open. We heard snorts and grumbles that were very cool. It was so picturesque because they were all gathered around a dead tree and there were mountains in the background. It’s also hard to imagine hippos being so violent, but they are. They kill more people in Africa, than any other animal. They seem very lazy, but in reality they are so ferocious and large. Luckily we didn’t have any bad encounters with them.


Another animal that we saw was jackal. The first couple of safaris we went on, Jackals were the ONLY carnivores we ever saw. So we freely admit that they are one of our favorites. They are very small, but extremely beautiful. They have orange-ish bodies and a black back. It kind of reminds us a fox. Not very big or anything, but they are very cool.
Ever seen the lion king? Well we have and love it. Every time we see animals we think of Lion King. Especially Pumba. Pumbas, or a warthogs, are everywhere. Pilansburg has been blessed with a large amount of rain this year. Warthogs thrive when there is rain because they eat grass and also give birth in the grass. Because of the rain, the grass has grown extremely tall, rewarding them with protection and food. We saw many warthogs on this trip.
We spotted another Lion King character- the Wildebeest. They are the ones that stampeded and killed Simba’s father. They have a very intimidating look about them. Their eyes are very dark and they stare at you all the time. The Wildebeest were grazing right beside our car and came really close. They are actually very large animals and it was quite breathtaking.
Giraffes everywhere!! There was this one area and there were about six giraffes. Three on the left and three on the right. The ones on the left were further away, but the ones to the left of our car were so close we could have almost touched them. Those consisted of a mom, dad, and baby. O so cute! The giraffes to the left were eating trees in the distance. As we continued driving slowly, the ones on the right followed us. Giraffes are so graceful. The way they walk is so impressive. Their bodies just flow perfectly. My Grandma’s favorite things were the giraffes.
To conclude our advernture, we saw a couple of herds of zebras occasionally. The local nickname for them is Pajama Donkey and it suits them very well. They stick out so much because of their vivid stripes and are very stunning. They are the first animal that we saw once we got here and we continue to enjoy seeing them.
Well, after the final zebra herd, we had to go back to our cottage where we packed up and headed to breakfast. The drive home went fine and we really enjoyed our time. It was especially nice because our Grandma Eilert was there. We love her so much and are so glad that she decided to come and visit us here. I had so much fun laughing with her and I know that the rest of the family did too. I know that she will remember all of the marvelous animals that she saw with us. I know that she is also very grateful that our guide, Patrick, did not have to use his rifle. Love you Grandma :)

I forgot to talk about this animal, sorry. This is called a secretary bird. It is the tallest flying bird of prey. Every time I see one, I feel as if we took a wrong turn and ended up in Jurassic Park. If you want to learn more, your time would be well-used searching it on Google.

Sarah's update from South Africa

So far in South Africa it has been okay but I still miss you guys. Happy Birthday Audrey!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you had an awesome party and had fun. I'm sorry I missed it. Love ya. Hi to all my other friends. I miss church and miss our primary. It is very differant and not a lot of people in our ward our very musically talented so it is pretty rough. I can't wait to get back home, Sarah.