Pictures of Drakensburg Mountains and Wild Coast [Amy]

More Pictures! [Amy]

More African Adventures [Amy]

Sorry that we haven't posted anything in a while, busy with school and church I guess. We were able to go on another wonderful adventure the first two weeks of June, as well as spending an amazing week in Kruger National Park in July. The pictures speak for themselves so other than giving you the itinerary, I will just let you enjoy the pics.

We spent a week in the Drakensburg Mountains which run along the easter border of Lesotho. They are spectacular. We hiked and canoed, heard the famous "Drakensburg Boys Choir" give the most amazing vocal concert I have ever heard, and genuinely had an amazing time. We spent several nights in a "rondavel," a traditional African round house with a thatched roof. We were on a rance in the middle of nowhere, all by ourselves. The stars here are indescribable. While at the ranch, we went on a all day horseback ride into the mountains. We saw eland and some amazing scenery. Then it was on to Durbin, along the coast for a waterpark and aquarium. Very fun. After that, we spent a week along what is known as the "Wild Coast." And wild it is. Very undeveloped, rocky shores, beautiful beaches. We stayed at this dirt cheap "backpackers," which turned out to be our own cottage overlooking the ocean! Truly one of the best weeks of my life. Other than my third bout of intestinal problems due to bad water and a weak stomach, it was a great trip.

In July we went to Kruger National Park. There really aren't words to describe such a place. It is not a "park" like so many other places but truly just wild Africa. It is bigger that the state of Maryland and has 100,000's of animals. We saw the Big 5, including a leapord which alludes many. We had some really scary moments with large female elephants-there are a lot of babies right now and the moms and aunts are VERY protective. It is a bad combination because the babies are curious. One came right up to our car and put his trunk in my window. His Mom didn't like that much and we found ourselves sitting very still while three full grown elephants were within touching distance outside our window deciding whether or not to roll our car off the road. Did you know elephants can growl? They can, I heard them!!! It was fantastic.

The wildlife here has been a real treat for us, but for me it is the people I love the most. I have never met such wonderful people. They are all struggling to turn this country into something great, and they will, there are just a lot of growing pains right now. Enjoy the pictures!

Zeke's New Candy Discovery- Dad

Chapter 1.

For a couple of days now we have noticed two things about our car. First, it had a new refreshing and somwhat pleasant smell when you got in it. Second, Zeke's new suit coat was slopped on the floor of the car. Now, Zeke's clothes being slopped is no new thing, but the refreshing smell in the car...now that was new.

Chapter 2.

Tonight Sarah, Zeke, Luke, Lydia and I were all in the girls room having fun with the lights all turned off. Eventually, this turned in to a dirty clothes flinging fight. After we turned the lights on Sarah found two round, blue, discs on the floor of her room. She picked up the two blue disks and asked "Dad, what are these?" In the context of a girls bedroom in our home the two blue disks looked completely unfamiliar. Then I remembered in a flash of recognition that these were two urinal mints from the men's bathroom at the church and said "Well, they're urinal mints". I immediately turned to the curious, inquisitive, and somewhat spontaneous Zeke and had the following conversation:

"Zeke, did you take those out of the urinal at the church on Sunday?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I don't know?"

"What did you think they were?"

"Candy"

"Did you taste them?"

"No."

"What did you do with them?"

"Just put them in my pocket."

So, the mystery was solved, both the cause of the mysterious lovely smell in the car and the appearance of two urinal mints on the floor of our girls' bedroom. Zeke had taken the urinal minds out of the urinal at the church on Sunday when his curiousity got the best of him. He them put them in the pocket of his new suit coat. The suit coat sat on the floor of the van wafting the smell of its unusual contents all around the car. When I finally had Zeke take the coat into the house tonight, he put the coat in the nearest dirty clothes bucket he could find- in the girls' room. In the furor of the dirty clothes fight, the suit coat was flung across the room and the two blue stowaways in his coat pocket ended up on the floor. Needless to say, both Sarah, Zeke, and I have all washed our hands quite extensively tonight following this unusual discovery.

Isn't it great to be six.

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