Postcards from South Africa 03.22.11

When I learned that Wilna, the sweet wife of one of Ester's brothers and our local hostess, was into horse training I enthusiastically accepted her offer to meet her horses (and a pony!) and go riding. The horse broke out into a gallop and we zoomed up and down through the orchards at the base of one of the neighboring mountains. This was a magical evening!

Thank you, Mom and Dad, for all those weeks you let me spent at the Girl Scout horse camp. My riding skills finally came in handy!

Of course, everyone had to get a photo with Rebel.

Postcards from South Africa 03.21.11

We were invited by our host, Ester, to travel with her to her family's farm, which is located 4 hours from Pretoria and just a handful of miles from the Kruger National Park. This was in the Mpumalanga region of South Africa, very close to the city of Nelspruit.

Ester definitely didn't prepare us for the magnificence of this place, which is run by Ester's two brothers (handed down from her father). This family has a stunning work ethic and, as is necessary for success in business, strong personalities and minds that know exactly what they want and how they will go about getting it. On top of this, they are very generous hosts--we were never hungry (or, as the boys will attest, thirsty--everywhere we went there was a full bar!). Our jaws dropped countless times daily. Who knows how many mountains, valleys, game animals, and whatever else this family owns -- that, and their headquarters are located in what may be one of the most beautiful areas of South Africa. This area is said to be forever green and features lovely moderate temperatures. The weather was perfect while we were there for dipping in the pool, reading in the hammocks and adventuring to their private waterfall lodge and game reserve. Photos of all of this to come!

Here, I will begin with just a few general farm photos. The family runs a citrus export business, among other things, and this is one of their countless fields planted with oranges. These are new growth and will likely not produce marketable fruit for a few years still.


We LOVED the lush green mountains, especially when we could spot monkeys up in the trees!


The warehouse/packhouse (more on this later):

Farm kids. We caught the youngest (an adorable 1 year old girl) drinking out of the dog water dish and no one batted an eye. Here, the older two boys are focusing very intently on lawn-mowing. There was no distracting them!

Postcards from South Africa 03.20.11

Guess what we found??

Postcards from South Africa 03.19.11

We set out with our host's car to visit the Sterkfontein Caves but ended up at Maropeng, the museum pictured here, which is just a few km from the caves. Let's just say, we really should have visited the caves as they house thousands of early hominid fossils, including the first hominid fossil who came to be known as Mrs. Ples. We thought the fossils were in the museum, not in the caves... silly us!

Still, the museum was a blast. Maarten and I paid our admission fee, hopped in the indoor boat that takes you through a variety of ages (let me tell you, the ice age was a trip!) and toured the museum with enthusiasm. Our enthusiasm was key, because we quickly discovered that the museum is better visited with children. Still, I think we'd agree that we learned a little something! I particularly enjoyed the skull and jaw bone fossil replicas from homo neanderthal and homo ergaster due to their relevance to the study of the evolution of language--something I covered in depth in the class I taught at NU.

Postcards from South Africa 03.18.11

Yes, I get it. The blog has turned into a zoo. But trust me, photos of animals are far more interesting than photos of what our typical days consist of (=books, thinking, books, typing, books, editing & typing some more).

On that note, did you know that giraffes sleep less than 2 hours for every 24? Apparently they must be laying down during the REM cycle and this is not safe for them because of how awkward and time-costly it is for them to get back up again. It seems that a lion would make easy feast off of a sleeping giraffe.

That being said, we caught one sleeping and were very pleased.

Postcards from South Africa 03.17.11

Drew and the Dutchies (aka Maarten & Wietse, here Drew is with Wietse) thought they were ugly, but I found osteriches to be truly beautiful animals. Graceful was a word that came to mind. Huge feathers, big eyes and scary killer talons make for quite the bird.

Postcards from South Africa 03.16.11

One of the goals of the Lion Park is to increase the lion population. When lionesses give birth, the lion cubs are protected and cared for within a special section of the park. They are safe to be around until ~6 months of age, so the park allows visitors to come into the cages and pet the cubs. So... did we do it? Um, of COURSE!!

Postcards from South Africa 03.15.11

...VEGETARIAN ALERT: THIS POST MAY CONTAIN VEG-INAPPROPRIATE MATERIAL...

We visited a Lion Park near Johannesburg a few weeks ago with our Dutch flatmates. This park is pretty phenomenal because you are able to drive around an expanse of land gated and fenced into different zones (multiple lion zones, a cheetah zone, giraffe zone, etc.) and idle just feet away from magnificent creatures in an almost natural habitat.

We affectionately named this male Mufasa... Roar! They appear surprisingly larger and stronger in person than we had imagined. These are not your average zoo lions.


One of the guards tipped us off to the fact that we just so happened to have come on FEEDING DAY!! We sat by our pride of choice (headed by Mufasa, above) until 12pm, when a pickup truck came into the enclosure stacked with what can only be described as "really large chunks of dead animals." A man standing in the bed of the truck threw these "chunks" around the area and the lions went crazy, sprinting alongside the truck (I would not want that man's job!) and fighting over slabs of meat. We watched the lions work on their "killings" for the next 30 minutes, amazed.


Umm... Miss, I should tell you that you have a bit of blood on your nose.

Postcards from South Africa 03.14.11

Returning to Pretoria, we had a lot of laundry to wash and a ridiculous amount of work to get caught up on. Boy was the rest of that week busy, featuring a number of 16- & 17-hour work days. I've never been so glad to welcome Friday and our weekly braai (=South African BBQ), even though I knew I'd need to wake up bright and early Saturday to continue playing catch up.

For your viewing pleasure, we present our charming side yard, where we braai (to the left) and get work done under the cabana (to the right) when we're itching for a new work station. The roof of the small house in the back left of the photo is our flat, which we share with our dutch flatmates (they've become "the dutchies" around here).

Postcards from South Africa 03.13.11

While at the University of Stellenbosch, we came across this sign on campus, reminding us after a day of extravagant wine tasting that, paradoxically, we are very much still in Sub-Saharan Africa. South Africa is a country where the rich of the rich and the poor of the poor are trying to figure out how to do life together. AIDS is a very serious problem here and, only a few years ago, President Zuma foolishly announced to the United Nations that you can protect yourself from AIDS by taking a shower after sex. There are many urban legends about AIDS here and much education is still needed. It is truly striking to see a sign like this on one of the most beautiful college campuses we have ever seen, not to mention, a college campus surrounded by expensive wine estates, luxurious restaurants and stunning mountains.

Oh, South Africa, you are such a paradox.

Postcards from South Africa 03.12.11

Goodbye, Harry!

This man is inspirational in his generosity and truly lives out his convictions, making a difference in Cape Town and its surrounding townships. Thank you for an amazing week!

Postcards from South Africa 03.11.11

Believe it or not, we have not spent ALL of our time in the affluent parts of South Africa. Our dear friends, Jesse and Britlese Thomas--who were engaged and spent their first 4 months of marriage here!--set us up with an incredible visit to a ministry called The Warehouse in Cape Town. The Warehouse is a dynamic ministry that strategically partners with local churches in a variety of ministries, including, but not limited to, working with youth in gangs, AIDS victims, orphans and distributing resources from rich churches to poor churches. Their work predominately focuses on facilitating ministry in the townships. We had the opportunity to eat lunch with The Warehouse's founder, Craig, who introduced us to a memorable Braai in a neighboring township. This is an astounding ministry. (For those unsure of what townships are, see the Wikipedia article. Essentially, these were very underserved areas specifically designated for blacks and coloreds under the Apartheid government. A photo of Gugulethu, one of Cape Town's many townships, is posted above. Although Apartheid is no longer in place, the sprawling--and mostly very poor--townships remain.)

While in Cape Town we also visited Kanisa Church in Gugulethu with our host, Harry. Kanisa Church is my idea of the Kingdom of God on earth, consisting of a community of blacks, browns and whites (a rare site in SA). We would love to send a delegation from our church in Chicago to visit Kanisa as we, too, are trying to be a people of many nations in Chicago and would have much to learn from them. Kanisa's worship songs and sermons were translated either into English from Xhosa or vice versa and this all went very smoothly. After church we were invited to have lunch and a "cool drink" (=South African English for soda) in a black "mama's" house (yes, they are called mamas!). Mama Pumi treated us to potato salad, beets and ice cream, showing extraordinary kindness that clearly reflected her respect for Harry, who leads her weekly Bible study.

We were both inspired by these ministries and hope to visit again in the future.

Postcards from South Africa 03.10.11

On our final night in Cape Town, Harry treated us to a magical picnic at Landudno beach. We sat here for a few hours, watching the sun set amidst two ongoing photo shoots, dozens of families playing in the waves, and others enjoying similarly well planned picnic dinners.


This was definitely an evening to remember. It provided us with a good, calm atmosphere to process all we'd seen, including:

beautiful beaches
townships
churches
ministries
mountains
injustice
generosity
sunsets
penguins
history
...and so very much more.

On a lighter note, the famous "Sandy's Beach" was just next door. Clothing optional. Just sayin'.

Postcards from South Africa 03.09.11

We wouldn't be the Straits if we didn't make a point to visit every major university in our touring vicinity. We enjoyed a stroll through University of Stellenbosch's campus prior to eating dinner downtown on our last evening in wine country. The views are spectacular, and we can't imagine how students get any work done with so much to do within a 20 minute radius.

Given how cheap bottles of wine are here, we figure that hosts provide wine vats instead of beer kegs at parties. Seriously. Just a few dollars a bottle, in many cases, and it tastes leagues better than two-buck chuck!

Postcards from South Africa 03.08.11

Wine tasting, round two! We visited Fairview Wine estates, which was located between Wellington and Franschhoek. It is known for both its wines and its cheeses--especially goat cheeses. We signed up for the wine and cheese tasting, and Drew was a little excited by the end... those little sips of wine can really catch up with you!


We purchased a few bottles before leaving and can't wait to share them Stateside. It's a good thing you can only take four bottles through customs or our suitcases would be precariously full.