Celebration Dinner

Friday night, we had a dinner for our Road Trippers to celebrate the past two weeks they've spent with us. Daleen made her famed bobotie, a Malay dish beloved by all.

Dishing up the bobotie






















Sarah and Melanie

















The apprentices

Dancing at Granny's

Soccer and Bunny Chow

This afternoon, we hung out at the park and played soccer with a bunch of street guys who park cars near the mall. Melissa has worked with these guys a lot over the past couple years, and they know all the NieuCommunities cars. When we drive the couple blocks down to the mall and nearby grocery store, these guys will often chat with us, saying "You stay at Pangani!"


















After the soccer game, we had a meal together: bunny chow. No, it's not rabbit food, neither is it made of rabbit meat. Bunny chow is curry (in this case, chicken) inside 1/3 of a loaf of bread. Here's Jo-An and Carissa chowing down. Ha.


















And here are the Kabongo kids: Mosky with her baby sister Bahati.

Compass and Potter's House

On Monday, we spent the morning at Kwalata, a local game reserve, where we did a little orienteering in the bush. Armed with just a couple of compasses, we navigated our way around, collecting neon green disks and eventually finding our way back to camp. My team rocked the compass and made it back to camp way ahead of the other team. Here we have Bryan and Benny manning the compass.























Monday evening, we took the road trippers to Potter's House for dinner with the women and kids there. As always, much fun was had by all. Here's Melanie with a crowd of kids playing with her hair, and Jody looking a bit surprised.

Feast of the Clowns

This morning a bunch of us headed to downtown Pretoria to attend a carnival put on by the Tshwane Leadership Foundation, the parent organization of Potter's House. We had a lot of fun on this march through the city...I got pulled along by one of the women from Potter's House and drafted into handing out flyers to onlookers.

Road Tripping

We have eleven people from America visiting here for the next couple weeks on a "Road Trip." Today I joined them for part of their first visit to Soshanguve. One of the places we went this morning was a day care center, where we had fun hanging out with the kids (who, as usual, greeted us with shouts of "makua!" = "white people!").


















Sign outside the day care center


















Connie entertains the kids with bubbles























Katie plays with a very smiley little girl

Happy Birthday

These pictures weren't taken by me and they weren't taken in South Africa. But I just have to post a couple pictures of my new nephew who I won't get to meet until November...





































Jesse Matthew
born August 20, 2007, 1:09pm
9lbs. 3 oz., 22 in.

I'm sick.

Here's a look at what's currently on my nightstand. And I don't mean for reading purposes.



Not pictured: my malaria pills.

Updated to say that you can now add to the above: cough syrup and three different types of colorful pills which I am taking thrice daily. I still don't want to move from my bed if I can help it.

More walking on the beach

Here are various shots of us girls walking on the beach on a very windy day. Sadly, Tyler is missing from this montage. I have no pictures of Tyler from this trip, but I swear he was there; he gave me his cold.

Lots of walking

It felt like we walked halfway across Mozambique via beach on this day. At least we had an awesome lunch at this cafe. On the complete opposite side of the bay from where we stayed...























Here's a bonus shot of one of the many, many crabs that freaked Carissa out.

Beach

There were several dogs who hung out around the beach lodge where we were staying. This one was just relaxing in the shade, taking in the view...






















Katie and I got caught up in collecting shells. Katie: "I'm going to be one of those old women who decorates her bathroom in shells!"

















Lunch at Dino's--our closest lunch spot was 1 km down the beach. We walked down that beach far too many times. I'm really not sure about my hair in this picture.

Accommodations

I'm posting this photo as an illustration of exactly how long it took us to get to where we were staying in Mozambique. This is pretty much what our first view of the Mango Beach Lodge looked like...when we arrived at 10:30pm after having left Pretoria at 6:00am.

















Some better views of our accommodations:


















I stayed in Hut #1...
























Have you ever slept under a mosquito net? It's kind of annoying.


















The view from my bed...sans mosquito net.

This isn't a photo

This is, instead, a post to say that I'm leaving for Mozambique early tomorrow and will be back on Friday. So don't expect any photos this week. I'll be staying in a "rustic bush hut" on the beach and frolicking in the Indian Ocean. Back-dated photos will be unashamedly posted upon my return. Have fun! I know I will...

Carissa says hello

This isn't Sarah attacking Carissa as she sleeps. She's administering arm exercises. Please note that Carissa is happily waving.

InnerChange

Today I spent the day out in Soshanguve with the InnerChange team, hanging out at Granny's house and Emily's house, visiting various friends and neighbors, learning more about the history of Sosh, and concluding the day with dinner at Granny's house. I had to say goodbyes to the team as they'll be out in Sosh until Wednesday...and I leave for Mozambique on Monday for a week off.


Hanging out in front of Granny's. I'm not sure about my expression here...but I love the light in this photo.


"Today I am Nanny Emily." Emily with Luc & Petunia's daughter Bahati. (And a crazed-looking Tyler in the background.)


Carissa with Annie, one of the InnerChange team members, who's visiting us from London.






















"Pizza Imonati." Granny sang her pizza song for the camera. Please note how she's playing air guitar...

Women's Day

Today is Women's Day, which is a public holiday here in South Africa. Sarah and I planned to attend a celebration at Potter's House, but we were late and missed it. We still got to hang out with some of the women...





Oh, and you might like to note from that last picture that I got a haircut last week...

Kitty

Sarah and the family cat at Granny's. Its name is Kitty.

No eating...where?

I'm not sure why anyone would want to eat in the toilets. But I guess it's a problem...

Protea Hotel

Sarah and I are beginning the process of interviewing women for our ministry project, and today we did an interview with a woman from Potter's House. We took her for lunch at a nearby hotel, sat at tables under umbrellas, and heard about her life, her struggles, and her dreams for the future.

Sharing life

Sarah and I gave Granny's family some "homework" last week. We're going to take time on Friday to share more about our lives with each other. To help do this we asked them to make a life timeline showing important/significant events, using pictures (something that NC had all of us do at the beginning of the year). Granny, Annah, and Sophia had already finished theirs and were so excited to show them to us. I'm excited to hear each of them share their timelines on Friday!