Learning New Things

I am two weeks into my new job and have already learned a great deal about all that USAID does in Africa. I can't believe what a big organization it is!  I was fortunate to get to attend an orientation where they had all of the departments come in and explain what they do.  My big "Aha" moment was when the economic development lead talked about South Africa having the worst "Gini Coefficient" in the world.  The Gini Coefficient is the measurement of the inequality between the rich and the poor.

If you remember my post a few weeks back where Charlie and I followed a Lamborghini to school...I have never seen as many luxury cars as I have here in SA.  However this is what we see more commonly, beat up taxi buses, packed full of people.

This taxi has a duct taped back window, the entire right side was all messed up too!

Here is a nice explanation of what the gini coefficient is:
http://www.rawson.co.za/news/south-africas-gini-coefficient-is-the-highest-in-the-world-id-874

Greg is also learning new things...this week he joined the kids at ice hockey practice!  They have a beginner men's league here and he is excited to try it.  The best part is that everyone can skate together on Tuesday nights!

Katie is a new addition to ice hockey (rather than figure skating) don't get her started on why she's not figure skating unless you have lots of time to chat!

Charlie also had History day at school and could dress up like any historical figure.  We had been reading a baseball book about the greatest games in history so he decided to be Babe Ruth.   Many of his classmates came as pirates (complete with swords).  My favorite line of the day was when the teacher called them all together and told them there was no more sword fighting allowed because there was already two broken swords and the day had just begun!

Babe Ruth when he played for the Red Sox (sorry Papa Hughes)!

Happy Fall!

So strange to be in fall weather here, days are absolutely beautiful, not hot, great light and cool in the morning and evening.  Greg was travelling again on his island run, which meant lucky me had the early morning sports treat of 7am soccer for Charlie and Basketball for Kelly (in two different locations).

See that rising sun?  Couldn't we do this at 9 or 10?  The boys were so excited to be in their soccer gear! Charlie is on the far right holding his ball.

Here they are later in the morning, look at the pretty leaves on the trees!

Charlie was delighted to have Dad back..here we are at Kelly's ice hockey game.

Our fancy car viewing continues, this time we spotted this at Kelly & Katie's school on Sat AM!

We also recently got to join our German friends (this amazing family that has kids that gel with ours) at the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens near Johannesburg.  We walked to a beautiful waterfall and saw the Eagles Nests, they have a webcam on the eagles...here is the link if you want to see them up close!

http://www.africam.com/wildlife/black_eagle_webcam

Note: Mom's organizing all kids for a photo & taking photos...reminded me of our soccer coaching days with the Scanlon family, Cathy & I would be busy yelling instructions to kids on the field, making substitutions, giving out band aids, etc...While our husbands would be chatting on the sidelines...

Here is Greg chatting with his buddy Heiko, just like we would find him on the soccer sidelines!

We also went to a great rugby game, we watched the local team the Blue Bulls beat the Johannesburg team, the Lions.  

 It's a fun night out, when they score they shoot off fireworks...

The music is interesting, some is in Afrikaans and some is regular songs off the radio.  People around us were yelling all sorts of things in Afrikaans, I wish I had brought duct tape for the guy in front of me to keep him in his seat, he was very excited whenever the Blue Bulls had the ball!

Here are some of the Blue Bulls dance team, I liked how they ride around in the John Deere tractor, Katie likes to watch for when they get out of sync in their routines, Greg and I think they closely resemble the football cheerleaders in that movie called The Replacements...

Charlie now has rugby fever and we use the time when the girls are swimming after school to brush up on his kicking skills...

He managed to get it over the bar once in our whole session, but of course I didn't get that one on film.  This is at the University of Pretoria practice fields, they have about 5 rugby fields in a row!

 (beautiful athletic facilities)

Off to get ready for the week, I'm starting back to work part-time, I'll be working for US AID which is an agency I really don't know much about.  So lots to learn and much to juggle!  I feel so fortunate to have had the gift of time this past year, I've read many more books, planned some good vacations, and enjoyed being there to help the kids with everything as we all made a big adjustment!

Surfin Safari!

We have learned that animal safaris are amazing and you do see some incredible things, however kids get bored on safari's because you have to just sit in the vehicle and look...unless you want to get out and risk becoming a lion's snack.  So we skipped the animals and headed for the beach.

We headed South of Durban and stayed at Rocky Bay which was near the Aliwal Shoal.  The shoal is well known by scuba divers and shark snorkelers, which Greg, Kelly and Katie can now call themselves.  They left our cozy cabin in the early hours of the morning, donned wetsuits and headed out to the shoal to hang from a bar while black tipped sharks (not known to be aggressive???) swam all around them.

Swimming companions!

Greg & the girls hanging onto the bar...

Close encounter!  I think that is Katie in the photo...

Charlie and I wisely had a lazy morning at the beach then we watched them come in on the boat and got to hear about their adventure first hand!  

The beach really was "rocky" and had the most incredible sea shells to collect, we picked up tons in the days we were there.  We also checked out the local place called "Croc World" where they had about 300 Nile Crocodiles lazing about.  Greg observed that crocodiles don't really do a whole lot.

 Greg and Kelly were brave enough to hold a baby crocodile..

 We stayed at nice little log cabins on the beach, we liked it because it reminded us of our NH place...here is Katie relaxing.

Charlie and Kelly on the big rocks.

Our next stop was the town of Margate where we stayed in a high rise apartment place on the beach.  Greg had been there for a conference.  The kids loved it, and it was nice to stroll right out onto the beach.  The town was getting ready to host Harley Davidson's Africa Bike week later in the week, we could see all the setups being done but we managed to get out of town before the bikers rolled in!

Here is the morning sunrise, Greg & Charlie and I were up to see it.  We found a great used bookstore in the town, so they are reading one of Charlie's new books.

The girls were signed up for a surf lesson and the waves were breaking right that morning at Southbroom Beach, which turned out to be the most beautiful beach and beach town about 15 minutes from Margate.

Here are the girls getting their intro from the instructor, who did a really nice job.

While they were getting the lesson a guy was there with a huge camera taking photos, we thought maybe he was the other girl in the lesson's husband...turns out he was a photographer for "Go" Magazine (a travel magazine her in SA)  They were doing a story on this surfing school because it has such a good reputation.  So Kelly and Katie may be in an upcoming edition, if they are Charlie said we will have to buy lots of copies!

Kelly loved surfing and now wants to save her money for a surf board, Katie liked it but thought the board was super heavy.  The beach here was amazing, there was a river that flowed into the ocean, so you could jump on a boogie board and ride it around a little bend, this is what Charlie and I did while we waited for the girls to finish their lesson.

We had read about this place called Pistols Saloon, it is famous for its donkey...the only thing the guidebook didn't tell us was to feed our meals to the donkey, we wished we had because the food was TERRIBLE!

 It was an American Wild West themed place in the middle of South Africa, go figure?  It even had a "Wild West Museum" that was mostly pictures of Cowboys, Indians, etc.

Here is the donkey eating some carrots-at our table!  Can you imagine that passing restaurant health codes in the US?

 We took advantage of seeing the Avengers on opening night, Charlie wore his t-shirt for the occasion and was happy about his 3-D glasses.

Here was the parking garage at the mall, just to remind us it was Africa a monkey was running around!

Our last morning at the great beach, we were sad to leave, especially Charlie who loved playing rugby on the beach with his new "Sharks" ball, that is the Durban professional rugby team.

 On our way home we stopped in at the Mandela capture site where he was taken prisoner in 1962, at the time he was on his way from Durban back to Johannesburg.  We were on the same route back that day..

The sculpture is really neat, it is a bunch of steel rods that make his image when you are standing at the right vantage point.  What I really enjoyed was seeing all people coming to see the memorial, there were older white South Africans, young black and white South Africans, families, etc. 

 Clearly Mandela is revered by all!

We loved the beaches of Kwazulu-Natal Province (KZN here) and we can't wait to go back!