Hughes Media Week!

It has been a whirlwind here, many families have departed South Africa so we have been busy sending them off, new ones have arrived and we have been helping them get settled.

We also had media week, where the kids were on the local Afrikaans TV station for International Youth Day.  (video above)  The girls were disappointed though because they thought someone was going to do their hair & makeup!

Then the same week they did an exhibition ice hockey game at a mall where they opened a new synthetic ice rink.  Having once taken them to the Jordan's Furniture in Avon, MA to skate on the fake ice there, we knew that fake ice is much less fun than the real thing!   It was funny watching the tv cameras film them lacing up skates & putting on hockey gear!  In the video on the website below, the girl with the long ponytail showing off with her twirls is Katie, Kelly is the girl who makes a save on defense, and Charlie is the little guy who keeps banging his stick on the ice calling for the puck!

http://www.forestknights.co.za/2015/08/hot-ice-opening-at-southgate-13.html

We have also had some great visitors, first our DC neighbors from when we owned our very first house in Falls Church, Tom & Maggie.  They were on a fabulous trip that included Paris, Cape Town, a few days with us in Pretoria and finally a fancy safari near Kruger.  Maggie is a photographer so we can't wait to see her pictures!  It was so great to catch up with them again and let our kids become as big of fans of them as we have always been!  We showed them some great Pretoria restaurants and markets and they got to meet some of our friends here.

Finally, as I write this we are happily chatting with Greg's sister Joanne who arrived with her husband Mark this morning.  We are so excited for our next week with them, we have some trips planned to Swaziland, Pilanesburg and finally Cape Town.  Stay tuned for all of our adventures!

Nerd convention & Reliving our Glory Days

We went to this event called "ScopeEx" it was put on by a stargazing group to teach you more about telescopes, they had telescope building contests, sundials, science shows.  (Kelly and Katie decided it was a nerd convention)  Here are the kids wearing camera obscuras that a lady made.  Kelly got a birthday telescope so we thought it would be a good way to learn more about how to use it.

It was held at the South African Museum of Military History so Charlie liked seeing all of the tanks, and climbing on some of the things.  They even had a "War Store" that Papa O'Brien would have loved!  We went with our German friends and it was interesting to go through the store with a native German speaker who pointed out all of the various uniforms and things.

We also went to a Christmas in July party and Charlie was one of three Santas in attendance, who knew there were so many in July?

Charlie (8) & Katie (16) got to play hockey together, this was the game Katie figured out she could dominate and she scored a hat trick.

I also made the news at Charlie's school, Greg and I played in a parent's soccer game awhile back, I made quite a stir because they never had a lady play before-so strange still that girls don't really grow up playing soccer here!  You can see Greg and I in the top step in the photo, with one of our teammates between us.

Here is a link to the school article: http://www.whpsschool.com/whps-old-boys-events.html
We did well and made it to the final round.  My knees felt it for about a week!

Katie has had a three week mini soccer at her school, we watched her play at another South African school, here is what their bleachers look like, pretty cool with the thatch, huh?

Charlie & Kelly like the playground, those are classrooms in the background that all open onto the playground, South African kids are very close to the outdoors!

Lots of random updates, but I haven't written in awhile!

Mandela Day - Skate Park Bandits!

For Mandela's birthday we upheld the fine South African tradition of doing 67 minutes of work to benefit others.  We went back to the Orphanage where we did the egg hunt.  This time we took sidewalk chalk, nail polish & brushes (thanks Mom for sending some), soccer balls and a bag full of Charlie's matchbox cars, luckily we had enough cars for all the little kids!

Here is one boy's drawing that he was very proud of!

Katie & some of her customers for nail painting!

A boy sitting on one of our soccer balls the girls used to get at British Soccer camp!

When we got to the orphanage that day there were big signs set up and a large tent and it turned out some corporate sponsors were there to make some donations of mattresses, appliances for their kitchen and cook a meal for the kids.  We didn't know all of that was going on and we didn't quite understand what all of the extra people were doing there! (many were very nicely dressed for playing with kids) One of the little girls grabbed my phone to take pictures, she took this one, it turns out the guy below is a DJ here on the radio station, not sure who the lady next to him was!  (however, I'm betting she didn't get peed on when holding one of the little kids like I did!)

The newspaper had a great opinion piece the following day called "Real change, not charity will honor our Madiba"
my summary wouldn't do it justice so if you would like to read it yourself, here is the link...
http://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/sunday-times/20150719/282106340327119/TextView

We closed out our day with a trip to one of Charlie's favorite places, the Skate Park!  We brought all our all roller blades and hockey gear for a family game of roller hockey.  (when we got there it was officially closed, but luckily we found a way in around the side- just like all the teenage skateboarders that were still hanging around after hours)  It reminded us of all the good times on our backyard rink or at the King Pine Rink in NH.

Finally I must share the rhyme Charlie learned from another kid at school, he is happy to recite it for you live if you give us a call!  "In 1994, Mandela went to war, he had no gun, so he used his bum, in 1994"!

A Great Visit & A Vacation for the Author!

We have all had a fabulous time with our friends and we were very sorry to drop them at the airport this afternoon!

I would write about all of the adventures we have had, but Myev keeps a great family travel blog of their adventures, so rather than recreate the wheel...I'll just let you check out hers...the only part we didn't join them for was their trip to Cape Town, the kids had school. However, they now share our opinion that Cape Town is an incredible city.

https://fillthewall.wordpress.com/

Here is the crew standing on the bridge into Kruger, with hippo and crocodiles in the river behind them!

A few photos from our close up encounters with animals during our stay in a neighborhood right outside Kruger where the animals wander through...we had zebra checking out what Greg was grilling...

Katie, Charlie and I got out near some giraffe, Google turned 3 photos into a little animation, now I need a caption that tells what Katie said to the giraffe to make him wander away!

A warthog family visited us daily, here is the mama resting her head on the step, wondering if I was going to feed her.

Finally a 4th of July party at the community center party, we helped decorate, this is the part Charlie & Katie worked hard on...

We look forward to more visitors and are so happy that our friends were able to make the long trip!

Olympic Gold & Happy Kids

I was planning to write about our compound Olympics which were held last weekend, but my neighbor also keeps a blog and she beat me to it...she also is an amazing photographer so please don't expect my future photos to be as amazing as hers!  Here is the link to see our compound Olympics..The event Dawn forgot to write about was the adult scooter race (which was Kelly's idea)  We have a good slope to our driveway and scooters are tricky on bricks, so our neighbor Matt took an epic wipeout which was captured on video, we plan to still laugh about it years from now when we meet up with their family, they are headed to Poland for a few years, but who knows where they will be down the road!

http://dawngreensides.blogspot.com/2015/06/jupiter-compound-olympics.html

Our buddies the Bodenhofers arrived safe & sound last night and we all had big grins at the airport!  We met them with a stuffed Dora the Explorer hanging on a stick & a big sign saying Dora Welcomes You to Africa. It is a family joke from a few years ago when Eric went on a rant making fun of poor Dora...

We took them to a cool restaurant called Carnivore where you try all different types of game meat.  Jake tried Zebra, Warthog, and a few other meats.  The best was at one point the guys were carving meat all around Eric and he was saying there was flying meat everywhere! (They slice it off long skewers right onto your plate)

Charlie, Jake & Katie trying zebra...

Our kids have not stopped smiling and laughing!  Charlie is in absolute heaven to have a big buddy here, he couldn't wait for him to wake up this morning!  We have a long list of places to take them, we can't wait!

Celebrating Youth Day with a Soccer Tournament for the Youth

From Wikipedia....
Youth Day on 16 June is a public holiday in South Africa and commemorates a protest which resulted in a wave of protests across the country known as the Soweto uprising of 1976. It came in response to multiple issues with the Bantu Education Act and the government edict in 1974 that Afrikaans be used as medium of instruction for certain subjects in black schools. The iconic picture of Hector Pieterson, a black schoolchild shot by the police, brought home to many people within and outside of South Africa the brutality of the Apartheid government.

Our friends church celebrates it with a soccer tournament for the youth of surrounding churches and we were lucky enough to join them for the day.  It was true soccer, kids playing in whatever clothes & shoes they were wearing for the day, one kid had only one shoe on?  Another you could see the soles of his shoes flapping when he ran.  They had great spirit and big smiles and didn't do too much arguing with at least one ref-Greg!

 Here is Greg doing the coin toss to start the game- a Five Rand Coin of course!

The entire group assembled to start the day!

Kelly and Katie are to the far left, they both played well, especially since they are rusty in soccer.  Sadly girls soccer is really not a sport here.  When we looked for options for them to play the only place we found was at the University of Pretoria where they would have had college age teammates.  

The big talk at the tournament was the quick departure of President Bashir of Sudan who left the African Union Meeting before they could hold him for his charges with the International Criminal Court.  He flew out of Waterkloof Air Force Base (which we can see from our street, Charlie and I like to walk down and watch the planes take off). The best comment I heard regarding the matter was "What would South Africa be like today if the world had not kept the pressure on to end apartheid?"  This has been quite a story which keeps South Africa in the news along with the FIFA case.  One person called into the local radio station and talked about how much fun it was to be in South Africa during the soccer World Cup and they said actually they think if anything South Africa should have paid more!

The girls are working hard on their exams and school work to get to mid term break when our friends the Bodenhofer's arrive from the States, much excitement here!

A Visit to Dullstroom

We got a chance to visit this fishing area called Dullstroom, our friends went out for the entire weekend and took Kelly along, then we met up with them for a night.  We stayed in cottages in the hills, when we first got there the owner drove us all to the top of his property in his cool Land Rover (we all packed in) then we got to hike down.

We think one of these old Land Rover Defenders would be so fun to drive around up in New Hampshire!

 It had a cute little town with shops, here is Charlie's favorite!  Greg and our friend Doug liked the whisky tasting shop!

 Katie got a "shot" of chocolate-in an edible chocolate glass!

We hiked to an old fort from the Anglo-Boer War, it was really just two round piles of rocks.

Our little cabin, very sweet!

 Greg and Charlie ran down to watch the train go past, Charlie loved smashing Rand coins (not pennies)!  It really felt like fall up here, leaves falling off trees, cool mornings & evenings.  We had a great dinner and fire at our friends cottage, then walked back down to our cottage, beautiful stars too!

The drive was about two hours, mostly highway, there are some scary areas in the middle where they have signs that tell you not to stop, they are highjacking hotspots, we followed their advice and kept motoring.

We also like seeing this sign...it says Wakefield, it might be hard to read

We hope to get to make another trip back to Dullstroom!