Rocketships, Jellyfish

me in a bag.

me in a jumpsuit.

so lately things have been pretty low key. we've all been working on (working on avoiding) our field research projects. last weekend kat and i went to Camp's Bay with Johan and decided it was too nice not to go for a swim, regardless of attire. the weekend before that we went to a "brai" (small-stove-in-corner-of-dorm-room) hosted by some new friends we've made from PASMA (pan african student movement association). pics are up of both occasions, plus a couple more.

on thursday kat and i are going to make a mexican meal for our family for thanksgiving (there's no good mexican food here), and on saturday the whole lexia group is having a huge thanksgiving potluck with all of the families.

that's all for now kids.

pasma party. darcy, kat, ari.

meat...

cute. catherine and mdu

sitting, dancing.

ari, darcy, whitney.

Camp's Bay

Kat

wind

On Sunday, Kat, Ariel, and I got back from our 10 day program break through the Kalahari Desert, Zambia, and Botswana.

I posted a ton-o-pics, most of which lack people, but they really are beautiful and you should look at them. On the web album there’s a button towards the top right that lets you make the pictures pretty big so you don’t even have to click on them individually to see what’s going on.

It was a really amazing trip but I'm not going to say too much about it cause stories are always better in person.

highlights/tidbits/etc:

well over 50 hours of travel in 10 days. i am so done with buses for a long, long time.
diet consisting of crackers, peanut butter, and banana chips, intermittently supplemented by giant meals from family members scattered throughout southern africa who helped us along in our travels
going to some of THE hottest places in africa and being met with rain and cold fronts in every place
TONS of characters, including a wrestling fanatic nun, a kind but unreliable driver-arranger, a guardian angel tour guide, a guardian angel lodge receptionist, a toothless, laughing, speeding, incoherently english-speaking taxi driver, a group of botswanan boys whom ariel taught how to knit and crochet in exchange for setswana lessons, a slightly scatterbrained farmer's wife who imports frogs to the desert and neglects to warn people (talisa) about electric-wired fences that they are opening, a necklace-demanding, banana-chip and ipod hogging bus partner, an amazing zambian missionary, a group of one-room schoolhouse afrikaans children, 6 dogs, baby cows/goats/sheep and their mothers, scorpions, zebras on the side of the street, baboons having sex on the road, elephants, an irish casino manager, an amazing gay botswanan man (born, bread, and buttered in francistown), a hyperactive chinese/botswanan six year old, and many more
getting stuck at the botswanan/south african border for FOUR hours because the bus drivers couldn't get through the border with their passports
driving through the desert in the open air at sunset on the back of a truck
having a bbq on a sand dune with afrikaaner farmers with high socks and short shorts
four hours of harrowing zambian adventure
man tying kat's shoe
making friends by singing songs about looking for jesus in setswana
an almost empty club in botswana with a fog machine and strobe lights.
an almost full club in joburg with house music and boys dancing instead of girls, and well. and in appropriate proximity from females
withdrawing 1,000,000 in Zambian currency and not realizing it
somehow getting roped in to Big Brother II South Africa