Rhyndinas in South Africa

I know it has been a long time since my last post and there is an explanation which I will get to in a future post. For now, the focus is my parents' recent visit to South Africa.

In 2 1/2 weeks, we toured Johannesburg/Pretoria, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, Chobe National Park in Botswana and finally Cape Town. The schedule didn't allow much time for rest (we were all tired at the end), but we had an amazing time. And of course, there are so many highlights that it's impossible to cover everything in pictures and words. Instead, I'm going to share one of my favorite excursions and let some pictures tell the rest of the story!

I consider myself fairly reflective about life. But what I learned on a tour of Kliptown, Soweto reminded me about the value of seeing your life reflected through someone else's perspective.

On my birthday, we were invited by a few friends at USAID to take a tour of the poorest part of Soweto. Kliptown is just a few kilometers from downtown Johannesburg, but it has no electricity or plumbing. One faucet at the end of the "street" serves 1800 families. Our tour guide, Thulani Madondo, lives in Kliptown and runs an organization called the Kliptown Youth Program which serves one hot meal a day six days a week to local children. In addition, they offer after school programs...everything from tutoring and mentoring to sports, music, dance and more. We were treated to a special dance and drum performance. (Thulani has been nominated for a CNN Hero award. He's a top 10 finalist and if enough people vote for him, he'll get US$250,000 to help him and the children of Kliptown. If you'd like to vote for him, just go here: http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/index.html)

While touring the area, Thulani took us to the home where he grew up. Homes in Kliptown are one-room shacks with a corrugated tin roof. While telling us about life in Kliptown (75% unemployment, 30% HIV infection rate), he stopped talking and turned to me to say, "Jim, you are so lucky to have your parents. Very few people in my community have two parents, much less parents who are still alive at 73 and 76. It is a gift you have been given."

I must say that I guess I have taken it for granted to have parents. My life experience hasn't allowed me to consider any alternative. I even knew all of my grandparents. So I just want to take this opportunity to acknowledge Thulani for providing a reflective moment about my parents. It is indeed a gift...but more than just having parents...I am so grateful to have parents who want to experience new things, enjoy life and who are willing to share those experiences with me and Andrew. (The same goes for Andrew's parents who will be joining us here in December.) Thank you, Mom and Dad for your love, generosity and being part of my life. Love you lots.

Hope you all enjoy a few of the pictures from the adventures we had.

Anura winery near Franschhoek

Baboon yawning or screaming at Chobe

Baby jackal, Chobe

Boma restaurant, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Cape Point, South Africa

The dam above our cottage in Franschhoek, South Africa

Elephants having a drink at the Chobe River

The gondola at Table Mountain, Cape Town

Hippos grazing during the day...a rare sight since they're usually in the water at this time.

Kliptown, Soweto

The water tap for 1800 families in Kliptown

Leopard, Chobe

Main Falls, Victoria Falls

Cape Point

Kliptown

Simon's Town, South Africa

Sunset, Chobe National Park

Wild dogs

Top of Table Mountain

Victoria Falls

Near Cape of Good Hope, South Africa

Cape buffalo

Chobe River

Church Square, Pretoria

Jambo (hello in Luganda..the main language of Uganda) everyone...

Sorry for the long post in advance...but there was finally a lot to tell after a quiet month since my last post. I don't know how I'm going to decide which pictures to post...but enjoy whatever appears below. And thanks for reading!!

I still can't believe that we just came back from Uganda. Growing up, I remember hearing about Idi Amin and Uganda...and the place just sounded far away and very scary. Thankfully today, Idi Amin is long gone and while Uganda feels like a distant land in so many ways, it most certainly is not scary. For starters, Ugandans are about the nicest people I've met anywhere. Everywhere we went, we were met with smiles and open hearts. And despite the fact that Ugandans are poor, there seemed to be little poverty. It's a simple life to be sure. And there is a lot Ugandans do without. Except in Kampala, most of Uganda lacks indoor plumbing and in the mountains where we did the gorilla trek there is also no electricity. Only major hotels accept credit cards (along with a 5% surcharge for the privilege of using plastic). Otherwise, it's a totally cash society...$1USD gets you about 2500 Ugandan Shillings (UGX).

The roads are horrible in most places...huge potholes, no shoulder...pavement that suddenly ends in a dirt road and then mysteriously begins again and sometimes with a proper shoulder! In every village speed humps appear without warning and drivers overtake on blind curves while buses speed along without care...often costing many lives in horrific crashes.

From our taxi drivers to our tour guides to hotel staff, everyone said that Ugandans are quite happy and content. I took a village walk when I stayed at a lodge on the banks of the Nile and witnessed truly sustainable living. The village grows its own food selling the surplus at local markets. Everyone seems well fed I have to see it really felt like a peaceful life in the countryside. Kampala would be difficult to describe as peaceful...cars, trucks, scooters, taxis and people on the road just going everywhere. I think we saw two traffic lights in this city of about 1.5 million people. I'm not sure how else to explain it...but I really liked Uganda. In some ways it reminded me of Ecuador (another equatorial country I love)...though I think there is more poverty in Ecuador as well as more of a class divide...at least it seemed to me.

The whole reason for the trip was because Andrew had been invited to attend a conference. So while he networked and attended meetings, I enjoyed a well-deserved R&R...you know how hard I work!! :-) We stayed at a place called the Speke Resort...which sits on a part of Lake Victoria. They actually had a proper 50m pool, so I did some swimming and worked out at their gym. Then, mid-week I went to a town called Jinja which is near the source of the Nile. I stayed over night just north of town at a place called The Haven on bluffs overlooking the river. It was spectacular. The food was delicious and I was the only guest there! After I checked in, a hotel employee appeared at my door to take my order for lunch. I was told a tomato salad was being served. I've never eaten a salad in a developing country, so I decided I should go tell her to forget the salad. When I got to the main lodge, there was another woman there so I told her to tell the other woman not to bring me the salad. Her reply...what kind of mizungo are you anyway? So I said, I have no idea what a mizungo is...and she says...I don't know any white person who would refuse a salad. What is wrong with you? So I told her I didn't want to get sick..and she assured me I wouldn't. So I ate the salad...and all ended up well! :-)

After the conference ended, Andrew and I embarked on the adventure of a lifetime...driving 9 hours (with a guide/driver) southwest of Kampala to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest for a gorilla trek! The drive was spectacular...leaving lush green valleys of Kampala with huge papyrus forests in the swamps and heading up into the mountains of southwest Uganda...near the border of Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo. Kampala is about 4000 feet above sea level and just north of the equator, whereas Bwindi is around 7000 feet and south of the equator. There is a reason why they call Uganda the pearl of Africa or the Switzerland of Africa, particularly in Bwindi. Sadly my pictures won't give the landscape the justice it deserves.

We stayed at place called Wag Tail Eco Camp which was 46 kilometers off the main road nestled in a little mountain community called Ruguburi. The camp is run by local villagers and is totally eco friendly. Our only electricity for a few hours in the morning and a few in the evening was a generator. I have never felt so out in the middle of nowhere in my life. And just kept hoping we wouldn't need a hospital. 46 km doesn't sound like much but it's over an hour on windy mountainous dirt roads. At times the road hugged the mountain so closely one wrong turn and you'd be down the mountain faster than you intended. And, um, yes...there are no guard rails!

Our gorilla trek started at 8 am with a briefing and then we drove to the trail where we would begin our 3 hour hike through the jungle to see the mountain gorillas of which only about 700 or so exist in the world. Bwindi has about half of those gorillas. The others are in Rwanda and DRC. After finding a family of 5...a huge male silverback, two females and two babies, we followed them around for an hour with the help of a guide who carved new trails through the jungle with a machete. I have NEVER done anything like this before in my life. It was truly spectacular. And the gorillas were amazing...except for one of the females who charged us once..they were completely unimpressed with us. We followed at a distance of about 7 feet per our guide's instructions. They ate, climbed trees. Then it was time to say goodbye and begin the long walk back. It was an arduous journey and we were sore and tired when made it back to camp.

We'll be taking our anti-malaria pills for two more weeks but it was all so worth it.