Peace Corps Journals / South Africa / all updates

Development

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:48:00 +0800

(South Africa / Doughnut Orbitals)
There was an interesting article in the NYT a couple days ago about a village in Kenya called Sauri (pop: 65 000) that has been carpet bombed with aid for the last couple years: Agricultural yields ha ...
4 reads

Interesting

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:56:20 +0800

(South Africa / Kevin and Casandra's Blog)
The past two days have been pretty normal aside from one thing… The comments people are making to me. I was walking to school the other day and a member of the School Governing Body was walking ...
4 reads

A tiresome day and an answer: Why DON’ ...

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:39:00 +0800

(South Africa / Karen Kaye in South Africa)
I know I know. I said no more birds for awhile. I can’t help myself.This is a cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis). These guys aren't spectacular all on their own and we have these in the States. What I L ...
0 reads

Development?

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 06:26:00 +0800

(South Africa / Kristin's South African Adventures!)
Here is a really interesting article I just read in the NYTimes on an apparently successful development project in Sauri Kenya. Pretty awesome and inspiring!My time here has given me a chance to real ...
9 reads

Praying for Conference

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 06:00:00 +0800

(South Africa / Jed & Brooke in South Africa)
Hands at Work Conference time is here again only this year instead of one big conference we're having 4 regional conferences. It will be a very busy time for us in the office making preparations. ...
8 reads

Creature Feature

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:25:00 +0800

(South Africa / Socks and Underwear)
Although I am around animals much more than any other time in my life I have yet to be aquinted with the animals that Africa is best known for such as the big five (pop quiz - name the five). There ...
12 reads

The Diplomatic Dead

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:40:00 +0800

(South Africa / Deported Again: Adventures in South Africa)
I recently was conned into writing an article for Peace Corps South Africa's monthly newsletter. I decided to write a short comparison of the budgetary deficits of South Africa and Brazil...just kiddi ...
7 reads

Tournament day

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:43:00 +0800

(South Africa / Doughnut Orbitals)
Today there was a big primary school soccer tournament for a bunch of the schools around the Moshaweng valley (the valley created by the wash running through my village). I spent most of the morning ...
2 reads

Pictures from the College

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:27:00 +0800

(South Africa / Jade in South Africa)
Giyani College where Khanimamba my organization has its offices isnear a nature reserve. Consequently there are lots of little monkeysthat like to hang out next to our office (see first picture) ...
27 reads

Animal House

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:38:00 +0800

(South Africa / Matson in South Africa: A Peace Corps Blog)
Hello there and welcome to another installment of my weblog. Today I’d like to share with you all things that go bump in the night…and day. A lighter side of my blog. So for those readers that d ...
11 reads

Catching Up -- We've Been Busy

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:09:00 +0800

(South Africa / David and Sally in South Africa)
David says this blog has been shamefully neglected and that’s true but we have been so busy since January that we have had no energy after work to write a blog. We come home and collapse. Previou ...
5 reads

Minding the store

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:51:00 +0800

(South Africa / Doughnut Orbitals)
Today it got even lonelier as the girl who minds the store left to take care of her sick child (I had no idea she even had a kid). My host sister went to buy some stock for the store so I agreed to ...
16 reads

Naps

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:35:00 +0800

(South Africa / Socks and Underwear)
No that is not a miniature version of my host sister taking a nap in a normal size bowl. It is my life-sized host sister taking a nap in an enormous bowl! I find that my host family and I are a good ...
5 reads

Longtom Half-Marathon Again!

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:45:30 +0800

(South Africa / Kevin and Casandra's Blog)
The Longtom Marathon is coming up quickly. We are still in need of donations. Please support the disadvantaged South African Youth. Your donation will go towards scholarships to send them to a good sc ...
5 reads

The Ick Hits Again!

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:41:38 +0800

(South Africa / Kevin and Casandra's Blog)
Last week was another sick week for me. On Monday during the day I was feeling okay. We had a staff meeting at school and that is when I started feeling nauseas. We were going to make the hour and half walk to Shoprite directly after that but we decided to come home instead. It [...]
12 reads

The Ick Hits Again!

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:33:11 +0800

Blog news

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:24:00 +0800

(South Africa / Doughnut Orbitals)
So I added a picture to the header. It's from my favorite event in the village thus far the big flood. I've also added the follower gadget to the sidebar whatever the heck that is. Everyone else ...
13 reads

From the picture archive

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:33:00 +0800

(South Africa / Doughnut Orbitals)
When I was on vacation in December a man accidentally drove his car off a cliff. Apparently he got a little too far down on the slope of the grass and then couldn't get enough friction to start up a ...
11 reads

Halloween in March

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:21:00 +0800

(South Africa / Socks and Underwear)
Once again I visited the volunteer couple closest to me. It has proven itself to be a very enjoyable way to spend the weekend time and time again. This past visit I brought over the only pumpkin th ...
12 reads

Little Peanut

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:11:00 +0800

(South Africa / Jed & Brooke in South Africa)
By now news of Kimmie's pregnancy is nothing new. But can I just say how fun it is to have your sister be pregnant first? I like asking her all the things I could never ask anyone else like "doesn ...
7 reads

Link dump

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:06:00 +0800

(South Africa / Doughnut Orbitals)
Matt Taibbi's latest piece in Rolling Stone: Along with the collateral it pocketed that's $19 billion in pure cash that Goldman would not have "earned" without massive state intervention. How's that ...
2 reads

Updates!

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:09:13 +0800

(South Africa / The Road Less Traveled)
So Here’s what I could not tell you all on my blog: I am going to be working in Kwazulu Natal in the town of Greytown an hour and a half from Durban ( Think HOT all the time!!). I’m psyched to travel and will take lots of pics for y’all to see. My site is [...]
5 reads

Picture: Chicken and Pap

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:28:00 +0800

(South Africa / Jade in South Africa)
If you've wanted to know what one of the most common meals in SouthAfrica is here it is a plate of chicken and pap also known in myarea as huku na vuswa.
10 reads

Weekly Goal Achieved!

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 07:39:00 +0800

(South Africa / Matson in South Africa: A Peace Corps Blog)
Ke a lo leboga thata! (Thank you all!) Thank you thank you thank you! We not only met the $500 weekly goal but blew right past it! This morning I was given the most recent update: $765 to date! ...
9 reads

Family

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:30:00 +0800

(South Africa / Deported Again: Adventures in South Africa)
Well the weekend has come and gone—I went to a wedding did my laundry prepared for this week’s lessons and projects half-heartedly cleaned watched some tv shows read my book...a good weekend. ...
9 reads

The science news cycle

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:18:00 +0800

(South Africa / Doughnut Orbitals)
In helpful graphical form:
4 reads

Book review of the week

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 12:58:00 +0800

(South Africa / Doughnut Orbitals)
Marc Thiessen a former speechwriter for Bush II wrote a book about how torture is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Matthew Alexander a former military interrogator gives it to Thiessen with ...
4 reads

Lonesome weekends

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 12:56:00 +0800

(South Africa / Doughnut Orbitals)
My host family goes through chickens at an unbelievable rate. Every week there's a hatching of 5-10 chicks and usually within five days they are all dead. I'd estimate the mortality rate at ~ ...
24 reads

Crime update

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 12:12:00 +0800

(South Africa / Doughnut Orbitals)
So I successfully bought a new pair of kicks for the marathon and made it all the way to the bus without losing them. This time I wore them right out of the store which probably helped. I also talk ...
15 reads

Form over function more on money/eating ...

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:04:00 +0800

(South Africa / Karen Kaye in South Africa)
So one thing I've noticed since coming to South Africa is that there seems to be a priority of "form over function." For example I was handed this binder with the request: Can you put these ...
15 reads

On life becoming normal....

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:52:00 +0800

(South Africa / Kristin's South African Adventures!)
Well I wish there was a bunch of stuff to update on but apparently once you hit a certain point in your Peace Corps service life begins to become a little bit less of an exciting adventure and more of ...
15 reads

Chump of the week

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:03:00 +0800

(South Africa / Doughnut Orbitals)
All this stuff about teaching and children has made me thirsty for some good old-fashioned US politics...what's this? Some douchebag from Kentucky single-handedly put half the government in a chokeho ...
5 reads

Happy Trails

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:15:00 +0800

(South Africa / Socks and Underwear)
On this day last year I began the AT. Happy "March Forth" (get it)! I was planning on including some of my choice pictures from the trek alas the computer is still down so youll just have to ...
7 reads

Work is boring. Let's go on a Safari.

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:55:52 +0800

(South Africa / Tim and Liz.info)
Our blog is becoming less and less active and I feel like this reflects some settling into routine for us. We now have day to day responsibilities and tasks which leave us wondering why we are here a ...
2 reads

Work is boring. Let's go on a Safari.

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:19:00 +0800

The cutest little girl in the world

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:58:00 +0800

(South Africa / Doughnut Orbitals)
It might be a bit hard to see in this picture as she's shy and I couldn't get her to smile for me but Tsholofelo here is simply adorable. She's quite low in maths but we've been working afte ...
6 reads

Give the Gift of Knowledge (Update 4)

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:51:55 +0800

(South Africa / StevenGerner.com)
0 reads

Step 2

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:17:36 +0800

(South Africa / Within Walking Distance)
Last weekend I passed a decent step in my Comrades training – running a nice extremely hilly marathon. The course was very challenging but served as a terrific training for upcoming events which i ...
8 reads

Avuxeni (hello)!

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:40:00 +0800

(South Africa / Wherever you go, there you are.)
I am alive and send my love! I am happily matched with MAMA MONICCA and sister (her granddaughter) TUMI. They are so loving! MAMA only speaks Sotho but TUMI speaks English (she' ...
14 reads

Grade 4

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:22:00 +0800

(South Africa / Doughnut Orbitals)
Here are a few of my Grade 4 learners. I've been doing better and better with them (probably because of the small class size--18 learners) while I've been doing worse and worse with the 5/6 cl ...
1 reads

Idiosyncrasies

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:52:50 +0800

(South Africa / Under Our Feet)
I’m sitting in school today grading papers and thinking about how my life is beginning to feel a bit mundane. I’m trying to think of ways to spice up my life while my grade 7B’s are ...
1 reads

last of birds tourists English and di ...

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:58:00 +0800

(South Africa / Karen Kaye in South Africa)
Well the last of the birds for awhile...until I find a new friend to share.The photo on the left is of a yellow canary or Crithagra flaviventris. I'm not sure but I believe these are of t ...
2 reads

Dancing

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:31:37 +0800

(South Africa / Kevin and Casandra's Blog)
Dancing Originally uploaded by kevinandcasandra IST stands for In-Service Training. I don’t know about the training part but we sure had a good time! These pictures include the Peace Corps ...
8 reads

Picture: Children Selling Tomatoes

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:25:00 +0800

(South Africa / Jade in South Africa)
I don't really have much to report these days--things are canceled there's lots of officework--so I am posting pictures when I get thechance over the next 2 1/2 weeks...after which I will no longer beblogging from the village of Mapayeni.
1 reads

Jenneffer in Africa cross-listed with li ...

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:36:00 +0800

(South Africa / Jenneffer in Africa)
I intended my Jenneffer in Africa blog to be targeted to the non-library audience i.e. general readership comprised of friends family lurkers etc. However I see that my work here is a lot of 'lib ...
13 reads

southeast asian- south african- inspired dish

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:26:00 +0800

(South Africa / Jenneffer in Africa)
Serves 2. 250 g whole wheat spaghetti 4 tbsp crunchy peanut butter few garlic cloves minced half onion small dice thumb size nug ginger minced small glug oil tbsp turmeric one red chili minced ...
9 reads

Alien bug

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:03:08 +0800

(South Africa / Kevin and Casandra's Blog)
Alien bug Originally uploaded by kevinandcasandra Just a few bugs for your viewing enjoyment. Just so you know. We always do a bug check before we go to sleep. Never go to bed when you know there is a bug. Never.
12 reads

Turtle-2

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 07:46:48 +0800

(South Africa / Kevin and Casandra's Blog)
Turtle-2 Originally uploaded by kevinandcasandra We have been enjoying the wildlife as usual. As of late we have encountered a really awesome turtle lots of horses and of course cows! We found th ...
5 reads

Sky-1

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 07:25:34 +0800

(South Africa / Kevin and Casandra's Blog)
Sky-1 Originally uploaded by kevinandcasandra We have been having some beautiful skies lately. The first couple pictures are from the sunset right before a storm. You can even see the streaks from ...
0 reads

Tuesday funny

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:43:00 +0800

(South Africa / Doughnut Orbitals)
Noah again brings Teh Funny: His strategy is wildly inappropriate salting the chicken is many steps down the line. All I can think to say to this misguided salt wasting youth is "you're doing it wro ...
9 reads