SO busy.

Hey all - sorry I haven't posted anything in a while. I am sure you have just been waiting on the edge of your seat with baited breath for my next rambling. Hold that thought. Cause there won't be much rambling right now. Here are some quick bullet points:

• I obviously made it back from South Africa. The meeting kept me busy enough to not be able to post at all. The trip home was terrible. It is supposed to take 24 hours, it took 34. Bad weather, mechanical malfunctions, missed flights, lost bags. And the basic fact that Washington Dulles airport is a crap hole made the trip that much worse.
• Thanksgiving was nice. Spent it here in Durham with Mike, his Mom, friends Ed & Amy with their little one Owen. Everything was great until the stomach flu hit on Friday and bad bad things happened. My body is still recovering.
• The semester is wrapping up right now. I have a big paper due next Tuesday - 15-20 pages. I haven't written a word yet. Great.
• Heading home to Texas for a few days at Christmas to see family. Once I return, off to Western NC for New Year's, then New Orleans in early January. Should be a crazy few weeks.

Okay, get back to whatever you are doing. I will write more later.

Arrival of the Americans

Since the Forum starts tomorrow morning, the Americans attending the Forum all arrived this evening. Once they got settled in, several of us went and had a great Italian meal on the Waterfront, catching up and having a great laugh. Here's a photo from the evening:


From front left around the table, ending at front right, we have:
Darryl Lester (Raleigh, NC), Melody October (Cape Town, South Africa), Me, Tim Webb (Baltimore, MD), Esther Benjamin (Baltimore, MD), Adam Taylor (Washington, DC), and John Barros (Boston, MA). The last time we were all together in the same place was in Cape Town last October, so it was a great reunion.

And also, just in case you are interested, at gas stations (excuse me, petrol stations) in South Africa, there are several attendants working at each station to pump gas. It helps to try and keep people employed in some sense or the other - since many of the folks working at the stations never received formal educations due to the apartheid system. I didn't want to be a total asshole tourist snapping photos, but I took a quick one that came out blurry. But I don't know - I kind of like the feel of the picture anyway. So, here is a quick snap of a petrol station in Cape Town at night - there were about 6 attendants waiting at the pumps. And this was taken at about 2am. They were all standing around chatting.....

Okay, I am off to sleep - the Forum starts early tomorrow, and it is already 2:30am here. My sleep schedule is still rather off. That is what naps are for :-)

All work today

Hey there, everyone! I wish I had some crazy and exciting Africa stories to share with you today, but alas, all I have done so far is work. The Forum starts on Friday, so it is all prep work from here on out. We did manage to wrap up shortly after 5pm, which is much better than years past. I remember times when I didn't leave the office until 10 or 11pm each night before one of these Forums! So, I guess we are doing something right. But, since I just worked so far today, the only pic I have to share is of a "table cloth" - when the clouds pour over Table Mountain, making a phantom tablecloth appear, flowing over the mountain. It was sundown when I snapped this photo, so my shaky hand due to the wind and the poor lighting just add to its aesthetic :-)

Enjoy!

Cuba in Africa

So, this evening I decided to venture out for dinner rather than eating the same hotel food I have eaten every stay here since 2002. I have heared some rave reviews of the "Buena Vista Social Cafe", so I decided to make the trek. After calling a taxi and a 3 minute drive to the restaurant, I found out I could have walked over to some of the best food I have ever had in Cape Town.

This is the view from my seat. Of course, there is a mojito (what else do you drink at a Cuban bar???) and some water, with excellent candlelight to read the CSF Monograph I have not yet read (the meeting I am actually here to administrate).

I had some stuffed jalapenos to start (filled with feta and cream cheese - so good), then a vegetarian Cuban burrito - stuffed with carrots, cauliflower, bell pepper, carrots, cucumber, zucchini, and topped with cheese. It was amazingly good. In fact, I am now nearly in a food coma. I think I may visit there again!!! And in the background, the Buena Vista Social Club played nonstop. Since I own a decent chunk of their CDs, I was able to hum along with nearly every tune. Heavenly.

VIVA CUBA! (In Africa!)

SAWUBONA

Here I am, Cape Town yet again. It is 7:30pm USEST and it is about 2:30 am in South Africa. And I'm wide awake. yay. I just took 2 Tylenol PMs, and hopefully they will kick in soon.

The trip went well though - one close call on making my connecting flight to Cape Town, but I rushed up as they were finishing boarding. This will be my shortest trip to South Africa yet. I am here for a whopping 9 days total - and that is with two days of travel on each side. This time next week, I will be about 15 hours from home :)

I am here for a three day forum on civil society that will run from Friday through Sunday. I do prep work in between now and then. The Monday after, I fly home. Crazy whirlwind trip, but it is lots of frequent flyer miles :-)

I will hopefully have some cool pics to post in the next day or so. My camera took a bit of a beating on the trip over, but photos seem to be coming out fine. So, wait on the edge of your seats! I should have some lovely Cape Town beauty to post soon.

Okay, I am hopefully going to fall asleep soon. Ciao!