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 :-)