Belated News on our 4th of July Festivites

Yes, I do realize that this post is over a month too late, but I'm writing it so when I look back on our year here I'll be able to remember a few things. We had all sorts of plans of things we would, could, should do to celebrate America's Independence, but then things got a bit hectic. So instead of having a bbq and making apple pies we actually made lasagna and packed for field school all day. However, we did redeem ourselves a bit that evening and went to dinner with Linds and Adriann at the Gourmet Garage in Montecasino.

None of us had been to the monstrosity commonly called Montecasino, but we figured it was worth checking it out for what a local magazine claimed to been a "spectacular burger experience" with infinite burger choices. What the magazine described and what we found were two different things, but the food and company were good. The real treat of the evening wasn't the Gourmet Garage itself but the store we found while looking for the restaurant. Montecasino is quite large and we headed the wrong direction at first which was actually quite fortunate because we stumbled upon a store full of America memorabilia. We can't remember the name of the store, but it was full of all sorts of truly American goods. They had everything for Shasta soda to western boots and apparel. It truly was a sight to behold.

Marathon Update

For those of you who are following our running adventures here is a quick update. We are going to do the Soweto Marathon November 1st and then the Las Vegas Marathon December 6th. Training took a bit of a hit the last few months with visitors, field camp, a dislocated elbow, and a sprained anckle, but we are back on track. We are doing the Soweto Marathon along with two other Rotary Scholars to raise money for the Khulanathi Music Project and then hope to qualify for Boston in Vegas. We will have more info about the Khulanathi Music Project and our fundrasing efforts in the next few weeks.

Where does the time go?!?!

It is now official we are the worlds worst bloggers, but we have three months to redeem outsleves before we head home. We comfermed our tickets home this afternoon and are headed out November 5 at 9:30 pm (Jozi time) and arrive home November 6 late afternoon. With that said let's fill you in on the last few months.

For starters we just returned from a five week archeological digg in the Limpopo province. We stayed on the Venetia game resurve which is ownded by DeBeers and had the privledge of seeing African game on a daily basis. On the slightly less glamorous sid of things Chris worked and had class fifty hours a week while I organized the food and cooked for fifteen people. Needless to say we are thankful to be back in Joburg cooking for two with two sets of useful hands. There will be more details about our time in a later post.

Before the digg we had a marathon of guests and a great time seeing new parts of the county with them. Kevin, Chris's dad, was the first to arrive and we had a great time in the Southern Drakensburg and even went into Lesoto. Then Jimmy arrived for a quick trip inbetween jobs and we showed him around Johannesburg and the surrounds. Once Jimmy and Kevin headed home Lizabeth came over for two weeks. During her stay we loaded water and hit the open road ending up in Port Elizabeth (PE)--one of my favorite stops so far. We had planned to head up the coast to Jeffery's Bay, but decided that we wanted to stay a bit longer in PE. Finally, Patty, Scott, and Elizabeth came and we spent two wonderful weeks in the Pilanesburg game resurve and Cape Town. It was so nice to have a bit of home around for six weeks.

Well that is the update for now. I will work on loading some more pictures and writeing a few more detailed accounts.

Thanks for reading,
Mary

Speical Olympics South Africa

Last Saturday Chris and I had the opportunity to volunteer with Special Olympics South Africa. We were lucky enough to meet the SOSA's director at a Rotary meeting in Sandton, and she helped connect us with their Young Athlete's program which works with individuals ages 2-7 and helps serve as an introduction to Special Olympics.

We spent the morning setting up for the event at at 10:00 mini-buses filled with athletes and their families started to arrive. It was a great morning filled with excitement and enthusiasm as the youngsters participated in everything from kick-ball-toss to 50m foot races while their friends and families cheered them on. People headed into the tents during a short rain storm, but overall the weather cooperated and everyone had a great time. We are looking forward to participating in other events during the remainder of our stay.

Easter Celebrations

You never quite realize how important family holidays are until you are half-way across the world, and don't quite know what to do. We thought about preparing a feast for two, but there is no way our refrigerator could handle the leftovers. And I almost made it to church (within meters in fact), but judging from the overcrowded parking lot and the cars lining both sides of the street there weren't going to be any seats left even at a quarter to seven. So after realizing our Easter was going to be anything but traditional we created some Easter traditions of our own.

Firstly, and the mostly likely to be repeated, hot crossed buns. I don't mean singing the song or even playing it on a musical instrument, but actually baking hot crossed buns. After realizing that I wasn't going to make it into the church I decided to give them a try. From what we have gathered, this British delicacy is a major part of South African Easter festivities. The buns turned out great, and we have a few left over if anyone wants to hop on a plane and grab one:)

While the buns were busy rising we went on our first official marathon training run. It was a bit tough because our neighborhood, Northcliff, is inordinately hilly, but we made it though. Only 29 more weeks until the big marathon.

The rest of our day was relatively uneventful. We went to the park, watched Casino Royal, and just finished our stir-fry supper. Although the day was anything but traditional we had a great time, and I am determined to actually make it into St. Thomas Anglican Church next Sunday.

Running Update

For all of our running buddies out there here is a quick running update. We have officially decided that we are going to do the Soweto Marathon on November 1st, and we are beginning our base training on Easter--it is a rebirth of sorts. The marathon is part of the Nedbank City Marathon Series and takes place in the township of Soweto. The course takes us past the homes of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, and has three big climbs. Fortunately, we live in the middle of hills and have no option but to do some serious hills whenever we head out for a run.

Leading up to the marathon we have found a trail running series sponsored by Men's Health. We are planning on doing at least two of the four races during May and June. Lizabeth (my sister) will be running the 5k with me during the first race at the Cradle of Humankind.

We will keep you posted, and eventually ask for donations as we are running the Soweto Marathon for charity.

Kingsway Christian School

In our free time when Chris doesn't have class, we have been volunteering at Kingsway Christian School in a part of Johannesburg called Honeydew. We mentioned the school in an earlier entry, but it is worth elaborating on. We learned about the school from a Rotarian and began volunteering the end of February. Chris is splitting his time between the 1st grade classroom and the kitchen--hoping to spend more and more time in that kitchen--and I am in the 2/3 grade "remedial" classroom.

Over time Chris hopes to put his RD to use by helping develop a cycle menu for the school feeding program. At the moment I am helping out with routine classroom tasks, and hope to work with my classroom teacher to help connect her with some much needed classroom resources.

The students come from a nearby informal settlement, and are an absolute joy to work with. I am always amazed at their exuberance for life and their joyful demeanor. We will keep you all updated as we do more with the school.

For more infomation about the school visit thier website: http://kingsway.org.za/Kingsway/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1