Do you remember all the cartoons where the character is specifically told not to push the red button? In my quest to make my computer do things it has never done with networking before I was going through various folders that I really should not have been messing with. I found one that looked like a pretty globe and executable in a folder marked relating to networking. I knew it would do something…of course I really did not know what it would do. Knowing a button will do something creates an almost irresistible urge to press it. So of course the hero of the story pushes the little button that the little voices in his head whisper that he might not want to push it. After about 15 second a nasty error box pops up and says something to the effect that whatever our hero was trying to do did not work. A few moments later another program does not respond as our hero is working on something else. So the solution to many-stalled program is to hit the control-alt-delete and invoke the powers of the task master. Another big nasty error message pops up and says that the Administrator has revoked the task master. I own the computer. There is no Administrator; the closest thing to one is the owner of the computer. I didn’t tell it to revoke my override powers…what the xxxx? In an age of phishing, viruses and other malicious software my thought between error message, stalling programs and modifications of my admin powers our hero starts to feel a bit of anxiety. Our hero almost never panics and has survived at least 3 life threatening situations because of this personality. Luckily this was not a life threatening issue although it was a bit stressful. His ability to think critically and rationally in the time of stress allows him to discover that his regedit (the soul of Windows) has been modified and manages to fix that portion of the problem without completely destroying his system.
So the take away message is that if you put something that looks interesting in front of our hero and do not tell him what it does he will play with until it works or it breaks.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Flying weights
I came up with this brilliant idea that if I put wrist weights to my arms while playing the Wii I could rationalize playing Wii was not such a bad thing. I would be getting exercise while playing video games. This worked out well for the first 4 months or so that I have owned the Wii. Today my Herculean strength was greater than the binding on the weights and they went flying across the room. That was quite exciting. If you can imagine throwing a weight across the room at full force you can imagine the noise and can make as it impacts all your electronics. It was a good idea; the execution has some room for improvement, meaning stronger bindings.
So I took them off after than and well my timing was all off, I could swing the joystick way too fast. I need to retrain myself on the timing on the games now.
So I took them off after than and well my timing was all off, I could swing the joystick way too fast. I need to retrain myself on the timing on the games now.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Elections
Tis the season to be campaigning for elected office. This is not the story of a run for position of money and glamour. It is one with a big flashing “sucker” sign that comes with it. I got a call today asking if I would run for a seat on the board of the HOA today. Well I could be like everyone else and take the easy route, letting someone else do it. The question then is if no one does it, then what happens? I told the recruiter I might not even be at the January annual meeting for the election because I may be out of the country. That didn’t seem to phase her, she figured I would win by a landslide even without attending because the current board was behind me and there really is no competition. Since the meetings general meetings usually have less than 10 people attending and 5 votes from the incumbent board would put me into the majority with one more vote. I figured what the heck the HOA is in good shape financial shape so it should be a much easier job since there is money to spend. By February you may be reading from an executive. Well yes it is a HOA but the word “executive” does sound a lot better than the word “sucker”.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Blacked out in Cincy
On Monday the power went out at dusk and stayed off for 3 hours. In this time many of the people either chose to leave their homes by manually opening the garage door or walking outside. I make an effort to meet my neighbors, yet there are still many that I have not met because they do not go to the board meetings or annual picnic. Having an attached garage means that most people just get in the car, drive away from the house and come back right into the garage, never interacting with the neighbors. This was a rare opportunity to unplug ourselves from the electronic world and go outside. I met a couple of my neighbors in the HOA then actually met some people in the surrounding downtown area. Perhaps we should have a random annual black out in all safe neighborhoods with the proper safety protections set up.
South Africa Day 11-15
Day 11 (Tuesday)
The next morning we went to the botanical gardens. One would have thought that spring would be the perfect time to go. Surprisingly not very much was in bloom even the time of year. So our stay was fairly short in the gardens. The climate was much warmer in Durban than in the areas that we just came from. We went from bundling up to shorts and tee shirts.
We next went to U-Shaka Marine world. Which was 100 yards around the corner from our hostel. We learned that there were restaurants outside the paid admission areas. That would have been nice to know before we took the leisurely stroll through the “No Go” area the previous day. The park had a nice aquarium the spent a lot more effort highlighting conservation than the parks in the states. The pictures of the stingray feeding and dolphins are from this site. The diver put the fish right into the stingray’s mouth. My assumption is because the stingrays can not compete with the other fish for food in the densely populated environment. They food would never make it to an area where the stingrays could eat it because of the positioning of the mouth and the lack of relative speed. The fish bumped so violently against the diver that his equipment got dislodged for a while.
As we exited the park we purchased almonds. We had gone 10,000 miles and ate almonds that most likely were grown in California. Most of the world’s almonds come from California. And most of those come from one company.
We had enough of this city and left that afternoon even though we had prepaid for that night. Arriving at St. Lucia Estuary we checked into a dump that was clearly the worse backpacker’s hostel. It was also the most expensive, which is a relative term (~$13.6). We would find out later that we had paid these prices for a lack of hot water too.
We went back to St. Lucia for an afternoon of kayaking. Our guide’s name was Chris and we had another companion named Jo. Jo was from Holland, blond and studying premed. She was nice enough, just one of those people that you get a sense that you do not want a sharp object in her hands. We paddled out in individual kayaks and got within a very few feet of the crocodiles. The hippos had a reputation for coming out and playing with kayaks so we avoided them, and only observing them about 75 yards out. Hippos are not animals you want to mess with; they are extremely fast in and out of water. Jo dropped her camera in the water during the trip. As we were putting the kayaks away Chris made offered to take go the next closest town in his car and be back to St. Lucia by 10 AM the next day. It was stated it in such a way to say that was an open invitation. Being a slightly dimwitted person one might not have notice that it was directed only at Jo as a proposition for the night. Since he had phrased it in such a way that it was an open invitation that all 3 of us could hear I was so tempted to accept his offer just to mess with him. That would have been really funny. I decided not to be cruel and avoided throwing a wrench in scheme. Ah I’m such a nice guy sometimes.
We took maximized our evening by spending time buying some food for the next morning’s breakfast. We purchased an interesting looking coconut pastry, danishes, and cereal bars. While waiting at a restaurant for our dinner we started with the coconut pastry. We each consumed one and I was stunned that it was a very strong liquor pastry. Since I do not like the taste of alcohol it was quite nasty. In the US it would have had to been labeled a liquor pastry. I quickly decided that I was not going to eat any more. We devised a generous plan to give it away to the other backpackers telling them that we did no like it and they were free to have it. The Aussies were quite excited to have some since it was a special treat in Australia. The first kid wolfed it down the next started with smaller bites not delaying long enough to get the reaction from the first kid. They were also repulsed the taste and said it was not supposed to be that way and were spoiled. Noting how awful it was two other people including Jo (the blond from the kayak trip) insisted in trying some. Ah, just like the college days when some idiot would say “Ew, it’s awful try some!”
The next morning we were greeted by monkeys outside the hostel they were the trouble-making kind that would steal your glasses and such. We trade in the pastries for a whole sack of apples, 2 candy bars and juice. My host explained how irresponsible we were in that we had spent as much money on the pastries as many South African people would have for a few days worth of food.
Day 13 (Thurs)
It took the full day to reach Pretoria. That night we spent night Brie (barbecuing) with some locals at the hostel. They shared some pap with me. It is a maize dish that was completely tasteless; it looks like mashed potatoes and has a very pasty texture. So you have to eat it with a tasty sauce. This is a main staple of the culture.
Day 14 (Friday)
We got to see an active archeology site, the Sterkfontein Caves located inside the Cradle of Mankind. This has been one of the richest hominid artifact sites. It was where “Lucy” was found and they still were excavating “Littlefoot” after 10 years. The interior of the site had algae growing in by the light fixtures. This is the cost of increasing awareness. This awareness is the whole reason why we do the archeology. The tourism industry helps fund the conservation of this site. The damage from to the already excavated areas was helping to fund the research of the unexcavated (and inaccessible to the public) areas. Are the elite researchers the only ones that should be allowed to view this part of our heritage? In the museum on the surface there was information about the evolution of man. After a series of pictures with male ape-like ancestors the final picture depicted the words Homo Sapian and above it a very attractive Asian female.
We spent a couple hours at the Apartheid Museum learning the sanitized version of the history. It still had good information even though it could not capture the horrible spirit of the times. We would spend most of that night socializing with a whole bunch of Peace Corps volunteers. As a general rule most volunteers are women. My host made friends with a cat that would run with him. That night we slept in the equivalent of a comfortable wooden tool shed, not really that bad.
Day 15 (Sat)
My final day in South Africa started off by going to DeWitt Cheetahs Conservatory. We are requested not to run in the area. Cheetahs will instinctively focus on anything that runs. They are so focused that they may run into an object (like the fence) and break their very thin skulls.
We also saw them feed wild dogs pieces of chicken. The pictures depict the dogs with very high vertical leaps to catch the chicken. They would consume the chicken parts in three bites. Interesting that they tell us never to feed our domesticated dogs chicken because they may choke on the bones. A pack of wild dogs can complete consume a corpse in 15 minutes. They will run home and regurgitate the food to feed the young, old, sick and guardians.
We had lunch with a local family. The home has 3 gates. The exterior fence, the gate protecting the front entrance, and a steel gate inside the house protecting the bedrooms. Two dogs are on the property, the final line of defense were firearms inside the bedroom. This is what Americans would consider a middle class home.
As I boarded the plane it was a great feeling to know that I was going home. At the same time there was a sadness that another chapter of my life was closing. The memories were great and if given the option to go back in time to choose to take this trip or do something else, there is no question I would do it again. The time spent with my host would be cherished for the rest of my life. It was because of my host that these experiences were made possible together. Know thought that I never really could go back. As in most things in life you can never really go back. In the very unlikely chance that I show back up in South Africa, I would have changed and it will not be the same. It is like when I show up in my old schools. I am different and it will never be the same again.
The next morning we went to the botanical gardens. One would have thought that spring would be the perfect time to go. Surprisingly not very much was in bloom even the time of year. So our stay was fairly short in the gardens. The climate was much warmer in Durban than in the areas that we just came from. We went from bundling up to shorts and tee shirts.
We next went to U-Shaka Marine world. Which was 100 yards around the corner from our hostel. We learned that there were restaurants outside the paid admission areas. That would have been nice to know before we took the leisurely stroll through the “No Go” area the previous day. The park had a nice aquarium the spent a lot more effort highlighting conservation than the parks in the states. The pictures of the stingray feeding and dolphins are from this site. The diver put the fish right into the stingray’s mouth. My assumption is because the stingrays can not compete with the other fish for food in the densely populated environment. They food would never make it to an area where the stingrays could eat it because of the positioning of the mouth and the lack of relative speed. The fish bumped so violently against the diver that his equipment got dislodged for a while.
As we exited the park we purchased almonds. We had gone 10,000 miles and ate almonds that most likely were grown in California. Most of the world’s almonds come from California. And most of those come from one company.
We had enough of this city and left that afternoon even though we had prepaid for that night. Arriving at St. Lucia Estuary we checked into a dump that was clearly the worse backpacker’s hostel. It was also the most expensive, which is a relative term (~$13.6). We would find out later that we had paid these prices for a lack of hot water too.
Day 12 (Wed)
We went back to St. Lucia for an afternoon of kayaking. Our guide’s name was Chris and we had another companion named Jo. Jo was from Holland, blond and studying premed. She was nice enough, just one of those people that you get a sense that you do not want a sharp object in her hands. We paddled out in individual kayaks and got within a very few feet of the crocodiles. The hippos had a reputation for coming out and playing with kayaks so we avoided them, and only observing them about 75 yards out. Hippos are not animals you want to mess with; they are extremely fast in and out of water. Jo dropped her camera in the water during the trip. As we were putting the kayaks away Chris made offered to take go the next closest town in his car and be back to St. Lucia by 10 AM the next day. It was stated it in such a way to say that was an open invitation. Being a slightly dimwitted person one might not have notice that it was directed only at Jo as a proposition for the night. Since he had phrased it in such a way that it was an open invitation that all 3 of us could hear I was so tempted to accept his offer just to mess with him. That would have been really funny. I decided not to be cruel and avoided throwing a wrench in scheme. Ah I’m such a nice guy sometimes.
We took maximized our evening by spending time buying some food for the next morning’s breakfast. We purchased an interesting looking coconut pastry, danishes, and cereal bars. While waiting at a restaurant for our dinner we started with the coconut pastry. We each consumed one and I was stunned that it was a very strong liquor pastry. Since I do not like the taste of alcohol it was quite nasty. In the US it would have had to been labeled a liquor pastry. I quickly decided that I was not going to eat any more. We devised a generous plan to give it away to the other backpackers telling them that we did no like it and they were free to have it. The Aussies were quite excited to have some since it was a special treat in Australia. The first kid wolfed it down the next started with smaller bites not delaying long enough to get the reaction from the first kid. They were also repulsed the taste and said it was not supposed to be that way and were spoiled. Noting how awful it was two other people including Jo (the blond from the kayak trip) insisted in trying some. Ah, just like the college days when some idiot would say “Ew, it’s awful try some!”
The next morning we were greeted by monkeys outside the hostel they were the trouble-making kind that would steal your glasses and such. We trade in the pastries for a whole sack of apples, 2 candy bars and juice. My host explained how irresponsible we were in that we had spent as much money on the pastries as many South African people would have for a few days worth of food.
Day 13 (Thurs)
It took the full day to reach Pretoria. That night we spent night Brie (barbecuing) with some locals at the hostel. They shared some pap with me. It is a maize dish that was completely tasteless; it looks like mashed potatoes and has a very pasty texture. So you have to eat it with a tasty sauce. This is a main staple of the culture.
Day 14 (Friday)
We got to see an active archeology site, the Sterkfontein Caves located inside the Cradle of Mankind. This has been one of the richest hominid artifact sites. It was where “Lucy” was found and they still were excavating “Littlefoot” after 10 years. The interior of the site had algae growing in by the light fixtures. This is the cost of increasing awareness. This awareness is the whole reason why we do the archeology. The tourism industry helps fund the conservation of this site. The damage from to the already excavated areas was helping to fund the research of the unexcavated (and inaccessible to the public) areas. Are the elite researchers the only ones that should be allowed to view this part of our heritage? In the museum on the surface there was information about the evolution of man. After a series of pictures with male ape-like ancestors the final picture depicted the words Homo Sapian and above it a very attractive Asian female.
We spent a couple hours at the Apartheid Museum learning the sanitized version of the history. It still had good information even though it could not capture the horrible spirit of the times. We would spend most of that night socializing with a whole bunch of Peace Corps volunteers. As a general rule most volunteers are women. My host made friends with a cat that would run with him. That night we slept in the equivalent of a comfortable wooden tool shed, not really that bad.
Day 15 (Sat)
My final day in South Africa started off by going to DeWitt Cheetahs Conservatory. We are requested not to run in the area. Cheetahs will instinctively focus on anything that runs. They are so focused that they may run into an object (like the fence) and break their very thin skulls.
We also saw them feed wild dogs pieces of chicken. The pictures depict the dogs with very high vertical leaps to catch the chicken. They would consume the chicken parts in three bites. Interesting that they tell us never to feed our domesticated dogs chicken because they may choke on the bones. A pack of wild dogs can complete consume a corpse in 15 minutes. They will run home and regurgitate the food to feed the young, old, sick and guardians.
We had lunch with a local family. The home has 3 gates. The exterior fence, the gate protecting the front entrance, and a steel gate inside the house protecting the bedrooms. Two dogs are on the property, the final line of defense were firearms inside the bedroom. This is what Americans would consider a middle class home.
As I boarded the plane it was a great feeling to know that I was going home. At the same time there was a sadness that another chapter of my life was closing. The memories were great and if given the option to go back in time to choose to take this trip or do something else, there is no question I would do it again. The time spent with my host would be cherished for the rest of my life. It was because of my host that these experiences were made possible together. Know thought that I never really could go back. As in most things in life you can never really go back. In the very unlikely chance that I show back up in South Africa, I would have changed and it will not be the same. It is like when I show up in my old schools. I am different and it will never be the same again.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
South Africa Day 10
Day 10 (Monday)
Arriving at the Happy Hippo backpacker’s hostel in Durban at 2pm left us famished. We took a stroll outside in the quest for food. As we walked through the city we quickly realized that we really did not belong in this area. A lot of energy was spent keep aware of our surroundings and any people that got in close proximity of us. So after a mile or two of walking thorough the bad part of town we found access to the beach and found food in that proximity. We decided to walk back along the beach back to the hostel. Inside the hostel we saw a very nice map indicating the area we just walked through as a red “no go” area. That was mighty nice of them to tell us that we just survived a really rough part of town.
That evening we would find another backpacker in the hostel who took the same route as us and was accosted by two thugs trying to pickpocket him. He was walking by himself.
The next person I talked to that evening was an ex-volunteer police officer. His training sergeant told him that his type got the worse deal with getting shot at for free! So one would really have to want to serve to volunteer for this duty. His examples of the lack of technology of the South African police force was so far behind it made them seem like they were stuck in the 70’s. He said that the police dispatcher was not connected to the other emergency services (fire, ambulances, search and rescue, coast guard etc). They could not communicate with each other. He said that they were lucky to have a radio in 25% of the vehicles. He said that the pay is pitiful for the normal police force. The cops that start off as straight are heavily pressured to join one of the corrupt “gangs” of cops or never advance in his career. He stopped volunteering because the he was asked to report the corrupt cops. He did this until his superiors revealed to the corrupt cops the identity of the informant. The locals seem to think that the cops are not to be trusted and will not do anything if there is a crime, especially at night. If you were a lowly paid public servant that gets no respect, would you risk your life to try to stop a violent crime in the dark of night when you know that you can not call for backup?
I also met 3 American Peace Corps Volunteer and they told me that they had been offered la bola. La bola is the dowry offered to the father of a woman the man wishes to buy. Traditionally it comes in the form of cows but these days it also comes in the form of cash. So we figured a normal la bola is 8-11 cows. That is our new joke: “How many cows is she worth?”
Arriving at the Happy Hippo backpacker’s hostel in Durban at 2pm left us famished. We took a stroll outside in the quest for food. As we walked through the city we quickly realized that we really did not belong in this area. A lot of energy was spent keep aware of our surroundings and any people that got in close proximity of us. So after a mile or two of walking thorough the bad part of town we found access to the beach and found food in that proximity. We decided to walk back along the beach back to the hostel. Inside the hostel we saw a very nice map indicating the area we just walked through as a red “no go” area. That was mighty nice of them to tell us that we just survived a really rough part of town.
That evening we would find another backpacker in the hostel who took the same route as us and was accosted by two thugs trying to pickpocket him. He was walking by himself.
The next person I talked to that evening was an ex-volunteer police officer. His training sergeant told him that his type got the worse deal with getting shot at for free! So one would really have to want to serve to volunteer for this duty. His examples of the lack of technology of the South African police force was so far behind it made them seem like they were stuck in the 70’s. He said that the police dispatcher was not connected to the other emergency services (fire, ambulances, search and rescue, coast guard etc). They could not communicate with each other. He said that they were lucky to have a radio in 25% of the vehicles. He said that the pay is pitiful for the normal police force. The cops that start off as straight are heavily pressured to join one of the corrupt “gangs” of cops or never advance in his career. He stopped volunteering because the he was asked to report the corrupt cops. He did this until his superiors revealed to the corrupt cops the identity of the informant. The locals seem to think that the cops are not to be trusted and will not do anything if there is a crime, especially at night. If you were a lowly paid public servant that gets no respect, would you risk your life to try to stop a violent crime in the dark of night when you know that you can not call for backup?
I also met 3 American Peace Corps Volunteer and they told me that they had been offered la bola. La bola is the dowry offered to the father of a woman the man wishes to buy. Traditionally it comes in the form of cows but these days it also comes in the form of cash. So we figured a normal la bola is 8-11 cows. That is our new joke: “How many cows is she worth?”
Friday, October 10, 2008
South Africa part 3
There were ostriches that had been tamed and will eat out of your hand. They are not very bright so they will bite your hand while feeding from it. Since they don’t have any teeth if feels like a clamp coming down on your hand.
We stayed at a place called Backpacker’s hostel called Kama Soul. This is where I took the sunset pictures in the links. This place was quite nice, clean and we didn’t have to share the dorm with anyone. Just to make sure the place was secure I used my Herculean strength to pull one of the bunk beds in front of the door so that no one could surprise us at night. Many places in South Africa like to have two faucets, one for cold and one for hot. Both faucets are very short like 3 inches so you really have to get close to the basin edge to use them. This is a similar phenomenon that I saw in New Zealand, I am not sure why they would inconvenience themselves this way because I would not think it is cheaper to install 2 faucets instead of one that mixes hot and cold.
Day 7 (Friday)
We woke before the sunrise to go out to greet the meerkats. A researcher (Grant) has befriended meerkats so that they do not see him as a threat. He takes pains to let the meerkats know that he is not a threat and also that he is not a meerkat. In previous research when the meerkats thought the Grant was a really big meerkat sentinel they let down their survival instincts and ceased setting up sentinels. They quickly became snacks for the real predators. We accompanied Grant to the burrow that the meerkats slept in that night. You can see from the picture links how close we were to them as they were warming themselves up from the morning sun. Were actually a bit closer as we followed them through their foraging run. Almost on cue the rain started at the time when we were supposed leave the meerkats.
We then drove to Monkeyland which were most of the pictures of monkeys in the photo links were taken. It was a cold day so there were not that many out. The white monkey and black monkey in the pictures are extremely stupid monkeys. These Lemurs will forget where they leave babies.
Right next door was Birds of Eden. My host had a grand time letting two of these birds climb all over him.
A large roadblock stopped us on the N2 highway. The officers without guns requested to see our passports, this was not a port of entry. Why would they need to see our passports if we were just driving? South Africa is known to have a corrupt police force and for fake roadblocks. The driver showed the identification page and paged to the entry stamp but refused to surrender the passport. After while of discussion the officers instructed the driver to pull over to the side at which point the driver “calmly drove away.” A few minutes later a tiny hatchback with police markings forced our vehicle off the road. The officer snatched the driver’s passport and demanded we return to the roadblock, speeding away leaving only one option of we wanted that passport back. A quick analysis of the situation: told me that if jail time was in the future valuables would have to be transferred out of reach of the corrupt police force. A quick plan was forming for alternative lodging, a replacement driver, removal of all valuables from the driver, the main hope was that they did not impound the car because there would be no way to protect all the luggage\valuables without a vessel to carry them. Some may see it is as cold way of thinking but it is also the most effective way of thinking. If the driver was going to be arrested was almost beyond our influence at this point. The focus was on the solution not the panic of worry; the type of thinking that is needed at the time of crisis.
Boy the cops were mad. The police threatened to throw the driver in jail for the weekend. After repeated threats we were released and drove merrily along. Which tells me that that the police had some underlying precondition that prevented them from executing the threats. They were disrespected at that level and then just let the offender go. Very few people would allow their prides to that heavily offended and do nothing about it if they had the authority or power to do something about it. In the US the driver would have been arrested when he was chased and forced off the road. I will come back to this discussion later in the blog when I recount my conversations with the ex-volunteer police officer and stories from the locals.
The rest of evening is spending on very dark highways driving toward Addo. There are pedestrians all along the highway. Most are black people in dark clothing (non-reflective and usually not white), making the practically impossible to see until they are 20 yards in front of you. Traveling at 120 km/hr, you do the math on how quickly a car would be upon these practically invisible people. We decided that was the last time we were going to drive at night.
The Aardvark backpacker’s hostel was quite nice, with an all you could eat breakfast for 20 rand (~$3), laundry service for ~$3 a load and an electric fence to protect the property at night.
Day 8 (Saturday)
We drove to Addo Game Reserve, arriving around 7 AM. Throughout our trip in South Africa we would seen many herbivores that resembled deer. After a while of this they were no longer exciting and being the sophisticated people we were we only noted there was another “deer-like” or “grazer” instead of expending the effort of looking in the books to identify the creatures. There were lots of ostriches, warthogs (they are really ugly) and Kudu (a deer-like). The highlights of the morning drive was a huge herd of elephants that were approaching a watering hole. These are the elephants depicted in the photo link. We timed it just right, the elephants were just arriving. They drank all the water in the hole (until it was dry) and then moved on. Our car happened to be in the path that the elephants wanted to take. The driver shut off the engine and we watched as the whole herd of elephants walked around the car. Elephants spend 14-16 hours a day eating and sleep on their feet.
In the distance we saw a jackal, the pictures on the links are with a 48x (12x optical, 4x digital). I was told it is very rare to see these animals because they flee from the first sign of humans.
We saw a large family of meerkats that is where most of the pictures came from. We were not allowed to take pictures while with Grant. I was told these animals are pretty rare.
Since my host had told me how hot it was in South Africa I did not have any warm cloths for the evening drive through the park in an open jeep. I prepared myself with a tee shirt, two long sleeve shirts, two borrowed sweaters and my windbreaker. The cold still started penetrating by the end of the drive. Don’t let anyone fool you South Africa gets cold! The evening drive was pretty uneventful although I did get to try the local beef jerky, biltong.
Day 9 (Sunday)
We arrived at Port Elizabeth and inquired what there was to do interesting in town. Our analysis was that it was not a very exciting place. We did see some interesting wake boarders using giant kites to pull them through the very cold waves. I did get to see giraffes and zebras too. Eventually I practiced my stick shift driving.
We stayed at a place called Backpacker’s hostel called Kama Soul. This is where I took the sunset pictures in the links. This place was quite nice, clean and we didn’t have to share the dorm with anyone. Just to make sure the place was secure I used my Herculean strength to pull one of the bunk beds in front of the door so that no one could surprise us at night. Many places in South Africa like to have two faucets, one for cold and one for hot. Both faucets are very short like 3 inches so you really have to get close to the basin edge to use them. This is a similar phenomenon that I saw in New Zealand, I am not sure why they would inconvenience themselves this way because I would not think it is cheaper to install 2 faucets instead of one that mixes hot and cold.
Day 7 (Friday)
We woke before the sunrise to go out to greet the meerkats. A researcher (Grant) has befriended meerkats so that they do not see him as a threat. He takes pains to let the meerkats know that he is not a threat and also that he is not a meerkat. In previous research when the meerkats thought the Grant was a really big meerkat sentinel they let down their survival instincts and ceased setting up sentinels. They quickly became snacks for the real predators. We accompanied Grant to the burrow that the meerkats slept in that night. You can see from the picture links how close we were to them as they were warming themselves up from the morning sun. Were actually a bit closer as we followed them through their foraging run. Almost on cue the rain started at the time when we were supposed leave the meerkats.
We then drove to Monkeyland which were most of the pictures of monkeys in the photo links were taken. It was a cold day so there were not that many out. The white monkey and black monkey in the pictures are extremely stupid monkeys. These Lemurs will forget where they leave babies.
Right next door was Birds of Eden. My host had a grand time letting two of these birds climb all over him.
A large roadblock stopped us on the N2 highway. The officers without guns requested to see our passports, this was not a port of entry. Why would they need to see our passports if we were just driving? South Africa is known to have a corrupt police force and for fake roadblocks. The driver showed the identification page and paged to the entry stamp but refused to surrender the passport. After while of discussion the officers instructed the driver to pull over to the side at which point the driver “calmly drove away.” A few minutes later a tiny hatchback with police markings forced our vehicle off the road. The officer snatched the driver’s passport and demanded we return to the roadblock, speeding away leaving only one option of we wanted that passport back. A quick analysis of the situation: told me that if jail time was in the future valuables would have to be transferred out of reach of the corrupt police force. A quick plan was forming for alternative lodging, a replacement driver, removal of all valuables from the driver, the main hope was that they did not impound the car because there would be no way to protect all the luggage\valuables without a vessel to carry them. Some may see it is as cold way of thinking but it is also the most effective way of thinking. If the driver was going to be arrested was almost beyond our influence at this point. The focus was on the solution not the panic of worry; the type of thinking that is needed at the time of crisis.
Boy the cops were mad. The police threatened to throw the driver in jail for the weekend. After repeated threats we were released and drove merrily along. Which tells me that that the police had some underlying precondition that prevented them from executing the threats. They were disrespected at that level and then just let the offender go. Very few people would allow their prides to that heavily offended and do nothing about it if they had the authority or power to do something about it. In the US the driver would have been arrested when he was chased and forced off the road. I will come back to this discussion later in the blog when I recount my conversations with the ex-volunteer police officer and stories from the locals.
The rest of evening is spending on very dark highways driving toward Addo. There are pedestrians all along the highway. Most are black people in dark clothing (non-reflective and usually not white), making the practically impossible to see until they are 20 yards in front of you. Traveling at 120 km/hr, you do the math on how quickly a car would be upon these practically invisible people. We decided that was the last time we were going to drive at night.
The Aardvark backpacker’s hostel was quite nice, with an all you could eat breakfast for 20 rand (~$3), laundry service for ~$3 a load and an electric fence to protect the property at night.
Day 8 (Saturday)
We drove to Addo Game Reserve, arriving around 7 AM. Throughout our trip in South Africa we would seen many herbivores that resembled deer. After a while of this they were no longer exciting and being the sophisticated people we were we only noted there was another “deer-like” or “grazer” instead of expending the effort of looking in the books to identify the creatures. There were lots of ostriches, warthogs (they are really ugly) and Kudu (a deer-like). The highlights of the morning drive was a huge herd of elephants that were approaching a watering hole. These are the elephants depicted in the photo link. We timed it just right, the elephants were just arriving. They drank all the water in the hole (until it was dry) and then moved on. Our car happened to be in the path that the elephants wanted to take. The driver shut off the engine and we watched as the whole herd of elephants walked around the car. Elephants spend 14-16 hours a day eating and sleep on their feet.
In the distance we saw a jackal, the pictures on the links are with a 48x (12x optical, 4x digital). I was told it is very rare to see these animals because they flee from the first sign of humans.
We saw a large family of meerkats that is where most of the pictures came from. We were not allowed to take pictures while with Grant. I was told these animals are pretty rare.
Since my host had told me how hot it was in South Africa I did not have any warm cloths for the evening drive through the park in an open jeep. I prepared myself with a tee shirt, two long sleeve shirts, two borrowed sweaters and my windbreaker. The cold still started penetrating by the end of the drive. Don’t let anyone fool you South Africa gets cold! The evening drive was pretty uneventful although I did get to try the local beef jerky, biltong.
Day 9 (Sunday)
We arrived at Port Elizabeth and inquired what there was to do interesting in town. Our analysis was that it was not a very exciting place. We did see some interesting wake boarders using giant kites to pull them through the very cold waves. I did get to see giraffes and zebras too. Eventually I practiced my stick shift driving.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
South Africa part 2
I learned a long time ago not to say “How are you doing?” as a greeting unless I really wanted to know. This piece of clairvoyance came when I got stuck listening to someone tell me her life story for 10 minutes and I really was not interested in what that person had to say. The reverse has happened to me fairly often to reinforce this point; people would ask: “How are you doing” and walk away as I am speaking. My greetings for politeness are more succinct now sticking to a “Hello”, “Hi”, “Hey”, “Sup” etc. In the South African Township the verbal greeting exchange assumes that the other person is going to say “Hello. How are you doing?” When I am introduced after I say “Hello” and they say “Hello. How are you doing? I am fine.” I smirk as I realize how much that social idiosyncrasy is an automated response to a question I never asked.
Day 4 (Tuesday)
After landing in Cape Town the previous night we awaken to a heavy rainstorm. Our morning is spent socializing with the host family. I notice that there is a lock on the refrigerator and freezer. It is explained to me that these locks are standard issue because of the value of food to the poor population. That could be their food supply for the week and the many families would be devastated if this were stolen because they could not replace it until the next paycheck.
We head out to Simon Town to see penguins that live in the ground. They live in shallow burrows in the grass near the ocean. I never knew that there were penguins that live underground. They are so docile and used to humans that they react to us as they would to an elephant. The penguins will let you get within inches of them and simply step out of your way to avoid being trampled, as they would with an elephant. They are not afraid of humans.
Day 5 (Wednesday)
We wake to find that our car was broken into during the night. We are instructed to go to the police station to file a report since the police would not come to the scene of the crime. The police do not bother to look at the car. They our police report is a 4 inch piece of paper that pretty much says that we said the car was broken into.
We arrive at Oudtshroon at about 4 PM, just in time for the last ostrich tour. We pass by the first ostrich farm and head to the one further away. My host had been to the closer one and wanted to try the further one. The further one turns out to be 75-80% cheaper than the first site. We get a demonstration of making ostrich feather dusters, egg incubation. It is explained to us that ostriches are extremely stupid and have a 40-g brain, each eye is 60 g. The birds will swallow pretty much anything with the mouth and throat that are quite flexible. The ostrich exhibit showed the contents of a bird’s stomach to contain stones (for digestion), coins, sparkplug, toy car etc.
Then drive over to the nesting sites. It is explained that the birds will kick humans. If the human stays still on the ground the bird can not kick him so it will sit on the humans for 4 days to suffocate/starve the invader. The guide uses a long branch from a thorn bush to ward off the ostrich. The bird does not want its eyes damaged by the 2-inch thorns. We are allowed to stand on the eggs because they are strong enough to withstand that much weight. There is a wooden A-frame built over the nest to keep the eggs out of view of flying predators.
We get in our cars and drive 20 yards to the ostrich corral where we are allowed to ride the ostriches. That was the highlight of the trip. The retainers would chase the birds around while we were on the birds to make them run faster.
Day 4 (Tuesday)
After landing in Cape Town the previous night we awaken to a heavy rainstorm. Our morning is spent socializing with the host family. I notice that there is a lock on the refrigerator and freezer. It is explained to me that these locks are standard issue because of the value of food to the poor population. That could be their food supply for the week and the many families would be devastated if this were stolen because they could not replace it until the next paycheck.
We head out to Simon Town to see penguins that live in the ground. They live in shallow burrows in the grass near the ocean. I never knew that there were penguins that live underground. They are so docile and used to humans that they react to us as they would to an elephant. The penguins will let you get within inches of them and simply step out of your way to avoid being trampled, as they would with an elephant. They are not afraid of humans.
We head to Cape Point at the Cape of Good Hope. This is the southernmost point of Africa. At the cape we find a brightly colored poisonous caterpillar and a dassie. The dassie looks like a cuddly rodent the size of a cat. I was told that they are supposed to be the closest relative an elephant. The rain starts back up as we leave.
Day 5 (Wednesday)
We wake to find that our car was broken into during the night. We are instructed to go to the police station to file a report since the police would not come to the scene of the crime. The police do not bother to look at the car. They our police report is a 4 inch piece of paper that pretty much says that we said the car was broken into.
So off to Hermanus where we arrive in slightly rainy weather. Even though the weather was not totally cooperating, the whales were. We could see them in the distance swimming at the surface and spouting. This is the first place we have to check into a backpacker’s hostel. The room bathroom is inside the room and smells like urine. That lovely odor permeates the room when the bathroom door is open. When we identified that the blankets were quite thin we learned from the cold night in JoBerg that we were going to need to buy an additional blanket for each of us. At least there are no strangers sharing the quad dorm room with us that night.
Day 6 (Thursday)
The next morning the weather has cleared up and we walk the two blocks to the ocean for a final viewing of the whales before we head off to Oudtshroon.
We arrive at Oudtshroon at about 4 PM, just in time for the last ostrich tour. We pass by the first ostrich farm and head to the one further away. My host had been to the closer one and wanted to try the further one. The further one turns out to be 75-80% cheaper than the first site. We get a demonstration of making ostrich feather dusters, egg incubation. It is explained to us that ostriches are extremely stupid and have a 40-g brain, each eye is 60 g. The birds will swallow pretty much anything with the mouth and throat that are quite flexible. The ostrich exhibit showed the contents of a bird’s stomach to contain stones (for digestion), coins, sparkplug, toy car etc.
Then drive over to the nesting sites. It is explained that the birds will kick humans. If the human stays still on the ground the bird can not kick him so it will sit on the humans for 4 days to suffocate/starve the invader. The guide uses a long branch from a thorn bush to ward off the ostrich. The bird does not want its eyes damaged by the 2-inch thorns. We are allowed to stand on the eggs because they are strong enough to withstand that much weight. There is a wooden A-frame built over the nest to keep the eggs out of view of flying predators.
We get in our cars and drive 20 yards to the ostrich corral where we are allowed to ride the ostriches. That was the highlight of the trip. The retainers would chase the birds around while we were on the birds to make them run faster.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Start of South Africa Trip
Day 1 (Sunday)
Flying on Northwest from Detroit to Paris I saw a new feature, they had a camera on the plane that showed the outside. You could see the forklifts driving by and then the runway and terrain as you took off and flew. That was something new for me. I spent the time writing out my lesson plan for the classes I will be teaching in South Africa. This comes to an abrupt end when I lose my pen in the second flight. My host later explains to me that a partial lesson plan is more than most the teachers will have when they enter the class.
Day 2 (Saturday)
Arriving in JoBerg I was picked by my host and fed Lebanese bread and sauce on the car ride back to Parys, Free State. My host had warned me how hot it was in SA and to bring clothing to block the sun. In SA they do not have heat in most of the homes. I was provided a thin blanket and sent off to bed to brave the night. Do not let anyone fool you it gets quite cold in SA!
Day 3 (Monday)
Arriving at my host’s high school I received a lot of looks from the learners. I think the looks were from the curiosity not hostility. The learners were looking at a novelty of someone different since everyone in the school was black except my host and myself. I was introduced to the staff as I we encountered them. The greeting was a three-part handshake almost as if it were a secret society:
1) A western style grip (like Americans are used to)
2) The grip changes to arm wrestling type of grip (which is more rare but also used with a few of my less formal friends in States)
3) Then the grip changes again to a hold that reminds me of playing thumb war.
As we travel through the country I notice that only the black community uses this three-part greeting, the whites uses the traditional western handshake.
The school day starts with the learners in an outdoor courtyard and educators/admins surrounding the courtyard. The speaker at the front is forced to stare straight into the sun as he projects (no microphone) into the crowd of ~1000 learners. Between the distance of my vantage point, language and the accent I do not understand much of what the speaker is saying.
Eventually I tune it out because I do not even know which of the 11 official languages they are speaking, my attention shifts more to what the learners are doing. The students are much smaller than in an American school. In the US, I would expect a large portion of the population to be bigger than me and in better shape than someone 15 years older. As I look around, most are my height or smaller and pretty much all of them have less girth than me. I doubt many would be able to do any damage to me if they tried. My host explained to me than many of these students are so poor that they may get one meal a day.
Singing is part of the morning ceremonies; again I do not understand what they are singing about. As expected the learners in front tend to participate more than the more passive groups in the back. There are learners arriving late and as punishment they are required to pick a piece of trash off the ground and put it in the trash can before entering the courtyard. None of them wash their hands after this task. My host claims that he is responsible for this punishment, prior to his arrival there was no punishment for a tardy arrival.
My host and I enter a classroom of 10th grade high school kids and I am introduced to the learners. My host asks the students to bring forward the homework. The learners have nothing to present; they did not do the assignment. This is repeated throughout the day, none of the classes do the homework assignment. I start the class by instructing them about ice cream, the ingredient functions, manufacturing and mathematics behind it. Because of the warning from my host about how weak the students are (by American standards) I stick to addition, subtraction, multiplication and percentages. Some of the students can handle the adding and subtracting. A few of them can handle multiplication. Percentages are a real struggle for the learners, even as I show them shortcuts and tricks to doing percentages they have trouble with the calculations.
I open up the floor to any questions and certain questions appear in all of the classes.
1) Are you married?
2) Do you have children?
3) Will you adopt me?
4) Who is older you or the host teacher?
In two classes I am asked for a dollar bill, and I dispel the myth that in the US we only use paper money. When asked to give as for the dollar as a gift I had enough foresight to see the precarious situation that could happen and offered to exchange for the local currency 8 Rands (8.7 Rands = 1USD). The learner came up short but I gave it to him for 7 Rands. I could not afford to give 1000 students each a dollar.
I receive a request to sing a song. I can only recall one of the 4 or so songs I know the words to. I sing the lullaby to the class. This actually appeared to be about as quite and respectful as the class was the whole time. They were actually quite and stayed passed the bell to let me finish the song.
The classes were all deafening, I felt like I need ear plugs to teach the classes. I used quieting techniques to bring the decibel levels down multiple times each class.
Flying on Northwest from Detroit to Paris I saw a new feature, they had a camera on the plane that showed the outside. You could see the forklifts driving by and then the runway and terrain as you took off and flew. That was something new for me. I spent the time writing out my lesson plan for the classes I will be teaching in South Africa. This comes to an abrupt end when I lose my pen in the second flight. My host later explains to me that a partial lesson plan is more than most the teachers will have when they enter the class.
Day 2 (Saturday)
Arriving in JoBerg I was picked by my host and fed Lebanese bread and sauce on the car ride back to Parys, Free State. My host had warned me how hot it was in SA and to bring clothing to block the sun. In SA they do not have heat in most of the homes. I was provided a thin blanket and sent off to bed to brave the night. Do not let anyone fool you it gets quite cold in SA!
Day 3 (Monday)
Arriving at my host’s high school I received a lot of looks from the learners. I think the looks were from the curiosity not hostility. The learners were looking at a novelty of someone different since everyone in the school was black except my host and myself. I was introduced to the staff as I we encountered them. The greeting was a three-part handshake almost as if it were a secret society:
1) A western style grip (like Americans are used to)
2) The grip changes to arm wrestling type of grip (which is more rare but also used with a few of my less formal friends in States)
3) Then the grip changes again to a hold that reminds me of playing thumb war.
As we travel through the country I notice that only the black community uses this three-part greeting, the whites uses the traditional western handshake.
The school day starts with the learners in an outdoor courtyard and educators/admins surrounding the courtyard. The speaker at the front is forced to stare straight into the sun as he projects (no microphone) into the crowd of ~1000 learners. Between the distance of my vantage point, language and the accent I do not understand much of what the speaker is saying.
Eventually I tune it out because I do not even know which of the 11 official languages they are speaking, my attention shifts more to what the learners are doing. The students are much smaller than in an American school. In the US, I would expect a large portion of the population to be bigger than me and in better shape than someone 15 years older. As I look around, most are my height or smaller and pretty much all of them have less girth than me. I doubt many would be able to do any damage to me if they tried. My host explained to me than many of these students are so poor that they may get one meal a day.
Singing is part of the morning ceremonies; again I do not understand what they are singing about. As expected the learners in front tend to participate more than the more passive groups in the back. There are learners arriving late and as punishment they are required to pick a piece of trash off the ground and put it in the trash can before entering the courtyard. None of them wash their hands after this task. My host claims that he is responsible for this punishment, prior to his arrival there was no punishment for a tardy arrival.
My host and I enter a classroom of 10th grade high school kids and I am introduced to the learners. My host asks the students to bring forward the homework. The learners have nothing to present; they did not do the assignment. This is repeated throughout the day, none of the classes do the homework assignment. I start the class by instructing them about ice cream, the ingredient functions, manufacturing and mathematics behind it. Because of the warning from my host about how weak the students are (by American standards) I stick to addition, subtraction, multiplication and percentages. Some of the students can handle the adding and subtracting. A few of them can handle multiplication. Percentages are a real struggle for the learners, even as I show them shortcuts and tricks to doing percentages they have trouble with the calculations.
I open up the floor to any questions and certain questions appear in all of the classes.
1) Are you married?
2) Do you have children?
3) Will you adopt me?
4) Who is older you or the host teacher?
In two classes I am asked for a dollar bill, and I dispel the myth that in the US we only use paper money. When asked to give as for the dollar as a gift I had enough foresight to see the precarious situation that could happen and offered to exchange for the local currency 8 Rands (8.7 Rands = 1USD). The learner came up short but I gave it to him for 7 Rands. I could not afford to give 1000 students each a dollar.
I receive a request to sing a song. I can only recall one of the 4 or so songs I know the words to. I sing the lullaby to the class. This actually appeared to be about as quite and respectful as the class was the whole time. They were actually quite and stayed passed the bell to let me finish the song.
The classes were all deafening, I felt like I need ear plugs to teach the classes. I used quieting techniques to bring the decibel levels down multiple times each class.
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