Houston

On New Year's eve, I flew to Houston to be with Victor and his family for a few days, visit with my beloved friends, and give my final report to my Sponsor Rotary Club, who financed and supported my travels in South Africa last year.

Vic and I are getting pretty good at this long-distance thing... and I've found the perks... the biggest one is that reuniting is AMAZING. While I was in town, we took an afternoon and walked around Rice Universitity's campus, just like old times. It was so surreal to be back on campus, and it brought back a wave of memories and nostalgia.

Here are Lanese and Elisa - 3/4 of our Bible study group (Come to think of it, I'm not sure that we ever studied the Bible, but that's a side point)

We had an impromptu salsa night, and met up with another set of Rice friends. This is Jean-mark and Suzanna, such an adorable couple. Kudos to Vic on taking this picture, it is one of my favorites.

Here I am waving my hands around and giving my Rotary Presentation. It was one of the first times that I gave one without a powerpoint, so I winging my talk (and the more I wing, the more I wave, just ask my former students). My club, the Galleria Area Rotary Club, is one of the most gracious I have ever been to, and giving my presentation there was a reminder to me of their amazing support and dedication. They literally changed my life by sponsoring me to go to South Africa, and I am forever indebted to them and grateful for them.

More reunions ensued the rest of the trip. This is Jen, one of my old roommates and one of my heroes.

Elisa and I went to Ecclesia together. It was both of our first week back, as Elisa just returned from Kenya a few days before I got to Houston.
And this is one of the reasons I love Ecclesia.
Vic's best friend, Jose-Miguel, had a birthday while I was in town. This is JM and his wonderful girlfriend Alesha at the sushi restaraunt where we celebrated.
After dinner we went to hear Andy Vargas play. Andy is the singer for Santana.

Most of my time in Houston was centered around food. I had an entire list of meals that needed taken care of, one of which were GIANT blueberry pancakes at Buffalo Grille. Here are the remains:
I shared the pancake experience with three of my dearest (who you may recognize from pictures from South Africa - they came to visit in June). Kate and Rachael:
And, of course, the Best Ever herself, Pearsy:
We left the pancakes and went over to Rach's house to play Rock band (more on that later). We invited along Victor and one of his friends Bonnie (whom I LOVE), and it turned into a full on randomly amazingly fun day/evening event. Here are Pears and Rarthur jamming hardcore at Rarth's house. Watch out American Idol.
Victor rocked it out too:
Here's the whole group after dinner that night.

Last Rotary Presentation

As part of the terms of the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship, we are required to give 10-15 presentations at different Rotary clubs and/or schools/organizations during our year abroad. Last Thursday, I gave my farewell presentation at my host club, the Grahamstown Rotary Club.

Our presentations are a way for us to share our experience with our audience - and my farewell presentation was essentially a 'report' of what my year has meant to me, as well as a thank you to my host club.
Pictured below is me exchanging club banners with Harry Rama, this year's club President. The club banner exchange is a tradition in Rotary, and I will bring my sponsor club (in Houston) this banner as a sign of friendship from the Grahamstown club.
The picture below is of Sandy, a wonderful and supportive Rotarian who I am so thankful I got the chance to meet this year. The picture is of her thanking me for my speech on behalf of the club.
And this picture is of Rotarian Robin - who graciously invited all of the scholars into his home earlier this year for dinner. While we were there I noticed he had a love of American sports tee-shirts, so I kept this one from Houston to give to him at the end of the year. :)
Thank you Grahamstown Rotary - this year literally was the gift of a lifetime.

My Host Counselors

The lovely Vivian and Billy de Klerk.

Just doing my ambassadorial duties...

That's right - I taught my roommate, Cilnette, how to change her own car tire. Some may say it would have been kinder for me to change it for her... but like they say... you give a man a fish .... you know the rest. :) YAY Cilnette!!!

PS - I actually just stood there and dictated. I am not sure if that counts exactly as 'teaching' - or if it just allowed me to do what I do best and be bossy - but at least I was moral support. ;)

Bon Voyage Alicia!

Our dear fellow Rotary scholar Alicia Verhage has left us for home. Alicia (the blonde) went home early for one of her friend's weddings and to get ready for her own in January. I can't believe we are already at the point in the year that we are saying goodbye! The picture on the left is from the first day we all met in Grahamstown in February, and the picture on the right is the last picture we took right before Alicia left. Notice that Eben is wearing the same shirt - its because he only has 5. Its been an incredible year and is going too fast.

Miss you Alicia!

Rotary conference/Lesotho here we come!

Rosa and Eben and I are renting a car and heading out in the morning for our Rotary District conference in Welcom (about a 600km drive). We will get the chance to get all caught up on the news about Rotary in the Eastern Cape and will give a (fabulous) presentation.

On the way home, we are spending a few days traveling in Lesotho, so I will most likely be MIA until next week. Have a wonderful week and happy October!

PS: Chapter 1 - CHECK!

Belated pics from Rotary Orientation in Cape Town

My crew

There are 3 of the dearest people in the world - my fellow Rotary scholars in Grahamstown.

Rosa (far left) - working on Masters in Philosophy, native of Pennsylvania, passionate about ethics and philosophy, maybe has the best vocabulary of anyone I have ever met, lived in a house without electricity for 6 years, tells it like it is, has the ability to make anyone feel like they are the most interesting/amazing person in the world, fellow road-tripper to Namibia.

Eben (the only boy)- working on Masters in Politics and IR, native of Smyrna, Tennessee but transplant to Mephis, can play a mean "bluegrass fusion" on his guitar, can impersonate ANY given person and/or animal, tortures dogs in the best way possible, has an extreme affinity for babboons even though he's never seen one, does an AMAZING job of being the only male with three girls, can and WILL make you laugh within the first 10 minutes of knowing him... also fellow road-tripper to Namibia

Alicia (far right)- working on Masters in Politics and IR, native of Minnesota, transplant to Chicago, passionate about social justice and conflict resolution, my church buddy and also betrothed to an engineer, doesn't really understand sarcasm but works hard at it ;), lived in Zambia for a year, can lead a dance better than any man, is passionate about helping people and will throw herself 100% behind you if you need her help, amazing at making things happen.

And together, we are one solid Rotary Ambassadorial team - I love them all dearly and can't imagine being here without them.

Talking politics... oops.

I must preface this with saying that as Rotary scholars, we are advised to avoid such topics as politics and race if it is possible. We are here, after all, to promote understanding and goodwill, not become involved in decisive political debates and such.

However, after being in South Africa for about 1.5 seconds, I realized that avoiding either of those topics would not be possible, as politics and race are the 2 most talked about topics in the country (or so it seems after my entire 3 days of living here). After about half an hour of trying to avoid the topics, I indulgently gave in and have been relishing ever since in the deliciousness of South African opinions about their president (very controversial), race relations (discussed surprisingly openly), our president (not their favorite person), our presidential candidates (they are FASCINATED with Obama and can't get enough of him - "Why do the American people like him? Is it because he is running against a woman? What IS it about him they like so much? And so on.) And so on and so forth.

I love it. I can't get enough of it. Every little opinion and eye roll that they give while filling me in on the political situation from the South African perspective is like a little puzzle piece to the enigma of this fantastic and complex country. Moreover, people WANT to talk about it, I never ask, they just offer, and I soak up everything I can.

In a strange twist of events two nights ago, my friend, roommate and fellow Rotary Scholar, Jeannie, ended up having dinner with a well known filmmaker and his friend, who is one of the more controversial authors in South Africa. The author friend recently wrote a book Fit to Govern, a biography about current South African president Mbeki. At some point during the evening, the filmmaker and the author got in a lively debate over current South African politics.

Jeannie and I spent hours that evening squealing like schoolgirls over every detail of the encounter, with me salivating over the details like they were steamy descriptions of a first date.... or something. We found out that the author has had a real live editorial cartoon drawn of him... !

One week to go...

One week from today I'll be on a plane headed for Cape Town.

The last few weeks I have had the chance to speak to many groups about my Rotary scholarship. Part of the requirements for the scholarship is to make around 15 presentations about your experience before, during and after you return. I was able to speak to 2 Rotary clubs in Houston, and a Rotary club, a Lion's club, a PEO group, a Senior Citizen's group, and 4 high school classes here in Idaho. It is really wonderful to be supported so strongly both in Houston and in my hometown of Burley. I am very much looking forward to sharing my experience. My heart was especially in the presentations I was able to give to the high school classes, as it made me miss my own students in Houston terribly. It is SO important that students are exposed to opportunities early on, as I believe strongly that if they set high expectations for themselves, they will rise to meet them. I sincerely hope that this experience ahead of me can be used to open the eyes of at least a few students both in the U.S. and in South Africa to an opportunity they otherwise did not know exist.

In other news, I have been saddened deeply the last couple of days about the news of new conflict erupting in Kenya, and of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. It only renews my belief that our world is too small to not seek to understand one another.

On the lighter side, my last few days are filling up with last minute preparations, mainly tasks that I have put off for the last few months, like finishing my best friend's wedding present. :) I am all together avoiding my brand new empty suitcases, half hoping they will fill themselves.

I am also distracting myself with reading anything I can get my hands on, whether it is about South Africa or not. Today I began reading Kabul Beauty School, and although I haven't finished, I am recommending it to everyone - it is utterly inspiring, and I am only about 1/3 of the way through. It is the true story of an American hairdresser who is in an abusive marriage and decides to go on a medical missions trip to Afghanistan shortly after the fall of the Taliban. While she is there, because she has no medical skills, she ends up exploring Kabul. She discovers that nearly all beauty shops have been wiped out by the Taliban, and those which are still running have no supplies and the beauticians have little or no cosmetology education. Her skills are therefore actually in high demand, and she has people lining up to have their hair cut. After returning to the United States, she decides to open a beauty school in Kabul to train beauticians with the intent of empowering women and allowing them a means to support themselves apart from their husbands. It is so far a beautiful story and is being added to my list of 'must reads.'

Signing off with a week left -

Counting down..

Happy New Year!!

Hello! This blog will hopefully serve as a means to communicate with my family, friends and the Rotarians who so generously have given me the opportunity to serve as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar to South Africa.

I will be leaving the United States on January 9th, and two days of layovers later, I will arrive in Cape Town for 3 weeks of Xhosa (pronounced "click"- hosa) training. On February 4th I will arrive in my new home for the next year - Grahamstown, South Africa.

While I'm in Grahamstown, I will be studying International Studies at Rhodes University.

I think it just dawned on me this past week that all of this is reality and is really happening.

This scholarship is such a phenomenal opportunity, and I cannot thank Rotary enough for the chance to travel and study in Southern Africa. I will provide more details over the year, but if you are interested in more information about the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship, follow the link.

I will update this blog as often as possible during my year abroad, so stay tuned!

Here's to the adventure that is 2008!