Greetings,

I'm writing from an internet cafe in Makhado. Wow... it has been an amazing trip so far. It is so surreal to be in Africa of all places; it's very much like I expected in some ways, and very different in others.

Flying down was quite an experience... I had two delays (all of which were Indianapolis Airport's fault) which ultimately delayed my arrival in South Africa by 24 hours. At least with my time in London I went sight-seeing... I figured out the subway system pretty quickly and could get where I needed on there.

The buses, however, are a different story. I never understood them so I would randomly hop on a bus and just see where it took me. That was one of my favorite parts of London... just sitting in the top level of those red, double-deck buses, watching these mad mad mad drivers nearly kill themselves repeatedly in tiny little one-way lanes.

I am sorry I do not yet have pictures to show you of South Africa... I'll have to figure if I can bring some next week on a USB drive to put on this computer and upload somehow. Working with my laptop has been hard generally just because we have not had power. The hydroelectric dam here at Lajuma broke before I came and there is some problem in power line that prevents the normal generator power from reaching the Barn (which was once a barn, :D ). So... no power.

The weather is awesome. It's misty, humid, hot. Very summer and I love it. Summer is my favorite season and I'm happy to have summer twice in a row this year. :)

I just now got my baggage. It was delayed in London, so my first few days here were without luggage. The operators of Lajuma kindly provided me with the necessaries so I've been fine. I won't say, though, how long I've been wearing this pair of socks....

Most things are rather cheap to buy. I'm surprised at how many places will take credit cards. There's two KFC's here in town. You can buy almost anything you would at an American supermarket store... on the bus ride down, the movies on the bus screens were Mission Impossible, the Matrix, and this despicable movie I won't credit by naming. They were all American films... Will Smith music videos were on this huge screen at the Johannesburg bus station... only now I begin to see how thorougly American pop culture infiltrates other places.

I was very sobered to think that the music, movies, books, clothes, etc. that Americans create are extremely influential, not just to Americans, but by people all over the world. In fact, I was rather ashamed, talking to a South African student on the bus ride, to hear that she knew of Oprah, though not anything about our currency, our major cities, or even the name of the country ("your country, it is the United States of... what?"). I wasn't quizzing her, but she wanted to talk about it when she learned I was an American student.

So here were people, knowing next to nothing at all about the United States except how it was being presented in the Matrix.

I want to write more on that but I'm going to have to save it for later... hopefully I can type it out on my laptop when we have power.

The place where I am staying, Lajuma, was once a farm, which in the South African sense means it was private property used for something pastoral/agricultural, not necessarily farming. We live near the top of a mountain.. actually the backyard consists of a short grassy area that is abruptly stopped by trees that rises up into a cliff a few hundred feet high.

I have not had a chance to hike around much, but looking for sites will ensure that. Yesterday, I went out with the two other archaeology "students" here... neither of them are students in the strictest sense. One of them is just getting experience, like me, after graduating with her Bachelor's and the other likes to travel around a lot and do assorted projects related to anthropology, zoology, biology.

It's a very international group of people I'm with. There's nine of us... I am one of two Americans. We have an Australian and everyone else is Dutch or German, so Molly (the American) and I do not understand many of the conversations that go on. We're learning a couple of words though, but as you all know, my astounding language abilities enable me to remember these words FOREVER. ;)

So yeah, the three archaeology people went out and we catalogued two known sites. They are both little cave shelters. So many huge rocks fell from the top of the mountain so they are dozens and dozens of little caves in the Soutpansberg mountain range. It is soooo cool to climb into a little mini-cave, where it is so cool and moist from the outside air, and see pottery shards that are very likely untouched since the original inhabitants hundreds of years ago. This is a very remote area, and since there is no gold or anything of extreme monetary value, it is not difficult to find undisturbed sites.

The people who lived here took shelter in any little nook they could find, so we search each one for rock art or potsherds. We fill out a couple forms, map the site with GPS, draw a sketch, etc. It's not incredibly exciting work but I like the area, and I expect to do other things later on.

The other students here have been very hospitable to me. Last night we had an outside barbecue and cooked brats and steaks and rolls over a fire -- they were very accomodating with food since I only had some bread and tuna from my last few minutes in Makhado on Friday. Today... I will buy mmmmmmmorrrrreeee.....

I think next week we will do a weekend trip north to Botswana, a nearby country... I really don't know much about it, except that it's insanely cheap and apparently has very nice accomodations.

I will take lots of pictures soon and hopefully even some silent movie clips on my camera to give you an idea of the place.

Animals! The animals are amazing. I've seen baboons and little samango (sp?) monkeys since getting here. The baboons are big, loud and they sound frighteningly similar to people. Seriously... you are quite sure you heard repeated human yells coming from the forest and it turns out only to be a baboon. The little monkeys take to the trees a lot over the Barn, constantly knocking branches down and making a huge racket at night. Thankfully it doesn't happen often.

I've also seen leopard tracks and tons and tons of birds. Walking around is incredible just because you are constantly hearing a myriad of different bird calls. I'm not a huge birder but I think I see a new one every time I walk out... fast ones, weird ones with huge tails, all kinds.

I've been writing emails like crazy and now I have other work to do before we leave the 'net cafe... I will update again next week. God bless!