Well, OK.

I just had the Blog Apocalypse of 2006, which means my mouse accidentally selected too much of my HTML template and thusly I ended up saving something wrong. I have an old version of the template that I can work with to get it back but for now I am making just the home page pink to motivate me to get it fixed soon.

Tomorrow is a very busy day and I have emails to answer and pictures of the weekend to upload, 3 hours of English tutoring to do and I never did finish the term paper. So, bask in the pinkness.

I very nearly used the word "facilitater" in my term paper (which, combined with its shortened form 'tater', I thought the funniest thing all day), so it is obviously time to throw in the towel, hit the sack and all those other crazy idioms.

I thought this quote fitting:

"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important."
Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)

I was tired of writing on my term paper, so I decided to update. Here's a random picture of a kid walking back from school in downtown. Photo credit goes to my roomie Mukolo.



The post-midterms laziness has set in, a middle-of-the-semester effect I call the slacker solstice. The work should get more difficult as the semester draws to a close, which is coming coming coming.

I don't think of my time in terms of months; now, I count the weekends until I leave, which really represent my final opportunities to get out and about before I have to go.

For Korean History, my team project people and I finally got our act together and visited a bakery. Yes, our project is the history of Korean rice cakes.

We will try to make a few, or at the very least, take pictures and claim we had a hand in it.

The man was very obliging to answer all our questions, none of which I understood since it was all Korean. This is one of those projects where I really have to trust my teammates.

We visited at 6 in the morning since that is when he makes the new rice cakes every morning. It was cool to visit the street vendor part of town, when the shop owners are setting up and before all the buyers come.

It's my goal to finish this term paper today. I'm writing on legal issues in the computer gaming industry. It's actually a fun paper to write since it's a topic I enjoy (not just the gaming part, but the legal aspect too).

Life in the I-House grinds on. This is a dorm not renowned for its openness. So many international students from so many backgrounds make any kind of cohesiveness rather difficult, so people keep to themselves.

It's a far cry from 41, but at least it's a better place to study than the library. The guy next door to me is a diligent CounterStrike recruiter, copying his hallowed version 1.5 to anyone who says yes. We're also slowly making our way through the Band of Brothers series, which I'd never completely seen.

So apparently, tomorrow, I'm having lunch with the university president. My roomie Mukolo, a friend of President Kim's, Jordan and myself are going; not sure of the details beyond that.

There's some kind of I-House talent show next week and people have been pressuring me non-stop to sign up. I don't want to, but apparently this Russian guy will do some rapping that goes well with a guitar, so I agreed to accompany him. I'll let you know how acoustic Russian rapping goes, should be fun.

This weekend I'm going with a few guys to Seoul, to see the sights. It was a cheaper option for things to do during the school's mid-semester break. We'll leave for that sometime tomorrow afternoon.

I'm checking around on grad school application deadlines. It also occurred to me that I have to take the GRE sometime in the not-so-distant future. It's like the SAT, resurrected from its unholy pit and brimming with malice after four years with the undead. Yikezorz.

You know, if you try to pronounce GRE like a word, it sounds like someone getting stabbed.

So, the plan at this point is to graduate this December. I think I figured a way for that to work. It will save me quite a bit of money to do that, and allow me a semester to prep for the Big Leagues, as it were.

Well, I've dawdled long enough. Gotta write this paper, and then later, there's some kind of special chapel service, and students are supposed to hold national flags, and Mukolo asked me to represent the United States. Ummkay.

More updateage! I put up three more Flickr sets; I've linked to each one directly as I talk about it in the post.

But before you see the Flickr photos, check out my breakfast.



Yes, that is milk in my bowl, and no, I haven't added the cereal yet. Hooray for powdered milk.

A few weeks ago, there was Korean culture night, which was essentially a 2-hour artistic and taekwondo presentation, followed by food. It was cool. I got to play the Korean guitar thing, which I wish I could try again. It was like a cool mixture of harp and guitar, except sideways, with the dynamics of a harmonica.

In the flickr set, there's a picture of the professional performers playing them. There was also singing, a martial arts demonstration and dance.

I've put up two sweet videos recorded by Jordan, my American pal from Cedarville University.

Taekwondo, punching boards (Quicktime format, 7.2 megabytes)

Dancing girl (Quicktime format, 4.3 megabytes)

The dancing girl was probably in junior high; in my opinion, she easily had the best dance of the evening. So nimble. I apologize that this clip was recorded at 90 degrees. Pictures!

So, school school school, and then this last Thursday I slipped out of Law & Contempoary Issues a bit early to attend a dinner for international students. Apparently, some recent graduates and friends of the university had set up a scholarship for international students, so we had a big dinner to publicize it.

We rode a very crowded university bus to a wedding hall and buffet type place. They made the presentations and brief speeches. I thought President Kim did a very slick job of doing what university presidents do: thanking donors for money while simultaneously asking for more.

Then, we ate. And then, the sponsors decided to hang around since everyone was having such a good time, so they brought out the karaoke machine. A few people played and showed considerable talent, including the proprietor of the establishment himself.

John and I were thumbing through the book of available songs. I put my finger on "I'm A Believer" by the Monkees and we both just started laughing. So several of us agreed to do it. I walked up to the mike, demanded that the others stop being chicken and come up with me.

They did, and wow, we had the place hopping. Jordan backed down on singing along with me, but apparently he and the others had a nice snapping/dancing routine going. One guy even did an impromptu break dance at the song's climax. Good times.

I met Dr. Henk and we had a good talk. When I mentioned I was from 41, he specifically remembered Abu off the top of his head, so Abu, if you read this, you apparently made an impression on Dr. Henk.

So, the dinner was cool, and people kept on taking pictures.

And then...

The next day, Jordan and I decided to go to Kyungju. People are always telling me, "Oh, you have to Kyungju." So on Friday May 5, we did. We decided to just go despite not knowing how to get there, and also without a Korean native to accompany us.

We took a bus out of Pohang, which is a city of about 750,000, and went to Kyungju. From Korean history class (hrm), I happen to know that it was Korea's capitol city for a stretch of roughly a thousand years. It's certainly a good place, protected by mountains but flat and good for construction.

We rented bicycles and just started riding around. We found a cool park, explored the city a little, and generally didn't worry so much about not knowing where we were going. I definitely want to go back and actually see some of the things Kyungju is famous for, but as an introduction, it was a great day off-campus. Pictures!

So there you have it folks.

Firstly, a link to the text of my second and last Handong column for LeTourneau's YellowJacket newspaper: my weekend visit to Busan.

Mid-terms are almost over for me. One more (Korean History) on Tuesday. This week marks the beginning of the semester's second half. I've had all the time in the world for keeping my desk tidy...



Church was good. The assistant pastor Prof. Schoenhoff, a German/Canadian/American guy (hard to pin nationalities on some of these Handong people), preached on Philippians 2:1-11. He used the example of Canadian maple trees to relate how we should "tap into" Jesus to put others above ourselves. I wasn't exactly sure how that related, but it was interesting and an uplifting sermon.

Last week, John (an Uzbek student) and I watched... wait for it... How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.

This was voluntary, and no girls were in the room. Actually, one was in spirit, since John said his sister would make him watch it someday. We laughed so hard; I will make no judgments here on Matthew McConaughey's courting methods, but dang it, he deserved the girl after all she put him through.

Two Fridays ago I finally visited a Korean Wal-Mart. The trip over was cool; I sat beside this Mexican girl and brushed up on a bit of Spanish. I also know the Swahili word for "hello"... in two dialects.

The Wal-Mart wasn't so special, selection-wise, but the inclined escalators were fun. I bought some strange chocolate-covered donuts, as is my wont; also some bread that doesn't taste like the machine it was made on.

Did you know tuna and bananas go well together? I didn't.

In my psych class, we've discussed memory and learning. It's amazing what you can learn when there is the desire to learn; interest is a key factor in memory. I have studied a little for Korean History, and will soon study much more, but admittedly ancient and medieval Korean studies don't hold my interest of late.

However, Prof. DeVries handed out a copy of Tennyson's Ulysses in history class. I read it over last weekend and liked it so much, I started memorizing it. I'm about a third into it now.

Prof. DeVries links its meaning to the restless search for opportunity in the culture of American settlers. He doesn't hesitate for a moment to link Socrates and cowboys in a long chain of western civilization.



Tonight, Jordan and I went for dinner and a movie. He's the other American dude here, from Cedarville University. Both of us forgot our cameras, but I promise soon to have more pictures for you.

Until I do, feast your eyes with a link to a blog run by a guy named Andy in Korea. There are some pictures of Handong people on there, some of whom I know, along with copious amounts of Andy's devotional musings.

Several posts down, as of this writing, he got a highly flattering mugshot of me. Of more interest is the following pictures, of the DeVries family. Mr. DeVries is my teacher in American Society in Historical Perspective. Cool guy.

As I was saying, Jordan and I went dowtown. We had huge hamburgers from TGI Friday's, which was most delicious. Good conversation. And then, we went to the theater and saw 16 Blocks, a good Bruce Willis movie that I actually like better than Inside Man, despite the +10 baseline-coolness factor of having Clive Owen in your movie.

This was one of those random Sunday night things that I really appreciate doing. It really is sad how much time I spend just in my room here.

One of the things I do in my room is play Eve Online. It's an MMORPG that actually works on my laptop. I would show you a picture of my spaceship, but alas, it was destroyed today by pirates.

And now, for the necessary Ox-In-Downtown Picture (TM) that must accompany every post.



Apparently this man decided that having an ox and cart was cooler than having a car. He actually travels around town like this and does his business. Pretty cool.

I could talk about school and term papers and studying and all those things that take up most of my time, but I'd rather not. It's Monday morning and I should get some rest.

Plans are beginning to formulate, on the horizon, for some more travel in Korea. I'm trying to make sure I can actually afford some of it, but happily, I think travel and accomodations in this country are quite cheap. You can travel halfway across the country by bus for less money than a taxi ride across town.

We shall see what happens. ^^

I submitted a column on my experience thusfar in Korea to LeTourneau University's YellowJacket newspaper, which was distributed yesterday. The text may be viewed here.

My regular lunch: spicy noodles and a slice of bread. The cleaning ladies in our building had seen me preparing the noodles in the lounge a few times now (apparently I always do it during their break time) so today they decided to offer me some of their snack. It was a type of Korean sweet potato, which one of them had baked. It was very good and went scrumdidleeumptiously with my noodles.

It occurred to me today, during team meeting, that my diet consists of little more than carbohydrates in one form or another. I shall return from Korea a pudgy, rotund little man with puffy cheeks.

The chopsticks are nice wooden ones I got on the ascent to Yongdosung Park in Busan with my roomie. (See my newest Flickr set) I cannot recall ever buying a metal fork for myself, but these chopsticks rule.
















I'm firing a homemade Korean bamboo bow

I've been at Handong Global University for two weeks today. Classes look to be good this semester:

Law & Contemporary Issues
Introduction to Korean History
English Morphophonemics
American Society from Historical Perspective
Introduction to Psychology

My teachers are of multiple nationalities, and only two are Koreans.

The campus itself is quite new, but they are building new things constantly. The surrounding area is also quite nice, as evidenced by my latest Flickr madness.

I took a walk around, so actually the first you get to see is a bunch of off-campus stuff and no people, but at the end there are some pictures of campus. I'm not into taking pictures of people until I get to know them a later better... you know, politeness and all those concepts.

I had captions for them, but then the power to my laptop mysteriously went out. And by the time I logged back into Flickr I was in no mood to redo them. So, put on the Flash slideshow and enjoy.

For being a "global university," the college is, perhaps unsurprisingly, quite Korean. The I-House (my dorm) has an English-speaking-only rule, but I routinely hear other languages. I think it's strange to see so many English letters and numbers on signs even in Pohang; the United States doesn't randomly have signs and food products with other languages on them.

Other little differences... they do take off their shoes in the lobby of the dorm, so socks or inside-only flip-flops allowed in the rooms. Handong has a "freer" academic environment than LeTourneau, in the sense that they are not quite as strict about being on time to class, and an honor code among students means they are not monitored during tests.

Dorm life is a bit more structured than LETU; you need permission to leave campus at night or stay off-campus, and everyone must be in their room for a roll call at 11 PM. I always am, but the announcement over the intercom is kind of annoying.

I am currently doing six hours work a week as an English tutor/discussion leader. I am privately tutoring one fellow who responded to an ad my roomie put on a forum, and I'm leading two bi-weekly groups of eight students in open discussion. The discussion thing will start next week, but I've already met three times with Myung Kwon, who has basic speaking skills. We talk about lots of things... I try to mix it up; he's studying for the new speaking portion of the TOEFL test.

It's actually extremely easy to find a bit of work like this as a native English speaker.

I've met tons of people, but the hard part is remembering their names. People routinely greet me by name and I grin and say "Hi!" and I'm thinking "I have no idea who you are."

Or, when I do remember a face, I think "I know who you are, and I care about you!" but if you don't remember the name, that just doesn't cut it.

Now the all-important music question. I found ONE guitar and ONE piano, but both have a caveat attached. The piano is in a building that is always in use. I checked it a few times a day every day last week and wasn't able to play it once. I think I have an alternate scoped out in the recently opened international student lounge.

The guitar is sitting in its stand in a nice little cafe in the student offices building. There's a little stage and a mic stand and an amp, but I can't imagine when any of these are put to use in this little cafe. The owner doesn't speak English, but after my third visit for cheap coffee this week, she kinda figured out I was coming more for the guitar than the drinks. The first time I think she was worried I would bust out the Dashboard, but now she might like it, or at least doesn't mind.

There are two English-speaking churches in Pohang. One is in town, and I have no idea where it is. The other is the Handong International Church, which meets on-campus in the chapel building.

In conclusion, I leave you with a typical piece of Korean appliance (made, of course, in China). My new alarm clock. It's one of the old style round analog clocks, with two bells on the top and a vivacious little hammer between them, just dying to ring out and send you scrambling from bed. Behind the hands, ominously visible above the morning alarm marker, it says, in tiny letters, "I'm the happiest man in the world."

Why, I can't imagine, if indeed the happiest man in the world must deal with this alarm clock. Perhaps it's the alarm clock's bid to redeem itself in its owner's eyes, as if it's begging not to be shot or thrown across the room.

Or maybe it means nothing. :)

Hi.

I'm alive.

I'm in South Korea.

Just letting you know. More to come, honest, I just need the chance to sit down and write something worth reading. :)

It's Sunday evening in Indiana. It's cold, still, so I haven't gone outside much while here. There has been very little snow this winter and basically none while I've been around.

I'm just beginning to make some preparations for South Korea. I leave on Thursday, March 2, in the morning, so tomorrow I'll have to start getting ready in earnest, deciding what goes and doesn't. I've been sick since coming to Indiana, but today I felt better, so it was nice to enjoy a full meal.

My student visa status is still up in the air; I've found Koreans at my college and at the consulate in Chicago to be difficult to speak with. To remedy the situation, I'm trying to learn little bits and pieces of Korean when I can; my first goal is to learn their writing, which I think I can do before I leave, though I will know no vocabulary.

If the visa does not go through, and things go badly in Seoul, they have every right to send me back across the Pacific, where I would die penniless, heartbroken and friendless, ending my own misery under the wheels of the nearest San Francisco electric tram.

Well, it's a bit of an exaggeration... mostly the death part. But I am uneasy.

Apart from this little dilemma, I am excited by the prospect. My flight goes from Chicago to San Francisco to Seoul. From there, I ride a shuttle off the airport island to Gimpo Airport, where I fly to Pohang, and am then picked up by the college, I hope.



And the rest, I just see when I get there. I cannot find any decent pictures of the campus or my dorm or anything, so I will be sure to take pictures and post them for you. I hope to post somewhat often here, as well as a few columns for the esteemed LETU YellowJacket.

Classes... I still don't know what I will be taking. On the bright side, my financial aid worked out really awesome this semester and is now all finalized and Handong is paid. Took long enough. :)

I uploaded to Flickr, with titles and descriptions. You can enter the set's first picture and hit the right-hand picture to move forward through the set. Alternatively, Flickr has a slick Flash slideshow if you don't care for the descriptions.

Enjoy.

Written in Africa, but posted only now, because I couldn't check my LETU mail or access anything on the blogger domain, until now.

Ah! My last Monday in Africa. Life in the Barn continues inexorably on. The weather has taken a rainy turn for the last week, so the archaeological work has slowed a bit. I did, however, enjoy helping some other students with their projects (which still got us in the rain) such as trying to find baboons, leopard tracks, or most interestingly of all, termites.

Nils and I ran his little termites through these mazes to see if they learn patterns or anything. I don't think they do. Three maddening but hilarious hours watching these brainless creatures crawl through a maze... anyway, we had a good long talk about universities and I think I am beginning to grasp the German educational system. It's very different, though I think becoming more like, that of the United States.

I also helped Karin look for leopard tracks and set up cameras. She got a totally sweet close-up of a leopard at night; apparently it was photogenic enough to pause for two takes, flash and all.

The archaeological work here has been interesting, and it's certainly a cool place to do it, but I'm a tad disappointed with the lack of supervision here. If you have a graduate project and want to organize your work and just go for it, it's great. But for wee undergrads without projects, like myself, sometimes it's a bit... open-ended. It would be cool to do something in grad school that would bring me back out here for longer, but somehow I doubt that would work out.

There's been three new students arrive since I've been here, and all three are German girls! What is it with this place and Germans (and girls for that matter. Hello LeTourneau?) I think four of us, myself included, will leave in this upcoming week, so that should put the Barn back down to "normal" size. The Barn's a bit crowded now, but never for very long.

Nils took some quality photos of baboons grooming each other on these rocks. He's one of those kindred spirits who toys around with Photoshop... so naturally we had to do a picture with several of us sitting on the rocks, "grooming" each other monkey-style, so that he could incorporate us into the pack.

On Thursday I went up to the peak of Mt. Lajuma for a third and final time. It's different everytime you go up. This time a storm was coming over our backs, over the mountains and on into the farmlands to the south. It was awesome, to look up and see the blue erased by clouds, to see the shadow advancing over lands miles away, to see rain and lightning in the distance.

I went with Tazz and Molly. Molly left Saturday, so Friday we had a goodbye braai (like bright without the T), which is the South African word for barbecue. Names for the festivities included the "Molliday" or "Molly's Braai Braai." You are speechless, might I say, stunned by our wit.

We had grand plans of playing a soccer game, and cooking outside over the fire and then it rained. Before it did, I struggled long and hard to make a bed of coals with wet wood, and very nearly had it, when the rain put the nail in the coffin. We cooked steaks over the stove, but it's so hard to stay up late past that at the Barn -- it gets dark and you just want to crash.

~~~~~~~~~~~ (Continued in the States) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, my last town day, spent again at the same cafe except this time I got TWO milkshakes... I didn't have to spend much money of course on much else. I was stymied in my attempts to blog and answer emails and such because of blogger and LETU mail all deciding to be down at the same time.

Then there was only half a week left... two *more* German girls came, but then two were going to leave the same time as me, so I guess it evens out. Some previous "barnie" students visited on my last day; after dinner we crashed their braai and sat around the fire laughing and talking about animals and stuff. Erik recounted being attacked by a black eagle, and these two other Dutch guys roasted these humongous steaks. They talked back and forth in Dutch a lot, to the point where my German pal Nils nudged me and said, "OK, now I know how you feel all the time." Europeans are, quite typically I think, much better at being bilingual than the lazy Americans.

The last few nights we really enjoyed looking at the stars. I learned some more about Orion and the Horsehead Nebula, which Nils enthusiastically pointed out from the star chart he printed on Monday. I found the Southern Cross, a pretty cool looking cross constellation you can't see in the northern hemisphere. Cool stuff.

I left Lajuma on Thursday the 16th, not entirely looking forward to 30+ hours of non-stop traveling. It turned out alright though.

I rode the 5-hour bus ride from Makhado to Jo'burg, and the taxi to the airport with Inga; I think we both appreciated having company for the trip. I met her brother, helped her get some ticket hassles sorted out since her English wasn't so good, said bye and then it was off!

I had a nice relaxing time in Jo'burg International, but after that, I had no time to even stop for a drink in Heathrow or Dulles in DC. Run run run to catch the plane, but I actually got all my flights and miracle of all miracles, my luggage was waiting for me.

I should *not* have been on the plane for Indy out of DC, but God was merciful, that truly is the only explanation for it. You have no idea how happy I was to be on that plane and not spending who knows how long in the airport. At the very least, airports aren't such a mystery anymore.

The Kangaroo Cake. It was shaped by a deliberately drawn cardboard model and cut to match.

Molly and I met an American couple staying as tourists at one of the lodges here on Lajuma. They are from Baltimore, newspaper journalists covering southern pan-Africa. They'd lived in Johannesburg for nearly a year now and seemed to have a good grasp of happenings and society in the area. An enviable job. It was good to talk to other Americans.

Hard to believe my time in South Africa is already half gone. It really is too short a time to do something like this... oh well, there's always next time, right? :D

This internet cafe is a funny place. If you stay two hours, you get a free coke. Just now, a flock of uniformed schoolboys descended from outside to play Warcraft 3, babbling in Afrikaans with the occasional reference to "night elf" or "shaman."

Afrikaans is an interesting language to listen to. German, obviously, has a few sounds we don't use in English, but Afrikaans really sounds like English. It feels like you should understand what people are saying, except, you don't.

The radio DJs here freely switch between English and Afrikaans, either catering to speakers of both languages or assuming that everyone knows both. Most of the songs, of course, are in English, indicative of the British pop charts, I think, after listening to some of the songs. There's also some local music in Afrikaans.

My German is coming along painfully. I think I'm stunted in the area of languages, or perhaps diligence. I can count to 17 or 18 (though I can't pronounce 16) and I say simple greetings -- danke, gutenacht -- but most importantly, I'm learning how to insult people.

Some of the LETU crowd knows German is a harsh-sounding language... you needn't resort to nasty words when insulting unsavory characters... so I'm learning the word for "matchbox," which sounds despicable and suitably insulting.

**************************

After last town day, we spent Tuesday at the Barn. The archaeologists were tired and spent the afternoon reading and cataloging several dozen pottery shards we'd collected. I measured their thickness and took photos.

Wednesday (Feb. 1) we got up and piled into the van. Botswana day! Me, Tazz, Molly, Karin, Katie, Inga, Christina and Ian drove north across the Limpopo River to a private nature reserve in Botswana called Kwa Tuli. There, we were greeted by our guide, known simply as Jerry. We drove out to one of the nicest campsites I've ever seen... again, I apologize I can't show pictures right now because of the internet here.

It was really really good to chill after being tired for the last several days... my sunburnt shoulders were peeling and all sorts of unpleasantness.

The camp consisted of a common area with hot water and gas stoves, completely furnished: plates, cutlery, mugs, couches -- and I nearly did a jig -- a beat-up little guitar.

The tents had beds, furniture even, with porches and bath tubs and mirrors and dressers... they were more like little cloth houses. I have this sweet video clip touring the inside of one.

Due to the sleeping arrangment, I volunteered not to stay in a tent and tossed my stuff in the common area. My bed was a hammock... which I liked a lot. The skies were brilliantly clear both nights, and the wind blew just enough to sway me a bit -- just lovely.

How shall I describe the terrain... at the risk of deeply insulting my numerous Botswanan readers, let's just say: take South Africa, remove all the grass and money, add more monkeys, and you have Botswana. I thought South Africa was a poor country, but as African countries go, I take that back. Thus was my short and inadequate impression of Botswana.

On Kwa Tuli, the terrain was, to me, quite ravaged. Most nature reserves seem undisturbed, with terrain taking your focus from the occasional lucky peep at a frightened animal. This was completely different.

Tracks, dung, animals were everywhere. The landscape was devoid of grass, the shrubs eaten by kudu and impala, all the large trees were knocked over and stripped of bark by the elephants. It wasn't a forest so much as a playground, or warzone, for the animals. Of course, some of the recent change is due to artificial influences, but I still question how so many animals can survive in that landscape.

It happened to be very dry while we were there, so most of the elephants had moved off. We saw a few of them on three occasions, once briefly at night and twice from a great distance. Kudu and impala (both deer-like creatures) were incredibly numerous; on the third and final day, we hardly took note of them.

With the exception of a morning hike on the second day, we rode about the reserve on a "safari" truck: a 4x4 Toyota Land Cruiser with a roofed observation deck. And, other than chilling at the camp, that essentially describes our trip. It was lovely, but we were ready to go by the third day.

Tazz and I tried repairing the little guitar but only succeeded in proving the inevitable... one of the tuning pin gears wouldn't stay fastened and the strings kept coming undone. In the end, I played it with only four strings... not quite the full sound you expect from a guitar.
On the up-side, I had less fingering to think about and could focus on getting some new sounds from those four strings; now I have some new ideas... so if you want to practice, break a few strings and try it out. :D

We left Kwa Tuli at 9 AM after a morning drive-about and accompanied our guide Jerry to his hometown. There, we got to see the town chief officiating a dispute. The people sat in a circle around him while he heard all sides and made a decision.

Electricity, of course, is hard to come by and very expensive to set up. We saw a butcher at work on a cow in a field, hanging the legs from tree branches. A shiny red hide dried in the sun. There was a little more grass. Donkeys and goats roamed freely. A water tower leaked.

Jerry showed us his home, commented on the gearbox he couldn't find to fix his tractor. He wore his .375 bolt-action bull rifle on a leather sling for a few minutes, just as he had on our morning walk, before remembering to take it inside. We ate a bite of fruit from a tree in his yard and said hello to his wife, who came in from working on a field.

I'd noted a little silver star pinned to his shirt. It was a sign for his church, which he was quick to show us. Apparently, he is also a part-time pastor at a Christian church in the village. Before Ian could stop him, Jerry launched into a 10-minute sermon.

He used examples that would make sense to Africans, rather than some obviously unfamiliar biblical metaphors. You could see the glint was in his eye. His words were suddenly more urgent and passionate than anything he'd told us on safari. Ian finally segued the discussion into a comment on the time, but Jerry wouldn't let us go until he'd prayed.

He told us how they prayed... stand in a circle, close your eyes, fold your hands into your armpits and in this way, he asked God to give us a safe journey back and keep the river down for our crossing back to South Africa. Not my expected goodbye with a safari guide.

The drive back was without incident... the river had risen but we were still able to ford across. We didn't have lunches so I drank Mountain Dew and ate chips all the way back... they're tasty but ugh... not by themselves all day.

**************************

After we got back on Friday afternoon, I went for a run, took a shower and started cooking chili and cornbread. Someone has to educate these Europeans on Earth's finer delicacies... it turned out alright, considering I lacked some unimportant ingredients, like CORNMEAL for the cornbread and CHILI POWDER for the chili. Maize bread and red onions in the chili... every dish we make is a rough South African equivalent. ;)

Saturday I hiked up to the peak of Lajuma again, this time in the morning by myself. I got up without a hitch, enjoyed the view and had a couple wrong turns on the way down. Two hours later than need be, I made it back. You know how the Psalms talk about your tongue sticking to the roof of your mouth when you're really thirsty? It's true.

Sunday Alandra and I cataloged one of the larger sites of the area. It's a wash-out area at the bottom of a small hill, forested. The site is a low rock wall, crumbling in one part, sheltered against weather. There are a number of potsherds, beads, bracelets and an ax head.

I got sunburned all over again and I have a nasty cold and I nearly ran out of food (lots and lots of peanut butter and tea :D ), but most of those are my fault so I will just prepare better next week!

Miss you guys.