foolproof sunshine

as i hear stories of massive amounts of snow from the usa and uk, i am still enjoying my endless amount of sunshine and warmth. while i miss curling up with blankets, tea, and a lap-cat, but this weather does have it perks.

. . . .



i finally posted the first finished video for the website i am hired to work for, roddy bray's great guides. the website is to feature 'guides' from all different walks of life to talk about the subject they are passionate for. some guides so far have focused on waldorf education, great white shark photography, muscle activation, walking safari's in africa, global roots music, fynbos flora, and more. each guide will have their own page and be able to sell audio downloads (recorded 'talks'), documents, mail ordered items and more. my job is to make a profile video for every single great guide. the website is still being developed, and when we get the next update finished, i will let you all know.

but without further ado, the video (click here if no youtube video is embedded)...



gordon oliver is an extraordinary man. i was able to meet him on my study abroad class to south africa two years ago and my amazement never ceased. he is so humble that you would never know all of his accomplishments and work, but get him talking about what he's done and it just keeps piling up and up. this man lead a protest against the government on the 5th day of his term as mayor of cape town. he truly is dedicated to equal rights to all regardless or race, sex, religion, sexual orientation, etc. his work for the unitarian church and his drive to explore all paths of expression of faith fascinate me. i could go on and on, but here are just some more photos, a photo of a reply letter handwritten by nelson mandela, and his speech that he gave when nelson mandela was released on feb. 11th, 1990. at the end is a shot of the orchestra that was rehearsing as we were shooting. just stopping by for a couple minutes to listen to that made me itch to go see the orchestra more often.









. . . .



roddy and i worked with starting up another great guide, philip constandius, our great guide to the winelands and garagiste wine making. our shoot in the heart of the winelands brought us in the middle of so much beautiful landscapes. to my protest, roddy thought that we couldn't sip wine the entire day as we did the video to try to really 'experience' what the video was about.



. . . .



this was one of the last sunsets i was able to watch from scarborough, before i helped the family pack and move out to hout bay, just up the coast a bit. we are no longer on the beach, but it is only a short (5k) bike ride away. we had a 'house cooling' party, which i had to work through part of it (see sign), frantically packed that night and the next morning, and then spent two days loading our kombi (80s vw van) to go back and forth between the new house or a storage garage. i was able to get settled in, and started directly into my first book from the bookshelves here, to kill a mockingbird. now i am onto the posionwood bible, and enjoying the occasional visit from my friend, the baboon spider. the house has a great second-floor rear deck that runs the length of the house, and the view of the mountains is a great reason to get up in the morning. there aren't as many stars here, but the houses on the other side of the valley provide some of the same effect.









. . . .



tonight we went out for candlelit christmas carols. we decided to hike in from the back of the garden that was hosting it, and made an evening out of our hike, picnic dinner, and carols. the forest at the start of the trail was amazing (made me wish for a trip to california) with many of the trees being really really tall. we even found the beginnings of a wigwam, which the girls loved. the caroling was another experience all itself, with over 5,800 people there at the start of the evening. it made me really glad we parked at our secret spot...






. . . .



my last note is on a book that i found at the house here that i wish i had as a kid. it is so imaginative and simple that i spent about an hour playing with it and trying different page combinations. the top half of the book can be changed individually from the bottom, allowing for all sorts of fun joined images to be created. really well done.






. . . .

it is starting to hit me that it is christmas back home and i am going to be missing out on it. and of course, it is likely to be the first white christmas in a long time. but now rachel's parents are here so having grandparents around will feel pretty typical of the holidays. i think we are also going to put together a makeshift tree soon... more on that later. but i hope all is well and that shoveling all that snow is a lot of fun.

to giant trees and warm december nights,
tbk

one month in

it's been one month. i can hardly believe it. it seems like just a week ago i was dragging my bags through new york city and london, but now i hear stories of snow and finals back in baltimore, and i know time has flown by.
.  .  .  .





last week i went out climbing with a couple that lives down the street, rachel and jeremy. jeremy is a professional rock climbing guide for places all over the world (and somehow works as a lawyer too) and rachel is certifying as a rock climbing guide instructor. they both have been climbing for ever, and really had a lot to teach me. after jeremy helped us set up (and i suspect make sure i wasn't some lazy american that didn't know really how to climb), he left us and rachel and i had the entire day to trad climb around a local crag. it hides within a hill, so to rachel and jeremy's knowledge, no other climbers know of it, and there are no signs of any climbing other than them either.

nothing that we did was too difficult or technical, so it was a really relaxed day and i got to work on my double-rope trad belay and just absorb being outside on the side of a rock face by the bay. a baboon troop of over a dozen wondered below us, and we watched them fight with each other from our perch on the rocks.








the route we decided to establish was a traverse across a part of the face they had not climbed on before. at the bottom of the face there is a lot of growth that makes it hard to get to, and above the roof there is just a nice gradual slope to the top. we used almost the entire length of rope going across, which meant that for most of the climb, rachel and i could not see each other. the only signs i had that she was still climbing was the slow movement of the rope through the clips, and that surely she would yell if she started to fall. so for the most part, i was left on the quiet rock face, slowly belaying out rope for rachel and listening the the ocean.




i picked the name "appletiser" for our climb, after a brilliant drink they have here that is just carbonated apple juice. i loved heading out climbing with rachel, and i hope i can do it again before we hit the road traveling.

.  .  .  .

i have been living in scarborough since i arrived in south africa, but this sunday, the entire family and i move to the house in hout bay.  it is a beautiful town, with lots of things to do in it's beach-front center, so i am really looking forward to it. i am also really looking forward to it because i will have a real espresso machine, more books to read (the couple that we are house sitting for have great taste), a full yard and a garden, mountains with hiking trails surrounding the house, and yet another change of pace. we will be there until the new years, where after another hot second in another house, we will be finally hitting the road (on janurary 4th) and really starting to move.

i am also excited for hout bay because that is where i will be when brad flies in on his way to his new job in burundi. he got a job training nurses and seeing his own patients, for a great non-profit. brad will get to cape town on the 26th and stay with us until we head all leave cape town on the 4th. it will be really good to see him again, and to also to have someone from back home to share all this with.

.  .  .  .



for work, we have interviewed two more guides; steve the walking safari guide (above), and doug - who uses 'activation' to help the body perform better and that whole body, mind, spirit thing. doug is moving into a new place of work at the start of the year, at phakalane. it is a beautiful hide-away place where they have yoga groups, cooking classes, trance dances, sweat lodges, a couple rooms for guest to stay at, outdoor showers and baths everywhere, trails roaming the property, an amazing meditation room,  and so much more. it was all started a woman (who is a sangoma) who owned the property and just really wanted to make it into a natural healing center. she did a great job. i broke her curtain. even after that, we were all invited to lunch with everyone that was there (only a handful) and ate on the deck outside. around our raw salad lunch, the discussion was about nature, global traveling, childhood and education, evolution (not genes alone), and other normal topics. i wonder what supper conversation is like.








.  .  .  .



i don't know how many people in the states know about this, but the 2010 fifa world cup is going to be hosted in south africa. there rarely is a day when i don't hear about it anymore. cape town is full of it. the other night in downtown cape town, they had the draw for which teams would be playing where. roddy and i stopped by and ended up almost getting lost in the masses of people. it was a real test to see how well south africa could manage the event, and from what i could tell, they did well. in the crowd were many families, locals from all sorts of backgrounds and foreigners alike. and while the drunk people were not out of hand by the time we left, we left before the event even started. i am glad that this will be my only taste of the world cup, as i am sure it will get much more hectic and overwhelming.



.  .  .  .

 

time to meet the family: roddy, rachel, sarita, and lorien.  we went down to the beach for the girl's supper and to take the family's christmas card photo. they suggested some of the typical poses, i suggested one that was more true to their style.



after the photo, we had fun doing more poses on the beach and had some running around near the water.



.  .  .  .



a photo of the killer reflection of the sun off the ocean i meant to have for the last blog (this would almost be all white to the naked eye), and other things about the past ten days:





  - after spending a total of about 5 hours, i have almost untangled my [insert adjective] kite,
  - i made my own sushi for the first time,
  - there was one of my all-time favorite sunsets ever, and instead of a camera i had wine,
  - i read my first ever james bond book, 'diamonds are forever',
  - am halfway through a thousand splendid suns (fantastic),
  - i cut my own hair, but without a mirror and only using my reflection off a window outside,
  - had a great time second-hand shopping for clothes, and
  - i bought myself my own xmas gift from a local shop that i should be getting sometime later today...

all in all, good. it's like a working (40hr/week) vacation. 

i hope all is well, and cheers to it being snuggle season.

tbk