Change Has Come…

or has it?  My roommate and I both have different workshops to attend this week.  As she was heading one direction and I was headed the other, she called a shuttle to pick up her and all of the equipment for the workshop early this morning. 

It turned out the shuttle driver was the very first person to welcome me to this city as he was my shuttle driver when I arrived on July 13th.  But this morning he didn’t even recognize me whatsoever though it’s barely been over a month.  And he should remember, you’d think, we spent nearly two hours together desperately trying to find our way to my flat.

So it left me to wonder…am I so changed by this big city?  Has Gold City brought a steely glint to my eyes, or a spring to my step?  Do I have street smarts?  Has the smell of smoke invaded me?  Have I grown in love any?  Do I radiate kindness?  Or strength of mind?  Am I unrecognizable for better or worse now?

I don’t know, you tell me.

Has Change Come?

Dearest readers…I am taking a break from blogging for the weekend

because I AM GOING TO BOTSWANA!

Yes, that’s right folks.  Yours truly is heading to Botswana to meet up with a great Tulane friend for his leaving-Africa-for-two-years weekend party.  Then we will drive back to South Africa on Sunday, play tourist for a day or two and then drop him at the airport on Tuesday for his nice long flight back to Texas.

So to tide you over (in the style of The Post-Karmic Stream ) I will leave you with some interesting blogs, reading, playing, cooking, etc.

1.  Go here.  I found this site while at work.  Watch the video and feel free to respond helping bring clean water to the entire world.  I bought a tap in the name of my good friend who is getting ready to head to Austin for a Masters internship..

2.  Read her great blog here.

3.  Then go here and cook up something great.  I’m going to be honest this page on my absolutely favorite website is representative of what Mandi and I call “Food Porn”.  Yeah, I said it.

4.  Read this fascinating article on the Iraq “War”.

5.  Now it’s time for you to go here and watch some videos about the fantastic online game called Line Rider.  The idea is you get to draw a route for a little character on skis to ski down and usually fall off wildly.  Once you get the concept down from youtube and you understand how cool this can be then go here and play the game yourself.

6.  Take a moment to sigh very sadly because both of the Hamm brothers are out of the Olympics this year.

7.  Please keep up-to-date on the Olympics this weekend so you can tell me all I missed while I was in Botswana.

8.  Do some reading up for me on How to Write a Devotional this weekend and give me your thoughts in the comments section.  Per my extreme interest in Devos every morning at WV and the supposedly coherent thoughts I have been giving frequently, I have been asked to prepare a Devotional for the entire office next Wednesday.  Prayers and thoughts are appreciated.  I have a few initial leanings as to what to speak about, but am still praying for God’s guidance.

9.  I would appreciate it if you would all adopt puppies this week.  One per home would be great, thanks.  I held a little puppy yesterday for the first time in years and it fell asleep in my arms.  If I wasn’t in a WV owned flat on a short-term internship, I would get my own pet.

10.  Finally I would love for you to do some good old Wikipedia haunting, I mean searching.   Give it five minutes-type in whatever you’d like and then comment here to let me know the weirdest thing you learned in that time.  Maybe there will be a present for the weirdest fact, concept, or picture.  Who knows?  Maybe I’ll pick up something for the winner in mind while I’m in Botswana for the weekend.

I believe I have found a church home here…

for the last two weeks I have gone to His People Johannesburg – Parktown North, the church my boss attends.  I have really enjoyed it but it took me 45 minutes to get there last week-45 minutes!  That might be due to the two races going on last weekend that forced all drivers to the major roads to avoid the blocked roads, but even the week before it took 30 minutes or so.

And of all the things I learned from my parents (of which there are a great GREAT many) one big lesson was to attend a local church.  The closer your church is, the closer your church family is and the more able you are to serve in ministry.  This is very important.  

So when I realized that His People Jo’burg church has a Westrand congregation I decided to look into it.  In fact, the Westrand group meets in the church just down the hill from me in that very mall you can see from my complex!  It takes a whole five minutes, ten if there’s traffic to get to it!

I attended and loved it today and then joined the young adults for lunch and outreach time going to local businesses to hand out pamphlets about the church.  And I made my first real friends outside of my roommate’s friends and co-workers.  It is a very nice feeling to have people to belong to, and a church home for the next 4 months and 1 week, and even better to know that I have adopted as an heir to the only God who is good, all the time.

Smile Folks – It Can Take You Places

After driving myself all the way to chuch alone while trying to avoid the blocked streets due to a 50,000 person foot race and a race car show I decided that I wanted just a little more practice.  I wanted to get out, see the big city of Jo’burg, get familiarized with the roads, and maybe take some nice photos along the way. 

To do this, I planned to take Hendrik Potgieter road out for an hour and then come back again.  This way I couldn’t get lost.  I did bring my roommate’s book of maps with me and thank God I did!

Everything was fine at first.  I was driving past malls and spas and golf courses.  Then nurseries and fields.  And then I saw a stop light.  It looked as though the left lane was a turn lane only so I moved to the right noticing that this was the shorter of the two lanes.

It struck me as a bit odd that most people were turning off here until I realized that it was actually an either/or lane-turn left or continue on Hendrik Potgieter.  And I had just positioned myself into a turn right only lane that led into the N4 Freeway!  Aieee.  But the lane next to me was so long I thought it would be easier to just turn onto the N4 and take the first exit back to Hendrik Potgieter.

Silly me.  Once on a South African freeway you don’t really go off.  I had to zoom up to nearly 120 km/hour (which my car doesn’t love doing) and pass kilometer after kilometer before an exit ever showed up.  The views were lovely and I ran across some shanty-towns that I wish I could have gotten photos of for you but there was no stopping on this freeway.  And before the first exit, I saw a sign for Pretoria which was only 40-something kms away.  Deciding to be impulsive and remembering that my roommate hasn’t even been to Pretoria in her five months here, I stayed the course with my windows down and a cd I had RJ burn for me blaring!

My short, two hours most drive turned into a four hour adventure.  Within this adventure I ran one red light, started driving the wrong way on a one-way street, drove on the freeway in the dark without knowing how to turn on my lights, found where my car horn was and was greeted in return by another driver, stopped at at least four petrol stations to pull out the map and find my way again and once for help turning my lights on, paid two tolls to drive on the N4 and N1 highways and made it home without my roommate even knowing I was gone.  I had a blast but there were times I was a bit nervous.  The Lord was very very gracious and brought my rather silly and definitely pitiful self home safely. 

Oh and I stopped at a McDonalds and walked into the store as the only melanin-challenge person in the whole place.  Smiles help you get by everywhere folks, smiles.  This is one of the biggest lessons I have learned since coming here.  Smiles and my photo bag that Janet made for me with pictures of me and my family.  Everyone seems to love it here, send more photo bags! 

Oh and that McD’s burger and mini cup of corn (the newest side item here in S. Africa) you saw pictured on yesterday’s post really were tasty!  All meat here is free range unlike American McD’s.  Come on over and I’ll treat you to a burger anytime.

Because of my random trip to Pretoria (the capital of South Africa) I am definitely a better driver.  I still stall quite often but I feel more comfortable with my gears and speeds and I know how to turn the lights on now.

This is just another reason for me to smile.

I only shot four photos on the whole trip.  Two are the same place and one is the McD’s meal you saw yesterday.  So I will give you two:

the first is this lovely church whose steeple I spotted from a major road and I twisted and turned to find it. 

Here is the church and here is the steeple open it up and see all the people.

and the second photo…well this one is for Tootsie and her entire family.  Because everybody needs to make sure their brakes are in working order.  I shot this photo like a lightning flash because I was only waiting at a red light.

The Midas Touch!

Don’t forget to send questions for our Q & A time/post/whatever!

I blog about food a lot, so here’s a little more…

What I’ve been eating recently:

Sushi Platter for Three!

I “accidentally” drove all the way to Pretoria and all I got was this awesome McD’s hamburger and mini cup of corn?! Sweet. More details tomorrow.

Raw Boervoers sausage: an Afrikaaner sausage packed with fat and flavor

Cooked Boervoers sausage–much smaller now that the fat has been cooked out and drained.

Two Lunches Worth from Fruit and Veg: Chicken, mac and cheese?, and sauteed mushrooms.

Spin-off of Rachel Ray’s Spaghetti alla Ceci-Recipe Coming!

Mint Aero Bar. I have waited six long years to be reunited with you! And oh, it was worth the wait.

Typical Winter SA WV lunch. Toast spread with avocado and sprinkled with salt plus random fruit on the side.

Dutch Apple Baby-Recipe Coming!

Remnants of Sushi Platter for Three-Hungry Yet?

Thus, I am not starving here in Africa. 

And I did not eat the Boerwoers raw, I’m just showing them to you.

P.S.  Don’t forget to submit questions for our upcoming Q & A time.  Even if they seem silly or dumb or just plain crazy.  I like questions.  I like comments.  I like you.

Bet you wouldn’t even begin to guess…Numero Dos!

Do you know that even though we have pretty good shipping systems and we live along both the Atlantic and Indian Oceans that some of our foods are made to last? I mean really really last. 

 In the states most milk is good for one to two weeks if you’re lucky and eggs are usually good for a few weeks to a month (though you know we all keep them around for months until our next baking urge hits us). But here in South Africa milk is ultra-pasteurized which means it can last for weeks and weeks when opened and months (to maybe years) unopened at room temperature. 

Normal pasteurization is called High Temperature/Short Time pasteurization and raises a batch of milk to a temperature of “71.7 °C (161 °F) for 15-20 seconds” (all these facts are from Wikipedia by the way).  Ultra-pasteurization produces milk with long long shelf lives and this process raises milk to “138 °C (250 °F) for a fraction of a second”.  Thus the milk can generally last forever until you open the top. And even when you open the top it still lasts for a few weeks even when it is accidentally left out for a full day at the tea and coffee station.

Everytime you pasteurize milk either normally or at ultra-temperatures you denature different proteins which means makes them inactive.  This changes the flavor of milk and possibly the health effects which is why many Americans and Canadians are angry that they can’t drink fresh, “real”, raw milk anymore due to new laws.

Eggs are pasteurized here too, right in their shells. This means that eggs are good for a solid six weeks even when left outside of the fridge.  I bought some of these long life eggs and they even came with a pamplet about the process which I might bring home with me, if anyone is interested.  I don’t taste any difference in the eggs here, but the milk is a bit different.

As a public health student I AM always serious about health, right?

I bet you didn’t know that microwaves made in South Africa are truly made specifically for South African food. Remember how most American microwaves have buttons for popcorn, potatoes, meat, bread, fish, and poultry, etc. Well these microwaves have those buttons too but they also have buttons for rice, mealie-pap, bobotie, stew, quiche, and baked potatoes.

*Mealie-Pap is a porridge made from ground corn that is a staple starchy food anytime of day for many South Africans

*Bobotie is a South African dish with Indian inspirations. It is a minced meat, fruity, curried dish usually topped with an egg. I haven’t had it yet or seen it. When I do see and try it (which I will fight to do) I will take pictures for you and maybe get a recipe.

*Here, Stew is still stew just with more African meats and vegetables

and if you don’t know what quiche and baked potatoes are, you must go out immediately and buy a Betty Crocker cookbook, the biggest one you can and inform yourself and then pick your favorite recipe and invite a hot date over. You can’t be one of those non-getters of good information sort! I am looking out for your own good here.

Please remember to send questions for our upcoming Q & A session!  Did any of these crazy things you never guessed spark queries?  Send them my way!  Do you wonder what I do for devotions?  Do you want to know how quickly I can run a kilometer?  Have I been a safe driver?  Just ask.

So I met myself a South African man…

My new friends here have had some hard last few weeks so they made plans to go to dinner and dancing and because I am new here, I got invited.

The dinner place we went was fantastic even though we were too late to get their full menu.  This place would be perfect for a prom.  The upper floors are filled with tables, the bottom floor is lined with booths and there is this gigantic floor that could be used for dancing that is now just filled with settees, couches, and chairs for lounging.  It was a lovely place with at least 30 Picasso style giant murals and then these beautiful Victorian chandeliers. 

Before my real story let me tell you one funny thing you might not realize, there are a lot of coed bathrooms here or at least the places I seem to keep going.  They have separate stalls but you still enter and exit and wash your hands in the same place.  So at this restaurant I went to go to the bathrom and realized quickly that it was coed.  Still a little taken aback because this is brand new for me outside of Ally McBeal I went into the first stall.  Inside was an abstract piece of artwork depicting a nude man.  I thought that might be a signal that even though it was a a coed restroom certain stalls might be for only male or female.  So I checked another stall until I found one with a nude woman abstract painting!  When I told my friends out in the main room they laughed and laughed and laughed.

Then we went dancing.  And if you know me you might already be aware that I am not the star of any dance party.  I am more of the contemporary dance style in my own bedroom or bathroom with the doors locked and my choice of music blaring.  (So if you ever want to see me break out in my attempt at Riverdance just pop the Last of the Mohicans soundtrack in the player and turn it up high!)

So after about an hour of dancing I started getting bored.  And I decided that if I was going to be there for a few more hours I was going to make the most I could out of it and get a good workout in for the night.  So I made sure to move every limb as much as the other which led to some very interesting dancing that reminded me a bit of CK’s dancing <–yeah, I said it.

We found ourselves a nice little corner to dance in where we could safely store our coats and purses.  I ended up being the one to stay in the corner and watch the stuff while getting my dance/workout on and I thought of Anna’s sweet Dancing with the Stars moves from February if that says anything!  We all noticed this one guy who just kept hovering around us the entire night.  He seemed completely alone and looked like a short Steve Urkel dressed like he ready to go either fishing or on a safari.

Finally he made his move.  He told me he’d been watching me dance all night and thought that I had wildly different but wonderful moves.  He told me that no one else in the whole world would like my moves, no other guy, only him.  He also noted that I was different, not like the rest of my friends who were with me.

He wanted my number and to know where I lived and where I came from but I didn’t tell or give him anything.  But he insisted I take his number.  He told me I had only to call and he would take me on a tour around the city even into the places that are known for being unsafe because he could protect me.  And he offerred to teach me Venda, his native language. 

I just kept saying okay, thank you, anything to get him to stop and to get back with my friends.  Finally he went the distance and said, “I love your dancing, you are just so different.  Actually, I love you.  You understand what I mean.”

This was the clincher of the deal.  Zaaiboo and I are getting married in two weeks and you’re all invited.

Wait are you serious?!  Yes, about everything until those last two sentences written in italics. 

So I met a guy and he fell in love with me and my crazy workout dance moves and my differences from my friends.  And then I left only with my friends and his number which I will not call.  Sweet.  Next?

Some Blogging Goulash (A Little Bit of Everything)

My mind is going all over the place, so I will share a little of where it’s at today.

-Driving is fun but my improvement is slow-going.  I am still wondering when it will become second nature and if I will be excited to go back to automatic or disappointed when I return to the states on December 16.

-I love this quote from page 247 from the book, Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, Second Edition by John De Graff, David Wann, and Thomas H. Naylor (Berrett-Koehler: 2005)…“When your time comes and your whole life flashes before you, will it hold your interest?  How much of the story will be about moments of clarity and grace, kindness and caring?  Will the main character – you – appear as large and noble as life itself, or as tiny and absurd as a cartoon figure, darting frantically among mountains of stuff?  It’s up to you, and indeed, it’s up to all of us!”                 I have not actually read this book yet, but I have seen movies about the concept of Affluenza.  I borrowed this quote from the blog http://www.guynameddave.com/ which I read as often as possible.  I recommend bookmarking it for his thoughts on the Christian faith, consumerism, and his 100 Thing Challenge.

-This is a fascinating article  about new uses for condoms in South Africa (don’t worry its rated PG in my opinion) I found on another favorite blog http://theburkholders.blogspot.com/ This lovely couple worked as missionaries here in Jo’burg for nine months shortly before I arrived.  I stumbled across their blog while looking for pictures of Jo’burg and then read through the entire thing in one day.  I suggest doing the same if you can find the time.

-When I get back to the states, I want to find the time and money to go visit this fantastic cave and see its Snowy River formation.  By the way, The Man from Snowy River is one of the best but cheesiest films of all time.  Crystal, remember the zooming in on the horse’s eye!  Oh, how we laughed and laughed and then re-played the scene to do it all again!

-I am compiling a list of questions you have thrown into the comments section to have a big Q and A post.  But I want more questions!  What are you dying to know about me?  about Africa?  about World Vision?  Do you wonder if there are lizards running around?  Are you desperate to know how much a bunch of carrots cost?  Is curiousity taking over your life when you think about my beauty regimen?  Ask away, I will find answers and maybe document some with photos, and we’ll have a big old Q & A extravaganza in the PioneerWoman style.  Which, by the way, you must check out my favorite blog in the whole world thus far… http://thepioneerwoman.com/

-This picture (below) is just a taste of what is yet to come on the blog in the next week or so.  More recipes, more photos, more, more, more!  Stay tuned.

Yum to Come

-But while you’re waiting for more details on that cake, check out this fantastic VeganYumYum (of all things) food blog and especially this recipe (while remembering that I don’t even really like eggplants, oh the childhood stories of me and the eggplant) but even I think this looks and sounds delicious… Is your mouth watering like one of Pavlov’s dogs when the bell goes off?

-And speaking of Pavlov, from a quick wikipedia search (another great website) I learned that Pavlov was not just a psychologist BUT a physiologist AND (GET THIS) a physician!  All the old greats had so many degrees and did many wonderful and diverse things. 

I think this is proof (Mom) as to why I should stay in school forever and get my MD or DO, my JD, my PhD, and some other random Masters degrees.  That way one day I can be in wikipedia and they can site my advances to all my fields of interest: Womens’ Issues via OB/GYN practice, public health, policy change, helping clocks keep the time, drama & theater, forensic anthropology & entomology, etc, etc, etc.  A goulash of a post and a goulash of a career sounds like the way to go, eh?

 

 

 

Check out my room…

now that it is all nice and clean and unpacked.  Look how clean and organized it is (Mom!):

Nothing's coming out of this closet.

Now, if I can just keep it so clean and tidy.  Hahahaha.  Actually so far it looks just as nice as these pictures and it’s already been four or five days.  Who knows, maybe Africa inspires extreme cleanliness in me?  I guess it’s not hard though when you have a housekeeper washing clothes three times a week and making your bed when she doesn’t think you’ve made it well enough (yes, I have been trying to make my own bed).  My favorite part of having a housekeeper is just seeing how clean and sparkly my extra-long tub is on the days she comes by.  I’ve only used the tub twice because I don’t really want to disturb that extra sparkle!

Oooo, look at my little baby…

(note: the above was dripping with sarcasm.  I may be the type of girl to name her first car, but I will never refer to it as my baby.)  (Note number two:  I like babies very much, but I don’t have any at this time or in the works.)  (End Notes)

Well, here is my brand new rental car.  It is not really new, only to me.  You probably can’t see my sideview mirror that is taped to the car.  But otherwise it works well.  The only problem is me.  I am a brand new driver in the U.S., let alone in Jo’burg, SA where they use kilometers, the left-hand side of the road, and stick shifts.

Thus far, I have driven three times here-once with friends/teachers and the last by myself.  That was the first time I have ever driven alone as I wasn’t on my parents’ insurance and always had to have one of them with me.  Boy, I prayed like crazy and came home safe but with a gigantic tension headache.

But I made it safely in time to get photos with the setting sun and to climb into pj’s for a night of skype, television, and cake.  Ha, just what a tension headache needs, eh? 

Speaking of skype, you should all set it up so we can chat for free and even have free phone conversations over the internet.  If I can configure this modem with my personal laptop I can even add live camera to our conversations so you can feel like you’re hanging out in Africa with me.  And best of all, it’s all free free free!  Just what any grad student or intern or stay at home mom or youth group member or whoever you are, likes to hear!  Check it out at http://skype.com/intl/en/welcomeback/ and if you want to add me as a contact and start chatting you can find me @ myfirstname.m.mylastname — fill in the blanks though my middle name does start with an M and make sure and add the periods!

So here’s my so far unnamed (and likely to stay that way unless it develops a personality above and beyond my poor driving and then deserves to be named) car:

If anyone has any tips on driving a manual transmission car, please let me know.  Like, can I take my foot off the clutch when I don’t need it for a while (like on highways), how far back should I put my seat (so far, my left leg always holds weird angles to hit the clutch and it makes me very sore), etc, etc, etc?