tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87149823394671259232012-02-16T13:56:30.169-08:00One Student's Travels Through the South African CountrysidePaul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.comBlogger301100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-46201902776352107362008-04-30T03:41:00.000-07:002008-04-30T03:53:28.252-07:00

Note: this post is dated to the 27th of April. It's when I wrote down the post. I've been backposting in big chunks lately, so if you haven't seen much about my trip to Swaziland yet, check out the list on the right-hand side of the page! I just uploaded "Are You Local?" and "Traveler's Reviews" yesterday.Jozi's sunlight glares down on the airstrip today. Inside at the boarding gate, though, it's

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-37885574170878256212008-04-29T13:37:00.000-07:002008-04-29T14:17:36.250-07:00

I've just made it back to the blog after a stint away in the semi-tropical forests of Swaziland. Here's what I thought of the place.Legends Backpacker Hostel: When I first got there, all I saw was a shebeen and a tiny courtyard walled in on all sides -- but with no gate. (A shebeen is an illegal bar, usually run and patronised by Zulus out in the boonies.) Not very encouraging. Then they charged

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-25094963352079242272008-04-29T13:13:00.000-07:002008-04-29T13:36:42.337-07:00

"So are you local, or SA? Mozambique?" I started babbling mid-question because I knew what the answer would be, and I didn't really want to hear it. "Local." Thoba said it with a long-suffering grin. He twisted off the bottlecap on a Foundry Cider and slid it across the bar. "But my dream is to go to the States. Get a good job, make some money —" another grin, this time more Oceans Eleven "

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-60106384811898673052008-04-22T10:17:00.000-07:002008-04-22T10:50:15.812-07:00

Note: I have pictures of the wildcat reserve, but my net connection is too shaky to add them. I'll add them later in a new post. In the meantime, make sure to read Parts One and Two of this travel story, below!4/21/08 Morning: The baz bus is one hour late. I hope it shows, because I don't want to spend another night here. It won't stop raining — it's been drizzling nonstop, and it's cold

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-90331821637987429282008-04-22T10:14:00.000-07:002008-04-22T10:52:45.691-07:00

4/20/08 Arrived in Durban Sunday afternoon around 4. Found myself with nothing to do: it was the perfect time to find a club, and I had the number for a jazz venue from my last trip to the city, but it was a Sunday. I tried to call the number anyway, in case it was the kind of Westerner-catering club that's open on a Sunday, but an automated voice told me it was disconnected. So that left me

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-15097801292198473912008-04-20T09:49:00.000-07:002008-04-22T10:21:37.471-07:00

Sunday: rain came about an hour before I left behind Winterton, the Drakensberg Mountains, and Sofi's farm that sat between them. I was sitting in the local Zulu church. A visiting pastor was giving a sermon; the main point seemed to be that if you supported the church his God-granted power would cure you of AIDS. The storm showed up as he was speaking and as his voice rose, so did the rain. Soon

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-68973537387229517012008-04-19T04:47:00.000-07:002008-04-19T05:48:59.807-07:00

.. I've got to show you all some photos of the place. Here are some random shots of characters around the Berg. I leave tomorrow (!) and I'm trying to get good shots of everyone before I go.Miya, Sofi's daughter, bouncing around to Paul Simon on the stereo. Sofi's son! Lungelo. I like this one, don't know why.Lungelo and Miya, along with a pair of visiting kids.My sweet, sweet truck.The toolshed

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-13667288648218394552008-04-17T08:09:00.000-07:002008-04-17T08:19:06.364-07:00

What did I write last time? Something about being on hiatus because my camera was nicked?No? I see. Well, that's okay, because I found said camera (it was in a pocket of my backpack I thought unused; those who know me well are laughing now). So now that I'm free to shoot and blog, I'm gonna do so with gusto. First of all, check out my full write-up of meeting a sangoma on my academic blog.Second

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-58958682567700853992008-04-02T12:21:00.000-07:002008-04-02T13:00:27.262-07:00

I saw an iguana the other day, a baby, no more than four inches from beak to tail. He was taking a long hike across one of the muddy, rutted roads near my house. I'd never seen one before, so I spent at least five minutes crouched beside it. I watched it bob as it walked. It watched me, too, from eyes that bulged but were almost closed in the sun, like miniscule camera lenses. I started to feel

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-69647409381927896912008-04-01T02:57:00.003-07:002008-04-01T03:35:11.621-07:00

Lately I've gotten into the habit of checking under toilet seats for spiders or other creepy crawlies. I haven't had any bad experiences, exactly. Except one.At Cosmos Farm, our toilets are built like outhouses, except they're positioned above a six-foot pit. They're never emptied, either, so most of us to do our minor business behind a bush somewhere. Otherwise the stench gets too unbearable to

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-91725570213029205722008-03-28T07:17:00.001-07:002008-03-28T07:29:26.482-07:00

In case anyone is wondering what I've been up to, take a look at this article from the New York Times. I haven't been around the patients they talk about, but it's a good write-up of the kind of attitude doctors take to health care around here.It ranges from pushing someone out the door if you can't help with a Panadol prescription, to acting like the country's about to collapse.

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-91447059621719802582008-03-25T06:13:00.000-07:002008-03-25T07:19:49.021-07:00

You may or may not know that as part of our internships, Heather and I were given a car. Owning a vehicle is the only way to get around here; hitchhiking isn't easy, nor is it exactly safe. I've only done it once and Heather refuses to, as she probably should. Lynn understood this, and she was kind enough to get us the sickest ride I've driven around here (or, probably, ever), pictured above.

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-64825244832029976752008-03-19T03:08:00.001-07:002008-03-25T06:12:55.030-07:00

It's been a while. It's hard to pack everything I've been doing into a short post. Most of it's been networking anyway. There are a lot of people up here with really cool ideas for improving the communities. One woman I know is finishing up her Hydrology degree, and she wants to start a fish farm that recycles its water into a commercial garden. Another wants to start a farming program that

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-53249241586625466792008-03-12T08:49:00.000-07:002008-03-12T09:06:37.144-07:00

I spent today in and out of schools. I met a principal who's terrified that if his school shows students how to use condoms, they will start having sex with everyone they can find. Then he complained to me about teen pregnancy rates.Schools here would get more done if the teachers demonstrated how to unroll a condom and the nurses treated everyone's syphilis. Teen pregnancy and transmission of

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-11421303038365007592008-03-11T04:28:00.000-07:002008-03-11T04:49:13.442-07:00

Lately I've started to find small, toothy-mawed worms in my bathtub right as I'm about to step in for a shower. I'm beginning to suspect these things are leeches. Everyone I mention it to says they probably aren't, but come on: they're small, gross, striped, and they're all tipped with those little circular parasite-mouths. That fits my criteria for leeches. It's happened four times now; they

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-83943824463888179002008-03-10T11:58:00.000-07:002008-03-10T12:22:54.420-07:00

So it was just pointed out to me that the link I posted to my academic blog was broken. Oops. Here's the real thing. It has all five of us posting to it, not just me, so you can see what the rest of the team is up to.Oh, and I just posted my mid-project review over there. If you had any questions at all as to what I was doing for school down here, that monster ought to both inform and depress you

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-22415762839884627012008-03-09T11:51:00.000-07:002008-03-09T13:26:00.359-07:00

Here at Cosmos Farm my bosses hold a Bible Study every Friday. I'm not always comfortable sitting in — most of the members are very conservative. And I haven't considered my own spirituality since I moved away for college; appreciating what some call Creation is hard enough when you're running on deadline after deadline, gulping coffee like a fish (or burning through half a pack a day, like some

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-19594675800688416952008-03-07T04:29:00.000-08:002008-03-07T06:14:46.215-08:00

Well, I realize I’ve been talking a lot about people you’ve probably never heard of before. Hopefully this will clear up some of your confusion. Feel free to point and exclaim if you recognize these people from a blog post. I realize I should have done this sooner. I just had to dig up some good pictures. Of course, they're all copyrighted to David Sosnow, 2008, all rights reserved.The

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-38032177908916017132008-03-05T11:44:00.000-08:002008-03-05T11:59:09.404-08:00

I hate to post so sporadically — it bumps the pretty photos down. If you haven't seen the second batch of Durban pictures (or the ones of my house-sitting), check 'em out below!I wrote this letter to a friend about driving in Durban:"Oh, and I took to left-side driving like a catfish to cooking oil -- it's been a delicious time. It took me half an hour to adjust, and I'm good at navigating the

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-59683039345612072542008-03-05T11:23:00.001-08:002008-03-05T11:42:14.584-08:00

I spent last weekend house-sitting for a hippie/evangelical Christian couple. (It seems like everyone here is an evangelical Christian. I really have to watch what I say -- I'm afraid I take religion with a little too big a grain of salt for them. What's a sense of humor, after all, if you can't apply it to your deepest beliefs?)Anyway, their house is nice and very peaceful, and I enjoyed being

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-38801324278284766682008-03-02T01:25:00.000-08:002008-03-02T01:44:13.181-08:00

I've got updates! First of all, I am alive. I consider that important. Also, nothing has threatened my life lately. Although I did smash my toe under a couple of loose windowpanes. But nothing serious, I'll live! I am realizing my true lack of cooking practice. Everything here is made with corn, beans and potatoes. But I am an Italian-style culinary dabbler. I must adapt quickly! Quick: everyone

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-56242501389172049182008-03-02T00:58:00.001-08:002008-03-02T01:19:02.542-08:00

More from Durban! Sam's aura of quiet: .. And the sweetest of the art we saw:... And then afterward, our march through Durban back to the car.A group of ladies running to catch the bus:And that was it. A great time was had. Durban: ridiculously classy.

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-90785911000192169802008-02-25T06:16:00.000-08:002008-08-26T17:36:36.407-07:00

The PlayersHEATHER Africa team member, Paul's partner in crimePAUL Africa team member, Heather's partner in crimeEZEQUIEL MABOTÉ Local Durban artist, internationally acclaimedLYNN MCMULLEN Supervisor for the Africa teamSAM SCHRAGER Head professor for the Africa team's classThe PlayHeather and Sam got time to bond while I drove. It was a little awkward having Sam in our cars and sitting with us at

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-10965066006196727382008-02-24T10:11:00.000-08:002008-02-24T00:11:24.461-08:00

Yesterday I drove to Durban, a famous port city on the Eastern coast of South Africa. It's a crazy place! I was expecting lots of interesting sights, but the number of mosques around here surprise me. The city is very Muslim. Yesterday, driving everyone into downtown, I saw a sign that said "Read Al-Quran: The Last Testament."This place is cool. I can't post any photos yet, but I will tonight.

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-17516360795719687052008-02-21T11:58:00.000-08:002008-02-21T12:02:20.912-08:00

I took a picture of a lion for you, Riva! So for the last week — from the 10th to the 17th — I took my first week, dubbed "Orientation Week" by my supervisor Lynn, and roadtripped with my team. Mostly we ran around Johannesburg for the first couple of days. Let's see if I can remember what I did; through the haze of jetlag, it's hard to recall everything: Saturday: 23-hour plane ride, 

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-85505006088501116772008-02-21T04:13:00.000-08:002008-02-21T04:21:31.538-08:00

Let me lay out really quickly why I've been away from this blog so long.I'm in Africa. I have been since the 9th. Right now it's the 21st.This place is crazy! I'll post more about it when I have time, but suffice to say, it is a bustling place.I am living in a smallish cottage with one of my two bosses and another member of my team (Heather). Contrary to what I was told by my supervisor, the

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-71295100317781182212008-02-07T22:31:00.000-08:002008-02-24T00:10:27.659-08:00

This post was written yesterday. I'm taking a day off because I've decided to have Valentine's Day a week early, so I can do something nice for my girlfriend. But I do have time to post this. See y'alls tomorrow! Second-to-last day of class today. I had to write down what I'm going to do in Africa because we are all supposed to present it in class today in a two-minute speech. I jotted a couple

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-86499228568344065472008-02-05T19:02:00.000-08:002008-02-06T11:55:22.060-08:00

When I got back to Olympia, I realized that I have too much to tell all at once. For one, things are going too fast. My camera doesn't work half the time: I pull it out to photo my exploits and it's been draining its batteries in my backpack. I can't record anything I'm doing. Hell, the most I could pull up about Olympia was this lame picture off the web. (It doesn't even look like this, it's

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-89089173485408656412008-02-02T11:34:00.000-08:002008-02-03T01:16:23.773-08:00

Well, it's only been a day, but it feels like it's been two or three. I've been exhausted lately — even for me, who routinely hits the sack at around 2 or 3 AM. I'm not sure why. It might be the fact that I can't sleep in lately, even on weekends. There's too much to get done. And too many people rattling around in the kitchen I sleep right next to. That's the price you pay for being the fourth

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8714982339467125923.post-85973488007658285002008-02-01T07:35:00.000-08:002008-03-10T12:37:00.482-07:00

About the Trip"At the end of last summer, I teamed up with four of my classmates to take internships in the small towns of South Africa. The trip starts ten days before my plane takes off from the misty li'l Pacific Northwest. It will stop at the tail-end of summer in the Johannesburg International Airport, South Africa. What happens in between, my only real plan is to wing it."In class yesterday

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08660610266068584792noreply@blogger.com1