Unimaginatively named update #1

Hi y'all,

I've decided not to try to change my accent. At first I thought, "Maybe I should try to say 'bah-NAH-nahs' and 'bahth' and the like, but what's the point? People will always know I'm an American, so why try to change my speech? I will try to use the correct local terminology (e.g. robot for traffic light, torch for flashlight, hoot the car horn instead of honk, and so on), but I'll say it with an American accent, by golly.

Whew, have we been busy! Since Jean knew that I'd be going back to the U.S. at the end of August, whether to stay or pack up and return, and because this is busy selling season for us (transferring from one subscription agent to another usually occurs at the beginning of a new calendar year, so now is the time to be making a decision), she made full use of my time by booking appointments almost every weekday, and all over the country! There are 9 provinces in South Africa, and I've been in 4 so far - Gauteng (in Afrikaans, the 'g' is a hard, guttural 'h'; so Gauteng is pronounced "how-teng" only with that throat-clearing h), Free State, Eastern Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal.

Last week we were in Eastern Cape, and the first night we stayed in Port Elizabeth. PE reminded me very much of beach resort towns in Florida. Lots of hotels and development along the waterfront, similar vegetation, and lots of older, retired folks in the subdivision where we stayed at a guest house (B&B). One afternoon, when we were finished with appointments, we drove through a beautiful, old, tree-lined neighborhood with many colonial style houses. We had planned to take a walk on the beach, but it was far too windy and a bit chilly. Still, our guest house was only 3 or 4 blocks from the beach, and I could hear the waves breaking in my room that night

On Thursday of last week we visited Rhodes University in Grahamstown. I really liked the look and feel of Grahamstown, and Jean tells me that they have a big arts and music festival there every July, with a big field for camping. Don't know if they'll have any bluegrass bands, but guess who I'll be calling on next July? J I also liked the Rhodes campus. It is by far the prettiest we've visited. Many of the universities that we're calling on were built in the 1960s and '70s, and the buildings are almost uniformly ugly. Mostly concrete. Ugh. Rhodes, though, is old, ivy-covered brick buildings - I'm sure it's close to what Plato thinks a college or university ought to look like.

That afternoon, we drove down to Kenton-on-Sea and Port Alfred and did take a short walk on the beach. We saw penguins sitting on a rock! The ocean is very fierce on that part of the coast.

On Friday (5 Aug), we visited Fort Hare University, which is smack in the middle of nowhere. It has the distinction of being the oldest black university in SA. It also has the distinction of being the university that Robert G. Mugabe attended. Just so happened that the library archives, which we visited (and which also hold the ANC archives), has an exhibit of famous Fort Hare graduates. Interestingly, Uncle Bob's (as we called him while I was in Zimbabwe) photo was not among them.

I did most of the driving last week; I told Jean that I needed the practice and it would be good to do it with someone else in the car. On the way between Grahamstown and Fort Hare, and then between Fort Hare and East London (from which we flew back to Jo'burg), I had to dodge, at various times, monkeys, goats, and one lone cow who decided to cross the highway. Ah, rural South Africa.

The driving is coming along quite well. I still maintain that the left side driving hasn't been a problem. The only silly thing I keep doing (and I'm almost over it) is to begin to reach to my left for the seat belt, instead of over my right shoulder. I did make my first big left side driving boo-boo last weekend (turned out of a parking lot into the wrong lane), but fortunately it was a Sunday afternoon with little traffic, and it was at a 4-way stop where there were other drivers who hooted at me loudly to let me know of my gaffe. I really think I need to get a sign for my rear window that says, "CAUTION - U.S.A. driver!" Driving the manual transmission is coming along pretty fine, too, except that really big hills still give me a fright.

This week, we've been in KwaZulu-Natal. We flew down to Durban on Monday morning, and left there on Friday morning. Durban is a big city, and like any big city anywhere in the world, parts of it are pretty, and parts of it are not. Some of it reminded me a touch of San Francisco - hills next to a bay, and some of the vegetation.

Okay, now it's time to leave the office and go call on the next customer - Potchesfstroom University. Whew, learning Afrikaans is not going to be easy.

Soon, more on this past weekend at Mtunzini Forest Lodge, adjacent to the Umlalazi Nature Reserve on the east coast, north of Durban.

Love

Katy G.