Hey Everybody,

This is probably going to be my last post until January 15th or 16th. I am leaving on holiday next Saturday and I will be gone until the 13th. But I am going to take lots of pictures and Ill be back here posting again in the new year.

So let me see, what have I been up to the past week. Well, a lot of hanging around really.

Monday we put up christmas stuff in our house to make it feel a bit more like the holidays. But it is just so hot here that it really doesn't feel like Christmas to me. There is supposed to be snow this time of year, I know it. One of the interns from Site 11 came over for the day to visit. And we took a trip downtown to buy some things.

Tuesday we did something but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. Wednesday I can't remember either. Aerin and I are sitting here racking our brains but we can't come up with what we did.

Thursday we went to see the new James Bond movie and then we walked over to the house Anne works at to accompany that family to a Christmas festival called Fantasia. We walked around the craft tent part because it was cheaper than going to the rides which were really expensive I guess, and we also got some food from one of the many Muslim food tents. I had an east meets west steak and cheese burger with Middle eastern style seasoning and onions. Then we walked through the Christmas village of lights and I swear, there are displays in front yards back home larger than this. But I don't know what I was expecting, I am in South Africa.

Friday was the hottest day of year and it was far too hot to do anything. We did get Sally to take us to the store though so that we could by food for the week. That night I didn't fall asleep until 5 becuase it was far to hot too be comfortable.

Yesterday wasn't much cooler but we made an outing around 4:30 when it was starting to cool off. The rest of our house came back also so we had people again.

Basically this past week we have made one outing a day with the exception of friday and we have otherwise spent time watching movies or hanging out with our neighbors.

Now the war against roaches has taken on a new level since the weather has gotten warmer here. First they were invading Anne's room nightly, big ones. Then we Doom fogged her room and the next night there was one in my room. So that was the last straw for us. We bought some poison bait and laced our house. I have no clue how effective it is at killing roaches but it has certainly made them vigilliant. They now venture out at even with all the lights on. So with a can of Doom on hand I have gone into battle each night. Friday I killed three of them in a row. Needless to say, I am very paranoid now. Once it gets dark outside, I am on full alert.

Last night I had a very lengthy conversation with one of the staff members who was staying next door. First we talked about how the new generation of Zulu children don't know there own history because they aren't being taught it at school or at home. Then Sfiso got into telling me all about Shaka Zulu, perhaps the most famous of the Zulu cheifs. As interesting as all it was I came to discover two things. The Zulu are a very proud people, who are proud of their past even if this new generation is relatively ignorant. There pride in thier history is so strong infact that they feel a kind of superiority to the other South African tribes. Yet the Zulu also blame their current strife on the betrayal of Shaka Zulu. When something goes wrong here, the Zulu say, its because Shaka Zulu said it would be so.

I also discovered that it is very hard to get a Zulu person to talk about politics in South Africa. Whenever I ask a question they usually tell me they don't know the answer or they tell me something historical as was the case last night. Unfortunately for me, I really would like to know more about the people and culture I am working with but its very hard to do that when I can't seem to get answers to my questions. So I guess I am either asking the wrong questions, asking the wrong people, or I need to change my approach.

Well thats all I have time for. Best wishes for the holidays and we'll talk again in a month.