Full Circle

HOSTEL LIST

2011-01-12T09:14:00.000-08:00

SOUTH AFRICA

Drakensberg – Sani Lodge

Durban – Hippo Hide/Happy Hippo

Cape Town – The Backpackers and Long Street Inn

Joburg – Diamond Diggers

HOSTEL LIST

2011-01-12T09:11:00.000-08:00

SWAZILAND

Manzini – The Cowshed

Ezulwini – Lidwala Backpackers

HOSTEL LIST

2011-01-12T09:10:00.001-08:00

MOZAMBIQUE

Tofo – Fatima’s Nest (Heard better things about Bamboozi)

Maputo – Fatimas (Base Backpackers)

HOSTEL LIST

2011-01-12T09:08:00.001-08:00

ZIMBABWE

Victoria Falls – Shoestring Backpackers

Harare – Small World Backpackers

HOSTEL LIST

2011-01-12T09:06:00.001-08:00

ZAMBIA

Livingstone – Jollyboys

HOSTEL LIST

2011-01-12T00:10:00.001-08:00

SENEGAL

St. Louis – Pelican/ L Atlentide

GHANA

Accra – Salvation Army
Cape Coast – Oasis

TANZANIA

Dar Es Salaam – Holiday Hotel

Arusha – Arusha Backpackers

Moshi – Moshi Backpackers

LONG STREET BACKPACKERS

2011-01-12T00:09:00.000-08:00

We decided to stay on Long Street for our last weekend so that we’d be a little closer to downtown. We saw an amazing exhibit at the South African National Gallery and the District Six Museum. All in all an amazing end to an amazing journey.

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE

2011-01-12T00:04:00.000-08:00

We then headed on a tour of the peninsula. We were nearly blown off of our bikes heading to the Cape of Good Hope, but we were rewarded after with a visit to the penguins. Unfortunately, I now know that penguins mating is not reminiscent of Happy Feet.

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE AND SIMON’S TOWN

2011-01-12T00:02:00.001-08:00

We then headed to Cape Town’s wine country, Stellenbosch and Franschoek. We mountain biked to our first winery and then luckily caught a ride to the next two. Our guide was fantastic and a wealth of information. His wife is a social anthropologist, and it was clear he took an interest in her work and in South African history. An amazing combination

TABLE MOUNTAIN

2011-01-12T00:00:00.000-08:00

Dacia and woke up on our third day and hiked to and up Table Mountain. Even though it was not nearly as painful as I had expected, I still couldn’t believe the guy who passed us and then proceeded to turn right around to head back down. Barefoot.

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CAPE TOWN

2011-01-11T23:45:00.000-08:00

After our second to last long bus ride, we finally arrived in Cape Town. We decided to stay in CT for a week and we hit the ground running. Our second night in Cape Town we hiked up the Lions Head to watch the sunset and then the full moon rise. We had amazing company and made it up and down without incident, even if I was shaking after the vertical ascent on a ladder. Luckily I wasn’t the only one.

COFFEE BAY

2011-01-11T23:11:00.000-08:00

Back in Durban we ended up meeting some awesome Americans and were entertained by Wade and the guy almost falling out of his stool. We explored the city, made it rain once again at the Victoria Street Market, and marveled at Durban’s amazing public transport. Then we headed to Coffee Bay (Buffalo!) to enjoy some time along the Garden Coast. We lucked out and ran into some past travel buddies: Ben, who we met in Tofo and Christian who we met in the Drakensberg Mts. The weather didn't work in our favor, but it was still a fun time and we did get in a hike to the Holl In The Wall, even if we couldn't swim through it. The tab system, was dangerous, but definitely a great place to stop on the way to Cape Town!

2011-01-11T23:08:00.000-08:00

LESOTHO

2011-01-11T23:02:00.001-08:00

We completed the pink hike and celebrated the Slovenian holiday on 11/11 before getting on some horses to head to Lesotho for a few nights. On our way back we stopped at the highest pub in Africa.

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SOUTH AFRICA - DRAKENSBERG MTS

2011-01-11T22:14:00.000-08:00

The public transportation from Maputo to Durban was surprisingly easy. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t as easy so we spent our first day in South Africa heading to the mall to enjoy heavenly fountain sodas and getting a new phone charger. From Durban we went up to the Drakensberg Mountains. We stayed near the Sani Pass which leads up to Lesotho.

Whereas it had rained in Durban and along the coast, it had snowed in the mountains. Thanks to our amazing travel luck, the sun came out just as we were heading up there. Unfortunately it was still cold even with the rays, so we had to stop and stock up on fleeces.

2011-01-11T22:13:00.000-08:00

SWAZILAND

2011-01-11T22:07:00.000-08:00

Getting into Swazi was a trip, but getting to the Cowshed was downright scary. Until we realized our cabbie was very nice and not taking us to the backwoods to do away with us. We arrived at the Cowshed in a near starvation state, but were saved by the golf resort restaurant. We then headed to Manzini where we hiked up Sheba’s Breast. It had rained heavily the day before, so there was a lot of butt slides, and graceful falling left, front, right and back. After we rewarded ourselves by making it rain at the craft center. I just kept telling myself that I was supporting small enterprise development. Let it rain.

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TOFO

2011-01-11T21:50:00.000-08:00

MOZAMBIQUE

2011-01-11T21:25:00.000-08:00

After two days in Zimbabwe we arrived in Mozambique to spend a few days with Andrew, a volunteer from Cape Verde who is extending service for nine months through Peace Corps Response in Chimoio. Andrew’s house is pretty much the picture of perfection. It was a great time hanging out with Andrew, dancing to Zouk, and attempting to crash a high school party with other volunteers.

From Chimoio we headed down to Tofo. We lucked out in meeting Pierre and Yuko on the 3 AM bus. A long ride and ferry ride later, we made it to Tofo. Amazing seafood and beach. Our last night in Chimoio, was a long one with James, Ben, Elias, Christian and Natasha. We did get to glimpse a vampire running into the water and spotted a wild creeper on the beach all before taking the 3 am bus to Maputo.

ZIMBABWE

2011-01-11T14:37:00.001-08:00

From Zambia we headed into Zimbabwe. We were all a good bit reluctant to do so, but Zimbabwe is now one of my favorites. The people were beyond friendly and nice there. I would have loved to have had more time there. We decided it is the most underrated African country that we’ve been to yet. Polite people, beautiful, great cities and towns. Overall just not what I had expected before going. Any bus that shows Diary of a Mad Black Woman is obviously good.

ZAMBIA HIGHLIGHTS

2011-01-11T14:35:00.000-08:00

Youseff versus the mean ‘Big Ginger’.

Crocodile tears over Steve.

Lost wallet recovered.

Babyface? You don't even know how happy I am to see you.

Dacia dance impersonation

Victoria Falls with Sui and Laura

Which is better, a BC connection or a FUBAR connection. Equally amazing.

Feta Cheese and vick’s all around.

Palming it up.

CELEBRATION OF LIFE

2011-01-11T14:31:00.001-08:00

ADVENTURES IN ZAMBIA

2011-01-11T14:28:00.001-08:00

VICTORIA FALLS

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LIVINGSTONE, ZAMBIA

2011-01-11T14:22:00.000-08:00

After all this travel we were really happy to stay anywhere, but the hostel in Livingstone was incredible. It had everything you could ask for. We decided to not rush to Mozambique and stay for as long as we could without Leah missing her flight.

We stayed in a dorm with a Frenchie Romain, who was willing to put up with our antics and was a lot of fun. We went to see the Victoria Falls on our first full day there and signed up for a white water rafting trip that night. We ended up in the same boat as Romain and with three students from Germany. The Zambezi has 25 rapids ranging from a scale of 1-5. Our boat flipped at rapid four which was a grade 4. I for some idiotic reason couldn´t keep a grip on the rope and ended being a ‘long swimmer’. Basically you just get let loose on the rapid. I was scared out of my mind after spending most of that rapid being trapped underwater and not able to see where I was going or what I was near (like rocks). Luckily they tell you to just wait it out and you will come up for air, so I just tried to do that (all the while screaming bloody murder in my mind). I was pulled into another raft and settled in for a hot minute before that raft also flipped on a smaller rapid. Only three boats flipped that day and I was in two of them. The rafting gods might not be smiling down at me but they sure as hell were probably smiling at me. After that it took a bit to stop fighting the urge to jump ship and walk the rest of the way but luckily I stayed in. We didn´t flip again but we did jump off the rocks (semi-cliff) and decided to swim a few of the rapids instead of staying in the boat. Awesome day.

The next day I did something mothers across the world tell their children not to do. I jumped off a bridge. At 111 meters, it´s one of the highest jumps in Africa. When they told me that I absolutely had to jump forward 3 meters, I got pretty nervous. Your feet are tied together and it’s hard enough to walk (had to more or less hop to the edge), let alone jump. Regardless, I did it and then proceeded to flex my feet hardcore because I had an irrational fear that I´d slip out of the foot apparatus (towels and a not so strong looking clothe cord).

TAZARRA RR

2011-01-11T14:15:00.000-08:00

Our two day train ride ended up taking four days after a slight derailment. It's a good thing we weren't in a rush because we were able to just enjoy the view and excessive amount of french fries.

TANZANIA HIGHLIGHTS

2011-01-11T14:14:00.000-08:00

Bat in the butt = unfavorable.

Bird watching.

Soups on a Safari – Cucumber and tomato.

Coffee Tour Fail

John – Raki Master and last minute Kili hiker.

Hyenas versus Zebras.

Baby elephants playing in the mud.

MOSHI

2011-01-11T14:07:00.000-08:00

We stayed in Moshi for a few nights to catch up on rest and to see Mt. Kilimanjaro. We were able to meet up with Lizzie and Zarina and spent a lot of time drinking amazing coffee at the local coffee house that brews the locally grown beans. When the weekend of relaxation was over we had to head back to the city to pick up our Mozambique passports. We decided to take the Tuesday TAZARA express train across the border into Zambia.

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ARUSHA

2010-12-09T12:57:00.001-08:00

After stopping in Dar Es Salaam to go to the Moz embassy, we were finally off to Arusha to organize our safari. We were lucky enough to find three fellow to join us on a safari. We decided to arrange our safari through Sunny Safaris with JoJo as our guide and Marceli as our chef extraordinaire. Over four days we'd travel to three parks: Tarangine National Park, the Serengeti National Park, and the Ngorongoro Crater.

JoJo told us we were lucky because we were all girls, but whatever the reason, we saw incredible animals and were lucky enough to see the big five. Everytime we turned around we saw something new, birds flying off the back of running giraffes, a lion and lioness playing together, lion cubs, baby elephants digging in the dirt, a cheetah above our head, leopards enjoying their kills, and plenty of beige brigadiers.

2010-12-09T12:53:00.000-08:00

We then went north to Nnuguni Beach and spent a few days doing a whole lot of relaxing.

2010-12-09T12:50:00.000-08:00

TANZANIA - ZANZIBAR

2010-12-09T12:44:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm4HQomMkGM

We flew from Ghana to Tanzania. When we arrived we headed straight to Zanzibar. For the first few days we stayed in Stone Town. We ate amazing street seafood, enjoyed the sunsets, went swimming with dolphins at Dolfini beach (clever right?) and walked around a ton. The most memorable experience though was going scuba diving for the first time. I’m still not down with fixing my mask underwater, but I killed on the phantom drill. Scuba diving was incredible. Leah and I were able to see a shipwreck and tons of coral and fish.

GHANA HIGHLIGHTS:

2010-12-09T12:35:00.000-08:00

Lucky run-ins.

Couples.

Global Mama store. (http://www.globalmamas.org/default.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1 )

Ellie the Elephant.

Fro yo in baggies.

MOLE NATIONAL PARK

2010-12-09T12:30:00.000-08:00

We finally reached Mole and went for an early morning walking safari. We saw tons of warthogs, monkeys,’ bambons’ (as our guide calls them), and antelop or kob. The forest smelled incredible, like mint in your face, it was hard to remember we were in Africa because it was so lush and green. The hotel overlooks the watering hole so I spend the afternoon on elephant watch while chitchatting with people and reading. We didn´t see an elephant on our walk or at the hole, but WAWA. West Africa Wins Again. We were staying up talking to an Australian couple and the guard came up and just whispered elephant. Very dramatic and very close. There was an elephant just hanging out in front of the hotel, eating plants. Ellie in all her natural glory?

TAMALE

2010-12-09T12:24:00.000-08:00

We headed to Kumasi from the Botel and had to take very tong Trotro rides up to Tamale. We finally connected with some Peace Corps volunteers and spent the night at their regional house. It was nice to hear about their sectors and experiences, but unfortunately the next day it was time to push out again for the bus to Mole National Park. The bus stops were loud, chaotic, and reminiscent of Santiago in Cape Verde. I devoured more street food in one stop than I probably have elsewhere in my entire life.

HANS COTTAGE BOTEL

2010-12-09T12:18:00.000-08:00

We caught a trotro to Hans Cottage Botel with a few other travelers including a couple Mirana and Charlie who were Benin volunteers. We all headed to see the canopy walk and a few of us tried to do it sans hands. Tricky on a rickety rope and wood bridge. From there we parted with Brett and Amanda and a five of us headed to the monkey sancturary where we met a wacky couple and got caught in the rain. At the Botel we soon saw tons of the crocodiles that they boast about. One of the staff went up to one to pet it and tried to convince us to do the same. No way, ma’am. That’s crazy and I’m no Steve Irwin. The Botel was probably the weirdest place we´ve stayed in. It kind of reminded me of the setting for a creepy horror movie.

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrRQm_J_zr8

CAPE COAST

2010-12-09T12:13:00.000-08:00

We then headed to Cape Coast. As we were walking into the slave castle we ran into Brett and Amanda, two other volunteers who just COS´d. Surreal. We stayed in Cape Coast a few days and walked around and explored the city. I nearly cried when I saw a book store.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRMEr-J6hXY

GHANA

2010-12-09T12:08:00.000-08:00

From Senegal we flew to Ghana, after a short stop in Cote D’Vore . We spent the first day in Accra getting oriented to the city. Whereas in Senegal the Talibe was heartbreaking, in Ghana the kids were incredible. They were just so excited to see Americans, and would scream “HELLO! HOW ARE YOU? I AM FINE” across a busy street. Another striking contrast between Ghana and Senegal was religion. Ghana is extremely Catholic. I’ve never seen so much publicity for God. After being in Senegal for Ramadan, it was a bit of a shock to see so many Jesus loves you signs. Did you know that Jesus would want you to get your haircut at Christ’s hands haircutters? You are in God’s hands now…

SENEGAL HIGHLIGHTS:

2010-12-09T12:05:00.000-08:00

Our hosts.
N'Ice Cream, pastries, and fresh bread.
Kayaking through mangroves.
Hobbit huts.
Holidays: Konkrite and Memorial Day.

PALMIRIN

2010-12-09T11:58:00.000-08:00

http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTdvSn_4y4I

A sept-place ride with seven or eight loves of bread later...

MBOUR

2010-12-09T11:55:00.001-08:00

SAINT LOUIS

2010-12-09T11:47:00.000-08:00

The birthplace of Akon.

I'm including a link if you want to know more by seeing more... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMkJyLvCS7U

ILHE DE GOREE

2010-12-09T11:32:00.000-08:00

http://webworld.unesco.org/goree/en/index.shtml

SENEGAL

2010-12-09T10:53:00.000-08:00

Overall Senegal was a really great experience. It was interesting to see the similarities and differences between Senegal and Cape Verde. It was a bit chaotic and aggressive, but not nearly to the extent that I had been expecting. The country itself is beautiful. Granted we had the luck of seeing it during the rainy season. I really enjoyed the smaller villages and family compounds. The most shocking thing about Senegal was definitely the amount of young boys with no supervision or opportunities. The talibe is heartbreaking. Based on how the kids acted with us, I can only assume that these boys are starved for any real attention. If you give them a smile, they just light up.

A few pictures of Dakar.

SENEGAL!

2010-09-29T07:03:00.000-07:00

You'll have to wait for the pictures, which is in all honesty the only real decent thing about my blog, but to keep my Mom happy with updates, here goes...

Friday September 3rd 2010 - PCV

After a few last minute preparations we left Cape Verde on Friday afternoon. During the ride we hit turbulence that was bad enough to make some people feel the need to scream. I didn't get to see it, but apparently two girls took their life jackets out from under their seats and put them on. Unfortunately they didn't go as far as inflating them.

As we got into Senegal the first thing we really saw was an enormous statue and a city that was overwhelmingly large in comparison to any CV city. Whereas CV has about 400,000 people total on all of the islands, Senegal has 4 million in Dakar. We were lucky in that our host, Justin met us at the airport and helped us get settled. We went to trivia night at the American Club and got to meet some of the other volunteers and have real burgers! We didn't win but team rage didn't do too badly.

Saturday September 4th 2010 -
I started the morning off a little rough by taking my malaria meds on an empty stomach. A nauseating walk to the pastry shop later and I was feeling ten times better after downing a delicious chocolate treat. The main event of the day was taking a bus downtown to the market to look for fabrics. The city is much larger than Cape Verde and the amount of people walking around was pretty mind-blowing even though it's apparently calmer because of the fasting for Ramadan. It was intimidating to think of bartering with our pretty much non-existent French but we were with two PCV's who did all the talking. That night we headed to a Chinese restaurant and had a meal like non other, complete with PBR?! Random but amazing.

Sunday September 5th 2010 -
We went to the Ilhe de Goree for the day. To get there you have to take a short ferry. Timing kept working out really well in our favor and we didn't have to wait at all to catch the boat. The island is incredible and I tried my first local coffee which was really sweet and spicy. We figured out how to start being a little less dependent on the PCVs here and were able to get around pretty well. We even met a Cape Verdean artist on the island. Speaking Kriolu was a breath of fresh air after not being able to communicate well with the Senegalese. We then met up with Just at his friend Mike's apartment and we saw the craziest sunset over the downtown city area.

Monday September 6th 2010 -
We started off the morning by heading to a restaurant downtown called Fine Palace and spent the day downtown. That afternoon we were invited to celebrate Labor Day at the Marine House. Really nice guys and a nice way to spend the holiday (even if we are pretty much on Holiday up until the Christmas holidays). I even got to play a little pool. I'm still awful, but it's fun to play again.

Tuesday September 7th 2010 -
We had an eventful start to the morning trying to figure out where the new Ghana embassy was located. We found the old one just fine, but it had moved due to construction. We saw a flag flying red, white and blue and initially thought it was the American flag. Getting the embassy we realized it was the Nigerian flag but they were able to tell us where the Ghana embassy was now located. A really nice guy walked us to the Ghana embassy and we got our forms and found out that we couldn't just waltz right into the country. From there we headed to a place called the garage to catch a sept-place to a northern town called Saint Louis. The sept-pace experience is definitely just that, an experience. They are basically old station wagons that shouldn't be on the road anymore, but are. Not only that but they are the best form of transportation here. We got squeezed into the back seat, but were lucky in that it was just enough space and we didn't hit much traffic. The most disturbing part of the trip is seeing the Talibe children walking around begging for food and money. We got to Saint Louis and headed to the Pelican Hotel out near the beach. Really quaint and cute place complete with huts on the beach. Definitely slept like a baby in excitement for the beach.

Wednesday September 8th 2010
It had rained all night so our attempts to swim were thwarted by the runoff. We had gone for a morning walk along the beach and were heart-broken by the amount of trash along the beach and in the water. Trash hitting your leg in dirty water isn't all that conducive to jumping right in there. We decided to walk to the island to explore instead. Our bargaining skills increased ten-fold during the day because we went a little overboard in the gift-buying.

Thursday September 9th 2010
We got in a lot of exercise by walking around most of the day with our bags, but luckily we had left most of our stuff in Dakar. We decided to stick around in Saint Louis for two more nights rather than go to visit a volunteer in a rural site because we heard transportation would be a pain once Ramadan ended. We met two French volunteers for an indulgent night of wine at a cafe.

Friday September 10th 2010
Today is the end of Ramadan, or Korite. We spent the day walking around town and across to the mainland. The open sewage flowing into the river wasn't so pleasant, but the rest of the walk was. That night we met up with the PCV in Saint Louis who had just returned from PST. It ended up being quite an international night and we met volunteers from Belgium, England, France, and Mauritania. We got some major news when we heard that a volunteer Mike Majors had decided to continue his Peace Corps legacy by doing a third tour in Senegal. We had heard about his language abilities as being legendary in Cape Verde and I guess after China he's decided to tackle another fifty languages. Envious to the max. At the end of the night we headed to the Iguana Cafe to dance it out a little and all was going well until the roof collapsed. Luckily at that point no one was on that side of the room, but it was still pretty unbelievable.

Saturday September 11th, 2010
We headed back to Dakar after freaking out our taxi driver with our amazing singing abilities. His expression was rock solid. Nothing. Not even an itch of a smile. We relaxed for most of the day before heading to the viking for a meter of Flag followed by live music at Just For You. We were lucky enough to catch the Orchestra Baobob (?)

Sunday September 12th 2010
All the long car rides made Leah and I pretty restless so we decided to explore the lighthouse and statue. We even found the Cape Verdean embassy along the coast. Our last night in CV we passed by a guy who was passed out with his penis out and this seemed completely normal. CV was a place where the drinking is cheap and easy. Anytime we've been walking around Senegal I keep seeing people sleeping in the sidewalk and I had to keep reminding myself that they weren't passed out drunk. It's a little unsettling to see so many people just sleeping anywhere and everywhere. I'm keeping my fingers crossed I don't turn some corner and accidently step on someone's head. Considering my track record of instigating awkward situations it's pretty likely that I will wake someone up at some point. Another site that was pretty spectacular was watching the goats being led into the water to be bathed. I didn't realize how much they hate getting wet. It does explain why the animals here are ten times cleaner than in CV.

Monday September 13th, 2010
Before heading south, we had to stop by the Ghanian embassy to hand in our visa applications. It was a little stressful to have to run to the internet cafe to book reservations in hostels so that we could fill in the reference section, but we got them in. Then we went to book our tickets to Ghana and had mini heart attacks when we found out everything had to be payed in cash. Needless to say that wasn't all happening in one day. We payed off half and booked it to Mbour. In Mbour we caught a bus out to a smaller village to stay with a volunteer. We saw two rainbows and an incredible sunset just heading to her village. When we got there we met her family and saw her compound. She has her own hut in the compound and had painted it to look like a hobbit house. She also has a backyard bathroom that is pretty much a turkish toilet and buckets. I thought Dacia was going to cry. When you sign up for Peace Corps you know that you can be sent anywhere and a lot of people dream of this situation. Dacia had had her heart set on living in a rural village. I'm more of a city gal and I tried to stay open to anything, but it's hard not to be a little envious of sites that are just so different. I wouldn't take back my time in Cape Verde for anything, but I wish I knew if I could adapt to a situation so different from what I'm used to.

Tuesday September 14th 2010
We traveled into Mbour and went to Camenont N'Gale (?). We finally got some time in the ocean and spent the morning swimming. From there we headed to Palmarin, a site on the delta. We stocked up on bread (a little more than planned) and gifties for the host family and then headed down in another sept-place. Driving out we had to take a dirt road. Water was definitely coming into the cars through the rusted holes at our feet. I'd like to praise the mechanics in Senegal, because for the life of me I can't figure out how they keep these cars running. We got to the PCV Chris's site and met his counterpart Pierre. We went to the local bar to listen to some music. Apparently Zouk is huge in this region, even if the music is a year or so behind. We all enjoyed hearing the music that we've lived by for the past two years. They eventually switched it up to Senegalese music and the dancing started. I don't really know what the dances are, but judging by what the guys were doing it does involve grabbing your shirt and a good amount of butt shaking.

Wednesday September 15th 2010
The volunteer we stayed with focuses on eco-tourism and arranged for us to rent kayaks to row out in the mangroves. We rowed, swam, and even planted mangroves. I planted one for Mom and Dad since they planted an apple tree for me upstate. Dacia planted on for Beau and Lizzie's little peanut. From there we went to another island that has shell mounds. Apparently they've excavated the mounds and have found the bones of griots. Since they weren't farmers it was believed that they couldn't be buried on farmland or the crops wouldn't grow so they buried them in mounds of shells or in the trunks of the huge Baobob trees. They've found the bones of over 150 people in the trunk of one of the Baobob north of Palmarin. We climbed into one of the trunks to have some coffee and then we headed back to the village. At the end of kayaking Pierre, a mouribo of nature, gave us all necklaces to protect us in our travels. He told Dacia hers was to protect her from CV men. Hysterical. To cap off an incredible day, we were late getting back to Sarah's site and had to take a night bus. The bus was decked out with curtains, pictures, and red lights. It was like a crazy haunted house ride or something. Probably the most bizarre twenty minutes I've spent in a good while.

Thursday September 16th 2010
We headed back to Dakar to get our visas and finish paying off our tickets. We were so excited about our visas that we had the very nice embassy workers take our picture. The Ghana visas are legit! We were lucky in that Justin arranged for us to stay at his friend, Mike's place. Once we all showered and got cozy, we were in heaven. Seriously, heaven. The good/bad news is that the travel agent accidently booked our ticket for Saturday instead of Friday so we have to impose for another night. The good news is that we have two nights of luxury thanks to Mike.

RPCV

2010-09-02T10:58:00.000-07:00

On August 31st I officially became an RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer). They punched the holes in my PC ID to make it official. I had a great last few weeks as a volunteer. I was asked to help with train the new volunteers that arrived this past July. They are an impressive group and I’m lucky to have had the chance to meet them all. On top of training, during the two weeks of helping with PST (Pre-Service Training) in Assomada I celebrated my birthday (third in Cape Verde), visited my host family, had a chance to see off a few of the volunteers from my group, and finally made it back to Taraffal (twice).

Afterwards I had an amazing two weeks back in Sao Vicente. I was able to get away for a bit to hike with Rachel and Dominika, my rocks during this past year. I had dinners and lunches with friends. I finished packing and managed to not forget anything important (knock on wood). I went to the big international music fest on my island, and had an opportunity to say goodbye to most of the people that I had met and cared about over the past two years. I feel like I was able to leave feeling like I had reached at least some level of closure.

And now I’m sitting here getting ready for my next adventure. I’m going to take advantage of a once in a lifetime opportunity and spend the next few months traveling with Dacia and Leah, two fellow volunteers. I think saying that we are going to have an adventure may be an understatement. After the past two years we all agreed that trying to carefully plan our trip would be impossible, so instead we are going with a very open and extremely flexible plan. After all TIA – This is Africa. Of course we are trying to take all necessary precautions and then some and we aren’t going in totally blind but we are hoping to do a good amount of networking to have the security of the PC community as we travel.

Our first leg of the trip starts tomorrow in Senegal! We are going to stay with a volunteer in Dakar and depending on the latest news we are heading either north or south. We originally hoped to make our way south to Guinea Bissau (also a former Portuguese colony with a similar Creole), but due to fighting at the border, we may have to change our plans. If we can’t make it to GB we may try instead to head north to St. Louis, followed by a westward detour (by train!) into Mali to head to Dogon county. If time and money allows, we’d all love to get to Ghana, but that may be pushing it.

After a month or so in West Africa we are heading east. Most flights from Senegal head to either Uganda or Kenya. Because of recent events in Uganda and Kenya, we may try to look into fly directly into Tanzania. From there we will try to head to Mozambique and then end our trip in South Africa. Of course this is all dependent on health, time, and money, but as of now this is the general plan. I don’t know if I’ll have much internet, but I’ll try to at least post when we arrive and leave each country. We are hoping to travel until Christmas so there may not be anything too exciting until then.

Best wishes! - Linds

SOUNDTRACK 2.1

2010-08-31T06:05:00.000-07:00

These songs have also experienced near death due to the Z100 style repetition in my brain:

1. Make You Feel My Love – Adele
2. Forever My Friend – Ray LaMontagne
3. See the World – Gomez
4. Graceland – Paul Simon
5. Take No Prisoner – Alpha Blondy
6. Kids – MGMT
7. Minha Galera – Manu Chao
8. I Follow You – Amadou and Mariam
9. Jai Ho – Pussycat Dolls
10. Angel From Montgomery – Susan Tedeschi
11. Redemption Song – Bob Marley
12. Halo – Beyonce
13. When Love Takes Over –Kelly Rowland
14. Empire State of Mind – Jay-Z
15. I Want You Back Remix – Jackson Five
16. I’m Alive – Kenny Chesney and Dave Matthews
17. Wait It Out – Imogen Heap
18. The Heartache Can Wait – Brandi Carlisle
19. Sweet Mistakes – Ellis Paul
20. Any World Cup Song

SOUNDTRACK 2.0

2010-08-31T06:00:00.000-07:00

If the songs that have been stuck in me head at differing points during my two years of service were played out load, this would be the sountrack of my life in Cape Verde:

1. Regresso – Cesaria Evora
2. Danca Ma Mi Criola – Tito Paris
3. Bulimundo – Bulimundo
4. Sodade – Cesaria Evora
5. Boa Sorte – Vanessa de Mata and Ben Harper
6. Algo Especial – Nelson Rock
7. Dispidida – Mayra Andrade
8. To Martins – Lura
9. Sampe – Dudu Araujo
10. Padoce de Ceu Azul – Cesaria Evora
11. Tentação
12. Mari D’ascenson – Lura
13. Tanuka – Mayra Andrade
14. Cabalo – Ferro Gieta
15. Dixi Rubera – Vadu
16. Febri de Funana – Tito Paris
17. Jóia – Bius
18. Preta – Vadu
19. Rebas – Cordas do Sol
20. Rebound Chick – Nelson Freitas

FRENCH PLAY

2010-08-31T05:54:00.000-07:00

Laurance, a French professor that I worked with organized a play with her second year students. The play incorporated traditional CV dance and music and a famous french story about a young man looking for love. Apparently the young man meets a girl, but when he brings her home his father tells him that he can't marry her because he had an affair when he was younger and she was his daughter. This happens about three times and the young man is about to give up on love when his mother tells him not to worry. His father isn't really his father. Ba-dum!

They did a great job and I had the chance to watch them perform twice.

LEAVING...

2010-08-31T05:40:00.001-07:00

Leaving was for many reasons bittersweet. Packing up my apartment was exciting but in some ways heartbreaking. My Mom has been asking me what my apartment looks like so I figured I'd take some pictures before clearing out.

DECM DISPIDIDA

2010-08-31T05:37:00.001-07:00

That weekend I had a dispidida with my DECM students. Waka waka eh eh...

ENGLISH DISPIDIDA

2010-08-31T05:25:00.001-07:00

A friend of my colleagues let us use his colonial house on Rua Angola to host an end of the year dinner and festa with our English students.

FESTINHA - FRENCH STUDENTS

2010-08-19T05:10:00.000-07:00

PIG ROAST

2010-08-19T04:45:00.000-07:00

My former students invited me to a pig roast. It must have been huge because it was just food on top of food. Good times with an amazing group.

FESTA DE PUMBA

2010-08-16T06:39:00.000-07:00

ENGLISH LESSONS

2010-08-16T06:29:00.001-07:00

Saturday English lessons at a local elementary school. Do you remember the colors song?

FORMACAO

2010-08-16T06:21:00.001-07:00

I worked with the US Embassy English Fellows in the Spring to present a professional development seminar on 'Backwards Planning' to the local English teachers.

DOCTORATE!

2010-08-16T06:11:00.000-07:00

My colleague in the French Department received her doctorate, so we had a little dinner to celebrate!

SOMADA

2010-08-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

As always, when I was on Santiago, I made the trip up to Somada to visit my host family.

COS CONFERENCE

2010-08-16T04:31:00.000-07:00

Three months prior to leaving all volunteers attend a COS (Close of Service) Conference. Ours was in June. We kicked it off with a volta ilha (trip around Santiago) before heading to Cidade Velha. Kudos to our group, we were the first group in Cape Verde without any ETs (early terminations) and everyone seems pretty happy and excited about what's next.

COS CONFERENCE

2010-08-16T04:15:00.000-07:00

COS CONFERENCE

2010-08-16T03:26:00.000-07:00

August 3rd - COMPLETING THE CIRCLE

2010-08-09T07:38:00.001-07:00

School is officially over and it was put to a close with a dispidida (going away) lunch with my co-workers. My secondary projects are all wrapped up and the last of the books and study guides are being distributed. I’ve given away most of my belongings, and packed up the stuff to send home or to bring with me. In my need to be completely organized, I’ve even taken the decorations off my walls and scrubbed the apartment clean. The only problem is that I still have a month before leaving. In exactly one month from today, Dacia, Leah, and I will be landing in Senegal to begin our four month trek through Africa. I blame my Mom on my obsessive need to organize and straighten up, but I guess these habits aren’t the worst that one can pick up from parents, right?
 I am back to Assomada to help out with PST 2010. It’s fitting to be back in Assomada during my last month as it completes the full circle of my life in Peace Corps. One group leaves, and another group comes in. Coming up in the hiace to Assomada I couldn’t help but to remember how fascinated I was by everything when we first arrived, whereas now everything just seems absolutely normal. I’m glad I did Peace Corps and I’m proud that I completed my commitment. I think overall I worked hard (and whereas I sometimes play hard, I always try to balance it by working that much harder) and I’m proud of my work and the projects I’ve done here.

Living here has made me more sure of what I want to do in the future. Although there are still plenty of choices to make (east coast or west coast or in-between, back to teaching or apply in another field, grad school right away or wait a year), I’m ready to face whatever comes next. First up is our grand tour. Even I can’t really believe I’m going to do it, but my mind is made up. As much as it kills me to know how much my parents will worry (it sucks to be so loved), as usual I’m going to be selfish. For as long as I can remember I’ve always worked and gone directly from one thing to the next. HS to college to grad school to teaching to Peace Corps, all while working two jobs. Students and teachers may have summers off, but I don’t remember ever taking one off. Now I’m cashing in my personal I.O.U’s and I’m taking four months to just travel.

I expect to be home around Christmas and then I’ll start the mad rush to apply to programs and jobs. I finally had a revelation as far as what I want to do in life (at least for now) and I’ve decided to apply for literacy programs so that I can become a reading specialist. Education is important, but literacy is the backbone of education. I’ve become increasingly interested in literacy since living here and I can’t wait to get back to school. Of course I’ll be trying to find a job as a well and I’m thinking more and more about applying to work for Peace Corps as a recruiter.

I’ll keep you posted, but in the meantime I’m going to try to focus on the here and now.   I’ll post some pictures of part one of the dispididas, here’s hoping that it won’t get drawn out too much because I don’t even believe in goodbyes.

August 3rd - COMPLETING THE CIRCLE

2010-08-09T07:38:00.000-07:00

July 26th, 2010 - T MINUS ONE MONTH

2010-07-27T07:41:00.001-07:00

The academic year has ended, the books have arrived, and the study guides have been printed. Two years and I'm left wrapping up the final details of my service. I can't believe that in one month I will be in Praia for my COS (close of service conference) and preparing to leave on a four month trek through continental Africa. My goal is to enjoy the last few weeks at site and in Cape Verde. It'll be hard to say goodbye, so I'm going to leave it with a much simpler keep in touch.

Before I left my colleagues from Heritage school had given me a journal and they had written messages inside to start off the journal. One of them had written the beginning of Whitman's 'Song of the Open Road'

AFOOT and light-hearted, I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose.

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune—I myself am good fortune;
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Strong and content, I travel the open road.

I figure it's only appropriate to post the first poem I taught to my literature students last year,

The Road not Taken

Duas estradas divergiam em um bosque de amarelo
E lamentando não poder seguir em ambas vias
E sendo único viajante, durante muito tempo me estado
E olhei para tão longe quanto eu conseguia
Até onde ela dobrava na descida e sumia

Então peguei a outra, tao apenas quanto justo
e fosse talvez a mais atraente
Porque era gramineo e desgaste querido
Embora aqueles que passaram na frente
tivessem gastado ambas quase iqualmente

E ambas que aquela manhã igualmente fez
Na cobertas por folhas, nao pegadas a manchar
Oh, deixei a primeira para outra vez
Mesmo sabendo como um caminho leva a caminhar
duvidei se iria algum dia voltar

Eu estarei dizendo este com a
Em algum lugar, ha uma distancia de tempo imensa
divergiam em um bosque duas estradas
e eu escolhi a menos viajada
e esta escolha fez toda a diferença.

June 4th, 2010 - COS CONFERENCE?

2010-06-03T05:41:00.001-07:00

Classes are going well and my schedule this semester is much more manageable than my schedule last semester. Going from a 50+ workweek to a halved scheduled has often left me feeling guilty at the amount of time I seem to now have. I had hoped to fill a substantial portion of the time with secondary projects, but over the course of the past two years it has become apparent that the delagada of our campus is not supportive of projects. She tends to micromanage and does not like us to assist in anything that she is not directly involved with. It's been disappointing because I honestly think that our students are missing out on important opportunities not only to improve their skills, but also opportunities to serve their communities. A goal of Peace Corps is to have sustainable projects and to work with our students or fellow colleagues would help us to reach that goal.

Despite the lack of support we've been able to start some secondary projects and I am going to the Craquinha youth center to teach English to adults and youth. I had originally I was denied permission to involve the students. The other volunteer at my site and I had submitted a lengthy list of projects but after waiting over a month for a response most of the project proposals were denied. It's a shame because the projects would have included; university students working with the local high schools to create an English club, university professors working with the National English Teachers Association, English lessons for staff and faculty, setting up JSTOR accounts for the students so they can access the journals from remote sites, a garden project that would have involved drip irrigation, and touch typing courses. All of the projects were requested by either staff, students, or community members, so it's hard to swallow the fact that they were not approved. It's been hard for myself and my colleagues to feel so utterly unsupported by the administration at our campus.

On a much more positive note, I have some good news to post, the literacy project has received full-funding!!! I hope I get to find out who or what organization donated the funds so that I can send a thank-you to express my profound gratitude. I had begun to give up hope and thought I would have to drastically scale down the project. I plan on having the university students edit the study guides one more time to include different levels of questions and projects, and then it's just a matter of ordering the books and printing/binding the study guides.

In two days I'll be heading to Praia for my 'Close of Service' conference. This marks the beginning of the last three months of service. I honestly can't believe that service is coming to a close. I think it'll be extremely hard to leave Cape Verde, but I'm excited about what's next. As of right now I'm planning on traveling to the main land with two other volunteers. We plan on traveling through western Africa and then heading East and South. We'll start in Senegal and hopefully (if funding doesn't run out) end in South Africa. I've never traveled for such an extended period of time so right now I'm facing that mixture of excitement and nerves. I just met two volunteers from Senegal and they offered us places to stay, so that's always comforting.

After that I'll return home and probably have to rely on the goodwill of my parents for a place to stay for awhile. I'm hoping to find a job and eventually return to school again. I've become increasingly interested in literacy and I'd like to get my advanced degree so that I can work as a literacy specialist. Ideally I could work in that capacity for the Boston Public Schools. I can't help but to think that not using my knowledge of TEFL and CV Creole in the school district in which the largest percentage of ELL learners are Cape Verdean, would be a waste of what I've learned through experience in the past few years.

Until then I'm looking forward to enjoying my time in Cape Verde while I'm here.

2010-04-06T10:20:00.000-07:00

E-mails from a few of my students from last semester...

In my 12 years of school you are the best teacher that i ever had thank you for your attencion be always like this a good person that make us feel good and is good to learn with you kisses be happy - lorena

Hi teacher.
just want to tell you that I miss your classes.
Be cool, be the one.
I hope you're doing fine. - THE ONE

Nothing like getting those kind of e-mails to brighten any day!

APRIL 2nd - GOOD FRIDAY FUN

2010-04-06T10:11:00.000-07:00

My former students from the other campus invited me on a hike up Monte Verde. We left around 6AM and got home around 8PM. When I went to go to sleep I think my leg muscles had been replaced by something closer to jello. In typical CV fashion, they opted to hike up the mountain (2-3 hours) carrying a grill. The length that people go here for some hot food is admirable if not a little crazy. Needless to say we got to the top and realized no one had matches. Ooops. Good thing the troops have a little base up there and invited us in to use their kitchen...

I love the randomness of Cape Verde.

March 27th - DIA DE MULHER CABO VERDEANA

2010-04-06T10:06:00.000-07:00

Cape Verdean's Women's Day! In the morning I went to a talk presented by my colleague Dra. Marina Ramos. In the afternoon I went to meet my friend and colleague Dominika's mother who had just arrived from Poland/Portugal and then in the evening after language club we saw some theater in the park. Overall a nice day!

March 16th - VIKTOR'S DISPIDIDA

2010-04-06T10:03:00.000-07:00

Viktor left Cape Verde for Portugal. I met him through my colleague Dominika and I always got the best news updates from him (he was a reporter for a local newspaper). I learned more about Cape Verde's history from hanging out with Viktor than I could have ever known by reading a book.

March 13th - SAO PEDRO

2010-04-06T09:57:00.000-07:00

During the break between semesters, we still had work, but only half-days. Absolutely heaven after a semester of 50 hour work-weeks.

We had a few visitors come through and when Jonny came through on work we took a Sunday afternoon to head out to the beach by the airport. Here are a few pictures of Nate, Lu, Jonny and I.

I'll post the hand-stand competition pictures from the day once I get them.

February 26th - PUBLIC RELATIONS DINNER

2010-03-01T08:52:00.000-08:00

After the filosofia festinha it was off to Fonte Ines for a dinner with the DECM (Engineering campus) Public Relations students.

Amazing food, acoustic music thanks to some of my students, attempts on my part at dancing...

It's no wonder I was exhausted come Saturday...

February 26th - FILOSOFIA FESTINHA

2010-03-01T08:49:00.000-08:00

After brunch and beach it was time for my last class with the fourth year philosophy students. I've taught them English for two semesters now.

The high note of the class was teaching them about a few of the classic Chinese philosophers in English.

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

February 26th - BRUNCH...

2010-03-01T08:39:00.000-08:00

The next day, we had a morning session followed by brunch at my apartment and a siesta at the beach that may have included some yoga instruction via. Dra. Dominika.

2010-03-01T08:32:00.000-08:00

2010-03-01T08:30:00.000-08:00

February 25th - LIMPEZA

2010-03-01T08:16:00.000-08:00

The University decided to extend the semester by two weeks, but only gave professors and students a week notice before doing so. Of course we can rearrange schedules, but seeing as evaluations were already scheduled and in some cases, concluding, we decided to use the last two days of class to implement a project we had planned in January.

As a department we thought it was important to show students the importance of 'creating' and maintaining a learning environment. We thought our students would take better care of the space if they helped to create it. We put aside two days to scrub the classroom to a level of cleanliness that Mr.Clean would be impressed by. We also had students create visuals and posters to implement material development practices that they had learned in their methodology class. Additionally the project gave the two classes (second and third year) a chance to collaborate and work together.

The project went even better than I had expected. Most of our students showed up to participate and the classroom looks like an entirely different space. It's amazing how far a little TLC can go. The students seemed to really enjoy the experience, and I know we, as a department, had an amazing time. It'll be exciting to see how we as the English department and the students continue to develop the space. We have the goal of creating a learning station with reading materials, music, and notices and news.

Fingers crossed.

February 16th- CARNAVAL

2010-03-01T08:10:00.000-08:00

Our school year was unexpectedly extended a week before, so it wasn't as carefree as I would have preferred, but it Carnaval is always a good time. On Monday after classes I marched with the Uni-CV and university students, watched the nighttime samba groups. My favorite part of Carnaval is on Monday night when the four competing groups do 'samba' in the street. I also like the drum groups. One of my students at the engineering campus is in an all female drum group, and they are always amazing. All in all a good time.

February 13th - DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PRESENTATION

2010-03-01T08:07:00.000-08:00

The second year English students presented an information session about Domestic Violence to their third year peers. They worked in groups to present a skit, music, information about victims and abusers, as well as information for support for abuse victims. They did an amazing job. I may or may have teared up a little because I was just so extremely proud of them. Amazing!

Random

2010-03-01T08:01:00.000-08:00

This is from last year, but yep. That's right folks. That's me, behind the barefoot diva herself!

2010-01-04T09:00:00.000-08:00

December 26th - SAO FILIPE

2010-01-04T08:39:00.000-08:00

Black sand beach.
View of Brava.
"Beach" toys.

December 26th - A Jewish X-Mas minus the movies and Chinese Food

2010-01-04T08:10:00.000-08:00

The day after hiking up the volcano, we then went down into Mosteiros. A four-five hour walk downhill through the "green" side. The guys are standing in front of the President's house. Sure a couple managed to crash the White House dinner, but were they offered fresh manioc?

I decided to test my ability to carry my two bags over long distances. It all went well until the last forty minutes or so. We finally hit the "paved" road and I took a digger like I haven't taken since Shea's birthday party fiasco. On the plus side, I just about made it and feel all that much tougher for it. Forca!

We hung out in Mosteiros for a few days. Mosteiros gets a bad rap, but I liked it. It reminded me of Santo Antao. Probably some of the most relaxing days I've had since I've come here. For the weekend we headed back to the city.

2010-01-04T07:52:00.000-08:00

PICO DO FOGO

2010-01-03T11:54:00.000-08:00

December 22nd - FOGO

2010-01-03T11:51:00.000-08:00

For my last PC vacation before COS (Completion of Service) I headed south to the island of fire. All dramatic exaggerations aside, I went to Fogo.

Fogo is known for coffee, crazies, and wine, but most importantly for being home to a volcano that last erupted in 1995... After the last eruption, Cape Verde prohibited people from living in the crater. Today the crater is home to a few hundred people, a few pensao, a local winery, and overall good times.

From the main city in Fogo, São Filipe, we went up to Chã das Caldeiras.

The next day we climbed up Pico do Fogo volcano. I looked it up and it's a climb of about 1,000 meters at a 30-40 degree slope. It takes three to four hours to climb and less than an hour to descend. Basically you run down during the descent.

December 9th - BOOK CLUB

2009-12-13T10:55:00.000-08:00

Rachel and I finally started our Uni-CV book club. It’s something I had wanted to do for over a year, but got stuck on the idea that I needed to supply the books. Instead I am trying to create a compromise by typing up the book to cut down on the amount of money it will cost the students to photocopy the books.

We are going to begin to meet twice a month. The first book up, chosen by the overwhelming majority of the club members, is James McBride’s The Color of Water.

Now a little on the random side, I am in the process of writing my second grant proposal. Whereas our library has a good number of books, we are missing come classics and most contemporary books. I am going to include a list of the books on this page.

Angelou, M. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Cooper, J.F. Last of the Mohicans
Crane, S. The Red Badge of Courage\
Ellison, R. Invisible Man
Faulkner, W. As I Lay Dying
Huxley, A. Brave New World
Kafka, F. The Trial
Kesey, K. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Larson, E. The Devil in the White City
Lee, H. To Kill a Mockingbird
McBride, J. The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother
O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Salinger, J.D. Catcher in the Rye
Sedaris, D. Me Talk Pretty One Day
Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club
Tolkien, J.R.R. Lord of the Rings
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Smith, B. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels
Vonnegut, K. Slaughterhouse-Five
Dahl, Roald. James and The Giant Peach
Dahl Roald. The BFG.
Curtis, Christopher Paul. Bud, Not Buddy.
Curtis, Christopher Paul. The Watsons Go to Birmingham.

I have two requests. The first one is if you have these books or others that you think would be useful in a library (including young adult books) and would like to do something nice for the holidays, please send them my way. I think you can get a set price box from the post office for 5-15 bucks to ship things to Cape Verde.
You can send them to Lindsay Williamson C.P. 1120 Mindelo, S.Vicente, Cabo Verde.

The second request is that I am trying to figure out other methods to getting these books or class sets of books for the library. If you know of any organization or you work for schools, etc. I can appeal to for funds or book donations, please send me the information.

Thanks! In case I don’t update again before the holidays, have a warm, merry and healthy Christmas and New Year!

I’ll be heading off to Fogo to attempt climbing a volcano. It’s rumored to be three hours to climb up but only half an hour to climb down. It should be exciting. Keep your fingers crossed that I don’t trip over my own feet yet one more time!

December 5th - SANTO ANTAO, COVA

2009-12-13T10:54:00.000-08:00

Went to S.Antao for the day. Decided to come back early to tackle cleaning and work, but not before walking in an old volcanic crater, that’s now farmland, and then walking downhill into Paul before stopping at Alfreds.

November 28th - THANKSGIVING

2009-12-13T10:52:00.001-08:00

We organized a big Thanksgiving dinner. The e-mails alone were enough to cause immediate salivation. We all cooked and prepared different dishes and ended up with enough food to feed a small nation. I stuffed myself so silly in the first ten minutes that I could hardly move.

It’s funny to see how people react to stuffing themselves. We had some pacers, some belly rubbers, and of course some lay down on the ground and don’t movers. Some pictures of the evening.

Random - INSPIRATIONAL?!

2009-12-13T10:51:00.000-08:00

113-year-old World War I vet Henry Allingham passed away in the English coastal town of Ovingdean.

Allingham chalked up his long life to "cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women" and sources close to the war veteran said he "possessed a great spirit of fun."