Yesterday, since we'd all had a very long week of meetings (I'm here to help everyone get ready to talk to the people who give us our money about what we have been doing with it to help people in the past year), we all went on a trip to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens for a hike and lunch (that's Mr. Paul taking a picture in the edge of my picture).
But I actually woke up a while before that. In my hotel, there were a lot of boys (older than you, like maybe in 6th or 7th grade) staying in rooms on either side of me, with their families (I think). They woke up about 5 in the morning (even earlier than you!) and they did not play quietly - they were running up and down the halls. I couldn't sleep through it, so I got up and worked for a little while on trying to find us a nice place to live near to your school.
The first "team-building" thing we did at work (team-building is like the activities that you might do in school to make sure that everyone in your class knows each other and you can start making friends) was to watch a movie made by Ali Mazrui, who was an African historian who died a few weeks ago (and who some of the people I work with, like Dr. Ade, knew), and had a discussion about it. And I got there early, so Dr. Kudrat and I talked for a little while about how we might be able to use some computer programs to better figure out if we're helping people as much as we can.
Then we got on a bus to the gardens. I will have to take you here when you come! It's very beautiful. Also, during the summer - which is our winter, so around Christmas time - they have lots of concerts here, and I'm told that people bring their little boys and girls to listen and run around.
Here are a few of the pictures I took:
This was near the entrance while we were listening to guide. He was pretty funny and told lots of jokes about the plants, like how one would make you so crazy if you ate it that you'd run all the way up the mountain. In the picture here, you can see some of the people I work with - all the way on the left, partly cut off, is Ms. Jill, then Dr. Kudrat, who is the other person with the same job I have, and Dr. Netsai, who runs the training cluster.
This part of the mountain is called "Devil's Rock."
This is a special yellow bird-of-paradise flower that was planted in honor of Nelson Mandela (who was the first President of South Africa after they finally allowed equal rights for people with white skin, brown skin, and black skin here - and who worked very hard and spent a long time in prison as one of the people trying to get those rights). Most bird-of-paradise flowers are orange - I don't know if you remember the ones in the courtyard of the flat in Ghana, but they were orange.
One of the statues in the sculpture garden, from Zimbabwe.
This is part of the "Garden of Extinction," where they grow a lot of plants that are extinct, or almost extinct in the wild, so that scientists can come study them, and try to figure out how to make them grow again.
This tree is one of the oldest in the park - it's a wild almond tree over 300 years old!
Baby owls!
Part of the park has a bridge that you can walk across at the level of the treetops. It swings a little bit, but it's fun!
This is a cactus so big it spreads its branches over you like a tree!
After our walk, we had a big lunch together at the restaurant - it was so big that I didn't even want any dinner last night! One of the fancy things this restaurant does is come around offer everyone face painting. Most of the boys didn't get any, but I knew you'd want a picture.
It's hard to see because it's white paint and my skin is so pale - I tried! Ask mommy to make the picture big for you and you should be able to see some white exclamation point-like designs right near my eye.
After lunch, we went back to the office and I had some work to do, and I tried to get in touch with some people who are renting apartments near your school. Then Dr. Kudrat took me back to the hotel, and on the way she took me on a nice drive around the city, including up to a place where people come to have picnics and watch the sun set over the ocean and the city below.
Then, it was getting late, so I came back to the hotel, took a picture in my mask for you for Halloween, and went to bed. I have some more work today, but every day is closer to when I get home to see you and Mommy! I'm glad that you had fun at the Halloween party - but you make a very scary vampire, I think I might have been too scared to eat candy with you!
Love,
Dad
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