all beat up

I am such a mess. I’m on holiday right now but I’ve been afflicted with one sort of ailment after another. It started a week after I got back from the states – a sore throat, which I cured by gargling salt water – this is an amazing remedy! Then after I left the village, I could feel myself getting sick, feeling lethargic and just not well. I was able to cure this by overdosing on Vitamin C and drinking a couple lemon juice and garlic cocktails. Then after I arrived in Simon’s Town for my holiday, I was knocked over by something I ate (most likely the sushi from a non sushi restaurant – never trust those!). I’ll spare you the details but let’s just say I spent most of the night/day in the bathroom. That ran its course and then not two days later, my Christmas morning present was the tingling of a fever blister starting on my lip. These are never fun and I immediately started the treatment but there was no stopping this bad boy. He exploded within in days and now I have a lovely looking lip that I like to tell people was the cause of a brawl – you should see the other lady. Anyway, my lip is now starting to feel better, clearly on the mend and then I start sneezing and having a runny nose. Really people, this is ridiculous – 3 weeks running! I’m getting frustrated but I decide the only way to kick it in the butt is to go hiking and sweat it out. And yesterday was quite a hot day – 35 degrees Celsius. We had plans to go hike for a couple hours, eat lunch overlooking the bay from the highest point we could get to and then cool off in the ocean. Great idea until I decided to stay true to my clumsy form and take a nose dive down the trail. I had no time to catch myself, just wailed something and went down hard on my left knee and right hand and slid on the various other parts of my body including my right thigh, left forearm and right hip – you figure it out. Face totally in the dirt, arms out in front superman style. I got up laughing but man, it definitely hurt. Jason quickly came to my rescue and helped to clean up the wounds with some water but I couldn’t help let a few tears escape. No first aide kit with us so that ended our hiking excursion. We went back to the house to clean the wounds with some alcohol or hydrogen peroxide. There was none in the house, of course, so Jason went out and picked some up along with Magnum bars (the best ice cream bars ever) and that helped soothe the coming clean up, which was not comfortable!

And so this is me for my 2007 holiday, bruised, scraped up, runny nose and sore lip – oh and I forgot about the sun burn and flea bites. I’m banking on this being it for the year – maybe if I get it all out of my system now, I’ll be good to go for the year to come. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

holiday life

This holiday I’m down in the Western Cape again, staying in a small apartment above a garage on the side of a mountain in Simon’s Town. As I write this, I’m sitting in front of a big picture window that over looks the bay and mountains off in the distance. Two weeks of this and I’m not sure I’ll want to go back to work. The woman Jason is working with has graciously let him stay with her for a bit. So we have a gorgeous view, a free place to stay and a two week holiday with no agenda. Life is good.

Being in Simon’s Town is almost like being in a different country. All of the houses are open and airy – no huge fences to keep people out, no security bars on the windows and no electric fencing. I haven’t quite figured out why it’s so different down here. There are some crimes that I have heard of, like ATM fraud but overall, no apparent violence. It’s refreshing but also a bit sad that other parts of the country have to live behind walls. If I could set up shop here, next to the ocean with a gorgeous view and a peace of mind that you really can’t find in other areas of the country, then maybe I could stay in this country longer than I anticipated. But that decision is still off in the distance to be made at a later time. For now, I’m just enjoying the freedom and simplicity that holiday life brings.

PICTURES!

Oh dear friends, it's been awhile since we’ve sat down for a nice chat. It has been an adventurous month for me and I have no complaints about any of it. There is so much to tell and really it would be hopeless to try and recap in a blog. Instead you can take whatever time you would like and view the pictorial story through my gallery:

http://picasaweb.google.com/hotarded

There are TONS of new pictures, including the elusive ones from my mom’s trip to South Africa in July. Here is a highlight of what you will find: lions in their element, art projects, a sports tournament, huge trees, German and American volunteers, crazy ladies from Texas gathering in Durban, wildlife butt shots, my super fantastic family, a really adorable baby who looks like a wise old man and pictures of the famous White House. There is so much more but I’ll leave you to it…