HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY

Here's a couple of views today as I walked to my morning bus top.   There are just two seasons here...summer and winter, and we will be in the winter season in about two months.

Note on the lower photo the lovely roses inside the fenced net ball (their term for basketball) courts at the primary school.  If you enlarge the photo you can see one of the backboards.  Also note the round barbed wire on top of the fence.

The little blue shelter came in handy when it was pouring rain while waiting for the bus the past two weeks.  There are usually just 2-3 of us that get on here.  Today a learner got on along the way, whom I had never talked with, and asked me if I would help her with a quote that she needed to write a speech on for her class.  I guess I am becoming accepted.  It was pretty cool. 

I also made a wonderful discovery last night.  After a couple months of fighting super slow internet in my house and having trouble skyping Cinda on her cell phone, I went upstairs to my bedroom and found the speed is fast enough I can even blog!   This is good as I may have to work from home after the NGO's office lease expires in June...except I'm not sure if my fingers will function very well in a 50-60 degree temperature in my place.  A bonus is I can sit here and look at the beautiful full moon.

I'm off to the province of KwaZuluNatal tomorrow morning to do more research for my project, staying with three different volunteers.  Two live in tiny places w/no water or electricity, and the other is a woman I met the first week here who has extended and lives in a very nice lodge of the English based NGO she is working for.  So I'm sure I'll have interesting photos and comments in a week when I return.  I'll be taking the Greyhound bus for six hours and don't mind at all; it's not crowded during the week and I listen to or read on a book and enjoy the scenery.  This is the same province where I went on my photo safari three years ago, but a different area.