Back on home soil!

Dear family and friends,

I’ve made it back to the U.S.! That’s right, I’m writing from my first American destination: the Philadelphia airport where I have a brief layover.

Over the past two-and-a-half months, I’ve seen one of the seven wonders of the world (Victoria Falls), travelled with lovely friends to Mozambique, received a very warm goodbye from my students and colleagues at SAEP, and made a detour to Germany to visit my cousins and former roommate, Caroline.

It’s certainly been busy, and I still have much on which to reflect (I also need to figure out how to best continue this blog…stay tuned!). In any case, I know for certain that I am incredibly thankful for the wonderful communities I have all over the world.

It was really sad to say goodbye to those South African friends who went out of their ways to welcome a foreigner and to show me their country and introduce me to their friends. But, visiting Germany after a 3 year hiatus made me realize that my community there was still in tact and such a joy to revisit. And now, I’m so looking forward to returning to my hometown friends. Long-awaited reunions in D.C. and Chapel Hill are also in my plans for the next two weeks!

Finally, as I left my class of Grade 10 students with parting gifts (brand new dictionaries) and saw the looks of pure excitement in their faces on the occasion of receiving this key to success and knowledge (i.e. the dictionary), I became really, really excited about beginning my Teach for America position in New York. I do love school, and I’ve always loved school. I hope I can impart this affinity for learning to my students in New York.

More on that adventure in the next few weeks. I already have interviews with principals lined up in 2 weeks!

Thanks for reading and love from a jet-lagged Katie Sue.

touchdown in NC!

I’m back in good ole NC!

I made it home, to frozen temperatures and snow, but a warm welcome from my family and friends! I have lots to say re: SA, Namibia, and returning to the US, but I’ll leave that out of here for now. I’m happy to elaborate one-on-one, so if you would like to know what thoughts are floating my head these days, shoot me an email.

In short: My 4-leg, 35hour-long travel itinerary luckily allowed me to miss 3 countries’ worth of strikes in Europe (thank you, Eurozone and creative national accountants for stirring up a mess)! I’m working now on pulling my life together in the US. As of today, my plan is to stay in NC studying for the LSAT (and working in the perfect job-that-is-yet-to-be-found). After the June 7 test date I’ll be ready to move; until then I’ll just be looking for the city/office that is ready for me to move to them!

Recap for visual learners: The last weeks in Africa were fantastic. Thank you to everyone who made it a point to be a part of the goodbyes! If you are interested in viewing pictures from my last month, please click HERE or visit me on facebook.

Highlights from our last weeks include: an introduction to alternative interpretations of ‘hygiene’ (read: floors mopped by hand with cow dung) in “paradise,” a last chance to teach SAEP’s 10th graders and lead a discussion on “The Nature of an Artist” with 15 students and my dad, a visit to Robben Island, a last hike up Lion’s Head in Cape Town, and delicious Cape Malay goodbye dinner!

In short: I am so thankful that I was given the opportunity to travel to a part of the world I had never explored, and the support to explore two countries from perspectives both fascinating and rare. Thanks are due to you all for being a wonderful network and for providing support for me in many different ways. I fully intend to pay forward the kindness and encouragement that I have been given throughout this process!

I hope you enjoyed these sporadic updates; I’m sorry that I did not update more often.

Please keep in touch! I’m planning to be in DC, NYC, and Philly sometime during the next few months. And, you are all always welcome in NC! I would love to see you soon.

With love from Tarheel country,
Lizzie

UPDATE from the Namib Desert

Note to readers: This update was written on February 3. Sorry for the posting delay!
Written by Lizzie.

SEE PICTURES HERE!

We camped at Sesriem last night and we’ll sleep here again tonight.

Several interesting auto mishaps have already ensued… we borrowed my cousin’s landrover and thought we were getting a deal, until on day one, as we were driving along one of many (abandoned) (100s of km with no towns) dirtroads and all of a sudden heard an EXPLOSION, aka the back right tire that EXPLODED. Thank goodness we had the foresight to buy a tire iron that morning, because we would have been totally out of luck otherwise.

Another malfunction was that we were unable to start the car without my dad pushing it—what a workout with a huge car! When we replaced the tire we learned that the glow plug in the engine was old and useless; we bought a new one and now we can turn the car off (and on) whenever we want!

Other highlights have been incredible scenery, lots of wildlife (gemsbok, springbok, ostrich, jackals), sunsets over the Atlantic and the Namib Desert, and bread at a German bakery in swakopmund.

Tomorrow we will awaken at 5am to see the sunrise over Sossusvlei (red dunes) and then drive back to Windhoek, where we will have Angolan food for dinner (!). We’ll drive to the northern border of Namibia on Friday, to a town called “Ondangwa,” where Vicki’s family will meet us and show us around the place where most of the Namibian people live.

SEE PICTURES HERE!

Have you seen a guinea fowl naked?

Have you ever seen a guinea fowl naked?

I have.

I have been wondering, since our first meeting, what the proportion of feathers: meat is found in guinea fowl. These nuisances seemed to me (and others) significantly less intelligent than other birds, perhaps because the space for their brain is limited, inside a remarkably small head. I held little hope that I would happen upon an occasion to dissect (or see dissected) a guinea fowl, but I am pleased to report that the road south from our holiday destination (on a farm near Grootfontein) afforded me this great opportunity…

Vicki, my mom’s first cousin, was driving the family vehicle when we came upon a small group of birds. “Oh, no!” we shrieked as we approached. This because upon a car’s approach, guinea fowl are known to ‘hightail it’ not away from the car, but towards it. We had managed to avoid collision many times before, but this time, as we drove past it, we watched feather-balls bounce down the road behind our car.

“Get it.” commanded Vicki’s husband, Andimba. Apparently Andimba, like many of his countrymen, insists that he consume any animal that he or his family kills. At the farm we had eaten beef, chicken, turkey, goat, sheep (and sheep intestines and sheep head) and kudu. Now, to this list we were to add guinea fowl. Andimba stored the roadkill in a cooler along with the quarter-of-a-goat that we had been given as a going away gift from our hosts at the farm.

Per a recommendation, we sent the bird to a family member’s house to be de-feathered and pre-prepared; they plucked each of the feathers and then lay the bird directly onto a heated stove top to remove the leftover feathers. Once home, we baked it for several hours with some water and spices.

The report? A surprisingly significant amount of meat, small amount of feathers and overall difficult, rough-tasting meat. Luckily our fearless meat-eater Andimba happily consumed the whole thing, save a small bite I tried!

Soccer festivities and Christmas down south: AYOBA!

By Katie Sue Zellner. 23 December 2009

AYOBA! (This is an expression of excitement which soccer fans belt out periodically. Origin: zulu.)

Cape Town is certainly alive! It’s summer time, and everyone wants to be outside. Essentially, the holiday season means beach and braai (or “barbeque”). Here’s a little slice of the good life in South Africa: Final Draw, Live Music, Surf film on the beach.

1.) World Cup Final Draw. There was a huge street party on Long Street (the Franklin Street at UNC or the Corner at UVa except bigger and in Cape Town). On Long Street, city dwellers gathered to celebrate the final draw. We partied with a group of South Africans whom we met through our friend, Emma. They all happen to be of Chinese heritage and, more importantly, are super friendly, laid back, and so nice — always inviting us on outings now. Long Street was blocked off and a huge screen was set up at the end where the actual draw was projected. The final draw ceremony took place at the conference center and tickets were, I heard, R50,000 including including seats at 6 games (that’s about $6,500). Famous South Africans and David Beckham were there to do the drawing. I am not confident enough about soccer to know which team got the luckiest deal in terms of the different pools of countries and who plays whom first, but I think SA is going to face a formidable opponent in Mexico in her first game of the tournament. However, when eNews (the third largest news station in SA) interviewed me and asked if I thought SA would make it to the second round, I had to say that I was 100% confident that South Africa would be moving onto the second round…and with the home turf enthusiasm behind it, South Africa may just have the upper hand.

The actual street party was amazing. TKZ started off with a live performance. They pretty much paved the way for African hip-hop…they Africanized the style, one could say. Being part of the audience was a little surreal because every single person around me knew every single word to their songs…talk about universal appeal. There were also lots of Dutch, German, Brasilian, Mexican flags being waved around, so clearly there were tourists and expats there to support their home teams. I only saw one DC United shirt, though, so I guess the Americans stayed home. The Dutch, however, were out in full force and had rented out balconies on the second and third floors of Long Street’s restaurants, so it looked like there was an orange cloud lining the perimeter of the street. The party finished off with Freshly Ground, another SA singing sensation — it’s the band of the moment with about 7 members and a firecracker, 5-foot tall black girl as the lead singer.

2.) More music. I also went to see Black Sonshine perform last night at a club called The Assembly. It’s like Cats Cradle in Chapel Hill but bigger, better decorated, and cleaner. They should take some notes over in CH. Anyway, Black Sonshine is soft rock with infusions of jazz and reggae – at least, that’s how it sounded to me and I don’t think there is an American equivalent. In any case, the audience was full of Indy looking people and a few dreadlocks could be found in the crowd. This little musical event followed our outing to a Christmas Market, which I normally would not have been excited about, but the markets here end up turning into gathering places and watering holes.
3.) Surf documentary on Clifton Beach #4: The Present. Ok, the film was great, watching it under the stars next to the ocean was unbeatable, but the film’s main characters were laughable. I think they forgot to come up with a story line and got carried away trying to cover all of the different aspects of surfing (history, types of boards, traveling to remote places, delving into African drumming on the side). All in all, a very good night, though. To top the night off, milkshakes with friends – yum.

All of these fun things are so much more accessible than they were 2 months ago because we finally have South African friends. Woohooo!

Finally, practical stuff.

I decided to accept Teach for America – NYC. Last spring, I could hardly think about making this kind of commitment, but I am really pumped about it now. I know I am going to have to evaluate myself constantly and proactively seek guidance and that I will usually be overwhelmed. A huge plus for me is the masters in education program, which I will undertake while teaching under the TFA banner.

My last weeks of work have been full of grant applications, but they all got sent off before the holidays. Our last week was spent conducting evaluations, sending out invitations for a fundraising event in January, and flooding inboxes of businesses’ CSI directors with info about our programmes. We did get two big gifts last week: R300,000 from a wine farm estate for the Hope Scholars Programme and $5,000 from a Canadian supporter. We’ll see how other acts of schmoozing pan out (Lizzie and I attended a supper club of one of the Board Members, and while we may been there to talk up SAEP, everyone was so interesting I just wanted to hear about their life stories).

…AND Merry Christmas! I’m so lucky to have Mom, Dad, and Maggie visiting me (they arrived 23 December), and I will post about their visit in the New Year.

Tidings of comfort and joy to you all.

an open Holiday letter, full of life updates

it’s going to be a very good day,
originally uploaded by busylizzie.

By Elizabeth Bernold. 15 December 2009

I’m writing to update you three months in to my Southern African-adventure. Lately I’ve discovered that I don’t particularly enjoy writing reflective or emotional mass emails to my friends and family (hence, the void of emails since September!) so I’ll keep this short. Feel free to write back; I’d love to correspond with each and every one of you individually .

[Links in this email lead mostly to my pictures, which you can also find at www.flickr.com/photos/busylizzie/]

The (very) abridged “reflection”–Sept 3-Dec. 12

1. Daily life in Cape Town, especially at the beginning has been hard. Culture shock, including socioeconomic-identity shock, wealth-gap shock, being threatened, lack of community and friends and family, and difficulty working with SAEP have been the real kickers. All of these should be expected for most moves (hopefully minus the safety issue) and job changes, but they still managed to throw me for a loop! I will say that I have learned a lot about taking care of myself (physically and emotionally) in trying times. Suffice it to say, I’ve had plenty of time and reason to think hard about big things: interpersonal interactions, (especially at work in terms of group management and motivation); the benefits and drawbacks of international ‘aid’ providers; nonprofit organizations; my place in the world career-wise, location-wise and relationship-wise; what I want out of life; what I could potentially contribute to the world. I won’t get into any of that here, though. AND, don’t worry–there have been many many many positives to balance out the difficulties!

2. We have been grabbing every opportunity to learn and experience new things that comes along! There are lots of highlights of my time in South Africa. This is JUST a sampling of some of the best of the best.

Friends: Katie Sue and I have reached out to everyone we possibly to could to find great friends. Katie Sue’s extended family, friends-of-friends-of-friends, university students whose names were provided by a synagogue parking attendant named Smiley, Zimbabweans, new Tarheel friends (Caroline Schneider), our landlady and her extended family, the list goes on. I’ll say that we struggled for a good 3 months before we felt that we had established a friend network. For any other young people planning a move sometime soon, I recommend that you keep in mind that the first 3 months will likely be very difficult. Don’t be too disappointed with your new home until at least month 5!

Events: In Cape Town, we have tried to do it all. We have attended lectures on “peace,” partied on Long Street as part of the World Cup draw celebration (ayoba, apparently ‘cool’ in Zulu, is the big cheer of the year here!, explored the Garden Route (the coastal area east of Cape Town), spent a Sunday at Mzoli’s, a party-spot in Gugulethu (a township near Cape Town), hiked Lion’s Head and Table Mountain. I’ve attended poetry readings in Observatory, the Bohemian hub of Cape Town, bunjee-jumped off of the highest bunjee-bridge in the world (and the highest bridge in Africa!), devoured Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, and run down my street in the early morning hours with unnaturally large pigs that routinely escape from a farm down the road.

This city provides more opportunity for beautiful life than any other I have visited in the world! This work week, for example, ended with an evening on Clifton Beach #4, sandwiched between cliffs, to watch the sunset and a surfing documentary on the sand. Saturday we spent 5 hours (with ample SPF50 sunblock, an umbrella, and a big sunhat! — that’s for you, mom!) at the beach. Did I mention it’s December??? In terms of beauty, this place is pretty close to heaven.

3. Plans for this week include: Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, a Christmas carol concert, high tea at the Mount Nelson Hotel, and a sunrise walk up Lion’s Head at 5am on Wednesday morning, amongst others.

4. Why so many plans? Because I’m leaving! For many reasons–including dwindling funds, and the Christmas/summer holidays, I am leaving Cape Town on Friday. Here are my plans:

1. Now-Dec 18: in Cape Town, continuing with SAEP
2. Dec 18 (Only 3 days from today!): I’ll board a bus for a 21-hour trip to Windhoek, Namibia. I’ll be there for 6 weeks, living with a family of wonderful cousins who live there. I can’t wait for this opportunity to get to know a part of my family that has been so far from me for my whole life!
3. Late January: my dad arrives in time for my cousins’ Bat Mitzvahs in Windhoek, and a 3 week tour of Namibia and South Africa will commence. We’ll be traveling to the Sossuvlei Dunes and Skeleton Coast (Namibia), Durban, St Lucia, Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve, the Drakensberg Mountains, Bulungula (on the Wild Coast) and Cape Town.
4. Feb 24: board a plane in Cape Town, to arrive in Raleigh on Feb 25.

If you have spent time in Namibia or South Africa, please send along any suggestions for travel!

I’ll do my best to update on our blog (www.tarheeltransplants.wordpress.com) this week and while in Nam. And, if you write back to me, I’ll be sure to respond to you! If you would prefer to observe my goings-on in pictures (that are often updated more frequently than the blog), be sure to check out www.flickr.com/photos/busylizzie

FYI: My cell phone number (currently +27 72 722 6461) will be changing next Saturday when I go to Namibia. It will revert to my SAn number on Feb 10.

Lastly, a HUGE thank you to all of you who have provided me with support — financial, emotional — this year. You know who you are! I wouldn’t be here without you.

Sending big hugs and lots of love to you, wherever you are in the world,
Lizzie

A different kind of post on Storm’s River Mouth

07 December 2009
By Katie Sue Zellner

(Tonight’s post is inspired by one of the beautiful sights along the Garden Route: Tsitsikama National Park. This reflection is a little tardy, but I’ll post again soon with much to report on in Cape Town, including the World Cup final draw, a feast of meat, new friends, and the end of South Africa’s academic year.)

Storm’s River Mouth

Roll, Crash, Jump,
Froth.
Crests collide with
Fynbos coast
At Storm’s River Mouth.

Intermittent Loeri’s calls
Screech
Among honey suckle
Breath and salty gusts
At Storm’s River Mouth.

Jagged, glacier- and collision-carved
Rocks
Soaked by tide and befriended by algae –
Give way to a wild current
Who meets the roaring ocean waves
At Storm’s River Mouth.

Feeding the vast ocean,
Storm’s River
Has an unruly mouth.
Yet it welcomes convening strangers, who
Stare
Towards an invisible Antarctica
At Storm’s River
Mouth