Finding our Feet in Van

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2011-05-31T23:37:00.000-04:00

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Still Finding our Feet

2009-06-02T00:26:00.002-04:00

Liv seems to have a pretty good handle on hers - she's taken to jumping all over the place like everyone's favourite crazy girl :-) We're happy about that. Like parents like daughter, I suppose. I can't wait until she's awake through the afternoons and I can start taking her to Sunday afternoon rodas! I practically salivate at the thought.

Today we went to the UBC botanical gardens. Stunning. As regular readers might remember, we spent a whole heckuva lot of time in the Gardens in Durban. I don't think that we'll be spending as much out here (probably a lot more in Stanley Park) but what an awesome place to spend the day (especially if Liv's awake through the afternoon... pattern in these comments?)

We got sprinklered, we saw an eagle aerie (is that how it's spelt?), we saw massive ginkos, more massive redwoods, and all sorts of exciting greenery (Liv also would have me mention the tunnel under Marine Drive. She loved running full tilt down that concrete path in a dress (no leggings! Her knees survived!) screaming in the echoey corridor. And back.

A great morning!

And now, back to regularly scheduled life...

Bus, Boat, Children's Festival!

2009-05-18T20:10:00.001-04:00

Liv was having a Dora the Explorer kick, so we mapped out our trip to the Children's Festival in threes. She was delighted. Quick post - here are a bunch of the pictures :-) We think she's cute. We're biased.

The Easter Photos

2009-04-30T18:20:00.001-04:00

Here are a bunch :-)

Long Time no Blog

2009-04-30T17:26:00.002-04:00

Not that I'm really going to be doing that much better right now, but oh well... Life's propelling forward at a comfortable rate. Liv's phenomenal and I'll be posting some of her easter egg hunting photos shortly. Tiara's finished at the Commercial Adjudication Group (CAG), where she was learning all about commercial lending. She's happy to be back with her Oakridge crew. And happy to have a new hairstyle.

Me, I'm on a mini-vacation if you can call it that. I've been taking the week out to chill and do taxes and visit a naturopathic doctor... not really all that chill-like, but good. Today I've even taken two moments to update the blog. Craziness. Had a Capoeira party last Sunday night - had a blast playing in a tiny restaurant.

That's it for now. I told you it was going to be short. :-)

Mayhem

2008-09-25T15:39:00.002-04:00

Well, another short post, but at least it's a post.

Had to drop Liv off with her nanny today (Alexandra's lovely with her, as is 3-year old Alexis). This time she knew I was going to leave and was going to let her displeasure be known. Oi. Big tantrum. I felt I think like all parents must when dropping resistant kids off for the day, like a not-so-good parent.

Plus she needed a diaper change. More shrieking.

I came to the realisation the other day, that there hasn't been one day in her life that I haven't been there. And she's never been at anyone's house without us for more than a few waking hours (she slept over a whole whack of times with her Hillie in South Africa). More to point, she's never really been without me, or I without her. It feels weird.

But work starts on Tuesday, so time's a tickin!

How's that for a rambling and otherwise disorganised blog. More later this week/week-end. It's a promise. Loren out.

New threads

2008-09-10T14:03:00.002-04:00

well, some shirts anyway.

Loren got to the end of the summer here in Van and discovered that he has very few clothes. And that most of the clothes that he does have, have holes. Not a good scene. So, he started collecting odds and ends and now has - a hat (fedora style), 4 t-shirts from Threadless (thanks Merida!), a pair of jeans and a pair of shoes (my old shoes were split down both tops...). Oh, and a suit. I'll need another one or two of those for work, but that's another story entirely.

Anyhow, thought I'd show you the shirts, 'cause I think they're groovy!

A giraffe titled 'What makes it go'

'Birds and the Bees'

'Destroy NYC'

'Why did the chicks cross Abbey Road?'

more to come soon

2008-09-07T10:22:00.002-04:00

Things have been a little hectic, but here's the low-down.

Loren got the bank job and will be starting on Sept 30th, Liv found a nanny who'll be taking care of her and a couple of other kids - in French, Tiara's loving her job and working on getting her boss to pay for her to learn Mandarin, we're all still looking for a place to happen... er live.

We've got pictures but we haven't posted them yet (we will)

Loren found a Capoeira group that he's loving and will expound on that later.

Ciao for now and HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATHAN!!!

Capoeira Hurt - the good kind

2008-08-28T16:42:00.002-04:00

Yay! I've rediscovered capoeira, and a Grupo that will take me through the coming years gracefully. Not the biggest or the flashiest in Town, but Abada have a vibe that resonates as right for me. And today I'm in a wonderful world of hurt.

I played a roda last night, after a sharp class. I had to leave the roda with a cramped calf. And a good thing too, the calf was cramping, the other calf was on the verge and I had these lovely pre-cramp twinges in both hamstrings, and I was starting to feel nauseous from the exertion. Today everything is stiff. Tomorrow it will hurt. Oh, and I tore open the ball of one foot, split the skin around my fourth toe (same foot) and got a massive blood blister on the other foot... That'll teach me for going gung-ho without properly working up to it.

But I feel renewed. It's like there was this little chunk of my life missing, and I just filled it in again.

The Quebec Adventure

2008-08-25T14:18:00.001-04:00

Just a little slideshow to give you an idea of what we were doing... it's been hectic. Talk to a South African if that doesn't make sense.

That's it for today, I'm afraid. Time to go eat some early lunch!

Thetis

2008-08-20T16:30:00.002-04:00

Well, it was three weeks ago, and you may not be connected to Facebook, so here are the photos :-)

Just a short blog, but these needed to get online - and now they are

Another Year, Another Map

2008-08-11T19:25:00.002-04:00

Maybe it should have said, another continent, another map.

Anyhow, for our whereabouts in Van, here's looking at us, kids...

View Larger Map

Birthday Smiles

2008-07-29T19:10:00.000-04:00

Two things to smile about. The new Creative Zen player that Tiara got me for my birthday :-) (8 GB, so not huge, but perfect for me - and as a bonus I can show photos of art or whatnot with its glorious display). And the mostly-gone Angel Food Cake. As it happens, Tiara doesn't really dig the cake, nor does Liv (she opted instead for blended carrot-lentil soup).

Just a tiny post

2008-07-28T14:41:00.002-04:00

So that you all know that we're still alive...

Here's the skinny at the moment:
I'm re-looking for work, but still serious about working with an arts org - they just need to be able to pay me so that Tiara, Liv, and I can live in our own place.

Tiara's working with the Royal Bank - and seems happier by it at the minute.

And it's my Birthday tomorrow!!! Yay!

Nothing planned. Still feeling a touch desequilibre - unsteady.

Loren out.

sparse posts... pictures?

2008-04-12T15:47:00.002-04:00

Okay, well... posts have been a little spotty of late. That probably has something to do with the incredible time pressures of trying to help Tiara get her Master's thesis together and thinking about moving back to Canada.

Yup.

We've hit that time of year. But to where should we go? At the moment we're waffling between the Okanagan and Vancouver... Home is home and comfortable, but the big city still has allure. Eish (SA expression loaded with different meanings - conundrum, tough call, yikes!, resignation... very multi-purpose).

So, rather than dwell on all of that, I'm going to post another photo album! Yay!

I also promised Nathan that I'd post some more of my drawings/portraits/sketches... so here they are too.

Doodle for the day

2008-03-23T04:05:00.003-04:00

It's been a long time since I've blogged. Actually, it's been a long time since either of us has blogged. I'm rusty. And throwing off some of that rust with a drawing. At least that's been going well :-)

Oops

2008-01-25T06:20:00.000-05:00

As a personal trainer I should know better.

After a month of relative inactivity, starting right back into two days of killer Parkour and a long evening of Capoeira is probably a bad idea. Case in point, this afternoon I had Tiara give me a back massage (I rarely ask, and she was happy to oblige) only to be told that it didn't really look like I had any knots. More than that, the whole area (my back - most acutely my middle back) was just incredibly swollen. Yup. Sounds right to me.

I went to lift Liv up after Parkour this morning and nearly collapsed.

Funny, I never really thought that my back would be an issue. As such, I was paying very close attention to my legs-knees-ankles and got very effectively blindsided.

So. For the next two days it's all about healing up. That way I'll be able to play in the roda on Sunday :-) A personal trainer would probably tell me that's not such a great idea. They'd probably be right.

Liv's First Totem

2008-01-03T13:13:00.000-05:00

Today was the first cool day we've had in a week. It wasn't really that much cooler, but there was some cloud cover and a strong breeze to keep us from sweating. So with this lovely day upon us, we all tromped up to Howard College campus for a tour and a little parkour.

As it turned out, it was much hotter than we thought, but we all got a bit of exercise. After about twenty minutes of hopping, vaulting, climbing, etc a beautiful, brown-green praying mantis perched itself on a lamp-post in the middle of our training ground.

Of course we all crowded around to take a look. This was no small insect. It was the length of my hand, from the tip of my index finger to the base of my palm, and hung by its four back legs, looking down on us from about chest height. And of course, Liv wanted to get a better look.

The lamp-post was right next to a wall that we use regularly for vaulting (about waist height), so Grandma Sue held on tight to Liv as she sat on the wall and pointed at the mantis, now swaying back and forth in the wind. After a few moments it moved, opening its barbed front forearms and turning its triangular head to look at Liv.

We all thought it was wonderful that she was able to get such a good look, and she looked and looked and looked. And then she screamed.

In a brief moment while none of us were looking directly at the mantis, it jumped, in its precise and stealthy mantis way, and landed on the left-hand side of Liv's face. The long brown-green insect covered one entire half of her face, with its head pointed down towards her mouth.

Liv became agitated and waived her arms around, her too-big baby eyes as round as they could go. Susanne tried to flick the insect away but was on the wrong side of Liv, and was struggling to keep a hold of the wriggling child so that she didn't fall off backwards. A couple of flicks and the insect got its hooks a little deeper into Liv's skin, and Liv let out one of those blood curdling baby howls.

I was behind them and seeing that Susanne couldn't get it off, I grabbed it by its rear right leg and part of its wing casing. I flung it several feet through the air and it landed on an open air stairway behind me. Not only was Liv on the verge of hysterical she also had a mild cut in the centre of her upper lip. In the safety of dad's arms we were able to dab the blood away and found that it was barely the size of a pin-prick.

At first I wondered if it was an attack, but in hind-sight the mantis could have done a lot more damage than it did if it were attacking. With those forearms it is able to rip whole grasshoppers in half. I'd never heard of a mantis (a very intelligent insect and proven to be aware of human presence and movement) jumping onto someone's face before.

As we do with all traumatic occurrences, we gave Liv a chance to calm down and then brought her back to the traumatic situation. The mantis was moving up the wall again, back towards its former perch. We pointed it out to Liv who chanted "gagen" (we think that means danger) over and over as she pointed at it. Despite that we had to physically restrain her from getting closer to it. Unfortunately, my grand fling resulted in it having a damaged rear leg. We know this because it didn't put any pressure on it at all. (My apologies, little one.)

Once we were home, and Liv was in bed for her afternoon nap, we were talking about it again. Thinking on it, the idea came to me that, perhaps, it was one of her totem animals. Confrontations with totem animals at a young age are not uncommon, according to my aboriginal friends. And they're not always poetic or pleasant experiences. Loren seemed to think that it was a totem experience too, so I (being me) looked up Praying Mantis online to see what I could find out about it as a totem. This is what I found:

Praying Mantis by Teresa Tio
The key words for Praying Mantis are "insight and protection through stillness".
http://www.angelfire.com/tn3/rainbowbridge2/animal_totems.htm

Praying Mantis from Animal-Speak: The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures Great and Small, p.343-4
"Mantis has shown up in mythology and lore. In China, a system of the martial arts evolved around the activities of the the praying mantis. Kung Fu is based upon the imitation of animals and aspects of nature. One form of it is the praying mantis form.
"Most prominent though are the tales of the praying mantis found in African lore. To the Kalihari Bushmen of Africa, Mantis was a Bushmen. There are abundant tales that speak of Mantis and his adventures. In many ways, they are similiar to the coyote tales of the plains Indians and the raven tales of the Northwest Indians. Whenever Mantis got himself in trouble, he would go off and hide. He would then go to sleep and dream a solution to his problem.
"This epitomizes the keynote for this insect- the power of stillness. Through learning to still the outer mind and go within, we can draw upon greater power- physical, emotional mental, or spiritual. That stillnes can be simple contemplation, a meditation, or even sleep and dreams. The ancient mystics spoke of seven levels of silence that can be used by us, the first being simple comtemplation and the last being death. In between them are dimensions that can add tremendous power to our life. This is part of what the praying mantis teaches. It teaches how to still the outer, so that when it is time to act (in any form) it is done with a surety, accuracy and great power.
"According to the Dictionary mantis comes from the Greek word meaning "Prophet". If we learn to go into the stillness, we can open ourselves to prophecy. One form of meditation sometimes taught in conjunction with traditional kung fu is called "chi kung" or "qi gong". This meditation helps the individual to go within and direct the body's life force along specific avenues, strengthening and empowering it through the various organs and systems of the body. This has healing and strengthening applications. We can learn to use the stillness in varying degrees- whether for creativity or for healing- and this is part of what the praying mantis teaches."
http://www.xanga.com/Aenubis

Also, in the local Zulu culture, the praying Mantis is considered a magical animal and a trickster, much like coyote in South Western native lore, or our own Raven of the North-West.

Sounds like, all in all it's a pretty strong totem and a pretty strong indicator of a totem, though I could be wrong. It would be interesting to find out what the Okanagan think of Praying Mantis. Anyway, just for fun, here are some other names for Praying Mantis:

Praying Mantis in Other Languages (and Their Meanings):
Native South American (?): Mamboreta
Turkish: Peygamber Devesi (Prophet's Camel)
Greek: Panagitsa (little mother of Christ)
Italian: mantide religiosa
Norwegian: Kneler (Kneeler)
Portuguese: Louva a Deus (God Praises)
Polish: Modliszka (Pray)
Afrikaans: Hottentotsgot (God of the Hottentot tribe - related to Kalahari bushmen)
Finnish: rukoilijasirkka: (Praying Grasshopper)
Romanian: calugarita (Female Monk)
Afghanish: Malakha
Armenian: Aghotarar (Prayer)
Hebrew: Gamal Shelomo (Solomon's Camel)

Christmas in Durban

2007-12-31T02:21:00.000-05:00

Well Christmas has come and the new year is upon us. This Christmas didn't hardly feel like Christmas with all the sunshine, beaches, and hot summer days. We did celebrate, though, and even had the use of a small tree with glass balls and tinsel that belongs to a Rotarian.

Here are some pictures that we took of the past few days. There will be more coming soon, too. For now, happy new year everybody, and enjoy the photos!

mud, cookies, and popcorn

2007-12-17T01:31:00.000-05:00

So, a bunch of things happened yesterday. Liv seems to go through jumps in her level of understanding of everything. Yesterday morning, the big discovery was mud. Specifically, there's a puddle in the middle of the drive into/out-of our complex with a storm drain and a tiny mud puddle right next to it. The storm drain's been a source of pleasure for weeks, now. It's the perfect place to drop leaves and dead flowers, apparently. But yesterday morning it was the puddle that stole the show.

Liv walked up to it. She seemed a little apprehensive. One foot in and she recoiled by running in a circle... right back to the edge of the puddle. This continued for five to ten minutes, by the end of which both her feet were wet and there were sets of looping footprints all the way around the puddle in something like a mutant clover-leaf design (lots of leaves). Then, Tiara and I could sense something was going to happen. Liv squatted down next to the mud puddle and tentatively reached out to touch it. It was at this point that Tiara jumped in and removed Liv's pants.

Back to the puddle in a flash, and this time with no hesitation she stepped into the middle of it. Her face lit up. She looked up at her parents and started to stomp. It was an awkward kind of a stomp, because she isn't particularly well practiced in the art, but it was plenty effective. She wore a grin that split her face.

Round and round she went in tight little circles. Hands went down into the muck. Feet splashed. Face wore it. Shirt got soaked.

The next discovery came after I made a batch of cookies in the early afternoon. We'd been sharing bites with her for a while, when she sort of wandered off as she's want to do. We heard her pad into the kitchen (tile floor) and shouted out our warning to stay away from the stove and the dishwasher. She didn't respond, but we didn't hear the sounds those two make at her disposal. However, we didn't hear much at all, and so started getting suspicious.

As I headed to the kitchen she was heading out - with a cookie in her paws. She looked totally absorbed and barely registered my presence except to start waking faster.

Apparently the counters aren't high enough anymore...

The last thing is popcorn. We made up some of the microwave variety (laziness - particularly as pertains to clean-up) and were eating it out on the porch. With Liv. She quite likes popcorn. But more than eating it, she seems to like the feel of the popped corn under her fingers. All of her fingers. This was all going well, under Tiara's supervision (I wasn't that trusting) when she scooped up to big handfuls. One went straight to her face and disappeared in her maw (impressive - it was a LOT of popcorn for her little mouth) while the other went everywhere. All over the steps. All over Liv. All over Tiara (I was out of firing range). Then the mitts went straight back into the bowl like demons possessed. It was all Tiara could do to stop them from emptying all the contents.

Liv eventually contented herself with one hand in kneading the popped kernels...

Battlefields and Hluhluwe

2007-11-20T02:40:00.000-05:00

Well past due for another post, though this one's going to be rather short on words... This past weekend Tiara and I traveled up into zululand for a tour organised by our Rotary club's resident battlefields expert. We traveled to the grave sites of zulu kings, to the sites of monumental battles, and in one case to what has been referred to as the seed of Apartheid (the deaths of Piet Retief and his men). It was fascinating stuff and I could feel my appreciation of the history of this country thicken and deepen with each story fleshed out and made relevant to the current state of affairs.

After that it was another sojourn in Hluhluwe and lots of beautiful animals the likes of which we just don't see in Canada.

Happy First Birthday My Darling

2007-11-14T13:20:00.000-05:00

Dear Sweet Liv!

Today is your first birthday and your Dad and I are so proud of you. You are growing so quickly, you amaze us every day. You started walking on your own not four weeks ago, and now you are running all over the house, the yard, the botanic gardens, the beach, everywhere you set foot. You keep us busy and light up the world with joy. We are so lucky to have you for our daughter.

Today at age one, you are an adventurer. You love new places and things. You love people, though you play shy with them, not because you are shy, but because it makes them smile at you. You are intrepid. You would rather walk for twenty minutes by yourself than have a ride on Dad's shoulders, or in the purple back-pack. You are observant. You love to show Mom the birds and bugs, and to point at beautiful flowers or twisted-up trees that catch your attention.

You are also mischievous. Sometimes, when you think we are not paying enough attention, you will taunt us by threatening to do something you know you shouldn't. In those moments you can't keep the smile off your face, even though you pretend to be serious. We know you're only teasing, and so do you.

You love books and music videos. From the age of five months you have loved books. You know all the stories and love to turn the pages when Mom and Dad are done reading. If you are in a hurry to get to bed you turn the pages faster than we can read, so we can get to "the end" sooner. If anyone sits in front of the computer, you are the next to arrive, tugging at pants and trying to reach the magic buttons that make the music and images appear. You love "the dinosaur song", and "green anaconda", but you also love Imogen Heap's "Just for Now" and "Mashaboom" by Feist. If you are feeling sleepy you lean back against Mom or Dad. If you are awake and feeling active you dance by rocking forward and backward with your hips. Sometimes, too, you waggle your head around. We can hardly stop ourselves from giggling, you are so cute.

Every night you have dinner and a bath. These are some of your favourite moments of the day. Your favourite food on your birthday is popcorn and puffed corn cakes. You also love flavoured yogurt, but don't particularly care for chocolate cake. Mom always gives you something to do with your hands while you are eating. We try to make sure you have finger food, but we also give you your own spoon that you use for making noise on your high-chair. Meal-time is often a time for singing too. And as for your bath, you and Dad spend the fifteen minutes splashing and pouring water out of plastic buckets, or swing around wet wash-cloths. Your favourite bath game is, and has always been "I can see you" using the two mirrors on the walls next to the bath. It makes you giggle to see so many Dads and Livs in one room.

Every day you wake up early, and every day you greet us with a smile that covers your entire face. Within minutes you are running around, playing with your toys, asking for food and milk, and finding new ways of interacting with your environment. Every day you are getting bigger and stronger and wiser. Every day we are thankful for having you in our life.

And today, my darling Liv, you have been on the planet for one full cycle. You have lived in two continents and made friends in three languages. You are a Canadian baby, an African baby, a crystal baby, and our bright shining star. We love you deeply and totally. You are a perfect human being.

Bless you. And happy birthday.

Love, Mom

Hooked Up

2007-11-07T03:05:00.000-05:00

This post goes out to my Aunt Christine. You see, I was out with Tiara and Liv at a cafe here in Durban and it prompted both Tiara and me to remember something she'd told us.

Way back when I was a littler one, my mom was very much into having me eat healthy and do all sorts of organic vegetarian stuff. This, both Christine and Peter felt, was a little over the top and so they took it upon themselves to be corrupting influences.

Christine describes, in particular, taking me out to somewhere - A&W, Dairy Queen, McDonald's - for milkshakes. She said it was incredible to her, the way I would latch on to that straw and go! Hooked up. I'd start and keep on going, eyes staring straight ahead, until the shake was gone. Magic.

Well, we've been introducing Liv to adult foods lately - lots of curries, yogurt, and whatever we happen to be munching - the greater the variety, the more into it she seems. So, as we were scanning through the cafe we came across kiddie milkshake and had to give it a go. We'll preface this with the fact that Liv's been learning how to drink through a straw - though usually it's juice.

When the strawberry milkshake arrived, she looked carefully at it. We handed her the straw, she gripped it tightly in her paw, bit down on the end (we think it's to slow the flow, but it's how she drinks) and started going at it. At first she started. The cold, we decided. But then she looked back at it and then at us. It almost seemed reverent. She took the straw back, and her eyes went glassy. And there she stayed, almost immobile. Sucking back the milkshake in apparent rapture. This continued for the next five to ten minutes. No breaks. No hesitations. Until finally, the milkshake was done. She looked up at us. She gestured to get down and there she stood beside our chairs. Content.

Degrees of Hot and Durban Writes

2007-10-31T07:42:00.001-04:00

So, I finally get around to posting and it has nothing to do with Liv. Poor Girl. I suppose I'll add the anecdote that she's tottering around the house now from wall to chair to door and on and on. The good news is that for now it's slower than when she crawls...

And getting back to my subject line: two little things that happened - one today one last week. Last week Tiara and I went out on a sushi-date, and while it was delightful and incredibly necessary (I'd been sick, I'd just finished a bunch of prints, Tiara'd been engrossed in dissertation proposalage - bref, we hadn't been seeing enough of each other) I still wasn't quite over the head-cold aspect of my illness - whatever it was.

The result being that I was impervious to wasabi. It was incredible. For the first time ever, I used up the whole of that green glob that comes with the fish-bits. This was made even more incredible by the fact that it was supposed to be a green-glob for two, but Tiara had barely dented it. My mix of soy sauce and wasabi had picked up a distinctly green tint, and I could feel no pain. There was none of that familiar burning up the back of the throat and wrenching through the sinuses. It was just dip the fish and suck it back without fear of the fish biting back. Hah! I felt super-human. The only downside was that I actually needed that much wasabi to have a sense for how it tasted...

Then there's the more recent adventure in culinary Hades-mongering. Today I made up a bunch of chicken with a Thai Yellow Curry paste, and since it looked gentle enough, threw in a Tablespoon-and-a-half sized dollop. As it started to sizzle away I thought it might be a touch on the spicy side, but never mind. Mind. Reading the packet a little later, it says to throw in about two teaspoons... for sauce, meat, and veggies. Hmm.

It was all Tiara and I could do to get through about a third of the chicken with heaping piles of rice and Jaegermeister on the side (alcohol is THE best way to kick heat - I saw it on the discovery channel, only they used Vodka, so it must be true). It was an absurd mix of flavours, but the Jaeg got us through the 'meal' and we'll be putting the rest into a soupy vegg curry for this evening. Oi. My lips are still on fire.

As for the last, we're about ready to start November's NaNoWriMo with a service twist. We'll be raising money to support literacy at a local disadvantaged school (almost a redundant statement) or a few depending on our results. We've called the project, Durban Writes! More to come on this later. And with that I'm gone to start brainstorming a plot, genre, and characters...

Another Shot of Liv

2007-10-25T10:18:00.000-04:00

Actually, this one's more of an action shot.

After weeks of teasing us with her waddles only to drop down to all fours and punch it into high gear (her crawling is nothing if not snappy), Liv seems to have decided to get a literal move on and walk. Over the past week she's gone from hesitant forays on her own, to more substantial trundles, such as the one we caught on film below.

Hope you enjoy - we think it's a blast, and she likes that she can tote stuff with her more easily - like chunks of sheepie, rocks, bits of apple, keys and other fun things worthy of a serious chewing.

Apologies for the lighting conditions. It's been grey and ugly out, right in tune with a bit of a cold that I'm busy kicking.

2007-10-24T10:45:00.000-04:00

There has been consistent demand for more pictures of Liv! So, to appease your appetite, I am posting some pictures of us and our recent adventures in town.

The first album is just pictures of Liv and Mom.

The second is of our trip to the Umgeni River Bird Park. Unfortunately, we saw many more birds than we have posted here, but our camera batteries died, and we didn't have any spares on us. It gives you a feel for it though.

Hope you enjoy! And as we take more pictures, I'll be sure to keep posting.

Durban Writes!

2007-10-24T03:57:00.000-04:00

Since my coursework finished I have been putting a lot more time and attention into my Rotary duties. Some of the Rotary activities that have been keeping me busy are Ambassadorial Scholar presentations to various clubs, participation in the Jabulani business promotion project, participation in the Durban Rotaract group, and coordination of Durban Writes. While they are all exciting in their own way, I'm most enthusiastic about the Durban Writes project, and I'd love to tell you a bit more about it.

For those of you who know me, you'll know I love to write, and in the past three years have participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I didn't participate last year because I was due to deliver Liv, and the idea of writing a 50,000 word novel and delivering a baby in the same month just sounded crazy. This year, however, I intended to write again, and in visiting the site I had a good idea for a fundraiser.

NaNoWriMo was suggesting that authors ask friends and family to sponsor their writing and send the money to NaNoWriMo, who would put it toward their libraries in Cambodia project. While that sounded great, I realized that there is a lot of need right here in South African schools, and so thought we should maybe use the NaNoWriMo platform for local fundraising.

My club wasn't exactly thrilled at the prospect. They didn't really understand the concept of sponsoring an author, and they hadn't budgeted for such an activity, so in the end they suggested I postpone it for another time. I wanted to do it in conjunction with NaNoWriMo, however, so I took it to my Rotaract group (like junior rotarians: 18-35), and they gave it a warm welcome. So I gave it a name, set up a website, advertised, held info-sessions, and Durban Writes! was born. We have one more session before we start and we've already got over twenty writers!

The idea is that each participant signs up to write a 50,000 word novel, beginning November 1 and ending November 30. NaNoWriMo has an automated word counter that will verify the word count of each book. Then, in support of local literacy, each participant will try to raise a minimum of 500 Rands (about $75 CAD) from family and friends, in support of their work. It's kind of like sponsoring someone to run a marathon, or walk a walk-a-thon, or do a famine in support of charity. Only this time it's to write a book in one month in support of literacy. Isn't that great?

So, just so you know, I'll probably be sending an email out to all of you asking for your support of my writing for the project. All the money goes to local schools and libraries to buy books and other literacy education materials. Anyone who supports a writer will be sent photos of the schools and recipients. Can't think of a better thing to spend money on!

Oh, yes, and any of you who want to write are welcome to join us. We have two writers in the USA who will be writing in support of Durban Writes, and we're happy to have other foreigners too. If you want to check out our website it's online at: http://durbanwrites.googlepages.com, and you can sign up by sending an email to durbanwrites@gmail.com Or, if you don't want to write, but you know a writer, go ahead and pass this on. The more the merrier!

Going to the Moon

2007-10-21T12:02:00.000-04:00

I don't have classes anymore (hooray!), which means I get to spend a lot more time with Liv. I do my best thinking work in the morning, and Loren does his in the afternoon, so we've arranged to divide care of Liv - Loren has her in the a.m. and I have her in the p.m. That means that every day from 12:30 or 13:00 until 16:30 or 17:00 is girl time!

I should mention that Liv tends to get very squirrelly in the afternoon (she's really more of a morning girl). Sometimes she wakes up grumpy from her afternoon nap and basically stays that way until bedtime. She's a lot better if she gets out of the house. So, when it's not raining, we spend our afternoons at the Botanical Gardens.

I took her there yesterday, and we spent a lot of time just playing on the lawn. She has a whole park to wander around in, but she would rather spend the entire time leaning against, pushing, pulling, climbing, or rolling over mom. While we're there we do a lot of naming: "b" for bird, "t" for tree, "brrrr" for anything that looks like brass. We did a lot of walking too. She holds one of my fingers and walks along beside me. Walking is a favourite activity.

Yesterday Liv surprised me by pointing into the clear blue sky (not a cloud in it) and making her "what is it?" sound. I followed her finger, thinking bird or plane, but there, hanging in the sky was a beautiful, white, half moon. "Moon," I said, and she repeated "moom". Over the next twenty minutes we mastered the word "moom" and mom recited all the pages from our card-stock books that have the word moon in them (yes, I do have them all memorized).

Some time after that, we played on one of the beautiful grassy fields. There Liv would sometimes get up and want to walk, so I, the support, would have to walk to. Always, when she gets up to walk, I ask here "where are we going?". Liv responded with some undecipherable m-word. She kept heading farther and farther toward the North-East corner of the gardens, though there's nothing in particular that I could see she wanted. Eventually she would get tired of walking and sit for a while.

Finally, on her fifth or sixth request to walk, and my asking "where are we going?", she stopped and pointed up into the sky and repeated the m-word. That's when I understood - she said "moom" and was pointing at the moon. We were walking to the moon!

The Randomizer

2007-10-12T12:13:00.000-04:00

So Liv is in that in-between stage of walking and crawling. She's not quite walking around the house, it comes in little spurts, but she's very, very mobile. This has come in conjunction with a particular learning phase that I like to call Randomizing. It goes sort of like this:

Look at all the *snort* (that means shoes) in a row! Look I can pick them up! And I can move them all around. I wonder if I can carry this one all the way over there? Oh, I can put one in each hand and one between my teeth! Do you think this one can fit inside that one? Let's try. Oh wait! What is that basket over there? It has clothing in it? In neat little squares. Let's see this one. Oh, look! There's another one under it! Let's see that one. Oh, and another one!...So that's what the basket looks like when it's empty. Oh, what's this? A pile of clothing behind me? And this one is all flat and square. What would happen if I shake it? That's interesting. Let's shake this one too. Oh, what about that one? I'll shake it too...Are those *bk* (books)? I wonder how those feel?...

So Liv moves around and randomizes the house. We're working on randomization strategies - how to control this amazing force of nature! However, I keep imagining the day we wake up and look in the mirror to find our nose where our ear should be, our hair on our knees, our eyes in our belly button, and our mouth on our foot. Ha ha! The parents have been randomized!

A Little Bit of Learning

2007-10-12T11:49:00.000-04:00

So yesterday a friend of ours Erin, shared some information with us that I found fascinating. Erin is a Rotary scholar from last year who has stayed on in Durban to finish some research and continue volunteering. Her area of specialization is education systems and practices in developing countries. I've learned more about the education system here through conversations with her than from any other source.

Loren made a comment about how he was pleased to see more groups of students from mixed ethnic backgrounds around town. Erin told us that she wasn't convinced that all that much mixing was taking place. First, with the majority of the population in the country being ethnically African, most of the schools are all black. (I would like to mention that here the word "black" really doesn't refer to colour, but rather to ethnicity. Black here means African. There are some Indians here with skin as dark or darker than some Africans, but they are never called Black.) As for schools that used to be all white, they, of course, have had to include students of other ethnicities. So they are mixed. But only to a point.

Erin said that the research she has come across shows that when previously white schools reach a certain percentage of Black or Indian students, white students start leaving. The key percentage ratio is 40%. This I found fascinating.

It also reminded me of a comment that my Economics professor made about the difference between private and public schools. Yes, schools here are still divided, the private schools tend to be well established and very well funded. This, of course, restricts who can go to a private school by who can afford it. There are students of all backgrounds in just about any private school, but they are all from the upper echelons of society and they are still, by far, mostly white.

My professor opted to send his children to a public school, because he wanted them to have the experience of a mixed ethnicity learning environment. Although he pays less than he would for a private education, he pays more than families from more disadvantaged backgrounds. The quality of teaching, he says, is lower in public institutions. The best teachers are recruited, and paid better, to work in the private schools. In recent years the government has passed legislation requiring that the "have" families with children in public schools increase their school fees to accommodate more "have not" children. The effect has been to raise the public school fees to a price that is comparable to, though still slightly lower than, private school fees.

This is a problem of logic for the professor. At what point should he move his children out of public and into private? Certainly, if you have to pay the same amount you might as well put them in the school with the best teachers and best facilities. It occurred to me that this might be the reason why white students start leaving at the 40% mark. (The prof, by the way, is Indian.) Not that students are running away from a Black student population, but that increased "have not" students puts a bigger burden on the "have" parents, and at that point the rational economic decision is to move their children to private schools.

If this is so, it would be a sure case of public policy with unintended consequences. (Can we say time for an impact study?)

Anyway, just thought it was interesting. I've got some other interesting musings too, but I'll save them for another day.

Home, Rain, and Little Steps

2007-10-09T08:31:00.000-04:00

So, I'm sick today. It's probably a combination of the last four grueling weeks of school followed by a short-notice presentation of my research proposal, the still foreign bugs, and all the rain.

Oh, yes, it's raining too. I love the rain, it's lovely. Although, today in particular, there's an awful lot of it. The garden looks as though it's about to float away. Good thing there are so many plants holding it down. I can only imagine, however, that the local shack dwellers must hate the stuff - I doubt many of the shacks are water tight.

Anyway, with me being sick, and it raining, the whole family has spent the whole day at home. That's been great too. Liv is on the verge of walking. When she's feeling very brave she'll take up to eight steps on her own, usually between two objects. And her words are coming along nicely too. She has recently learned how to pronounce F and say Brass. We'll post some video soon.

I know I've been out of touch, but with less coursework I hope to post more now. We think about you all often, and send our love!

Vignettes

2007-09-06T07:18:00.000-04:00

A series of little things, but without pictures for the moment...

First up, lost keys. Liv and I were headed down the street for a walk the other day (yesterday, in fact). She was playing with our keys and their red KZN University lanyard. She'd chew on the gate opener, then suck a little on the car keys, then rattle them and chuckle. We were on our way back when I realised that her hands were on the edges of her stroller and quite calm. No keys. I ran back the short way that I'd come, but nothing. Apparently people don't leave keys lying around here in SA. They'll either keep them, or chuck them. Whether for nefarious ends, or simply to protect the key-holders from people with nefarious ends, keys don't just sit on the concrete. Ours vanished. I'd like to think that it was the same house-gnomes that take our kitchen utensils...

Second, the cockroach. Great. Apparently cockroach season is back upon us. Sometime this morning between waking and Liv going down for her first nap, a half-dead cockroach managed to crawl in under the door, flip upside down, and be set upon by a hoard of ravenous ants. Apparently the ants are back too. And the tesseracting mosquitoes. Nothing quite brings a smile to ones face, as the prospect of a new season's crop of creepy-crawlies. On the upside, I saw a massive African millipede two days ago in our garden. Those things are way too cool, and not at all dangerous. And they eat the other less welcome creepy-crawlies!

Third, Liv's a crawling maniac, and took a first couple steps today, totally by accident. But she did it! Whether she'll take any more anytime soon is another question, but let it be known she's taken her first steps and will be joining the leagues of upright hairless apes very soon! Next, she gets to learn how to stand on her hands, how to jump over buildings, and how to ride a unicycle :-)

A Little Update

2007-08-28T15:07:00.000-04:00

Not a lot to report on today, but thought that you deserved a post, so here goes. For those of you not in the know, Gaila headed back to Canada, with the only hiccough in her plan being losing (or having lost for her, we're not really sure) her passport two days prior to her planned departure... she was stressed, we were stressed, Liv was indifferent (but not that keen on stressed house-mates). The good news is that even though she had to make an exceptional foray from the Jo-Berg Airport to Pretoria and back to the Airport on her departure date, she did, indeed, manage to escape from our little country with big issues.

In short: She canceled her outstanding traveler's cheques, she canceled her passport, she managed to arrange an earlier flight from Durban to Johannesberg, she arranged transportation from the airport to the embassy and back, and everything worked out just fine. In some ways more than fine. I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but for one of her exhaustingly long trips, British Airways had double-booked her seat, and so she was thrust up into first class. I imagine that would have improved sleeping prospects.

As for Tiara, Liv, and me, we're doing great. Liv's nearly over her cold - just a little snotty. Tiara's halfway through her last coursework semester - and has made some interesting contacts for the work that she's likely to get started on. I'm doing the dad thing, plus surfing and capoeira. Oh yeah, and I'm also getting a homebrew kit sent my way! Happy, happy me! It looks like some of our friends are willing to chip in a little to get some proper beer sent their way, so that's a further bonus :-)

Over and out. I'll get back to you all once the first brew's been put together. Clearly, that's going to be a well-documented event!

Liv at Play

2007-08-23T08:10:00.000-04:00

Not a long post... but here goes.

Liv's been super-cute of late, in the opinion of this biased observer, and so I thought I'd share. Here are a few pictures of her in an album that I plan on adding more and more to as time progresses.

Click on this link to get drawn into the album :-)

As a side-note, the poor girl caught my cold and is currently pissed off at being congested... I totally understand. I had to skip two capoeira sessions... and she doesn't even know how to blow her nose!

With Love

2007-08-08T03:19:00.000-04:00

It's been a couple of weeks I've been mulling over what to write.
I don't think that I know where to begin.
That's probably fitting.

So I've saved this post in draft form. On the left, above, is the in memoriam clipping from our Vernon newspaper. On the right, is a photo of grandmother and great-granddaughter together this past Christmas.

This is going to come out stilted. We shared a lot. Birthdays with the requisite bucket of KFC and a Doctor Pepper. One day apart. Now, a little further apart. A passion for life that Grandpa keyed beautifully in the Goethe quotation. Summers and winters - many together, or in letters posted. I wish I'd posted more, but am glad at those that got through. I treasured those I received. Trips and travels across North America, or at least the western part... always magical. I sent a video to try and say some of this, to both my grandparents. I wonder if it got through, in the end. In any case I'm glad I sent it.

There is a lot that I remember. There's a lot that I felt - breathed second-hand through the world according to... I did that as a kid. I still do it. Maybe it's part of the magic of being human: to reexperience life through those close to us.

I'd love to say that she lives on in those around her. I'm not really sure I believe it. Is her influence still felt? That bright, mischievous spark. Is and still glows. She enjoyed reading Vonnegut. He also passed on this year. His famous turn of phrase - so it goes. It seems apt.

Can I mourn her passing? I don't think it's something I can control. I do. And I also celebrate her passing through my life and the lives of those she loved.

There is a lot to celebrate.

And still I'm selfishly sad at the empty space where I remember her smile. Luckily she can't be sad. Not anymore. And I remember her smile. Even though she was certainly sad at times.

My thoughts.

With love.

Long Time no Blog

2007-08-02T02:29:00.000-04:00

But we've been very busy...

As it is, this is going to be a relatively brief blog. Since the 17th, Tiara and I have been hosting her mom, Gaila, in our house, city, and host country. It's been a wonderful time full of adventures, some of which she's managed to post about on Via Trita, her blog.

It's worth checking out if you've got a moment, we've been to two parks, on game safaris, to a potjie and all sorts of other little things.

As for myself, I had a great birthday on sunday, and thought I'd post some of the pics from my birthday roda down on the beach. It's a capoeira tradition to make the birthday kid play with all the other club members. I'm just glad we have a small club.

The Spoon Went Clink!

2007-07-10T03:09:00.000-04:00

So it seems like forever that Liv has been drooling a river - at least since her 5th month. Ever since then we have been waiting to discover a happy little tooth popping out of her smooth pink gums. But, alas, no tooth; just lots of drool.

Since it has been almost three months since she first started this whole teething process, and since we haven't seen anything to indicate that teeth are, in fact, coming, we sort of gave up on them. Actually, I sometimes had visions of a toddler still eating puree, since the darned things weren't making an appearance. All in all we figured if they were going to come, they'd come in their own darned time - just like Liv had.

She seems to be doing just fine without teeth anyway. Everyday we eat an apple down and give her the still fleshy, easy to grip apple core, which she happily sucks on for a good 10 or more minutes. Usually we do this over our lunch, so she's not tempted to reach for our food. She has become very adept at scraping off tiny pieces of apple and swallowing them down with a shudder - apparently swallowing little chunks of things is not a pleasant experience. We also sometimes give her slices of cucumber (and she sucks out all the seeds, also with a shudder), a roll of guava fruit leather (very messy business), and biltong a.k.a. a pepperoni stick (which leaves her smelling like a pepperoni for several hours afterwards).

Dinner still consists of mashed up veggies and rice - favourites are apple, of course, butternut squash, any kind of berry, and rice mealie. Things she simply will not eat include carrots and peas. Dinner, by the way, is a dynamic process, one that includes thoroughly feeling what we are eating (hand in the bowl before we let any in the mouth), painting with our food on the high-chair tray, and playing with the spoon between mouthfuls. Oh, yes, and we love gently spreading the food all over mom's hand as she feeds us each bite - very patiently getting every finger and the back of the hand colourfully covered.

Anyway, just a few days ago as I was dumping yet another spoonful of apple/rice mush into Liv's mouth, I heard the spoon go clink. In my surprise, Liv snatched the spoon out of my hands and played with it, as she often does, but then too, I heard the little clink, clink of the spoon hitting something hard in her mouth. I made a few silly noises to get her attention, and then she smiled a big baby smile. And there it was! Her first tooth - on the bottom gum and slightly to her left side.

Bravo Liv! Congratulations!

And now we know that that river of drool is doing something. At last!

Now That's a Clean Phone

2007-06-12T13:19:00.000-04:00

Sunday, I decided, was a good day to do the laundry. I put on a load of light laundry. I felt pretty proud of myself, since I had managed to finally catch up with the seeming endless pile of dirty clothes. I nabbed both of Loren's light coloured pants for the laundry, and as usual checked the pockets for change and tissues.

Once it was done, I loaded it all into the hamper again and took it to the little drying area in our compound (they don't have dryers here since it's a pretty tropical climate). Imagine my horror as I pick up a pair of Loren's pants and find his wallet still in them? I covered my mouth with my hand. For a fleeting moment, I had an impulse to hide it from him. Maybe he wouldn't notice? No, of course he would. Then, I heard the characteristic screech that Liv makes when she's really marching along, and there were Loren and Liv at the entrance of the drying area, with big smiles to visit me.

So I fessed up, and told Loren. Who looked mightily displeased, but was fairly understanding. The worst of the damage was some water staining on some of his family pictures in there, but they survived, at least.

"How did this happen?" Did I check the pockets? Of course I did! On both pants? And that's when I realized - I think I checked the pockets on the same pair of pants twice. So there was a second confession. Loren laughed then, and picked up the second pair of pants, and to my COMPLETE HORROR there was my Nokia cell phone.

I put my face in both my hands. What had I done!?!

What could I do? Nothing really. Loren took Liv, his soggy wallet, and my drowned cell phone back to the house, where he took the Nokia apart to dry out the parts. After I finished hanging the laundry I went straight to the computer and typed into google:

"Put my cell phone through the washing machine, will it live?"

Up popped a page, somebody's personal blog, with about 200 comments from random people who had done just what I did and washed their cell phones. Here's what I discovered:

1) the more complex your machine, the more likely it's dead after a washing
2) Samsungs seem to have a 50-50 survival rate after washing
3) Sony Ericsons don't do well after washing (mostly caput)
4) Nokias have a pretty good survival rate
5) If it's going to live, you have to dry it out completely and then try to charge the battery by plugging it in.

You see, if you put the cell phone in the wash and it's ON then the battery is running, and the soapy water acts as a conductor and sucks all the charge out in a big hurry.

So we dried it, put it back together, prayed, and plugged it in.

IT WORKED! Not only does it still make and receive calls, it still has all my information in it - reminders, phone numbers, messages, etc! And there's really no damage to the case or screen, either. You can probably imagine how relieved I am. And as a friend of mine recently said - I must have a horseshoe up there somewhere!

Mofaya Parkour

2007-06-08T11:51:00.000-04:00

So I know I've been out of communication for a while and I can say it's all because of school - as it should be. I'm wrapping up my first semester of classes and handing in final assignments. I have one paper left - on informal economy and unemployment - and then I'm officially on vacation. Woohoo!

I have lots that I want to catch you up on, but I'll take it one post at a time :)

For now the thing I'd like to mention most is that I joined a local Parkour (pk) team that meets on campus, named Mofaya Parkour (a.k.a. the League of MentalMen). For those of you who don't know what Parkour is, I've included a video of the founder, David Bell, and of my "team of the month" below, so you can see them in action. Warning, they are some of the best in the world out there - what I'm doing isn't nearly so challenging or dangerous. All the same, I do end up covered in bruises and bumps, scratched and occasionally bleeding - though nothing major to date. On the upside, I can now lazy-vault any rail up to waist hight, scale walls as tall as I can reach, and clear a picnic table (including both benches) with a side vault! My jump height and distance is increasing weekly and my muscles are screaming after every jam session (lingo for a pk workout). Once I manage something interesting to look at, I'll take a video to show you.

Here is the video of David Bell - he's probably the best in the world at Parkour.

Here is the Dvinsk Clan video - they are a group based in Latvia. Strictly speaking, these guys are Free Running, not doing Parkour, since they add a bunch of tricks that don't contribute to minimizing effort. Also, all videos are home-made!

Full Social Calendar

2007-06-07T04:06:00.000-04:00

Let's see. On Sunday we were headed out to join a bunch of Durban Rotary clubs at their annual Pojkie (pronounce poy-key) competition. Basically it consists of a meal cooked over fire-pits, that's slow-roasted (mostly stews and curries - but they called them man-casseroles) in big cast-iron pots. Teams of two got together and were judged on flavour, texture, presentation and I-don't-know-what else. It was interesting.

Then, on Monday, it was my a visit in the morning followed by my first fully-inducted Rotary meeting. The meeting was interesting in that it consisted of a play-by-play of all the activities the club undertook in the last year. As for the morning visit, we went out to Jabulani, a self-help centre sponsored by Rotary. It's a centre that helps local women and children by giving them a safe place to go during the days - the women help out with crafts to be sold and food preparation (candles / rugs / clothing / bags / beadwork... all manner of things) and them and the children are served two meals (at least one of which is hot) and otherwise provided for. It's an incredible place. We also got to stop in at Streetwise - an organisation that works with street children in Durban and has resources to help them (at their request) to finish their education and re-integrate into South Africa's social fabric. Also an incredible place to visit.

On Tuesday night, Tiara and I were invited out to our Rotary president's Kloof home for the last meeting of the Youth committee and a meal provided for by our hosts. It was an incredible house, great company and far too much food for these two guests. Our conversations as the other guests left (we were the last to go) kept us up until the wee hours of the evening. We got home shortly before two in the morning, and would have slept over had we all the supplies for baby.

Then, last night, it was a students/staff mingler with the Development studies folk at the house of one of the staff. A beautiful house, wonderful company, and another great evening out. I got to chat with a whole swack of people that I haven't spoken to in quite a while, and we had a great time.

However, now we're starting to feel a bit bushed. Tonight I've got Capoeira. I'll go, but after all that, Friday night's going to be an in-house affair - sitting back, counting ants or moths - maybe a little braai out back, and a beer or glass of wine in hand before we crash like new parents at 9pm.

Assorted Vids in Need of Publishing

2007-06-05T20:09:00.000-04:00

Found a bunch of video clips that we thought you might enjoy.
First up is boo-baby - Mom and baby in fits of giggles

Next we've got Liv and me in the garden - just a little wander

Then it's an older vid of Liv at the beach with mom while dad was off getting bashed about by the waves (surfing)

And finally, it's our bouncy girl (jolly-jumper-esque 'Bumper Jumper')

Nouveau Rotarian

2007-06-03T02:53:00.000-04:00

Well now, here's an interesting turn of events.

I don't know whether I've mentioned it earlier on this blog, but I don't think so. As of last Monday night's Westville Rotary meeting, I have become a full-fledged rotarian. My occupation is listed as Artist and while they would have loved for my wife to become an Ann, her status as an Ambassadorial Scholar means that it is impossible. She doesn't particularly fit the profile of a Rotary Ann (much more likely to have simply become a second rotarian), so just as well.

So, what does it all mean - and what was my motive for joining?

First off, I'm flattered that they'd choose to offer me membership. Given that I'm not particularly active in my field at the moment (home executive/stay-at-home dad), I think it's a great reflection on the group that I've become a part of. Second, this is a worldwide network of people devoted to improving the lot of their communities, countries, and, well, species - through a contribution of their time and resources. That, to me, is reason enough to accept membership - and further reason to feel honoured.

However, as with all big organized groups there are some challenges to be overcome. (Never one to back down from a challenge, these weren't particularly disincentives to me.) None of the challenges, in my mind, are impossible to overcome. First, there's the declining numbers and increasing average age of Rotarians. This seems like a generational gulf to me, and will require a refocusing and shift in business-as-usual to correct. To my mind, the youth of today are just as hell-bent on changing the world for the better as in the past, but they just go about it a little differently. Second, there's the demographic of Rotarians - mostly older white men. Linked in with this is a kind of elitist attitude, and old-boy manner that is seen as inappropriate (or worse) to many who might otherwise be interested. This seems like a variation on the first issue. But that's pretty much it. (There are some other issues that people I've spoken to bring up, but I'm not particularly bothered by them, so...)

And we come full circle. I'm a rotarian now - member of the Rotary club of Westville - and ready to do what I can to help this club and organization fulfill its mandate. To me, that means overcoming the issues I mentioned earlier. I hope to be a part of that transformative process. I am a part of that process. I'm a nouveau Rotarian.

Splashy Girl!

2007-05-27T04:16:00.000-04:00

Bath time has always been one of Liv's favorite times, but it's even better now that she can sit by herself and has control over her arms and legs (at least some). Usually we put her in the bath with a Tubby Buddy book (waterproof) and a floating plastic disc. Between those and a spare washcloth, she usually keeps herself occupied.

The other day, however, we forgot the toys, and Liv learned that an empty bath is best for one thing...SPLASHING! She was so delighted that she could make the water dance, and was having a great time, so we took a little video. (You'll notice Dad is actively encouraging her!) Here it is!

Wild Coast Conference

2007-05-17T05:10:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note today to let you know that we're going to be a little incommunicado over the next few days as we head down to Rotary's district 9720 conference at the Wild Coast a couple hours out of Durban...

We'll fill you all in on it once we get back - Have a great weekend!

Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! Shudder...

2007-05-14T06:37:00.000-04:00

Well, it is an interesting title for a post, is it not?

This story starts two weeks back when I bought a granola that was less than exciting. Determined to get something a little better this time around, I went with an old standard - tropical cluster. It's a cereal with nice big clusters of fruit and tasty crunchy bits. However, things started going awry from the get go.

Tiara's comment the first day was that it tasted a little strange. By the second she told me that it was all mine - something in it disagreed with her. Just yesterday, after she served me a lovely bowlful she told me that she'd tried a little cluster and it had tasted somewhat like soured milk. Needless to say she was giving it a pass again. Strangely, after she'd said it, I kind of noticed what she was talking about - but chalked it up to an active imagination.

Then this morning I was looking into my bowl after a few mouthfuls, noting that it still tasted a little odd to me, and the cereal looked back. Then it scrambled to the edge of the bowl and tried to get out. NOT normal cereal behaviour...

And now the post title should be clear.

Na Praia

2007-05-13T12:07:00.000-04:00

The Capoeira group that I joined is called na praia - on the beach... And here's a little clip from a couple Sundays back when I couldn't join them :-( I'd hurt my shoulder lifting Liv's car seat improperly. I think Jodes would call it natural consequences, and I'll not do that again... at least not on purpose.

Anyhow, it gives you a bit of a view of Durban's beach front (in front of a skate park), and it'll show you exactly the kind of moves I can't yet manage. Sigh.

Sticking Things in Mouth

2007-05-09T13:09:00.000-04:00

Given Liv's propensity for sticking everything in her mouth, I had an identification moment with Satchel (the dog). They even sit the same.

We Gave Birth to a Fish

2007-05-09T03:33:00.000-04:00

Liv's taken to imitating our mouth movements. Thing is, she hasn't taken to the other part much of the time. So, rather than speak in time to those moments, she just mouths non-existent sounds. It's a little quirky, a little bizarre, and totally endearing.

Concerning Baboons

2007-05-04T12:08:00.000-04:00

For those of you who think that whole story about baboons was a cute Canadian exageration...

and a little photo of our windshield wiper after one decided it looked tasty. Actually, more likely it decided that a chomp on that thing might be fun. They are pretty bright, given that they're baboons and all.

Our Day of Anniversary

2007-05-03T13:33:00.000-04:00

May 2nd, 2007 was an important day in the Letourneau family household. It marked the tenth - that's right ten - year since we started dating. It was spring in the Okanagan, and we spent an evening kissing under the fruit trees in his mother's back yard. That was our first "date". Amazing how fast it goes.

I figured decades should not pass unmarked, so something big was needed. I wasn't sure what would do. Dinner seemed too simple, too common. After all you can go out for a nice dinner anytime. A big fancy trip was out of the question too, since we're on a student budget, and since we can't leave Liv for very long. So I put down a list of criteria for a special day. It had to be relaxing, to give us an opportunity to talk, to eat good food, and to get away from the city. Eventually I settled on booking us in to Mangwanani at Sibaya, an amazing African spa for a full day of massages and relaxation treatments.

Loren knew something was up, but I didn't tell him what I had planned until the night before. He and I both like surprises, so we're good about not asking too many questions.

The day of the event, we dropped Liv off with Hillary Turner at 7:30 AM and drove the 25 minutes to Sibaya, where we parked the car, entered through the main doors of the casino (Sibaya is a casino) and walked through it to the park at the back. Mangwanani offers their treatments in a replica Zulu village, and is staffed exclusively by young (20s) Zulu women wearing black and orange outfits with beads in their hair.

We were in slippers and bathrobes by 8:15, and eating a deliciously healthy breakfast by 8:30. Our day then proceeded as follows:
- Facial treatment
- Head and shoulder massage
- Foot massage
(for any of you who know Loren, he almost died from tickled feet!)
- Lunch (and I should mention we were served fresh guava juice between all treatments)
- Hand massage
- Full body massage and hot-rocks
- Jacuzzi and drinks
- Body exfoliation (though we both selected non-exfoliating treatments)

Not only was the day an amazing way to relax and to enjoy ourselves together, it also had some amazing memorable moments. One of the best, I think, was just after lunch, while everybody was still seated, the girls entered singing in three part harmony - as people here are naturally able to do, apparently - and sang for people with something to celebrate. When they got to our table, after finishing the traditional song they were singing, they huddled around and switched to:
Tooooday! Is Yooooor day! Of An-ni-ver-sar-y! (Repeat)
Then they danced and sang some more, moving away from our table. Eventually they settled at an open space by the door and showed their dance moves. Zulu dancing requires that you stomp - leg swinging straight up in front of you and then crashing down to slap the floor - the louder the better. Well all these girls didn't have anybody to dance with so one of them up and grabbed Loren.

Loren, I must say, was completely determined not to go, but the girl had him by the bathrobe, and it was sit and lose the robe, or get up and dance. Of course, he had no idea what to do up there - it's not at all like dancing the way we are used to, and they kept slapping their feet down between his feet. He did his best to keep up and then as soon as he could, dashed back to his seat. How fabulous! How much fun! And what great memories that made! As for me, I got to try dancing with them at the end of the day, and I got better at stomping to the drum.

By the time we got home, we were delighted to feed, bathe and cuddle Liv. And then we fell into bed - exhausted from so much relaxation! It was a wonderful day, and I'll remember it in the years to come, I think, as Our Day of Anniversary.

Drakensburg and an Evolutionary Curio

2007-05-03T06:54:00.000-04:00

First things first, then: our weekend running away :-)

Drakensburg Expedition

The day that we headed out it was raining and the forecast was looking a little grim. But we were on a mission, and no little bitsy rain was going to stand in the way of our relaxation. (Actually, on a related note, yesterday marks 10 years since Tiara and I starting going out together... wild! Time flies - we took yesterday off to relax, too)

Getting back to our trip, we arrived at Hillside camp, having forgotten the instructions, and having only been proved wrong once in our direction-sensing capacities, and that only on the last little dirt road (we took a wrong turn for about one km, then doubled back on our steps, and got going the right way). Pretty impressive, thought we. And our Fiat Uno managed the trip without much whining (on dirt roads, over and around potholes... sketchy stuff for a fully laden 1.1 liter engine and Italy's finest engineering). The air was a little brisk, the rain was light, and the location was exquisite.

Our duties were to start on Sunday, so we had the afternoon to settle in with the three other families in and around the race-campground-office. For those of you not in the know, the weekend saw the 75km Castle Mountain Mountainbike Race, which could have been ugly had the rain endured. But instead we woke up to a very chilly (-5ish, which we will never see in Durbs) morning with frost on the ground and a bright blue sunshiney sky. The bikers had optimal conditions for a challenging race.

Hmmm. I could go on and on to describe the land and events, but I think the pictures tell a good tale. Instead I'll focus in on a series of fortunate events that saw us feet away from big baboons. Never expected to see them up quite so close. You see, the campsite we were using for the weekend was opened up expressly for that purpose and had been closed for many years. Hence, the local fauna had rarely come into contact with humans.

So, they slept up in the forests on one side of the campsite, came down for the water in the morning, and then headed off up the other side of the campsite for the day, and reversed the process at night. Only now there were all these gangly pink monkeys in the way... but not to worry, there were more baboons than people so they just kept their distance and sauntered through essentially ignoring our presence. For Canadians whose only point of reference for something that big would be big dogs (but monkeys are not dogs, as Tiara has pointed out) or small black bears (in which case there were some twenty-odd with babies) it took us a little while to figure out the ground rules. That came down to 'don't leave garbage out' and 'they'll leave you alone, just be a little cautious.' It was magical.

And with that, I have to head out as I hear Liv waking, but look forward to hearing your thoughts - or questions. Enjoy Canada (or elsewhere) and we'll talk to you all again soon!

As for the curio, have a gander at: this graffiti. Exquisite, if a little patchy looking.

An Unexpected Invitation

2007-04-27T14:31:00.000-04:00

I have to say, my keynote presentation at the Rotary Club of Westville's Ann's Dinner went over well. So well, in fact, that I received a couple of interesting invitations to meet with individuals over coffee and discuss microfinance and entrepreneurship with them as it concerns their work. Finally I am starting to get excited about the opportunities that Rotary might present in the way of learning more about this field.

One invitation stood out above the others though. The gentleman who contacted me very last-minute to fill in as the speaker when the scheduled speaker dropped out, is named Denis Cockhead. He is an interesting fellow - he must be in his late 60s though he doesn't look it or act it. He has a business that specializes in property valuation, he was a member of Roundtable for years and then became a member of Rotary. He is also a former Mayor of the city of Westville, and was a transitional municipal Counselor for the newly formed Municipality of eThekwini (greater Durban) following the end of apartheid. He called me Tuesday afternoon to inform me of a breakfast meeting being held on Thursday by the local Chamber of Commerce and Industry on SMMEs (Small Medium and Micro Enterprises), and asked if I would like to attend as his guest.

I said yes, of course!

He picked me up at 6:45 a.m. and drove me down to a five-star beach-front hotel where the meeting was being held. It was an informational breakfast - designed to allow the Small Business Unit of eThekwini and the Chamber to learn more about each other's work with regards to SMMEs. He was kind enough to introduce me to several key people in both organizations who might be able to explain the current state of things in the area.

Two points of the meeting were particularly interesting to me. The first was learning that the economic focus of the city is integrating big business and SMMEs. I found the approach very unlike that in Canada, where small businesses really have to fight their own way into the economic arena. Here in Durban these organizations were appealing to people's sense of National pride, asking big business to take the extra effort needed to "make the opportunity available" to local SMMEs - in other words give them a chance - and by so doing, uplift the economy as a whole.
The man sitting beside me was from the region's largest sugar cane producer and was discussing with the Chambers SMME committee chairperson the responsibility that the large companies have in reforming their contracting and outsourcing mechanisms. It was a very different perspective, and certainly one of the most notable aspects of the breakfast.

The second interesting point was the keynote speaker's presentation. The keynote speaker was Mr. Sandile Zungu, a "Black Economic Empowerment whiz kid" who is most well known for starting an investment company and growing from zero to 400 million Rand in assets before leaving to become Chairman of Denel Ltd. He is young - in his 30s - and is arguably one of the most powerful young African men in the country's business scene. He spoke in a soft, heavily accented voice about the importance of fostering entrepreneurial talent in South Africa. He spoke about the challenges of promoting business opportunities in a country with such a deep class divide, and how poor members of the nation are frustrated by their continued inability to access the opportunities that are available to the entrepreneurial class.

A large part of his speech was the attributes that a successful South African entrepreneur needs to have - attributes that I think were targeted at young blacks in particular. The four attributes were as follows:
1 - creativity: this I think applies to anyone - you need to access your creativity to find opportunities to start and grow your business. The more creativity you bring to the table the better your chances of succeeding.
2 - single mindedness: this is the focus that it takes to stay focused on your business and give it everything it needs. I feel this is also true for everyone also, so many people lose track before they ever succeed.
3 - desire to be wealthy: I believe this is speaking directly to the black South African. It may seem strange to us that this is in the list, but for socialist-minded South Africans (and most of the poor have very strong socialist, if not communist, leanings) desiring wealth is not acceptable. This is problematic in many ways for black Africans, particularly because if they do not pursue wealth, but are resentful of having less than others - they will attempt to pull down those Africans who do increase their wealth. This is evident in the discourse at the university - the resentment and contempt for all of South Africa's business class is powerful.
4 - sense of ego: by this, I think Mr. Zungu meant a sense of self as distinct from others. He spoke of the fact that people should not strive for equality as that breeds mediocrity and resentment for those who attempt to succeed or improve their fortune. He promoted the idea of striving always to better oneself and one's situation. In describing how setting bigger goals each year ("this year I put my five brothers through school; next year I'll put the whole village through it") he showed that setting big goals for yourself and outside of yourself is the most powerful motivator an entrepreneur can have.

It was a wonderful way to start the morning and got me thinking about my perceptions of entrepreneurship and how my understanding of it is so heavily rooted in my own culture. It appears I have as much unlearning to do as learning - and both processes should teach me a great deal about myself!

Big Rain

2007-04-26T03:06:00.000-04:00

Just in case you didn't quite believe Tiara's insistence at the intensity of the rain, I figured I'd send you a short video clip...

5 minutes before these were recorded the ground was dry. Rain seems to come fast and furious, not all the time, but often enough. Luckily, today's looking lovely and warm, with bright blue skies! Maybe we'll head down to the beach once Tiara's finished with her schoolwork - and then it's groceries for our trip out to Giant's Castle :-) Should be fun, as we've got an honorary ranger leading us out.

A Thousand Pots and Pans

2007-04-24T14:36:00.000-04:00

It's been raining here a lot lately. It's not supposed to be. In fact the rainy season should have come about five months ago. At that time it didn't and the maize crops didn't grow properly. And now, when it's time for harvest and it should be warm and dry, it's raining like a dam in heaven has burst.

It's not like the rain at home. When it rains at home you get a feel for it first. The sky grows dark, the wind blows, little dark speckles show up on the sidewalk before you can feel the rain falling. And then it picks up speed until it is really raining - a rhythmic thrumming all around.

In Durban, when it rains it pours. It's hard to explain what that's like, because it's so very different from the rain at home. There is no lead up, no herald of drops to announce the storm coming. It just arrives.

There's a lot about it that is different, but most especially, it sounds different. What does it sound like? Like some matron in the skies magically lifted the entire contents of her heavenly kitchen - knives, forks, plates, and a thousand pots and pans - into the air and dropped them all on the floor at the same time - p-shati-kalinki-pash! And then look out! If you're not under a sheltering overhang or doorway, you'll be soaked to the bone in ten steps. And if you're slower than that, you might get washed away by a little river that grew up where the walkway used to be.

No one knows why we're getting the rain now. Maybe it's global warming. I can't say. I'm sorry that it's bad for the farmers. But boy, it sure is fun!

Welcome to the Madhouse?

2007-04-24T14:16:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the Madhouse.

Well almost - let's call it the Madweek. For some reason, the Universe decided to play a joke on me and put more things in one week than one week could possibly contain. It looks something like this:

Monday
- Presentation to School of Development Studies Staff on the subject of Rotary and the Ambassadorial Scholarship program
- Short Paper Due for Economics of Development 2
- Keynote Speech at the Rotary Club of Westville's Anns Dinner

Tuesday
- Introductory Class for Research Methods

Wednesday
- Short Paper due for Economics of Development 2 (yes another one!)
- Seminar with Keith Hart (man who invented the term 'informal economy' - wow!)

Thursday
- Breakfast Meeting at the Durban Chamber of Commerce
- Research Methods demo Proposal Due

Friday
- Liv has a play date with another baby! Should be fun!
- Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar meeting to prepare a District Conference presentation

Probably, if you take it day by day it might be manageable. Too bad for me I didn't take it day by day. Monday Loren said I was wound tighter than a spring. When we arrived way too early for the Rotary dinner, I was most disappointed at having 'wasted time'. I told Loren I should go home and study and then come back at the right time. Unfortunately, with all the things to DO, I haven't had time to READ! I'm still learning a lot, though. Definitely learning a lot.

Loren refused to take me home. He took me to Cecil and Hillary Turner's place (host counselor) where I was given a glass of wine and gently told that I simply couldn't do everything, and WHICH thing would I promptly DROP? I dropped a bunch of reading for my Research Methods class and immediately felt much better. Funny how that works.

So a Madweek, yes, but not a Madhouse. I may be under pressure, but I'm not crazy. At least not yet!

Kurt Vonnegut and Tesseracting Mosquitoes

2007-04-13T17:42:00.000-04:00

So it goes.

A literary icon, critical thinker, Iraq war critic, chain smoker, and otherwise interesting personality passed away two days ago. He was 84. There's not much that I can add to what's been said about him, but that he is a hero of mine. An artist of the humble variety, outspoken and political, and deeply personal, Vonnegut and his body of work (most of which is still in my have-to-read pile) made a direct impact on me. I suppose I could go on, but that would seem out of place.

I suppose this means that there will be no more work - that new readings will eventually come to an end. It seems fitting.

If you are interested in reading a little more have a look here:
Kurt Vonnegut on Wikipedia
In Memory of Kurt Vonnegut at In These Times
New York Times Obituary (May require free subscription)

As for the tesseracting mosquitoes... Just a little note. First, as I think I've mentioned, there are multiple varieties here, so the welts never really go away (your body will always react to the 'new' one). Irritating. And made all the more so by their uncanny ability to disappear just as you're about to slap them out of the air or squish them onto something. The tiny ones are particularly irritating because they're fast and nigh invisible. This is where the tesseract comes in. Their erratic flight plans make squishing difficult, I'll grant that. Still, Tiara and I have become convinced that they manage escapes - from sight or squish - that are positively impossible. The only logical explanation is that they lightly bend space and time and simply 'pop' from one location to another: little mini-tesseracts (for those of you who've read the Wrinkle in Time series - for the rest of you, Wikipedia's Tesseract Entry or its A Wrinkle in Time Entry will give you context).

The damnable creatures will then have the gall to bite you not once but thrice (on a good day) before they reappear well out of reach.

Just a little gripe that has nothing to do with Vonnegut, but that the two thoughts occurred in a very short space of time and so appropriately featured together in this not-so-little little posting.

Feeling Better

2007-04-08T12:25:00.000-04:00

Who? Well, Liv for starters. Her fever is completely gone. That would be fever number three in her very short but very eventful life. Yes, it was clear as I was trying to put her down to sleep tonight that she was very healed and that her lungs had regained some of their old vigour. Sigh.

Though in the same breath, I suppose I should say that most of the noises emanating from her belly were screeches of joy/surprise that she likes to do as she gets tired. We think she just likes to see how loud she can be. 'Let's see, that was 112 decibels today... I can definitely do better. Start with a little practice to clear the throat...'

Tiara's also starting to feel a little better. Two courses and one of her three course-laden semesters are nearly come to a close. Just one teensie 7000 word paper to go... though to be fair, she tells me she's got 5 pages or so of quotes to help flesh out her argument. Yikes! I know why I'm in the visual arts.

And that's another little note. Art's going well and plans are starting to take (still-amorphous, but with a little more density) shape in the mists of South Africa. I'll fill in more on this as it develops.

And lastly, we hosted to wonderful Canadians/Quebec-ers at our place through the end of this last week. Maybe Tiara will fill that in with a little more text?

And really lastly, today we stopped by the Lizzard Surf Competition. I just had to throw that in to draw some jealousy out of my sister :-) We sat on the sand and watched the surfers for the better part of three hours. Time well spent.

Hunka Hunka Burnin' Love

2007-04-05T23:57:00.000-04:00

Well, Liv has a fever again. Tiara and I didn't sleep much this past night, because our little girl didn't sleep much. But she's sleeping right now, so instead of being sensible and crashing myself, I'm blogging. The perils of having a computer in one's bedroom are made manifest.

The good news is that it doesn't seem particularly hot - hovering under 38.5 C and well under 102 F. The bad news is that both of those temperatures are hotter than normal healthy body temperature. More bad news is that this time she seems to be having more difficulty hitting the hay.

Ah well, we'll keep you posted (by posting here), and with any luck we'll only be enduring one more day of raised temperatures and weird sleep...

Liv's Eating Solids

2007-04-05T04:00:00.000-04:00

It's quite the announcement, we're well aware. It means that no longer does all the food come from mom or the bottle. Now, anything's fair game. This means, of course, that we're starting to get sneaky about when and where we eat. Otherwise our little one will drop whatever it is that she's doing and stare transfixed as food leave the bowl or plate and heads to our mouthes. Her arms start to levitate and wobble in our general direction, and she starts to lean or wobble-walk towards us. Food is the new in thing with her, and the world is waiting to be tasted! We're just happy to know that she can't move wherever she wants on her own yet...

Anyhow, here's a vid of our second attempt to feed her something - in this case a butternut squash mush.

Know Thy Tongue

2007-03-29T15:12:00.000-04:00

I went to a lecture last Friday that was offered through the 10th Annual Time of the Writer. It was a presentation delivered by a man named Ngugi wa Thiong'o. This is a Kenyan writer who, in 1977, was arrested by the government at the order of the Vice President, for having written a politically charged play (titled: I will marry when I want) in his native tongue, as opposed to English. From that day forward he never wrote another piece in English again.

What's more, while he was in prison, he determined to write a second novel in his native language, but was not allowed access to paper while in prison. So he wrote the book on toilet paper. Imagine that! He didn't come to speak about that book, The Wizard of the Crow, however. He came to speak to a theatre filled mainly with young Zulu (and some Xhosa) students about the importance and power of producing art first in your native tongue, and only secondly in your colonial tongue.

Towards the end of his presentation he threw out a comment that I thought was so obvious that I questioned why he stated it at all. He said that it was a great shame that many Africans were raising "little foreigners" in their homes - children who are only spoken to in the colonial language of their country and who are sent exclusively to private foreign schools. To me it seemed evident that to deprive your child of any language, and particularly the language of their environment and heritage is to do them a disservice. But apparently Ngugi knew what he was doing because there came a major objection, around enormous praise of the man himself, for this criticism. So many members of that audience argued for the intense importance of mastering the colonial language, which he hadn't criticized at all.

It gave me some insight into the difficulty that artists must face in this place - where professionalism and sophistication are still synonymous with ex-colonial languages. You spend your life fighting for a piece of the wealth pie by mastering the rules of a colonial past, only to have an honoured African writer tell you you're doing it all backwards.

I do love that he's leading by example, and bringing his message to his target audience directly. And there's definitely something to be said for his commitment to his message - going to prison for the action and writing on preciously saved toilet paper to continue the action - it lends power to his words.

One other thing that he said, in closing, was that if you forsake your own language for all the languages of the world, you are still a slave - that only in your own language are you truly free. While he didn't elaborate, I took it to mean that only your language can adequately reflect the way in which you intrinsically view the world, and so it is the only one in which you can express yourself fully and freely. Now I'm not sure I agree with that - I might forsake English for all the other languages of the world - but I got his point. Know Thy Tongue and you are well on your way to freedom.

Walking in the Garden

2007-03-27T08:35:00.000-04:00

Well, we keep telling people that Liv's up and wandering along with her squealing, but we didn't really put anything online to show you... so here you go :-)

Tiara liked that both Liv and I were wearing white pants. Both of ours were utilitarian, too; Mine, Capoeira pants, hers baby pants. If you can still call a four-month-old a baby. But then, I think you can. And I'm the parent, so I don't have to explain everything I do, eh?

Eden, or Almost

2007-03-26T02:29:00.000-04:00

Lately things here have been, to use a good South African word, hectic. With papers coming due, Capoeira, surfing, socializing, and Liv's continuous demands for "more learning!!!" we found ourselves Sunday needing a much needed break. Where to go? Someplace peaceful, interesting, and good for taking babies... To the Durban Botanical Gardens, of course!

Botanical Gardens March 25th

It was only a five minute drive from our house, and once there we walked with Liv until she fell asleep in the sling on my hip. After that Loren and I had fun exploring plants we'd never seen before and snacking on fried cheese and tomato sandwiches (a Durban special!) and tea.

We didn't run into any monkeys this time, but we did take our camera and have lots of pictures to show. Wish you all could have been there. Enjoy!

Liv's on the Mend

2007-03-23T04:03:00.001-04:00

Well, for those of you in the know, things have been a little hectic around here of late. Our little girl got her second cold ever, replete with fever, sore throat, and sticky medicine that collected in her neck rolls more often than in her belly where it belonged. But it seems that is all behind us. As of yesterday she's been making herself heard (lots), wobbling around on her feet (with parental assistance, to be sure), not taking any more sticky (and apparently revolting) medicine, and laughing more. All of which, I'm pleased to say, means it looks like this second sickness is done with.

So, what other exciting news do I have to share with you? Well, I've finally managed to do a Macaco in Capoeira. Just a sec... Sure enough I can find an example on youtube. I'll have to actually show you me doing this sometime soon :-)

So, that's not me. Just to clarify. But I can do that now, which I think is pretty cool :-) Things I'm learning in Durban!

Surfing in Durban

2007-03-15T06:04:00.000-04:00

Well, I've discovered a new love. Never having surfed before - or really been anywhere where surfing is a possibility, I discovered that almost everyone in 'Durbs' surfs. Or they know somebody who surfs. So I took on the responsibility of learning so as to fit in with the locals... Actually, I'm doing it because we have this great big warm Ocean and endless miles of sandy beachfront and it just seems wrong to be here and not learn.

So, this morning I went to pick up Andy (Brit classmate of Tiara's who is also learning) and we headed down to the North Beach (updated the wayfaring map to reflect a new favourite location :-) ). Two rental boards later and we were in the water.

How to describe the feeling... Like snowboarding, but instead of carving down a mountain, you stay in one place and the mountain's pushing you in front of it. Oh, and falling hurts a whole lot less. And you don't have to wear winter clothes.

A Ten Letter Swear Word

2007-03-14T15:45:00.000-04:00

Graduate classes are something special - they are not like your undergrad classes where the teacher talks and you lose feeling in your fingers as you desperately try to copy down every word uttered in preparation to regurgitate it all for the final exam. Graduate classes are a process of extracting insight from befuddled students by putting forward ideas and allowing them to bounce from mind to mind - it resembles something between a conversation and a heated debate most of the time.

This is a novel way to experience economic theory and development theory - first by reading and then by discussion. It also reveals an enormous amount about your classmates, since you put forward and debate opinions. It also teaches you something about the society in which you are living, since shared opinions will often reflect a common societal belief.

What have I learned about South Africa? South Africans are, by and large, socialists. Not socialists as in "lets opt for a welfare state model please" but socialists as in "down with all things economic and bring on the neo-marxist revolution baby!". In fact, if my classmates are any indication, socialist is the ONLY respectable thing to be, unless you happen to opt for communism, which is less popular, but equally acceptable.

And what about capitammummpphh... Shh. Don't say that. It's a bad word. A bad word? Yes, like a swear word. What? Capitammummpphh...? It's really not polite.

At first this was kind of funny to me, though I made darned sure not to say so in class. But as the days rolled by and the discussions progressed, I couldn't help but disagree with my classmates. Capitalism is a theory or ideology, not a plague or a conspiratorial plot by western nations to subordinate the developing world. Really, I just couldn't help myself. But following my heated defense of capitalism, I found some slightly stunned faces and background whispers of "Tiara's a capitammummpphh..."

(I would like to add here that I defended the importance of capitalism to the operation of our current international environment as opposed to the supremacy of capitalism as a theory. The distinction, apparently, was totally lost on this crowd, though I felt pretty sure I'd spoken clearly.)

So now I am the class capitalist, though I'm not sure that the term is exactly appropriate. Considering some of the quite socialist tendancies I was criticized for upholding as a business student, I find this somewhat amusing. Funnier still is the fact that my closest friend in the program, whom I most often sit next to, is a raging socialist, fully frothing with the prose of revolution. Out of great respect for her I've had to curb my tongue against some of her anti-capitalist, system-busting rhetoric (fantasies I might call them). And she has been careful to restrain her disdain at my point of view (though I did overhear her commenting that she thought I might one day outgrow my illusions of a benign world order). The teachers seem totally perplexed by our close friendship, and sometimes so do we. But we are learning tolerance, I suppose, and perhaps the co-existence of disparate perspectives.

Monkeys Are Not Dogs

2007-03-10T12:21:00.000-05:00

So as you may have read in our previous posts, there are monkeys here that live in the city in the trees. I think, living in Canada, it would have been hard for me to imagine monkeys living in the city, especially a city as busy and as populous as Durban, but then I couldn't have imagined the amount of greenery in a city that you can find in Durban. So I guess there's plenty enough tree space for the Monkeys.

The first place we saw them was at the Botanic Gardens. While I was surprised to find them there, I felt it appropriate that they would hang around a nature reserve. What I didn't expect was to find them in other urban areas.

The next time I saw monkeys I saw a real pack of them, about five I think. They were on campus. They don't hang around when campus is swarming with people, but by five pm, when most of the people have gone home, they emerge from trees and bushes. Believe it or not, I didn't even see the first one, which gave me quite a fright, because his speckled gray fur allowed him to blend in with the concrete sidewalk. When he loped away and dashed up a tree, I was only about ten feet from him. I then saw several others, including a mother with a baby. Do you know how they carry their babies? The babies hang from the mother's belly, with all their limbs wrapped around her body. Wouldn't it be easier if our little ones could hang on like that? I'd be able to get more things done while holding Liv...

Apparently, though, they're out in the early morning too. This morning when I rose to go for a run, I left our place and opened the electric gate to leave. To my great surprise, a large male monkey loped down the sidewalk and turned in at the gate, as though he knew it would be opened for him.

I tried to block his path and he was quite surprised. I figured that he, like a dog or a very big cat, would scramble back toward the street or a nearby tree if I startled him. So I stomped my foot down and gave a hiss, with my arms outstretched to make myself look bigger. He did just about the same thing, kind of hissing back at me and waiving his arms. It looked like a little old man contemptuously waiving at me to get out of his way.

I was so surprised I took a half step back, and he took the opportunity to dash right past me and lope down the lane between the houses. I went back into our place to lock the bars on the front door. I have been fairly warned that if one of those little creatures gets into your house it's worse than looters. They are curious and dextrous enough to open all the doors, cabinets, drawers, etc, and they love to throw things, bite things, smash things, peel things, and generally play with everything. Once I was quite sure all the windows and doors were closed, I went back out to go for my run. There was no sign of him at all.

But I've learned something; monkeys are not dogs.

Just Now

2007-03-07T06:48:00.000-05:00

There's another critical word (or rather, two words) to be added to the South African vocabulary: Just Now.

What does it mean? Now? Now now? No, those are both different modifications.

Just now means approximately sometime. As in, sometime today, sometime this week, or at its extreme - sometime this common era.

Now? It might actually mean now, but more likely is a cop-out. To give an example, 'when will you come by to fix the air conditioner?' 'Oh, we're on our way now.' Not likely. Now in this context might mean today, but it also might mean never.

Now now. This is the closest to now. Usually means within the next fifteen minutes.

We've taken to asking friends for specific times - and offering specific times in kind. Then the usual South African plus or (yeah, right) minus ten minutes seems to hold sway. All of this dependent on the person of course. Just like you might have chronically late people in North America... all of these terms are starting from the point of view of your average/timely South African sense.

From here comes a typical story of misunderstanding between a Rotarian and former exchange student. The two were sitting fishing on the edge of the ocean. The local noted that a rocky outcrop was starting to surface under a receding tide and mentioned to the student that they should head out there 'just now.' He turned 'round to bait his hook anew and on turning back to the sea was flabbergasted to see the rotary student wading out with pants hiked up as high as they could go...
'What are you doing?!'
'You said you wanted to head out to the rock now...'
'No, no! I said "just now" - just wait a bit for the tide to give us a path...'

The Best Kind of Culture Shock

2007-03-05T13:27:00.000-05:00

So I had a culture shock moment today, and I thought I'd share it. Culture shock is one of the most pleasantly perception-altering experiences a person can have, though generally after the fact. Truly, I would have to say that most of these moments, at the time, are frustrating and somewhat uncomfortable. Though sometimes, to be sure, they are a pleasantly astounding moment of "aha!". Mine, I have to admit, is one of the former.

I was slotted to do my first in-class presentation with two people whom I had never worked with before. Some people had arranged to work with their friends, but I figured working with new classmates would teach me more than working with those I already know. I ended up working with two Zulu colleagues, Brenda and Sempe (a man's name, prounounced Sem-pay).

To be totally honest working with them was more challenging for me than I would like to admit. Things that found my frustration rising included comprehension of the materials, use of time, and follow-through. It's hard to explain how different we are culturally. I don't just mean religion, history and the like; I also mean about the systems we grew up in.

Consider my partners - Both are over 35 years old. That means they spent the first 25 under the Apartheid regime, with woefully inadequate education systems. In their day you did exactly what the teacher told you to do, there was very little creative or constructive thought being done. They were expected to follow orders to the letter, not to show any initiative, and not voice their opinions. Imagine how that impacts them in a class setting or in group work.

They come from a culture that puts more value on human interaction and what's happening now, than on efficiency and sequencing. That means if someone lost their glasses, for example, it's okay to spend the next 20 minutes deliberating over where they might be. Or if you have to call someone for a phone number, chatting with them for 45 minutes first to get an update on their life before you get their number, is just the course of things. Imagine how that affects collaboration, which is very much like a social setting. Can you see the westerners' frustration mounting if they come at this wrong?

And to top it all off, English is their second or third language, which means they may have more difficulty with the readings ,which are even challenging for Anglophones, and affects their ability to express their thoughts and opinions.

So when it seemed like everything was going "wrong" I took a page from my little survival guidebook (written in Tunisia, of course!) and stepped back from the scene. Deep breath, detachment from the outcome (it's only 10% of our mark anyway, so who cares, right?). And I discovered, to my amazement, that my team members were actually quite courageous to be doing as well as they were. In that moment I went from frustration to appreciation. And it's given me an attitude adjustment towards all my Nguni classmates.

That's culture shock of the best kind.

Language Notes

2007-03-05T05:10:00.000-05:00

No, this post isn't going to have anything about Zulu or !Xhosa (the two seemingly most prevalent non-English languages around here... though I'd probably have to add Arabic and Hindi to that list. Hmm). Rather, it's just going to talk a little about some of the South African English particularities.

Braii - BBQ. And don't think about using gas. There's a whole aesthetic to consider that starts with coal. Full-stop.
Full-stop - period.
Borevors - Farmer's sausage. Big coils of this sausage are a common sight at any braii.
Biltong - Jerky. Historically, it was made from game, but now it's more likely to be beef. Tasty stuff that's usually around anytime sports (namely Rugby and Cricket) are on the offer.
Robots - traffic lights. That one threw us for a bit of a loop.
Backies - small pick-up trucks.
Howsit - Hey. It is not to be responded to the way one might to 'how is it?' since it's not a question.
Flat - appartment (common Brit-speak)
Varsity - Campus

I'm sure that I'll come up with more over the coming days, but that seems to be the basics. Think of it as a little compendium to be able to translate future posts - like if I were to say that this Sunday we headed down to the park to play some Capoeira and have a braii (which we did) you'd get what I was talking about.

Cape Town Rotary Orientation

2007-03-02T01:56:00.000-05:00

So I know it's been almost a week since I went and I've been meaning to post, but I don't hardly seem to have the time to sleep, let alone write. I know, it's no excuse. So anyway, I'm getting to it now.

I left Friday morning and came back Sunday evening and had a great time meeting the other Ambassadorial students in South Africa. Amazingly we are almost all American and Canadian. There were no other continents represented. Apparently South Africa is becoming increasingly popular with North Americans, and after seeing some of my pictures, I'm sure you'll see why.

Cape Town Rotary Tour

This orientation is renowned for being the best in the world. They spoil us, and I do mean spoil us! We heard from speakers such as the President of the Cape Town Chamber of Commerce (the oldest Chamber in Africa), retired Judge Fagan of the Supreme Court and now head of the Prison Review Board, and many many more exceptional people. The Rotarian in charge of the orientation called on all his connections to put the most interesting people in front of us. I learned more about South Africa in two days than I did in the month I've been here.

For entertainment they walked us up Signal Hill, taught us Xhosa drumming, took us dragon boat racing and then to a huge wine and farm estate outside of Cape Town. Unfortunetly I didn't have my camera for all of it, and mostly I ended up taking pictures at the wine estate. But here are a sample of my images for your viewing delight.

Enjoy!

A Disturbing Buzzing as of Bees

2007-02-25T12:21:00.000-05:00

But it isn't really bees, it just sounds like them.

The past couple days, Durban has been struck by the A1 Grand Prix - and from wherever you like in the city that omnipresent GP sound of motors revving and sticky tires thrumming on the pavement makes for a more than slightly demonic background not unlike a disturbed swarm of bees. I suppose that down in the city centre it would be a more riotous whine of engines and explosions of F1 speed, but then no one really goes downtown, far as we can tell.

So what am I trying to say? Well, kind of like it was in Montreal, the Grand Prix is not really an occasion for the locals. I mean, sure, there are some who go out for the event, but most avoid the inevitable bottlenecks and crime magnet (security doesn't seem a huge deterrent here in South Africa). More, it's purported to be a foreign money draw for the city, and the locals hide out somewhere cooler (it's plenty toasty here in February) or spend time getting excited about the rugby and cricket championships...

Alive and Partying!

2007-02-22T11:52:00.000-05:00

So, I'm very pleased to report that last time I posted I thought I was drowning, but it's more like I'm bailing water hard and fast while people just keep pouring it in. It's hard work, but I'm going to make it (I think)!

Besides the school work, I have other projects on the table, so that in the times that I have nothing to do (ha!) I can work on them. Firstly, I've given my first Rotary presentation. I have to give a minimum of 15 presentations per year to a variety of different clubs. My host club, the Westville Rotary club, saw me present on Monday, and since then I've had a wide variety of offers to participate in club activities, from training outbound Rotaract students to visiting their community resource centre in Jabulani, and perhaps providing some entrepreneurship training skills to local women who are looking to start small businesses. All of these offers are important as service through Rotary is part of my Scholarship contract.

And then of course, there's my thesis. Oh boy! The good news is that I think I've found a supervisor already, and possibly a subject. I'm interested in studying the entrepreneurial characteristics of micro-entrepreneurs working in textiles, who managed to maintain their businesses during the crash of South Africa's textile industry. Interesting, no? But that will require a monstrous amount of reading too... Good thing I enjoy reading!

I spend the day studying at the university in my cubicle - they gave me my own so that when I need to pump breast milk I have a private space. Good thing, too, because there actually isn't enough room for two chairs to fit in there so I don't know how people share... Anyway, one of my classmates, Jess, with whom I get along with quite well, had lunch with me (bean bunnies!) and we spent the half hour telling stories and laughing until we cried! She has a wicked sense of humour, and laughter is good for the soul. I found afterwards that I was able to study with a renewed sense of focus.

And tonight I'm packing for Cape Town - I'm headed there for three days for the Inbound Orientation Conference. They have a jam-packed schedule for us, including hiking, wine tours, dragon boat racing, the theatre and more! I'll have to tell you all about it when I get back.

Thanks for all the birthday good wishes and phone calls! Just for the record, it's the hottest birthday I've ever had - 36 degrees and so humid your spit would hang in the air. As Jess said in an SMS: "Pfew. It's hotter than Satan's a**hole!" But I had a great day anyway, and even had cake!

A Little Laughter, and Talking Back

2007-02-22T04:20:00.000-05:00

Just a little update on the Liv front. Given that I'm basically her care provider, thought that we should elucidate a little on her ages and stages.

And what better way than to start it all off with a little video, eh?

She saw it and started talking back :-) Actually, what surprised us the most was to hear the various squeals and shrieks echoed back verbatim, as it were...

Second Day for Play - and Tiara's First Presentation

2007-02-19T04:20:00.000-05:00

Think of this as just a little update of where we're at 'right now' (a discussion of South African 'nows' to follow).

Tonight Tiara and I are headed in opposite directions - her to the Westville Rotary Club, for her first formal presentation in South Africa, while I'm headed down near the Bean Bag Bohemian (coffee shop) for my second class of Capoeira.

If you want to know where that is, just have a gander at the map that we set up over in the menu, or down a couple of posts.

It'll be Tiara's formal introduction to the Westville folks, where she'll actually get to wow them with her consummate presentation skills. Certainly, photos will follow somewhere along the line. As for myself, it'll be my second Capoeira class (and if you're curious as to what it is, check out this link) I'll sum it up as a martial art that's incredibly athletic and involves a lot of balancing on one's hands... It's also got a folk musical element, so there's a little nod back to my family :-) Hey, even if it's not classical, at least I'm back to my roots.

Some of you may be wondering at this point, "what about little Liv!?!" Well, no worries, she's being taken care of by the wonderful wife of our host councilor, Hilary. Talk about your luck and what a fantastic introduction to the country this is turning out to be!

Crazed Bunnies

2007-02-18T05:25:00.000-05:00

Just a short blog this afternoon. I have to describe a Durban dish - found only here, far as I can tell - known locally as Bunny Chow or Bunnies. Yes, you read that right.

I can only imagine the difficulty that some of my friends might have ordering this dish (thinking Milos who nearly died ordering a 'Turtle Tummy' pizza in Edmonton), but it's worth it. Kind of. The best description for Bunny Chow, is a third or quarter loaf of bread with a chunk ripped out of the top, filled with a curry, with the chunk then replaced. It's cheap, it's very tasty, and it's definitely filling.

In general, around Durban, you can get them with mutton, chicken, beef, or bean curries. The latter, bean, being the original flavour. Why bean? Well, it's a poor-man's dish, and meats are expensive. Simple as that. Actually, it seems that Bunnies had their origins in Apartheid Durban, in the Indian populations. And why not? They're cheap, they don't require utensils, could be made anywhere... Further, if you were excluded from white canteens but working in white environments, you're going to get hungry. Further evidence is in the fact that there's an Indian cast known as Banai (think Bunny Chow) and the pieces fall into place.

Hmm - a kind of disorganized rambling this time around, but I'll end it with a photo of my 1/4 bean bunny :-)

Drowning in a Sea of Economic Thought

2007-02-16T09:03:00.000-05:00

Today officially marks the end of the first week of my Masters program at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. So far what I can tell you is that I love the campus, have very interesting classmates (about 25 of them), and have selected a line up of very interesting courses for this year. Six courses altogether. That's right, just six for the whole year.

I know. That sounds easy. I thought so too. In fact I marveled at the possibility of all the spare time I would have to get started on my dissertation readings, volunteer work, and isiZulu language course.

My first two courses (only two per quarter) are Economics of Development I and Comparative Development Problems and Policies. Last Friday I happily trundled off to the Graduate Administrator's office to pick up my course readings (it's all photocopies of articles and book chapters). I was given about 360 photocopied pages of readings by Leslie, the amazing administrator for the department, and was thanking her for them, when she caught me by surprise. She said: "The rest of them should be printed by the end of the week?"

"The rest of them?" I innocently asked.

"Yes," she replied, then seeing the slightly puzzled expression on my face added, "This is just your first week's readings."

I felt as though someone had knocked the wind out of me. So much for the relaxed African lifestyle.

Since then I've been drowning in a sea of economic thought - classical, Keynesian, neo-Keynesian, post-Keynesian, liberal, neo-classical, neo-liberal, Anglo-Saxon economic history, francophone economic history, markets and market failures, rationality, capitalist profits, unemployment, globalisation, development economics, post-development economics, anti-development economics, somebodystopmePLEASE!

I'm beginning to understand how Hailey feels about the body when somebody asks them to describe a solution to a problem - which method would you like me to use? Because if you like, I can aggregate them all and bring you right back to where you started...

So I've been reading from 6am to 7pm everyday, but I'm not complaining. After all it's what I came here to do, right? Let's just say I was caught off balance. And perhaps I'm having some capacity difficulties. I keep thinking that if I don't stop pouring the endless stream of black-print letters through my eyes it will just start flowing out of my ears.

I'd make a cute little fountain, though, don't you think?

Wayfaring Map of Where We Are

2007-02-15T02:12:00.000-05:00

Found this cool site that would let us get some of our favourite places online for you to peruse...

have a look here: http://www.wayfaring.com/maps/show/32553

All of this was inspired by Aryn's comment saying he wasn't quite sure where we were... Thanks for the push :-)

Our little garden

2007-02-13T06:28:00.000-05:00

Well, I figured that we ought to let you know where we live, and the best way I could think of showing you is by starting in the tiny backyard. It may be tiny, but it's wonderful!

Here are a couple shots to give you a feel for it :-)

In the Garden

How to Reach Us

2007-02-13T05:14:00.000-05:00

I figure this is the first order of Business:

Phone: (From Canada, as I understand it)
011-27-31-201-5095

Address:
#2 Woodbury,
52-Essenwood Road
Durban 4001
South Africa

As a little sub-text to this, well, we have internet :-)

(a little edit on the phone number - thanks mom!)

Photos of Being Held

2007-01-17T09:59:00.000-05:00

Well, we couldn't let a whole month... couldn't let a whole two months go by without posting some photos of our lovely Liv.

She got passed around a whole bunch this last little while, and so we thought we'd throw in a bunch of pictures of Liv being loved by friends and family :-)

(click on the photo below to have a look at the whole album)

people holding Liv 2006-2007

Shots and Fainting Spells

2007-01-17T06:38:00.000-05:00

Well now, anyone who knows me well will know of my affinity for needles. We're like peas in a pod, needles and I - you know, old buddies - friends - joined at the hip...

Right, so it was with more than an ounce of trepidation that I took our little girl over to the Health Clinic to get her first set of baby inoculations. (Oh yeah, and then Tiara and I had to get our travel shots too - Second Hep A shot combined with typhoid fever, and a polio booster.) We went in and the baby nurse seemed nice, professional, and sympathetic - all those things you want in a nurse. Then it was time to get down to business. I got the lucky job of holding little Liv while she was punctured twice in both quads... needless (certainly not needle-less) to say, she was in a right state once that was done. I did what any self-respecting father would do; I passed her off to her mother.

Oi. Not fun. Lucky for us Liv's Grand-pa and Grand-ma Letourneau/Schaffer were along for the ride, and did a much better job of consoling our wee one than either of us traumatized parents could manage. Then it was time for our punctures!

So let's see - we were seriously stressed out, it was just before noon (hadn't eaten much since seven), and we were about to get treated to needles of our own... yeah, I'd say that put us in a great state of our own.

I was done first, then Tiara, then I blacked out.

What a joy to slowly recover lying down on a clinic's plasticized bed! Tiara was taken into a different room to lie down - she was feeling a touch dizzy too...

*sigh*

Thankfully the Gpa and Gma picked up the slack, got us home safe and sound, and stuffed a little food into our slightly nauseated faces.

I'm happy to report that we're doing vastly better now, though I've still got a slight headache, and a very stiff arm.

Last needles before South Africa! Now about that packing...

One Month Old!

2006-12-13T08:24:00.000-05:00

Almost One Month Old

Yesterday Liv turned one month - isn't it amazing how quickly time goes by? She's already one-twelfth of a year old! Here are some pictures from week three. Enjoy!

Superstar Baby!

2006-12-09T18:10:00.000-05:00

So, since we posted our videos, just one day ago, Liv has become a YouTube superstar!

The video Liv Wake-Up Take 2 has been viewed over 1,000 times in the past 24 hours and has been rated 4 stars by viewers.

She's not even one month old and she's already a star. Watch out world, this little girl's going places!

Liv still waking up

2006-12-08T01:27:00.000-05:00

couldn't help myself. She just kept on keeping on waking ssslllooowwwlllyyy...

Liv Wakes Up

2006-12-08T00:24:00.000-05:00

We couldn't help ourselves...

Anyhow, we hope that you all enjoy the little live-action version as much as we did :-) Needless to say, she takes after her dad in the graceful waking capacity.

a little art still going on,,,

2006-12-04T15:09:00.000-05:00

Hey there all,

This is just a little note to let you know that I most certainly *am* still doing the art thing. Production may be a little on the light side this year, but the thoughts are all in place, and the practice is trying desperately to catch up.

Anyhow, here are a few little bits - Nathan's Solome wall, and a self-portrait... actually, that's just two little bits, but it'll have to do for now...

Even worse, the Salome's a little on the 'soft focus' side of things.

A few more baby pics

2006-11-27T15:18:00.000-05:00

Exactly what the title says. Plus I'm a little tired and don't really have the energy to make up something more intelligent...

Anyhow, the link's right here

Bye for now but talk to y'all soon!

First few baby pics...

2006-11-16T23:47:00.000-05:00

Hey there people,

We've been busy these last couple days :-) as such, I haven't really had the time to blog, and you'll probably find that this one's a little cut to the quick, but it's all wonders.

check out the photo album: http://picasaweb.google.com/loren.letourneau/BabySFirstFewDays
and smile a lot. We certainly are :-)

(PS if you think you know people who might not be quite as web saavy, just send them a copy of the link above and they're welcome to peruse - love to you all and thanks for all the encouragement)

contractions...

2006-11-13T08:30:00.000-05:00

Well,

last night Tiara and I went to bed after she had an hour and a half of contractions. At three in the morning Tiara woke up every seven minutes or so with contractions. By five o'clock she woke me up and got me timing the intervals. We're still here at home, but Tiara tells me that the contractions have been getting stronger, even if they're still not consistently at that magic 5 minutes apart or 1 minute duration (actually, they're usually longer than 1 minute).

In any case, I'm just the giddy husband who gets to sit there and twiddle his thumbs or massage (Tiara prefers the latter).

Best guess says she's coming today :-)

Baby witch pumpkin

2006-11-05T11:08:00.000-05:00

Well, don't really have all that much time to get posting today, as Tiara's let me know she needs the computer, but I thought I'd share a little something while it was on my mind. We had a great Hallowe'en out here in Montreal, and even managed to dress up a pumpkin.

Will post again as soon as I can sneak in a moment.

Apple Pie and Motherhood... and Fatherhood :-)

2006-10-29T17:25:00.000-05:00

Well it's been a while again since we've blogged.

And to be truthful (everybody wants to be truthful - kind of a redundant statement, but so it goes), we haven't really had any time. Busy busy busy out here! I've got two jobs going simultaneously (albeit with one at very part-time hours), we're prepping for baby, we're prepping for South Africa, we're trying to keep our house from falling into irreparable disrepair...

But big news for Loren, Tiara decided to make me a fantastic apple pie! I would have taken a picture and posted it, but by the time we came 'round to posting, it was not merely truly et but also most sincerely et.* Incredible pie. It was juicy and apple-y and cinnamon-y with a delightfully flaky and tasty (heretofore pie crusts have not been our forte, as Janice is very aware) crust. Incredible, truly.

But wait, there's more! The big now news is that as of tonight, we're officially at a T-12 (or 13, we're not really sure, but 12 is more impressive) days to estimated date of baby arrival. What does that all mean? Well, aside from now being a perfectly good date for baby to pop into this world, and actually, anytime over the next three weeks being just dandy... basically it means that we're ready as of anytime. We're go. We're green light and full steam ahead. We're well into the breach. We're there, baby. We've passed the point of no return. We've crossed the threshold. We... are there. Finally. Now it's all just a matter of time.

Apple pie and motherhood. Something about that sets my mouth into a grin. The biggest adventure is about to begin.

*To borrow a line from the wizard

Nathan's Finally Posted Something

2006-10-15T18:19:00.000-04:00

Well Holy Egg-Foo-Young Batman!

Nathan speaks! And what's most fantabulous is that it's all good stuff... It took a lot for him to get going with this little project of mine, but if you want to see its first tentative fruit, have a look at Glass Half Full. You'll also probably notice that it's shown up in the side bar of this blog.

Wall Fun

2006-10-14T22:35:00.000-04:00

Well now, been too long since the last post, so here comes another one.

I spent a while today over at Nathan's place trying to spiff it up a little and make it come closer to something like a unified urban-chique style. So far so good. If you can ignore the blotchy grey industrial carpet and the bubbly lino (hint - most people use something sticky to make the lino stay on the floor - the big bubbly wobbles in it look... the way good doesn't)... and other choice details. Not to worry, if Nathan sticks around for a couple years, he'll have ample opportunity to make it a glorious pad.

Things that are going right for Nathan at his place: he has a beautiful dark-stained pine table, and he's getting more pine furnishings to match (and staining them accordingly). Sweet. His brother is painting a modernized art nouveau Salome on the wall of the hall that leads to his bathroom. Double sweet. He has cups and a complete (and uniform!) set of flatware - plus a few necessary kitchen appliances and foodstuffs. Triple sweet! And not to forget, he now has a futon, and will no longer need to sleep on a concrete floor! Can you feel that excitement!

We're looking at painting his trim a deep bloody red to go with the Salome image, and because it'll add a certain aggressiveness to the space in keeping with his urban-chique dreams. Also, once things really get going with his life and such, Tiara and I are going to take him shopping for new duds, and he'll replace the godawful lino and carpet.

I'll send along a photo of the wall-painting when I finish it - which will be in the very near future. Goodnight all!

A Montreal Thanks-Giving

2006-10-10T15:14:00.000-04:00

The past few days we had a lovely visitor come to stay with us.

A link to some photos. I was a snap-happy documenter for at least one day...

Janice zipped out east, to Quebec for the first time in her life (brave girl!) from Edmonton to see us! Talk about being blessed with caring friends! Anyhow, we had a wonderful time together. From a Thanksgiving feast with my somewhat insane family* (she even agreed to stay the night over there! Talk about trust.), to a hike up Mount Royal for some assuredly stunning photos with my brother, to long wanders through the town's hip Plateau and self-important Downtown, she can now claim some familiarity with Montreal. Even better, with chats before bed, first thing in the morning, at lunch... pretty much all day long, we got to know her a little better, and appreciate her all the more.

What's even more phenomenal, is that the weather cooperated! We had glorious sun starting when she got here, and leaving... today, the day she left. (The thermometer may even have cracked 20 C on Sunday! That's crazy!)

And now, a belated Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends out there! We're thinking of you lots, and as the days creep closer to the birth of our baby girl, we're wishing you could all be here with us :-)

*I remember one conversation in particular. I looked over at her and asked whether this is the kind of thing she might hear out on the farm - she laughed heartily with a firm no. Christine, Phil, and Peter were in the kitchen yakking about a dream house. As the house expanded in size and scope they decided that it needed servants. But, it needed inobtrusive servants - so they settled on gnomes or dwarves. Then Phil thought it might just be better to work less and be a dwarf. You know, so he could ride dwarf horses and such... Only with my family - but then, that's part of why they're so great!

Nathan's Move

2006-10-03T22:27:00.000-04:00

For those of you who didn't know, my little bro's been hangin' with us for the past month or so, and today, he went and found a house all to his own.

Crafty me, I chronicled the whole event with a web album through picassa. Not sure how Nathan's going to feel about it, but this is the kind of things that brothers are for.

In any case, the whole affair started on a beautiful fall day out in cloudy Montreal. Nathan and I ate 3 steamés apiece (steamed hot dogs - only it was too early in the morning and the steamer hadn't been turned on - so we settled for for microwave-és). Then it was down the hill to home and gettin' busy with the packing.

the latest

2006-10-02T08:14:00.000-04:00

Here I just wanted to add in the latest photo that Tiara and I have of each other.

Isn't that belly just beautiful! And what's even more amazing than how it looks is that it's interactive. This is a belly that responds to being stroked or patted with thumps and rolls. I love it! And just yesterday, I was able to pick out two heartbeats coming from Tiara - a big adult one, and a faster and lighter baby one. It's truly magical :-)

Photos!

2006-09-26T11:08:00.000-04:00

Hah! It worked after all - decided to forego blogger's little quirks, and to upload using picassa's new service to a web folder of my own - here's Massachusetts looking at you!

Take that! Talk about a lazy post. But then, I do have to work today...

Mass... conference

2006-09-26T10:35:00.000-04:00

Never could spell all of those states. Guess I'll have to look it up: Massachusetts. Yikes. Quebec is so much shorter - and nothing like British Columbia - another easy one to spell - you know, think tea and cocain. Easy.

Anyhow, Tiara and I just spent a weekend down at a Rotary conference in Sturbridge. It was a great time and I'm sure you'd all be thrilled to hear the details, but I'll simplify my life, go the easy route ,and just include a bunch of photos.

Then again, that doesn't seem to be working so I'll have to get back to you in a little while...

Hope all's well out there!

discontinuity

2006-09-19T21:46:00.000-04:00

here we are - there we were...

We haven't been the most prolific of posters, though I suppose we felt that all of you knew a little better what was going on in our current lives. We'll try to add a little more over the coming weeks, but not too much.

Life, I suppose, has caught up with us finally.

So what is this then? A prelude to more posts? Yeah, I guess it's something like that. And also it's the opportunity for me to remember why it is that I'm doing this, again. It feels good. It almost feels like a connection :-)

Hope all is well - and expect to see a little more of me.

Finding our Feet in Van

Hi Continuity

Still Finding our Feet

Bus, Boat, Children's Festival!

The Easter Photos

Long Time no Blog

Mayhem

New threads

more to come soon

Capoeira Hurt - the good kind

The Quebec Adventure

Thetis

Another Year, Another Map

Birthday Smiles

Just a tiny post

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Doodle for the day

Oops

Liv's First Totem

Christmas in Durban

mud, cookies, and popcorn

Battlefields and Hluhluwe

Happy First Birthday My Darling

Hooked Up

Degrees of Hot and Durban Writes

Another Shot of Liv

Durban Writes!

Going to the Moon

The Randomizer

A Little Bit of Learning

Home, Rain, and Little Steps

Vignettes

A Little Update

Liv at Play

With Love

Long Time no Blog

The Spoon Went Clink!

More Videos...

Now That's a Clean Phone

Mofaya Parkour

Full Social Calendar

Assorted Vids in Need of Publishing

Nouveau Rotarian

Splashy Girl!

Wild Coast Conference

Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! Shudder...

Na Praia

Sticking Things in Mouth

We Gave Birth to a Fish

Concerning Baboons

Our Day of Anniversary

Drakensburg and an Evolutionary Curio

An Unexpected Invitation

Big Rain

A Thousand Pots and Pans

Welcome to the Madhouse?

Kurt Vonnegut and Tesseracting Mosquitoes

Feeling Better

Hunka Hunka Burnin' Love

Liv's Eating Solids

Know Thy Tongue

Walking in the Garden

Eden, or Almost

Liv's on the Mend

Surfing in Durban

A Ten Letter Swear Word

Monkeys Are Not Dogs

Just Now

The Best Kind of Culture Shock

Language Notes

Cape Town Rotary Orientation

A Disturbing Buzzing as of Bees

Alive and Partying!

A Little Laughter, and Talking Back

Second Day for Play - and Tiara's First Presentation

Crazed Bunnies

Drowning in a Sea of Economic Thought

Wayfaring Map of Where We Are

Our little garden

How to Reach Us