Seaduma: House cat or African Wildcat?

It has come to our attention that our cat, Seaduma (that's the word for the sound of thunder in Sesotho) may be part African Wildcat. Take a look:






























We discovered this striking similarity while looking at a poster of "Mammals of Sani Pass" during our recent visit there. Not only is Seaduma the right size, he has the right striping, light eyes, and translucent ears. It is said that African Wildcats are the descendants of domestic cats in the Middle East, but in this case the similarity is so striking that the link must be closer. He was found in our friends' back yard during a thunderstorm last year, so who knows where he might have come from!

This may explain why the vet got freaked and thought he might have rabies the last time we took him in. Here's a picture of an unhappy African Wildcat (photograph by Trudy Waltman :
Seaduma has always been good to us, though, so we're confident that he has enough domestic cat in him to tame his wild side (most of the time!). It's either that or African Wildcats are really good snugglers!

Next time: A safari poem by Sarah (written in Kenya in October).

Kenya was awesome!

Hello Everyone,
We are back from our incredible trip to Kenya. All went well, and we made our goal of seeing the big five (elephant, rhino, cape buffalo, lion, and leopard)! We also learned a lot about Massai culture, which is fascinating. The Massai who came to dance at the lodge got a rise out of the crowd by roaming around asking guys how many wives and cattle they had and whether they had ever killed a lion (the Massai are nomadic herders who are polygamists. Killing a lion is part of a boy's transition into manhood). Here is a Massai herder who we saw on the way to Massai Mara:

The pictures really do say it all, so without further ado...

The BIG FIVE!! (In order: elephant, rhino, cape buffalo, lion, and a leopard hiding in a tree!)

Can you spot it?? There's a leopard in there! We swear! Look for the tail!

Besides the big five, we also saw several cheetahs, giraffes, zebras, wildebeests (no migrating ones, unfortunately), hippos (they spend a lot of time under water, but they're fun when they yawn and grunt!), and lots of crazy birding including flamingos!

Above is us with our driver, Moses, from Eastern and Southern Cross Safari Company. He was great company, very knowledgeable, and an expert at spotting animals on the go.

Okay, that's all for now. Sarah is working on some inspired creative writing pieces about the safari part, so stay tuned!

Where in the world are Sarah and Jay?!

Hello Everyone!

This is a note from Nairobi, Kenya, where Jay and I are attending the Association of International Schools in Africa conference this week. I am presenting a workshop about writing on Wednesday afternoon, so wish me luck!

After the conference, we are heading off on safari to Lake Nakuru (where there are mostly birds including flamingos!) and then to Massai Mara (where there are the big 5 and a very famous wildebeest migration). We are super excited.

The weather in Nairobi currently is a little cool (in the 70s Fahrenheit) and drizzly. We are told that in a week or so the “real rains” will come and the farmers will rejoice. All this from Cosmos, the taxi driver who took us from the airport. He chatted us up because we were stuck in awful traffic and we think he was trying to distract us from the fact that we were inches from being crushed by big rigs at several points.

Here is a picture of Jay on the beautiful campus of the American International School of Kenya, where our conference is being hosted.

For those of you education geeks out there, we are fortunate to get to work with the great Jay McTighe of Wiggins and McTighe who wrote Understanding by Design. He is quite engaging and the ideas are solid. It’s a fabulous time!

Not only are we fortunate to be in Kenya, we also had the chance to visit Cape Town a week or so ago to get ready for our Classroom Without Walls trip, which is under works for November. Cape Town is AWESOME! Here are some incredible pictures, but we won’t put up all the best because we’re going with students in November and then meeting my mom, Jerry, and Jayann there in December, so we’ll have lots to post.

The most important thing you need to know about Cape Town is that to get there from Maseru requires driving 15 hours through the Great Karoo, which is a big desert. The good news is that there are several places to stop, and we ended up finding the “Valley of Desloation” near Graff-Reinet (don’t ask me how to pronounce that). It had amazing scenery. Here are some pictures.

Once in Cape Town, we were awe-inspired by the beautiful coastline. The convergence of the Indian and Atlantic oceans happens at the tip of the Cape of Good Hope, and the Indian side has warm, wavy water that is perfect for surfing. Here is a picture:

Unfortunately, the Indian side of the cape, a piece of water called False Bay is also one of the world’s shark capitals. They have shark-watchers sitting on the hillsides and they are in charge of helping determine what types of flags should be shown on the beaches. Here is the key to the shark flags.

When we were there, there had just been a shark attack, and this was the flag being flown on all Indian Ocean beaches in the area:

Cape Town also has fabulous museums, a wonderful shopping area, and a walkable city with great public transportation options. We are so excited for the next two trips there.

Oh Yeah! And we ate crocodile! Crocodile tastes like chicken, but has the consistency of fish. It also has crooked, cartilage-like bones. It was an interesting meal. We are going to the restaurant called Carnivore here in Kenya, so we will eat many more exotic foods, and we'll give you the update after we go.

Okay, that’s all for now. We’re off to our sessions for the day. Write and tell us how you are! We miss you! We’ll post pictures from the safari when we return (let’s hope for some big cats!!)

~Sarah

September Update

Hi Everyone!

Sorry it’s been a while since our last post. We’ve been busy getting re-acclimated to life in Maseru. We ended up moving to a new house that is much larger than our old one in a neighborhood called New Europa. We have several beautiful balconies and an even better view of the Parliament building (the one that is sitting empty because the Chinese government, which helped fund the building, is unwilling to hand over the keys until the Lesotho government upholds their end of the financial obligation). Here is a picture from our bedroom window.

The house is actually a guest house on the property of a large estate which is owned by an Indian doctor who works at the Queen Elizabeth 2 Hospital in town (locally known as Queen 2 or QE2). The owners have four dogs, and the youngest one has taken to coming over to visit in the morning and get his belly rubbed by Jay. The cat is curious, but also has a healthy reticence to go outside. We’re pretty sure the dogs would eat him alive…

Besides moving, school has started up. We just made it through our third full week and we had a half week to start out the year, so we’re starting to get our stride. The students are changing classrooms for the first time in the history of AISL, and they also have lockers. It’s a big transition for them, but most of them are excited for the challenge. They’re especially delighted to have lockers – a little space to call their own with a lock and personalized decorations to boot!

This year we are planning to do a Classroom Without Walls (CWOW) trip to Cape Town, and the faculty decided to move the date of CWOW up from last year, so instead of March it is happening in November. That means a lot of planning has to happen pretty quickly on our part! Luckily the new upper school science teacher spent time studying in Cape Town, and knows the area well. He’s been great, and we are excited about the trip, which is set to include a visit to the Cape Nature Preserve, Table Mountain, the Holocaust Memorial Museum, several area places of worship, the beach, the waterfront, Parliament, the National Geo-Spacial Information Center (where they make maps!), the aquarium, the planetarium, and the Kirstenboch Botanical Gardens. We’ll be busy for sure.

October is going to bring some interesting things our way. The first week is a week off for us because of Lesotho’s Independence Day (October 4), and Columbus Day (October 10). Our plan is to head to Cape Town by car to do some more in-depth planning for the CWOW trip during that time. Then we head back to school for a short week, and then we both head to Nairobi, Kenya for the annual conference of the Association of International Schools in Africa (AISA) conference. I (Sarah) am presenting a workshop on the last day of the conference, which is especially exciting and nerve-wracking. We were fortunate to be offered some extra days in Kenya after the conference ends, and we have planned a four-day safari to Lake Nakuru (famous for its flamingos!) and Masai Mara National Game Reserve, which is supposed to be an awesome experience.

Because of the needed trip to Cape Town and the opportunity to go on safari in Kenya, we decided to put off our planned trip to Kruger National Park until next year. As you can imagine, funding all this travel is a challenge on teachers’ salaries, but we are trying to find the line between taking the once-in-a-lifetime opportunities and remaining cognizant of our finances. It’s hard work!

Also hard work is the continued care for the bearded dragon. His eye tumor was pretty much the same when we came back from holiday as it was before we left, so we were encouraged, but then two weeks ago it sprouted to an enormous size. The vet was optimistic about his overall health, so we decided to try another operation. Unfortunately there was no way to close the wound without taking his eye, so now he is a one-eyed wonder lizard. The vet said to give it some time and see whether he gains back some of the weight he’s lost, which will give some indication whether the cancer has spread to his internal organs. We have him staying at school right now, but we’re checking on him all the time. When we left him this evening he was doing circles in the tank trying to figure out what was going on. Hopefully he’ll calm down some and rest so he’ll be hungry in the morning for his spinach breakfast (a vet recommendation).

Tomorrow we are set to attend the funeral for the mother of one of our new 7^th graders. She unfortunately died due to complications after what was meant to be a minor surgery. We met with her as a team before she left for the surgery, and we were all impressed by her energy and optimism. It is a huge loss for our school community and especially for her son. This will be the first full funeral we have attended in Lesotho, and we are told that it is an all-day affair and that we should bring water and wear hats (sun protection for a very long outdoor ceremony). We’ll give you an update on what the event was like next time.

We hope you all are well. Thanks for reading! Keep in touch!

Sarah and Jay

To Summer!

Here's to friends

Big and small,

New and old,

Even furry.

To ice cream cones, water, and coffee.

Here’s to the internet and the power that runs it.

To lobster.

To family in all its forms.

To sunshine and beautiful places in which to enjoy it.

Here’s to check-ups and check-ins,

Time made and given.

What a summer!

Thanks to everyone who helped make ours great!

Sincerely,

Sarah and Jay

Japanese Firsts

is good here in Japan!

We’ve had lots of firsts on our visit. Here is a list for your reading pleasure (with lots of pictures too!).

First time to fly Emirates

Highly recommended. They give free alcohol and take Polaroid pictures of the little kids to give as souvenirs! Also, the food is excellent.

First time to touch down in the Middle East

The Dubai airport is something else! We were there from 12:00 AM until 2:45 AM, and it was jam-packed! Here’s a picture of the McDonald’s at 12:30 in the morning!

First time to be in Asia.

It’s worth a visit, we promise.

First time to have our coffee put in a bag to go

Not many people do “to go” here, but at the train station they have it, and they put it in a bag for you.

First time to eat a bento box on a train

These were seriously yummy and filling. We loved the whole experience.

First time to put our Apple Warranty to the test

It works. *yesssssssss*

First time for Sarah to eat real, raw sushi

It was salmon, and it was quite good. Sweet and meaty. Not slimy at all (like I was expecting!)

First time to put together our own multi-clicky pens

Check it out! Mine has two purples and two blacks (the perfect combo for me!!). So cool!

First time to use a toilet that you spray with a water gun to flush.

Sam Anderson would LOVE this toilet!

First time to be in a country where many people do not speak English and most packaging and signage has no English.

Can you say “confused!”? We can’t even approximate a pronunciation of words because it’s all in Japanese Kanji! It’s like being mute. We are lucky to have Ayumii around to translate everything for us. Having her has really allowed us to experience some basic parts of every day life in Japan that we would never have been able to access without any Japanese under our belts, like shopping at the hardware store and the technology store.

First time to eat Japanese fast food

It was ultra cool. You get a bowl of rice with beef on top and a cube of tofu along with some miso soup for like $4. And when they say fast, they mean FAST! Oh yeah! And you ring a doorbell button when you’re ready to order.

First time to drink plum wine, fizzy booze drinks, hot pancakes in a can, and Calpis (milk soda)

First time to see a crab batter itself!

Yes. This crab was actually moving around on the display basically coating itself with the batter in which it would eventually be cooked.

First time to see a vinegar bar

They have SO MANY kids of vinegar and soy sauce here. It was hard to get our heads around them all!

First time to see the Sea of Japan (or East Sea as our Korean friends would call it)

The Japanese side is beautiful.

First time to visit a Samurai house

Very beautiful. They decorated to the max with gold and gardens. Have a look!

First time to see Japanese “California girls”

Apparently this is what they think people from California look like. It’s a total fad here.

First time to be near “special” fruit.

It must be special. Look at the price difference between the “special” mangoes on the top and the regular ones below them! (1 dollar = about 100 yen).

First time to eat cake on a stick.

First time to eat a meal that looks exactly like the plastic model out front.

Can you tell which one is real?!

First time to download an entire season of television in just a few hours

The Internet here is beyond-your-imagination fast! And they tell us that the Internet at this house is the “cheapest kind”. Japanese people would never survive in Lesotho.

Okay, that’s all for now! We’ll give another update before we go (if we decide to go…it’s pretty nice here). Hope you all are well!