| South Africa and Other Stuff |
[26 Sep 2007|04:54pm] |
I posted this on MySpace a week ago, and didn't get 'round to putting it here 'till now:
Some of you may know that I recently went to South Africa with a group from my church to help out at an orphanage in Loskop (in the triangle between the roads and the river just to the left of the arrow in this map) I was there for 4 weeks. I had originally planned to spend two weeks there and go on another 2-week trip to Zambia, but that trip was canceled due to too few people signing up. By that time, though, I had already been okayed to leave work for 4 weeks, and I wanted to make the most of my airfare, so I figured I'd rent a car and spend 2 weeks on a solo road trip after my time at the orphanage. As much fun as that would have been (I really wanted to go on the world's highest commercial bungee jump and visit Cape Town and a national park or two), after the first week or so I decided to stay at the orphanage for most of my time there.
As you might expect (unless you don't like kids), the little kids were adorable! There were 31 kids (not including the cook's baby) who lived there, ranging in age from toddlers to an 18 year old boy. My primary role there, from day one, seemed to be that of "human jungle gym and circus ride." The kids loved to be picked up and spun around and/or carried around. I'd pick them up by their ankles (or wrists, or one wrist and one ankle) and spin in a circle, and sometimes I'd cross my arms while spinning, twisting the kid from face down to face up and face down again. Or, if I was holding them by one arm and one leg, their heads were farther from the ground, so I could swoop low and then lift them up above my head, spinning all the while, to give sort of a roller-coaster airplane ride. It got a little crazy at times, since all the kids who wanted to be next tending to crowd in and me trying not to bludgeon them with the kid I was currently spinning... And, of course, I also gave lots of shoulder rides or let the kids swing Tarzan-style from my dangling arms as I walked.
Although I spend most of my time with the younger kids (which was only quite natural given how actively they sought me out), I also got to spend time with the older kids. I helped some of the older boys haul bricks to help build a house they and several of the younger kids will probably move in to, and some of the middle-school-aged girls liked to go running with me. Of course, nearly all of them loved to play soccer, but I sadly couldn't join in much there. 7 weeks ago (2 weeks before leaving for my trip), I got a pretty nasty sprain on my right ankle while playing Ultimate Frisbee. It's still quite noticeably swollen. :-( I obviously didn't want to sit around and do nothing, so I was still pretty active, but it's hard to think of something worse to do with a sprained ankle than play soccer on uneven ground...
In addition to playing with the kids, I did a number of small projects to help out at the orphanage and at the local primary school and preschool. The most interesting of those was helping put out the grass fire that blew up from the back of the orphanage one night. The buildings it was closest to had concrete walls and metal roofs, so there was no critical danger – we let it burn awhile to keep the grass from getting too high (frequent minor fires prevent more major fires from occuring), but then we beat it out with branches and buckets of water before it spread much into the property. The wind continued to blow the fire past the orphanage off to one side. About an hour later, when I was just about to take a shower, I noticed the winds had shifted – and, sure enough, the fire came back from the other side, so we put it out again, this time for good.
We (we being the other volunteers and I) also got to take a horseback safari at a nearby nature reserve, Spioenkop. That was really cool – we got to see lots of wildlife, and horseback riding is fun itself anyhow (although my attempts to get the horse to stand still enough for me to take photos were a bit frustrating at times). We got to see lots of giraffes, and got pretty close to some, and even got to see a baby nursing! Sadly, we didn't get to see any hippos or rhinos, but did see plenty of zebras, many kinds of antelopes, and a buffalo. Outside the preserve, we saw a couple families of baboons and some ostriches.
Backing up a bit... on airplanes, and in public places in general, I seldom strike up a conversation with anyone, and usually just keep to myself. But, on our flight from Detroit to D.C., I was sitting a row behind and across the isle from a girl who was reading an academic paper of some sort. I didn't try to read it, but noticed it had calculus on seemingly most of the pages, which piqued my interest. When we were standing in the isles waiting to deplane, I finally asked what she'd been reading. It was a paper about panel selection; she's working on her Master's in Economics, and had been taking summer classes at the University of Michigan. As chance (or providence) would have it, she was on her way home – to South Africa! Turned out she's from Durban, and is also a Christian and was interested about the orphanage I was going to help at, so we swapped contact info and she offered to show me around if I made it down to Durban! I'd actually already been planning to go to Durban; it's ~2 hours from Loskop and has beautiful beaches. Her parents have a guest room, so she not only showed me around town, but gave me a place to stay for two nights! It was very much a blessing; I was humbled by their hospitality and I greatly enjoyed the time I spent with her and her family. Also, the first night there, they gave me some absolutely amazing Sauvignon Blanc...
I also got along well with the other volunteers; we bonded pretty well even though we scarcely knew each other before the trip, and really liked many of the people I met there. As I am sure you can imagine, I could go on for quite some time talking about my trip, but I've got lots of other things I need to do, like grocery shopping. No milk, no bread, no peanut butter, no jam...
I put a few pictures up, and I have tons more that I might put up later if I get around to it.
Oh, one more thing to share before I go: I'm going on a 2-week business trip to Toulouse, France next month! I'll probably be staying in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, in the heart of downtown! It's a couple hours from the Mediterranean, so if the weather is okay, I might take a weekend trip down to play. Or, even if the weather is foul, I think Toulouse has a pretty big Lindy Hop scene – I just need to find out where to go!
And with that, I'll be off. *grin*
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| Fraction of an Update |
[28 Jul 2007|01:54pm] |
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I’m stuck on an airplane with a laptop, and since it’s sitting in my lap and I’ve got nothing better to do, I may as well write a ( blog entry! )
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| ...'s |
[30 Jan 2007|12:33pm] |
Major pet peeve....someone at work... who e-mails me regularly... uses too many ellipses...
I just got an e-mail... and it is only six lines long... but has 21 of these....
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[17 Jan 2007|10:57pm] |
I'm tired. Not just a little sleepy. I'd explain the long list of factors contributing to my exhaustion, well beyond the typical "did lots of stuff other than sleep" that usually gets me. But, I'm too tired.
Levi out. OUT.
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| Salsa tonite, anyone? |
[12 Jan 2007|08:30am] |
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Hey, does anyone feel like doing some Salsa dancing tonite at Halo?
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| No!!! |
[05 Jan 2007|05:53pm] |
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mood |
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 crushed |
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When I went home for Christmas, I only forgot one thing at my parent's house. My ski socks. I've worn those socks every single time I've gone skiing for the last 4 years. I just remembered now that I need to buy new ones, but I've got guests coming over in an hour so I don't have time to make it to any stores. This makes me sad. I'm going skiing tomorrow. They'll probably be late, so I probably actually have time, but if they're not late and I'm not here, I'm rather rude.
*sigh*
EDIT: Yup. Just got a call. They'll be about 45 minutes late. I even tried to contact them to officially postpone it to give me enough time, but my call went unanswered...
EDIT 2: The road to Steven's Pass is closed. After waiting 2 hours for it to open, I give up. A foot of fresh powder, and no me in it to enjoy it...
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| Movie? |
[28 Dec 2006|08:40pm] |
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Anyone want to watch a movie at 10 or 11 tonite at my place??
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| My brain is addle. |
[17 Dec 2006|05:18pm] |
Woah.
I was standing in my room with my mind flailing about in search of one of the tasks I ought to be doing, when I heard myself think, "Dang it. My brain is addle. Dh." It's really sad when I can't even use the correct form of a word to critique myself. This I take to be confirmation that my brain is in fact presently addled.
While I'm thinking about grammar: I was listening to "Turn it Around" by 4 Strings. There's a line that says, "I can only be myself with you." Granted, this is grammatically correct and stylistic concerns in music and poetry differ from those in, say, a technical paper. Nevertheless, whenever I hear that it stabs me in the brain. Does it anyone else? It's ambiguous. It could mean, "Only with you can I be myself," or it could mean, "With you, I can only be myself." The line is preceded with an "I need you," leading me to presume that the former interpretation is the intended one, because perhaps she feels the need to be herself.
One of my stepsister's friends called me a "dancing fool" on MySpace. I was about to reply, "I dance, but I'm no fool," but just for kicks I first looked it up in the dictionary:
Fool: (4) Informal. A person with a talent or enthusiasm for a certain activity: a dancing fool; a fool for skiing.
I thus must concede that I am a fool twice over, and my picture could well belong alongside the above definition.
Whenever I mention grammar in my blog, I think that I'm probably saying something wrong, and I'll prove myself a fool in an other sense of the word. On the plus side, doing so would likely annoy Adrienne and/or Deborah (perhaps more of you, but they first come to mind), so in the end such error's wouldnt be to bad.
Time to get ready for church!
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| Taking Advantage of a Skirt... |
[16 Dec 2006|02:37am] |
Jenny was having a lot of fun spinning with her skirt twirling about her. She said she was taking advantage of her skirt. I said I shouldn't say anything about taking advantage of a skirt. "Shouldn't" and "won't" do not always correlate.
Uh, so I had earlier said I wasn't going to dance this week, because I had given a lot of time to dancing recently, and had other things to focus on, such as reading my Bible and folding laundry. But, I got sick this week and stayed home from work Tuesday through Thursday, which granted me the time I needed for my life to feel a little more settled. Reflecting on this at work today (ok, Friday is yesterday now) made me realize that the only remaining reason for me to not go dancing would be my own stubborn adherence to a decision after changing circumstances negated the grounds for my making the decision in the first place. "Stop this silly nonsense, Levi! Go dance!" I did. It was delightful.
Two things not delightful, though: the power went out last night at 10:30. And stayed out 'till 9:00 tonite. My roomie and I both showered in the morning, using most of the hot water sitting in the tank. I showered at 8:45 before the dance. I could see my breath in the shower. Not good. I prefer the water to steam, not my breath. TOO COLD! Other not cool thing: shortly after I arrived and started dancing, I had to sneeze. Naturally, given that I was dancing, I suppressed this urge. For the rest of the evening, pretty much nonstop for 3 hours 'till I left the dance, I felt like I had to sneeze, but couldn't. The feeling subsided on the drive home, but it's back. MY NOSE TICKLES INSIDE!
It's nice knowing lots of people, even though many of them I don't know well. All evening, I didn't dance with anyone I didn't at least somewhat know. I danced with one girl I'd met briefly before but whose name I forgot, but everybody else I knew somewhat well. And, I danced with a lot of people! I often like meeting new people, but I also try to make my way 'round to my regulars, though I rarely get to them all...
I should get a shirt with magnetic buttons, so I can rip it open whenever I stand in front of a fan. That'd be cool.
Ok, time to stop rambling and get some sleep. After my long-awaited hot shower!
To everyone I danced with: thanks! I had an awesome night. You rock!
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