Gautango in Review

Bob and I are back in the US now, and no longer updating our South African travel blog. If you’re looking for the highlights, these are our most popular posts from our time in South Africa…

Personal
Our First Thanksgiving – Bob and Lea On Safari – Our Engagement – Christmas in Africa – Bob Runs a Marathon – Our Wedding Photos – More Wedding Photos

Lea’s Human Rights Work
Siyakhuluma, or, Lea Tries to Speak Zulu – Inside the Inner City – Photo of Madonna and Child – Vicarious Trauma – Huge Legal Victory

Bob’s Volunteer Work
Coffee for Africa, Africa for Coffee – Bob’s First Day of School – What’s Wrong with South Africa’s Schools – Schools & The Sweets Solution

Commentary on South Africa
The New Apartheid – Human Rights and the 2010 World Cup – Is South African Crime Really So Bad? – Bugs are Bigger in Africa

Honeymooning on a Coffee Farm?

I can’t wait any longer to share the highlight of our Kenyan honeymoon–well, of the share-able highlights, I should say. It’s completely out of order, and I will surely be reprimanded for spoiling the ending, but I trust that we will get back to posting about our week on the beach in Malindi, safari in Tsavo East, and camping near the Rift Valley’s Lake Naivasha.

For now, you can read about (and see) our last days in Kenya, spent touring a magnificently beautiful coffee plantation and mill. Go on…reading is caffeine free! Plus, you might learn something.

It’s snowing!

This may be hard to believe for Americans currently sweating out the June heat, but it is snowing in South Africa!

Wedding Album – Reception

We held the reception next door at the Wabash College Sparks Center.

A second chance

Back in March, Bob and I headed off for a weekend holiday in Durban, that ended up in disaster.  Our car, the Little Red Wagon, broke down halfway there, and we ended up spending most of our holiday in the charmless highway town of Warden.

So it is with some trepidation that we gear up this weekend for take-two…

The First Dance

Of course, Bob and I get back to South Africa, and the first thing everyone asks us is: “Can I see your wedding pictures?”  Unfortunately, it will be another week or two before these are online at http://www.matthewgordon.net.  Sorry!

You are in luck however, because a college friend of mine who just happens to be a photojournalist took a  break from enjoying himself at the reception to snap a few pictures!  This is my favorite… it’s exactly how I remember our first dance.

If you think that’s something, you absolutely have to check out my friend’s website.  His images from Haiti, Kurdistan, Darfur, Burma, Congo, Mexico, India, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera are just incredible…  http://www.danielpepper.com.

Change of Seasons

Bob and I have been away from South Africa, attending a conference and getting married in the U.S.  Although we were only gone five weeks, it feels like months.

S. African Schools Part Two: Sweets Solution

I promised a series of posts answering this question: What are the problems facing South African education.

The latest is an article I wrote for one of the Catholic schools’ publications on what kids are eating at school and how it affects learning and teaching. Nutrition is not as profound as the language issue, for sure, but sometimes simple problems in education are refreshingly, well…simple.