Where the antelope play

I see impala just about every day. Yesterday I finally captured some for you in this terribly grainy video:

They are known as "McDonalds" because of the not-so-golden arches on their rears that look just like the M.

There's also a huge male waterbuck that seems to have taken residence behind my house. I couldn't get a picture of him before he ran off, but he looks a lot like this:

More pictures from the shuttle

Not lion food yet

My two plus-or-minus one readers may have noticed a three-week absence during my long-awaited visit to the U.S. My focus was not on this blog, which really doesn't take much effort but seemed onerous during vacation and the weeks before and after.


The beach vacation was bittersweet. It was cloudy, grey, and raining four of the six days, but beautiful Friday and Saturday. I loved being with Jess and her family, but I hated to leave again. Two more months sans wife seemed daunting as I went back to the airport for another 30 hours of travel.

I procrastinated on booking a shuttle to return from Joberg and paid the price. After arriving Sunday night and sleeping at a hotel that seemed far nicer than the $75 it cost me, I awoke to an email that my attempted booking was impossible. I spent the next few hours arranging a different shuttle that ended up costing 5 times as much as the one I wanted.

We drove back through Lydenburg and the Blyde Canyon, a more scenic route than the direction through Nelspruit I took to get to the airport. The pictures are obviously through the window of a speeding van but you can get a sense of the landscape.


After the scenic drive and upon arriving at the beautiful farm where I'm staying I felt much more upbeat about the next two months.

A Plum Island bacchanalia fast approaches

Africa is nice and all, but I am greatly anticipating my vacation in a small Massachusetts beach town. Here are a few reasons.

• I think I've had around 12 alcoholic drinks in the past month, and most of them were some mediocre South African lager. At this point the idea of Sam Adams and Guinness make my mouth water.
  
• Today for the first time in a month I drank a cup of coffee that wasn't instant. It was heaven. And this wasn't particularly good coffee. When I get some Dunkin' Donuts I might just jump off a roof believing I can fly.
  
• People I work with are from different parts of Africa and Europe. I haven't heard an American accent in weeks. Even the Boston accent will be music to my ears.
• Burgers and shellfish are non-existent here. GIMME THAT LOBSTER ROLL!
• Driving on the naturally right side of the road legally, rather than finding myself approaching an oncoming cop car flashing his headlights at me to move the hell out of his lane, will be quite a trip.
  

I definitely miss a few things about my life in the USA.

The most dangerous thing in South Africa

Most dangerous for a healthy 28-year old male like me, anyway.

First day in the field

Today was the long-awaited first day in the field. Here is my friend Erroll, looking quite cheerful while getting ready to ask people about their dead family members.

We had some annoying problems coordinating the transportation for my two teams, so we got into the field around 11 instead of 8 and I drove hundreds of kilometers on dusty, bumpy dirt roads. Here are a few more photos from the day.







































































The thatch-roof hut neighbors my field office. It is probably pretty typical of the houses in this rural area. The rough-looking interior of a house is my field office. And the bull---well, let's just say I had my fair share of dealing with bovines and their leavings today.

On the Road

Morning commute

This is the dirt road to Agincourt. You can travel about 40km/hr on most of it, but the dust can be terrible.