fire on Devil's Peak

this is what Devil's Peak is supposed to look like.

I knew something interesting would happen eventually. 

Last night (Tues Mar 17) around 10PM, a fire was started at Rhodes Memorial on Devil's Peak. The fire quickly spread over the mountain side and turned into the apocalyptic scene shown in the newspaper Tabitha is holding. 

The photo from the paper was taken on the opposite side of the mountain from us, so what I could see out of my window was the silhouette of Devil's Peak against a bright orange sky. We could never have imagined the extent of the inferno on the other side, until we saw the papers. I attempted to take pictures, but they didn't manage to capture anything significant. The good news is that no one was killed, and the wind took the smoke away from our side of town.

The helicopters are still buzzing overhead, working on the last of the smolders. Pretty wild stuff! 

"night club on wheels"

The story of this limo ride isn't such a long one:

In an effort to get free ice cream on campus (it was a really hot day), Nava encouraged me to join her in filling out our basic contact info on a card and submit it for consideration by the Cornetto ice cream company. Coincidentally, only the first 200 students won a free ice cream, Nava and I missed the cut-off by about 2,000 students (Nava was sorely disappointed). The next day, I get a call on my cell phone from a rep at Cornetto informing me that I had won the GRAND PRIZE!

CORNETTO GRAND PRIZE:

A limo ride for two to the movie of your choice. 

I was confused by this prize, as it had nothing to do with ice cream, nor the free acquisition of it. Also, I don't have a date in South Africa, so I invited both roommates to the movie. These photos are the result of our evening out, which turned out to be a lot of fun. 

Things to note:

-I'm purposefully not saying which movie we went to.

-the theater is a 5-minute car ride from our flat, so we didn't get a particularly long time to enjoy the "night club on wheels".

-rest assure that Cornetto stocked the limo with non-alcoholic sparkling juices.

Nava's workspace

This is a photo of where Nava will be spending 75% of her time as a grad student of architecture. I liked the lighting, so I thought I'd post it. 

Oregon Trail

Steven found this while playing an ancient version of the computer game, Oregon Trail.

 Just kidding. The image is inspired by the Oregon Trail computer game, but he built the text. (I don't know where he comes up with these things).

What a sunset!

These were taken from my bedroom window.

My First Braii

This is Nava and her mom. Tabitha is taking the pictures and never actually appears in any of them. I think that by this time, she had called it quits.

These are photos from my first Braii. Braii is the Afrikaans word for barbeque. This particular party was awesome for several reasons: 1. there were more vegetarians than meat-eaters, which made a lot of food options for me 2. after we were done eating, the host cranked up the music and everyone started dancing 3. it was hosted at my dream house-this little bungalow that was over 100 years old. It had hard-wood floors, a stone oven in the kitchen, and a courtyard!

Che

A couple of Sundays ago, Nava and her friends took me to Kulk Bay, a small town on the ocean. While there, we found this little gem. It's the Cape to Cuba restaurant and bar that sits right on the beach. We hung out in the evening breeze there for several hours, it was very relaxing.

Seeing the paintings of Che Guavara, I was reminded of the role he played in the guerilla movements in the Congo in the 60's. Despite his best efforts, he was unable to organize the troops as successfully as he had in Cuba. Even so, this part of his life goes largely unnoticed, as does the signifcant role Cuba and Fidel played in the liberation of Angola from the Portuguese. Today, there are approximately 50,000 Cuban soldiers buried in Angola. Fidel Castro called it Cuba's "internationalist duty" to save thier brothers in Africa. However, the U.S. saw Cuba's aid in Africa as the spread of communism and squashed the revolution's effort with all its might. It was, afterall the height of the cold war.