Welcome to your Blog - perhaps you should have read the directions!

Ok, I owe all of you whom have sent in comments, a heartfelt apology. Both Jeff and I have been commenting on how few comments we have received (oops, I had that setting shut off). It was very exciting just a few minutes ago when I discovered all the your comments. Thanks for participating and please keep the comments coming!

The Worm

We've been in SA now for 5 months - we've had colds, a possible case of pig flu, and mild case of the itchies but we've finally made it into the big time..... Teddy has a worm in his foot! We were at a friend's house and the kids were running in the yard barefoot and a few days later Teddy had a major case of itchy foot - which turned into a funky looking rash on his foot - thank goodness for Jeff - he was able and actually administered medicine and Teddy is on the mend. A funny thing about that party is another family with 2 boys was also there and the mom ever so nonchalantly announced ," Niko has lice, i treated it right before I came so hopefully I got it all." I look over to locate my 3 immediately, only to see Anna (who has not bonded with any children at these parties) is HEAD to HEAD with this boy in the hammock! Thankfully no lice found on any of my chilldren but we all scratch our heads each time we say hello to that MOM. (fortunately she has a good sense of humor)

Thanksgiving African Style

On Thanksgiving day we headed to a reserve about 1.5 hours from out house. After lots of pot holes and unpaved roads we arrived at yet another beautiful game reserve. This one only had 6 rooms/huts and we were lucky enough to have the entire place to ourselves for the first 2 nights!
The people at the hotel were so incredibly kind they even made a Thanksgiving dinner for us - complete with homemade apple crisp - all served outside next to a beautiful bonfire.
The kids and I are getting a bit jaded with the safaris - hmmm another rhino... another giraffe.... oh, look a wildebeest. Henry has begun to take a book along and we have to nudge when we have an animal sighting, Anna now brings a coloring book, Teddy always the enthusiast is continuing to be the star and sits up front with the bush guide armed with his binoculars and an endless smile! As all of us climbed into the jeep for our afternoon ride hoping for a leopard sighting we were pleasantly surprised when we got to the waterhole and made a sudden stop - there was an African python (about 4 feet long) just shy of the tires of our car. We stopped checked it out and noticed a couple pairs of eyes swimming close to the edge of the watering hole. No, it wasn't the rhinos but it was 5 crocodiles looking for a snack! We were lucky enough to have front row seats to snack time for the crocs! After the kill which was sudden, fierce and a bit scary - Henry and Teddy were a bit quiet (perhaps processing what they just witnessed) but Anna exclaimed," that was cool can we see that again!" Quite a proud moment for Jeff and I, we are not raising a wimpy girl. The photos below show the kill as best as I could capture. They moved incredibly fast and my reflexes are not what they used to be.

Cutting edge news

After more than 200 years when King Shaka stopped the circumcision of young men to allow them to prepare for battle faster, the current King of the Zulus Goodwill Zwelithini is recommending that young men get circumcised.

Male circumcision has been convincingly demonstrated to reduce the risk of HIV infection by 60%. It seems that the extra piece of skin, the foreskin, is uniquely susceptible to HIV and doesn't allow the skin underneath to thicken and form a natural barrier against viral infections. Uncircumcised men are at greater risk of many viral infections like HIV, herpes and human papilloma virus (HPV), the cause of penile cancer and cervical cancer in women. As a consequence, female partners of circumcised men are at much lower risk for cervical cancer than partners of uncircumcised men.

It appears that Abraham was right.

Additionally, newly circumcised men say the sex is better, they last longer and sex partners like their newly cut men better. It's all good and that's why young boys are lying about their age to get circumcised (you have to be 15).

Look for major efforts to increase male circumcision here but continued controversy in the US as public health officials there waffle and succumb to the hysteria of the 'no circ' crowd, called 'intactivists,' and individualists seek to protect newborn rights at the expense of the larger community's health.