Hail to the Chief

I'm tempted to say that the past couple days have been pretty run-of-the-mill, but I guess I should qualify that by saying they have been AFRICAN run-of-the-mill, which I think better encapsulates the strange mixture of the normal and the exotic that defines my life here.

At work, the return of our director Nelis has meant that I've had an increased flow of projects and errands to run, which thankfully breaks up the monotony of the larger projects I've been working on. Also, the return of Floyd from Taiwan means that all our leadership is home again and ready for action. In fact, I had an hour-long meeting with Floyd on Monday to update him on the All Nations websites as well as the report on Zanzibar that I'm writing for him. It's amazing that he can be in charge of so many people and so many projects and be able to have one-on-one meetings with so many people. I was honored to have received a slot in his schedule and tried my best to be a prepared intern. Thankfully, he left me with more people to contact and more paths to take as I progress.

Toukam is flying back to the states on Thursday until about Tuesday for his friend's wedding in Oklahoma. Besides spelling a harsh lesson in jet lag for my flatmate, it means I'll have the apartment to myself this weekend. Some of my coworkers down at Africa House are continuing their plans for the game reserve quad biking trip, which I'm getting more and more excited about. Apparently the reserve is about 2 hours outside of Cape Town and for just $100 they give you breakfast and lunch and take you out into the reserve on quad bikes for about 4 hours. I was dissappointed to find that they don't have any elephants on the reserve, but they have everything else (lions, zebras, giraffes, leopards). We'll probably go on Friday or Saturday. My imagination is still serving up images of riding my ATV among a running pride of lions...

Our culinary conquests have continued to be successful- Toukam made jerk chicken on Sunday night and then we both made yellowtail fish and meaty pasta yesterday and today, respectively. I'm still learning the "way of the spices" from Toukam. When I think back to the early days (read: two weeks ago) of our cooking, I can't help laughing at our inability to even make rice. I'm glad humans learn so well on the go- but then again, maybe it's just when there's food involved.

As the 17th looms closer and closer, I keep on drifting towards my guide books in spare time. I read last night that as I traverse the great Kalahari desert, I may have to camp near a village. Of course, being Botswana, the guide advises me to "locate the chief of the nearby village and ask him for permission to camp on his land, as well as for advice on where to sleep." How incredible is that? I'm trying not to imagine myself as a Livingston type, but with my guidebooks saying things like that, how can I help it? I think I'm going to return to my hostel from back in May to consult their "African Travel Centre," just to make sure I'm not completely off base with my plans. Maybe I should brush up on my click languages, too...

My application for the OpEd is pretty much complete. I've sent it off to a friend of mine who wrote a conservative column herself this year for her feedback, and once I get it back I think I'll send in the app early, hopefully resulting in extra brownie points for yours truly. I was thinking, if I have a right-leaning column for all of college and get a school year internship with the National Review, I could have a respectable backup career as a pundit. For now, I'll just focus on the campus newspaper.

For the rest of the week, we have a lot of heavy rain and high winds to look forward to, as well as a run to the airport, but the quad-biking is what is getting me through. Is it too much to ask to ride with the lions?