Update

Wow...keeping up with this blog in Africa is a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. On our cross-country bike trip we found internet in many of the towns we went through, but this trip has been much harder. Looking back at past posts, I see that our last post was in Port Elizabeth...this seems like a lifetime ago! Indeed, we have been on the road twice as long now...We started our bike trip on January 13, and today is February 13.

I am not sure when we will have a chance to upload more photos. Working on the blog here takes all day because the internet here is so slow. We have sent some pictures and video back to the Wellings...I hope BJ may be able to get them online somewhere to post.

We are currently one or two days away from Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, right over the border from South Africa, so we have almost crossed our first country. The biking has been very hard, what with many days of head wind and the very intense sun, but the people have been very friendly. We have had many people take us into their homes and share their lives and experiences with us.

On the way into Cookhouse we rode up and down Olifantskopp Pass and ate a lot of prickly pear cactus fruit. From there we went to Cradock, where we had a place to stay thanks to Romano in Port Elizabeth. The lady who ran the hospice put us up there, and we learned a little bit about her efforts to assist patients with AIDS and tuberculosis in helping out their families and having a place to spend their final days.

Recently, we had our first braai (barbecue) in Bultfontein thanks to the Rautenbachs and Elize's family, visited three schools (including one in Bloemhof...we have some great footage of this that I hope we can get posted in the next month), got caught in the rain and slept in a bed and breakfast thanks to a lovely couple in Wolmaransstad, and then were put up on a farm between Ottosdal and Lichtenburg. At this last place we got to taste some homemade liqueurs, see some sunflower fields, and ultra light, and lions up close (we even got to hold a cub!).

After visiting the schools, Orian and I were talking about setting up a fund to bring some tourism group students to the United States. We are not sure how we will be able to set this up yet, but are talking about it, maybe an exchange-type thing. Let us know if you know people who have done this or have ideas.