SeedReaders

We all should know the importance of a book in a child’s hand. Our very dear and close friend Patricia Schonstein, a South African writer has started a non-profit for such a cause. Years ago, Patricia had written a number of children’s books with all proceeds going to the schools in Cape Town and then beyond to fund the beginnings of school libraries. Most schools do not have one.


Later, she turned to writing novels and has written six novels, each unique, but expressing her gifts. In addition, she had four collections of poetry. Patricia has now turned her talents from writing back to her roots of advocacy. She has created SeedReaders. Please take a moment to visit her website and perhaps donate some money for this worthy project. Perhaps this would be a gift for the person who has everything, on your Christmas list. Most of us have so very much, yet so many cannot even afford a single book.


Regardless, if you visit Patricia’s site, you may be inspired. If you met her, you would definitely be a better person for the experience.
http://www.patriciaschonstein.com/

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Airline With Humor

Here is a budget airline with a sense of humor. Too bad they only fly within South Africa.

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Going Postal

It is getting easier to understand why people "go postal" when the US Postal Service is only delivering crappy service. Point in fact: I ordered ten books that I needed relatively soon for my fall classes. Soon meaning I needed a friend to bring them over to save on postage here. The books were ordered at great expense, being college texts, but shipping them within the US was going save a bundle. 

All the books were shipped to this friend's TX address. Damn if she did not get married in the meanwhile and decide to spend time at her new husband's home two hours away from her own. Okay, my bad for not checking where to have them shipped. When I heard, I immediately contacted the various sellers to change the address. Mind you, this happened within 24 hours, but the books had been shipped by all of the seven sellers I ordered from. What is up with this efficiency? Something change in the book market since I left? All the books went to the wrong address; she arrived with no books. 

But, two books with the same author, same title, but from two different book vendors never made it to either TX address. This was to be the key text for my new MA Social Problems class. Lost in the postal system where services is not king. Okay, mistakes happen.

She flies elevated frequent flier status, negating extra luggage charges, so it would have been great for her to bring them over, but now she will not be returning until September. Too late, so I will have to bargain with the devil to have Ron cart them back praying he is not dinged for extra weight. With that in mind, I had her send the rest of the books USPS to Ron's niece. 

She mailed them. They never arrived. Out of desperation, I finally broke down and ordered one of the titles to be shipped here to the university.

Ron introduced me to this Australian wine called Hardy's Bin 343, which I quite like. I am not a wine drinker, usually sitting out the wine tastings in CA, South Africa, and Australia. Sometimes, I taste and dump the rest of the sample much to the chagrin of others. But with Ron gone, me left to handle things here, the weather being lousy, State Exams to put up with, and the stress of loss of books, I have enjoyed the nip of wine each evening. My nips seem to be progressing from small wine glass to larger wine glass, to large juice and then water glasses. I seem to have plowed through Bin 343 working my way to Bin 379. Who knew grapes could be so tasty.

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Book Launch South Africa

It thrills me to forward to all of you the invitation we received by our very dear friend Patricia Schonstein, a magnificently talented writer. We had the pleasure of meeting Patricia and her equally talented author husband, Don Pinnock in 2005 when we rented their self-catering apartment in Cape Town. It was friendship at first site and we have been friends since both here and there again.

LAUNCH INVITATION
Thursday 27 May 2010
5.30-6pm  
The Book Lounge Roeland Street Cape Town

Patricia Schonstein: Banquet at Brabazan

We are delighted to be launching the new novel from local novelist, Patricia Schonstein.

In Banquet at Brabazan, she takes us to the heart of Cape Town’s violent inner city, creating a cornucopia of events featuring superb food, romance, a cappella, an angel, Shakespearean drama, reflections on South Africa’s war in Angola, drug-money, a multi murder, visions of the Afterlife and various works of fine art with flashbacks to the wondrous A Time of Angels.

The novel is rich with her characteristic use of fabric, fine-art, poetry and magic as well as her deep and philosophical questioning of the human condition.

At core, Banquet at Brabazan is the story of an enduring, secret love affair between a boss and his secretary who create a fantastical, magical, theatrical, costumed, Italianate life for themselves within the confines of her apartment.

Outside of that contrived space, exists the real world of loneliness, xenophobia and crime that have come to mark post-apartheid South Africa.

Patricia Schonstein deftly leads us through both worlds, allowing the lives of a small group of people, who have not met before, to intersect over a period of ten days at Brabazan Bar & Lodge, in Long Street, Cape Town. Here she reveals a poignant and beautiful patina of hope and love. 

With this, her sixth novel, Patricia affirms herself as one of South Africa’s leading authors and a master of magic-realism.
Patricia will be in discussion with Hugh Hodge, the editor of New Contrast .

RSVP  The Book Lounge, booklounge@gmail.com,
 021 462 2425.

Also by Patricia and available through Amazon:

A Quilt of Dreams: A Novel

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High Alert

Our first morning in Nairobi, the breakfast buffet is complete with a cook who makes custom omelets. This is our one splurge for this part of the trip. Our room is about $140. a night, but since we arrived late at night, we wanted comfort to start the trip. 

To get to our room corridor, we need to use our room card key and then again to get into the room. Ron went back to the room to get something, but when he did not return, I went looking for him. He bend the wrong way and put his back out. This slowed our day a bit. When we did start our day's adventure, we noticed what passed us by the night before. We need our card key to leave the hotel, plus we need it again to leave the premises. High security for sure. Outside the hotel is a barrier at both entrances for cars coming and going, manned by guards toting machine guns. Our hotel has a pricier sister hotel at the one end of the road. In front of it, is a "Happy Security" sign and area with a strange roundabout, where all cars have to stop to be inspected before they are allowed to go through. It was not until later in the day that we found out that the Israeli Embassy is directly across the street, hence the high security.

What may be cause for celebration for some is that Kenya is a non-smoking country. It is illegal to smoke in public except in designated areas, which are few. I will either cut down on my smoking or have nicotine withdrawal headaches. We shall see.

What we did not take into account is the cost of taxis. Over 50% of Nairobi is slum, constituting 2.5 million people. The safest way to get around is by taxi. The fact that our hotel is in a better neighborhood also means it is not in the city center, thus a major hike via unsafe roads and areas to get to the center. Today alone, we spent about 30 euros, not dollars on taxis.

Being dropped off in the downtown area, we were told it is very safe, because armed guards are everywhere. They are too. We were used to this in South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe, but there seem to be even more here. To say the city is not pretty is like saying that a cold sore has appeal. It is close to downright ugly with only a few interesting, but not yet not attractive buildings scattered here and there, seemingly by accident rather than by design.

The streets are like migration times in the plains. Each block has what seems like thousands of people pushing through trying to get somewhere other than where they are, all at varying speeds. Interesting shops are rare to non-existent on most of the streets we were hustled through. Traffic jam has an all new meaning. It could be described as traffic molasses after a deep freeze or the speed of an Artic snail. If they can move 2 feet every ten minutes, they consider it progress. Thankfully, the taxis are not metered. You arrange the fare ahead of time, but hotel taxis have their fares regulated by the hotel. 

We did manage to get to the African Archives, where what we found was one man's collection of artifacts from throughout Africa. His sole concern was that the cultures throughout the continent were vanishing, so he wanted to preserve them as best he could. The guard turned into our guide, giving us a vibrantly interesting history of numerous things as we stopped to look at a piece of history. He is an asset to his community for his vast wealth of history. The only time I wanted to run screaming was when he defended female circumcision as being illegal, but "some tribes still consider it necessary to curb a woman's hot nature for sex". I could have forgiven him, but he continued alluding to his personal agreement with the idea. After listening to it for five minutes, I had to change the subject or scream "That is really called female genital mutilation and it only causes physical and mental damage." Once we moved on to a different subject, I was able to look him in the face again, but he did not get a tip at the end.

We had been downtown for about 2 hours by this point, but we had only seen one other white person, creating some strange feelings. We literally hunted for a place to sit and have a drink and snack. Most of the places we passed were stand-up only. Ron spotted a place on an upper floor, so we went there, receiving curious looks from all of the other patrons. Since we were allowed to smoke there, we probably stayed even longer than we normally would, but there was not a lot to go running off to do anyway. 

The one stop we did make was the US Embassy Memorial garden where the US Embassy was bombed in 1998. More than 250 people were killed in the blast. They now have a visitor's center with a memorial plaque listing the names of the victims in the center of the park. We relaxed on the greens in the park; all benches were filled. After I took a picture of the memorial, a guard came over to make sure I was not doing a video. He then admonished us for not visiting the center to watch the video of the historic day's events. We said perhaps another time, but it seemed rather depressing.  The ambassador must have had warning; she was on the top floor of the bank building next door 'in a meeting'.

Kenya only gained complete independence in 1963. That is not all that long ago when you think about it. We walked over to the Parliament, which offers tours by appointment, but did not pursue it. Many of the government buildings have signs stating "This is a no bribe zone. Anyone attempting to bribe an official..." I wonder how that is working out. The youthfulness of the country does help to explain the infrastructure. The roads are in incredibly poor condition. Most of the buildings downtown were built after independence and for utility, not beauty.

After a taxi ride back, we went to our sister hotel for a beer, checking menus at its 5 different restaurants for dinner options. If not there, it would mean another taxi ride to and from another place. We did return for dinner at the poolside restaurant, but it was so busy, we nary got a peek at the poolside. Dinner was magnificent. I had a Kenyan chicken dish; Ron had red snapper. Presentation is everything with food and they have it down to an art.

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The Chiropractor Still

I am still making weekly visits to the chiropractor. I did find out that there are only 5 of them in Hungary. Four of them are from the U.S. and one from Canada. Some days after I leave, I feel great with no pain in my back, hip, or leg and other days, I feel worse than when I started. The four thousand Huf a visit was also a major factor, so I mentioned it to him. He reduced my rate to two thousand, saying he was not there to make himself rich. That was very gracious of him, but I still wish it would get better and I could quit going at all. When we were in South Africa, I bought a pair of shoes called Crocs. I thought they were made there, but found out differently later. I just started to wear them and they are by far the best thing I have done for my feet. They are so incredibly comfortable. It was not until Chris and Mark came over one night, that I had noticed they were wearing them too. After Googling Crocs, I found that they are from Boulder, CO. I ordered three more pair to be sent to a friend of mine who is coming over in May. At $39.00 a pair, you cannot have too many. www.crocs.com

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All good things

All good things…

I first inclination is to say that Patricia and Don are like family; however, each person has their own emotional connotation of family. Even for me it is contradictory, since their being who they are was more nurturing than my immediate family has been in a decade. We are feeling the loss and anticipated it hours before we awoke early this morning for our last good-byes. We tried stretching last night to greater extremes to ignore that shadow of gloom that was going to accompany the tugging pangs of separation. Yet, morning came too soon at 5:00 am.

It is astonishing to me that we met these people by accident, nevertheless, within a
week’s space at their place and a week at ours there is such a strong bonding friendship that will last over the moments in time we have shared. It was only by serendipity that Ron bought a copy of a 2001 travel guide for our 2006 trip to South Africa and found their apartment for rent in it. How the universe spins the webs of connections to bring people into our lives.

Saying good-by is not my strong point. All of my emotions rise to the surface exposing my vulnerable side to whoever is present at the time. Perhaps if I were a sufficient wordsmith, my display of sentiment would not supersede the turmoil that stirs within.

Tonight we will have to have strawberries and halva, a ritual initiated, established, shared, braced, and entrenched in our hearts all over a week’s duration with two exceptional people that we will dearly miss…until next time.

We love you two!!

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Off We Go

Off We Go…

Don and Patricia flew into Vienna and will fly out of there also. Since Don is doing an article on traveling out of South Africa for 10,000 Rand per person, he was challenged to find the least expensive airline tickets possible. The best deal he could find was with Qatar Airlines from Cape Town to Vienna. They then took the airport bus from Vienna to Budapest and the subway from the bus station to our flat.

With this in mind, they made their first stop of the morning to the travel agency to purchase their bus tickets back to the Vienna Airport. About an hour later, I received a call from the travel agency stating they had forgotten to stamp the tickets with their agency stamp. Rubber stamps here are big business. Nothing is official if it does not have a stamp on it. They would need to return to have the tickets stamped.

Since they did not know this information about the stamps our lovely guests attempted to take the tour for the Parliament. Attempted is the key word, since they tried to get tickets for the 10:00 English tour, but the lines were so long, they could not. Instead, they headed across the street to the Ethnographic Museum.

This museum was started when it officially broke away from the National Museum in 1947. It finally found a permanent home in 1973 in what was the Palace of Justice building. The permanent exhibition "Folk Culture of the Hungarians" displays the everyday life and festivals of peasantry life of Hungarians within thirteen rooms. The collection ranges from objects collected from the end of the 18th century to World War II. http://www.neprajz.hu/english/index2.html

Above all, Don was taken with the angst the bourgeoisie must have endured to climb socially upward from their conditions. He was particularly amused yet sympathetic to a photo on exhibit of a peasant wedding with the bride in her white dress, but yet wearing mud covered boots. Both he and Patricia were quite taken with the history of the country. Taking photos is acceptable and Don said he was not required to buy a photo ticket to do so.

We had arranged to meet for lunch, believing they would be finishing the Parliament tour, but we did find them nonetheless. Since they both are quasi-vegetarians, we took them to Govinda. This vegetarian restaurant is run by the Hare Krishna, who are well respected here. They do much for the homeless, so they are well supported. The food is great and inexpensive. Patricia and Don were overwhelmed with the quality and quantity of the servings so we received accolades for our choice of restaurant. Govinda is located at Belgrad rakpart 18, one stop on tram 2 from the Parliament. www.govinda.hu They accept cash only.


Our happy foursome then wandered over to Szabó Ervin Library. Why would any tourist want to see a library one may ask? If you do not have inside information, this may be a jewel that would easily pass-by without a visit. This is no ordinary library. It was once the Wenckheim Palace, a private residential palace, built by Count Frigyes Wenckheim (1842 – 1912). Arthur Meining, the architect from Saxony, built this 13,000 square meter building and is considered a masterpiece of Hungarian Neo-Baroque architecture. The building was turned into a library in 1931. Aside from the browsing area, there are 15 reading rooms, many with fireplaces and lush cushioned chairs, an Internet room, a playful children’s library with two huge dragons, 160 computers, seating for 1,000 readers, and a café. Various areas of it such as the ballroom are rented out for private functions.

I chose to wait in the sunshine while Ron toured them around. To enter, you must get a free ‘Reader’s Card’ and you need a picture ID to get this. A passport is preferred, but a driver’s license will do most of the time. When Patricia came out our famous authoress was bowled over. She lovingly shared that the library rooms enchanted her with the mixture of glass, mirrors, gilt, drapery, carving, and books. “It was wonderful to see every seat filled with a young person immersed in a book. Reflecting on the fact that library budgets in South Africa have been slashed, I wonder if it will ever reach such a point as this…Poor Africa!"

Patricia wanting to purchase some ethnic music, we wandered around the corner to a shop situated in an udvar (garden) where there is also a lovely restaurant where we could stop for tea. We spent a relaxing hour in engaging conversation and then Ron took Patricia CD shopping while Don and I continued solving the world’s problems.

Ron offered to take their tickets back to the travel agency and I was going to escort them back to the Parliament to try to get the 6:00 pm tour, the last of the day. I love this tour and have done it six times, so I really did not want them to miss it. I prepped them that the first thing on the tour was a matchstick replica of the building that a Hungarian family created and donated.


At the parliament, I left them for home and sent them on their way. When the tour guide asked the group if anyone could guess the materials of the replica, Don piped up with the correct answer squelching the bluster from the guide. Don thought it was a touch of irony that the building was inspired by the British, but it was the British who bombed them. Both Patricia and Don were impressed with King St. Stephan’s crown on display and found the crooked cross on top a bit curious. Don is never without his tripod and ultra deluxe professional camera, so was able to capture some magnificent shots.

The Hungarian Parliament is the largest Parliament in Europe, a testament to the fact that Hungary was an administrative center for the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy, the greatest power in Europe at one time. The architect Imre Steindl designed the building which was initially planned for the celebration of the millennium of 1896, but was not finished until 1902, the year of Steindl’s death. His inspiration was partly from the Palace of Westminster. Its white neo-gothic turrets and arches stretch for over 250 meters along the Danube embankment, making it an impressive sight from both sides of the river. The building has 691 rooms, tremendous halls and over 12.5 miles of corridors. The central dome is 96-meters, the exact height of Szent István Basilica. The saying is that this was intentional so that church and state were of equal proportions. Photograph and video are permitted and the inside is as rich as the exterior. The Parliament was once two houses: the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Don observed that the former House of Lords had blue carpeting and the House of Commons was red.

Note that the official times on the Parliament website do not list this tour, but it is on the sign at the Parliament. http://www.parlament.hu/parl_en.htm
Tour times are listed as:
English: 10 a.m., 12 a.m. and 2 p.m.
German: weekday 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m.
French: 2 p.m. Russian: weekdays 3 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m.
Hebrew: 10.30 a.m. and 1.30 p.m.
Italian: weekdays 11.30 a.m. and 4 p.m., Sunday 11.30 a.m.
Spanish: weekdays 11.30 a.m. and 4 p.m., Sunday 11.30 a.m.
Japanese and other languages are available, but are not listed on the web site.

Tickets are: Adults 2.070 HUF and Children 1.035 HUF, but it is free for citizens of European Union countries if you have your passport with you.

After their tour, our two explorers walked the Danube. They came across the memorial of shoes along the river bank commemorating the Jews who were lined up on the banks and shot by the Nazis at the end of WWII when it was evident they had no time to continue transporting them to the camps. Sadly, there has been some vandalism and some of the shoes have been removed. Though the artist has vowed to replace them, it has not happened yet, but there are still enough there to impress the horrors of war on our social justice minded guests. Patricia is continually reminded of her Jewish heritage and the grievous events associated with Jewish history.

In later hours of the evening, they found their way to the docks to take a night cruise on the Danube. The hour long cruise was on the Duna Yacht and the cost was 1,700 Huf each. They were enchanted with the lighting in the castle district with Castle Hill romantically displayed on the one side of the river and with Parliament on the other. www.dunayacht.com

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Following Don and Patricia

Ron and I both love this city, but as with anywhere you live, you get overwhelmed with life and the tedious tasks that are involved in it so one does not often take time to appreciate the surroundings. Having guests on a regular basis refreshes our love for this city and we cherish being able to see it through others’ eyes too. It is so insightful. With this said, let us see where Don and Patricia ventured to yesterday.

After breakfast, their first stop was the Great Market on Vámház körút 1-3. This market is one of five built in the city at the end of the 19^th

On the second floor of the market are places to buy souvenirs and food. My choice is to pass-by the restaurant, which is a bit overpriced and venture to the food booths along the right side. For an authentic taste of Hungarian food, I highly recommend the langos. This is fried dough with grated hard cheese, ham if you choose, and garlic juice. There are other varieties to entice tourists, like Mexican langos, but this seems like a contradiction to authentic culture to me.

The great synagogue on Dohány was their next stop. With a seating capacity of 2,964 seats (1,492 for men and 1,472 for women in a separate gallery) it is the second largest synagogue in the world. The largest is in New York City. The beautiful structure is a combination of Moorish, Romantic,They close at 2:00 pm, so it is important to arrive early if you want to visit or take the tour. There is a museum on the premises and it is highly recommended. Hungary has a unique Jewish history during WW II. Don was intrigued that their tour guide was simplistic in her explanations, describing her memorized speech as Judaism 101. For those who have no knowledge of the religion, it could be refreshing, but for others stilted. Patricia would have preferred to have had time alone in the sacred space to sit in silence meditation. However, with tours in various languages continually dotting the interior, it is not possible. It occurred to her while there that no member of her family has been to a synagogue service since 1939. She lost family members in the Holocaust. With this in mind, it was pertinent and heartwarming for her that people like Raul Wallenberg stood up to the Nazis and others with malicious intent to aid so many people.

For a virtual Jewish history tour, visit this link.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Budapest.html

After lunch, our wandering South Africans went to the Museum of Applied Arts, one of my favorite buildings in Budapest. Located at Ullői út 33-37, this magnificent building was built for the celebration of the Millennium in 1896 by Lechner and Pártos. The colorful tile entrance is in stark contrast to the interior, which has a Moorish flavor. The style is referred to as Hungarian Secessionist or Hungarian Art nouveau. Don being a photographer had to purchase a ticket for taking pictures. When he started snapping, the woman guard lunged at him to stop until he produced his supplementary ticket. Even this did not satisfy her when he started to place it back in his pocket. Although she had seen it, she wanted him to have it readily exposed hanging out of a pocket for her discernable eye to see at a moment’s notice. He found the porcelain and interior design well worth the price of a photo ticket. http://www.imm.hu/angol/

As strange as it may seem to some, we always recommend the Kerepesi Cemetery to our B and B guests. Many times our guests will smile and nod appreciatively for the information, but secretly, I believe think we are crazy for the idea. Those who follow our advice return to thank us for the information. Don and Patricia are amongst the latter group.

They ventured to this splendid final resting garden of repose located at Fiumei út near Keleti train station. Don was amazed at the park like quality of the place with the great chestnut trees shading the residents. He was curious about the weeping angels on some of the graves wondering why the angels would weep when they had a new friend arriving in their domain. This was an interesting question that had not occurred to me. When you enter, you can get a map of the grounds. Here lie the most famous of the Hungarian elite who have build mausoleums to be remembered by. The art work is spectacular and original in many instances. For more information, visit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerepesi_Cemetery

After dinner, the four of us went to the ballet at the State Opera House on Andrássy út 22. The building is considered one of the most important of Hungarian architecture, the architect being Miklós Ybl. It took nine years to complete. It is said that it was build for Empress Maria Teresa, but she ordered that it should be smaller than the one in Vienna. Looks can be deceiving as it looks small, but it seats 1,289 people. There are over fifty operas performed here a year, more than any other opera house in the world.

Ron had purchased tickets in what I consider the ‘nose bleed’ section of the Opera House. It is the top level and the balcony on the side. Tickets were only 800 Huf approximately $4.00. The ballet was Anna Karenina and a splendid performance. http://www.fsz.bme.hu/opera/bud_operahaz.html

Tickets can be ordered online and kept at the box office. For information about this, go to our website www.budabab.com and then Links.

Patricia repeatedly states she needs to return to Budapest for a whole month to see all, absorb all, experience all. Not only are they both in awe of the spectacular beauty of the city, but Patricia is amazed with the safety of walking the streets at any hour of the day or night, the absence of children begging, and the contradictions of the horrors of the history as opposed to the wonderful pieces of art.

Tune in tomorrow for Patricia and Don’s next day in Budapest.

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The South Africans' First Full Day

Well I am following the adventures of the South Africans, via their tales when they return back to our flat. For some of the things, I would like to join them, but these are my last weeks of teachings, so I cannot.

On their first full day here, they went to the Citadel, the high point of Budapest on the Buda side. There you will find a white-stoned fortress from the 19th century. The fortress was built in 1851 by the Austrians to symbolize their dominance over Hungary after the 1848-49 Revolution and War of Independence. It sits on top of Gellért Hill where the 14 meter tall Liberation Monument is placed, a striking statue of a woman holding a palm leaf of victory, can be seen from most points along the Danube. The Russians placed the monument in 1947. The panorama of the entire city is spectacular from this viewing point.

There is a museum and an exhibit hall where they found a photographic exhibit. The theme was Children of War Around the World, not the most cheerful topic, but Patricia in particular was moved to tears with the theme as well as the beauty of the art.

After breathing in the fresh air of the higher altitude, they hiked back down the hill. This would be my preference too as once we did not realize there was a bus going up and hiked up. Half way up I was ready for oxygen, but at the top, I would have welcomed a Respiratory Therapist. The mistakes you make that you can share with guests are immeasurable.

Almost back down to street level, they stopped at the Church in the Cave before hopping on a tram to take the cogwheel for a ride. They had intended to ride the Children’s Railroad, but it was not operating yet.

Returning from there, they followed the Danube to the funicular taking them up to Castle Hill. They found their way into the National Museum where they spent the rest of their day. They were impressed with the number of huge paintings of Hungarian origin by artists, so few in the world have ever heard about. Patricia is hinting she may have to return for more time there.

When they returned there, they found the little co-op grocery store sufficient for their needs to assemble a dinner in our kitchen. We did this side by side and then ate together. We point out the five supermarkets within two blocks of our flat, but they appreciated buying from a co-op as opposed to a supermarket chain.

In the evening, we had an engagement to meet a Fulbright Scholar, a Professor of Nursing and her husband, for coffee. We invited Don and Patricia along to the Central Coffee House, one of the historic coffee houses in the city. The six of us had a lively and lovely conversation until 10:00 pm and then shared a bus part of the way with Beth and Bob before they got off at their stop.
On a personal note, this was the last full week of teaching. Next week is the last. I am so going to miss my sophomore students. They have been exceptional and I have appreciated spending time with them for the last four semesters. All of them have turned into exceptional writers and thinkers. This semester they had embraced the course with gusto, which adds to my being proud of them since I had suggested doing some ‘innovative things’ with them last semester for this semester and they were willing to be my ‘test case’. They not only met my expectations, but far surpassed them, setting the bar at a new level for those that follow.

While I am being the proud teacher, one of my former students who is now in the US on a scholarship, just had an article published in English Teaching Forum magazine, volume 44, number 1 - 2006. She wrote this as an assignment for my class and the secondary part of the assignment was to try to get it published. She and some others succeeded, but hers is the first to appear in print. This magazine is distributed to over 80 countries through the US Embassy.

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The South Africans are coming

The South Africans are coming…

Well actually, I lied. They arrived this morning. Don and Patricia Pinnock arrived today from Cape Town, South Africa. Why are they worth writing about, you may ask, so I will share the info with you.

When we were in Cape Town, we rented their apartment. You can find their information in this blog, but to save you doing a search and ignoring me now, I will enlighten you. Don is the Associate Editor for Get Away magazine, a thick, rich, travel monthly that is distributed to eighty countries. He writes a number of articles as well as doing the photographs. His background was once in Criminal Justice, with a doctorate and specializations in gang behavior. He has some books to his credit in this area. After changing life paths, he has written Blue Ice about Antarctica and African Journeys.

Patricia has a Masters in Creative Writing and has written nine children’s books, a book of poetry, and three adult novels. Her writing name is Patricia Schonstein and Patricia Schonstein Pinnock. One of her books has been sold for movie rights to a company in the UK. Two of her books have won literary awards in France and the UK. Her poetry book is being translated into Spanish and Finnish.

As if this is not enough excitement, Don is here to write an article for the magazine that he dreamed up while we were there. The article concept is going anywhere in the world from South Africa on 10,000 Rand a person. They are here to make this happen. Since they are staying with us as B and B guests, our B and B will be in the article. So far, they are very impressed with the flat and the bed, which they tested for their post-travel nap. I will report back as the week develops.

Stay tuned.

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I received these two comments

I received these two comments in the ‘anonymous’ comments section, but I feel comments are meant to be shared, so here they are.

To the first person, you are welcome x 3, but for what are you thanking me? To the second person, I am so happy Gilbert is getting his art out there. I found three possible sources for him to sell his work here in Budapest, but darn, he does not respond to e-mails. If anyone reads this before seeing him, tell him Ryan needs to reach him.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Hi,Just wanted to second the opinion above about Gilbert Khumalo and his wonderful beadwork. We met him last Sunday at the Green Point Arts & Crafts market in Cape Town and bought a beautiful beaded elephant head from him. Awesome stuff!

I love the comments, it feels great being ‘heard’ and the only way I know for sure there is someone reading what I write is when you write a comment.

Thank you, thank you, thank you,

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