Africa Photos Posted -- Part 2

I can't believe it's been over a month since arriving back from Zambia. Here are the long overdue photos from Camp Life 2008. You can view the thumbnail photos below or click here to see the larger slideshow with full captions.

A Change Will Do You Good

Today is my last day at Oracle. As I write this, I'm packing up my cube and preparing DHL labels for the three laptops I managed to collect during the past 5-plus years at Oracle-Siebel-Ineto Services. I've accepted a job at Convergys working in their Relationship Technology Management group. While the company is based in Cincinnati, Ohio, I'll remain in the Austin area working from home. They have a Round Rock office, but it's at capacity for now. I've put my name on the waiting list for an office in the event something opens up.

I'll be doing pretty much the same thing I did at Oracle. I was ready for a change, and am looking forward to working with Mike again.

What does one do when you have three days off before starting a new job on Monday? You go to Mexico during hurricane season! Karin and I leave tomorrow morning for three days in Puerto Aventuras which is just down the beach from Playa del Carmen. Ike seems to be cooperating with our plans so far, but you never know.

Karin's paper goes to production next week so this seemed the best time to go. Plus, we wanted to be back in time for Luke's birthday party. I wouldn't miss it for the world.

So be on the lookout for my new contact information soon. I'll be looking for any excuse to get out of the house so if you want to meet for lunch, I'm all in.

Makes Sense to Me

College Football, Why Are You So Good to Me?

Yesterday reminded me of why September through December is the best time of the year. College football season officially started at 9 am with ESPN College Gameday in Atlanta. There's something about seeing Chris, Lee and Herb on that set that makes the air feel a little crisper and the water taste a little sweeter. I had planned to have a Texas-Florida Atlantic game watching party at my place on Saturday evening, but had to cancel mid-week because AT&T U-verse (my new cable provider) wouldn't state whether or not they would carry the game. After an obligatory stroll through IKEA (no weekend plans = IKEA deals to be had), I camped out at Mark, Suzanne and Luke's for some football watching and napping. At 1 pm, Statesman.com reported that AT&T U-verse would, in fact, be carrying the pay-per-view Longhorns game at 6 pm. Suddenly life had meaning. The sun would come up tomorrow. The Statesman was the best news organization in the world for reporting this all-important news fact.

We loaded up the caravan and headed back to my place by way of Jason's Deli, and took in the PPV goodness. After the Longhorns had put away Florida Atlantic, Mark and I focused our attention on other games of interest but not before brewing a pot of coffee for the longhaul. Maxwell House just tastes better when it's brewed and enjoyed with your brother at 10 pm. The rest of the night was spent in disbelief as we refreshed CBS Sports Gametracker to discover the Aggies in a knock down, drag-out pigskin brawl with the SEC powerhouse Arkansas Razorbacks. Oh wait, make that the Sun Belt's Arkansas State Red Wolves. By 10:30 am, the Longhorns were 1-0, had contributed $900,000 to the FAU athletics department, the Aggies and Michigan were 0-1, and Mark and I had a good night of brotherly bonding.

Week 1 is in the books. Let's hope weeks 2-12 are just as enjoyable.

In Honor of The Dark Knight

Karin and I are going to see "The Dark Knight" tonight. We may be the only two people left in Austin who haven't seen it. In honor of the movie, here are a few pics of the Dark Knights circa 1981. I love how our black masks where just about as big as our face. We both look like we need some glucose.

A shiny quarter for whoever guesses which is which first. (Mom is disqualified on the count she gave birth to us and has never mistaken us.)

I love our maroon pants underneath the costumes. It's most definitely a super hero buzzkill. I'm sure we were lectured about the cool October nights before we were coerced into wearing them out.

Video: Singing at Camp Life

Here's some video of the kids singing on the first day of Camp Life 2008 while awaiting their group assignments. Their little accents are too cute for words.

Africa Photos Posted -- Part 1

I'm back home! Karin picked us up at DFW on Sunday afternoon and took us to Abuelo's for Tex-Mex. Everything tasted like it had about a tablespoon of salt. It was wonderful. Here are the first set of photos taken on the trip. This covers our first week of travel, safaris in Livingstone and our kayaking adventure. I'll post Camp Life photos soon. The majority of my photos are from Camp Life so expect more soon.



Double-click on the album to see the photos in better quality.

Twelve Hours in Johannesburg

Muli Bwanji ("Good morning" in nyanja).  

It's 1:15 pm (6:15 am CDT) in Johannesburg, South Africa.  The bus came around at 4:45 am this morning to take us to the Lusaka airport for our flight to Johannesburg.  Thirty-five of us are here waiting for another 50 in the group to arrive. We'll have about a 12-hour layover in the airport before our flight for London.  One of the families on the trip invited about 6 of us to a VIP lounge with free food, drinks, cocktails, magazines and Internet. It was a God-send.

I got about 4 hours sleep last night and am running on adrenaline right now. I plan to document the past week with the kids to kill some time in the airport. It was a hard week, but another amazing experience. I had 8 of "my kids" from last year! I took much more video this year which I'll eventually get posted to You Tube. So please check back here in the coming days for video and photos. The final photo count was 587.

Karin is picking me, Dawn and Betty up at DFW on Sunday around 4 pm. Craving Tex-Mex and anything with salt in it. Everyone is well, but nursing upper-respiratory coughing. The dust was horrible. It hasn't rained in Zambia since March so grass was few and far between. I've been taking Cipro and eating Ricola cough drops like they're M&Ms.

We had planned to take a taxi to downtown Johannesburg, but apparently it's not the safest city to roam. I wish Gayle would swing by and take us to the Oprah Winfrey Academy.

Back to the Real World

We arrived in Lusaka yesterday morning after a 7-hour bus ride from Livingstone. Our ride picked us up at the hotel around 4:45 am yesterday morning and took us to the bus station. The bus was packed. We were the only white people (muzungus) on the bus. We stopped twice for restroom breaks which cost K500 (500 kwacha = approx. 25 cents).
My villa in the Mulungushi Village is much better than last year. My roommates are great. One is a fashion designer from NYC; the other is a farm boy from Ft. Worth.

Today, we attended church in the village with a 20-person Zambia choir and Zambian preacher. It lasted more than 2 hours. After church, the bus took us to the local market for lunch and shopping. Every Sunday the local craftsmen come to sell their goods. Our meals the last three days have been eggs, french fries, carrots, green beans and white rice. The PB&J starts tomorrow. I'm at a small cafe that sells Internet access for K9,000 (approx. $2.50/hr.). I wish Starbucks would get in on that action. We shared a table with a nice Aussie attending Cornell University graduate school in upstate New York. He's over here for two months researching conservation and environmental protection policies. He sleeps in a tent each night so it makes our living quarters sound like the Four Seasons.
This afternoon we meet our Zambian interpreter who we'll be paired one-on-one with for the remainder of the week. It was good to see some familiar faces back at camp. There are about three people who attended week 8 with me last week. Two are current UT students.

Yesterday, on the way to the village, I saw a local guy wearing a homemade Barack Obama t-shirt. My window was open so I yelled, "I like your t-shirt." Without missing a beat, he yelled back, "Change we can believe in." How awesome is that!  

This is the last time I'll have Internet access for the remainder of the trip in Africa.  The next post will likely be in South Africa on the way back home if I have enough time between flights.

Here are some photos taken over the past 4 days since my last blog post.