Articles in the ‘Uncategorized’ Category.
Shale has 5 children, ages 29 to 7, and 2 grandchildren that live with her. She is a single mother who travels to Gaborone to work about 1 week a month as a maid. Shale says that she hasn’t been able to find work in Molepolole and relies on her eldest daughter, Moiponi, to help with expenses.
The 600 pula she earns a month is not enough to pay for rent, electricity, food for 8, and school expenses. In fact, it costs Shale about 2000 pula a year to pay for the school uniforms and supplies!
Shale is looking forward to moving into her Habitat house the second week of August because it is bigger than the one she is renting and will be hers once she pays off the mortgage.
The 29 year old daughter of future homeowner Shale, whose Habitat house we are finishing this week, provided some interesting insights into life in Botswana. Although Moiponi has a full-time job, she struggles financially given that she plans to make most of the monthly payments for her mother’s house. Here is a quick breakdown of her income and expenses. Continue reading ‘Moiponi’…
If anyone sees either or both of these two puppies, please report them immediately to the Columbus Global Village Team! No, they are not wanted for being so adorably cute. They are wanted for Grand Theft Camera!
The Background: Rebecca, Regina, Sarah, Lisa, Casey, Lauren and Jonathan spent an unintended night in Johannesburg due to a missed flight connection. Delta blamed the delay on a “surprise inspection” by the TSA, and denied vouchers for accommodations and food. Continue reading ‘GVTeam Most Wanted List’…
Tambo International, the huge, modern Johannesburg airport, was remarkably quiet when we arrived at 6:30 p.m., about 1 1/2 hours late after bucking unusual headwinds all the way from Atlanta. “Perfect,” we thought, and began sprinting in hopes that our connection to Gaborone might also run late. Alas, we missed our flight; fortunately we enjoyed an excellent outcome! Continue reading ‘An African Welcome’…
Having traveled a time or two, upon arrival at Port Columbus airport today, I immediately steered us away from the self-check-in-kiosks toward the agent line because it seems that for international flights the automated systems eventually direct us there anyway. When the helpful Delta employee encouraged us to leave the line and use an available kiosk, I resisted for only a couple of seconds… Continue reading ‘A Delta Sendoff’…
It doesn’t seem that long ago that we raced out of town ahead of the next snow storm last January to head down to Bay St. Louis! We have had a blast working for Habitat through the winter in Mississippi and then were thrilled to fulfill our dream to explore Alaska and Northern Canada from April - September. We will treasure the memories of our many new friends and fantastic scenery we explored!
Our intent was to sell the RV as we hit Colorado on the return - which we did - but we enjoyed this form of travel so much we bought another RV that provided us with much more living space without increasing our length!
So, for those of you who have visited this site in 2009, we’ll be back on the road this coming January - headed to work for Habitat for Humanity in Tucson, AZ - I always wanted to paint the desert!
You can also check out our summer 2010 plans to lead 2 Habitat Global Village teams to Botswana. Although we won’t be floating across the ocean in the RV - we look forward to learning how Habitat houses are built in Molepolole and Mahalapye!
Blessings for a happy holidays - Dave & Susi
We visited the Oxbow Bend turnout in Grand Teton National Park on a lovely day, and I was able to capture a couple of pretty nice photos. If only I’d been content and left it at that, I’d have been just fine; but, the sight of some pelicans and cormorants up the river was just too much to resist. Of course, they were too far away to photograph with the lenses I have, so I took a hike.
Continue reading ‘Playing Moose’…
As Dave & I sat in another Wyoming traffic jam, we chatted about how relieved we were that Kevin survived the experience of being squeezed between two semis with little more than a scratch.
Although road hazards here in Wyoming aren’t quite as large - we do get the idea of how intimidating it can feel to be surrounded on all sides by the local traffic. So, here’s a little video to let Kevin know that we empathize with him, and are glad to hear that he and his banged up car are back on the road.
As we’ve been exploring Yellowstone National Park, Dave would say, “I remember…” and share a memory he has of the trip to this beautiful park when our children were still in elementary school. Continue reading ‘New Memories of Yellowstone’…
Stay tuned for the next cloudy day…
We have really enjoyed our visits at National Parks in both the Canadian and USA Rockies - in large part due to the accessibility of park exhibits and views. The Icefield Parkway in Canada and the Highway to the Sun in Glacier were both excellent examples of providing opportunities for people of all abilities to explore the parks at their own speed. Continue reading ‘Accessibility of the Rockies’…
We’ve finally got a rhythm to our travel days. If it’s a “photo morning”, i.e. brilliant sky, I drive so Dave can hang out the window and take way too many shots along the way. My second job is to give occasional composition suggestions if (when!) he “needs” them. Continue reading ‘A Rainy Day = New Blog Posts’…
I left Dave grumbling about having too many photos to process and headed out to catch the sunrise at Lake Louise. As I arrived, the sun was hitting the bright red canoes and the back glacier. It was delightful to see the sun highlight more of the lake and surrounding mountains while I worked to capture the delightful scene on canvas! Continue reading ‘Not All of Us Ignored Lake Louise…’…
Someone is sure to ask, “Why no pictures of Lake Louise, Dave?”
Well, some of you may know that I occasionally suffer from a bit of tunnel vision, and I’m afraid I have to plead guilty regarding this project.
Continue reading ‘Many Faces of Mount Edith Cavell Slideshow’…
