TheCowans

I know it's only been a few weeks since our last message, but I thought that most of you would want to know what has just happened here. We're Not in Kansas Anymore A week and a half ago, a tornado struck the community of Bhekulwandle, where the Seed of Hope is. It was a beautiful Saturday evening when at about 6:30pm the sky suddenly turned greyish/yellow. The wind turned fierce and huge drops of rain and hail came down almost sideways. At our place, the patio door slammed shut so hard that the glass in it shot out of the frame and smashed onto the ground. It was certainly the most intense storm I have ever been in. But within 6 or 7 minutes it was over. As Shauna and I boarded up our window ... read more

Hey, it's Shauna writing to update you on our lives here in South Africa. Scott should be back next time with his sense of humour and tear inducing stories, though. I've proven that Scott should be in charge of the blogging duties, since it's taken me over a month to finish this entry. I'm sorry it's so lengthy, we've had so many great experiences here so it's difficult to choose just a few to share with you all! We only have four months left before our year is up so we are trying to take every opportunity that comes our way and to enjoy every minute that's left! Little Lwazi First things first, I wanted to update you on our miracle Lwazi, (the little boy from our last blog who was run over by a car). ... read more

It Was A Dark and Stormy Night.... I'm writing this blog entry by candle light as we are experiencing one the planned power outages which have become so common across South Africa. In January, the government-run Electrical Utility announced that the electrical demand across the country had exceeded the supply of available energy. To deal with the shortage they rolled out a plan for scheduled power outages throughout the country. Areas are divided into "blocks" of electrical distribution areas, which are then scheduled for 4 hour power outages every second day. We were fortunate that the cooler weather in March meant that the use of Air Conditioners went down and there was enough power to avert any outages. April 1 was the start of "Stage 2" of the electrical power consumption plan, which I don't really ... read more

Well, I have been trying very hard to keep up with the news both here and back in Canada, but it has been quite disheartening in both places. Canadian news headlines seem to be full of Freezing Weather, Terrible Car Accidents, Teenage Murders, and many other depressing things (including non-stop headlines about Britney Spears). The world headlines are full of Kenyan Violence, and the US Recession. Local headlines here outside Durban, SA contain crazy stories of Carjackings, Murder, and Robberies. So I thought that this week I would go with a news theme that is a little more encouraging. These are some of the headlines in the Life of Scott and Shauna this week: A Troop of Monkeys "Break and Enter" into our house and make off with a load of bananas. A gecko falls from ... read more

Welcome to our travel blog! Some of you have asked us to keep you updated with our adventures in South Africa this year so here it goes! If you are on our email list and would like to be removed, just let us know. If you know of someone that should be added, let us know that too. We will try to add messages regularly, most likely they will be from me (Shauna) more than Scott as his two finger typing slows him down. Hopefully you will be lucky and get a few from Scott because, as most of you know, his stories are far more entertaining! We have been busy the past month celebrating the holidays with family and friends, and finishing up our jobs. Last weekend we went cross-country skiiing in Kananaskis with our ... read more