Blogs from Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa, Africa - page 11

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Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Pretoria September 14th 2008

"I'm Bored" Says Tom, "Me To, Lets do something" Said Stuart "Wanna go to Sun City" An excited Geoff pipes up "Sure, When?" from both Stuart & Tom "Now" So within 2 hours we left Camp and were on our way This conversation took place at 10.30am on Tuesday after breakfast and a heavy night before as alot of the group had gone home on the Monday. So by 1.30pm the three of us were on our way on a 7 hour road trip to Sun city in Tom's Defender Land Rover. The journey took us through the Drankensberg Mountains and then onto the N4 toll roads through Pretoria and then 2 hours onto the Sun City area. We arrived after a ipod singing alcopop laughing drive at about 8.30pm to the Sundown Lodge about 10km ... read more
Flame Stand
Elephant Carving above Entrance
Monkey Carving

Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Pretoria September 10th 2008

"A man without culture is like a zebra without stripes" Days 5, 6 and 7 (September 7 - 9) Sunday morning we had free time in Soweto. The parading musicians rounding the neighborhood since before dawn led some students to attend church services, others relaxed at Lebo's, and I joined 7 others on a bicycle tour given by Lebo himself. We learned a bit more about Soweto and had a good time darting through traffic (at least I did-- others weren't so sure.) Lebo is a celebrity in town, so everyone was smiling and waving at us. When the tour was over, it was time to load up the bus and leave Soweto. We gave Lebo and Maria a "Seattle Then & Now" book that we all signed as a thank you and as we pulled ... read more
Bike Tour
Lebo's
Let's see Seattle!

Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Pretoria September 3rd 2008

Hejsa Efter en afslappet weekend forrige uge med pool-session og bytur, har sidste weekend været ret action-packed. Lørdag var jeg i Magaliesberg - et bjergområde ikke så langt udenfor Pretoria - sammen med Peter, Ulrike og Chris fra huset, samt Julika, som er Chris' kollega. Vi var selvfølgelig ude at hike - og det var varmt, men dejligt (vinden hjalp os lidt på vej). Magaliesberg var markant anderledes end Drakensberg, hvor vi var for et par uger siden - knap så hårdt, men mindst lige så spændende. Der er en hel masse små pools (damme fra floder), som man kan bade i - og hvor vandet er rent nok til, at man kan drikke det. Ingen af os var dog rigtig friske på at hoppe i, da vandet stadig er ret køligt, men det var dejligt ... read more
Stort kighul i stor sten
Stor sten på lang afstand
Klippeformation

Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Pretoria August 18th 2008

En ny opdatering her fra mig. Vi har endelig fået vores lille, fine bil, som dog endnu ikke er blevet registreret i vores navn. Den er allerede blevet døbt George, når den er sød, og Keld når den er dum. For det meste hedder den dog George, da det er en sød, lille bil (eller faktisk ret stor). I weekenden blev den sat på sin første store udfordring, da vi tog til Drakensberg (fire danske praktikanter, plus de to tyske praktikanter, som vi bor med, og to andre tyske praktikanter). Vi kørte tidligt fredag eftermiddag - 500 km sydpå til bjergområdet Drakensberg, som grænser op til landet Lesotho. Det var en lang køretur, men George (og dens førere) klarede det super. Faktisk kunne George kører så stærkt - selv med 4 store danskere med fuld oppakning ... read more
Gruppen
Peter
Et meget lille vandfald

Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Pretoria August 6th 2008

Hi everyone, I know it’s been for ever since I last wrote a blog and I apologize. I’ve been lazy! And a lot of you are on Facebook. Those who are, you’ve seen most of these pictures and may have heard some of the stories. Uhm, where to start… I was in New Zealand last year until mid-October. Then I went home for a visit stopping by Hawaii and Vancouver. I also went to Scotland and Wales with the Canadian National rugby team where I got my first senior international cap against Scotland. I then spent a few days visiting Wales and Ireland. I spent Christmas at home and then headed to South Africa in mid-January. I’ve been here since then. I live in Pretoria, the administrative capital of the country which is about 50 km ... read more
Lesotho
Lesotho
Lesotho

Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Pretoria August 6th 2008

Lidt nyt fra Sydafrika. Det tager lidt tid at få opdateret min blog, da jeg jo ikke har internetadgang i huset. Jeg har det stadig godt. Nyder Sydafrika, hygger mig i huset og arbejder løs på ambassaden. Intet nyt der. Jeg har lavet lidt forskelligt siden sidst, så det er svært lige at holde jer opdateret på det hele, men vil prøve at finde det mest interessante at fortælle. Først og fremmest er jeg flyttet ind i mit nye værelse - hvor jeg jo har eget bad, toilet og walk-in closet. Masser af plads til besøgende! Det er rigtig dejligt endeligt at være kommet ordentligt på plads. Der er også ved at være ro på i huset, i hvert fald indtil oktober, hvor der igen er udskiftning blandt de tyske praktikanter. Siden sidst har jeg været ... read more
Kamel
Marked
Dansk teknologi

Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Pretoria July 21st 2008

Lige en ny hutig up-date her fra Sydafrika. Jeg har det stadig rigtig godt og er ved at finde mig til rette både i huset og på arbejde. Der er masser af spændende opgaver at tage fat på, så tror næppe at jeg kommer til at kede mig det næste års tid. Jeg synes, at det er utroligt at tiden allerede er gået så hurtig. I weekenden har jeg været på en lille safari-tur i Pilanesberg, en lille dyrepark et par timers kørsel fra Pretoria. På trods af at tidspunktet er optimalt for safari, så vi desværre ikke så mange dyr, men der var dog alligevel nok til, at vi foldede os ud som Japanske turister og gik amok med kameraet. Jeg har sat nogle af billederne ind nedenfor. Lørdag aften tog vi til en lille ... read more
Afrika 010
Afrika 016
Afrika 017

Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Pretoria July 18th 2008

“Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” -Nelson Mandela Today is a very special day for South Africa and the world as Nelson Mandela turns 90 years old. This being Mandela’s birthday, it was a very fitting day for us to visit a school in a “squatter” camp. Dr. Edwin Smith, director of the Memelido Campus of the University of Pretoria, took us to an “unofficial” settlement where people are living in absolutely impoverished conditions. In the midst of the settlement is a school that educates roughly 2,400 students in 35 “temporary” buildings. Despite all the hardships facing the students and the school, we arrived to smiling faces and excited children. The school and Dr. Smith have worked hard to establish a library where the students can begin to develop ... read more
Mamelodi

Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Pretoria July 17th 2008

We had our first opportunity to visit a school today and all of us were glad to be able to get into the classrooms. The school is named the HF Verwoerd School which is significant because Verwoerd is known as the “architect of apartheid.” Despite its name*, Verwoerd is now a highly integrated school and offers students the choice of either English or Afrikaans for their language of instruction. We were welcomed to the school by the Global Youth Forum who discussed a number of issues currently facing secondary students in South Africa including BEE (Black Economic Empowerment). BEE is in some ways similar to Affirmative Action and, as in the U.S., BEE is the focus of many debates. We were very impressed with the students and their ability to engage in such a meaningful discussion ... read more

Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Pretoria July 16th 2008

The focus of today’s sessions was access to education. Dr. Lolwana spoke about the South African educational system and the changes it has undergone in the past 14 years since the end of apartheid. South Africa has changed immensely in these years and Dr. Lolwana made a great analogy to trying to make a car as you’re driving it. We then heard from Jennifer Kinnear from the South African Department of Education who discussed the resent changes to South Africa’s educational system including the initial switch to outcomes based education (OBE) and the subsequent clarification of content that took place in 2005. Ms. Kinnear acknowledged the challenges that South Africa continues to face and there were surprising parallels to the United States - including how to properly implement programs, monitor progress, and assess student learning. ... read more




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