Going to South Africa

Or at least it looks that way at the moment. The Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program just proposed an exchange for me outside of Johannesburg, South Africa for the calendar year of 2010. The proposal is not final yet, as both parties and schools have to finalize the agreement, but the chances of me going to South Africa are very high at the moment.

Unlike most traditional calendar exchanges, the South African exchange is on their school system's year round schedule. This is a huge plus for my travel possibilities throughout the region. 11 weeks in school followed by 3 weeks vacation. I believe this will give me three 3 week vacations while I'm there. I've already got my heart set on Cape Town for at least one of these trips. I've also got my heart set on traveling via motorcycle. The area around Sasolburg is full of endless weekend trips that I plan on taking full advantage of.

It's only March, and if all goes well, I'll still be here till January. I am very excited nonetheless. I'm going to begin my South African reading list though, starting with Nelson Mandela's autobiography. If I ever make it through that, I'll take your other suggestions. I'm also going to download some more Hugh Masekela and get more more SA in the Ipod as well. Wow Africa!

International Festival

A few weeks back, Garner Magnet High School hosted it's 3rd annual International Festival. Since I actively participated in setting up 3 different booths, I thought it warranted a blog post. So here are the booths:

Booth 1:
Beleza/Fair Trade

Sorry about the blurry picture, these pictures were taken by students, so what are you going to do?

The paintings were done by my friend Eddie Bbira in Uganda. They're painted on bark cloth and they sell them at Beleza in Cameron Village.



Booth 2:
Invisible Children

Welcome to Gulu, Uganda. This grass roof was a pain in the ptootie to build. But it looks pretty bad-a, right?

Booth 3:
Painting Lemonade
Guatemala City, Guatemala

I'm most proud of this one. I put together the Painting Lemonade project back in August. Wake County high school students paint portraits of children in La Limonada. I'll be delivering some of these 250 pictures to the children in April, during my spring break. Not bad, huh?