Peace Corps Blog

This is a blog of my experience as a Peace Corps volunteer, working in South Africa. My job title is a capacity builder, which means I help increase the effectiveness of a local NGO that does AIDS/HIV related work.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Lots More Photos

It's long overdue, but I have finally posted lots more photos. The dearth of photos has been due to two things. One, forgetting my camera in Durban over Christmas vacation. And two, the slow upload speed over the cellphone connection. But both problems have been remedied at this point. Amazingly, I managed to recover my camera four months after I left it in a backpackers in Durban. As for the internet speed, I believe the local cellphone tower was upgraded, because now I get a 3G connection (which is amazing for a rural village anywhere in the world, much less Africa).

My parents came to visit in April, and we spent a little over two weeks traveling around the eastern part of South Africa. Just a brief overview of our trips:
  • One night in my village, ga-Mathabatha, staying with Agnes (the head of my organization)
  • Over to Graskop and Sabie
  • A four night backpacking trip from Sabie over to Graskop (not really backpacking, as we got to stay in outstanding little huts along the way)
  • Into Kruger, the amazing game park here
  • South, around Swaziland (staying at a guesthouse on a pig farm along the way)
  • Two nights in St. Lucia, an estuary game park along the coast
  • One night in Durban, with a breathtaking view of the Indian Ocean from our room
  • Up to the Drakensberg mountain range, where we stayed in the Royal Natal park
  • And finally, returning to Pretoria before my parents headed off
My parents brought many books and other niceties for me to enjoy, but one of the best was my nicer camera, which I had originally decided to leave at home. So along the way, I was able to make up for the lack of photos and captured some of the beautiful places and things we saw. And I have selected a few the highlight places along our journey, and have posted 27 new photos! You can see them by going to:

Album: Traveling South Africa with my parents
http://picasaweb.google.com/nathanntg/TravelingSouthAfricaWithMyParents

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