July 4 in Swaziland

Happy independence day! I celebrated with a small group of Americans and British (who nicely enjoyed the fireworks along with us....). We relaxed at our friend's house all afternoon, as you can see it was an overcast winter day here in Mbabane. After dark we lit off some fireworks we had purchased at a Chinese store in town, all the while worrying about setting the fields around us on fire as the fields are now brown and dry. And while I'm talking about holidays, also take a look at the photo I am posting of a "poinsettia tree." That's not its real name, but there are many of these trees around Mbabane which remind me of the December holiday season. As does the weather here....I am working on my skills as a fire builder every evening, although finding that red wine works just as well to warm us up!

You will see some "real fireworks" in one of my photos...that was at the Confederation Cup final in JoBurg last weekend. Once we found that the USA was actually in a "football" final (soccer for those of you not with the lingo) we thought this would be a once in a lifetime chance to see the game. So we managed to get tickets at the very last minute and headed to JoBurg. Unfortunately Brazil beat the US 3-2; the game was great fun and exciting to think we could have won it with a 2-0 lead at halftime.

Finally you might notice my friend Heather who joined us at the game. She, along with my friend Amy (both who taught with me in Japan), came to visit Swaziland, which explains my absence from blogging over the past few weeks; a horrible windstorm that knocked out power for several days also accounts for some of the delay. Look soon for some photos from Heather's collection; she is quite a photographer and took some great snapshots of life here in Africa!