WESLEY'S INTERIM TRIP TO NEPAL

This year Wesley chose to go to Nepal for his interim semester trip. The group consisted of 20 students and 2 teachers, all who were looking forward to some cold weather and trekking in the Himalyas for ten days. The highlight of the trip, of course, was seeing Mount Everest. Wes has never even been to Colorado, so to see Mount Everest was an awesome experience! The group flew from Singapore to Kathmandu, then boarded a 20-seat plane bound for Lukla. Arriving and departing from the Lukla airstrip was much anticipated (and dreaded for some), as the runway is on the side of a mountain, making takeoffs and landings very precarious! While in Nepal, the students had the opportunity to observe and experience Nepalese culture first hand, to experience Buddhism and visit one of the world's oldest Tibetan monasteries, and to study the natural history and ecosystem of the Himalayan mountain range. Oh and did I mention the snowball fights and snow angels they made on Mount Everest? These kids have lived on the equator for so long and are used to sweating every day, so to see and feel snow was a welcome sight! Shelby and I were in Bali when we received a text from Wes saying he was doing snow angels on Mount Everest and having the time of his life. :) Wes packed his hiking boots, long underwear, and lots of snacks to eat along the way. Fortunately none of the students got altitude sickness, but they all lost weight while they were gone.

I wonder what this says in Nepalese?

Yaks were used to carry the packs into the mountains

Ever heard of YETI Airines? They flew from Kathmandu to Lukla on Yeti Airlines

Kathmandu Airport

On a street in Kathmandu

Clint, Wes and Brandon

Wes, Clint and Dan

Yes, of course, the Eskimo Joe's shirt went to Nepal! :)

The children in Nepal have a ruddy complexion

MOUNT EVEREST!!!

The students took stuffed animals and toys to the children in the village

View from the airplane flying from Kathmandu to Lukla

At the Himalayan Money Exchange

Group photo at the Singapore airport before departure

RUGBY TOURNAMENT IN JAKARTA

The girls touch rugby tournament was held in Jakarta Indonesia on January 28 - 30th and Kasey was fortunate enough to be selected to play with the SAS Varsity team. They took 3rd place overall, coming in behind Manila and Bangkok International Schools. Touch rugby can be a pretty physical game - the girls don't merely "touch" one another - they push and shove and dive to the ground in order to make the touch if needed. It was fun to watch the girls play, and to watch our SAS boys play "real" rugby with tackling. Our boys took 2nd place in the tournament. Such a fun experience for the players, who are housed by the local expat community and there is an air of friendly competition. Shelby and I were not impressed by Jakarta at all - the traffic was chaos, it was a dirty place with lots of graffitti, but the Jakarta International School was nice. The highlight for us was finding a good Mexican restaurant and also eating Krispy Kreme donuts! (we don't get those in Singapore)

SURFING IN SOUTH AFRICA

Yesterday the boys golfed, the girls shopped, and no one took a single picture! Today is New Years Eve Day, and we promised Wesley a day at the beach so he could surf. We went to Muizenberg Beach and the water was absolutely freezing, requiring a wetsuit, but he was so determined. The rest of us sat on the beach and watched him try first a longboard, then a shortboard. It was incredibly windy but a great day to be out. Muizenberg Beach is home to the famous colored beach shacks which are a favorite of photographers. It is also a favorite beach for Great White Sharks, which made me very nervous. I was afraid that if Wes was out in the surf that he might not hear the shark siren alerting him that a shark had been sighted and to get out of the water immediately, so I told him to keep an eye on the beach and if he saw me making a big flapping signal with my hands up and down, that meant get out of the water NOW! He was able to surf for two and a half hours before a shark was sighted by the shark spotters and the siren was sounded. I jumped up and began flapping my arms wildly and trying to spot him in the water, trying not to panic as swimmers came running out of the water. Little did I know that he was sneaking up behind me and laughing at me for acting so crazy! I may never forgive him for that! :) That was the end of our beach day, we had lunch nearby, did some souvenir shopping, went back to the hotel and packed for our flight home the next day, and slept right thru all the fireworks down at the waterfront on New Years Eve!

This is the flag that is raised all along the beach when a shark is spotted in the water. Unfortunately, a man was attacked and killed by a shark ten days after we got back home.

View of Muizenberg Beach from the Shark Spotters station

This was the funniest thing! We were seated at a restaurant and were watching these cute blondes on the street corner. They would stop people and looked like they were selling something. We bet Wes that he wouldn't go down and talk to them, but he proved us wrong! They are local girls who know about ten or twelve different languages, and they sing and talk in unison to entertain the crowds then they sell bars of soap to raise money for local organizations in need. They are called the Soap Girls, and you can look it up on You Tube - the Soap Girls in Hout Bay. And yes, Wes bought 4 bars of soap from them! :)

This is a picture taken from our car as we drove along past the townships in Cape Town. There are so many "shanty towns" which show so much poverty, as they are built out of cardboard and any other discarded materials that can be found. There are literally hundreds of these built right next to each other like a neighborhood.

More shanties in the townships

This photo was taken in the Cape Malay area, called the Bo Kaap. They favor brightly colored homes and shops, as an opposition to the law years ago during apartheid requiring that all buildings must be painted white and only white.

WINERY TOUR/CHEETAH RESERVE/MOYA

Today we took a tour into the wine country and visited several South African wineries in Stellenbosch and Franschoek. First stop, and most beautiful winery in my opinion, was Els Winery that is owned by none other than the South African golfer, Ernie Els. His winery is known for their red wines, and the vineyards were immaculate and manicured. It was a beautiful, warm sunny morning and we enjoyed the gorgeous views.

There was even a little putting green overlooking the vineyards below

Wesley sampled a few wines but Kasey was not at all interested in drinking wine. I'm not a big fan of wine either, because it gives me a headache, but I loved the scenery and just being outdoors

Grapes growing at the Mira Vineyards in Stellenbosch. We had lunch at Dieu Donne in Franschoek, in a dining room overlooking the beautiful vineyards. There was quite a bit of wild game on the menu, and Shelby was brave and ordered springbok, which would be similar to an American gazelle. He actually liked it! :)

There was a cheetah reserve at the Spier Winery so of course we had to check out the cheetahs.

Here we are with Peter, a 17 month old cheetah weighing around 65 lbs. We learned that the male cheetahs are more social than the females.

We enjoyed walking along and shopping in Stellenbosch and Franschoek, and came upon this building on a small university campus in Stellenbosch. Wes got the biggest kick out of the spelling of "Kollege" and had to take a photo for his OU friends back home in Norman Oklahoma!

Dinner tonight was at the Moyo, a true African experience. Tables are set up outdoors, some in the trees, and they came along and painted everyone's face with African markings. There was a huge buffet of many local foods (along with some great desserts!), and entertainment consisted of traditional African song and dance. It was probably geared a bit more to younger children, or maybe we were just tired after a full day of wine tasting, but we didn't last too long....

This gal could really shake her stuff! What a great dancer!

Wes with his face painted as a native African

Kasey is one pale African!