South Africa from beginning to end

Off to South Africa.
The first time for Lance to leave the country, and the first time I went home in almost 4 years. We met up in Washington Dulles, and took on the 15 hour flight.

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JOHANNESBURG

Visiting with the family. Dinner at Heidi & Lothar's. It was great fun!

My cousin Monique & her husband Jimmy.

Pictures with Lance and Monique

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DURBAN

uShaka Marine World in Durban
The Seal Show

Inside the "Sunken" Ship Aquarium

Just because... I like this pic.

Off to Dinner now!
That is a Green Goddess...

The best table at the Cargo Restaurant. With 4 sharks swimming in a tank right next to us. It was an absolutely wonderful experience.

Lance it total joy, because he just touched the water from the Indian Ocean.

The view from out Hotel Room in Durban, on the 8th floor.
We had a wonderful stay, and all went well with my Visa. The only unusual thing was the load shedding where the entire city had no electricity for two hours, so we had to carry our luggage down eight flight of stairs...

Stopping at a very windy Umhlanga Rock, outside of Durban.

Lance touching the Indian Ocean. If it wasn't raining, we would have gone for a swim.

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PIET RETIEF & MY FAMILY

The first time I met Brian.
Immediately after stopping at Joy's house Brian opened his arms, and hugged me. He did not let go, and we cuddled for the longest time. It was so incredibly special to hold him.

Spending some quality time with Brian. He loved reading and smiling for the Camera.

Brian & his aunt Ilse.

My Sis, Joy. Pregnant with another boy.

Taking a moment at Papa's grave.

My Elementary school - Wittenberg

I just couldn't stop cuddling my little nephew.

He already loves cell phones. Cute!!!

My sister Olga & I

The Family Picture. Outside of Spur, where Olga is a Manager.

The Best Picture of all!!!

Lance bonding with Brian.

Corne & Desire's little boy - Uwe. And their cute dog

My Cousins Corne & Lizelle

With Tannie Meisie & Onkel Bobby

With Onkel Fritz & Tante Edith

Brian with Opa (the picture was taken last year), and one with his daddy, Bruce.

I just had to take a picture of the only moment Brian actually cried.
Sooooo Cute.

Brian sitting with his bear, watching a little Shreck before breakfast time.

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LEAVING PIET RETIEF
DRIVING TO KRUGER

Yes, I got in trouble with the Law. Just outside of Piet Retief I was caught speeding - oops. Well, I was asked to step out of the vehicle, and with a little joking around, they let me off the hook. I asked for a picture, and suddenly all officers jumped in for the snap shot. It was pretty funny actually :)

So the plan was to drive through Swaziland. Well, on the way there I realized that my passport was still at the consulate, and I couldn't go through. We tried my old passport, but they caught on right away, so we had to turn around and drive the long way. At least Lance got to see the border.

Lance Driving - on the other side of the road, and other side of the car... He did pretty well actually.

Some mountains, signs and an Abnormal Load truck

The Barberton Valley

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THE KRUGER NATIONAL PARK.

Within the first hour of driving through the Kruger National Park, we saw an Elephants, a Rhino and Buffalo. All close up and beautiful!

The African Sunset - Incredible!

Our accommodations at Pretoriuskop - A Hut!

All direction signs were in the format below. Can you say the pond's name? Here we saw our first crocodile.

Elephants can smell flowers too! :)

We saw these birds everywhere, and once I almost hit one, when I saw an elephant.

Zebra's

Here we are at a climb out point. We went to a nursery and a bird watching spot.

Hello Hippo

The Entry Gate for Skukuza Camp - The main camp in Kruger

Lunch under a Lapalla, with Bats sleeping above our heads...

Internet at last.

The Skukuza Camp reception area

I love these little Blue Monkeys

A very big Bird, and a nice Impala Picture.

Stopping at a water hole, we saw a baboon, a secretary Bird (i think), an elephant drinking, squirrels, and "blau wilde bees".




A Blue Wilder beest. (Blou wilde bees)

Ok, this is one of my favorites! These squirrels begged for food at Lance's Window, when we stopped to watch the Elephant drinking.

A big herd of Elephants crossed the road, there were 4 smaller elephants.


Zebras, and a Giraffe - Love this picture!

WOW - A Baby White Rhino and her mommy.

A cute baby water buck.

The African Sunset!



A romantic Dinner at Satara Camp.

Some Baboons, sitting in the tree and watching me.


Buffalo's crossing the road for some good pictures.

Vultures.

The BEST!!! On Friday Morning, I got up at 6am (Lance stayed sleeping), and took a little drive of my own. Not far from the camp were these Lions. Two females, four cubs, and a big daddy lion resting near a kill under the tree. AMAZING!!!



Our accommodations at Satara Camp. With a park view.

Another Giraffe... and a funky tree

BAOABAB Tree. I risked getting out of the car...heard something moving in the bushes, but we still managed to get a picture to show just how big this tree is.


Hand around a pond for a while, and you'll see nature at it's best.
When we arrived at this pond there were only wartdog's, after a while two elephants cam and crossed the road, for drinking, then Giraffes followed, and soon there were water bucks, Impala's, baboons, and more wart dog's.



Lance really loves Giraffes, so we took pictures of every one we saw.

Here some Pumba and some babies

Orpen Dam with Green Lettuce all around. We saw Hippo's and Crocodiles here.


The View of the African Plains. I took a moment to relax, kinda :)


The Sabie River


The park opens and closes at 6!!!
Note ABLUTIONS - not toilets :)

Guneafowl & another Giraffe

The Blue Monkeys were outside our Bungalow in the park.

Our Luxury Bungalow in Skukuza Camp

On a little walk around the Skukuza Camp, admiring the sunset and stopping at the old Train station, that used to run through the park until 1978.

Sunrise Saturday Morning - Our Last day in Africa

Security Check for Lance at the Kruger Airport.

On the plane from Kruger (White River) to Johannesburg)



We are safely home again. It was a wonderful, short, trip!!!

Comments from my Intro to Business Instructor.

This made me feel quite good last night :)

Ilse

From snowy Boulder:

Congratulations on completing the Introduction to Business teleweb course. With the 25 points you earned for the last special assignment and the 20 points you collected for lessons 25 & 26 you now have 386 points or a final grade of A for this class. By the way, I do not get too many students who mentioned that they loved the accounting video.

Your enthusiasm for the class was evident in the quality of work you submitted. It was a joy to have you as a student this semester. Your work was always among the best written. Obviously, you have academic talent. I wish you well with your career in being a director of a childcare facility and your pursuit of your early childhood education degree from CMC.

Harry

Playing with the Camp Kiddies

Last day at Aspen Mountain

Another one bites the dust...Aspen Mountain and Snowmass are closed for the season

Final Paper for my Guidance Strategy Class.

After all the discussions, research and reading the entire book “challenging Behavior in Young Children”, what stood out to me the most, is that children with challenging behavior are human beings, who did not get up with the decision to make your day miserable. They could have various causes for their behavior starting at illnesses from irresponsible mothers, hereditary ailments, and exposure to factors beyond their control that influence them towards challenging behavior. I learned a lot from, and absolutely love the WEVAS (Working effectively with violent and aggressive states) program.

First children exhibit the anxious state, which is the early warning system. One needs to use heart to heart strategies, by providing comfort, caring, calibrating and correcting. More importantly by using the following techniques will help a child return to a competent state:

• Using door openers to get the child to sit down with you.
• Asking open-ended question – This is must not just for challenging behavior children.
• Validating and paraphrasing is critical, so that the child knows you understand him or her.
• Reframing the child’s statement will let the child see the event in a more positive light.
• Responding to the need within the child’s message.
• Paying attention to your tone of voice, and body language!!! Children pick up immediately how you are feeling towards them by the tone and body language you bring forth.

When a teacher does not respond to the signs of anxiety, a child’s behavior can escalate to agitation. The teacher should let the child know that the behavior is unacceptable and then teach him or her, what is acceptable. By showing respect, care, and support towards the child, he or she will know what is expected from him. The I-message will tell the child how her behavior affects you and they allow you to take ownership of your feelings instead of hiding them. At the second level of agitation, the issue becomes power. Do the unexpected, and it will help the child think about what they are doing and it could stop the cycle. Redirecting them is a great tool! On the other hand providing children with options will make them stop and think. One has to always be clear, concise and concrete!

The next sage is referred to the aggressive state in which the child is out of control, and they do not hear or understand anything you say to them. First of all you need to distance yourself psychologically, and take an L-stance to not seem threatening. The program taught me that eye-contact should be avoided as it can ignite the situation, or reinforce a child whose goal is to get your attention. Sometimes children can also move from aggressive to assaultive behavior, at which point you do not move the child and use all verbal and nonverbal skills you used to deal with a child the aggressive state, and in addition you must think of everyone’s safety.

There will always be children that exhibit challenging behavior, from the whiney two year old, to the kicking bully in the class. To me the fear that one child’s behavior will trigger an emotion deep inside my own being, is the reason I wanted to know what to do in order to correctly understand and handle all challenging behavioral situations. The one “tool” that stood out the most is to notice and comment good things kids do, especially if they are prone to showing signs of challenging behavior. Telling the child in question immediately that their behavior was good, lets them know that you love, notice, as well as care for their well being. From my experience the ultimate goal in this life is to have a child grow up resilient (able to recover quickly from setbacks). One of the ways to do this is by not telling a child “good job” or something in that line, when they achieve something, but instead asking them how they feel when they accomplished it, or even when they did a good deed. By having a child love themselves for doing something nice, they end up with a greater self-worth.

In the end creating a positive behavior support plan, is priority on my list. Once you understand where a child’s challenging behavior could have started, and then using strategies that appropriately deal with each situation, the end result can only be win-win. One needs to ask a few questions and asses the situations at hand by examining the following:

• What are the setting events (Noise, hunger, Fatigue), and what antecedents (a difficult task, waiting or no attention) are present?
• What is the behavior the child is expressing (kicking, hitting or screaming)?
• What are the potential functions for the behavior? Is the child trying to avoid or escape from doing something, Is she trying to get attention or an object, do they need an increase or decrease in sensory stimulation?
• One the function is recognized, the next step is to intervene and let a consequence play out.
• One can change the environment, replace the challenging behavior with appropriate behavior or ignore the inappropriate behavior as much as possible.
• The above will get the desired behavior, and life can continue on.

Empathy (the ability to identify with and understand somebody else's feelings or difficulties), is what sets apart good from bad. In addition I have always believed in respect as a very powerful instrument, especially towards children. Inappropriate behavior is an opportunity to teach and make a difference in a child’s life. I truly learned a lot from this class and the textbook. In the end I could not have summarized it any better than Sue Bredekamp Ph.D. from the foreword in the textbook: “Preventing challenging behavior, addressing it effectively when it occurs, and teaching appropriate alternatives in preschool are the responsibilities of every early childhood educator.” This is my credo!

My ER Visit

Well I had quite a day yesterday... Following peculiar spots on my leg, I decided to - without hesitation - go to see a doctor about it. No doctor's work on the weekend, so I had to got to the ER, where Alyson's previous host dad was the physician on duty.

The prognosis - CELLULITIS.

This is an infection of the tissue under the skin. It is caused by bacteria that enters the body through cuts or sores. If it is not treated the bacteria may enter the blood stream and cause blood poisoning.

Thank goodness I listened to my instinct and got this looked at. Now I'm on two different antibiotics treatments, but the "spots" already look sooooo much better. I'm just glad the diagnosis was right, and that I got the medication for it fast.

The Media and Our Children

My final presentation, and the notes for it. I worked very hard on this one, and wanted to share it with all.

Our Children and the Media

By: Ilse Louise Meyer

According to A.C. Nielsen of the American Medical Association, the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day (or 28 hours/week, or 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year). In a 65-year life, that person will have spent 9 years glued to the tube. Some Interesting statistics include the following:

• A TV is turned on in an average U.S. home for an average of 6 hours and 47 minutes per day.
• 66 Percent of Americans regularly watch television while eating dinner.
• 6 Million Videos are rented daily in the U.S.
• 3 Million Public library items are checked out daily in the U.S.
• 4,000 studies examining TV's effects on children have been conducted.
• 70 Percent of day care centers use TV during a typical day.
• Parents only spend 3.5 minutes in meaningful conversation with their children.
• 8,000 murders are seen of TV by the time an average child finishes elementary school.
• Food products/fast-food restaurants are ranked number 1 among TV advertisements to kids.

On another note biologists have found that watching television inhibits the production of the hormone melatonin, which affects the immune system, sleep cycle and the onset of puberty. Lower levels of melatonin may also make it more likely that cell DNA will produce cancer-causing mutations.

Obesity is another big problem, and after some intensive research I have found out that approximately 30.3% of children (ages 6 to 11) are overweight and 15.3% are obese. For teens (12 to 19) the rate is almost identical: 33.4% overweight and 15.5% obese (American Obesity Association, 2006). Further the incidence of Type II diabetes in children, the diabetes linked with obesity has increased significantly in the past few decades. Early childhood is a time of tremendous growth for children and the amount of physical activity positively affects the strength and amount of bone mass developed. Some facts everyone might want to know is that:

• Obesity in children increases the more hours they watch television
• More than 60% of overweight incidents can be linked to excess TV viewing
• Children who watch a lot of TV, Video’s and play computer games have a lower activity level which is linked to a higher rate of obesity
• Obesity puts children at risk for a variety of health problems.

Understanding the technological world we live in today I thought of why parents are prone to choose TV to entertain their children. It seems that working Parents just need some “alone” time to unwind, after a long day at the office. Some families have no funds for full-time childcare, resulting in the TV becoming the “babysitter”. Parents think that interactive TV, and other programs are educationally good for their kids. Time is needed to cook food, do laundry, etc. It seems that some children only eat when they are distracted by watching TV. Parents say that they turned out ok by watching TV, so why can’t their kids do the same?

If parents are using the television as an entertainer, a babysitter, or an educator, they might want to know that there are 4 TV channels totally dedicated to children, and these do not even include the satellite options. Some reasons to turn of the television are to reduce exposure to undesirable images, to increase “Face Time”, to help prevent obesity, and to improve sleep habits.
If or when you choose to turn off your TV, be sure to include the children in the decision making. Reducing TV time encourages kids to be more creative, healthier, more curios, and smarter, more social, and better decision-makers.

Some Ideas on what to do instead of watching TV are:

1. Go Outside – We have so many great trails here that are both safe and fun.

2. Read – The libraries have a fast variety of book choices, all kids I’ve seen there love it.

3. Meditate – Taking time to relax, and share what you are grateful for.

4. Get Crafty – Who does not like to receive a homemade card or a scrapbook of photo’s?

5. Make a home video – In this blog crazy world, it is great to incorporate videos with photo’s to share with family and grandparents, who might live further away.

6. Play a Game – A Card Game, Chess, Cranium is great fun, and have you tried playing scrabble again?

7. Cook – Choose a recipe everybody will enjoy. Anything from Cookies, Smoothies, or a home made Pizza.

8. Write a letter – A simple letter, or a story your child invented, is a wonderful gift to let somebody dear to you know that you are thinking of them

9. Dance – Let go of all ambitions, and let the rhythm guide you.

10. Talk – Choose a topic like a vacation spot, and sit down together to make a plan on what everybody would like to do there.

Other Alternative Ideas I found include The Switch Program - Switch™ active lifestyles from Media wise makes it easier for parents and kids to choose healthy and active lifestyles. Switch promotes increased physical activity, sound nutritional choices, and moderated screen time which will increase the physical fitness and overall health of children. Books - 365 TV-Free Activities You Can Do with Your Child (Paperback) by Steve Bennett and Ruth Bennett. Also 365 Outdoor Activities You Can Do With Your Child (Paperback) by the same Authors.

The Buddy Program - Since 1973 The Buddy Program has been pairing screened and trained adult volunteer mentors with young people, ages 6-18, from Aspen to El Jebel, Colorado. Children are paired with an adult Big Buddy in either the Community program, School-based program, or with a high school student in the Peer-to-Peer program. With supervision and support from Buddy Program staff, Big Buddies provide encouragement, guidance, and coaching as Little Buddies face new challenges and decisions, build new friendships, and develop a sense of responsibility.

“Raising a Reader” Program - The Raising A Reader mission is to foster healthy brain development, parent-child bonding and early literacy skills critical for school success by engaging parents in a routine of daily “book cuddling” with their children from birth to age five. This mission addresses a national need for effective early literacy programs. One in three children entering kindergarten lacks basic pre-reading skills, which are proven to be a key factor in determining high-school graduation and lifelong success.

From my own experiences I have learned that by spending 5 minutes setting up an activity, you’ll be amazed how children take it further. Take time reading to children, they start to love reading too, and later they will read book, after book in self-entertainment. To overcome some eating problems, when the children will only eat in front of the tube, I suggest starting a good routine of family sit-down dinners. Conversation games are great too, so it’s not just about eating. There might be a show that the kids feel they absolutely have to watch to “fit” in at school. Allow them this, but only this (i.e. set limits, and stick to it).

Increased Physical Activity is another very important factor, and I wanted to touch base on this again. The Centers for Disease Control outline the benefits of regular physical activity for children:

• Reduces anxiety and stress, increases self-esteem
• and overall energy level
• Helps control weight, build lean muscle, and
• reduce fat
• May improve blood pressure and cholesterol levels
• Helps build healthy bones, muscles, and joints
• Prevents disease and promotes health
• Improves strength and endurance

Time spent watching television takes away from important activities such as reading, school work, playing, exercise, family interaction, and social development. Children also learn information from television that may be inappropriate or incorrect. They often can not tell the difference between the fantasies presented on television versus reality. They are influenced by the thousands of commercials seen each year, many of which are for alcohol, junk food, fast foods, and toys. Let’s make a difference for a better future, and start to reduce the time spent with all forms of Media.

My Resource list includes:

• http://www.csun.edu/science/health/docs/tv&health.

• http://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_tvandobchild.shtml

• Mountain Parent Articles – Top 10 TV-Free Activities by Megan Currier, and Prime Time by Karen Shaver.

• http://www.buddyprogram.org

• http://www.raisingareader.org

Dinner with Friends

Last night we all got together for a little din din at Mark's place. Heather's dad is in town, as well as a friend of Alyson's, they were there too off course. After dinner we played Trivial Pursuit 80's addition. It was a blast, and Brad (on my team) proved his knowledge quite well. In the end, around 11pm, we decided that who ever gets the next pie wins, and that ended up being Alyson and Benson - They were only born in the 80's!!!

It was great fun, thanx guys!

Aspen Highlands Closing Day Party

Tradition at Aspen Highlands is the closing party!!! Alyson and I went for a while to check things out, before heading back home. It was rather craaaazy, and even though the mountain will be re-opening for the next 2 or 3 weekends - too much snow (cough, cough), they still had the closing party.

Skiing Again - Yeah!!!!

At last a ski day again - Sigh!

I have been sooooo busy working, and finishing off the last homework assignments before I leave to South Africa in two weeks. Not to mention the packing dilemma...

Well this morning Alyson and I got up early, and actually went skiing. It was the first time for Alyson on Highlands, and tomorrow is closing day too :(. I have skied so little this season, it is sad!!! We had a blast, there were hardly any people on the mountain, and a little cloudy, but at least it was not cold. I have forgotten how wonderfully head clearing skiing can be.

The plan is to do a lot of homework tonight and tomorrow morning, then go ski again, before going to the season closing party at Highlands. I can't wait, because I just know that it will be a great day!!!

Enjoy the wonderful pictures and a video of me skiing at the bottom!

We saw a Fox

Driving along Watson divide we saw a beautiful fox jumping around, probably around a rabbit hole, it was pretty cool to see.

Alyson is Baking Bread

Let's see how it tastes tonight.