Good afternoon, blog!

Today's first order of business: through some internet black magic of sorts, a strange image of some man appeared in the header of my blog. I tried to remove him, but he's pretty intent on staying, so we have a new companion on this adventure. Welcome to the community, my forearm-tattooed friend.

It's been a busy couple of weeks and I've got a few good stories to share. Let me start with a backcountry hike I did with two married friends of mine, Sam and Fran, in one of Swaziland's national parks. In celebration of Sam's fortieth birthday (and perhaps in response to a mid-life crisis?), they decided to do a five day backcountry hike in the Drakensburg Mtns, where I went for a couple days (see previous entry). As a sort of trial run, they invited me to go with them to Malolotja for a two day and two night hike. Here's the trip in short: I lost my camera, I lost the rainfly to my friend's tent and we got lost and mistakenly crossed into South Africa--all-in-all, a successful trip! Despite all of that, it actually was a great trip.

Two friends and I spent some time recently in Mozambique getting scuba certified, which everyone needs to do. We swam with sea turtles, clown fish, stingrays, blowfish and a lot of other strange-looking creatures. It's strange to do something that defies nature. Human beings are not supposed to be forty feet under the water; it simply defies evolution, but with technology, we were able to and it was awesome.

Mallory (my roommate) and I are developing a strange relationship with the kids in our apartment complex. We've recently opened a video store based out of our apartment. Our selection, albeit a bit lacking--we only have one video, a fuzzy, pirated version of Up--is all the rave with the kids. Here are the rules: 1. video rental is free; 2. (a) the video must be returned within two days; (b) if renter returns video late, he or she is obligated to attempt one handstand. 3. all potential renters must create an account, which entails writing one's name on a scratch piece of paper.
Thus far, we've had eight successful rentals.

After meeting with the religious studies department at the University of Swaziland (UNISWA), I got approval to sit in on a Christian ethics course next semester, which will tie in nicely with my research. The chair of the department asked if I'd be willing to give a presentation to the department toward the end of my grant, which I gladly accepted. It's all very exciting. Soon enough, I'll start helping my tennis instructor to teach tennis at a few of the local schools, which will both be really fun and tie directly into my research. Two birds, one stone.