rugby game recap & moving in

We had a great time at the rugby game with Anton and Candace on Friday night. We thought we were cool because we had box seats at the stadium. It's a good thing I felt cool in the beginning because about 5 minutes into the game, I realized that almost everything I thought I knew about rugby was wrong! It is a complicated sport and there are a lot of rules. It is hard to tell from the stands or on TV, but the players are HUGE. Anton spent the entire game explaining what was going on. Mat understood but I got even more confused - haha!

{Mat & Anton; Candace & Jess}

The stadium was mostly empty because yesterday was a country holiday (Youth Day) and people left town to party elsewhere for the weekend. We didn't see many crazy fans and I was bummed! However, we are planning to get tickets to see the South African national team, Springboks, play New Zealand in Johannesburg. It will be an amazing game because they are two of the best professional rugby teams. New Zealand is the team who does the famous Haka war dance (watch the YouTube video below to see what I am talking about).

In other news, we are moving into our rental house tomorrow (Wednesday). We are excited to establish a routine because it is hard to fully adjust in temporary housing. I will post photos later this week so you guys can see the house.

A few of you have been talking about coming to visit us (YAY! Please do!) so I thought this would be the best place to post Mat's holiday schedule and info about the seasons. Keep in mind that April 2014 will likely be our last month here - that is only 10 months away - so start planning now. :-)  Look at the "Adventures" tab on this blog and let us know which activities you want to do.

Here is some info about the seasons. You are welcome to visit anytime, but this may help you decide on a month.

Winter:     June - August
Spring:     September - October
Summer:  November - March
Fall:          April - May

Here is Mat's work holiday schedule. He also has vacation time.

2013
August 9
September 24
December 16
December 25
December 26

2014
January 1
March 21
Good Friday
Easter Monday

Hope this helps! Let us know what you decide so we can start planning.

Love,
Jess & Mat

rugby

Rugby is one of the most popular sports in South Africa, alongside cricket and soccer. The fans are deeply passionate about their team and games are a serious matter.

We are leaving this afternoon to go to Johannesburg to see the Lions vs. Stormers play. It will be my first professional rugby game! We will probably go to the Johannesburg Lion Park on Saturday, too. We will be back on either Saturday night or Sunday and I will tell you guys all about it.

Have a great weekend!

{photo}

save the rhino!

Good morning! Mat and I are planning a safari trip to Kruger National Park (yay!!!!!) and I have been doing a lot of research on the game reserves. We want to see the Big 5 animals (elephant, rhino, cape buffalo, lion, leopard) so I have been searching for reserves with the largest population of each of the animals to increase our odds of seeing all 5. The one animal that has been rather difficult to pinpoint is the rhino. That's because they are "critically endangered" due to poaching.

Side note: this is an educational (and sad) post, but I thought most of you would be interested in what's going on. It is a highly publicized issue in South Africa.

I was unaware of the severity of the rhino poaching situation until we arrived in ZA. Save the Rhino signage is everywhere! A lot of people even have red rhino horns on the front of their cars as part of the fundraising and awareness effort.

Poaching statistics show that approximately 392 rhinos have already been poached in ZA this year...and it's only June. 73% have been killed in Kruger National Park. With constant patrolling, how is this possible? The answer is because organized poaching has become very advanced in the past decade - using tools like helicopters, darts, night vision and silenced weapons. It is also very expensive to monitor such a large area of land. Read more on Kruger rhino poaching in this article: Why are Kruger's rhinos being hit so hard?

Do you know why they are being poached? I didn't. It's because of their horns. Although there is no scientific proof of its medical value, the rhino horn is highly sought after in Asian medicine. It is ground into a fine powder and used for a variety of reasons...everything from warding off evil spirits to reducing fever to enhancing a person's sex life. Have I mentioned there is no proof this actually works?!?!

The Asians pay BIG MONEY for these horns, and the poverty level here is so high that people are willing to risk the legal penalties (which aren't strict enough if you ask me). In most cases, the poachers kill the rhinos, chop off their horns and leave the body behind. Sometimes they don't even kill them; they just leave them to suffer. The demand for the horns is so strong that even museums and zoos are under threat! Can you believe that?

A simple Google search will return thousands of heartbreaking photos such as this one. And this is one of the least graphic photos.

{image found on Google via livescience.com}

There are many groups dedicated to helping the rhinos by implementing strategies to stop the poaching. One way is by educating the public using materials like this:

{read more on www.savingrhinos.org}

I read that some scientists and safari lodge owners have begun dying the inside of the rhino's horns with pink dye so it cannot be sold to the Far East. The good news is that a large percentage of the rhinos in Kruger have been treated with the dye.  Others have begun injecting the horn with a poison that does not hurt the rhino but poisons the person who ingests it. Another tactic is de-horning the rhino before a poacher can do it. I am sure there are many more tactics, but those are the ones I remember.

According to some studies, rhinos could be extinct in less than a decade if the poaching is not stopped. As part of the conservation effort, scientists and volunteers are busy making sure the remaining rhinos are healthy and accounted for by microchipping and DNA-profiling them.

{read more here}

It truly breaks my heart to learn about the poaching problem, but it has also encouraged Mat and I to help. We think it would be so cool to be part of the conservation effort!

Love,
Jess & Mat

dullstroom day trip

Brrrrrr! Winter has officially arrived. It is weird talking about winter because it's June and all of you are posting beach and summer bbq photos on Facebook!!!!

Mat and I have been talking about learning to fly fish for years now. Lucky for us, one of South Africa's premier fly fishing destinations, Dullstroom, is only an hour's drive from Witbank. It is a sleepy little fishing town in the country that has some good restaurants, pubs, shops and inns. 

We headed to Dullstroom on Saturday to check it out. The whole town is centered around fishing and we saw slogans like "born to fish, forced to work" posted everywhere. Haha! People in Dullstroom were either camping, fly fishing, shopping or selling macadamia nuts (which are apparently grown somewhere nearby).

We didn't fish, but we did find a good fly fishing shop and signed up for lessons in two weeks! We are both really excited. Mat has fly fished a few times before, but I have never done it. We are planning to buy either an Orvis or Sage rod. Any other suggestions, fly fishers?

Here are some photos of the day:

The roses made the town charming.

Do you see the blesbok hiding in the grass in the photo below?

Every little country town has to have a Christmas store, and Dullstroom is no exception...

Motorcyclists love the open roads and fresh air in Dullstroom.

These two things made me laugh: Miss Dullstroom and Jo Bangles. Do you think they meant Bo Jangles???!??!

Miss and love you all (y'all),

Jess & Mat

friday pizza & vino

**Happy Birthday, Chelsea!!!!!**

For us, Friday night means pizza and vino. It is a tradition that we are keeping alive even in South Africa. In the U.S., I would make dough and we would make our own pizzas. Since we are still in the guest house, we don't have access to a kitchen. That means take out.

The past few Fridays we ordered from a place called Pizza Perfect but tonight we tried a new place called Debonair. We had a really funny experience that I had to share immediately...

Mat ordered a margherita pizza with meat. The cashier thought he said margherita pizza with miele. In case you missed yesterday's Sh*t South Africans Say, miele is CORN!!! 

So, we got this:

Pizza with corn! Ick!!!! We were hungry so we ate it anyway, but we won't make that mistake again. South Africanisms strike again. :-)

Tomorrow we are headed to Dullstroom to check out some fly fishing shops. Be back with another post on Sunday. Have a great weekend!

Love,

Jess & Mat

sh*t south africans say - first edition

*Correction from my last post - the scariest spider on the planet is called a rain spider (not a red spider). Google at your own risk.*

There are 11 nationally recognized languages in South Africa. 11! Crazy, huh? I won't list them but I will tell you that from my POV, the three most common languages are Afrikaans, Zulu and English.

We are fortunate because most people speak English so it is easy to communicate unless the person has a thick accent. Personally, I love the South African-English accent. I think it sounds like a British/Australian hybrid. If I had that accent, I would never stop talking! Haha

They speak English, but that does not necessarily mean we understand everything they say. There are many slang phrases unique to South Africa (jokingly called "South Africanisms") that I thought you guys might enjoy.

Without further ado, I give you the first edition of Sh*t South Africans Say. I encourage you to try to pronounce each of these words. Come on...it's fun!!!

• ag man! (pronounced ock-man, similar to "ach" in German) - oh man!
• bakkie (pronounced bucky) - a pick-up truck
• biltong - a dried meat that is similar to jerky
• biscuit - cookie
• bliksem (pronounced bluxom) - incredible!
• boerewors (pronounced boor-uh-voors)- spicy sausage
• boot - trunk of car
• braai (pronounced bry)- bbq
• my bru (pronounced brew) - my brother
• chips - french fries
• chipis (pronounced chip-peez) - chips or small crackers
• cozzy - bathing suit
• dankie (pronounced donkey) - thank you
• dodgy - something that is suspect or shady
• doff - stupid or slow
• dop - an alcoholic drink
• geyser (pronounced geezer) - hot water heater
• gogga (pronounced go-guh) - an insect
• hey - used at the end of a sentence to emphasize importance ("don't be late, hey?")
• howzit - how are you?
• hundreds - doing excellent or doing good
• izzit? (pronounced is-it) - really?
• ja (pronounced yay-ce) - yes
• just now - sometime soon or perhaps never ("i'll help you just now")
• kak - crap or nonsense
• larney - fancy
• lekker (pronounced leck-errrrr) - great! or tasty
• miele (pronounced mee-lee) - corn
• mozzie - mosquito
• nappy - a baby's diaper
• now now - very soon ("i'll pick you up now now")
• robot - traffic light
• rubbish - trash
• sammie - sandwich
• tekkies - athletic sneakers
• trek - journey
• voetsek (pronounced foot-sack) - go away; buzz off

Yes, we actually use each of the words on this list! It has been fun learning this Afrikaans-English slang. If you are interested in swear words, just ask Mat. :-)

I am leaving shortly to drive to Bethel to watch Sarah's son play rugby. It will be my first time watching  a whole rugby game. Yay! 

Love,

Jess & Mat

braai & johannesburg zoo

We had a fun weekend visiting with friends in Johannesburg. On Saturday, we packed an overnight bag and headed down to meet everyone at Anton's house. Mat couldn't remember where Anton lived, so we were given coordinates (not an address) to plug into our Garmin GPS. Coordinates! Apparently that is a very common way of giving directions here. Pretty cool, huh?

Well, it was pretty cool until our trusted Garmin guided us through a dangerous and terrifying part of Joburg. We were both sweating profusely and constantly making sure the doors were locked. Even Mat was "white knuckling" the steering wheel. I wish I could have taken a photo of what we saw, but it would have been stupid to take out the camera with thousands of Africans loitering in and around the streets. Thankfully, we made it safely and learned there is a setting on the Garmin that will route you primarily on the highways, which are much safer. Phew!

After that drive, you can bet we both needed a beer to calm our nerves and luckily Anton's bar fridge was stocked. After an hour or so, the guys went to the store to get meat to braai (bbq) and snacks. They got steak, ostrich, chicken and wors (sausages). The girls made a baked potato casserole and chocolate-covered strawberries. We had a great evening with a lot of laughs and delicious food.

I had a traumatic experience Sunday morning: I saw my first gigantic South African spider. This creature was absolutely terrifying. I would rather walk through that scary area of Joburg than see one of those things again! I think it was called a red spider, but I cannot make myself Google it because I never want to see one again. Ever.

Post-trauma, we went to the Johannesburg Zoo for a few hours before heading back to Witbank (also called Emalaheni if you look it up on Google Maps). The zoo was nice, but nothing special when compared to those in the U.S. It was a smaller zoo but had most of the animals you would expect to see. Here are some photos of the day:

{there was a mote in front of this elephant, but he wanted something in the tree}

{Byron, Kelly, Mika & Mat} 

{polar bear yoga pose}

{polar bear in the downward dog yoga pose!}

{very endangered white rhinos. these were the size of small tanks}

Love,
Jess & Mat

headed to Joburg today

Good morning! We are headed to Joburg today to visit some of Mat's friends. Tonight will be my first official South African braai (bbq)! Braais are part of the South African culture. Most families braai a couple nights a week. Rumor has it that Anton is grilling kudu!!!! Crazy!

We will be back tomorrow afternoon (Sunday). I wanted to let you know in case you try to FaceTime us today and we are not around.

{braai - a staple in ZA homes}

Have a great weekend!

Love,
Jess & Mat