Yes protests also happen in California - lots of them

I thought I left all the rolling strike and protest action behind when I left South Africa in September, but I arrived in California to protests almost every few weeks on campus about a whopping 30% increase in student fees. Basically the state budget is in a serious crisis and UC which is a public school has to pass the buck on to the students. The only difference in South Africa is that people actually dance when they strike and protest - here they just stand around with boards and listen to speeches. I listened to one speech by a woman professor who was organizing a teach-in and she mentioned that she had done this in the 80's to protest against Apartheid. Remember the US and Great Britain were the last to impose sanctions on South Africa becuase Thatcher and Reagon liked the fact that we were fighting communism.

Hot springs and nudists

Sticking with the mountain exploration theme over the past 2 weeks - we went hot spring hunting today. Our neighbours across from us in family housing decided to join us. About 20 miles from our house near Gaviota beach that we visited a few weeks ago we found a spring called Gaviota peak hot spring. The trailhead was easy to get to and it starts through an amazing meadow of Oak trees. After a short 1 mile uphill climb you get to a narrow path which leads to the spring - you can smell the Sulfur long before you get to the spring. There was a nudist bathing in the spring and at first there was this awkward pause where we think what now - but we just decided to join him in our costumes - the water was really warm and the nudist turned out to be an very interesting environmental engineer from Berkeley who had been to South Africa - so I ended up having a long chat with him about SA.

Gaviota hot springs 8 November

We found some crazy neighbours on halloween that also like dancing

Our neighbors across from us in Family housing decided to join us on a halloween walk with our kids . They also have two small boys who were eager to "trick or treat" at all the houses. On the way back from amassing a full bag of cavity producing things wrapped in foil we heard some African music at our community hall so we decided to dance - here's a video. (Luke and their boy were dressed as vampires)

A hiking trail that starts in the backyards of the mansions of Montecito

We went walking today on McMenemy trail on the mountain slopes facing Santa Barbara where all the wealthy people live - its really weird because the trail starts by walking through the back gardens of all these mansions - I was also amazed to see an armed response sign - the first time I've seen this in Santa Barbara. Pictures are all a bit out of focus because I had Benjamin in a pouch and the light was bad and he was moving around while I was taking the pictures. You will also see the clavicle splint that Luke is wearing - looks like back back straps without wearing a back pack

McMenemy Trail Santa Barbara 1 November 2009

Carpinteria beach - the best beach in Santa Barbara country

I think this rates as the best beach we've seen so far. The water was a perfect 18 degrees celcius, the beach sand was white and not the oily grey that you see on many other beaches from the oil seeps.

Carpinteria state beach 25 October 2009

Fascinating rock formation on Gaviota Beach

We did our usual Sunday drive of discovery and found an unusual beach 20 miles out of Santa Barbara which have rocks which expose very clear perfectly angled rock strata. It also had a wonderful collection of star fish which entertained Samuel and Luke for hours. We wanted to continue our journey on this coastal road all the way to Lompoc but discovered that a large section of this coast consists of privately owned roads - really sad. What you will also find about 20 miles north of the beach we were on is Vanderberg Air Force Base which is the official West coast launch site for Space shuttles. No space shuttles that we know about have been launched from there but I have been told by somebody who went by train past the AFB that he saw a camouflaged full size military space shuttle on the launch pad which is completely off the record.

Gaviota state park October 2009

Passed my Californian drive test

Hooray - just passed my Californian drivers license - the only errors I made were using South African hand turn signals. I'm still getting used to the concept of pedestrians and skateboarders having complete right of way on the road - if they just step into the road you have to screech to a halt. In South Africa, you have to assume every car is out to kill you when you are a pedestrian.

Denmark in the US

We drove up to a place called Solvang today. It was really surreal to walk around a town in the US that feels exactly like Denmark. Some Danish educators settled their around 1911 and decided to preserve every aspect of Danish culture including all the architecture.

From Solvang October 2009

Lagoon walk

The Lagoon at UCSB is full of interesting bird life and the walk next to the bluff always reminds me of walking in the Fynbos in Cape Town.

From lagoon walk 27 September

Back in the USA

Hello friends

Completely shocking to think I haven't written any reflective thoughts for 10 months. In that time Luke broke his arm, Nula got pregnant, we went back to South African for 6 months, we had another boy named Benjamin Michael, we returned to California last week, Samuel and Luke went to an American School and I had my first encounter with a 1980's CHiPs looking American law enforcement officer.

I'm not going to even try and catch up on lost time so I'm simply going to pick it up from where we left the sunny concrete shores of Johannesburg on the 3rd of September 2009 with a baby and two boys in a plane rigged out with every parents dream entertainment system. This kept our two tornadoes mesmerized for about 2 hours, the next 22 hours were a combination of various levels of drug induced sleep, Manchester United stickers and continuous questions about whether we are in America yet?

Getting past homeland security - the gatekeepers to the promised land - felt as easy as buying a McDonald's cheeseburger this time. It involved a deep sigh about the mountain of paper work I dropped in front of him and then a fairly long chat about Charlize Theron, who's passport he had the privilege to stamp and how to pronounce her surname correctly. It seems the secret is to land in the USA in Southern California - they're just way more chilled than the dudes on the East coast.

We gathered our mountain of luggage, eventually found our pram - nobody knows what that is in the US, you have to say stroller - and piled it all into a monster Chevrolet Suburban. I am always thankful that the US have no shortage of huge cars when I arrive with my huge pile of stuff. It felt good to be home when we arrived at our apartment under the shady Oak tree. Is this home? Well right now I just feel like planet earth is our home, but we will breathe our personalities back into this apartment by hanging our African art and filling it with music from our homeland.

Next morning we all woke up at 3:30AM feeling as thought it was midday and I decided I would take the boys to the beach to watch the sun rise.


Well I proved that I never wake up that early because the sun rose on a different beach and I had my East and West completely wrong. Anyway it was still a very bonding moment with my boys being attacked by a stars wars sword and a fluffy turtle at sunrise with no sun on Goleta beach in Santa Barbara.




More pictures here.

That was Sunday, fast forwarding to Tuesday the boys had their first day at Santa Barbara Charter School. Nula decided that I should take them to school because I'm less emotional. I first dropped Samuel in his class and it was a simple affair. Samuel saw his friend Oliver, Oliver said here's my best friend Samuel, Samuel said bye. Could it have been simpler? Luke started walking towards his class with me and saw an older lady walking with him, who he thought was his teacher and he barked out that she's too old to be his teacher. When we got to his real teacher he let off a huge protest. I sat with him and his teacher while the other kids did PT and he exclaims that she's fat. At that point I just want to dissapear into a hole in the ground but she is gracious and calm and eventually he decides that she's cool. We fetch them early becuase they're still jet lagged.

That week was an emotional roller coaster ride with morning battles dragging them to school. We made sure they had very exciting food to eat at school in their lunch box and the week actually ended pretty well with them liking their teachers. We are totally blown away by their teachers - they are really wise and manage to give indiviually stretching work to each kid. It's incredible to think the level of education in this free school is the same as a private school in Pretoria but with the advantage that you have kids from a more balanced spread of income groups.

Sunday - we actualy manged to make church - which is a miracle in itself. We went to the first Presbyterian church that we found last year. Nula and I spend the whole service with our boys in Sunday school and Susan gave a great message about "talking peace" - how do you show love to others. One girl in the sunday school lost her home in the huge fire last year and all they escaped with was their photo albums. She said that everyone in the neighbourhood became like family and offered their homes while they looked for a new house. That was their way of "talking peace"

Tomorrow I get my digital piano - hooray! - it has been like having a limb amputated without a piano. Hopefully I can get Samuel interested in carrying on again and get Luke to play.

Benjamin is so chilled, I almost forgot to talk about him. He has been a totally Southern Californian style baby. If the last few days are anything to go by, he will be a very laid back kid and his brothers are very proud of him and kiss him a lot - sometimes too much. He is looking a lot more Winston Churchill like, the last few weeks - which is always a good thing. Babies must always look like Winston Churchill then you know they are getting enough milk.

Getting back to the 1980's CHiPs looking cop- he stopped us becuase my license stickers had expired on my car. In California you stick you licence stickers on your number plate and cops can immediately check if you're legal or not - well I was not legal but planning on getting legal that week. So first I see that ominous black and white sudan with flashing lights driving behind me and I think ... interesting do they always drive around with flashing lights? Then I hear a very polite wheeep of the siren and I am finally convinced that all the attention is on my black 97 Honda Accord Coupe.

I slowly pull over to the right and play through some hollywood movies in my mind of beeing pushed onto my hood and frisked for guns. I reach for my wallet and make sure all my hands are visible as I wind down the electric window. A polite but firm American voice says my stickers have expired and he asks for my drivers licence. I reach into my wallet and there is no South African drivers licence, Nula says that Luke was pulling stuff out of my wallet and the drivers licence is at home. I relay the sorry tail to the police officer who's belt looks like it can't carry any more belt hanging things from guns to radios to other objects that hang on belts. He walks over to Nula's side and asks for proof of insurance and registration papers, at that point I am relieved to find my passport and I begin to compose the perfect excuse in my head. My insurance had also expired - so theoretically I could be cited for expired license, no drivers license and expired insurance - my car should be impounded, license suspended and nasty large fines handed out. But I hand over the passport and say I've just arrived in the country, he sees the baby, I say we dropped the kids at school and the kindly fellow who looks like Puncherelo but is more like "Jon" in CHiPs, says just get home and sort everything out.

I like this - firm but merciful law enforcement - no bribes accepted!

Thats it from the American Reviera
Goodmorning, Goodafternoon and Goodnight

David, Nula, Sammy, Lukie and Benji