Ships. Night. Passing. Whatnot

So Tuesday I went to Johannesburg for a conference that brought together economic officers from around sub-sarahan Africa. Pretty cool, and a good conference to boot. Colleagues from Liberia, Guinea, Togo, Chad, DRC, Namibia, Kenya, Tanzania, Eritrea, etc. etc. etc. You get the picture. A bunch of people working in interesting and difficult places trying to do the kinds of things I'm trying to do here. So it was useful, and enlightening, and fun.

Plus, I stayed at the Sandton Sun hotel, which was nice, and was also attached to a mall that had a McDonalds AND a great place for falafel. It's the little things, ya know? And, I got to take the famous GauTrain from downtown Jo'burg to the airport. It was very posh.

I know Jo'burg has quite the reputation for, you know, outrageously high levels of violent crime. But in Sandton, where I stayed and where crime still does happen, you basically have to be aware and not do stupid things, just like in any big city around the world.

So anyway, I was in Jo'burg for 3 nights. And it was great. And now I'm home, having arrived last night at 9:00 pm. So this morning Katherine and Jack went to a birthday party, this afternoon Jack, Sam and I go to a birthday party, and tonight Katherine and I go to a masquerade ball to benefit an elephant orphanage in Kafue National Park.

Tomorrow we have a barbecue at 1:00 then are having people over at 4:00.

Monday Katherine leaves for a work trip and will be away for 4 nights.

We are overscheduled.