First Pictures

One of my major misconceptions before arriving in Africa was that the continent would be so different from the rest of my experience that I'd barely recognize it as being on the same planet.  I think expected to step off the plane in Johannesburg or Matsapha and realize "Aha!  I am absolutely in Africa and I can tell because the grass here is blue."  Maybe not quite that extreme, but I think I was expecting something closer to Mars than Colorado.

I was wrong -- the terrain is different in some ways, the trees and bugs and so on are are different, but I can still recognize trees as trees and bugs as bugs.   Swaziland itself reminds me of a hybrid of Ireland--many hills, fairly green but brown in the winter--and New Zealand -- rocks everywhere, cows on the side of the road not fenced in, etc.

Without further ado, here's some pictures to illustrate that the grass is not, in fact, blue.  

If it's possible, this picture doesn't do justice to the airport.  I landed at night this week and could only get a poor picture of the sign in the time I had.  It still makes me laugh, for some reason.

The view from the door of my room at the Brakenhill Lodge where I'm staying in for my first couple of weeks.


At the top of some hill, looking down on Mbabane.

Note: My new colleague Joe and I did a driving tour of Mbabane today.  He's been here a week longer than I have, so we spent some time driving around the hills, getting a little bit lost and taking some pictures.  I don't know where we took this, exactly, so "some hill" will have to suffice.  It was only about 10 minutes drive from town.

Still on "some hill" Same spot, this is to prove to my mother that I'm alive.

More to come!