Table Mountain From Afar

The sun setting over Cape Town.
February 14th, 2008.

Best Baby Picture

Baie geluk aan my ou vrinne Christiaan en Teresa de Villiers met die geboorte van hul eersteling laasweek. Van al die baie baba-fotos wat ek die afgelope 14 mnde ontvang het (en almal is veel oulik!), het hierdie een vir ons UITgeSTAAN.

Super Tuesday - The Race for the White House

The Real Race is on.
After months of campaigning and early primaries, TODAY primaries will be held in more than 20 states accross the country. This will decide the Republican and Democratic candidates for the General Elections to be held in November.

Here in the States the big issues defining the remaining candidates are Iraq, immigration, abortion, same-sex marriages, taxes and social security. With both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama positioning themselves as far left on the political spectrum as you can get, that leaves John McCain, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee as the conservative choices.

McCain is currently the Republican frontrunner in the polls, but appears to have very liberal views. He is advocating open borders, which implies that he does not condemn illegal immigration. Huckabee, the Christian conservative choice, is endorsing McCain, as he is to far behind in the polls, but rumor has it that he wants the Vice-Presidency. A deal seems to be on hand.
And then there is Romney, himself a solid candidate. In the deep South, however, he is struggling for Christian conservative votes due to him being a Mormon. California will probably decide his fate.

You can follow the live updates online at www.cnn.com/POLITICS/

The following website supplies indepth info on each candidate: http://www.president08.net/

Interestingly, the very early results show that Obama is getting most of the black votes, while Hillary is getting a far superior number of the female votes. If I interpret this correctly, that means that women are voting for Hillary because she's a woman and black voters are voting for Obama because he's black! This then irrespective of their political stance on issues. ?!

Mars and the ING Miami Half-Marathon

Another Lekker BBQ at the Volsteedts!

We recently had another superb South African braai (BBQ) in Fort Lauderdale, courtesy of the Volsteedts.

What a potjie!

EishKOM

What can one say about the ESKOM - situation in South Africa?

ESKOM, the country's national electricity provider is stumbling from one regional power failure to the next, costing the nation millions in lost hours. A local newspaper cartoon - Madame & Eve - is getting it spot on with their daily jokes.

Eish!

New Year's with the Ninnemans

Waking up to a glorious sunrise and a year bursting with promise - Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Fort Lauderdale. No new year's resolutions this time around, just a few goals.

Beautiful St. Augustine

Hiking Sugarmill Forest

Just before New Year's we hiked the 200+ year-old Sugarmill Forest and plantation ruins. It is interesting how much the vegetation changes from South-Florida to Flagler, Brevard County area only 100-150 miles North-East. It is beautiful.

Some of the first slaves in the South were brought here to work on what was then the largest Sugar plantation. It was destroyed by the Seminole Indians during the Second Seminole War of the 1830's. All the tribes in Florida united against the US forces and used guerrila tactics, retreating frequently deep into the Everglades, and making it near impossible for the chasing armies to catch them in the swamps and mangroves.

Eventually though, the whole Seminole nation nearly got wiped out in the war, with thousands killed. The few hundred survivors were deported to Oklahoma reservations. It (1835-1842) turned out to be the most expensive Indian war, costing the US $30 million.

Anyway - it was a great hike and if you visit we'll take you there...

New Year's - Back in Florida

This New Year

2 0 0 8 !

Have a Smashing New Year!

May you have a smashing 2008 with many exciting opportunities for growth, may you be able to learn many new things and skills, may you be able to add value in many different ways.

We are experiencing technical difficulties and will resume blogging as soon as we have ironed out some problems. Both Sarah and I have resumed working after 2, 3 weeks out of Miami, with friends, waking up late, and just having a great time in general vacationing in North-Florida.

We will propably change the look of our Blog soon, which we are excited about. Please watch this space -will keep you posted.

All the best
Marco and Sarah Bouwer

Hotel Touring in Orlando!

We were full of energy for the sightseeing expedition ahead of us.




Unfortunately, not everybody shared our enthusiasm.

Playing Tourguides in South Beach

Old man and mannequin - Bayside Area, Downtown, Miami.

Frostie the Snowman

Saturday Night Live

Our homegroup held our Xmas party in a gorgeous hotel room with a magnificent view of Miami and South Beach last night.

This group has been meeting for the last two years and we've grown pretty close. It was pretty special to meet one last time in 2008, with lives getting busy, couple's getting pregnant, and just life in general happening to us all.

'n Taaie Tameletjie

Die einde is in sig. Dit voel soos die laaste 3 km van 'n halfmarathon wanneer elke spier in jou lyf begin saamkreun en kla dat dit tyd is om die skare te systap, erens op 'n gemaklike sofa te gaan neerplof met 'n koue bier, en bewegingloos daar te vertoef wyl jy re-runs van die afgelope S14 beskou.
Ek het 4 maande se intense, kraakvars, maagdelike M.B.A.-materiaal oor om kaf te draf voor ek kan ontspan. Dit raak nou lank.
Sedert die begin van die mnd. is dit Finansiele Bestuur en ai, dis so 'n interessante EN onontbeerlike veld. Ongelukkig het Jaap hier (die uwe) skrapse Finansiele agtergrond, en ek suffer. Klastyd is dit soos om molasses te eet - vir 4 uur lank!

Hou bene hou!

Food for Thought

Franklin Graham het gisteraand 'n skare mense in 'n buitelug-arena toegespreek by die kerk waar ons besoek.

Dit was 'n vlugtig gereelde, maar baie besonderse geleentheid. Duisende mense daag op om hulde te bring aan die Elisa van ons tyd. Ons is nuuskierig. Maar dis sy nederigheid wat my aanvanklike skeptisme teenoor hom laat waan en sy opregtheid wat my oorwen. "I cannot save you, only God can do that for you." 'n Simplistiese boodskap, hard en reguit, sonder fancy tierlantyntjies (so gewild in kerke deesdae om mense te "lok"), en honderde mense kom tot bekering. The real deal.
Hy is hoof uitvoerende beampte van Samaritan's Purse, 'n wêreld-organisasie wat grootskaalse hulpverleningswerk in noodgeteisterde werelddele doen, gemeenskapsontwikkelingsprojekte bestuur, globale mediese dienste verrig en evangelisasiewerk doen.

This is a touching picture (above) from the Samaritan's Purse website, isn't it? No successful proposal, business plan, awarded grant, fundraising event, or any other unimportant work-related accomplishment comes close to stirring the heart like this picture does.
A smile will mean a lot to these kids. Imagine how these kids will treasure a can of coke!? Here in superficial Miami our colleagues bicker because the annual staff Xmas party is too ordinary. They buy cake worth $1000 because it will impress the guests. Only a new X-Box or I-Phone will impress the kids.

This Life

Maybe twice in my life I reached what I wanted to. Once we were playing "These Foolish Things" and at the end the band stops and I play a little cadenza. That cadenza - no one can do it better. Let's say it's five bars. That's a very good thing to have done in a lifetime. An artist should be judged by his best, just as an athlete. Pick out my one or two best things and say, "That's what we did, all the rest was rehearsal."
- Artie Shaw, as told in the book The Call, by Guinness.

Such a fantastic quote, there is so much to it on so many different levels. I can read it over and over again.

Mysterious Bee Disease Threaten US Crops

A mysterious bee disease, called colony collapse disorder (CCD) is causing havoc among the busy little insect colonies in the US, since the first report in 2005. Seemingly healthy honey bees would abruptly disappear from their hives forever.

While visiting N-Carolina, Sarah and I one day happened upon an agricultural presentation being given on this new phenomenon. Not a big deal, I thought. Wrong. Apparently, it is having quite an impact.
Bees play an integral role in the world food supply, and are essential for the pollination of more than 90 million fruit and vegetable crops worldwide. In the US alone these products pollinated by bees are worth more than $14.6 billion per annum. Since 2005 CCD have caused a 50-90% loss of bees in 25% of all commercial colonies in the US.

The first reports of the disease correlates with the first time that the US started to allow the importation of beehives from Australia and China. The popular theory is that these foreign bees have brought the disease, through mites they carry. Beehives were imported because agricultural corporations could not keep up with the demand for commercial beehives for the pollination of crops such as nuts, berries and other fruits and vegetables, especially in the West and Mid-West.

Beekeepers actually rent hundreds of hives during a season. Some of these hives travel thousands of miles/annum accross multiple state lines to do their job.