Meeting the cutest kids I know

One day while I was chatting to my mom on skype Braden and Finn woke up from their nap, and came down stairs. They were interested in who I was speaking to so I ‘introduced” them to my mom. Braden remarked, “Rara yous looking like your mom!” Finn just wanted me to teach him the names of ALL my family members. Then he was proud when he knew the difference between my older brother (Rayson) and my younger brother (Roic) and he thought that Riley and ‘Babecca’ had cool names.

                                  

 So I made sure there would be time for my mom to meet these cuties. We arrived at the house and it was so weird to show my mom where I had lived for 4 years. A part of my life up until now I had only been able to verbally explain, send pictures and give people ‘skype tours’ of. Now my mom was standing right there, meeting Braden, Finn and Annabel.

The kids acted shy at first but quickly warmed up to “Rara’s mom from Africa, Sue’. Annabel had tennis lessons so we took her there, and then went to Klode Park, one of my favourite places in Whitefish Bay.

Later that day we visited the Harley Davidson Museum. I have been previously but Tyler and my mom hadn’t. We also realized while we were there that although Harley had its 110 year anniversary, they do not do big celebrations in all the countries where they operate. In fact they had a total of 16 celebrations across the world. (5 in America, 2 in China, 1 in India, Malaysia, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, New Zealand, Austria, Australia and South Africa) One of the American ones was in Milwaukee and the South African one was in Margate! Both of our homes!

Riding a Harley

Riding a Harley

Checking out the Domes

Our activity today was going to the Milwaukee Domes. They are three Domes that are each their own environment. They have a rainforest, a desert and a special floral one that they change depending on the seasons. (http://county.milwaukee.gov/MitchellParkConserva10116.htm)

My mom loved the experience. Tyler could not understand why I would take my mom there, I afterwards he got it because she kept talking about it.

The dome 

The dome

Ouch!

Pretty flowers

Waterfall pic

Hungry fishy!

Yip, that's me!

Pretty awesome fish

Where is she?!

So I woke up on day two of my mom’s visit, excited to see her and … couldn’t find her. She had decided to go for a walk and see the neighbourhood. She apparently found bunnies and plants, so she was happy. Thankfully she isn’t directionally challenged like me; otherwise she may not have found our apartment easily.

Our Apartment Building

 I took my mom to go to Growing Power which is a non-profit organization that grows food. So of course my mom was in her element! If you want to see their website look at http://www.growingpower.org/

Growing Power

Mommy and Me

Awesome goat!

We ended the day off with a boat tour of Lake Michigan, which is always fun. I love the Lake, it is cold and I wouldn’t swim in it (again) however it is so huge that it reminds me of a calm sea or ocean. We managed to take some lovely pictures and create some great memories.

Lake Michigan

Sculpture at Lake Michigan

Mommy comes to visit the US of A

So my mom decided to come visit me in the USA which was one of the most amazing things ever. It pretty hard to try and explain America to people that have never been here before. There are certain things that just get lost in translation. Plus there is just a certain element of understanding once someone ‘has been, there, done that.’ 

After Tyler came to SA it was so much easier for him to relate to me and my world. So I was excited my mom would get to see my now world.

Tyler and I drove to Chicago to pick her up and it felt so surreal. Like my mom is coming, here, to see me, to stay for 10 days!!! I felt like a kid on Christmas, pretty sure I told Tyler like 100 times that ‘my mommy is coming!’

I insisted we get to the airport early, just in case. But as always the flight arrived about an hour after we had been patiently waiting for it. I saw my mom and immediately felt like a kid being picked up from their first day of school.

Suddenly there were running ladies, running tears and well, Tyler. He didn't cry. We did.

After we loaded luggage and heard stories of my mom’s travels we headed back to Milwaukee. Day one completed.

Ahhhhh, MOMMY!

One of my happiest moment ever

Meeting some homegrown goodness…

When I met Kathleen Hohl (the Communications and Events Director for MATC) at the Ambassador award’s dinner we quickly realized we had a mutual friend. Jill, one of the college librarians, who I had become friendly with after meeting her at an ISO (International Student Organization) meeting where she was the advisor, had told Kathleen about me. Jill had mentioned that she heard the Consul General from South Africa (who is based in Chicago) was coming to MATC and that she knew a South African student that would probably want to meet her. Kathleen who had arranged most of her trip was quick to invite me to meet her.

I showed up ready to sit back in the wings and listen and take notes. I was also writing a story for the paper about Consul General Tulelo’s visit which would be in celebration of Freedom Day in South Africa. Vuyiswa (The Consul General, or as most affectionately named her CG) walked in and Kathleen introduced the whole room to her. She immediately started quizzing me about my background and which part of SA I was from. She is an honourary KZN (Kwa-Zulu Natal – the province I’m from) girl, so we immediately bonded over warm weather and wonderful people.

Big hugs

Kathleen is standing next to me

 Finally someone pulled us out of our conversation since CG had to do an interview for the cameras. Afterwards we headed to the auditorium where she was giving a speech about the new South Africa, asking people to re-invest in South Africa and just a little about herself.

During her speech

It's great to be around South Africans :)

After the talk she approached me (only) and invited me to the fancy dinner they were having that night. I accepted graciously then snuck off to find Kathleen and let her know my dilemma. "So I know I cannot refuse an offer like that, but I did have accounting class that night…so what do I do?" Kathleen replied it’s one class – no big deal, and that she would email my instructor. Well, yes it was just one class, but I had missed the previous week being at the Ambassador award’s ceremony in Madison. She told me she would sort it out. Which she helped me to do. Luckily I don’t have a habit of missing class so my teacher understood. (Oh, and I got an A in Accounting, just so you don’t worry too much about me.)

We then headed off to lunch, no big deal, the president of MATC, the CG of South Africa, her assistant, and other wonderful people and me, oh wait and her security guard (a Milwaukee Policeman.) Lunch was great!

CG Tulelo and I

That night I rubbed shoulders with some big shots in Milwaukee, I even saw the mayor of Milwaukee. Who, of course, I didn’t recognize until he went up to speak. I also got to hear my national anthem which I sang every word of. I had a man and his wife approach me afterwards and tell me they saw me singing all the words and thought it was wonderful that I am so proud of my country. Love it! I also made the South African consulate website (see below) Basically my night was amazing! I also meet a South African lady who is married to an American. Her and I then figured out that she also knows the crowd that was at the Parlotones the other night. She informed me they are having a Potjie weekend of sort right here in Milwaukee in August! Guess I have plans in August now.

CG and I at the event
(The link to the article is below)

http://www.southafricachicago.com/?p=681
http://www.southafricachicago.com/?attachment_id=697

If you watch this you will get to see me (briefly)
http://www.mptv.org/localshows/black_nouveau/latest_episode/

Whoa! Stop the Press!

Another award ceremony I recently attended was the MATC Times Press Awards. This is the annual awards ceremony for those that have dedicated time to the college newspaper. It was my second time attending the awards. This year the theme was casino night. So we got to play all sorts of games, with poker chips (that costs us nothing.) It was fun and I learnt that I had NO future in gambling. Although I did win once or twice at Blackjack, I also lost about 4 or 5 times.

I also received an award for my contribution to the Times, which is pretty neat! 

My award, My Editor-in-chief and Me

High Roller

I guess something was funny...

Roulette

Lamp of Knowledge awards

I recently attended an awards ceremony for graduates that were receiving the lamp of knowledge award. It is basically an award that each department decides to award a student that is graduating that semester. It was inspiring to hear some their stories! I also received my school’s version of my Ambassadors award which is a pretty sweet looking award. I also had the opportunity to speak a little, which is getting less nerve wrecking.

Saying my speech

Listening to Trevor talk about the Madison experience

Receiving my award