Hello All,

We wanted to make a lot more calls and e-mails telling people that we are expecting.  Excited about it.  Alas, been waay too slammed.  Wendy’s belly is getting reallly big.  We rae ready for the big day.  I’m glad that you are at least getting hte news this way.  any good thoughts for a safe and special birth are appreciated.

I’m fired up about a new movement for networking all the people in the world that want to make it a better place.  Check out  www.idealist.com/more to find out more and to sign up, no committment necessary. 

Am busy writing papers and looking intot the possibnility of starting an organization centered around living decision support systems for open space.  Regional and local scale for now.  Includes a big “citizen science” component.  For instance, if you are on a hike in your favorite spot and notice a new invasive exotic plant, you can pull out your cell phone and take a picture, and if your phone has GPS, get a GPS position.  Then when you return to cell phone range the date automatically uploads into the decision making system, for validation, and then will help in the decisions about where and how we should spend our limited conservation resources and energy.  Imagine that scenario times a million.  If you have any thoughts onthe ideas, or want to help, please let me know.

Hoping all is well with everyone on this cool November day.

Cheers,

John

Life is good here in Santa Cruz.  Wendy is 8 months pregnant, and we are very excited.  Natasha is an amazing little girl.  She is still not even 2 but is talking up a storm and loves to play and explore.  (The picture below is from June)

We posted some pics for the last 6 months:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jgallo/ The 15 pic slideshow for the month in Oregon for field work is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jgallo/sets/72157622641424674/show/ , best to hit the “view full screen” icon of arrows on the lower right corner.

Other pictures from the Oregon Trip, Annie’s Graduation, and the party at Jed’s are posted on Flickr.

The job I mentioned in the previous post was doing bird and botanical surveys in the Oregon mountains.  Turned out to be a TON of work, including steep hikes off-trail on a tight time schedule.  I was up at 3 or 4 every day, and sweating hard and long from about 6 am.  70-75 hr weeks.  But it was great for the soul.

Now it is time to do the data entry, wrap up South Africa work, publish some of my findings, look for a job/house/car/etc, organize, etc.  Any free time is spent being with wonderful Wendy, Natasha, and Indi.  We all need that as a break to just logistics.  Wendy is about to start working to finish up her internship hours before the deadline.  Currently, we are going to base out of Santa Cruz, where Wendy’s parents live, but that could change any day.

It warms me up to see onthe blog stats that so many of you are still checking in. It pains me to be so close to you all, but to be so focused on this transition that I might as well still be in SA.

Maybe let me/us know how you are doing.  Would be stoked to hear from you.  I’ll update the contact info just now.

Cheers,

John

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IMG_4362, originally uploaded by john_gallo.

Here is one of the pics from Natasha’s first big hike, a couple months ago. The others posted on flickr. Meanwhile we have recently returned from the Kalahari, (fantastic!) and have decided to take a job back home. Heading to the America in the end of May! More soon.

The carboot sale is slow (see previos post), so I get to get into the latest blog entry…

I had the privilege of adventuring in KwaZulu Natal for four days after a conference. This is the edge of Malaria country, a no-go for Natasha. It is an area that I thought I was not going to be able to visit. This was a pleasant surprise, to say the least.

KwaZulu Natal (“Kay Zed En” in local parlance) is on the eastern edge of South Africa, and was the heartland of the Zulu empire. I got to hear many stories about Shaka Zulu, King Shaka. When I stopped in at Mtubatuba, I only saw a handful of other white folks there in over an hour. This province is refreshingly different from the Western Cape. By evening I was at Imfolozi Nature Reserve. The first nature reserve of Africa. In the late 1800’s King Shaka declared that only male antelope could be taken from that area.

The next day I met up with two zulu game rangers, three norweigens, a South African (recently married to Jorun the Norwegian), and two German doctors. One ranger with gun in front, a single file line, and a guide in back, and we headed into the bush. We had to be silent. And aware. We were heading into the land of the Lion. The Big 5 are the animals that kill humans, and we were entering into their domain. It turns out that rhinos are more dangerous than lions, and Water Buffaloe more dangerous than Rhinos. It is all about context. If you “bump” into one in the thick bush, you better get a tree between you and the animal. It becomes comforting that each guide has a loaded rifle.

After wading through the muddy river we found some Crocodile tracks. “Big one,” says Bheki, the head guide. I look at the river and then the rifle. We move on.

Despite the backdrop, I always felt safe. Or rather, that all was as it should be. Kind of like surfing in an area that is known to have sharks. Life has risks, and if your time is up, its up. (Don’t worry Mom, the mathematician in me is also calculating risk. I would not go shark diving and open the cage door…) I was also exhilarated. One of the big frustrations with the South African nature experience is that so much of it has to happen from inside the car. The backpacker in me was thrilled to get into the bush.

The next morning we saw a rhino at a distance. We were downwind, and managed to get pretty close. It was just about 80 m away on the other side of the river before it finally spooked.

Just ten minutes later we were cresting a hill and Bheki froze, then motioned for us to come slowly. A water buffaloe. It soon sppoked, but then we found it again, and the rhino, loving a mud hole.

Then the long hike set in. Hours and hours of hiking, in silence, as the temperature slowly rose to about 38 C (hot). We had a great lunch spot on the cliff overlooking the river. The picture I took of the river in the distance and thorn in the foreground is fitting. You can get what you need in Africa, but watch out for the thorns.

We took a shortcut back to camp, and were relieved to get into the river. It was almost hot tub hot, and shallow enough to allow a safe swim. (Note: crocs stay away from groups of people, which simulate one large animal.) Soaking in the shade of the cliff, spirits were high.

That night, the stars were amazing. I laid on my back, listening with half an ear for any hungry lions, and lost myself in the cosmos. The dark darkness next to the southern cross was especially nothing. Fortunately, Jorund decided to come out with his super flashlight and verify our solitude. The fireflies created their own version of shooting stars, and the crickets played their heartstrings.

Now back in Sedgefield, the carboot sale is winding down, so here is the skinny.

The next day we hit the trail early and saw a family of Rhinos from a distance. Great river overlook. Then we came across a water buffalo, complete with an oxpecker. You can sometimes find water buffalo by following the sound of these birds that eat the bugs off the big ox.

Meanwhile, I was scanning every tree we passed, looking for the leopard with a kill, but no luck. We came across some rhino in the thick bush, fortunately they were about 45 m away, and had a calf. They went the other way. Seeing that big eye, sizing us up through the brambles, was both unnerving and exhilarating.

We heard a few more stories about King Shaka (don’t hit a woman or else you’ll get impaled) and we were almost back at the cars. Fortunately, there was one more sight: a huge lion track in the trail, pads splayed.

We  all said our goodbyes, and who knows, maybe some of us will cross paths again someday.

Once back at the car I still had the drive out of the park, which was fantastic. When I came upon an animal, I turned off the engine, and pretended I had just hiked four hours to find it. (All pics after the group photo in the slideshow were on the way out of the park)

OK, that is all for now. All is good here. I hope the pictures for the rest of the trip and for the other trips speak for themselves. Hopefully I’ll get to make another post soon. Or else, maybe the next carboot sale…

2008

It was a good year

All things considered

People are starting

to wake up

To a new world

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I hit busy 2009 on January 2^nd and did not stop for more than a day or two until March 13. Lots of good blog entries have passed, and are now good stories someday. I am sitting here at a “car boot sale” which is a centralized garage sale. Sales are slowing down, so I’ll take a quick stab at the titles of those missed blog entries, and you’ll see some of the corresponding photos on Flickr:

Moving to Sedgefield: from the foothills to the sea

Welcoming Gerry Wyman! Wendy’s Mom moves to SA.

Swinging from the Trees

Cheetah Girls

Andrew and Bethany Forever

Game Drivin’

The Great American Job Search (I’m still looking at options, if you know of any good ones)

Millwood Canyon Pools (Dropkelders)

Obama’s first 60 days in office

BioVision

Biodiversity Planning Forum (Put on by the South African National Biodiversity Institute… Why can’t we have one of these?)

Natasha Hikes a Half Mile…

And the list goes on. I’ll flesh out the latest one just now.  Bottom line is that work is good, life is exciting, and SA is fantastic.  We miss everyone, and are looking forward to coming home. Should be between June and August sometime…

She just started doing it one day.  Chip off the ol’ block I guess. This was from mid-November.

November 30. We walked allaround the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden in Cape Town, and on the way back to the car stopped to check out the concert for a few minutes…Great place for a show.  Natasha loved it.

the whole world is watching.

When i stop to fill up on gas the attendants (full service is required here, like Oregon) hear my accent and immediately start talking baout the election.  An especially animate pair told me about Obama visiting his grandma days before I got it on the NPR podcast.  The South Africa Podcast talks of it as the second story.  (As an aside, the top story is that the ANC (which gets 80% of the vote) has split, so now we will start getting some more democratic dialogue here.)

OK America. The whole world is watching.  Today is your day to start turning things around…

praying.

a little video we made on our backpacking trip to the attakwaskloof cabin. a bit old (Oct 1) but fun nonetheless.