Just wanted to share this old Miitopia animatic I did with mine and my friends characters, I just found it again and now I remember why I loved it lol

Characters

Varian!- Dark Lord (stinky purple man)

Belongs to me!

Ace!- Dark lord 2 (is having a bad time)

Belongs to my friend Remus!

Nayla!- Warrior Hero (a bit tied up atm)

Belongs to @nayiitopia!

Been a long time been a long time

DATA LOVE!

"I'm like a vampire; I wish you were here for the demonstration, then I could have pricked you" said the phlebotomist trainer for the fieldworkers of the survey. Her affinity for perfection in collecting blood makes her ideal for her job, and slightly weird. Observing the training after having read the field manuals, no doubt her attention to detail was impressive, at least witnessed beyond access to my fingertips.

I've been finding my way through my work role as liaison to the partner implementing a national household survey on HIV. The official launch of the survey was conducted at the beautiful Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg (Jo'burg) in the third week of February. The CEO of the partner's speech was the most impressive at the launch, highlighting our responsibility to care for each other. And emphasizing that determining the scale of that responsibility is how we better accomplish the goal.  It pulled at my epidemiologist heartstrings.

Mobile Van

Launch Q&A

The rain in Spain

Around that same week, it became rainy and cool (~65 degrees). I started to believe that the Seattle rain follows me everywhere I go until I heard that Seattle didn't want to be outdone and produced thunder hail that same week. Okay okay, you win Seattle, Pretoria's weather's not so bad. I still made a video to "whine" for y'all.

African hipster heaven or close to it

On one rainy Saturday, I went to Market at the Sheds, a monthly market in downtown Pretoria put on by an organization interested in urban revitalization for Pretoria. The hippest people in Pretoria come to sport their fashion, sell their wares, and eat some food. I was just happy there were a variety of musical performances from singer-songwriter to jazz to classical voice groups. I'm including pictures of the paella I had there as well as an open-faced pork belly sandwich with rocket from a place called "Ginger and Fig" and a Turkish delight ice cream with chocolate filled spring rolls to demonstrate my weakness when it comes to hipster culture - FOOD and taking pictures of it. Media included below including an extra video from Jo'burg this past weekend.

Beware of Springbok and KFC dominance

I was able to make it out of Pretoria for a short field trip, tagging along while trying to meet with rapid testing partners in preparation for survey data collection in the Province of Limpopo. It was nice to travel through some non-suburban landscapes. We crossed first through agricultural areas, fields and fields of sunflowers and other crops, passing multiple tractors on the way and dodging potholes on the highway. We then overnighted in a place called Glen Cowie. It was there that our tired selves could only find a KFC open in a run down shopping center for dinner. This was my first taste of South Africa rural, kind of like American rural, due to the sheer global dominance of Yum brands (who own Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC). We ordered our food, and came back to eat it in one of our very modest moth-filled hotel rooms while prepping for our meeting the next day between finger licks. For my personal health, I didn't drink the water because I was a bit ignorant of which areas were considered treated. -Though KFC felt pretty awful itself - Most of the area had rain barrels, but I didn't want to take any chances given my past experiences. Leaving dusty Glen Cowie, we headed toward the mining area of Burgersfort and back west to meet with some testing partners and all went well. As an aside, faith in humanity is often restored when meeting people who work in small NGOs, community health and social workers crammed in small offices working hard to stretch dollars and serve. If you haven't already, try it in the US. We came back through to stay in a B&B at a golf estate - which is basically the equivalent of an upscale-gated golfing community suburb in the states. I drank the water and took a bath in a tub almost as long as I am. Along the roads signs showed beware of crossing signs for springbok and warthogs as we passed private game reserves. I definitely saw an ostrich area, and maybe, just maybe, there was a tiny wildebeest near one of the fences near the highway.

Road just outside hotel in Glen Cowie

America First, South Africa second?

So y'all know me, I'm passionate about issues so I'm passionate about politics. A cross between xenophobia and vigilante justice has shown itself in Pretoria. South Africa is more developed than a lot of its neighbors and many people from as far as Nigeria to proximal Zimbabweans make their way here, documented or undocumented. Recent sentiment has grown against "foreigners" with mobs in other parts of the city burning down houses the neighbors claimed were foreign-owned drug and prostitution dens. A group here followed it up by planning an anti-foreigner protest on the streets. I've seen 3 protests in Pretoria since I've arrived, but this one came with advice to stay indoors. From high up in the partner's office downtown I witnessed youthful men parading on feet and in the back of pickup trucks shouting. There were reports of violence and a sense that police closed in quickly to quell most, but not all of the flair ups towards the end of the day.

 I've been pondering what has seemed like waves of anti-immigrant sentiments and nationalism spreading across the globe, hit me up on Skype, what'sapp or email if you want to delve in more. However, as I pondered these patterns and similarities, I also remembered this oldie but goody from Trevor Noah.  

Speaking of Trevor Noah, I wrapped up last week with a book club meeting hosted at a German diplomat's house discussing "Born A Crime." It was interesting how nearly all the South Africans, particularly of color, were not as impressed as the expats. While they realized it's not Trevor's job to introduce South Africa to the US, they felt that much of it was oversimplified or embellished and might lend the wrong impression to people. It was a nice discussion with wine, food, and a viewing of South Africa's own "America First, South Africa Second" video put together by a SA radio station.

Next time --> Another visitor from Seattle! And more from S Africa