Mzoo Spot

This is the title of Sihle Khumalo's second book. His first book "Dark Continent My Black Arse" was about his adventurous travels (by road) from Cape to Cairo. In Heart of Africa he takes us from Johannesburg to the "source of the Nile River" in Uganda. He travelled right around Lake Victoria in an anticlockwise direction and back. During his travel he touched countries such as Tanzania, Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda. He encountered interesting characters mostly "boda boda" (scooter) drivers. The book is written in simple English, and is a good guide for anyone who wants to learn more about the African continent.

On the 14th of October, I gave a talk to a group of school children in Bronkhorstspruit about the importance of weather observations in climate variability and change. I was told that my audience will be high school learners, but on the day very young learners from the nearby primary school turned up. There were about 200 learners in the hall, and most of them still in primary school. My challenge then was to tailor my presentation, which was initially intended for high school learners to now suite this rather young group. Luckily enough I had more pictures than text on my slides. The school - Erasmus High School , from which the majority of learners came, teaches mainly in Afrikaans, but the learners understand English very well. The highlight of my presentation was how these young learners perfectly understood my message. This I was able to determine from the many questions they pose after the presentation. They wanted to find for example, when did climate change begin?; how can we ...