Tanzania and Zanzibar!

two weeks on safari through Tanzania

And we are off for three weeks in Tanzania and Zanzibar! See you in September, South Africa!

arriving in Arusha

a highlight will be experiencing the Great Wildebeest Migration in person!

arriving in Zanzibar

Zanzibar's location

followed by a week in Zanzibar

What to wear to a Diner en Blanc

Diner en Blanc 2015

... in Cape Town it's on November 28 and I am still waiting to find out 2015's date in Johannesburg.

And already, Vince and I are busy making plans. Just as important as your choice of menu and table decorations is your choice of what to wear.

ostrich egg jewelry

Obviously you wear white. And they mean all white. But as a veteran now of two Diners en Blanc in Johannesburg, I can tell you it's not that simple. For instance women can get away with silver or nude shoes and men with a darker beige. You risk being turned away though with black shoes or a black belt. We've never risked it.

For the Diner en Blanc-Johannesburg in 2013 I went for comfort and wore pants. Ralph Lauren white eyelet trimmed pants and a floor length white crochet sweater, a Morgane Le Fay sleeveless blouse underneath and a Panama Hat from the Bryanston Organic Market on my head. Ostrich egg and silver jewelry and silver sequined straw wedges.

The only thing I bought especially for the DOB that year was my ostrich eggshell jewelry, purchased mostly from Avoova in Cape Town and Mambu Designs in the Bryanston Organic Market.

For our second Diner en Blanc-Johannesburg in 2014 I made more of an effort. I wore a white lace dress I found in a local Joburg boutique that has since closed, a Ralph Lauren Angora bolero that I already owned and I had a fascinator custom-made for me by The Little Hattery in Cape Town.

My sweater has a rhinestone clasp so I accessorized with Lulu Frost art deco rhinestone earrings and bought a pair of rhinestone embellished sandals. Sparkly!

  





These are some things to think about when deciding what to wear to Diner en Blanc in 2015.

The more elegant, the better. Save the white tee shirt, white pants and white flip flops for the beach. You will feel underdressed wearing them at DOB. People pull out all the stops! And there is usually a contest for best-dressed which makes people go even crazier with their fashion choices.

.

hats make nice centerpieces too

Include headwear in your ensemble. That means hats of course, but headwear is more than just hats. Here is your chance to think outside the box.

People wear anything from tiaras and crowns to platinum blonde wigs. Have fun!

Individualize with accessories. White sunglasses. Ostrich boas. Bow ties for men. Folding fans. Gloves. An ascot. And masks for that Carnival feeling.

Prepare for rain. Unless you live in the desert or if there is an absolute 0% chance of rain, think about it. If you care about what you're wearing and it's not waterproof, bring a white umbrella and / or a clear or white rain coat

Think French. Since DOB started in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, anything French goes, both on the table and on your person. Inspiration can come from the Eiffel Tower and the other monuments of Paris to ...

... an homage to some of the more imitable French style icons such as Marie Antoinette, Jean Seberg and Brigitte Bardot.

Some cities even have a contest for the dress or tablescape with the most French flair.

For one of these Diners someday, I am going to wear a white Marie Antoinette ship on my head!

DOB Barcelona was held on the beach in front of the Gehry fish

All terrain shoes. You never know where you'll be walking and on what surface. Could be gravel, grass, sand or concrete. Stilettos are probably not a good idea for most locations - always a well-guarded secret until the last minute. It's best to just plan for all terrains.

As always, the guys have a much easier time of it. A white button down shirt paired with white linen pants. White boat shoes or bucks. White slip-on sneakers or lace-ups for a more casual look. Vince wore a white linen guayabera and Panama hat with white slip-on sneakers in 2013. He stepped it up with a custom-made white linen suit, white boat shoes and a white pith helmet in 2014.

Let's go shopping!

Africa Cup

The Inanda Club in Sandton was the setting for the three day Land Rover Africa Cup 2015. We met some friends there for the final day of the series to see the best of Africa play polo.

Egypt versus Uganda. Nigeria versus Ghana. Kenya versus South Africa. Zimbabwe versus South Africa again.

It was a beautiful sunny day. Perfect weather for a polo outing and picnic with Lou & Serge in tow.

Lou says, "... but I like boeries too!"

Lou was even hoping he might get some of Vince's boerie roll!

The highlight of the day was the dramatic arrival of the South African team sponsored by Airbus Helicopters. They arrived by air landing right smack in the middle of the polo field!

What a way to make an entrance! Well played, South Africa!

The Patron Saint of Archaeology

St. Helena of Constantinople, the mother of Emperor Constantine, is the Patron Saint of Archaeologists. (Constantine was the Christian convert who put the "Holy" in Holy Roman Empire!) Due to her spiritual motivation, she was probably one of the first people ever to have embarked upon archaeological fieldwork.

the first archaeological dig?

Helena undertook a trip to Palestine during 326 to 328 AD. This was with the express intention of recovering the relics of Christianity, a burgeoning religion she had adopted and, later, to which her son would convert, setting in motion the Christianisation of most of Europe and beyond. Helena’s trip was probably the first archaeological mission in history.

After distributing largesse to the poor and needy along her route – this was a time when such charity was a cornerstone of the new religion – she turned her attention to fieldwork. According to legendary accounts, Helena was moved by the Holy Spirit to dig in Jerusalem, whereupon she found wood from three crosses. Some sources say that she immediately knew which one was the cross upon which Jesus was crucified by the plaque affixed upon it, declaring him King of the Jews. Another source says that she took all tree crosses to a sick woman and, touching her with each in turn, identified the holy cross upon the woman’s miraculous recovery.

my sister and I touching the Reliquary of the True Cross in Israel

Helena also found part of Christ’s tunic, the rope with which he was lashed to the cross, and also the nails that went through Christ’s hands and feet (but not his body as, according to scripture, this ascended to heaven). She sent one of the nails to her son who made it into a horse bridle, so honoring the prophecy linking the nails to “the bells of horses”. 

Unwittingly, Helena also sparked the cult of relics and thousands of pieces of the true cross were to find their way across Europe, most with rather dubious pedigree. There is still a Reliquary of the True Cross at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

Helena died a little after her return from Palestine in 330 AD with her son at her side. She was buried in the Mausoleum of Helena, just outside Rome, and, what is claimed as her sarcophagus, now lies in the Vatican Museum.

a stained glass window in the Community of St. Helen's church

I knew all this of course, being a good Catholic school girl and having visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and the Vatican Museum in Rome in person. And my parish church for 25 years in Westfield, NJ was named in honor of St. Helen. My son Alex's Confirmation name - the additional name one takes upon being confirmed a Roman Catholic - is even "Constantine." But my fellow SH2015 Gaza Gray excavators did not. They had sought the blessing of St. Helen before beginning to dig in Kruger National Park, but they did not know why she was acknowledged as the Patron Saint of Archaeologists. 

But after finding not one but two skeletons at the site, it was clear that someone was looking out for our little archaeological expedition. Blessed be St. Helena of Constantinople!

my St. Helen charm for SH2015 in RSA!

 

RainRainRain. There, I said it!

uncovering the excavated skeleton in the morning

Neither cold, heat nor wind could stop the intrepid workers of SH2015 Gaza Gray. Only one thing could stop us and that was rain. Which is why we were forbidden to utter the word "rain" or any of its incarnations during the entire dig period. If you did, you might attract the attention of the rain gods and that would be bad for business. As your penalty for such an infraction, you were given a "strafdoppe" that evening in the boma, i.e., a shot of mampoer or moonshine.

You would think it would be easy to avoid saying the word "rain" for a week, but you would be surprised how easily the word is uttered in normal conversation. Especially when you are working in the heat in a parched Kruger National Park after a particularly dry winter.

I got caught out at least twice that I remember. Once in the morning before we uncovered the exposed skeletons that we had revealed the day before. There in the middle of the plastic tarp which had protected them overnight from the animals and the elements was a small puddle of water. It had clearly drizzled a little the night before.

The second time, it was much more innocent. I didn't even realize I had said it until I was called up to collect my strafdoppe that night. But now that the dig is complete and we have left the park,

red sky in morning, sailors take warning! Rain today!

... let it rain!

All the Big Five in one game drive! Again!

playing chicken with impala on a bridge

Really, Kruger National Park is truly the most amazing place on the planet!

After we finished the excavation of SH2015 Gaza Gray, we took a final game drive through lower Kruger National Park. And for the second time in a week, we saw all of the Big Five in one game drive! We aw two lions, two leopards, dozens of elephants, hundreds of Cape buffalo and three rhinos who were sleeping standing up!

the first lion

the second lion

a leopard

ellies and hippos by the river

herds of Cape buffalo too

shhh! rhinos sleeping here!

I found beads!

Anton verifying my find

Ya know I love jewelry ...

... so naturally it became very important for me to find jewelry during my archaeological dig if any was to be found. And there was jewelry to be found in the form of beads.

One by one, other people sifted through the dust and dirt and found beads. Glass trading beads. Decorative ostrich egg shell beads. Even a bone bead. But not me.

But then finally ... on my last bucketful of the day ... on the last day of the dig, I found a bead! As Anton described it, ".. it was a typical Gaza Gray bead." But I thought it was simply beautiful.

And then a few moments later, a bonus bead!

my first bead!

4 glass beads on the left, an ostrich shell bead on the right and a bone bead on top

And that evening in the boma I was given the day's Excavation Award for my find!

Me and Moffat

me and Moffat, the skeleton

Meet Moffat. Moffat was our dedicated game ranger for the SH2015 Gaza Gray dig. Moffat's job was to keep us safe from the wild animals that surrounded the excavation site.

We were literally in the middle of the bush of Kruger National Park outside the safety of our vehicles and therefore very vulnerable to whatever and whomever wanted some fast food for dinner. Jackals, hyenas, lions. Moffat kept them all at bay.

a rhino running from the dig site after rolling in some excavated dirt and dust

But Moffat is also a natural-born archaeologist. One morning he noticed a rock poking up out of the excavation site. He said, "That is a skull."

is it a rock or a skull?

A little brushing and some strategic dirt removal and ...

meet Moffat

... sure enough, Moffat was right! So naturally we named the skeleton after the first one to correctly identify the find.

me and Moffat, the game ranger and nature-born archaeologist!

And the next day I was allowed to help excavate Moffat! My first skeleton. I had thought my first skeleton would belong to a hominin, this being Africa and all. But still, it was a rare and privileged opportunity to excavate a skeleton. I am so thankful!

It truly was amazing to watch the bones slowly reveal themselves as I brushed off the surrounding dirt.

And the day after that, Moffat was photographed in situ before we removed, documented and sorted the bones.

Gardiol and I removing Moffat from her home for the last 150 years

Anton believes Moffat is actually a native female adult, but the bones will be sent to a forensic anthropologist for verification. Hopefully a cause of death will also be determined. After that, Moffat can be reburied according to the customs of her tribe.