It's Sunday tea time and Lottie is practising her presentation on the life and work of Edward Jenner for an oral test tomorrow. Another big difference in the school philosophy is the emphasis put on a student's ability to perform and present - right from a very early stage. Elizabeth is currently working on a short presentation she will have to make to the rest of her class in a few weeks' time, her chosen topic being the Rainbow Boa.

Lottie's task was to research the life and work of someone who could legitimately be called a leader in their field, and then prepare a short talk on the subject. (Nelson Mandela excluded!) We were discussing this over tea one day, and thinking it would be nice to choose an English leader when Elizabeth came up with Edward Jenner, the first man to understand the science behind immunisations and to develop the smallpox vaccine. Apparently Year 2 had talked about him at St Gabriel's last term. So thanks to Elizabeth's teachers, we had our man and someone for us all to learn about. Immunisation is a hot topic in Africa with millions still dying from diseases like measles and tuberculosis. We rather gorily suggested that Lottie could show off her weeping and oozy TB wound as part of her talk. Both girls still have nasty raised sores from this particular jab, though they should get slowly better over the next month or so.

The fish pie for tea is cooking VERY slowly in my feeble little oven, but no one minds. We've recently come back from a great walk to Elephant's Eye cave in the Steenberg mountains just south of Constantia. We wound our way up the twisty Op Kaapsweg road to Silvermine Reservoir. From there it's a steady but not too strenuous uphill climb through tall stands of pine trees and across mountain streams to the huge cave about 2 miles distant.

The views are stupendous. You can see from Muizenburg on the coast across the Cape Flats to Mitchell's Plain and all the way to the Hotentots Holland range in the far distance.

On one of the ridges some distance away a bush fire was blazing, the orange flames visible to the naked eye as they moved across the mountainside. The forest fire rangers were rushing up the mountain road as we headed down, intent on limiting the damage. On Thursday, when Neil and I were out for a walk above the Rhodes Memorial on the lower slopes of Devil's Peak, we met two police rangers. They carry out regular patrols across the Table Mountain National Park these days after muggers started preying on lone walkers and tourists. They were telling us that until a few years ago Devil's Peak was covered in indigenous forest, but most had to be felled as the fire risk this close to the city (we were walking only a mile or two from Lottie and Elizabeth's school) is just too great.

We've had a good week, busy with lots of socialising. On Friday night we went to drinks with our new landlords. Viv and Pete could not be friendlier or more welcoming. Viv took the girls out with her when she went dog walking on Friday after school, and the girls spend all their free time playing on the trampoline Pete put up for them on his front lawn.
On Thursday night we went into town for an early supper with Stewart MacIntosh and family, British friends who were visiting Cape Town for a few days. They have two sons, a year older than Lottie and Elizabeth, so we chose Royale, a restaurant with a good reputation for gourmet burgers on Long Street. I had the Big Bird, an ostrich burger with attitude!

And yesterday, after our first 'braii' (BBQ) in the garden, Lottie went to a friend's birthday party whilst Elizabeth went to play with the boys next door. Neil and I sat in the sun and planned our week long holiday at the end of September when the girls are off school.

Before that week comes around we want to get up to Namaqualand to see the stupendous spring flower displays across the otherwise pretty dry and arid landscape of the west coast. But the peek months are August and September and already our weekends are filling up. The biggest challenge of all will be deciding what to see and what to miss, given the limited time we have. You could spend half a lifetime in this amazing country and not see all it has to offer.

I'm going to see a bit more of the country, and of Africa generally in the next few weeks though. On Wednesday I'm making my first trip to Joburg to see clients and catch up with the other Added Value office. You're reminded of the scale of the country and the vast distances when you realise that Joburg is a two hour flight away; as far as southern Spain is from London. And then I'm off to Kenya for a week at the end of the month for a project on soap usage amongst some of the poorest people in Africa. That will be absolutely fascinating if a little hairy at times I suspect.

Back in SA, we are trying to find a way to do our bit and work out the best way to make a small contribution to the poverty that surrounds the luxury. We buy all the everyday goods we can (newspapers, dustbin liners, cut flowers, sacks of oranges) from the hawkers who are in attendance at every traffic light (or 'robot' as they are called here!) Although I know the advice is not to give money to beggers, I can't drive past the women who stand by the road in the pouring rain, babies tied to their backs, looking straight ahead with dead eyes. We're taking part in the Blisters for Bread fundraising walk in two weeks time - just the entry fee for the four of us will feed almost 100 hungry children. And I'm hoping there might be a chance to do some pro bono work for the International Partnership for Microbicides who are making exciting breakthroughs into HIV prevention at the moment, with SA the lead country in the clinical trials. It's all a drop in the ocean though, and the biggest long term problem, here as elsewhere, is corruption and the systematic unfairness that is built into the system. In SA, the positive discrimination of the last 20 years hasn't produced uniformly good results but has succeeded in making some black businessmen very rich indeed. Barriers to investment are beginning to be more problematic as all companies over a certain size have to abide by stringent BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) regulations, and now there's a huge fuss going on over potential curbs to press freedom as Jacob Zuma's government don't like the accusations of cronyism and corruption being thrown at them. Neil is going to the launch of a new book in Kalk Bay on Friday evening entitled 'Why Africa is Poor' and attended by Helen Ziller, the premier of the Western Cape and the only non-ANC state premier in SA. The evening's debate should be enlightening, and the book will be hugely interesting if rather heavy holiday reading.

Which reminds me - before I finish tonight a huge thanks to Amanda and my book club friends if any of them ever reads this overly-lengthy post. The book you gave me when I left (The Shadow of The Sun) is the most fascinating, beautifully written and completely absorbing part history / part reportage about Africa as independence arrived for much of the continent in the 1960's and beyond. Thoroughly recommended. I read it on my train journeys to work - thank goodness Cape Town station is where the train terminates or I'm sure I'd have missed my stop several times.

Lots of love to anyone who has read this far! Once I start writing there is so much to record, so much I want to remember from a trip that truly feels like the experience of a lifetime.