Disclaimer: The following is an email I sent to friends and family in October 2013, preserved here for posterity.

Subj: Colin's South Africa Update

Hello all!

I left South Africa on October 20 and I'm just getting to an internet cafe here in Nepal now so I can share a glimpse of my adventures.

First, please give me feedback on this. Whatever these are, they'll last for a year, so it's worth it to tell me if they are too frequent or too long/short or too check-list-y or poor diction or whatever. 

So I stayed with Jack on his pomegranate farm in the beautiful "Klein Karoo" of South Africa for a month and learned all about companion planting and the importance of water, but let me start with some introductions.

Jack is a hugely important AIDS activist in South Africa, crucial in making anti-retroviral therapy available for free in South Africa (after convincing the entire government to admit that AIDS exists). He has kind of retired and is making a project out of making a prosperous pomegranate farm.  

He is also hosting Omar, who is a refugee from Jordan with a lot of organic farming experience (and has great ideas for the farm).  

There are also Rosie and Socrates who are two beautiful African dogs (Canis Africanis) who can chase sticks for weeks without resting. 

So to get to the good stuff, here are some things I did on the 3 acre farm:

• I co-designed, fabricated, and installed The Landing Strip of Van Wyksdorp, which was a series of 25 "Light Traps" on a strand which were meant to catch some pesky moths that were laying eggs in the fruit.  They were extremely effective, catching thousands of moths and attracting hundreds of bats from all across town. 
• I helped completely disassemble and refabricate the solar dryer they had used to dry apricots.  We changed the base from moldy wood to corrugated sheet metal and installed new spacers, rack, net, plastic and opening system
• In true Pareto style, the revolutionary light traps that started rumors about the "moth expert from America" took one day, while the incremental improvement of the dryer took the rest of the month.

What I did not on the farm:

• Drove 4 hours through a huge mountain chain to pick up 600 wormwood plants (a natural insecticide)
• Went for a hike to The Eye, the mystical source of the entire town's water, with Omar.  We got lost a couple of times and ended up in a cave on the side of a mountain, but it was beautiful anyways. 
• Yoga every wednesday taught by a 4'10" Dutch woman who studied yoga in China.
• Went for a guided walk to The Eye, lead by the yoga teacher's 6'4" Dutch husband, who stereotypically owns a Tulip farm in the Netherlands.  We did not get lost and were rewarded with what must be the cleanest water in the world.
• Hiked to the top of the tallest mountain we could see for sunset, slept there, and enjoyed a splendid sunrise as the light poured onto the town from the clouds.

What I learned:

• It's good for your tomatoes to plant basil (or mint) right next to them.  The roots compete and the tomato always wins, but the stress makes it produce better fruit. 
• Farming is all about water. (They split the water from The Eye into turns, so you have to go set the valves and direct the water to your dams during your allotted time)
• The Klein Karoo region of South Africa is one of the most biodiverse areas of the planet. It also has one of the clearest skies in the planet, and is one of the sights for a giant radio telescope because of this.
• The real estate market is quite nice, but you have to deal with some ridiculous and unpredictable government issues (like extensive bribery and incompetency) and some pretty absurd class/race discrimination despite being 20 years post-apartheid.

I'm sorry this is long and delayed. The next one might be a dramatic story from Nepal (instead of a list like this). I'll try to use pictures too, but most of you can see my facebook uploads (only SA so far).

It's easy to evangelize for travel and how you should quit whatever you're doing and buy a ticket to meet me in Borneo, but I'll let you decide what you want to do.  If you really feel the pull, I have tons of helpful information and you have my email.

In short, I'm living and loving my life. 

I hope this message finds you well, and you can forgive me for not editing this email very well but I have to get back to the farm
 

Thank you,
Colin