Thanksgiving day in Stewartville

Finding Amy on Google maps

I have always felt that finding a place on a map helps you feel a little like you are there. It has been frustrating to find so little about Anker where Amy is right now. However I discovered a way to find it on Google Maps and Google Earth.

I typed " latitude longitude Anker Namibia" in to Google and found a health clinic website that had the coordinates for an Anker Clinic. It seems there are at least two Ankers in Namibia and this one is in the area that Amy described

I then pasted those coordinates into Google Maps and this is the satellite photo of Anker, Nambia. You can zoom in or out to see more detail although there isn't much to the town:
Anker, Namibia



I did the same for Kamanjab and it gave me a location about 30 miles ENE of there:
Kamanjab, Namibia


And Kamanja to Anker:



Also Omaruru:
Omaruru, Namibia



and Windhoek:
Windhoek, Namibia


None of these are in high resolution, but you can see roads, terrain and blurry buildings.

Google Earth is even better if you have downloaded it and if you enter the following coordinates into the search space:

Anker -19.78500 14.53000

Kamanjab, Omaruru and Windhoek, Namibia - just type the city and country name in the space

Windhoek is in high resolution so you can actually see individual buildings.

Little Women

Many more photos at:
http://ca-bloomington.smugmug.com/gallery/961395/1

Snowy Owl in Rochester

A Snowy Owl landed on a garage roof yesterday in a neighborhood in Rochester yesterday. It is an immature male bird that apparantly was migrating and landed exhausted in this spot. It had been there all day and was sleeping almost the whole time.

I got a call about it about noon and went over about 1:30 pm. There were alot of people looking at it including curious passerbys. You could stand right in the driveway and watch it. A local photographer got some good photos of it and you can see them at:

http://www.greensphotoimages.com/gallery/album10

I didn't bring my camera but his photos are obviously better. I haven't seen many of these ever. Even last year's owl invasion only brought a couple down from the arctic. To see one in suburban Rochester is very unusual.

Leaving the United States

Amy called tonight on her last night in the United States. She said that the staging has been good and she has gotten to know some nice people. Now they have a real marathon the next few days. Tomorrow morning they are to be in the hotel lobby with all their bags packed at 6:30 AM. Then they are bussed to the clinic where she will probably get shots for Yellow Fever and Polio. She thinks that she will not need any other shots. After that they are all bussed to JFK airport in New York. Their flight leaves at 5:55 PM Eastern time.

Here is a sheet with the schedule from the last few days and their flights at the bottom. Click on it to make it bigger:


As you can see, they will leave on Wed night and arrive on Thursday night in Johannesburg. The time zone is 7 hours ahead of their departure time so the flight is about 17 hours long. Their luggage (other than carryons) will continue to Namibia and they will stay overnight in an airport hotel. They will not be allowed to leave the hotel.

Friday afternoon (they are 8 hours ahead of us so Friday morning our time), they will take a two hour flight to Windhoek and then a bus to the Omaruru Rest Camp a few hours northwest of Windhoek. There they will stay for 6 days. She said they told her not to expect to get a hold of anyone until at least Nov 12 or later.

It was almost as hard to say goodbye to her on the phone tonight as it was in the airport on Monday. I think that the idea of her leaving the country and not being in easy communication seems more real. There may not be many times like tonight to easily converse on the phone and fill each other in on all that has been happening. We'll have to see what happens with phones, calling cards, internet and/or letters. She said she would love to get any kind of mail. I guess we won't know how long before she gets something until we try it out. She had something written to publish to her blog, but wasn't sure if she could find an internet connection tomorrow.

Goodbye weekend with Amy

At Tea with Dr. R

Coral Nancy and Jewell

Baby George at Mikasa

Baby George in a bowl

Baby George

After the play on Friday night

Paul and George

Amy and Coral

Walking in Wheaton

Baby George again

Mom and Amy

Miah and Amy

Amy and George

Goodbye to Jewell

Goodbye phone call

Goodbye in the Airport