Dear Everyone

Well, we've experienced everything from termites to cheetahs in just two days!

It is a quiet, warm Saturday morning here in Pretoria. I have just finished a bank appointment and the students, with Prof. Roebuck and Kathleen Shepherd, are out visiting an Asian market and then going on a walking tour about the history of this part of highveld South Africa and the central city. This afternoon at 2 each student will meet his/her African homestay parents and go with them to their residence in the outlying suburbs. This will be the student's "home-away-from home" for the term.

All the students arrived here safely by Thursday, along with Prof. Bill Roebuck. The first 19 got up Thursday morning despite a six-hour jet lag, cheerfully ate breakfast at their backpacker hostel, and set out with me to the highveld about an hour outside Pretoria. There we met Dr. Darryl de Ruiter, a Canadian post-doc now a faculty member at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, who led us in his four=wheel drive across streams and marshes and up to his paleontology site. Here, in a gently falling rain, we learned about the history of such sites in this region and then descended into the caves to stand, in awe, at the site where up-right hominids first used "controlled fire" for cooking and protection. I loved it, and so (I think) did the sleepy students, who scrambled around the caves and even went down one entrance looking at a site where early tools are still found, only to emerge (after a long crawl) out another cave, much to Darryl's utter delight and my surprise!

On the way back down the hill, we got a close look at a red- clay termite mound. Dr. de Ruiter, always the academic, explained that the large chunk whacked out of one side of the mound had actually been made by one of his Master's students testing a theory. The student had found a series of peculiar, sharp bone tools almost identical in shape. What had they been used for? Some theorised that early people used them to cut tubers and roots out of the soil. But the graduate student found when he tried it that this didn't work well. On a hunch, recognizing that these early people needed large amounts of protein, he gave the termite mound a go. The bone tool worked perfectly, hence the hole.

The Dartmouth students were fascinated by this, and when Darryl gave a little demonstration, small white termites emerged. "Well," I said "are there any primitive men or women in the crowd?" I believe Scott Cushman took the challenge first, and wetting his index finger snagged a termite and popped it into his mouth.

"Hmmmm," he offered, "tastes like almonds."

Leah Sanberg, Ingar Hanson, John Davidson joined him, and agreed. Scott got a long piece of straw and inserted it into the mound, slowly drawing out a clutching line of termites. The students ate up and pretty soon there was a joke that we were having lunch. Actually, we ate bagels and cream cheese sandwiches, with termites! Next up: mopane worms.

Friday we toured the De Wildt Cheetah and Wild Dog Breeding Centre. Why? Well, both animals are endangered -- both are on the CITES Appendix I list -- and both present interesting opportunities to start our study on animal behaviour up close. In fact, even before a welcoming talk the students were, with our guide, scratching four adolescent cheetahs who rubbed up against the fence, purring like domestic cats. (Well, purring like a dozen domestic cats: it's a loud, growly sort of noise.)

We got to pet two-month old cheetah cubs, identify honey badgers, and watch and learn about the king cheetah, of which there are only 40 in the world. Three came to our group, rolling in the dust, presenting their furry necks for scratching, meowing at us like domestic cats. One struggles not to fall into a Disney-effect, or to lose sight of the fact that these animals are indeed wild.

Our tour continued with a series of birds and discussion about them -- owls first, storks, then the magnificent crowned crane, and on to vultures. Did you know that a vulture here can rise on thermals to an altitude of 40,000 feet, see 120 kilmeters in every direction, and locate carrion from that altitude? We also learned that another African vulture generates about 300 pounds pressure per centimeter of jaw -- enough to crush any bone found anywhere. Humbling.

On a tiered, open safari vehicle, we next entered the wild dog enclosure. These are pack hunters that circle and attack a weakened prey, and as we came in, the Alpha Female led them and about 8 pups around and around our moving vehicle while she looked each of us in the eyes to see who might be separated out as a possible meal! Of course, we were also carrying their lunch, which the guide offered them during her lecture about their behaviour. We ventured on, still aboard the safari vehicle, to feed three full- grown male cheetahs. What magnificent animals: top speed of 120 kilometers per hour; can turn 90-degrees at that speed; cannot feed unless chasing its prey (therefore, if encountered, stand still!). We also learned about cheetah reproductive behavior, pack and individual patterns, and ended by observing newly-born cheetah cubs with their Moms. These little guys are only about a foot tall and look like stuffed animals: all furry heads, big eyes, round tummies and small tails.

After a great buffet lunch, and another lecture, we headed back to Pretoria, where the students and I had our first formal classroom session. Our classroom is on the second floor of a stone building on the University of Pretoria campus. This is an old lab, with stools and hard wooden benches.

Mary-Anne Matoka, our urban homestay coordinator, came by the classroom for an hour's discussion on the students' local families, customs, languages, etc. The students, like their new families earlier in the term, were full of questions: what will I eat for breakfast, how will I do a laundry, can we go running at our homestays, etc. Mary-Anne brought her two 19-year-old nieces and they gave the Dartmouth students a little different, but very wise and conservative, view of their own academic and social lives.

So, we are well underway. The urban homestay parents arrive at the backpacker hostel in three hours. The students have their first small academic tasks from me. They are starting their Journals and I also gave them their Readers -- six of them, arranged by topics (Field Manual, Political Economy, Land and Agriculture, Physical and Political geography, etc.)

Monday, we head for Soweto, a township outside Johannesburg, then on to a play. Tuesday and Wednesday are full with lectures, and we then depart for the field on Thursday. I probably won't write again until we return, in about 10 days.

Everyone is well, full of excitement, enthusiastic.

All the best,

Jack and Kathleen