I guess that you could say that this is the latest.
I haven't written for a long time. I was shown how to open a blog so I have tried to use this once in a while. I will be leaving here next Thursday. School closes and we all get out next week on the 6th of Dec. I will pay my last respects to my family here in Chicago till the 10th when I will head for Detroit. From there I will go to North Carolina to be with my brother till about the 22nd. Then down to my niece where we will celebrate Christmas together with my 3 nieces, my brothers 3 daughters, Ann, who is the eldest and who is a medical doctor, Barbara who is a top notch Electrical Engineer working for Siemens in Germany and who will come special to join us, and Karla who visited twice in Africa and who is teaching biology at Santa Barbara University in California. On the 26th, I will move over to Atlanta and visit more cousins and on the 28th, I will be on the plane for London to the 29th and from there to Joburg where I will arrive on the on the 30th. I am hoping that a couple will meet me there and will help me to store some of my stuff as I will leave later in the afternoon for Lusaka where I will try to spend a week and renew my old connections. On the 6th I will come back to Joburg and will stay for the weekend with the Selema family (Kabelo and I were colleagues in J&P, where he still works, and his wife works for a pharmaceutical firm but is off at that time. I haven't seen the family for many years now and the kids are pretty well grown up now. Then, on the 8th, I will fly into Mthatha on the morning plane. Wow! what a story.
    Today was my birthday ( I turned 39 and was told not to open the closet door!)
We had a class today to start winding down called "transitions". We had to interview each other and then explain to the whole gang what we learned. I was the beginning of winding down our time together. We became like a family and it will be hard to say goodbye, but then, that is life. It was a beautiful time and I am grateful for those who made it possible for me. As I keep saying over and over again, life is relationships.
     One of the high points has been the chance to reconnect with family. Up till now it has always been hit and run and now I have had a chance to sit for the whole evening and really get into the family affairs so that I feel much closer now and their lives have gotten entangled with mine, which is the way, as I see it, that it should be.
     It's getting late now so I think I will leave it at that for now but keep tuned in for the next exciting episode. Love and Peace, Cas