Getting to the Wedding – Shuttle Service
Please plan to strictly adhere to the schedule below. If you are not listed here, please call Kristi at 301.802.3648 to schedule a pick up time.

Getting Back to the Hotels – Shuttle Service
A professional shuttle service will return you to your pickup location. The shuttle service will begin at 9 P.M., with a final departure at 11:45 P.M.

The Inn at Corolla Light (~3 miles from location)
1066 Ocean Trail, Corolla, NC
Reservations: 252-453-3340

Hampton Inn & Suites (~9 miles from location)
333 Audubon Drive, Corolla, NC
Reservations: 252-453-6565

The Sanderling Inn and Resort (17 miles from location)
1461 Duck Road 2794, Duck, NC
Reservations: 877-650-4812

In addition, there are numerous rental agencies such as Twiddys, Resort Realty, and Carolina Designs that offer beach homes should you choose to have an extended stay.

Driving from DC and points North of Corolla:
I-95 S toward Richmond
Exit 84A on the left for I-295 S toward Rocky Mount NC 1.5 mi
Keep right at the fork to continue toward I-295 S and merge onto I-295 S 13.3 mi
Take exit 28A to merge onto I-64 E toward Norfolk 91.6 mi
Take exit 291B for State Hwy 168 S/State Hwy 17 S toward Nags Head 0.3 mi
Merge onto I-464 S 0.2 mi
Continue on Chesapeake Expy S (signs for Manteo/Nags Head/VA-168 S) Partial toll road 14.2 mi
Continue on VA-168 Entering North Carolina 1.8 mi
Continue on NC-168 18.3 mi
Slight left at US-158 28.0 mi
Turn left at Duck Rd/NC-12 Continue to follow NC-12 ~20 mi
Pick up directions below from “The Last Leg”

From Norfolk Airport:
Head northeast on Norview Ave 1.9 mi
Merge onto I-64 E via the ramp to Virginia Beach/Chesapeake 12.4 mi
Take exit 291B for State Hwy 168 S/State Hwy 17 S toward Nags Head 0.3 mi
Merge onto I-464 S 0.2 mi
Continue on Chesapeake Expy S (signs for Manteo/Nags Head/VA-168 S) Partial toll road 14.2 mi
Continue on VA-168 Entering North Carolina 1.8 mi
Continue on NC-168 18.3 mi
Slight left at US-158 28.0 mi
Turn left at Duck Rd/NC-12 Continue to follow NC-12 ~20 mi
Pick up directions below from “The Last Leg”

Driving from the South (i.e., South Carolina):
I-95 N twd North Carolina
Take exit 138 to merge onto US-64 E toward Rocky Mount/Tarboro 52.0 mi
Continue on US-13 12.5 mi
Continue on Bypass 17/US-17 – follow US-17 1.1 mi
Turn right at Edenton Rd/S King St/NC-308/US-17 – follow US-17 49.0 mi
Turn right at W Elizabeth St/US-158 – follow US-158 6.2 mi
Slight right and stay on US-158 38.6 mi
Turn left at Duck Rd/NC-12 Continue to follow NC-12 ~20 mi
Pick up directions below from “The Last Leg”

The Last Leg:
Turn left at Duck Rd/NC-12 Continue to follow NC-12 ~20 mi and you’ll pass the Twiddy Corolla office just past the lighthouse.

Satellite Parking Lot: At this point there will be one of 2 satellite parking lots, the Twiddy lot and A1 Towing. Both lots are first come, first served and you are welcome to leave your vehicle in this lot for a modest parking fee. 4×4 vehicles will be shuttling back and forth from the house until 5:15 PM, as the ceremony begins at 5:30 PM. If you plan on parking in the satellite lots, please plan on arriving no later than 5:15 PM.

Or, if you have a 4×4 vehicle and plan on driving to the house, it’s recommended you let your air out of the tires (15lbs) if you plan on driving on the beach. Please refer to the enclosed 4×4 beach access map to navigate the last 2 miles of your journey.

Within a few tenths of a mile, the road ends and turns into the beach access road. Drive 2.2 miles along the beach and the house will be on the left.

Race then gets broken down into the 2 major factions: the Xhosa (of which Mandela and current president Mbeki are part of) who have historically held positions of leadership, and the Zulu (of which the the other candidate, Zuma, derives his lineage). Zulus are the majority of South Africa’s population, but had, until today, never led.

After race, then comes political party “evaluation”. The candidates come from a one-party democracy. The African National Congress (ANC), long-time champion for (native) African rights, is the mechanism by which all of the current South African presidents (since Mandela) have been elected.

Then, candidates. Candidate #1 was Mbeki, the Xhosa incumbent and leader of the ANC, doesn’t believe that AIDS is a real problem, and has publicly stated as much. His minister of health is a yes-(wo)man who essentially funds the last remaining scientists that believe AIDS is a homosexual disease (and other related and antiquated fairy tales) and pumps that propaganda out to the masses. Candidate #2 is Zuma, Zulu, and #2 at the ANC. He was recently accused of raping an HIV positive woman and has been criticized for socialist/communist leanings, despite being a leader of a democratic country.

After much embattled (and dirty) campaigning, and postulating about who to vote for, South Africa elected Zuma today.

I had the chance to speak to South Africans across all strata – here are some of their truncated thoughts:

African (Xhosa) hipster woman, mid-20s: “I’m voting for Mbeki. Mbeki all the way. I’m a Xhosa and that’s how we do it. He will do us right.” (this was stated with fist-pumps in the air)

Colored man (of Indian descent), late 30′s: “Either way we vote we lose. I have given up on this generation – no education, no ability, no leadership — and all of my thoughts are with the next generation. I’m getting my phD in psychology and hope to end up in another country… I’ll come back later, when the kids are grown, and I have something to offer this country.”

Colored woman (of mixed black, white and Indian ancestry), early 50′s: “What do I do? For the first time I feel as though there’s nothing here for us to hope for. I’ve been a South African all my life and recently, I’ve been asking myself, “Why am I staying here?” Where can we go next?”

White woman (of British descent), mid-20s: “It doesn’t matter who I vote for. My vote doesn’t affect the ballots, and either way it doesn’t look good.”

And the press:

http://www.africasia.com/services/news/newsitem.php?area=africa&item=071218203604.6jfmm0uu.php

In the last few years public consciousness has been raised to understand that the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is waging a war on a considerable part of the world’s population. Although a global phenomenon, the battlegrounds are found in concentrated regions, the most acute in eastern and southern Africa. The following story is a brief chronicle of my meeting and consequent struggle to help a little boy living in a township on the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa have a chance at life. He is one of over 1 million orphaned children in South Africa due to the AIDS pandemic. Of that number of orphans we can only guess at the numbers of HIV positive children. Testing in general, but particularly for children, is sporadic at best.

I met “Max” in March of 2007 when I visited his family and brought small gifts and letters from their new pen pals in the United States. I carried packets from Michigan State University students to children in Zonkizizwe, South Africa who belong to an orphan care support organization that I co-founded in 2006: Vumundzuku-bya-Vana, Our Children’s Future (VVOCF). “Max” was almost 6 years old at the time. He was full of life despite signs of sickness. In every visit these past nine months, I saw his expressive eyes reveal childhood curiosity and a kind of knowledge you would expect to find in an old man. At times he engages these worlds simultaneously.

Often though it is one or the other; bursts of energy followed by a slowing down, where everything seems painful if he stops long enough to think about it. Eyes fill up with water, the nose drips; sores, small scabs and swollen glands are nuisances that he has learned to accept but something else is going on. After running and jumping about, he has to stop to rest. It’s a battle inside his small six-year-old body that he cannot explain.

I am not a medical practitioner but when I first laid eyes upon him I knew he was sick. I was told he was being treated for TB. I asked if he had been tested for HIV. His 19-year-old aunt who is looking after a family of 5 replied that her older aunt is taking care of him (in another community) and they think he’ll be fine after the treatment.

No, I thought. This looks like a classic case of co-infection. I pleaded to get him tested but I had only recently met the family and the relationship with VVOCF was just beginning.  We would have to work methodically to convince them of the value in testing.

There are six children living together in this family. It is actually two families blended.  The 19 year old has a 2-year-old baby herself that is being raised by the paternal grandmother. She has tried twice to pass the 11th grade to no avail. Following her is a 16-year-old boy, and 3 girls, ages, 15, 14 and 8 respectively. The 16-year-old boy has chronic stomach problems that we suspect have been caused by an accident where he drank acid at the age of 10. The details of this are sketchy but his very thin body and constant complaints of stomach pain are real and immediate. There is an older brother/uncle that lives in the house and is employed but the children primarily take care of themselves. The 8 year old is the daughter of another brother who was murdered. There is no explanation of where her mother is. “Max” is the baby in the family. His mother is the older sister of the 19 and 15 year old. She had three children and died
in 2006 when “Max” was 5 years old. When “Max” began to show signs of sickness an older aunt came onto the scene to take him away from the family home. Through all these years, before the children joined VVOCF there was no serious inquiry into the cause of death of “Max”’s mother. The repeated answer is always “we don’t know.”

As a mother and educator I can find no words to describe the pain I feel when I see the struggles of these children. Although the eldest is 19 she operates at a much younger level in many ways. A very poor education system has failed to equip her with skills needed to advance and become employable. She manages the basic household duties but cannot parent the rest of the children. They are all taking care of each other and do what they can to survive. VVOCF is a comfort to them but is unable to significantly alleviate the daily tasks demanded for raising strong, healthy
human beings. Despite this, I determined that VVOCF must do what it can to move people towards acknowledging and learning to deal with the scourge of HIV-AIDS in their midst. To this end, I convinced the 19 year old to allow us to go together to get the child tested immediately. I would go along and help in whatever way I could. I had only one day left in the country so I pleaded with her to give the child a chance at life. She agreed and the next day Nomusa and I (VVOCF co-chairs) took her and the little boy to the clinic. To my surprise we did not face resistance at the clinic. Within the last year they have begun to make it easier to test children as awareness of the disease is growing and pediatric ARVs formulas are becoming more accessible. They ran the rapid test with some basic counseling and were pleased that VVOCF was there to help the family. Within 15 minutes, my suspicions were validated.
“Max” tested positive. As he screamed with terror when his little finger was pricked I remembered my days of taking my own children to get their immunizations. I always promised them treats after the visit to counteract those moments of pain. So we did the same with “Max”, holding him close during the procedure and promising him treats when we finished at the clinic. Instinct told me to offer good food before the treat and sure enough tired little “Max” gobbled a hearty lunch topped off with an ice cream cone.

We have made the first step in helping the family give “Max” his chance at life. Although it took nine months from the first time I saw him to get him tested, I have to be hopeful that he will start the medication and thrive. The next equally crucial step will be helping the family understand the ARV regimen and ensure adherence. We have begun to contact organizations that can help with this and believe we have put in motion a process that can be successful. My most recent experience in Zonkizizwe has left me with a kind of cautious optimism. I am optimistic when I look into the eyes of these 60+ creative, energetic, and intelligent children and witness their drive to grow and develop. It is consistently made very clear as we strive to strengthen VVOCF’s mission that the unremitting effects of a system of perpetual disadvantage threaten this growth and development. Added to this is a climate of extreme substance abuse (particularly by the working men) so that a good portion (particularly by the working men) so that a good portion of household income generated is spent on alcohol and drugs. Not only are children losing their mothers and fathers to HIV-AIDS but losing the remaining family support as adult judgment and ability to parent is mired in self-gratification and violence. Thus, I am cautious. I cannot throw this caution to the wind even though it would allow me to feel temporarily liberated, nor can I discard the profound hope I feel when I envision the potential of these children’s future. As part of that vision, I see a grown young man named “Max” who understands the story of how he got his chance at life and commits himself and his extraordinary talent to do the same for others in his midst.

For the adults, it seems a greater struggle, as they, and their parents generation before them, were raised in an environment that taught them that the color of your skin was an important part of your self-worth. And if, by chance, you had the strength to believe that you, as a non-white, were worth more than what society and revisionist history, told you otherwise, then the beaureaucratic mechanisms of the country would work together to bring you down, and keep you down.

So for those that don’t, the options — in the lack of a middle class — are to continue to suffer and toil to eek an existence, or to turn to crime. For the wealthy, it’s easy. In Johannesburg, they build an existence behind walls. Homes, workplace, everything exists behind a 10′ wall concrete with barbed wire or electric current coursing through wires. The poor are left to their own devices, as usual. When a crime takes place, few people turn to the police, as the level of corruption is great and the backlog of crime even greater — so there is a low level of confidence that reporting a crime will rectify a situation.

This is a social issue that is based in race, but built into every aspect of existence. South Africa needs a committed leader who’s going to effect sweeping reform over every system that keeps people down. There are millions, billions of foreign dollars coming in that never make it to those for whom it is intended. It gets lost in a machine.

The small organizations that won’t necessarily get access to that funding are struggling to fill a need that should be, but isn’t, supported by the government. there are so many in need.

And the future of this country is grim. The two candidates are embarassing: the incumbent, who refuses to acknowlege the effect of HIV/AIDS on his people, and the second who recently raped a woman.

For the kids there is that precious commodity we call hope. However, hope is delicate, easily crushed, and only those with the strongest constitutions are going to make it in this current environment. True, there are no longer laws that dictate where people live or who they can and can’t talk to. But the institutions are so deeply ingrained, it’s only the lucky and privileged few that can do it. Our girl Whitney Houston had it right — the children are the future. Teach them well and let them lead the way.

South Africa has the worst AIDS rate in the world, according a to recent UN statistics. This illuminated group, a handful of South Africa’s population of 48 million, could have been the entire world as they sang of activism, hope and loss during the 1.5 hour trek through the unlit dirt roads starting at 8:30PM. A mix of staff, volunteers, parents/guardians, and other organizations that serve the needs of people living with HIV/AIDS formed a protective perimeter around the children and directed the mass forward.

While the center had requested local police support, VVOCF ended up doing their own traffic control, a valiant effort at night led by Bongani. The adults worked together, keeping a watchful eye on keeping the group, and managing external threats of the car and people variety.

Neighbors stood at their doors and in the streets at our approach. Some shouted encouragement, others sang along as we passed by, and others still joined the procession.

AIDS awareness is high among the VVOCF Center, AIDS prevention is understood to varying degrees. While some of the kids know they have lost a parent to AIDS, others are not told of the reason of their loss. Some kids, born to an HIV positive parent, have been tested. Others, with two HIV positive parents, have not. For those who are HIV postive, tests to monitor CD4 counts (the cells in the immune system that the HIV virus attaches to, and kills — fewer CD4 cells weaken the immune system, creating vulnerability to infections and illnesses.) are free, they face many barriers to acquire a test. Every step is a struggle in a system that, at least for the poor, feels like it has been set up to discourage use.

At a well-promoted concert of international musicians in Soweto earlier in the day, the 89-year-old South African icon Nelson Mandela urged people to stand up and take the fight against AIDS into their own hands. “It is still alarming that for every person who receives treatment there are four others who are newly infected … Yes, big ambitious plans are needed to deal with the epidemic. But what really matters are small acts of kindness … such as protecting yourself,” Mandela said.