.... for the moment at least. This is my last full day in Africa. Tomorrow will be spent largely hanging around airports so it doesn't really count.
I am very very excited to be coming home, to see family and friends and have lots of catch ups and reunions, and figuring out what comes next; I am also very very sad to be leaving Africa and Livingstone, my friends here, and the amazing experiences I've had. Overall it has been such an eventful time, with highs and lows along the way.
Thanks for the v kind offers to pick me up. Plans have been made to collect me and wrap me in blankets to stop me from freezing. Seriously, anything below 30degrees I find quite cool at the moment! If you are not sure if I have it, can you please email me your phone numbers. I will get a UK mobile as soon as I can.
The computers here are not so good as to put photos on so I'll do a bit of a retro from home, and gather my thoughts.
Keep in touch and think of me tomorrow evening as the 2 friends who are coincidentally on the same flight are taking one arm each and frog marching me onto the plane.
And for those who want the chat about the romance - you'll have to ask me in person!
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
11.10.07 Full Circle
Hi. Sorry for the lack of blog. I was in Mozambique for a month and the internet connection was so intermittent that it was not possible to do more than a couple of basic emails.
These are some of the children with Isabel, who cooks for them, and Eric, a local teacher, who looks after the children.
I'm now back in Livingstone, and will stay here before saying goodbye to a town, country, continent, people and a particular man I've fallen in love with. I suspect some if not all of these goodbyes are only temporary. I hope so. I'll be home in less than 2 weeks! Eek!!!!!
After the tour was over I went back to Mozambique to stay with my wonderful friends, Jaco and Maria. I had a great opportunity to chill go back to see the orphans at Temane. I've put a couple of pics in here, but I'll do more from home. The main difference that I noticed from May is that the kids look relaxed and happy. The smiles came easily! The tents have held up so far, but it is coming into rainy season and it is doubtful they will survive intact. Jaco is waiting on various local procedures to be sorted before starting construction, and a borehole needs to be drilled in order to have a water supply for construction, as well as for the orphanage when it is up and running properly. The funds that have been so kindly donated are being transferred to the South African non-profit organisation that Jaco has set up, of which I am a member of the board. Its too hard for me to be a director from the UK. The money (about US$2,400 ish I think) will be put towards the cost of the borehole and construction materials for the first building - approx US $7,000 and $17,000 respectively, so thank you again to the very kind donors. I am going to start active fund-raising when I get back to see if we can't help a bit more. There are currently 23 children living there. Jaco has a list of 76 more homeless children in that area alone.
These are some of the children with Isabel, who cooks for them, and Eric, a local teacher, who looks after the children.
I got back to Livingstone on Monday afternoon. I have been amazed at how many people I met that remember me from my time here earlier in the year - in the internet place where I am now, the Vegetarian cafe (no, I haven't told them!), and some of the curio sellers who know I'm going home and are keen for business. Fortunately the chap I saw in August who looked very sick is now looking much better. I am relieved. The people here are very open and friendly (occasionally too much so, but no marriage proposals so far!) and apart from being fresh meat for the local mozzies again, it feels so great to be back here. And I like the fact that I'm finishing where I started. Its nice and circular.
I am beginning to slip into a reflectiv mood, probably because I'm nearing the end of this trip, and because I am not busy at the moment, although my socialising/coffee stops are filling my days nicely. No doubt I'll put some self-conscious ramblings on here at some point. Ach - you've put up with it so far, so I'll see what I can get away with.
Anyway, that's about all from Livingstone so far. If there's anything more to report in the next 2 weeks I'll let you know; otherwise the next entry may be from Edinburgh. Oh that sounds so weird!!!
I can't wait to catch up with everyone in person. The number of people that have had babies or are pregnant is ridiculous - what have you been up to? No, no, I realise that..... Anyway, I warn you, I am a social lightweight and will get very tipsy on one glass of wine. Cheap - me???
Signing off for now.
Saturday, September 01, 2007
03.09.07 8,500km later!
Hi again from the civilisation of an internet cafe in Sea Point, Cape Town. All is well with the world as I've had a rest and haven't had to pack up my tent/bag/self and move on anywhere for a few days, I'm sleeping in a big comfy bed, my washing has been done and I have the equivalent of an M&S food store across the road from my hotel. Honestly, I think if I'd realised it was 8,500km of hard grinding slog I might have thought twice about it, but I didn't! What can I say - I'm glad I did it, but I'm glad its over! The picture below is the truck we practically lived in for 4 weeks.
These next couple of pictures are of the coast going down to Hermanus Bay and then from the boat when we went whale watching before the tour started. Not exactly the best picture of whales you're ever going to see but as the boat was being tossed around like a cork in a washing machine and I was trying very hard to hold onto the contents of my stomach it was the best I could do in the circumstances.
On Sunday 5th August Dinah and I met up with the 14 others on the tour, along with the tour leader, Julia. We were supposed to try to climb Table Mountain the next day, but the weather was so bad we went to some botanical gardens instead. I think it was the next day that we went to the Cape of Good Hope, which aptly used to be called the Cape of Storms. It wasn't too bad when the photo by the sign was taken but by the time I climbed to the top of the hill behind it was a roaring gale and those of us up there felt lucky not to be blown over the edge when it started chucking down hail and sleet.
The next few days were mostly spent driving across the Great Karoo - a semi arid desert. We stopped to taste and buy wine in Stellenbosch(see pic of the famous goats of the "Goats do Roam" wine, in the stable along with "Bored Doe" and others of similar take off names.
and look at an old diamond excavation at Kimberley. Luckily the shop selling the cute little rocks was closed for the day. That was the day that the first person got sick. After that the next few days was a tour of various hospitals in northern South African and southern Botswana. A horrible stomach bug attacked the tour (quoting Julia at the welcome meeting - "no-one ever gets sick on my tours"), 3 people were seriously ill, a couple of others had less projectile vomiting and a few others had grumbles and problems. Given that we had a lot of miles to cover in this stage of the tour it just seemed to be a long slog, punctuated by much hanging around hospitals and clinics.
The first real activity of interest was a walk with a San bushman shaman at a place called Ghanzi. He took us into the bush for about an hour and a half, with his wife and 2 boys and a young San guy who translated for us. I had got the tummy trouble much milder than most, but I had cramps and other unpleasant symptoms I won't describe. Before we went on the walk he called me over and said, according to the translator, that he knew I had pain in my stomach and he would take the pain away. He didn't know I was ill, and he pointed to exactly the place where I had cramps (which was just under my ribcage, not the normal place for a stomach ache). It was quite a bizarre experience, and I didn't have any pain after that. OK, yes, I was on the antibiotics by then, but I'd only taken one dose and I'd still had bad pain that morning. He was a real
character and he would make long explanations of what various plants were for, clearly sparing no detail, and the poor young translator would have to find a way of putting the information into polite English, often pointing when he didn't know or want to say the various body parts. It was a really nice, good humoured and interesting experience and I came away feeling that I'd seen a little snippet of a nearly lost way of life that hopefully tourist money helps to preserve. I do hope so.
The next highlight was my flight over the Okavanga Delta from Maun. We were on a 6 seater tiny plane which took us out for an hour. The aerial views were spectacular and gave a great perspective for when we went into the Moremi Game Reserve itself. In the pic below the animals are elephants and buffalo.
We drove into the game reserve from Maun in open game-viewing 4-wheel drive vehicles which were very dusty. The supply vehicle broke down on the way but it still managed to get there before us as we went the scenic route and stopped for lunch. There was a small airstrip not far from the camp we were going to. The guys there had to go and chase elephants off the runway as a plane was due in any moment.
Camping here was categorised as wild - i.e. no facilities, when in fact there were a couple of functional (just) loos and showers which I didn't try. Oh, the joy of wet wipes. We had to pitch our tents in a circle, Julia pointing out that an elephant was watching us from 20m away. She also pointed out that there were 3 known hippo trails coming from the river behind us going out into the bush, between our camp and the aforesaid delightful facilities. Hippos leave the water at night to go and graze, often travelling 10km from their home water to get good grazing. Hippos are also responsible for more human deaths than any other animal in Africa (some say more than all the others put together) and the most dangerous time and place is at dusk or dawn when they are leaving or returning to the water. So I have to say there was part of my brain that dismissed that as hyperbole as I thought it would be so stupid to put a camp anywhere near active hippo trails. Anyway, please bear all that in mind for the moment. Also bear in mind that the only person I know who has a worse sense of direction than me is my wonderful friend and tent-mate Dinah.
After we set up camp we piled into the vehicles and went to where we'd heard that a leopard had been spotted. I had only seen a leopard in a tree about 300m away on the Serengeti, so this was v exciting, but knowing how elusive they are I didn't want to get my hopes up. Having stopped to see the ubiquitous elephants, zebras, babboons etc, we got to a clearing where there were a few other vehicles and in the grass, lying down was a leopard. Not long after we got there, it got up, stared into space for a while, strolled around and came right past our vehicle and then walked down to a comfortable looking tree stump for a bit of rest. We were so lucky as all this happened only minutes after we got there; one of the other vehicles had waited for 4 hours for the same thing. Anyway, here are lots of leopard photos a
s its just so unbelievably exciting to have seen one so close. I was so excited I was nearly squeaking! This was definitely one of the highlights of the whole tour for me, and I think for
most people.
So, excited by our leopard sighting, full of food and ready for bed, Dinah and I head off to use the facilities one last time before retiring. All is fine. We head off back to the camp; it was very dark as there was no moonlight and the head torches didn't seem to penetrate the dark much. I do remember I was listening quite carefully, and I heard a loud, distinct hippo grunt. I find it quite hard to tell how far away animal noises are, especially when you are near water, and I've found I usually think they are closer than they are so we carried on. "Are we going the right way?" "I think so, we walked past the donkey boiler on the way here," I replied. Actually we didn't, and we were going completely the wrong way, deeper into the bush and away from the camp site. We carried on walking into the dark when we heard the bushes right next to us rustle and move. I mean right next to us - a metre or two away at most. That was it. I yelled "Come on!" and started running back the way we came. I looked back and Dinah hadn't started running yet - she was expecting me just to be walking fast - so I yelled "Dinah Run!!!" and we pelted up the path back to where the loos were. I honestly can't remember being so scared in all my life, my heart was nearly
exploding. I think Dinah was not quite as traumatised as I was, as she hadn't been subjected to quite as many dangerous hippo stories as I have. When we got back to camp there was some skepticism as to whether there had actually been a hippo there, but the creature in question kindly left a pile of fresh hippo poo right on the path where we'd been to prove his presence. Its funny now, well actually its not really, its still very scary. We were bloody lucky really, but at least we ran back the way we came rather than further into the bush! It does call into serious question the wisdom of siting a camp site in that particular place.
The next day's game viewing was a bit of anti climax after the leopard sighting, but we did have a lovely boat ride further into the delta and saw a few fish eagles. They are my idea of what eagles are supposed to look like - see below. I went for a brief paddle off the boat - there were no crocs or hippos in sight. Some people swam but I didn't have a cozzie, which is probably just as well. That evening we went to the loos in large groups only!
The next day we were back on the road heading north again to the Chobe reserve. I was really looking forward to this as I'd heard so much about it from other people. Everyone else on the group went on a boat ride there but I wanted to do a land based game drive, so there was me and 6 people from another tour. It was quite nice to be with different people and they supplied me with sweeties and good chat. Chobe is clearly elephant land. I must have seen several hundred in the 3 hours we were in the park. They are incredible creatures. When they are walking past you they are almost silent, padding along in family groups led by the oldest female. In one group we saw a tiny baby who the guide reckoned was only a few months old. We went to the river to watch them against the backdrop of the setting sun. It was stunning and again there were dozens and dozens of them. One of them got quite offended at the presence of the vehicle and decided to charge. He ran towards us trumpeting loudly with his ears forward and his trunk up. He stopped only a few metres away and continued to trumpet his disgust. He was only about 8 months old though so he only managed cute rather than scary! I also saw Sable for the first time in Chobe, which I was quite excited about.
Onwards and upwards. We continued north from Chobe, taking the ferry at Kazangula back, for me at least, into Zambia and onto Livingstone. Kazangula is the point where Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia all meet - its not so spectacular to look at but for those of us from a small island, its quite an amazing thought. At Livingstone we had an upgrade to a fixed tent, so at least we didn't have to put up the tent and we had beds and a light. I don't know if you recall the very first sunset I put on the blog - it was taken at the Waterfront, which is where we were camping. There are also rooms and a bar there and as I was walking over to the bar I heard someone shout "Lynne Mendelsohn, what the hell are you doing here?" It was one of the guys who had been a volunteer when I was there, who is now the project manager. The girl who was project manager when I was there was also at the bar and it was really great to see them and have a catch up. As we were driving into Livingstone I could see my old school from the truck; its been painted white now so looks so much cleaner and nicer than it did. Well done to African Impact volunteers for doing that. They now have teaching assistants in 10 schools in the Livingstone area which is great progress - when I was there it was only 5.
We went to see the falls in the morning we arrived. There was a lot less water than earlier in the year, but it meant the views were better and you didn't get so wet. I didn't take photos, I still think there are some things better done by the professionals.
That afternoon I took Dinah to the Royal Livingstone hotel for high tea. It was fabulous as ever - we managed to have 2 portions of the savouries and do 3 trips to the sweet trolley. Its always disappointing to have the eyes bigger than stomach problem when faced with so much yummy food, but we did our best. Back at the Waterfront that night there was much drinking and dancing, and generally letting our hair down. It was the first place where we were staying for 2 nights so the daily grind of taking down tents and repacking was not required.
On the Saturday morning I met with one of the boys that I've kept in touch with from the orphanage. We met up at Wonderbake - I think I've mentioned it before, its a great coffee shop/bakery in the centre of town. Dinah had just gone to buy something from a shop nearby when Prince arrived. We had a huge huge hug in the middle of the coffee shop. He had tears in his eyes, and he admitted part of him thought I wouldn't ever be back. He looked well, has filled out a wee bit, and he was positively chatty, which he isn't usually. We went to ZigZags for brekkie, and then back into town. I bought him a few new clothes, and gave him some money for a new pair of boots and some school stationary. He took me back to see the new house where the boys are living. It is so much better than the old place. It is in a much nicer part of town, they are actually living in a proper house, and although it is incredibly basic and rough, there is a kitchen and living room of sorts. It is much more of a home for the boys and they all seemed happier and more relaxed. There are only 4 to a room (a small one) but they have a yard, and their own space. I'm not quite sure how it came about that they moved, but it had to do with problems with the people running the orphanage at the community centre. Nothing was happening, money was going missing, school fees were not being paid etc etc. Now they have a much better home, Prince knows his fees have already been paid for the year and he has a much better place to live. He still gets up to study between midnight and 3am so that he can get peace and quiet but he can't be doing to badly as he was 9th out of 300 students in his year. He is going to apply to Zambia's only university to study medicine if he gets his exams next year and I've promised him that we'll find the fees for this.
While I was in town I bumped into 3 locals that I'd met before which was really cool, save that one of the guys had had malaria recently and looked really sick. It doesn't bear thinking about.
It was sad to see Prince only for a short time, but I will go back again before coming home and spend a decent amount of time with him. Hopefully at least he knows I mean it that I'll always be there for him. He phoned me the other night, he misses me a lot and he needs some security; I wish I could be there all the time for him.
That evening Dinah and I were back at the Royal Livingstone to watch the sun go down over the Zambezi river. I've said it before and I'll say it again - one can never see too many sunsets over the Zambezi. This was a truly spectacular effort, enhanced by a bottle of phenomenally expensive champagne, a flautist playing live on the sun-deck, vervet monkeys running around trying to steal bits of food and, to cap it all, 2 elephants who swam across the river right in front of us. I apologise - no camera, so no photos, but it really was amazing. I've had sundowners there loads of time and never seen eles swim across before so we were incredibly lucky. After a further bottle of wine and no food, we got a taxi back to the Waterfront. Apparently we are quite cute giggly drunks, and we were gushing about the sunset and eles. I had a hideous head the following morning, while Dinah breezed about serenely; its not fair!
After Livingstone it was back on the truck; we drove to Namibia and at some point we got to Ngepi. The campsite was right on the Okavanga river, and we had upgraded to a "tree house". It's a hut built around a tree rather than up a tree, with an open shower that faces the river. At one time when I was at the main camp site, Dinah told me it had been raining. I thought that was quite strange as although the tree house was 5 mins walk away from the central camp it wasn't that far and no-one else had noticed it was raining. It turned out we'd managed to turn on the sprinkler system without noticing! Other people went on various walks and river cruises but Dinah and I just chilled. One of the evenings (again it was a treat to be 2 nights in the same place) we invited the rest of the tour round to our tree house garden to help drink the wine we'd bought at Fairview. A few good 'uns came and we got through a bottle of Pimms, a few beers and 4 bottles of red. Very civilised.
The next place of note was Etosha National Park. This was major zebra country, as well as being chock full of eles, giraffes, lots of antelope and the odd lazy lion which we saw from a distance. Here I saw Oryx for the first time, which was quite exciting, and it was also great to see lots of different species together at the same water hole.
At one camp site there was a water hole where you could go at night to watch the game. We saw eles, rhino, jackals, giraffes and a lion all there at the same time; it was absolutely spectacular.
At some point we stopped somewhere on the Namibian coast to see the seal colony at Cape Cross. It was freezing cold, windy, and very smelly. There are, apparently, between 80,000 - 100,000 seals that live along this coast. The Namibians cull them too, but don't seem to attract as much vitriol as the Canadians do. Maybe because they do a few a day rather than a mass slaughter. There is also a local jackal population that does its best at seal population control. Way beyond camera range I saw a group of about 20 jackals circling around a group of seals, and mostly standing between the seals and the sea. When a seal made a run for the sea, the jackals went for it. As always, nature red in tooth and claw.
After that it was on to Swakopmund, the desert adventure capital etc etc etc. There were lots of options to throw yourself out of a plane, down a sand dune, etc but Dinah and I took the option of having our laundry done and taking a plane ride over the Namib desert. It was hugely expensive but for 2 hours we got spectacular views over the sand dunes of the Namib from a plane even smaller than the one I flew in over the Delta. I took loads of photos, but missed the most spectacular sight, which was of an oryx standing at the top of a dune, right at the sharp edge, looking out into the distance, with its tracks up the dune clearly showing behind him. I only caught a v quick glimpse of this but it was so stunning.
The views of the dunes were amazing and the sense of scale of the desert, and the sharpness of the edges of the dunes were what I loved most.
I hope some sense of this comes across in the pics. The trail of trees through the desert is because there is an underground river.
After Swakopmund there was a lot more desert, some crappy campsites and lots of very early starts to try to see sunrises, which we never quite made. There were several really long days in the truck. The dunes at Sesriem were spectacular and worth the effort. The photo is of us trudging up one of them at 6 in the morning, just after sunrise.
There's not much to report after that. This last photo is of Dinah and I on our last morning outside someone else's tent as we forgot to take a picture outside our own for the whole time, and we were sooooo keen to get going that we'd already taken ours down and packed everything away.
We got back to Cape Town on Thursday 30th, and I've spent my time chilling, emailing and doing this, and sending a large parcel back home. I hopefully don't need my boots and thick fleeces anymore. Overall my particular highlights were the leopard sighting, the flights from Maun and Swakopmund, seeing Prince again and the champagne sunset overlooking the Zambezi.
Anyway, I know I've still got a few emails to catch up on - please bear with me!
These next couple of pictures are of the coast going down to Hermanus Bay and then from the boat when we went whale watching before the tour started. Not exactly the best picture of whales you're ever going to see but as the boat was being tossed around like a cork in a washing machine and I was trying very hard to hold onto the contents of my stomach it was the best I could do in the circumstances.
On Sunday 5th August Dinah and I met up with the 14 others on the tour, along with the tour leader, Julia. We were supposed to try to climb Table Mountain the next day, but the weather was so bad we went to some botanical gardens instead. I think it was the next day that we went to the Cape of Good Hope, which aptly used to be called the Cape of Storms. It wasn't too bad when the photo by the sign was taken but by the time I climbed to the top of the hill behind it was a roaring gale and those of us up there felt lucky not to be blown over the edge when it started chucking down hail and sleet.
The next few days were mostly spent driving across the Great Karoo - a semi arid desert. We stopped to taste and buy wine in Stellenbosch(see pic of the famous goats of the "Goats do Roam" wine, in the stable along with "Bored Doe" and others of similar take off names.
and look at an old diamond excavation at Kimberley. Luckily the shop selling the cute little rocks was closed for the day. That was the day that the first person got sick. After that the next few days was a tour of various hospitals in northern South African and southern Botswana. A horrible stomach bug attacked the tour (quoting Julia at the welcome meeting - "no-one ever gets sick on my tours"), 3 people were seriously ill, a couple of others had less projectile vomiting and a few others had grumbles and problems. Given that we had a lot of miles to cover in this stage of the tour it just seemed to be a long slog, punctuated by much hanging around hospitals and clinics.The first real activity of interest was a walk with a San bushman shaman at a place called Ghanzi. He took us into the bush for about an hour and a half, with his wife and 2 boys and a young San guy who translated for us. I had got the tummy trouble much milder than most, but I had cramps and other unpleasant symptoms I won't describe. Before we went on the walk he called me over and said, according to the translator, that he knew I had pain in my stomach and he would take the pain away. He didn't know I was ill, and he pointed to exactly the place where I had cramps (which was just under my ribcage, not the normal place for a stomach ache). It was quite a bizarre experience, and I didn't have any pain after that. OK, yes, I was on the antibiotics by then, but I'd only taken one dose and I'd still had bad pain that morning. He was a real
character and he would make long explanations of what various plants were for, clearly sparing no detail, and the poor young translator would have to find a way of putting the information into polite English, often pointing when he didn't know or want to say the various body parts. It was a really nice, good humoured and interesting experience and I came away feeling that I'd seen a little snippet of a nearly lost way of life that hopefully tourist money helps to preserve. I do hope so.
The next highlight was my flight over the Okavanga Delta from Maun. We were on a 6 seater tiny plane which took us out for an hour. The aerial views were spectacular and gave a great perspective for when we went into the Moremi Game Reserve itself. In the pic below the animals are elephants and buffalo.
We drove into the game reserve from Maun in open game-viewing 4-wheel drive vehicles which were very dusty. The supply vehicle broke down on the way but it still managed to get there before us as we went the scenic route and stopped for lunch. There was a small airstrip not far from the camp we were going to. The guys there had to go and chase elephants off the runway as a plane was due in any moment.
Camping here was categorised as wild - i.e. no facilities, when in fact there were a couple of functional (just) loos and showers which I didn't try. Oh, the joy of wet wipes. We had to pitch our tents in a circle, Julia pointing out that an elephant was watching us from 20m away. She also pointed out that there were 3 known hippo trails coming from the river behind us going out into the bush, between our camp and the aforesaid delightful facilities. Hippos leave the water at night to go and graze, often travelling 10km from their home water to get good grazing. Hippos are also responsible for more human deaths than any other animal in Africa (some say more than all the others put together) and the most dangerous time and place is at dusk or dawn when they are leaving or returning to the water. So I have to say there was part of my brain that dismissed that as hyperbole as I thought it would be so stupid to put a camp anywhere near active hippo trails. Anyway, please bear all that in mind for the moment. Also bear in mind that the only person I know who has a worse sense of direction than me is my wonderful friend and tent-mate Dinah.
After we set up camp we piled into the vehicles and went to where we'd heard that a leopard had been spotted. I had only seen a leopard in a tree about 300m away on the Serengeti, so this was v exciting, but knowing how elusive they are I didn't want to get my hopes up. Having stopped to see the ubiquitous elephants, zebras, babboons etc, we got to a clearing where there were a few other vehicles and in the grass, lying down was a leopard. Not long after we got there, it got up, stared into space for a while, strolled around and came right past our vehicle and then walked down to a comfortable looking tree stump for a bit of rest. We were so lucky as all this happened only minutes after we got there; one of the other vehicles had waited for 4 hours for the same thing. Anyway, here are lots of leopard photos a
s its just so unbelievably exciting to have seen one so close. I was so excited I was nearly squeaking! This was definitely one of the highlights of the whole tour for me, and I think for
most people.
So, excited by our leopard sighting, full of food and ready for bed, Dinah and I head off to use the facilities one last time before retiring. All is fine. We head off back to the camp; it was very dark as there was no moonlight and the head torches didn't seem to penetrate the dark much. I do remember I was listening quite carefully, and I heard a loud, distinct hippo grunt. I find it quite hard to tell how far away animal noises are, especially when you are near water, and I've found I usually think they are closer than they are so we carried on. "Are we going the right way?" "I think so, we walked past the donkey boiler on the way here," I replied. Actually we didn't, and we were going completely the wrong way, deeper into the bush and away from the camp site. We carried on walking into the dark when we heard the bushes right next to us rustle and move. I mean right next to us - a metre or two away at most. That was it. I yelled "Come on!" and started running back the way we came. I looked back and Dinah hadn't started running yet - she was expecting me just to be walking fast - so I yelled "Dinah Run!!!" and we pelted up the path back to where the loos were. I honestly can't remember being so scared in all my life, my heart was nearly
exploding. I think Dinah was not quite as traumatised as I was, as she hadn't been subjected to quite as many dangerous hippo stories as I have. When we got back to camp there was some skepticism as to whether there had actually been a hippo there, but the creature in question kindly left a pile of fresh hippo poo right on the path where we'd been to prove his presence. Its funny now, well actually its not really, its still very scary. We were bloody lucky really, but at least we ran back the way we came rather than further into the bush! It does call into serious question the wisdom of siting a camp site in that particular place.The next day's game viewing was a bit of anti climax after the leopard sighting, but we did have a lovely boat ride further into the delta and saw a few fish eagles. They are my idea of what eagles are supposed to look like - see below. I went for a brief paddle off the boat - there were no crocs or hippos in sight. Some people swam but I didn't have a cozzie, which is probably just as well. That evening we went to the loos in large groups only!
The next day we were back on the road heading north again to the Chobe reserve. I was really looking forward to this as I'd heard so much about it from other people. Everyone else on the group went on a boat ride there but I wanted to do a land based game drive, so there was me and 6 people from another tour. It was quite nice to be with different people and they supplied me with sweeties and good chat. Chobe is clearly elephant land. I must have seen several hundred in the 3 hours we were in the park. They are incredible creatures. When they are walking past you they are almost silent, padding along in family groups led by the oldest female. In one group we saw a tiny baby who the guide reckoned was only a few months old. We went to the river to watch them against the backdrop of the setting sun. It was stunning and again there were dozens and dozens of them. One of them got quite offended at the presence of the vehicle and decided to charge. He ran towards us trumpeting loudly with his ears forward and his trunk up. He stopped only a few metres away and continued to trumpet his disgust. He was only about 8 months old though so he only managed cute rather than scary! I also saw Sable for the first time in Chobe, which I was quite excited about.
Onwards and upwards. We continued north from Chobe, taking the ferry at Kazangula back, for me at least, into Zambia and onto Livingstone. Kazangula is the point where Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia all meet - its not so spectacular to look at but for those of us from a small island, its quite an amazing thought. At Livingstone we had an upgrade to a fixed tent, so at least we didn't have to put up the tent and we had beds and a light. I don't know if you recall the very first sunset I put on the blog - it was taken at the Waterfront, which is where we were camping. There are also rooms and a bar there and as I was walking over to the bar I heard someone shout "Lynne Mendelsohn, what the hell are you doing here?" It was one of the guys who had been a volunteer when I was there, who is now the project manager. The girl who was project manager when I was there was also at the bar and it was really great to see them and have a catch up. As we were driving into Livingstone I could see my old school from the truck; its been painted white now so looks so much cleaner and nicer than it did. Well done to African Impact volunteers for doing that. They now have teaching assistants in 10 schools in the Livingstone area which is great progress - when I was there it was only 5.
We went to see the falls in the morning we arrived. There was a lot less water than earlier in the year, but it meant the views were better and you didn't get so wet. I didn't take photos, I still think there are some things better done by the professionals.
That afternoon I took Dinah to the Royal Livingstone hotel for high tea. It was fabulous as ever - we managed to have 2 portions of the savouries and do 3 trips to the sweet trolley. Its always disappointing to have the eyes bigger than stomach problem when faced with so much yummy food, but we did our best. Back at the Waterfront that night there was much drinking and dancing, and generally letting our hair down. It was the first place where we were staying for 2 nights so the daily grind of taking down tents and repacking was not required.
On the Saturday morning I met with one of the boys that I've kept in touch with from the orphanage. We met up at Wonderbake - I think I've mentioned it before, its a great coffee shop/bakery in the centre of town. Dinah had just gone to buy something from a shop nearby when Prince arrived. We had a huge huge hug in the middle of the coffee shop. He had tears in his eyes, and he admitted part of him thought I wouldn't ever be back. He looked well, has filled out a wee bit, and he was positively chatty, which he isn't usually. We went to ZigZags for brekkie, and then back into town. I bought him a few new clothes, and gave him some money for a new pair of boots and some school stationary. He took me back to see the new house where the boys are living. It is so much better than the old place. It is in a much nicer part of town, they are actually living in a proper house, and although it is incredibly basic and rough, there is a kitchen and living room of sorts. It is much more of a home for the boys and they all seemed happier and more relaxed. There are only 4 to a room (a small one) but they have a yard, and their own space. I'm not quite sure how it came about that they moved, but it had to do with problems with the people running the orphanage at the community centre. Nothing was happening, money was going missing, school fees were not being paid etc etc. Now they have a much better home, Prince knows his fees have already been paid for the year and he has a much better place to live. He still gets up to study between midnight and 3am so that he can get peace and quiet but he can't be doing to badly as he was 9th out of 300 students in his year. He is going to apply to Zambia's only university to study medicine if he gets his exams next year and I've promised him that we'll find the fees for this.
While I was in town I bumped into 3 locals that I'd met before which was really cool, save that one of the guys had had malaria recently and looked really sick. It doesn't bear thinking about.
It was sad to see Prince only for a short time, but I will go back again before coming home and spend a decent amount of time with him. Hopefully at least he knows I mean it that I'll always be there for him. He phoned me the other night, he misses me a lot and he needs some security; I wish I could be there all the time for him.
That evening Dinah and I were back at the Royal Livingstone to watch the sun go down over the Zambezi river. I've said it before and I'll say it again - one can never see too many sunsets over the Zambezi. This was a truly spectacular effort, enhanced by a bottle of phenomenally expensive champagne, a flautist playing live on the sun-deck, vervet monkeys running around trying to steal bits of food and, to cap it all, 2 elephants who swam across the river right in front of us. I apologise - no camera, so no photos, but it really was amazing. I've had sundowners there loads of time and never seen eles swim across before so we were incredibly lucky. After a further bottle of wine and no food, we got a taxi back to the Waterfront. Apparently we are quite cute giggly drunks, and we were gushing about the sunset and eles. I had a hideous head the following morning, while Dinah breezed about serenely; its not fair!
After Livingstone it was back on the truck; we drove to Namibia and at some point we got to Ngepi. The campsite was right on the Okavanga river, and we had upgraded to a "tree house". It's a hut built around a tree rather than up a tree, with an open shower that faces the river. At one time when I was at the main camp site, Dinah told me it had been raining. I thought that was quite strange as although the tree house was 5 mins walk away from the central camp it wasn't that far and no-one else had noticed it was raining. It turned out we'd managed to turn on the sprinkler system without noticing! Other people went on various walks and river cruises but Dinah and I just chilled. One of the evenings (again it was a treat to be 2 nights in the same place) we invited the rest of the tour round to our tree house garden to help drink the wine we'd bought at Fairview. A few good 'uns came and we got through a bottle of Pimms, a few beers and 4 bottles of red. Very civilised.
The next place of note was Etosha National Park. This was major zebra country, as well as being chock full of eles, giraffes, lots of antelope and the odd lazy lion which we saw from a distance. Here I saw Oryx for the first time, which was quite exciting, and it was also great to see lots of different species together at the same water hole.
At one camp site there was a water hole where you could go at night to watch the game. We saw eles, rhino, jackals, giraffes and a lion all there at the same time; it was absolutely spectacular.At some point we stopped somewhere on the Namibian coast to see the seal colony at Cape Cross. It was freezing cold, windy, and very smelly. There are, apparently, between 80,000 - 100,000 seals that live along this coast. The Namibians cull them too, but don't seem to attract as much vitriol as the Canadians do. Maybe because they do a few a day rather than a mass slaughter. There is also a local jackal population that does its best at seal population control. Way beyond camera range I saw a group of about 20 jackals circling around a group of seals, and mostly standing between the seals and the sea. When a seal made a run for the sea, the jackals went for it. As always, nature red in tooth and claw.
After that it was on to Swakopmund, the desert adventure capital etc etc etc. There were lots of options to throw yourself out of a plane, down a sand dune, etc but Dinah and I took the option of having our laundry done and taking a plane ride over the Namib desert. It was hugely expensive but for 2 hours we got spectacular views over the sand dunes of the Namib from a plane even smaller than the one I flew in over the Delta. I took loads of photos, but missed the most spectacular sight, which was of an oryx standing at the top of a dune, right at the sharp edge, looking out into the distance, with its tracks up the dune clearly showing behind him. I only caught a v quick glimpse of this but it was so stunning.
The views of the dunes were amazing and the sense of scale of the desert, and the sharpness of the edges of the dunes were what I loved most.
I hope some sense of this comes across in the pics. The trail of trees through the desert is because there is an underground river.
After Swakopmund there was a lot more desert, some crappy campsites and lots of very early starts to try to see sunrises, which we never quite made. There were several really long days in the truck. The dunes at Sesriem were spectacular and worth the effort. The photo is of us trudging up one of them at 6 in the morning, just after sunrise.
There's not much to report after that. This last photo is of Dinah and I on our last morning outside someone else's tent as we forgot to take a picture outside our own for the whole time, and we were sooooo keen to get going that we'd already taken ours down and packed everything away.
We got back to Cape Town on Thursday 30th, and I've spent my time chilling, emailing and doing this, and sending a large parcel back home. I hopefully don't need my boots and thick fleeces anymore. Overall my particular highlights were the leopard sighting, the flights from Maun and Swakopmund, seeing Prince again and the champagne sunset overlooking the Zambezi.
Anyway, I know I've still got a few emails to catch up on - please bear with me!
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
05.08.07 Dazed and Confused
Hello from civilisation. I arrived safely in Cape Town on Monday evening and had the luxury (for which I paid handsomely) of being picked up by a lovely gentleman in a sharp suit, and whisked off to my gorgeous hotel in a posh car. It was all quite surreal. I have to confess I was a bit embarrassed about my very dusty, dirty bag going into the pristine car boot, but hey - I paid for it.
I spent Monday evening switching lights on and off (electricity is great), phoning my family (Lynne who?), and soaking in a deep deep bath to try to remove some of the really ingrained dirt. I watched Sky news from the UK for a while as well. It was quite strange to see Prime Minister Brown.
Tuesday morning was weird. After a hot (oh yes!!) shower I went for breakfast in the hotel. The lobby was filled with 'suits' and there were people at tables talking loudly on mobiles in voices that are meant to make strangers think they are talking about things that are very important. After brekkie I set out in search of various items of shopping and personal maintenance. I had reasonable success - new clothes, eye drops to sort out conjunctivitis, new stationery and of course a copy of the new Harry Potter. But it felt so strange - there were too many shops with too much choice, and just altogether too much of everything. Considering I used to be such an expert consumer, it was quite an unnerving experience. It was almost as if I was seeing a shopping centre for the first time. I know that sounds daft, but it seemed so alien and I felt very dislocated. I remembered the day I walked around Gweru (Zim) town centre and there was so little for sale, shelves were half empty, there was one type of shampoo and no conditioner. As my brother will see from my credit card account though, I managed to shop very successfully. I'm particularly pleased with my new PJs; hey ho, its the little things that keep us going.
It turns out though that I am still a stationery addict as I had to buy a couple of moleskin notebooks. They are just so nice to use and they don't fall apart. On Wednesday morning my friend Dinah arrived and we have been walking and drinking coffee and tea and chatting for ages. We went to the Robben Island museum which was not so great as most of it was shut and the boat trip over was hideously rough. The best part of it was the guide who took us round the old prison is a former inmate. He described from his own first hand experience what it was like to be there, which made it very real. The discrimination was so bad that they even had separate dietary allowances for different races - Indians and "coloureds" had a greater allowance than Bantu people. Of course, there were no whites imprisoned there.
Yesterday we went to Hermanus Bay to go whale watching. I was persuaded to get on another boat, despite not quite having recovered from the pervious trip. It was quite calm to start with but conditions deteriorated while we were out there and again I felt horrible by the time we got back. This time it was worth it though as we saw several Southern Right Whales, and one even came to the boat to see what was going on. It was amazing and really a dream come true. My pics are rubbish though as everytime I thought I was going to get a good one the swell went up or down and the chance was lost. Still, I'm not madly obsesive about photos anyway; I'm just excited that I actually got the opportunity to see a huge whale that close.
From now on though, I am sticking to land based travel, and maybe the odd plane or two. Dinah and I meet up with the rest of our tour this afternoon. Tomorrow will be spent seeing the local sights and going to the Cape of Good Hope and then by Tuesday afternoon we''ll be disappearing off into the wilderness again. I'm really looking forward to Botswana and Namibia and I'll have a day back in Livingstone to catch up with friends there. I'm also quite looking forward to being back camping! Don't get me wrong, I've loved the 5* luxury but I have definitely had enough of it by now.
I'm not sure whether I'll be able to get to a computer while on the tour so don't be alarmed if you don't hear anything for the next month or so. I may end up stuck here after that anyway as both my bank cards have stopped working today, which is a bit worrying.
I'm sorry if I haven't replied to some individual emails yet. Please bear with me! I plan on having a few days in Cape Town again when I get back (beginning of Sept) and I promise to write to everyone and upload photos. After that I am going to head back to Mozambique - but more of that later!
I spent Monday evening switching lights on and off (electricity is great), phoning my family (Lynne who?), and soaking in a deep deep bath to try to remove some of the really ingrained dirt. I watched Sky news from the UK for a while as well. It was quite strange to see Prime Minister Brown.
Tuesday morning was weird. After a hot (oh yes!!) shower I went for breakfast in the hotel. The lobby was filled with 'suits' and there were people at tables talking loudly on mobiles in voices that are meant to make strangers think they are talking about things that are very important. After brekkie I set out in search of various items of shopping and personal maintenance. I had reasonable success - new clothes, eye drops to sort out conjunctivitis, new stationery and of course a copy of the new Harry Potter. But it felt so strange - there were too many shops with too much choice, and just altogether too much of everything. Considering I used to be such an expert consumer, it was quite an unnerving experience. It was almost as if I was seeing a shopping centre for the first time. I know that sounds daft, but it seemed so alien and I felt very dislocated. I remembered the day I walked around Gweru (Zim) town centre and there was so little for sale, shelves were half empty, there was one type of shampoo and no conditioner. As my brother will see from my credit card account though, I managed to shop very successfully. I'm particularly pleased with my new PJs; hey ho, its the little things that keep us going.
It turns out though that I am still a stationery addict as I had to buy a couple of moleskin notebooks. They are just so nice to use and they don't fall apart. On Wednesday morning my friend Dinah arrived and we have been walking and drinking coffee and tea and chatting for ages. We went to the Robben Island museum which was not so great as most of it was shut and the boat trip over was hideously rough. The best part of it was the guide who took us round the old prison is a former inmate. He described from his own first hand experience what it was like to be there, which made it very real. The discrimination was so bad that they even had separate dietary allowances for different races - Indians and "coloureds" had a greater allowance than Bantu people. Of course, there were no whites imprisoned there.
Yesterday we went to Hermanus Bay to go whale watching. I was persuaded to get on another boat, despite not quite having recovered from the pervious trip. It was quite calm to start with but conditions deteriorated while we were out there and again I felt horrible by the time we got back. This time it was worth it though as we saw several Southern Right Whales, and one even came to the boat to see what was going on. It was amazing and really a dream come true. My pics are rubbish though as everytime I thought I was going to get a good one the swell went up or down and the chance was lost. Still, I'm not madly obsesive about photos anyway; I'm just excited that I actually got the opportunity to see a huge whale that close.
From now on though, I am sticking to land based travel, and maybe the odd plane or two. Dinah and I meet up with the rest of our tour this afternoon. Tomorrow will be spent seeing the local sights and going to the Cape of Good Hope and then by Tuesday afternoon we''ll be disappearing off into the wilderness again. I'm really looking forward to Botswana and Namibia and I'll have a day back in Livingstone to catch up with friends there. I'm also quite looking forward to being back camping! Don't get me wrong, I've loved the 5* luxury but I have definitely had enough of it by now.
I'm not sure whether I'll be able to get to a computer while on the tour so don't be alarmed if you don't hear anything for the next month or so. I may end up stuck here after that anyway as both my bank cards have stopped working today, which is a bit worrying.
I'm sorry if I haven't replied to some individual emails yet. Please bear with me! I plan on having a few days in Cape Town again when I get back (beginning of Sept) and I promise to write to everyone and upload photos. After that I am going to head back to Mozambique - but more of that later!
Monday, July 16, 2007
23.07.07 Animal Magic, Cheesecakes and Charity Update
In no particular order, here are some photos from South Africa.This is yours truly on my fave horse, Trigger, with Mama and junior giraffe (last year's baby) in the background.
On the left we have a porcupine who comes to vist the "food pit" (where the leftovers go every night) most evenings
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Above left is the "SKELK" a contraption made by a few of us for using with the horses in the lunge ring and arena, called SKELK after the initials of those of us who made it. A
bove right is Kate and Spanner - its true love.
bove right is Kate and Spanner - its true love.A lilac breasted roller, on a long zoom so not v clear, but gorgeous birds.
An unusual pic of the porcupine at the food pit with a civet in the back ground . The porcupines are so much bigger than I thought they would be and the civet is cute.
An unusual pic of the porcupine at the food pit with a civet in the back ground . The porcupines are so much bigger than I thought they would be and the civet is cute.
This is the baby giraffe, only hours old.
Sorry its sideways. I still don't know how to fix this. This was my first cheesecake. It didn't last long.
This is mama and baby on Day 3. How cute!!!!
Kate and Spanner on an early morning walk in the river bed.
Some nice leaves in the river bed - I know its a bit arty farty, but I got a big trigger happy with the camera for a while.
A pic from out in the farm. Its really dry as its winter, although there were a couple of rain storms so there are green shoots coming up.
Sorry its sideways. I still don't know how to fix this. This was my first cheesecake. It didn't last long.
This is mama and baby on Day 3. How cute!!!!
Kate and Spanner on an early morning walk in the river bed.
Some nice leaves in the river bed - I know its a bit arty farty, but I got a big trigger happy with the camera for a while.
A pic from out in the farm. Its really dry as its winter, although there were a couple of rain storms so there are green shoots coming up.
Update re the charity is that the admin is underway but it will take a while to get sorted. I'm going to head back to Mozambique in September so will be able to give you an update on what is happening with the children when I get there, but if there are any immediate needs then I will use the funds already donated/raised in the interim. Thanks again for all your interest and support, especially to the wonderful Ms Howden who is taking things forward for me at home. I need at least 3 trustees, and the suggestion is (shock horror) that they are not all lawyers. Helen and I clearly suffer from that affliction, so if there are any non lawyers out there who are interested in being a charity trustee then can you let me know. Accounting/commercial/charity experience especially welcome but enthusiasm and interest are more important.
This time next week I'll be heading for the airport having posted home a parcel with my big rain jacket, dirty torn jodhs, and a few other delightful items that I won't be needing again, on my way to 5 * luxury in Cape Town for a few nights. Have I mentioned how much I'm looking forward to it! I probably won't get online next Monday but I'll be in touch from Cape Town during the week. After that things are likely to be a bit irregular while I'm touring in August. On my way back to Vilanculos I'm going to stay again in the hotel with free internet, just so I can spend some hours catching up!
Monday, July 02, 2007
09.07.07 Bushgirl Revisited
Just a quickie to let you know I remembered my camera this week so here are the pics of me on Titan in the arena (not quite galloping bareback across the veld as some are hoping for), Kate and I working on a crossword (we did 15 in a day on Saturday) and some of the horses looking at me at 7.30 this morning, hoping that they were going to get a treat. My favourites are the two furthest to the left of the pic, although the one at the far left did run off into the bush with me yesterday and we wer 3/4 of the way home before i managed to get him to stop. My confidence is picking up a bit and I did manage a couple of longer canters in the bush yesterday.
I won't continue to bleat on about the cold, but it is still cold. So there you go. I'm still having a good time, and bush life is clearly getting to me as I picked up a locust the other day so everyone could have a look at it. Me - picking up a large insect! Its unheard of. I haven't got the one from my friend of me holding the babboon spider yet, watch this space.
Monday, June 25, 2007
25.06.07 Confessions of a Reluctant Bushgirl
Good morning. I'm now at the start of my 4th week staying in the South African bush. I'm staying at a small game farm about 14km outside of the town of Hoedspruit at the foot of the North Drakensberg mountain range. Its real Boer country - a small town surrounded by game reserves, lodges and fruit farms. Its not far from the Kruger National Park. The views of the mountains are spectacular and very dramatic against the otherwise flat landscape and blue sky.
What I'm doing is not voluntary work - this was always going to be what I thought of as the self-indulgent phase of my trip. At the farm I'm learning about conservation and the bush, doing some practical work on the farm and a fair bit of riding. The farm is owned by a lady called Millie, and run by her, her daughter and 2 girls from the UK who stay here. There are only 7 "students" at the moment; some leave in a week's time and more are arriving. Accommodation is a small wood and reed hut which does v little to keep out the cold, and it is cold cold cold. This morning it was 6c. Sometimes during the day it is over 30c so the variation is hard to cope with. I certainly sleep in significantly more clothes than I wear during the day. I don't know how I'd cope if I hadn't got an extra blanket with me. I think I mentioned the cold showers before - they are still cold, but it is sometimes amazing having a hot shower and looking up and seeing the Southern Cross directly above.
Its not quite what I expected as I thought I was coming to a bigger, more commercial operation, but its quite a mellow life. I've learned a lot about the bush, animals, birds and insects and also how to fire an air rifle (I'm not as bad a shot as you would think!). On the farm there are zebra, giraffe (including one v pregnant female who is due to drop any day), kudu, wildebeest, impala, warthog, porcupines, civets and at least one honey badger (not cute - raging psycho mass killers of the African bush). There are also loads of squirrels, birds and mongooses who visit the kitchen regularly for snacks. My day usually starts with taking the horses out at 7.30. There are 8 of them, and if we just put them into the paddock it only takes 15 mins between all of us. Sometimes we'll have a lecture before brekkie or go and brush pack or dig something while its still cool. Brekkie is 9 - 10 and after we'll ride, or have a lecture or go for a bush walk. Lunch is 12 - 2 (it was until 3 until one woman complained about being bored) and then we'll either do another activity - ride, walk or work. The horses go in at about 4.30 and then we can chill. On hot water days I'll shower in the afternoon. On cold water days I'll face it at lunch times, but generally I'm completely mucky and am not that bothered as there is no point. Bed is very early as by 8pm it is just too cold to stay up and there is nowhere warm to sit as there's nothing indoors.
The riding is going fine in some ways but I'm still very nervous. I did take some photos but I forgot to bring in my camera this morning. Pictures of me in jodhpurs are not really that exciting anyway. To be honest, none of the horses are really suitable for beginners or nervous riders, which makes it hard, and the instruction is not great. Sophie - the instructer in Zim was way better. I haven't fallen off since the first day, but I think I'm so conscious of hurting my back again that sometimes I find it hard to enjoy myself.
Despite being a bit bored I'm enjoying it although I think with the benefit of experience and hindsight I would have chosen to do something different with my time. I've decided I will cancel my 3rd month here (which is due to be in September) as I think I would be really bored. The course is essentially a 4 week thing so once you've done it once that's enough. In my second month here I can spend the time the others are in lectures doing research on a topic of my choice which I'm sure I'll enjoy. I reckon I'll also spend a fair bit of time working on plans for the charity, which will be good as given the short evenings its been harder than I thought to sit down and do anything meaningful.
As always with being on a game reserve you don't see a huge amount of town life. We did go to a local game fair/auction last week. Loads of game was up for sale, but not much was sold as there is a drought. There was the usual tat for sale, some great looking handbags of indeterminate animal skin and a stall that sold nothing but biltong. The Afrikaaners have in common with the Chinese that fact that they seem to eat anything that moves. The attendees at the game farm were mostly white; some blacks were there (who weren't cleaners) but I only saw a very few kids mix. Very few. Apart from that I got a sense of an uneasy truce. Of the limited contact I've had with local people here (white), they say some things that I find fundamentally shocking, but my experience is limited and all I can take a view on is what I've seen and heard.
Quite often at night we get "visitors" at the camp - of the 4-legged variety. Sometimes they seem to be incredibly close and this morning a kudu was only 1 metre away. About 2 mornings ago I got very excited when I saw what looked like interesting new hoof prints between my hut and the little hut has that has the loo & shower in it. I ran to get one of the others to see if she could identify the tracks. Kate looked a bit puzzled and then told me that they were prints of the back bits of my trainers. How embarrassing! Never mind. We really do get proper visitors though, and quite often the giraffe are v close to camp.
I've been reading loads of the trashy novels that there are in the bookshelf at camp (no, not Dan Brown, I'm not that desparate. Yet.) I re-read Born Free having had time with lions, which was an interesting perspective. I've also become slightly addicted to a crossword puzzle book I bought in Malelane when Jaco and Maria took me shopping before bringing me to Hoedspruit. Kate is also now addicted but most other people are keeping their distance, and only chipping in every now and then. We find that a couple of drinks helps the process, and they are so obscure that we are cheating constantly but we have done about 45 of them in 2 weeks. There are only another 70 odd to go so we are looking for another book as we both have a further 5 weeks at the project. I've got a sudoku book which I'm going to look at as well. I think I'm turning into a geek.
My other confession of the morning is my status as an RLV. This stands for (oh, I'm so glad I'm far away while I'm saying this) Recently Lapsed Vegetarian. I suppose to be honest, its not that recent anymore as I first faltered in Zim but its taken me this long to get together the courage to own up. As you would expect from a good Jewish girl (ha!) my downfall was bacon. Since then I've eaten chicken (ok), ham (ok), turkey (spat it out - horrible), lamb (ditto) and a frankfurter (revolting concept but tasted ok). I keep thinking of my big sis who's going to kill me for all those years of making separate dinners for me. I don't think I'm ever going to be a raging carnivore, or eat red meat, or eat anything shrink-wrapped from a supermarket, but I suspect my downfall is complete. So, sorry sis, but I still don't want turkey for Xmas dinner, but maybe I won't be so much hard work!
Yesterday we went to a reptile park, which although small is apparently quite famous. I did hold a couple of snakes. The first was tiny and I coped OK. We saw some black mambas being fed live mice and fed a lizard, a chameleon and a big fat iguana, which I thought was v cute. I then also held a scorpion (the non-dangerous variety), and a spider. Yes, a spider. A big, brown, hairy, live, babboon spider. There is a picture to prove this but its on someone else's camera and she forgot hers too, so you'll have to wait for that treat. It took me a good few attempts before I managed to hold it and I only lasted about 30 seconds or so, but hey. After that we got the chance to hold a large-ish rock python but by that time I was slightly freaked and couldn't cope with this one as it was quite wriggly. I suppose its all about pushing boundaries!
That's about if for this morning. I could confess to missing home comforts as well at the moment, but then you'd think I'm a complete wooss (sp?) so I won't say anymore. I definitely cope better with being too hot than too cold.
I will try very hard to remember to bring the camera next week.
What I'm doing is not voluntary work - this was always going to be what I thought of as the self-indulgent phase of my trip. At the farm I'm learning about conservation and the bush, doing some practical work on the farm and a fair bit of riding. The farm is owned by a lady called Millie, and run by her, her daughter and 2 girls from the UK who stay here. There are only 7 "students" at the moment; some leave in a week's time and more are arriving. Accommodation is a small wood and reed hut which does v little to keep out the cold, and it is cold cold cold. This morning it was 6c. Sometimes during the day it is over 30c so the variation is hard to cope with. I certainly sleep in significantly more clothes than I wear during the day. I don't know how I'd cope if I hadn't got an extra blanket with me. I think I mentioned the cold showers before - they are still cold, but it is sometimes amazing having a hot shower and looking up and seeing the Southern Cross directly above.
Its not quite what I expected as I thought I was coming to a bigger, more commercial operation, but its quite a mellow life. I've learned a lot about the bush, animals, birds and insects and also how to fire an air rifle (I'm not as bad a shot as you would think!). On the farm there are zebra, giraffe (including one v pregnant female who is due to drop any day), kudu, wildebeest, impala, warthog, porcupines, civets and at least one honey badger (not cute - raging psycho mass killers of the African bush). There are also loads of squirrels, birds and mongooses who visit the kitchen regularly for snacks. My day usually starts with taking the horses out at 7.30. There are 8 of them, and if we just put them into the paddock it only takes 15 mins between all of us. Sometimes we'll have a lecture before brekkie or go and brush pack or dig something while its still cool. Brekkie is 9 - 10 and after we'll ride, or have a lecture or go for a bush walk. Lunch is 12 - 2 (it was until 3 until one woman complained about being bored) and then we'll either do another activity - ride, walk or work. The horses go in at about 4.30 and then we can chill. On hot water days I'll shower in the afternoon. On cold water days I'll face it at lunch times, but generally I'm completely mucky and am not that bothered as there is no point. Bed is very early as by 8pm it is just too cold to stay up and there is nowhere warm to sit as there's nothing indoors.
The riding is going fine in some ways but I'm still very nervous. I did take some photos but I forgot to bring in my camera this morning. Pictures of me in jodhpurs are not really that exciting anyway. To be honest, none of the horses are really suitable for beginners or nervous riders, which makes it hard, and the instruction is not great. Sophie - the instructer in Zim was way better. I haven't fallen off since the first day, but I think I'm so conscious of hurting my back again that sometimes I find it hard to enjoy myself.
Despite being a bit bored I'm enjoying it although I think with the benefit of experience and hindsight I would have chosen to do something different with my time. I've decided I will cancel my 3rd month here (which is due to be in September) as I think I would be really bored. The course is essentially a 4 week thing so once you've done it once that's enough. In my second month here I can spend the time the others are in lectures doing research on a topic of my choice which I'm sure I'll enjoy. I reckon I'll also spend a fair bit of time working on plans for the charity, which will be good as given the short evenings its been harder than I thought to sit down and do anything meaningful.
As always with being on a game reserve you don't see a huge amount of town life. We did go to a local game fair/auction last week. Loads of game was up for sale, but not much was sold as there is a drought. There was the usual tat for sale, some great looking handbags of indeterminate animal skin and a stall that sold nothing but biltong. The Afrikaaners have in common with the Chinese that fact that they seem to eat anything that moves. The attendees at the game farm were mostly white; some blacks were there (who weren't cleaners) but I only saw a very few kids mix. Very few. Apart from that I got a sense of an uneasy truce. Of the limited contact I've had with local people here (white), they say some things that I find fundamentally shocking, but my experience is limited and all I can take a view on is what I've seen and heard.
Quite often at night we get "visitors" at the camp - of the 4-legged variety. Sometimes they seem to be incredibly close and this morning a kudu was only 1 metre away. About 2 mornings ago I got very excited when I saw what looked like interesting new hoof prints between my hut and the little hut has that has the loo & shower in it. I ran to get one of the others to see if she could identify the tracks. Kate looked a bit puzzled and then told me that they were prints of the back bits of my trainers. How embarrassing! Never mind. We really do get proper visitors though, and quite often the giraffe are v close to camp.
I've been reading loads of the trashy novels that there are in the bookshelf at camp (no, not Dan Brown, I'm not that desparate. Yet.) I re-read Born Free having had time with lions, which was an interesting perspective. I've also become slightly addicted to a crossword puzzle book I bought in Malelane when Jaco and Maria took me shopping before bringing me to Hoedspruit. Kate is also now addicted but most other people are keeping their distance, and only chipping in every now and then. We find that a couple of drinks helps the process, and they are so obscure that we are cheating constantly but we have done about 45 of them in 2 weeks. There are only another 70 odd to go so we are looking for another book as we both have a further 5 weeks at the project. I've got a sudoku book which I'm going to look at as well. I think I'm turning into a geek.
My other confession of the morning is my status as an RLV. This stands for (oh, I'm so glad I'm far away while I'm saying this) Recently Lapsed Vegetarian. I suppose to be honest, its not that recent anymore as I first faltered in Zim but its taken me this long to get together the courage to own up. As you would expect from a good Jewish girl (ha!) my downfall was bacon. Since then I've eaten chicken (ok), ham (ok), turkey (spat it out - horrible), lamb (ditto) and a frankfurter (revolting concept but tasted ok). I keep thinking of my big sis who's going to kill me for all those years of making separate dinners for me. I don't think I'm ever going to be a raging carnivore, or eat red meat, or eat anything shrink-wrapped from a supermarket, but I suspect my downfall is complete. So, sorry sis, but I still don't want turkey for Xmas dinner, but maybe I won't be so much hard work!
Yesterday we went to a reptile park, which although small is apparently quite famous. I did hold a couple of snakes. The first was tiny and I coped OK. We saw some black mambas being fed live mice and fed a lizard, a chameleon and a big fat iguana, which I thought was v cute. I then also held a scorpion (the non-dangerous variety), and a spider. Yes, a spider. A big, brown, hairy, live, babboon spider. There is a picture to prove this but its on someone else's camera and she forgot hers too, so you'll have to wait for that treat. It took me a good few attempts before I managed to hold it and I only lasted about 30 seconds or so, but hey. After that we got the chance to hold a large-ish rock python but by that time I was slightly freaked and couldn't cope with this one as it was quite wriggly. I suppose its all about pushing boundaries!
That's about if for this morning. I could confess to missing home comforts as well at the moment, but then you'd think I'm a complete wooss (sp?) so I won't say anymore. I definitely cope better with being too hot than too cold.
I will try very hard to remember to bring the camera next week.
Monday, June 18, 2007
18.06.07 Apology
Sorry, I've run out of time to do a proper update this week. All is well. I promise I'll do it next week.
Monday, June 11, 2007
11.06.07 Update from South Africa
This is just a quickie to let you know I've arrived at the South Africa project safe and well. The remainder of my time in Mozambique was spent with Jaco and Maria and then they were so incredibly kind as to drive me down to Hoedspruit (the town near where my project is) via 3 days in Kruger park. Amazing people.
The new project is not quite what I expected - its a small farm with 9 horses and some land with kudu, impala, wildebeest, giraffe, zebra, a porcupine, loads of mad birds and various other creatures that visit from neighbouring reserves. I'm learning loads about the bush and I've ridden 3 or 4 times so far and even with that I'm sure I'm a bit better. I've only come off once, and honestly it was only a gentle slide off. Its riding - its bound to happen! The other unexpected thing is how unbelievably cold it is. It gets down to about 5c at night and by 8.30pm it is just too cold to do anything other than go to bed! It does get up to 30c ish during the day but I'm struggling to cope with the cold. Oh, and there are cold showers apart from Monday Wednesday and Friday. On the cold days washing is on a need to know basis only as it is just unbearable! Thankfully my hair is long enough to plait. Do you want a pic of me in pigtails - it is very funny! And why is it that the grey hairs are the ones that escape most? Anyway, enough of that nonsense - you can tell the cold has got to my brain.
I will update more next week - I get into town on Monday mornings so plan your emails for then. Thank you all for this week's bunch - it is lovely to hear from people. And thanks for your comments and support for my fundraising effort for the Mozambique orphans, especially to Liz McRobb, who is just being awesome.
The new project is not quite what I expected - its a small farm with 9 horses and some land with kudu, impala, wildebeest, giraffe, zebra, a porcupine, loads of mad birds and various other creatures that visit from neighbouring reserves. I'm learning loads about the bush and I've ridden 3 or 4 times so far and even with that I'm sure I'm a bit better. I've only come off once, and honestly it was only a gentle slide off. Its riding - its bound to happen! The other unexpected thing is how unbelievably cold it is. It gets down to about 5c at night and by 8.30pm it is just too cold to do anything other than go to bed! It does get up to 30c ish during the day but I'm struggling to cope with the cold. Oh, and there are cold showers apart from Monday Wednesday and Friday. On the cold days washing is on a need to know basis only as it is just unbearable! Thankfully my hair is long enough to plait. Do you want a pic of me in pigtails - it is very funny! And why is it that the grey hairs are the ones that escape most? Anyway, enough of that nonsense - you can tell the cold has got to my brain.
I will update more next week - I get into town on Monday mornings so plan your emails for then. Thank you all for this week's bunch - it is lovely to hear from people. And thanks for your comments and support for my fundraising effort for the Mozambique orphans, especially to Liz McRobb, who is just being awesome.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Lynne In Africa
Hi all. I'm still here in Vilanculous, camping in a nice big tent in the garden of Jaco and Maria Rudolph. Its the largest square footage I've had to myself since I've been away - what luxury. Its not nearly as hot as it was when I was here in March, in fact its quite cold in the evenings now. I can't believe I need 3 blankets at night!
A number of you have very kindly asked about making a contribution to the projects I've been working on. I thought about it a lot, especially in relation to Livingstone, but at the moment any donations would go into the account of African Impact, which is ultimately a commercial organisation. Rather than do that, I would prefer to use any funds I can raise in different ways. Here are my thoughts:
1) You'll recall the orphanage in Livingstone, where 17 boys were living in a couple of very small leaky classrooms, while sleeping accommodation was being rebuilt. I'm still in touch (via letters and text) with one of the boys there - a boy I've referred to as P in previous blog entries. Another vol, Joyce, and I left him a phone and funds. It must be incredibly hard for these boys to make friends with the vols that pass through for a couple of months and then have them move on. I know P found it so hard for Joyce and I both to leave him in the space of a week. Being orphans, the boys clearly feel abandoned anyway, and I think for this reason some of the boys stay quite remote. I mentioned how awful it was to leave them, and I'm definitely going back later in the year.
At about 17/18 years old, the boys have to leave the orphanage and make their own way. Mostly, they have nowhere to go, no job, no prospect of further education and they struggle to make their way in the world. I would like to raise some funds to help these boys with their transition from the orphanage into adult life - to help them with rent, education fees, clothes/transport for jobs etc - the sort of thing that parents do for their children without a second thought. These boys have no-one who will do this for them and I would like to try to go some way to fill the gap.
2) I'm back in Vilanculos largely because I was inspired by Jaco and Maria themselves and the plans they have for building an orphanage. Jaco and Maria are Christian missionaries from South Africa. Irrespective of whether or what I or others believe, what stands out for me is the goodness, compassion and committment that they have to improving the lives of orphan children in this part of Mozambique.
Jaco, Maria, their children Maggie and Rudo, and the dog Lady, currently live a quite hand-to-mouth existence based on support from their church and their friends and supporters in South Africa. They currently care for 20 children at the orphanage in Pambarra (which I visited when I was last here, and 23 more at Temane, where I visited for the first time yesterday. They provide food and clothing as they can but these children desparately need more resources and better accommodation, especially the kids at Temane.
This is where the local women prepare food inTemane.
Many of the children have been sleeping on bare earth or reed mats in the open or under a tarpaulin cover. I think about this - I've been in a colder place for 2 months and I need 3 blankets. Two nights ago it was 12c, which is freezing for here. I was really feeling it so I can't imagine how the children coped. Yesterday we took as many blankets as we could find and Jaco could afford to the children at Temane. I bought them reed mats to sleep on (just over US$20 in total), which is what people usually use. We also gave them towels and some warm clothes that Jaco and Maria had collected from South Africa. Please have a look closely at the pictures. The tents were put up in March using Unicef tarpaulin. The items you can see in the tents are the mats and towels we handed out yesterday. There was nothing else there as the children don't have anything else. Until last night, the kids slept on the earth with no covers. At least now they have something, but they do need so much more. I really struggle with the fact that in the 21st century there are still children sleeping uncovered on the bare earth.
This is the children in Temane putting away their new mats and towels.
The children at Temane were gathered together quite randomly. One was found wandering by a road; others were orphaned when their parents died, or one parent died and the other abandoned them. They were living in the bush around the Temane community, which is about 265 people. Two of the kids have learning difficulties and were probably abandoned. Others didn't know why they were there and don't say anything when they are asked what happened to their parents. They are currently looked after by a man who is trying to teach them during the day, and 2 local women who all work for no reward. These people have families of their own but the women take turns to stay with the children at night, and there is also a man who keeps guard at night.
The mats and towels lined up in the girls' side of the tent.
When we arrived at Temane the children all stood together and sang a welcome song. They seemed very serious; unlike the children at Pambarra they did not run around or play. They watched us carefully, and were maybe a bit confused when they were given the mats and towels. I did manage to get a couple of smiles when I showed them the photos I took of them, but mostly they had serious faces, and didn't laugh or play. I was very moved also by the reality of their living conditions, which is beyond basic. To say these children have nothing is not right anymore, as they now have people who look after and care for them, but it is meagre in the extreme. I'm putting quite a few photos on this entry so you can see what I mean. I had tears in my eyes quite a few times while I was there, which made me feel a bit silly, but it was how I felt. They are just kids, little kids who don't really know what has happened to put them in this situation, or what is going to happen to them in the future, and it shows on their faces. Their lives are better now than they were a couple of months ago, but still relentlessly hard. The children need to walk 3km to fetch water and then back again. Small girls of about 7 or 8 years old are carrying 25kg containers on their heads for 3km. They don't know where their next meal is coming from. 
All of these children and thousands of others across Mozambique are desparately in need of the basics - food and shelter. The orphanage in Livingstone looks luxurious in comparison (ha!). Jaco and Maria are aiming to meet those needs, but also to do more - to provide education, love, guidance, self-esteem and hope. They also remember that they are children and they need to have fun. On Sunday we took the 43 children from Pambarra and Temane to the beach where they played football, had fizzy drinks and sandwiches and built sandcastles - just like any other kids, except these ones had never done this before.
Jaco and Maria know they can't take on every child, but their plans are ambitious. They plan on making a significant impact by building an orphanage which will ultimately take in 350 children, housed in small homes of about 10, with house 'parents' in each one, to give them a home-like atmosphere. They already have a donation of land, and they have teams of volunteers due to come out from South Africa in June and July to start building. Any funds that I can raise will largely go towards building the orphanage itself, but will also be used to look after the children to buy essentials such as blankets, clothes and food. I know I'm tugging at the heartstrings (or trying to); this is because I believe we can actually make a difference. With funds in my account I can take it out of the cash point in town and go and buy the children food, extra blankets, or crayons and pencils as they desperately need stimulation. Food and the basics are quite expensive here, much more than I've encountered in the other places I've been so far.
If you want to know more about Jaco and Maria or the work they are doing their website is at www.mozambique-orphans.co.za. The easiest way to help is to raise funds as to ship items to here would be prohibitively expensive and would only lead to "issues" with Mozambique customs. Most items can be bought in South Africa and brought here by car if they are not available.
A debate that I've had many times with other volunteers I've met in Africa is whether to use funds to help a few people a lot, or a lot of people a little. No one has an answer; the only way I can do something is to do what feels right. Maybe we can help someone who will go on to do great things. Maybe we can start something that will go on to be much bigger. P, the Livingstone orphan I mentioned before, wants to be a doctor - maybe we can make that happen and he will go on to help hundreds of people. Maybe the children at Pambarra and Temane can feel safe and secure, get an education and grow up to have fulfilling lives. I don't know, but I can't be in Africa and remain unmoved, and I would rather try to do something and fail, than not try at all. The chance to give children and young people something like the love, care, attention and opportunities that we have, and hope for their futures, is something I can't walk away from.
Logistics
I have asked a friend to set up a charity for me so that I can start raising funds for these ideas. She is very generously researching how to do this in her non-existent spare time so if anyone knows anything that might be useful, please let me know and I'll put you in touch. I hope that this will be up and running over the summer. Those of you that want to contribute who are UK taxpayers, please hold your horses until I have this in place as any contributions will go so much further.
For any non UK tax-payers, or anyone who is simply bursting to contribute, I have set up a separate account for donations - Account number 6285 3546 Sort code 50 42 37 (Natwest Bank). Please, if you are kind enough to make a donation, can you put your name as a reference, or let me know so I can thank you. Unless of course you don't want to!!
My plan is to allocate donations 30:70% between the Livingstone and Mozambique projects unless a donor specifies a preferred project. I'll keep this under review as we go along. I also promise you totally and unequivocally that any funds put into my savings account will all go to the projects and that I will of course pay for my own expenses out of my own funds. I will also keep proper records which anyone can see (and I'll try very hard not to lose, but obviously without the wonderful Danise to organise me, that will be next to impossible). Of course when funds are going through the charity, proper records will kept as a matter of course.
Thanks for reading this - I know its another epic, and thanks to all those of you who have already started fundraising, or have offered to do so or to make a contribution, or who are about to! As soon as the charity is set up I'll let you know the details and we can really get started. I do genuinely think we can make a difference to childrens' lives. If you think anyone you know might be interested in fund-raising or contributing, please pass on a link to my blog, as every little bit will help, and if you want to know more about anything I've written about, please just ask.
And while I'm at it, thanks to everyone who is interested in my trip still, and to all those who keep in touch. Every message is valued, every thought is appreciated and every friend is precious, even, or perhaps especially, while I am so far away.
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