As you may have noticed, not a lot of exciting things have happened in the last few weeks. I finished a book and it was so good that I have a hard time getting into any others. If anyone is interested in reading a novel set in high school about a girl falling in love with a vampire, please pick up Twilight and the sequel New Moon. I mean it, the author, Stephanie Meyer, can portray the agony of being a teenager and unrequited love so well.
So to fill the empty hours I have done a TON of crossword puzzles and sudoku. That and I’ve watched a few movies, some repeats, some bad and some amazing. And I confess that I watched Grey’s Anatomy through for the second time. I REALLY like that show.
Work has been filled with Germans. We have 3 volunteers from Germany right now and I’ve spent a lot of time working with them and the local staff. One day we were all in the office, it was chaotic and one of the Germans was asking a lot of questions to Motale, one of the local staff people that I have had a hard time working with in the past. She came to me and confided that she was frustrated and I gave her some words of advice. I felt like we had a major breakthrough and she actually trusted me. I could see the frustration of the Germans and realized that I have actually come a long way. I am more patient now, I don’t let all the small things frustrate me anymore, and I can roll with the punches so to speak.
And then the next day I realized that I still have a few things to learn. That day we had scheduled some interviews for potential carers for one of the centres. Mamotupa was late, when we called Motale to find out where she was, she hung up on me and then just didn’t show up until after the interviews. I was so upset but I decided to put aside my feelings because we had something more important to do and the women were waiting for us. We ended up having a good afternoon and played some fun games with the kids. After the candidates left I went inside to clean up and ended up getting into an argument with Motale. We both raised our voices and I knew that this wasn’t how I wanted to handle things so I tried to leave. She moved and blocked the door so I couldn’t walk out. I turned around to get my things and when I went back to the door she was still there. I couldn’t be in the room a minute longer so I used my arm and just moved her out of my way.
All I could think about the moment I stepped out of the room was that if I were at home, I would have a lawsuit on my hands. I didn’t push her but I physically touched her and I knew that it could be misconstrued. And it was. The next day when asked why we weren’t talking to each other, she just said that I pushed her. When I found that out I was irate. There are two sides to every story and no, I may not have done the right thing but I was not the only person at fault.
After a year here, I am still learning about how to interact with the people around me but honestly, I am tired of always being the one to apologize. I always feel like I’m stepping on toes and doing something wrong. But in this instance, I know that it wasn’t just me. So I decided that I wasn’t going to apologize until she came to me.
Guess what, it’s been a week and I’m still waiting.
I may never get an apology from her and I’m ok with that. She may not even think she needs to and I accept that. I am just happy that I realized that I don’t have to bear all the burden of the bad days.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Thursday, August 30, 2007
reversing my stance
I hereby reverse my stance on the mandel bread. I tried the bread a few more times, gave a blind test to my friends and realized it’s actually really good. I just ate the last 2 pieces and will definitely have to make more. As fate would have it, it was just too good for the chickens.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
i'm changing the name to mandel biscotti
Evidently mandel bread is supposed to be like biscotti. I was expecting comfort bread that is doughy and soft. Looking at the recipe now I probably should have realized that it wasn’t going to turn out that way but as I said, I had no idea exactly what mandel bread was. You say bread and I think warm, piping hot, just out the oven freshness. Now if they called it mandel biscuits or mandel biscotti, I would have been a little more clued into the outcome. So the mandel whatever-you-want-to-call-it turned out ok by those standards. I personally don’t think it tastes all the great, even after dunking it in tea and wonder if all parts were mixed well enough. Not having a mixer and only using my own strength and a wooden spoon I suspect something went wrong. I may try a couple more just to be sure but I’m fairly certain the fate of this mandel bread-that-should-be-named-biscuit will be making some chickens very happy.
Monday, August 13, 2007
bad mandel bread
August 13, 2007 bad mandel bread
Not really sure what I was thinking but I decided to make mandel bread. I’m not really sure I’ve ever seen or eaten mandel bread before. I was craving some bread – not the dull brown bread loaf that you get in the village and I had all the ingredients for this recipe. The recipe is from Nana Tillye’s (Jason’s grandmother) recipe book. She was Jewish and I was feeling a bit nostalgic for something homey and comforting. So I’m waiting for it to get lightly brown but it doesn’t look like much has changed. I’m thinking maybe I should have gone for something I actually knew what the outcome was supposed to look like. This is why I like cook books with pictures. Maybe it will taste good at least. We’ll see.
And after sitting her trying to figure out what else I could tell you, I realize that there just isn’t that much to tell. For the last 5 days I was sick and spent most of my days in bed going through 2 toilet paper rolls and a box of tissues. There was a brief intermission when 2 other PCV’s dropped by for a surprise visit on Saturday. Kristina and Jean were staying in a town relatively close and drove up for a couple hours. Besides Tanya and the other volunteers that live within 20 minutes of me, they are the first of my friends to come out of their way. It was nice to show them my home and hear the contrasts between their sites and mine. They were a bit shocked at how rural I am and I won’t lie, I swelled with a bit of pride while we were discussing it.
The rest of my bed ridden days were consumed mostly with watching season 1 and 2 of Grey’s Anatomy. My mother was wonderful and brought me those for my birthday. And I now have watched them all over again. Yes, every single episode including all the bonus material. And now I am still eager to find out if Meredith chose McDreamy or McVet. I have no idea – and no one better spoil it for me either. As soon as Season 3 comes out, I have begged my mother to get it for me so I can catch up and then be tortured for another 10 months until the next seasons comes out on DVD. Yes, I know that you can watch the episodes on the internet but only if you live in the states. If you live abroad it won’t let you. I tried that already!
And the verdict on the bread…it’s not good. I really don’t know what else to say. A little disappointing and not the comfort food I was craving. Oh well. One day I’ll get someone to show me how to make it. I feel as though I let Nana down. Hopefully the fried chicken recipe I’ll try next will turn out better!
Not really sure what I was thinking but I decided to make mandel bread. I’m not really sure I’ve ever seen or eaten mandel bread before. I was craving some bread – not the dull brown bread loaf that you get in the village and I had all the ingredients for this recipe. The recipe is from Nana Tillye’s (Jason’s grandmother) recipe book. She was Jewish and I was feeling a bit nostalgic for something homey and comforting. So I’m waiting for it to get lightly brown but it doesn’t look like much has changed. I’m thinking maybe I should have gone for something I actually knew what the outcome was supposed to look like. This is why I like cook books with pictures. Maybe it will taste good at least. We’ll see.
And after sitting her trying to figure out what else I could tell you, I realize that there just isn’t that much to tell. For the last 5 days I was sick and spent most of my days in bed going through 2 toilet paper rolls and a box of tissues. There was a brief intermission when 2 other PCV’s dropped by for a surprise visit on Saturday. Kristina and Jean were staying in a town relatively close and drove up for a couple hours. Besides Tanya and the other volunteers that live within 20 minutes of me, they are the first of my friends to come out of their way. It was nice to show them my home and hear the contrasts between their sites and mine. They were a bit shocked at how rural I am and I won’t lie, I swelled with a bit of pride while we were discussing it.
The rest of my bed ridden days were consumed mostly with watching season 1 and 2 of Grey’s Anatomy. My mother was wonderful and brought me those for my birthday. And I now have watched them all over again. Yes, every single episode including all the bonus material. And now I am still eager to find out if Meredith chose McDreamy or McVet. I have no idea – and no one better spoil it for me either. As soon as Season 3 comes out, I have begged my mother to get it for me so I can catch up and then be tortured for another 10 months until the next seasons comes out on DVD. Yes, I know that you can watch the episodes on the internet but only if you live in the states. If you live abroad it won’t let you. I tried that already!
And the verdict on the bread…it’s not good. I really don’t know what else to say. A little disappointing and not the comfort food I was craving. Oh well. One day I’ll get someone to show me how to make it. I feel as though I let Nana down. Hopefully the fried chicken recipe I’ll try next will turn out better!
Thursday, August 9, 2007
aftermath
It’s 6:45 am and I am awake. It’s a holiday here – Woman’s Day. I don’t like getting up early especially when I don’t actually have to be anywhere. The last 3 weeks have caught up to me and decided to hit me with a nice little cold. Yesterday I had ambitions to go to work and get a few things done with our new volunteers and then I just decided that I should take care of me and try and tackle this cold before it got worse. I stayed in bed the entire day and read an entire book – Marley and Me (this is the ultimate indulgence which I will long for one day when I am back in the “rate race”), started another book and watched 3 episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. Despite my efforts, I feel as though a truck has run me over this morning. A hacking cough woke me up and then my nose decided to stuff up. I have been eating fruits, drinking water and sucking down vitamin c drops but I guess my body just needs to get some things out. I am not a huge fan of medicating but we’ll see how long I can last before I really would give half a lung for some Nyquil or Dayquil.
My mom’s trip was enjoyable and I didn’t think overtaxing but maybe all the driving I did was a bit. Normally I LOVE driving and since as a PCV I’m not allowed to, when I’m on holiday I take advantage if I have the opportunity (and loving parents who are paying for the rental car). Mom was sweet and was content to sit in the passenger seat the entire time even though we both got confused and tried to get in the wrong doors – they drive on the right side of the car and the left side of the streets here just in case you didn’t know. But let me tell you, road signs are terrible here, worse in Swaziland and an absolute nightmare in Johannesburg when we’re trying to find people’s house, there are 2 streets named Main but the one you want actually isn’t labeled. By the last night I was so over getting lost and not being able to rely on signs (my internal navigation system doesn’t always point the correct way either. This is when having Jason around comes in handy – his is way better than mine and my mothers as it turns out) that I sort of started crying.
What I was a little bit afraid to admit was that part of the reason for the tears was my mom was leaving. Or actually, I was leaving my mom the next day because I had to get back to work – she wasn’t actually leaving till the day after that. I had just spent almost 3 weeks with her, sometimes she was typical mom and I just wanted to roll my eyes (if I did mom, I’m sorry, I tried real hard to just let you be my mom!) but most of the time she was amazing and patient with me (especially while in the car, being lost and not having found the lunch destination – she was a saint then, really!). I had a wonderful time with her – it was fun making unexpected stops and just taking our time about things. But traveling for 2 weeks can be stressful and all parties are desperate for some alone time by the end, and then knowing that my mom was leaving and not really being sure when I’ll get to hug her again, that just made me a little sad. And me, I have a hard time talking about it so I’ll get stressed about little things instead, like missing the turns and driving in the complete wrong direction and really have no idea where to go! And sometimes it’s just hard to admit that Miss Independent who traveled across the world to seek out her dreams and live her life by her own standards, is still a little girl that needs her mom sometimes – her whole family really but her mom being the representative this time worked just as well.
But I got off on a complete tandem there – I decided to bring out the computer and type this morning because I wanted to share my funny, crazy dream. I have a lot of them and I love either writing them in my journal or telling someone the moment I wake up. This one was odd, the presidents were changing and there was a party on the outside lawn of the white house. I had been working with the whole office and I was sad to see it end except I wasn’t because I knew the Bush administration was on the way out. I said something about being sad and Laura Bush heard me and said I should feel happy because her new administration was coming in. All of the sudden I was hanging out with the new administration party but it was George Bush and Laura and Bono and other random people. We were having a grand old time, I was schmoozing with people, even George himself trying to win them over so I get a job in the new office. I couldn’t wait to tell everyone that I had met Bono and George and we were all becoming good friends. Then George (we were on a first name basis in my dream) went up to make a speech in this little tower thing that had just been constructed and he fell backwards but no one could find him. Sue McLean was there and there was a group of us searching and then someone came up to tell us his plane had to leave and the transmission was cut short – evidently it was just a projection of himself, not actually him. That’s about the time I woke up but earlier in the dream I had been at kruger park hanging out at Dr. McDreamy’s rondavul with some friends and hottie was totally flirting with me. I knew that he was Meredith’s but how can you refuse to flirt with someone that is that hot! This part probably had to do with the fact that I watched Grey’s Anatomy before I went to bed – thanks family for that birthday present! I am a little disappointed that I was so excited about the new Bush administration because that is not what I am hoping happens at all – not that it could anyway – I am not a supporter of his anyways in real life (newsflash for those that did not have a chance to talk to Teresa after the last election). But I won’t start talking politics now – it’s just ironic that in my dream it was backwards – those psychologists out there feel free to interpret.
My mom’s trip was enjoyable and I didn’t think overtaxing but maybe all the driving I did was a bit. Normally I LOVE driving and since as a PCV I’m not allowed to, when I’m on holiday I take advantage if I have the opportunity (and loving parents who are paying for the rental car). Mom was sweet and was content to sit in the passenger seat the entire time even though we both got confused and tried to get in the wrong doors – they drive on the right side of the car and the left side of the streets here just in case you didn’t know. But let me tell you, road signs are terrible here, worse in Swaziland and an absolute nightmare in Johannesburg when we’re trying to find people’s house, there are 2 streets named Main but the one you want actually isn’t labeled. By the last night I was so over getting lost and not being able to rely on signs (my internal navigation system doesn’t always point the correct way either. This is when having Jason around comes in handy – his is way better than mine and my mothers as it turns out) that I sort of started crying.
What I was a little bit afraid to admit was that part of the reason for the tears was my mom was leaving. Or actually, I was leaving my mom the next day because I had to get back to work – she wasn’t actually leaving till the day after that. I had just spent almost 3 weeks with her, sometimes she was typical mom and I just wanted to roll my eyes (if I did mom, I’m sorry, I tried real hard to just let you be my mom!) but most of the time she was amazing and patient with me (especially while in the car, being lost and not having found the lunch destination – she was a saint then, really!). I had a wonderful time with her – it was fun making unexpected stops and just taking our time about things. But traveling for 2 weeks can be stressful and all parties are desperate for some alone time by the end, and then knowing that my mom was leaving and not really being sure when I’ll get to hug her again, that just made me a little sad. And me, I have a hard time talking about it so I’ll get stressed about little things instead, like missing the turns and driving in the complete wrong direction and really have no idea where to go! And sometimes it’s just hard to admit that Miss Independent who traveled across the world to seek out her dreams and live her life by her own standards, is still a little girl that needs her mom sometimes – her whole family really but her mom being the representative this time worked just as well.
But I got off on a complete tandem there – I decided to bring out the computer and type this morning because I wanted to share my funny, crazy dream. I have a lot of them and I love either writing them in my journal or telling someone the moment I wake up. This one was odd, the presidents were changing and there was a party on the outside lawn of the white house. I had been working with the whole office and I was sad to see it end except I wasn’t because I knew the Bush administration was on the way out. I said something about being sad and Laura Bush heard me and said I should feel happy because her new administration was coming in. All of the sudden I was hanging out with the new administration party but it was George Bush and Laura and Bono and other random people. We were having a grand old time, I was schmoozing with people, even George himself trying to win them over so I get a job in the new office. I couldn’t wait to tell everyone that I had met Bono and George and we were all becoming good friends. Then George (we were on a first name basis in my dream) went up to make a speech in this little tower thing that had just been constructed and he fell backwards but no one could find him. Sue McLean was there and there was a group of us searching and then someone came up to tell us his plane had to leave and the transmission was cut short – evidently it was just a projection of himself, not actually him. That’s about the time I woke up but earlier in the dream I had been at kruger park hanging out at Dr. McDreamy’s rondavul with some friends and hottie was totally flirting with me. I knew that he was Meredith’s but how can you refuse to flirt with someone that is that hot! This part probably had to do with the fact that I watched Grey’s Anatomy before I went to bed – thanks family for that birthday present! I am a little disappointed that I was so excited about the new Bush administration because that is not what I am hoping happens at all – not that it could anyway – I am not a supporter of his anyways in real life (newsflash for those that did not have a chance to talk to Teresa after the last election). But I won’t start talking politics now – it’s just ironic that in my dream it was backwards – those psychologists out there feel free to interpret.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
mom memories
I’m sitting in one of our offices just waiting…waiting for the internet to get connected, waiting for the meeting to start, waiting for all of this to get done so I can finally go home and relax, sit in my little room and enjoy not moving around, just sit quietly and read. And of course unpack and settle back in.
My vacation with my mom was amazing. It started off with the ACTS retreat (I’ll save my thoughts on that for another time) and then a delayed driving start out of Durban. After the car was delivered late and we finally got on the road, I thought we were going the wrong way but only figured out it was the right direction after turning around and feeling flustered. This set the pace for the entire road trip. I don’t think we made it to one place without having to double back at least once because we missed the turn we needed. Swaziland was the worst for signage and even the maps that are given out at the border posts are incorrect. But we always ended up where we needed to be and despite those minor mishaps, we had a really great time.
Something I learned about my mom – she’s not the best navigator in the world.
Something my mom learned about me – I get very cranky when I am hungry (& lost)!
None of this made much of a difference, in the end we had a great time and saw some pretty amazing stuff. We had a few unexpected stops that uncovered treasures and beauty we would have missed otherwise. When we didn’t make it Swaziland that first day, we decided to stop in St. Lucia. We were told be careful when out at night, not because of the crime but because of the hippos, crocodiles and leopards. Before driving directly to Swaziland, we started off the next morning with a walk along a huge beach that had waves crashing and fisherman on the shore hoping for a lucky day.
Swaziland was filled with shopping: the main stops for us were Guava Gallery that had some beautiful silver jewelry, the Swazi candle factory and a Ngwenya glass factory. Lots of fun souvenirs! We shopped so long one morning that we didn’t quite drive as far as I anticipated, so we had another unexpected stop in Sabie. We didn’t see much of the town or the area but we found this wonderful little restaurant called The Wild Fig Tree that was advertised in our books and we pleasantly discovered there was a B&B as well – perfect for the last minute stop. A sassy old bird ran the B&B and she had lots of stories about everything. The restaurant was a perfect setting for me and my mom to just sit down, relax and chat for hours. We did just that and we even ended the night with a shot of Amarula, the local tasty liquor, on the house. It didn’t take much and my mom was hooked on the stuff!
We did a bit of site seeing, tried to see God’s window but it was fogged in (the curtains were still drawn) but the weather was fine at the Potholes and 3 Rondavuls and my mom loved it. Finally we made it to my village. My mom was a champ and actually spent 2 nights in my little house. I showed her around to the different centres, offices, she met tons of people and by 3 pm, we were both exhausted! I only let her have a short nap because then it was time to meet all of my friends in the village. I loved sharing her with my friends and they were so excited to meet her.
My organization had a new volunteer arrive just as we did, Corinna, so she was part of the driving around that day. And it worked out that she was able to come to Kruger National Park with us for the weekend. Tanya came as well, so we loaded everyone up in the car and headed out for a fun adventurous weekend filled with lots of wild animals and one semi-tame. First thing I did was take mom and Corinna to meet Jessica the hippo – they LOVED her! She’s a beautiful creature and it’s absolutely amazing that you can get so close to a hippo and pet her even. After that we made our way into the park. We stopped to look at watering hole by the main road where we saw tons of baboons and hippos and then we realized that there was a White Rhino out there as well. After hiding in the bushes he decided to come and show himself off to everyone – it was great to see. After that we had to rush to get in the camp gate by 5:30 otherwise we wouldn’t be let in but we made it no problem. The next day we left early, 6:15 am, and saw tons of animals throughout the day. At one point we were surrounded by giraffes walking across the road in front of us and behind us. Another moment we were surrounded by elephants, at least 20 including some baby ones. As we tried to drive on, this huge, old one with gigantic tusks was just parked in the road, staring at us. We had to wait 15 minutes before he decided to slowly saunter away. It was beautiful. We saw hippos playing, more elephants drinking from a water hole, beautiful exotic birds, water buffalo, tons of impala and kudu and of course baboons. At first I made everyone roll their windows up when we spotted baboons but then I realized that people don’t actually feed them here in the park, so they weren’t going to come after us or any cookies we had in the car. There was one moment when we were also surrounded by baboons. There must have been at least 50 just running around the road and back and forth between the trees. It was beautiful. And there were even little bitty baby baboons!
By the end of the day we were bummed that we hadn’t seen lions but a couple gentlemen we had run into earlier in the day (by the way, they had the largest camera lenz I have ever seen in my entire life – if I was with you I would demonstrate and show you just how big it was) said that there were 2 lions kills close to the road going out of the park. We had plans to leave early so the next morning we were 9th in line to get out of the camp at 6 am. After a bit of driving we came to the area where there was a buffalo carcass and 2 male lions gnawing on the thing. We sat and watched for a long time and then a 3rd male popped up. It was amazing. We knew there was another kill up ahead so we decided to tear ourselves away and drive on. Soon after we came up to a group of cars clearly looking at something but we couldn’t see anything. Slowly we inched up and not 25 feet off the road is a giraffe carcass – with a lot of meat still on it. We just saw the carcass and nothing else and then finally we realized there was a lioness chomping on the rump. We stayed and watched and eventually 7 more lions came out of hiding and made their way to the giraffe. It was amazing to see and it was so close to us. We stayed for an hour before we decided we needed to head out of the park and continue on with the day. As soon as we left the park, I was on a mission to get us back to town so we could eat and my mom and I could make our way to Johannesburg – still a 5 hour drive away. I was going 120 km/hr (I don’t know the mile equivalent but it was pretty fast especially after only driving 30 km/hr in the park) and cruising when Tanya yells out “STOP”. I slammed on the brakes and she could barely get out that she saw a cheetah on the side of the road. I reversed and finally we saw what she did, a cheetah behind the fence slowly moving away from us – I kept reversing to follow it and then we saw it meet up with 2 more cheetahs. What an amazing site and a good end to the weekend!
My mom and I finally made it Johannesburg, the last stop on her trip, by 7 that night. We were able to relax and have dinner with Leigh and Sue and the kids. The next day was shopping and then we had tickets to see The Lion King production. I have always loved that show and when we had the big family get together to see it in San Antonio in March 2005, that was a memorable weekend – the last time my family got together before I was off to Africa. So when I heard that the show was here, I had to get tickets for me and my mom. The show was beautiful and had lots of South African touches. Another stressful time getting to the theatre but then we forgot all about it and just enjoyed the singing and dancing and magic. The rest of the time in Joburg was shopping and visiting with friends until I had to leave Thursday morning. PhediĊĦang was taking a group of high school girls to volunteer for the weekend at the centres in Limpopo and so I had to leave. I left my mom in the care of Leigh and my friend Laura took her out that day to a market and a nice lunch. It was hard to leave her but I was glad that my South African family was so willing to take care of her.
My time with my mom was amazing. I loved every minute of it and wouldn’t trade those 3 weeks for anything. There is so much that I just don’t have enough space to mention like driving for 11 hours around kruger park with very little food, the beautiful resort we stayed at in Swaziland that had thatched roof bungalows, the gigantic wire fish I bought for my room, the gas cap getting stuck and the attendant not knowing what to do about it (or me!), the endless number of times we felt like we were lost and of course all the small moments that me and my mom will be able to cherish together, just me and her.
My vacation with my mom was amazing. It started off with the ACTS retreat (I’ll save my thoughts on that for another time) and then a delayed driving start out of Durban. After the car was delivered late and we finally got on the road, I thought we were going the wrong way but only figured out it was the right direction after turning around and feeling flustered. This set the pace for the entire road trip. I don’t think we made it to one place without having to double back at least once because we missed the turn we needed. Swaziland was the worst for signage and even the maps that are given out at the border posts are incorrect. But we always ended up where we needed to be and despite those minor mishaps, we had a really great time.
Something I learned about my mom – she’s not the best navigator in the world.
Something my mom learned about me – I get very cranky when I am hungry (& lost)!
None of this made much of a difference, in the end we had a great time and saw some pretty amazing stuff. We had a few unexpected stops that uncovered treasures and beauty we would have missed otherwise. When we didn’t make it Swaziland that first day, we decided to stop in St. Lucia. We were told be careful when out at night, not because of the crime but because of the hippos, crocodiles and leopards. Before driving directly to Swaziland, we started off the next morning with a walk along a huge beach that had waves crashing and fisherman on the shore hoping for a lucky day.
Swaziland was filled with shopping: the main stops for us were Guava Gallery that had some beautiful silver jewelry, the Swazi candle factory and a Ngwenya glass factory. Lots of fun souvenirs! We shopped so long one morning that we didn’t quite drive as far as I anticipated, so we had another unexpected stop in Sabie. We didn’t see much of the town or the area but we found this wonderful little restaurant called The Wild Fig Tree that was advertised in our books and we pleasantly discovered there was a B&B as well – perfect for the last minute stop. A sassy old bird ran the B&B and she had lots of stories about everything. The restaurant was a perfect setting for me and my mom to just sit down, relax and chat for hours. We did just that and we even ended the night with a shot of Amarula, the local tasty liquor, on the house. It didn’t take much and my mom was hooked on the stuff!
We did a bit of site seeing, tried to see God’s window but it was fogged in (the curtains were still drawn) but the weather was fine at the Potholes and 3 Rondavuls and my mom loved it. Finally we made it to my village. My mom was a champ and actually spent 2 nights in my little house. I showed her around to the different centres, offices, she met tons of people and by 3 pm, we were both exhausted! I only let her have a short nap because then it was time to meet all of my friends in the village. I loved sharing her with my friends and they were so excited to meet her.
My organization had a new volunteer arrive just as we did, Corinna, so she was part of the driving around that day. And it worked out that she was able to come to Kruger National Park with us for the weekend. Tanya came as well, so we loaded everyone up in the car and headed out for a fun adventurous weekend filled with lots of wild animals and one semi-tame. First thing I did was take mom and Corinna to meet Jessica the hippo – they LOVED her! She’s a beautiful creature and it’s absolutely amazing that you can get so close to a hippo and pet her even. After that we made our way into the park. We stopped to look at watering hole by the main road where we saw tons of baboons and hippos and then we realized that there was a White Rhino out there as well. After hiding in the bushes he decided to come and show himself off to everyone – it was great to see. After that we had to rush to get in the camp gate by 5:30 otherwise we wouldn’t be let in but we made it no problem. The next day we left early, 6:15 am, and saw tons of animals throughout the day. At one point we were surrounded by giraffes walking across the road in front of us and behind us. Another moment we were surrounded by elephants, at least 20 including some baby ones. As we tried to drive on, this huge, old one with gigantic tusks was just parked in the road, staring at us. We had to wait 15 minutes before he decided to slowly saunter away. It was beautiful. We saw hippos playing, more elephants drinking from a water hole, beautiful exotic birds, water buffalo, tons of impala and kudu and of course baboons. At first I made everyone roll their windows up when we spotted baboons but then I realized that people don’t actually feed them here in the park, so they weren’t going to come after us or any cookies we had in the car. There was one moment when we were also surrounded by baboons. There must have been at least 50 just running around the road and back and forth between the trees. It was beautiful. And there were even little bitty baby baboons!
By the end of the day we were bummed that we hadn’t seen lions but a couple gentlemen we had run into earlier in the day (by the way, they had the largest camera lenz I have ever seen in my entire life – if I was with you I would demonstrate and show you just how big it was) said that there were 2 lions kills close to the road going out of the park. We had plans to leave early so the next morning we were 9th in line to get out of the camp at 6 am. After a bit of driving we came to the area where there was a buffalo carcass and 2 male lions gnawing on the thing. We sat and watched for a long time and then a 3rd male popped up. It was amazing. We knew there was another kill up ahead so we decided to tear ourselves away and drive on. Soon after we came up to a group of cars clearly looking at something but we couldn’t see anything. Slowly we inched up and not 25 feet off the road is a giraffe carcass – with a lot of meat still on it. We just saw the carcass and nothing else and then finally we realized there was a lioness chomping on the rump. We stayed and watched and eventually 7 more lions came out of hiding and made their way to the giraffe. It was amazing to see and it was so close to us. We stayed for an hour before we decided we needed to head out of the park and continue on with the day. As soon as we left the park, I was on a mission to get us back to town so we could eat and my mom and I could make our way to Johannesburg – still a 5 hour drive away. I was going 120 km/hr (I don’t know the mile equivalent but it was pretty fast especially after only driving 30 km/hr in the park) and cruising when Tanya yells out “STOP”. I slammed on the brakes and she could barely get out that she saw a cheetah on the side of the road. I reversed and finally we saw what she did, a cheetah behind the fence slowly moving away from us – I kept reversing to follow it and then we saw it meet up with 2 more cheetahs. What an amazing site and a good end to the weekend!
My mom and I finally made it Johannesburg, the last stop on her trip, by 7 that night. We were able to relax and have dinner with Leigh and Sue and the kids. The next day was shopping and then we had tickets to see The Lion King production. I have always loved that show and when we had the big family get together to see it in San Antonio in March 2005, that was a memorable weekend – the last time my family got together before I was off to Africa. So when I heard that the show was here, I had to get tickets for me and my mom. The show was beautiful and had lots of South African touches. Another stressful time getting to the theatre but then we forgot all about it and just enjoyed the singing and dancing and magic. The rest of the time in Joburg was shopping and visiting with friends until I had to leave Thursday morning. PhediĊĦang was taking a group of high school girls to volunteer for the weekend at the centres in Limpopo and so I had to leave. I left my mom in the care of Leigh and my friend Laura took her out that day to a market and a nice lunch. It was hard to leave her but I was glad that my South African family was so willing to take care of her.
My time with my mom was amazing. I loved every minute of it and wouldn’t trade those 3 weeks for anything. There is so much that I just don’t have enough space to mention like driving for 11 hours around kruger park with very little food, the beautiful resort we stayed at in Swaziland that had thatched roof bungalows, the gigantic wire fish I bought for my room, the gas cap getting stuck and the attendant not knowing what to do about it (or me!), the endless number of times we felt like we were lost and of course all the small moments that me and my mom will be able to cherish together, just me and her.
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