No lions, or tigers, or bears...Oh my!

It's late on Tuesday evening, and I'm sitting in the office listening to the rain pound on the windows and roof.  I don't feel like swimming back to the house just yet, so I will ramble a bit about our weekend adventure.  Our trip to Hluhluwe Nature Reserve was certainly a memorable event!  Our little bus full of Ausies, Brits, and Canadians left GGA on Friday afternoon, arrived in St. Lucia around supper time, and settled into our "bush camp" accommodations.  That evening, Dan and the girls and I enjoyed a 3km "night walk" through the jungle led by a conservation guide.  We were able to experience the stillness of the jungle at night, the amazingly bright stars of the southern hemisphere, and even some nocturnal creatures.  Bush babies (little nocturnal monkeys with big, glowing eyes) are common in this area, and are named for their child-like cry during the night. 

We crawled out of bed just after 5am on Saturday to begin our safari, since the animals apparently get up early as well.  Dan has a complete list of all the animals we saw during the day, but suffice it to say that it's truly a once in a lifetime experience to see giraffes, zebra, rhino, baboons, Kudu, Nyala, water buffalo, elephants, and dozens of other African birds and animals in their natural habitat.  I still have those moments when I look around and say to myself, "Wow!  I'm in Africa!"  This day was filled with those moments.  We were not lucky enough to see any wild cats though...I'm secretly a little releived about that! 

On Sunday, we took a long boat trip down the St. Lucia estuary.  We were able to see over 100 hippos of all sizes laying around in the sun, and also many crocodiles.  Thankfully no one lost any limbs!  We also visited several fabulous Zulu craft markets in the area.  I'm afraid that markets (or shopping of any kind!) are my weakness, and I was always the last one back on the bus.  Sadly, I can't find a way to bring back all the beautiful pottery, tapestries, and hand-dyed fabrics that I love, but we did manage to buy some amazing fruit and delicious avocados.

When we arrived back home on Sunday evening, we found that our electricity cable had been damaged sometime on Friday while someone was digging fence post holes.  I'm excited about the fence going up, as it is designed to keep the cows off our porch, but I was not so excited about the spoiled food in our warm fridge.  As of now (4 days later), our electricity has not been restored.  Apparently the required parts are on order, so in the mean time we are living by candle light, and cooking in the communal kitchen.  There is one plug in our bedroom that works, so we have our toaster and kettle lined up beside the bed.  Never a dull moment around here! 

Dan is back at school this week after 10 days of "term break".  I think he's glad to be back at the preschool, since we kept him very busy around the office during his break.  I have been spending some of my time teaching one of the young Zulu staff members who is involved in GGA's agricultural projects.  He is a brilliant fellow, but needs to learn how to train others.  We have been working on some basic teaching and communication skills.  Wesley has been working for GGA for about 2 years now, and has piloted a maize (corn) growing method that has successfully increased the crop yield for over 25 local farmers.  I'm not much of an agricultural enthusiast, but his method and success stories are truly fascinating!  Claudia, the new German volunteer, is a woman with an agricultural engineering background, and years of experience working in Africa.  She arrived at just the right time to partner with Wesley and take his projects to a whole new level.  They have now begun working with an additional 25 farmers, and have started a large communal garden in one of the valleys.

Some of you have been asking whether the frustrating circumstances at GGA have changed over the weeks, or whether we have just made peace with them.  Well, not much has changed within the organization, but I think we have carved out our little niches.  Dan and I are both involved in projects that work directly with the Zulu community, and we can see that in these and other areas, GGA is doing good work in spite of itself.  We may not have a lasting impact on SA, but people like Wesley and Zama (the preschool teacher I spoke about in my last blog) certainly will, and it is an honor to work with people like them daily!