Last Weekend #1

It has been another busy week at Daktari, and I've had a hard time fitting in time to update. Last weekend was very busy, and it was nice to get out of camp and do a bunch of different things. Saturday afternoon after our trip to town we headed towards Maholoholo to pick up Charlie, who was a volunteer there for two weeks after she left Daktari. Maholoholo is a huge game reserve that also has a rehabilitation center, where they take care of injured animals on a much larger scale than Daktari. They have lions, cheetahs, hyenas, wild dogs, and a huge assortment of birds. I will post about my tour at Maholoholo as my next post.

Greg, a friend of Ian and Michele, was our driver and tour guide for the weekend. "We" here refers to me and Andrea, the previously mentioned long-term volunteer who works in the office. With the constant revolving door of people in and out, we rely upon each other for consistent friendship. Anyway, Greg picked us up in town and took us towards Maholoholo, but we were early so we stopped at a restaurant/pub called The Upper Deck for a drink. As we were sitting and drinking, a woman came running in saying that there was a fire nearby that they weren't sure was intended (there are a lot of controlled burns, so sometimes it can be hard to tell). No one panicked, a few people went out to check it out, and then they came right back in. About five minutes later, someone else came in and let us know that it was an out-of-control fire heading our way. And STILL no one panicked. The general attitude was that there wasn't a lot anyone can do, and we'd get in our car and drive away if it got any closer. We went outside to look and saw the fire approaching, as the owner of the pub hosed down the perimeters of his property:

The fire did look pretty scary, although it ultimately didn't cross the hose-line: 

Unfortunately the properties behind the restaurant were unattended, and the fire jumped onto one of their thatched roofs: 

By this point all the neighbors were mobilizing, gathering barrels of water onto tractors and pick-ups. Once the thatch caught it was too late to save this house, but everyone went to work spraying the thatch on the house next door so it couldn't spread. They were lucky that the fire didn't jump across the road to either side, as there were some large houses, also with thatched roofs, just across the road. It was really interesting to see the community come together to fight this fire, as the municipal fire department was basically non-existent. We drove back the following day, after dropping Charlie at Maholoholo, and saw that the house had burned completely: 

Overall it was a scary experience, but everyone agreed that it could have been much worse. 

After I did the tour at Maholoholo and we picked up Charlie, we drove back to Daktari for dinner and to meet the new volunteers who had arrived (three new French and one American, for those keeping track). Sunday morning we woke up and ate breakfast, and then drove to a pub called The Trading Post to watch South Africa's first game of the Rugby World Cup.  South Africa narrowly defeated Wales, in a relatively entertaining game. I'm trying to get into rugby as a surrogate for the NFL season, but it's not quite working. I still missed home a lot when I realized it was opening sunday of the NFL and also the ten year anniversary of September 11, and I had no one around to understand!

Next we drove to the Blyde River Dam, which is a beautiful area surrounded by mountains where there is a large reservoir. Here's Charlie, Andrea and I in front of the mountains: 

We were able to take a short hike to a swimming hole with a waterfall, which apparently was very low because it hasn't rained in a few months. The water was FREEZING but it was beautiful and a lovely place for a picnic and relaxation away from camp: 

After such a lovely weekend it was time to head back to camp and brief all the new volunteers on the week to come. Being South Africa, though, the ride home was full of interesting things to look at. The first phenomenon that needs to be documented are the "farm taxis" that carry 25-30 people in the back of a truck on their way home from work: 

And this is on the highway. Greg was recently pulled over for not wearing his seatbelt - and was passed by a truck like this while he was being ticketed. It's a little bit ridiculous. 

And finally, on our way back into Daktari, we saw the saddest thing. Two giraffes, a male and a female, talking to each other from the opposite side of two fences. They apparently do this often, and it's pretty heartbreaking. It's an old male and a younger female, so of course we hypothesized that they are either father/daughter or star-crossed lovers:

Apparently they can be found there frequently, trying to communicate with each other. Of course this made me want to write yet another children's book. We decided that they would go enlist the help of some elephants, who would knock down trees and create a bridge so they could be together again. Maybe it will happen someday?