Game Park

So we went to a game park just outside of Pietermaritzburg! I'm not sure exactly what kind of (dear?) this is, but the males have very big horns.

 These trees are really cool.  They are all connected to each other so when one is being eaten, it's leaves, along with the other tree's leaves, become bitter so the animal has to quickly move from tree to tree.  (something along those lines)

And again, I'm actually not sure what kind of animals these are... 

 Ostrich with babies =D

I caught a picture of a Giraffe eating dinner :)

 Soo this Ostrich was sitting on eggs right next to the road/path.  Apparently they lay loads of eggs.

 Hippos! It was really hard to get a picture of them..

 So the guide stopped right by this sign and we all got out and had some snacks. (It was by the hippos, which are very dangerous). 

 2 Rhinos =D

 In around May some poachers came and stole two of the Rhino's horns.  This (left) one managed to survive so now it is hornless!

 We feasted =D

 This little big guy greeted us in our cottage!  We made use of the ashtray to catch him and put him outside.

 So this is the amazing cottage.

 Sink/tub...

 Bed... 

 and the ceiling.  The ceiling was awesome!  I had to take a picture of it haha.

Time With The Rural Network

We (Zodwa, Skhumbuzo, and I) have been spending a lot of time with the  Rural Network task team over the past couple of weeks.  In my last post we were meeting with them to plan the next few weeks and to see what should be talked about.  The next few pictures are from the Utrecht/New Castle area in KwaZulu Natal.

As we drove down the road I noticed a lot of the houses have tanks to catch the rain water.  I like it.

The gate... So this is a picture of a gate I had to open and close a few times to get to a farm.  It was fairly easy to open, but closing it was another story... It had a wire that hooked on the top of the T-post and a wire that the bottom went into.  Don't hook the bottom first... The first time I tried closing it I hooked the bottom first and it made it seem like the gate was ~4 cm too short!  Let's just say I struggled to stretch the gate 4 cm... haha.  A few hours later I watched a young lady close it in about 3 seconds when she hooked the top the just knocked the bottom of the post in... haha

During our first meeting some chicks came and visited us:)

The strange paw... It's actually the paw from an Anteater!

The catfish.  The house we had our second meeting at had a giant catfish head hanging by the door!  A few days back the guy that lived there speared it.  He said the body was about as long as his leg!

Here's a close up view

While we were driving we saw a few of these birds flying around (they look really cool when they fly) unfortunately I could only get a picture of one sitting on a fence.  Can anyone name the bird for me?

I had a bunch of sunset pictures from the first night we were driving back to where we were staying.  This is my favorite one:)

RN and The Team

I am still enjoying my time here in South Africa! 

I finished October with a meeting in North Coast with the Rural Network (RN) task team.  On the left is Zodwa, then Skhumbuzo (Zodwa and Skhumbuzo are from CLP), Mrs. Siphiwe Hlatshwayo, miss Busie Ngema (secretary), Mr. Shadrack Sithole, Mr. Sipho Dlamini (chair person), and Mr. Myaluza Dlamini (organizer).  We were at a B&B (bed and breakfast, +conference center) that was quite nice even though the power went out during our meeting for about an hour in the hottest part of the day.

Early this week Justin decided he wanted to clean out the garage a little bit and organize the fish tanks and birdcages.  We spend hours sweeping and moving things around (we were mostly done when I took this picture).  The garage is now organized and ready for the new garage door!

I finally decided to let Lizzy cut my hair... Half an inch and 3 hours later... I had a haircut. (yeah not much was cut off.. haha) Maybe next week I can get a little more cut off without spending all night in a chair being yelled at for moving my head.  (we were having a group meeting/conversation sorta thing at the same time and of course I was facing away from half of the group.. haha) 

So I guess I'll introduce the group now... Sorry if 2 months is a little soon...  On the left is Breanna, then Garrett, and Lizzy.  Everyone is from Kansas (Heston, Moundridge, and Newton).  I'm actually behind the tree as we were apparently making a group effort to link hands around it.

So whenever I say we went to the Suderman's house or something along those lines, this is Andrew Suderman.  I have 0 pictures of Karen.... I'll see if I can get one for my next post (and an actual picture of Andrew).  In this picture he is actually laying on the ground trying to take a picture of flowers falling off of a tree... let's just say they fell a little bit too fast.  Time to go to a Braai in Mpophomeni :)

Interning at CLP

So a lot has happened since I last posted...  I finally sat down and started playing some of the Lord of the Rings soundtrack and wrote this...

 Here is a picture of Lewis Gordon who came to Pietermaritzburg and spoke at CLP and the University of KwaZulu Natal.  He is an awesome speaker and had some really good stuff.  Google him if you are curious :)

 The next day was a reflection day and we talked about water.  Here are a few pictures that are great examples of what we talked about and they were just right down the road.  This is a secondary agriculture processing plant of some sort and an electric facility, both right by the river for specific reasons.  And there doesn't seem to be a whole lot stopping factories an such from dumping directly into the river water. 

 Turning to the right a little bit you can see the back side of a black township.   Seeing how the city does not provide garbage removal, it kinda just rolls down the hill and into the river. 

  And if you look to the right a little more, you can see the landfill and a few gum trees.  The gum trees are significant because there are many tree plantations in the area and as they suck up the ground water, as the factories do, a problem occurs.  There is less and less water.   Oh and on the other side of this landfill is another river.  There doesn't seem to be any leeches in the water but there's probably some leeching... going on in the water.

So you can kind of see there is a problem with what is going on by, and on into, the rivers.

 I drove by my first banana plantation this week when in South Coast.

 We (Nomusa (left) and I (holding the camera)) drove to South Coast to basically help some people get their gardens going.  The soil was very sandy so they needed to dig  into the ground then refill the holes with layers of things (Maize stalks, bones, tins, dried grasses, compost, top soil, and repeat (something along those lines)) and make them into raised beds.  So we spent about 5 hours digging, filling, and raising to make 3 raised beds. 

 So the land that the raised beds are on, is owned by a church (you can see the old church building in the top corner of the picture) and they are letting these people plant gardens on it.  As you can tell from the picture it is a fairly large area on the side of a hill.

This is a trench that the Bishop gave them two weeks to dig so a pump could be put into the pond (next picture), by a different NGO, since it is a long walk and the people doing the gardening are older.  It has now been 3 years and nothing but promises have been made.  

This is the inside of the old church.  The closed the church and removed the roof, among other things, since they did not have enough people attending.   I am not sure where the church moved to, I just know they relocated else where. 

 I ended my time in South Coast with a beautiful sunrise (and 3 hours in the car).

Why I Like Home And My Job

A "Normal" Week

It just so happened that we couldn't meet this Tuesday so that means I was not able to post on my blog until today! I was finally crazy enough to take my camera on the walk to work and take some photos of the office.  

And this is the front of the building the office is in! (Don't mind the rain. Everyday occurrence.)

 This is the back side where I walk in every day.

 Here is a picture of the kitchen from the doorway (sorry, you can basically only see cabinets) but, yeah, this is where I make hot chocolate and tea to sip on and keep me awake during the day! I am one of those persons who sleeps whenever possible, so Garrett, Breanna, and Lizzy have quite a few pictures of me sleeping in various houses. 

 This is the office I spend my time in during the quiet days at work.  Nice comfy chair and a big desk :) though the chair does squeak when I move, so half of the time I'm focused on trying not to move haha

 Here is the lounge area where I can chill when I feel like I'm making too much noise with the chair.

I actually do not have much to say about work yet.  I've been to a couple meetings, which I thoroughly enjoyed, but other than that it has been very quiet with a lot of people out of the office.  So I have been learning about CLP and non government organizations (NGOs) and grassroot movements and different awesome people such as Amilcar Cabral, and Steve Biko, and the list goes on! 

 So back at home things get interesting... One night I woke up at about midnight and heard runner water, so I got up to investigate and I find this going on in the living room!  Justin was testing out and tweaking his new pond for some fish, in the lounge!  (It is now outside) 

Also, on the Monday when we made the zwieback and cookies below, Justin appeared with boxes of silkworms and thoroughly freaked Breanna out.

On Mondays Breanna, Lizzy, and I have work off (for some reason Garrett has Wednesdays off) so we did some baking.  We made some cookies but we kinda poured a little bit too much brown sugar in...by about half a cup... and, yeah, they didn't turn out so well. They were royally stuck to the pan. Butttt!  We (mainly Lizzy...she's brilliant) made some zwieback rolls and they were amazing.  For some reason I only took a picture of our failure, haha.