My Half Way Point

So much has happened since my last post that it seems nearly impossible to be able to tell you all about it but here goes!

March 2: I went back to Kariega for my final week there! I was definitely ready to get back to being around animals all day. My time at the Kariega Project was amazing and I'm very thankful that I did it. It's been something I will never forget.

Going back to Kariega was like going home. I feel so happy there and so comfortable. All of my new roomies were amazing so that also made for an awesome last week.

Amalie (Norway), Danielle (USA), David (England), Me, Frances (Volunteer Coordinator), Maria & Sara (Sweden), Timi & Nadine (The Netherlands), and Daniel (South Africa). There was also another David from England that's not pictured.

March 4: We went back to the Farmerfield School. (Not the same school I was working in during the Kariega Project.) If you remember, the last time we went it was complete chaos. This time the classes were all separated, their teachers were there with lessons for us to do, and they could understand us! Timi, Nadine, and I took fourth grade. Of course, they were adorable. They're so smart and so well behaved. We actually worked on school subjects for a while and then we went outside to play. We tried Simon Says for a while and then they taught us some of their Xhosa games. It was very fun!

That afternoon we found Thandi and her baby! Since I was here last, they'd had a ceremony celebrating three years since Thandi's poaching where they named her baby: Thembi meaning hope.
They're still so chill and happy. It's amazing and always a treat to see them. Especially since it took us so long to find them the first time!

Boma Night was this week again. It was much different than the last time as it was actually outside this time. The food was amazing and we had Kudu. Kudu is one of the African antelopes and it's delicious!! We sat around the fire after we ate and then the ladies started singing for us!

Frances, Daniel, David, Nadine, Timid, Sara, Me, Amalie, Maria, and Danielle
 

March 5: Every week we go chop down pine trees. I've mentioned before about how they're considered invasive around here. This morning they had located the lion pride and they were quite a ways away from us. However, a little while later, they located the alpha male lion and he wasn't with the rest of the pride... he was rather close to us. (Perks of working in the bush every day is looking out for these kinds of animals.) Luckily Frances had brought the radio with her because a few minutes later, someone came over the radio and said, "The student vehicle has been abandoned. Someone get ahold of Frances and tell them to get back to their car as the lion has been found in their area." Frances called us all to her and we had to walk in a straight line back to our cruiser and we were all told DO NOT RUN. (Lions have a natural instinct to chase when something is running so you'd definitely not make it if you ran.) We never actually found him but we didn't return to that area.

That afternoon, we found the rest of the pride and they had a blue wildebeest. They were really going at it. It's an amazing thing to watch lions feed. They all get so aggressive.

March 7: A trip to Addo Elephant Park is how we spent this weekend. It was about a two hour drive and there were six of us: Both of the Americans, the David's, and the twins. We did two game drives and saw about 200 elephants. I could watch the ellies all day long. They're always bathing and they make the coolest sounds ever. (I have tons of videos so sometime we can watch them all if you're interested.)

My last Sunday at Kariega was very bittersweet. The people at Kariega were amazing and I absolutely love it there. I was very sad to leave but very excited to start my new project at Shamwari.

March 9: I left early for Shamwari and I was way more nervous that I should have been. I met the office manager and she showed me around the volunteer area. I unpacked and waited for the rest of the volunteers to get back from their morning activities. There are 20 volunteers here (twice as many as there are at Kariega) and we don't have to make our own food. (That's quite exciting!) That afternoon we went rhino monitoring and that night we spent just hanging out and getting to know everyone. Instead of living in a house, we live in dorm style housing. My roommate is from Holland and her name is Susanne!

The very next morning we went out looking for the North Lion Pride in hope to dart two sub-adult males. They had been purchased by another reserve to help prevent inbreeding. We found the pride (composed of about 11 lions in total) but they were in an area not ideal for darting so we postponed it. That afternoon we went out to fix fences but that was cut short as the vet decided it was safe to dart the lions. We went to where they were and they were still in an area not ideal for darting but it needed to be done. We were told to standby so we went just over the ridge so we were out of sight. The vet gave them a piece of meat and once the whole pride was feasting, he darted the two males. Once that was all finished, he told us to come up closer as it was quite impressive to watch them all. 11 lions feeding on the same animal with all of them so aggressive... their sounds are amazing, their faces were all completely red, it was so cool.

After they'd been eating a while and it was obvious that the two males were down, the vet and his helpers started chasing the rest off by honking, banging on their cars, and throwing rocks. When they were off, it was our job to block the pride from them so the vet and his team could load the males into the truck without getting chased. The males were safely in their trucks and we were off. We put them in a boma until the other reserves could come get them. A boma is just an enclosed area so it's not so hard to get them when it's time. The boma was quite a ways away so we had to race there before the lions' tranquilizer wore off. When we got there, we helped load them off the trucks and microchip them. Lions are not as soft as they look, they're quite coarse and they have a very strong stench. It's not a bad smell; it's just a very noticeable smell and they're covered in parasites so we all had to wash our hands before touching our face or anything. It was an amazing day.

Remember that they're very much alive and breathing. It was literally just like they were sleeping. They slowly started to wake up as we were in there. They'd sigh and move their heads just a little.

The next day was equally as exciting. We started the morning with Waterbuck capture. Four Waterbuck males were sold to another reserve to, again, prevent inbreeding. The vet got in our truck and even darted them from our vehicle. When we located the one we wanted, he darted it and then it takes about 5-10 minutes for them to go down so the Waterbuck ran off and we had to go search for him.

Waterbuck

Getting ready to dart. (Both lf those men are vets and always work together.)

This is just after he'd been hit and he started to run off.

This his is the pick-up we jumped in the back of to take the Waterbuck to the other truck.

We found him on the ground and loaded him onto a tarp and into a truck. Two of the other volunteers and myself jumped into the back of the pick-up with the Shamwari workers and the Waterbuck and drove to the truck that would take the Waterbuck to their new home. We got there and had to lift him up about a meter to get him into the truck. He was extremely heavy and Waterbuck have oily hair to keep it looking so pretty so we all smelled and had very dirty hands. After we got him loaded, we waited for them to dart the second Waterbuck. Once they had done that, we loaded him up, jumped in the back of the pick-up truck and loaded him onto the other truck. This time, I got to give him two injections! I got to give him a sedative because Waterbuck are known to freak out in the trailer and they often injure themselves like break their teeth or one of their horns. I also got to give him the reverse of his tranquilizer. That was pretty awesome!!

After that, we all headed to a different boma where they had pre-darted two Waterbuck already. They darted them again and we had to load them onto the truck with the other two. The last one we loaded, was very close to being awake so Mike (our volunteer coordinator) had to hold his horns so he wouldn't get anyone in the face.

Matt (South Africa), Doug (England), Clay (Canada), Me, Maddie (Latvia), Vensil (Germany), Susanne (Holland), and Zoe (Scotland)

That afternoon the excitement kept going! One of the cheetahs on the reserve has an injured foot. And according to Mike, "A cheetah with a foot injury is as good as dead." He won't be able to hunt or defend himself at all. The vet, again, got in our vehicle and we drove as close to the cheetah as he'd let us and darted him. We all actually got to get out. The other cheetah just stayed in the background the whole time and never took his eyes off of us. The vet examined his paw and decided it wasn't a break, just a sprain so there was no need to take him in. This is good because if we'd taken him, the other cheetah would have immediately started crying and would cry for days. He actually started crying just while we were looking at him right there. We gave the injured cheetah the reverse of his tranquilizer and had to wait for him to come to. It took a good hour for him to start lifting his head. Mike would get out of the car and clap his hands and eventually the cheetah would get up and walk around. Once Mike got the cheetah to run, he knew he would be okay so we were good to go.

Cheetahs are very soft and much cleaner than a lion so he didn't smell at all.

Normally, we'd work in the mornings and then do some monitoring in the afternoons. Game captures are only on an as needed basis so they're not regular and I'm quite lucky to have gotten to do three in my first two days! Here are some pictures just from our monitoring.

Termite mounds are all over the place here. We found this huge one the other day and Mike estimated it'd been there for 80-100 years!

Whenever we see something cool, Mike will jump out of the car and teach us about it.

Huge snail!

HUGE Dung Beetle.

There is a new community project they're working on here where kids from the community go and learn traditional Xhosa dances and then perform them for people like us to have a cultural experience. They came here on Friday. They danced for a while and then pulled us out there and taught us how to do it. It was good fun.

They're still working on getting the costumes for the boys.

That weekend, 9 of us went to Port Elizabeth. It was so good. We went to Penguin island and saw tons of dolphins and we also went scuba diving! While scuba diving, we saw about 15 sharks and a stingray!! The coral was gorgeous and we saw toms of other smaller fish, too. We spent a lot of time on the beach and just hanging out. It's been my favorite weekend so far.

Attempting to do a jumping picture. Zoe (Scotland), Susanne (Holland), Me, Maddie (Latvia), Doug (England) Ben (Luxembourg), Fabian (Austria), and Mads (Denmark)

Sorry, this is definitely the abridged version but I never have much time! We are always go, go, go!

Until next time!

Goat Herds, Dirt Roads, and Everyday Life

I know you've all seen a township on TV or in a movie but experiencing one in the flesh is unlike anything else. The main road is usually paved and the rest are dirt. There are cow herds and goat herds roaming the streets. There are stray dogs running around in every direction you look. Every yard has at least one or two chickens and some even have baby chicks, too. There are tons of people walking around as most of them don't have cars. (If they have a long way to travel, they'll hitchhike.) Their stores look almost identical to the houses with 'Supermarket' painted above the door. The homes are supposed to be government built so they are usually made from concrete but you have to apply for a government house and it can take years to get one. The township of Marselle is the fastest growing township in the Eastern Cape with over 20,000 people living there so the farther into town you get, the more homes become made out of whatever they could find. They're usually made from scrap metal and the inside walls are usually constructed out of broken down cardboard boxes. The schools that I've been at are in quite good condition as they're all government built.

These are actually some of the nicer homes. I was advised not to take anything that might be of value into the "bad" neighborhoods so I have no pictures of those.

Every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, I worked at a preschool in the mornings and then the afterschool program in the afternoons. There was one morning when we went to the old ladies. Their program is called Age-In-Action and it's a group of about 6-10 ladies from the township of Ekuphumleni. It's in a very basic building that was painted bright blue! They are so cute. Every one of them has a genuine desire to learn English. This is one big difference from the States. I feel a good majority of the older generation Americans are very stuck in their ways and like to keep tradition but the ladies here realize that they can't get by with only knowing Xhosa as Xhosa isn't a widely known language. With them, we worked on the alphabet and filling in 'a' for 'apple' or 'b' for 'box' and then we did the Hokey Pokey which they LOVED. I didn't get any pictures of them and I'm super bummed about that! Just believe me that they're lovely and adorable little ladies!

The preschool is called Masibulele. The kids probably range in age from 2-6 years old. They're adorable and all only speak Xhosa so I have a translator all the time. The lady that goes with me, Vuyokasi, speaks Xhosa and English (Same with all of the teachers at the school.) so they all translate. We work on different things from writing the English alphabet, counting, days of the week, months of the year, what today's date is, and singing and playing games. The kids LOVE singing and dancing and it is one of the coolest things to witness.

These ladies do a lot of community services around the township just to help out. They came to Masibulele one day to decorate so I helped them. They're so neat, so giving, and always having such a fun time!

This is Mrs. Adams on the right and Vuyokasi on the left. Mrs. Adams is the preschool teacher and Vuyokasi is from Kariega Project and just helps me out.

This is Malibulele.

The afterschool program that I do in the afternoons is in the township of Klipfontein. The kids' ages probably range from 6-15 years old. They are so much fun. They can speak English really quite well so no translator is needed. Their first language is Afrikaans but my job is English Enrichment so they also have to speak in only English while we're there. We read books and play a lot of different games. These kids are so much fun and I'm really going to miss them. On my last day, they gave me a letter they had written and sang me songs. And, before I left, every single one of them gave me a hug. They are so neat, so smart, and I will never forget those kids. If I end up living here, I'll be visiting the Klipfontein after school program on a regular basis.

Aren't they adorable?! They sang many other songs but this is the only one it will let me upload.

 

On my first Wednesday here, I went on home visits with the social worker. That was so interesting and one of my most favorite days. It's very sad as that is just those kids' lives. That's their 'normal.' Living in a tiny house with their parents dropping them with their grandmother or other family member but taking the money given to them by the government for the children and keeping it for themselves. The social worker obviously goes out to make sure the right person is getting the money and the kids are being treated as they should be. We walked all around the township of Marselle this day. I got to go in some of the houses. Some of them are only one room, some have walls inside but they're made of cardboard, and some are multiple buildings with different rooms. If I were to take pictures, it might be considered rude or my camera wouldn't make it out of the township so I have no pictures of them but you can imagine what they might be like.

On my afternoons off and on the weekends, my roommates and I spend a lot of time at the beach and we even went horseback riding one day! My roommates are very cool and have been very supportive this past week and I've been dealing with all of my emotions. They all went out with me last night and we toasted Austin at 7 PM here when the funeral was starting back home. I'm very thankful for all of their support.

My horse was a real go-getter so I was always at the front of the group. Demi's was always in the clear back!

Chester and I after our ride!

My favorite spot.

Demi, myself, Leo, and Cas. They're all three from the Netherlands.

This experience was one I was the most nervous for but I couldn't be more grateful for it. It has been so eye-opening. As you all know, I absolutely love the reserves and I am so excited to head back to Kariega on Monday but in these two weeks, I have learned so much. You're basically stuck on the reserves and that's all you do but these last two weeks I've been in the townships, witnessing how the lives of true South Africans really are. I think the kids taught me more than I taught them. Seeing their hardships and every day struggles but seeing how appreciative and smart and amazing they all are is so heartwarming. I will greatly miss them.

Until next time!