Sharing South Africa

Kruger Park Weekend - Part 2

2010-11-13T01:05:00.000-08:00

It's been a few days since I've written but with Cara's return home it's been a flurry of activity and poor thing has just been running herself ragged with this she needs to get done. But that's a story for another day.

On Saturday at Kruger Park there weren't a lot of animals to be seen. Since it's rainy season here Liese said they were probably farther south than we were that day. You have to understand what a massive park this is. Stefan said that to travel the entire park you would need to be there for a week. And keep in mind that not all of this area has roads. Some of the roads are just dirt and they get damaged from all of the rain and vehicles traveling them. There are paved roads as well but I think there are more of the dirt roads through the park.

Late in the afternoon on Saturday after the air conditioning went out on the Combi with 6 of us in there, we had the fright of our lives. Stefan was driving and of course we were all looking in different directions for animals to see. All of the sudden a giraffe came galloping across the road! I think we all saw him at the same time! Stefan hit the brakes hard in order to stop from hitting the giraffe. Once he had crossed the road he stopped and began grazing on a tree. We were all laughing and to think, this giraffe doesn't know how close he had come to being hurt or killed! I found it amazing that he even tried this but I guess by this point they think cars are a natural part of their world.

It was very warm out on Saturday as we drove around the park but we survived the heat in the van with no air in it. I was fortunate to see a hippo out of the water in the middle of the day at one of our water stops. He/she was out grazing on the grass and it was amazing actually. I had seen hippo earlier in the day but they were in water so the only thing you could really see was a head bobbing up every once in a while. That was very cool to see on it's own! I think I got some pretty good shots with my telephoto lens on and they were uploaded to the photo album.

The park has picnic areas throughout and we stopped during the afternoon for lunch there on all 3 days we were there. None of us are much into breakfast so it was more of a brunch thing. There weren't as many birds hanging around the area as there was the last time I was there, but then again, there were no monkeys either. This time there were monkeys in the picnic area. We had an avacodo that had gotten mushy and squished so we set it aside for the trash. One enterprising mother who had a baby with her found the avacodo and decided this would be a wonderful lunch so she sat on one of the little tables and proceeded to eat her avacodo not far from where we were sitting! What a sight that was for me. Santi and her family are used to seeing this but for me it was awesome. I love the monkeys but here they are considered more of a pain.

Saturday night we spent at a different camp then on Friday. The weather was better but the power kept going out for some reason. Yes the wind was blowing and there was a storm coming but it wasn't like Friday night, it didn't come in so fast. We were able to get the bbq started without a problem but as the women were preparing the salad and other things the power went out. Santi was sitting in the dark making a salad by the Braile method! I don't know how she kept from cutting herself with her sharp knife but she did a wonderful job of it and the salad was great. Fortunately the lights came back on in time to serve dinner.

The South African rugby team was playing Ireland in preseason international play and there was a tv in the golf club so after dinner the men wandered down the path to watch the game. The women went to bed early again but it wasn't long until the thunder and lightening started. The wind was blowing and it was just pouring out there and the men were at the golf course... Now mind you, it was strange to think that even though the camp grounds are somewhat enclosed, that we slept there to begin with, but could you imagine playing golf inside the game park? I can't but then I live in a world where a deer crossing the road is a big deal!

Anyway, the men had to stay at the golf club until the rain subsided enough for them to come back. While they were there, the power was coming and going as well. It took them a while to get back to the camp and it was late when they did. Needless to say by morning they were all exhausted from the weekend and we still had one more day plus the drive home to deal with!

On Sunday there were no animals to see really so we packed it in early and started to head for home. We dropped Liese, Dylan and Declan off where they had parked their car and they headed out first. It wasn't long before Santi, Peter, Stefan and I also started the drive out of the park. Very near the gate we saw a croc out of the water sunning himself on a river bank. Can you image that? Our first animal for the day! LOL It wasn't long after that when Liese called to let us know there was a leopard on the side of the road in a tree. So we headed towards the gate. The speed limit in the park is about 30 miles an hour so you really can't zip through the park at break neck speed. We all wanted to get there and see the leopard before he decided that nap time was over. The park has speeding cameras through out and the tickets for speeding are quite steep I'm told.

You really don't have to worry about finding out exactly where the animals are, there are usually cars lined up to see. When you drive through the park and someone is pulled over on the road you also stop and see what they are looking at! Sometimes the road gets pretty congested when there is something to see and in this case we had no trouble finding where the leopard is. He was sitting in a tree not far off the road. How someone spotted him in the first place is amazing to me. We took our turn to get a better view of him and of course the cameras came out. I was trying to shoot through the windshield but I was afraid of all of the glare. Stefan was in the center set of seats and on the right side of the car so once he had finished with his camera I handed him mine to get some shots with. Stefans shots turned out a lot better than mine once we looked at them.

Kruger Park Weekend - Part 1

2010-11-08T08:54:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was the Kruger Park weekend. Peter was able to take Friday off of work so we headed out of Middleburg just after 5pm. You have to keep in mind that this is summer here in South Africa and it's also the rain season. Last week there were storms most nights, where there thunder and lightening seemed close enough to turn off the computers. Thursday night a storm was moving into the area so we scooted out of town before it came. We stayed in Sabie on Thursday night which is about 2 and a half hours from Middleburg. We wanted to get an early start on Friday morning to go to the silk farm and see a few other things.

Friday morning was beautful, the sun was up early and we got an early start on the day. Our first stop of the day as we headed towards Hazy View was at MacMac Falls. A beautiful waterfall that can only be seen when you walk down the path a little way. Walking down the path is easy, it's that walking back up that can kill you! The path is a little steep shall we say, but well worth the effort! It was already beginning to get a little warm early in the morning but it wasn't too bad yet.

Our next stop was Graskop (grass head is the direct translation) at the Africa Silks shop. Now, we had planned a visit to a silk farm but Africa Silks now has their own display along with sales ladies who also go through the store and explain how the silk is made. Basically you start with a moth who lays egges. Those eggs hatch and begin eating mulberry trees that a grown specifically for the silk worms. From the time the eggs hatch until they begin spinnning their cocoons is 28 days. After the new moths emerge from the cocoon the new moths begin the cycle again.

The silk worms eat non stop until they begin to spin their cocoons. When we arrived at the store there were only scraps of leaves in the silk worm boxes. The staff continually feeds the worms! If you take a look at the photos (in the link to the right of this screen) you will see how much of the leaves the silk worms ate in the short time we were in the store. It's amazing to watch them eat really. I think from the time they hatch until they spin their mouths never stop moving!

The cocoons are then taken an boiled in a mixture that makes them white. From there the silk is combed and then spun. There are different thicknesses of silk for weaving. In the photos you can see that a fairly bulky because they are all hand spun and woven. What I found interesting is that they use silk in duvets! I have never heard of such a thing but apparently Santi was aware of it. It conducts better than a goose down duvet with much less weight to it.

Once we finished shopping at Africa Silks we strolled across the street to a little cafe and enjoyed lunch and coffee while we discussed what we had just learned. Now, you can see from what I've written here that I have forgotten most of what I learned but if you want more information you can certainly google it and get more details if you are interested.

Next we went to "God's Window". On a clear day you can see the countryside for miles and miles. Unfortunately for us, we had low clouds that hindered the view. But again, if you take a look at the photos you can get an idea of the view from "God's Window". While we were admiring the view we came across a beautiful grasshopper. It had such vibriant colors it could be spotted from quite a distance. Luckily for me, this little guy was sitting on top of a post or I would have missed him.

The plan for that day was that Liese and her husband Dylan would drive down with Stefan (Cara's husband) Declan and we would meet up to continue the weekend. Santi, Peter and I arrived at Kurger Park early enough to take the scenic route to where we would be staying inside of the park during our stay. During our wandering through the park we did see giraffes, a herd of water buffalo, kudu, rhinos (which didn't photograph well at all) and of course impallas.

We finally met up with Liese, Dylan, Declan (baby Zoe stayed with her other grandmother) and Stefan and drove to the camp ground. The facilities in the park are actually very nice. The rondawels were equipped with with little kitchenettes on the verandas. There are bbq grills ready to go but you bring your own charcoal or purchase it from the store inside of the park. We don't want to talk about the prices at the store inside of the shop though!

Friday night the men started the charcoal about the same time as the wind started to blow a little bit. It was obvious that we were in for a storm and we hoped that we would get through the bbq before the rain started. Well, that didn't happen. The guys finally got the coals hot enough to start cooking and the first of the rain began! It wasn't bad at first and it didn't put the charcoal out. There was a lull in the rain so the guys put more charcoal on the fire and got it going again. The men were finally able to put the meat on the grill and just about the time they did that the bottom fell out of the clouds and the downpour began! At least the grill was under a tree but that didn't provide as much protection from the rain as we had hoped. I'm not sure what Plan B was for dinner but the men weren't going to give up! Santi and Liese worked on a salad and garlic bread. Since we couldn't put the garlic bread on the grill Santi put it on the 2 burners of the electric stove. Have you ever tried to warm bread on an electric stove? Well, what happens is that the bottom gets burned before the top of the bread gets warm... so we were looking at the possiblity of salad and bread for dinner!

Santi finally found some foil and the guys covered as much of the grill as they were able to. We stood on the veranda and watched as the coals began to cool, we wondered if the meat would cook or not. We were out of charcoal and the store was closed so we were on our own here. Peter, Dylan and Stefan took turns going out into the rain to check the meat. And then when you thought nothing else could go wrong the power went out! There was only 1 flashlight which had to be shared between the grill and the veranda!

I have seen some pretty intense thunder storms but the light show on Friday night was spectacular to say the least! The thunder cracked as if it were right above our heads and there were times I think it was right above our head! So we had salad working and garlic bread toasting and meat on the grill. We all hoped that te coals would stay hot enough to finish cooking the meat and luckily for us, it did! But it was touch and go there for a while...

After dinner the ladies retired for the evening while the men continued to stand by the grill and do what men do! Liese, Santi and I were probably fast asleep by 10pm while Peter, Dylan and Stefan stayed up late into the evening talking. Santi said at one point they were laughing a little loudly so she went out to quiet them down. I didn't hear any of that, I was sound asleep!

And so ended our first night in Kruger Park....

It's late and I need to go to bed for now, I will continue with the weekends events in the morning. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy bringing it to you...

Rainbow Around the Sun - November 1, 2010

2010-11-02T01:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we saw the most amazing thing. There was a rainbow around the sun! I have uploaded photos that Liese took to the Picassa album (use the link to the right to get there.) The rainbow around the sun is a very rare event and it's caused by the sun reflecting off of ice crystals in the atmosphere. Liese called us to tell us about it or we would have missed it, what a shame that would have been.

Sunday 10/31/2010

2010-10-31T15:27:00.000-07:00

This has been a very lazy weekend. After the flurry of releasing the designs on Friday, not to mention my arrival, we just kind of kept the weekend quiet. While Peter was busy getting his apartment painted on Saturday, Santi and I took a nap! We had to be all rested for the Rugby finals yesterday! Santi's Sharks were playing Western Province for the championship. Peter and Santi got a little unhappy when Western Provience scored in the first minute of the game but the Sharks made a comback and won by a score of 30 to 10! Needless to say, Santi was thrilled!

After dinner Santi and I came back into the office to work/play on the computers and with the software. I'm not sure what time she finally went to bed but it wasn't that late. I know she was exhausted after last week. I don't know what time she was up this morning but it was long before me! I think it was about 10:30 before I came downstairs. The sun comes up early here and I've been up kind of early. I look outside and see the sun is out and think I should be up... well after a few mornings of being up at 7 I decided today I wasn't falling for that bright shinny day outside to fool me! Ha! Now look who got fooled!

Today Peter and Stefan grilled and they did a wonderful job! Dinner was wonderful and the company was awesome. Peter's daughter Celeste came by with her daughter Kayla, Peter's other grand daughter. She stayed for a while and chatted while the guys were grilling. Kayla is 3 now and just a beautiful little girl!

After dinner Santi took a little nap today, one of her medications she takes tends to make her drowsey and I still say she got up too early this morning. I played with software for a while and did a little email while I waited for her to wake up. Then of course it was back into the office for more computer work! It never ends with her! She always has several things on the drawing board at any given time. I won't tease about some of the stuff I have seen because we don't know when it will be finished and released but there is a lot more coming from Hatched!

Well, I did have a chance to talk to Kelly (my boyfriend) tonight which was nice. I didn't really get an opportunity to talk to him this weekend. I think he's still unhappy I'm here and not there with him... men are so spoiled! But that's our fault I guess, we spoil them!

Well, it's almost 2am and I'm heading for bed. I think Santi is waiting for me to finish this so she can turn off the lights and go to bed herself. So for Santi and I, we wish you a good day!

Friday 10/29 - Paisley Flair Launch Day

2010-10-29T10:39:00.000-07:00

The day started with a flurry of activity as Prisca and Amanda arrived to do the final stitch outs of the new Paisley Flair design collection! There was so much excitement in the air you could almost feel it! Santi was able to make her Paisley Butterfly to add to the collection after working most of the night on it. Prisca stitched it out with out a single problem, we are all so excited about it...

It's almost 8pm and Liese, her husband Dylan and the kids are there. Liese is working hard to get the designs uploaded and the webpage finished. She says she won't give up until it's done! It's difficult being the mother of 2 and holding down a full time job as most of us know and Liese is handling it pretty well even though she has a new one on the way. Her workload is heavier than normal with Cara traveling right now but she's getting it all done. She has created the color charts and keep in mind that there are 2 color variations to this collection so her work is doubled here.

Next comes converting all of the files to all of the different formats and hoop sizes and making sure that each zip file is correct and has the color charts in them. Then there is building the webpage and making sure that all of the links are correct and working. The amount of work involved in launching one new set is unbelieveable and to think of how many design sets have been launched in the last week or so and how many there are still to come!

Liese got a dinner break and now she's off to grab some clothes for Declan. Declan will be staying the night with Oma and Opa tonight. Peter is going to go do some errands tomorrow and Declan wants to go with him s it will be easier for him to spend the night. Peter is wonderful with Declan while Zoe is Oma's girl! Declan has just discovered Liese left for a few minutes to go get him some clothes and he's not too happy that she left. Zoe on the other hand is asleep in Oma's arms.

Liese is about done uploading the new page and from what I see here it looks beautiful :) I have to give her a lot of credit for sticking with it today to get these uploaded and ready for us to enjoy. It's been an experience being here watching what goes on around here to get those designs sets up on the Internet. I didin't think it was an easy job but I had no idea that it took as long as it did!

Wednesday - More Work on the Paisley Collection

2010-10-28T07:39:00.000-07:00

I think that the time difference caught up with me today. Of course Santi and I going to bed at 3 this morning probably didn't help, but I got up at 7, saw what time it was and decided that wasn't working for me today and I went back to bed. I finally got back up at 11:30 this morning. Of course Santi was up at 7 and stayed up, but she had work to do. It was enough work for me to keep my eyes open!

Santi is still working on the paisley collection and they are coming along. She has to do some color sorting on 3 designs and then I think there is one more to finish. She started it a while ago and then for some reason moved on to another one and left this one unfinished. It's just awesome to watch her work. She is so meticulous about her work. She doesn't like jump stitches and that is one thing I love about her work. You'll only find them where there is absolutely no way to hide them. How she keeps up with where she is and what she's doing is beyond me. I asked her about it last night as she was color sorting one of the designs and she said that it used to be harder for her but the more she does it the easier it gets. That doesn't mean she doesn't use use that UNDO button LOL. Anyone who works with embroidery software knows that UNDO and his cousin REDO are your 2 favorite tools!

One of the biggest problems I have is that I never know when she's talking to me and when she's talking to her computer! I told her that she has to let me know when she's talking to me otherwise she may think I'm ignoring her. Then there are the times when I'm convinced she's talking to me and she isn't!

Liese came by this afternoon for a few minutes. She looks wonderful but a little tired. She's chasing after 2 kids and that would make anyone tired. The 3rd, a boy, is due in February and right now they haven't come up with a name. It took them a while to come up with Declan's name but Liese said that Zoe came easy. Liese is looking for a name that will be the same in English as it is in Afrikaans. I never even thought that a name might change but after she went through a few they had discussed it made more sense to me. I suppose since I only speak one language it's just something that I don't think about. Liese said if this were a girl they wouldn't have any problems coming up with a name but the boy name is proving more difficult. Apparently Declan didn't have a name until just before he was born.

Stephan came by last night for a bit and he and Peter visited in the living room while Santi and I stayed in the office working on her designs. It was good to see him again! I met him the last time I was here and I was so happy when he and Cara decided to get married. They make a good team I think. I know that when Cara comes home on the 8th of November, Stefan is going to be very happy. Santi makes dinner for him about once a week to make sure he gets a home cooked meal LOL.

Tonight she is working on some ox tails. I keep telling her just to cook it and I'll eat what's put in front of me, just don't tell me what it is! It's not that I'm a picky eater but I don't know how brave I am at times. My mother had her list of things she made, and she was a very good cook, but she didn't do a lot of experimentation when I was growing up. Now, E.K. (one of our moderators) said she loves ox tails and she uses it in her home made vegetable soup. Her family came from a farm so she eats a wider variety of foods than I do! Santi just laughed when I told her that E.K. eats ox tails in her soup. She thinks I'm a coward at times I know LOL.

Peter is Peter, charming as ever for those who have met him. He comes in from work in the evenings and makes sure that Santi and I have coffee or tea. He's very attentive. He's one who always makes you feel at home even if it's in the States when they travel! I think he really does enjoy the traveling and meeting everyone. He's quite a good salesman as well.

I saw Mari for a few minutes yesterday. She's doing good :) We are going to get together for lunch while I'm here. I see Mari more than I see Betsi when I'm here. I haven't seen Betsi yet. With Cara in the States Betsi is taking care of the office and doing a lot of Cara's chores. I think Betsi is going to be very happy to see Cara back too. Not everyone loves the admin type of work she does. Hatched has a large following here in South Africa and their customers often come to the office to make their purchases. How cool would that be? Just to walk into the office and see the girls? I haven't seen the new office just yet, Santi has been busy working and I'm the slave driver!

I don't know about Santi but I'm going to be in bed early tonight! I know her, she's going to work until these paisley designs are finished tonight. She's determined to get them up on the webpage tomorrow! It's a lot of work to get these designs ready to sell once they are finished. There are webpages to be built, files to be converted, images to create for the webpages. There is actually more work than I think most of us realize in getting a set of designs up. There are still more sets that are waiting for final testing so we can expect more goodies in the next few weeks!

Good Morning South Africa

2010-10-27T00:08:00.000-07:00

I slept well last night and was up a little after 8am surprisingly after being up so long the days before the trip. This morning I'm watching Santi work. I love to watch Santi at work on her designs. I learn so much just by watching although she can't teach me her "artistry". Of course there is the "work" part of the design. Right now Santi is color sorting her new Paisley collection to make sure it all sews in the right order and there are as few jump stitches as possible. I think that is the real beauty of her designs. She doesn't make you work as much as other digitizers.

It's a beautiful morning here. It's not too hot and I'm not sure if it will get hot or stay as beautiful as it is now. One thing I didn't realize is that summer here the days don't stay light longer. I just assumed it was like summer at home! Silly me! We all know what happens when we assume now don't we? I need to get the camera out today and see if I can get some pictures of Santi's office so you can get an idea of where she works.

They recently had to move the "office" into a new facility. For so many years they worked out of the convertered garage at Santi's condo until someone complained about the parking situation here. There isn't a whole lot of parking here in the complex and with the girls coming and going it created a little mess. So the office was moved down the street. It makes life a little more difficult for Santi when she is working on her designs. It use to be that she would digitize one element of a design and have the girls test it out to see if she was on the right track. Now it takes a little longer to get the testing done which can be a distraction of it's own.

Right now, doing the color sorting and the finishing touches on a collection with 10 designs, she needs to concentrate on what she's doing. That's kind of difficult to do with the phone ringing all day long. Add into the mix she now has company sitting on her lap watching her every move. She's funny as she sits here and talks to her computer. I know I do it when I'm at home hoping that the computer will do what I want it to do and not what I tell it to do! LOL

I saw Liese and the kids last night. Declan is growing like a weed and his little sister Zoe looks so much like him. I think both of the kids look a lot like Liese! Liese looks good and I think she's done with her morning sickness. The new baby boy is due in February and of course Liese has that glow of a new mother! I won't see Cara until after the 8th of November since she is still traveling in the US. I'm sure Stefan will be happy she's back home after 5 weeks on the road.

Well, we have some running around to do today and I guess we'll get started on it soon!

Only Hours Left to Go

2010-10-25T06:13:00.001-07:00

I'm packed. The iPod is charged as is my phone and laptop. I won't be able to use my phone after I board the plane in Washington DC but in the meantime I can certainly wear down that battery! I woke up this morning ready to go. I didn't need my coffee but I made it anyway. The only thing left for me to do before my cousin Donna arrives to take me to the airport at 12:30pm is to hit the shower!

I really didn't think I would be as excited about this trip as I was the last time I went but I was wrong. I didn't sleep well last night, I kept waking up and looking at the clock to see if it was time to get up. Finally at 6:30am I gave up after laying there for over an hour. I hope this means that I'll be able to sleep on the flight! This time tomorrow I'll still be in the air! 20.5 hour of traveling this time! There is one stop, in Dakar, Senigal but I don't have to change planes there. I thought I had booked a non-stop flight but silly me! I do things like that when I get in a hurry and at the time that I booked this flight I shouldn't have been in a hurry. I guess it was all of the excitement about going again.

So, I am excited, more so than I thought I would be. I got up this morning to thunder storm and tornado warnings! I guess that is just to keep me wondering if my flights will be on time. I checked the weather in Washington DC and they also have heavy storms for today and this evening. Hopefully all of my flights will be on time and there won't be any problems today! I don't like delayed flights and cancelled flights! I only have an hour and a half in Washington so I can't afford delays!

I'm trying to think of anything that I may have forgotten and I can't think of a thing! I'm wearing warm clothes to the airport and on the flights. I expect that winter weather will set in by the time I get back just before Thanksgiving and I don't want to freeze my butt off coming back from the airport or waiting outside for my ride to arrive. Besides, it's always chilly on the airplane. I'll be arriving to summer in South Africa where I'll go back to hot days and nights but that's ok, I'm kind of use to that after the summer here in the South!

I can hear the thunder outside right now. It's raining here right now and there is a steady rumbling of thunder outside. It's not cold, I have the sliding door open just listening to the sound of the rain. Such a lovely sound and I sleep so well during storms. I love the sound of rain on the roof of my bedroom. The wind is blowing but it isn't too bad. The thunderstorm/tornado warnings are supposed to end about 10am so there is only a little time left to worry about them. I think it's going to rain here most of the day. Bad news for my brother, Brian, who works construction though. If this continues he may be here in time to take me to the airport instead of Donna!

With 3 hours left before I head for the airport I guess I should get into the shower and get that over with and get dressed. I hope to be able to add to the blog in Washington DC since I do have a short layover. Long enough to get the laptop out at least :) I'm going to spend more time on the family in the blog this time keeping everyone posted on what is going on there. I know everyone is hard at work on new designs right now. Plus they are getting ready for the cruise for those of you who are going to go with them :) I think I made a good choice between the cruise and the trip to South Africa LOL.

I look forward to your comments and questions as we go along on this journey together again!

3 Days and Counting

2010-10-22T07:43:00.000-07:00

Wow, only 3 more days until I leave! Funny part is that I have most of my stuff done! I pretty much stay packed because of my trips to see Kelly, well, at least the electronics are packed. I got a wonderful new laptop bag for my birthday from Kelly and this was before we knew I was going to South Africa so I get a chance to give this baby a workout! The electronics are all gathered in 1 place at least so all I need to do is to repack the laptop case and that's ready to go. Since it's summer there I will be able to pack light, no heavy sweats and sweaters that I'd need here. I'm leaving here with temps in the 70's and I'm sure by the time I get back, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, it's going to be pretty sporty around here so I'll have to find at least 1 warm outfit to take to come back in. Then it's always pretty chilly in those planes too. The only uncomfortable part will be going to and from airports.

I can't believe how organized I am for this trip. Got all of my paperwork together and in one place as well. I actually found my visitors guide for Kruger Park so I can keep track of the animals we find on this trip! I thought it was still packed from the move but I came across it last night in about 5 minutes! I guess I'm not as disorganized as I thought I was!

I guess I should go out and get a few last minute things taken care of today. I don't have a lot to do and I think I can get it all taken care of today and then I'll just be able to relax for the weekend! My flight from Greenville SC doesn't leave until 2:30pm but I'll have my stuff packed up and ready to go on Sunday and then can just sit around on Monday and get antsy about leaving for the airport! I'll probably be up early that morning, which is OK since the flight for South Africa leaves Washington DC about 7 in the evening. I'll be able to sleep for a while on the plane. That 15 hour flight isn't half as bad as I thought it would be though. I kind of thought the first time I went it would be pure torture but it wasn't bad at all. Then there was the family there to meet me at the airport when I got there. Hopefully this time I won't lose my purse when leaving the airport! I think I'll pack what I need in the laptop bag and have only 1 carry on to deal with. I'll pack the purse for when I get there.

I can't possibly see why I need most of the stuff I carry around in my purse anyway! Well... I guess I should get off to the groicery store and pick up some stuff for the guys here before I go. I guess I'll have to cook for them as well before I go cause it won't be anything but fast food while I'm gone!

Getting Ready for South Africa

2010-10-18T07:12:00.000-07:00

I'm in Ohio visiting my boyfriend, his name is Kelly. I met him a couple of months after my husband passed away. Anyway, right now I'm spending 2 weeks at my new home in South Carolina and then 2 weeks here in Ohio where Kelly is working right now. It's an interesting relationship but I like it for now, it feels comfortable :)

Someone asked me how Kelly is taking the news that I'll be gone for a month and he's doing OK with it. I know that he is happy for me but at the same time he'll be missing our visits. I told my brother and son that I was going and they seem happy enough for me, maybe a bit jealous? I'm so excited I'm going through my phone looking for someone else to tell LOL. I honestly didn't think I'd have this opportunity again in my lifetime.

I have good flights and the trip will only take 21 hours this time. I think last time, because I flew out of Sacramento CA it was closer to 24 or 26 hours because I had to get from Washington DC back to CA, this time I don't have to go as far which means less travel time. My connections are good and I have enough time in Washington but not too much. I saw one flight out of JFK in New York that had an 8 hour layover before I flew back to SC. Needless to say I didn't take that flight! So I go from Greenville SC to Washington DC and then on to Johannasburg South Africa. The Washington to Johannasburg is a non-stop flight. I could have gone through the Netherlands but after the problem that Santi had last time I wasn't taking any chances on volcanos erupting! LOL

I only have a few days to wait until I'm on my way and I'm getting as much done here in Ohio as I can. There is only so much I can do but I can get a little shopping out of the way and then all that is left is a little laundry and packing when I get back to South Carolina on Thursday this week. Trust me there are a few other things that need to get taken care of before I leave but these shouldn't present much of a problem for me.

Anyway, on to the grocery store to decide what we are going to have for dinner here tonight. Too many choices and I don't have too many days left to cook for Kelly before I head back home.

Topping the "Trip of a Lifetime"

2010-10-17T07:02:00.000-07:00

So, how does one top top the "Trip of a Lifetime"? I guess to take that trip once again and see if it was real or just a figment of your imagination! I'll be leaving South Carolina on October 25th to see my friends in South Africa once again! I'm not trying to recreate that trip by any means but create new memories of friends so far away. I'll be invading Santi and Peter's home for a month again and I'll be there for Peter's 60th birthday! Whoever would have guessed he was 60!

So sit back and grab a cup of coffee and join me once again while I leave beautiful falls days for summer in South Africa!

New Baby

2010-02-05T10:04:00.000-08:00

We still don't have a name for her yet but I'm posting photos to the Picasa album if you'd like to see her :)

Pat

Santi and Cara May 2004 – Cara’s Tour of Las Vegas

2009-11-24T07:43:00.000-08:00

Las Vegas is a sight to behold with the many themed casino/hotels. Santi and Liese had been there before, I think in 2002, but when she and Cara were in the states in May of 2004, she wanted Cara to see what the attraction is. Yes, you can see all of the lights and colors of Las Vegas on TV but you can’t experience it from photos or TV.

Santi and Cara flew into Las Vegas and I met them at the airport. Their flight was delayed because of technical difficulties with the landing gear! There were many of us standing around waiting for that flight to land and finally someone spilled the beans that there was an extremely dangerous situation on the flight! With the landing gear not working properly no one was sure how they would manage to land. Can you imagine being up in that plane at the time? I think Santi and Cara kissed the ground once the situation was resolved and they were able to land an hour and a half to 2 hours late! This was still at a time when they were flying all over the country and didn’t have their own van yet.

They came during the Memorial Day holiday when they didn’t have trunk shows planned and they had a few days. Las Vegas was packed and it took some time to drive down the Strip, especially at night when the families would take the kids out to see all of the lights! The light shows in Las Vegas are better than most holiday light shows!

I think this was when Santi got me hooked on Star Bucks. You all know she’s a Star Bucks fiend right? She hasn’t passed a Star Bucks coffee shop that I know of unless she was flying! She now has Peter addicted as well! I told them both when we were in Phoenix last year (2008) that we spent more in Star Bucks than gas on that trip. Santi’s drink is a Venti Latte while Peter and I both go for the Mocha Latte when we stop. Santi loves her coffee hot, hot, hot which is how Star Bucks serves the lattes! For those who aren’t familiar with it a latte is expresso with steamed milk in it. The mocha latte’s are the same thing except it has chocolate in it as well.

I tell you this so you’ll know what I mean when I tell you that for those couple of days we spent a lot of time at Star Bucks. You have to keep in mind that Santi and I are close in age and then there is Cara! Cara who is energetic and young! We walked down one end of the Strip one day and up the other side the next day! That’s a long walk when you’re in and out of the casino/hotels along the way! There were many times that Santi and I just sat and waited as Cara jogged through the entertainment areas of the hotels to see all she could see! I told Santi she was just trying to kill us!

You don’t have to gamble to be entertained in Las Vegas, aside from the casino/hotels there is also Hoover Dam that Cara and Santi wanted to see. We ran for 3 days and that’s no story! Las Vegas is known as the town that never sleeps and this trip was no exception to that motto!

There are so many things about that trip I’ll never forget. First was meeting Cara for the first time! I had heard so much about her but never had the opportunity to meet her and now finally I got my chance. I wasn’t disappointed. At dinner one night Cara and I talked about the misconceptions of South Africa and we laughed because I had some of the same misconceptions as so many of our other ladies. First, South Africa is a country on the southern tip of the continent of Africa. I don’t know how many countries occupy the continent of Africa but it’s a lot and so many of them have split into smaller countries over the years and then there are the countries that have changed their name. Many of the countries on the continent are not as politically stable as South Africa is.

I think the confusing part for us is that the continent is Africa while the country that Santi and her family are from is South Africa. Another difference between here and there is that America occupies a good part of our own continent and we have states to mark different geo-political areas, where Africa is composed of countries. South Africa has states of it’s own although there aren’t the 50 that we have here and if I took a few minutes I could probably Google South Africa and give you that information but if you would like more historical/geographical information, just go to www.google.com and type in the search box “South Africa” and you will get several links to look at.

South Africa has cities just like we do. Their inner cities look much the same as ours do. Farm lands look like the farms here but it’s safe to say that Kansas alone grows more corn then the country of South Africa does! But then you need to look at the differences in the sizes of the state of Arkansas and the country of South Africa! As Cara is trying to explain the area they live in I found out things that I couldn’t get from Google links because they were from a personal point of view and not what the books tell us. Unlike many countries in Africa, South Africa doesn’t have armed soldiers sitting on every street corner. Other than monkeys that run wild like our own squirrels here on the West Coast their wild life is confined to the rural areas. Granted, their wild life is different than ours is, we have deer they have impala! We have elk and they have kudu… The more things change, the more they stay the same! OK so they have lions, leopard and cheetahs, we have bobcats, mountain lions and cougars! I’m not finding much that would equate with ellies but I’m working on it! I think the buffalo is more like a wildebeest… nope, I can’t find anything like it here!

I guess what I’m trying to say here is that city life is city life! Middleburg isn’t a large city like LA, Chicago or New York is (oh we’ll get to New York and what Santi did to me there… patience). Rural life is much like our own here. Crime rates are high in some of our cities while they are in South Africa as well. I could go on and on about the crime rates etc and to be honest, if I hadn’t known Santi and her family I don’t know that I ever would have traveled there. I keep thinking there is enough to see in our own country that I could spend time seeing J

Anyway, back to Las Vegas… One attraction that I did want to see was the Star Trek attraction at the Hilton hotel. My brother and I are both fans, as is Cara by the way, and Brian, (my brother and I) had promised each other that we would see it together for the first time. I kind of cheated on this one, I was in Las Vegas and playing tour guide so I kind of had to LOL. We had lunch on the day they arrived at the Bajorian coffee shop and we wandered around the Star Trek “universe” there for a while. During the time that we were there, we met a “Borg”. The Borg are an alien civilization who are part man and part cyborgs, thus the name! They want to take over the universe because they believe that their mechanical and logical ways are the only way to save the universe from themselves… too much information? Well, the Borg want to conquer the visitors to the Star Trek “universe” as well. Their trademark line is, “resistance is futile”, meaning that in confrontations with them, they usually win. Santi got into an argument with this actor in character, thinking she could get him to come out of his character and smile, but she was not able to! We did have a great time there and I don’t think I’ll ever forget it!

The other place I’ll remember is Circus Circus. It was built as one of the first “family” casino/hotels. There is an upper level filled with carnival type games to occupy the kids and let me tell you, you can spend more money there on the games, playing for cheap stuffed animals and other prizes than you can downstairs gambling! We played up there for several hours. Santi really got into the “horse race”. OK you have a ball that you roll up the board and it falls into numbered holes and those numbers determine how many spaces your horse moves on the “race track”. She was actually good at getting the ball into the holes with the most moves by the horse! I don’t know how many “toys” she walked out of there with that night but she had a few!

I think some of my favorite memories are of my “vacations” with Santi and her family. I’ll be adding more of these vacation blogs as I go along. My hope is that you get to know them and how they view our country as we go along.

Santi and Liese - The First Trip 2002

2009-11-20T07:33:00.000-08:00

Santi and Liese 2002 was the first Hatched US tour and the first time I met Santi and Liese. They made this trip on a wing and a prayer. It was their first time doing a trunk show. I guess on the map America doesn’t look that big because they were flying all over the place, landing in strange cities and not knowing anyone. They accepted invitations from ladies who they had only met on the Internet! How scary was that?

I remember the day I got an email from one of our Team SewAmused members telling me that I had to see this new digitizers work on the Internet. I went to the Hatched in Africa site and was instantly impressed with the quality of their work. I downloaded the free floral spray design. I was in the process of developing a new workbook for the Singer PSW software and I just had to use this design in one of the chapters! I contacted Santi by email and asked permission and she graciously agreed that I could use the design for the workbook and so the relationship began! We emailed back and forth a little bit about business and when she said she was coming here and she would be within a 4 hour drive I decided that I had to go.

I was living in the San Fernando Valley (a suburb of Los Angeles) at the time and Peggy Jo wanted to go as well so I picked her up. I grabbed Karen out in San Bernardino and we were off to Redlands to meet Santi. Imagine my surprise that when I introduced myself I got a huge hug from Santi! I didn’t think that she would remember me just through email, but she did!

My true confession here… at the coffee shop where the 3 of us (Peggy Jo, Karen and I) were having coffee before the trunk show I saw ladies running around with embroidery all over them and here sat a beautiful African-American lady and what did I assume? You’re right, I assumed that this was Santi! Hey, Santi was from South Africa where the population is predominately black! I think it was years before I told her about this little assumption on my part! Remember how to spell ass-us-me…

Her schedule was full so I didn’t have a lot of time to get to know her but I new then that I really wanted to!

So here they were, Santi and Liese from half a world away and I got to meet them AND Santi knew who I was… How much better could the day get? The trunk show was awesome! And she was introducing the AWESOME Apricot Blush quilt! WOW! At that time she also had an umbrella that had been covered with matching fabric and AB designs. She no longer carries that with her because she had to repair it at every stop! It was a little delicate to say the least.

I thought it odd that this woman was not that delicate little thing I assumed (again with the ass-u-me thing) that she was like her work. She’s not. She is a down to Earth woman with so much inner strength that she’s almost unstoppable in her determination! She dresses for comfort at the trunk shows, not to impress anyone.

Although her native language is Afrikaans, she speaks English very well, but phrases in South Africa and America can mean a few different things. One of the jokes Liese told at the time was about floppy disks, which were the large 5” disks that were used in some of the first computers. When the computers went to the smaller 3.5” disks they called them “stiffies” in South Africa… well that whole thing of floppy going to “stiffy” … well these are the kinds of phrases that over the years we have worked on! I know that Liese’s comments were a joke, but based in fact.

I remember so many times telling her, “you cant say that here” LOL. So we would have to come up with other phrases for her to use on her trips to the States! I don’t say this to make fun of Santi or her family, it’s just a fact. When I was in South Africa I had the same problem! My own phrases were sometimes questioned and I could tell by the way some of Santi’s friends looked at me that I had to be a little careful about what I would say!

Anyway, Santi and Liese about killed themselves on that trip. At one point they took a Grayhound bus in an area that I didn’t think was a good idea and I had to have a talk with her! She had taken the bus from Fresno to San Bernardino and I told her this wasn’t going to work! For that trip, I could have picked her up and delivered her! I mean seriously, the Grayhound bus was a good travel option back in the ‘60s and early ‘70s but in 2002? I don’t think 2 women should have been doing that! I told her that if she gave them a chance, her ladies would take care of her and make sure she got to where she needed to go! And so they did let the ladies help with transportation! Neither Liese or Santi was ready to drive here in the states yet, remember, they drive on the “wrong” side of the car and the road! I know how I felt being in South Africa for the first time and the whole driving situation!

But that’s Santi and her family, she doesn’t want to put anyone out or have them go out of their way for her! As I said, she’s strong willed and determined at times and she can be just a tiny bit stubborn too! I know that I always present her and the Team in very positive terms but let’s be real here, we all have our “ugly” moments as my grandmother would have called them! They are human but 95% of the time they are content with life in general. Santi gets frustrated when her designs don’t get from her head to her computer and frustration isn’t always a pretty sight! Oh come on now, we can all get like that! But once she gets started at a trunk show, nothing else matters except for her ladies and making sure that they have a good time at the trunk shows!

At that trunk show the 3 of us managed to spend more than we had planned to! Oh like that never happens! I hear it time and time again from the ladies who attend, they budget one amount and spend a whole lot more over their budget J It’s easy to do with the designs though. Karen had been in love with the fuchsias since she first saw them. Now I’m going to have to remember exactly what it was that she made with them, but she did use them the minute she got home!

And then there was Peggy Jo. She had digitized some free standing angels, one of her first digitizing experiences and she brought 2 of them for Santi. You can almost see them in the pictures that I uploaded to the Picasa album. By the way, there is a link on the top of the blogspot page that links to the photo albums that I’ve uploaded. The album name is “Santi and Liese 2002” for this blog post.

Santi, Liese, Cara and Betsi have come a long way in their digitizing since those days and although it sounds like it was a long time ago (I guess almost 9 years later it is a while), for me it’s like yesterday. Although we have all changed, some of us more than others, in so many ways nothing has changed. I tell Santi over and over again how much “her ladies” love her and her family and she never really understands. She insists that she’s just a “normal” person!

I need to take some time with her when she has a little bit and get more biographical information from her. I know she was a free motion artist for many years before the computerized sewing machines and she’s been a florist with tons of talent there as well. She enjoys beauty in her life as we all do. She lives a simple life and the funny part... she has very little embroidery on her clothes she wears! How many of us can say the same thing?

The next trip she came with Mari and I don’t have photos of that trip or a few others that I was able to see her. They were probably lost in one computer crash or another. It’s amazing that I take all of these pictures and rarely print them out! I could fill my walls with just the ones I’ve taken though J

I’m not sure where I’ll go next, there are so many trips I do have photos for and so many stories to tell….

And I Continue the Introduction to the Continuing Blog

2009-11-18T08:52:00.000-08:00

Mari, Betsi and Santi are the 3 sisters who are involved in Hatched in Africa and AllSorts Embroidery designs. There is another sister and brother that I have not met. Both of them live in Johannesburg I believe and although they do talk on the phone they just don’t see each other as much as they would like to.

Mari (pronounced Marie) is the administrative one of the family. She is the one who keeps the finances in order and does all of the bookkeeping. When the ladies have a problem with their order, Mari is the “go to” person. Mari has a beautifully attended garden and her husband is fond of fuchsias. There are so many varieties, I was shocked! There are photos of the fuchsias in one of the albums at: http://picasaweb.google.com/SewAmusedPat/ I hope you have an opportunity to go over and see them. I didn’t realize how many colors, sizes and shapes of fuchsias were available. In Mari’s back yard there is a huge tree that provides shade to part of her back yard. When you look up it looks like an umbrella covering you. Mari is very proud of her garden and employs a gardener to keep up with all of it! I don’t see how he keeps it all as beautiful as it is.

On one trip to the states I had Mari and Santi at a friends house down in Southern California. We took them to a small farmers market in the area to find some veggies for dinner. We have a wider variety here than they do in South Africa and a lot of our veggies are year round here while they are seasonal in South Africa. We bought a flat of strawberries and I think that was most of what we had for dinner that night! Karen had made some “goop” a marshmallow mixture of some type that was the hit of the party! Santi still asks Karen if she’s made any when they talk!

Betsi is the quiet one of the family. I’ve spent time with Betsi here in the states and a little time with her in South Africa. I’m going to tell a story on Betsi here in a minute, but when I saw her for the first trip with the family, she hugged me and said that we always seem to end up in a van together! When Santi, Liese and Betsi have been in the states, before Peter because the official “tour director” I did have the opportunity to have that job at different parts of their tour of the states.

I played tour director here in California a few years ago with Liese and Betsi, we did a few trunk shows while traveling north to Oregon where I handed them off to Sherry in Newburg. On the trip up the coast, we crossed over the Golden Gate Bridge and Betsi had a small bottle of wine in the back seat of the van and she thought it was a good idea to toast the her first crossing of the bridge! AAAAARRRRRRRRRR! LOL

I think I’ve been more than lucky to spend time with the family both here and in South Africa. On a 5 week trip or the North East with Santi and Betsi we were heading down to Missouri where I was dropping them off for the next leg of their tour. At one point we crossed over the Mississippi River and Betsi commented at how big the river was. She said that one day she would love to see the Mississippi River… I told her we were crossing it at that point, but it was dark and late at night so she couldn’t see much. But she was still so excited! We stayed on the river that night and I noticed the next morning she was just standing there staring at the river.

It’s things like that I’ll remember, the first time they saw ….. that I was there to share in that experience. I was there the first time Cara saw Las Vegas… When Santi and Peter saw Sedona Arizona and Peter, in his shorts mind you, played for a bit in the snow just north of Sedona on one of our sight seeing trips. The funny part about some of these places is that it’s the first time I’d been there as well! I’ve lived just a few hours from Yosemite for years and I had never been there until I had Liese and Betsi for those days as we traveled up the coast!

It was that same trip where Liese and I tried tofu at a restaurant at the salad bar. We both decided that it wasn’t really for us. I don’t think either of us cared much how healthy it was for us! Betsi just sat there and laughed at us!

After the things that Mari showed me while I was in South Africa I really hope I’ll have the opportunity to show her more of America one of these days. Mari and I spent a day touring Middleburg and the surrounding areas including Botshabelo Historical Town, Museum and Nature Reserve. What a wonderful adventure we had that day. It was one of my first “tours” of my visit and Mari was there to take me. Botshabelo is a historical town and it has a lovely town square. I remember driving up through the town seeing a troop of monkeys, sitting in the shade of the trees in the courtyard in the heat of the afternoon. Mari stopped the van and although we could have gotten out for a closer view of the monkeys, we were both hesitant. They don’t call them wild animals for nothing you know. I was awe struck just seeing them sitting out there! They were grooming each other and some of the younger ones were up in the trees playing.

I think the best way to do the blog at this point is to go back through the original blog and expound on some of the places and days we spent together. At the time I was busy just trying more to keep notes than to go through what I was seeing and how I viewed it and memories from the day. I think I also want so share some of my feelings on those wonderful days. When I left California that day in February I had no idea what to expect once I arrived in South Africa and that’s kind of scary in itself!

I think I also want to go through some of the pictures I have here of visits by the team to the States and share more of those experiences with you all. I think this list has been such a part of my life for so many years now; I’d almost be lost with out and without all of you! So many friends I’ve made over the years through this list. Some I’ve only emailed with, some I’ve spoken to on the phone and some I’ve had the opportunity to meet in person because of the time I spend with Santi and her family here in the states. You don’t know what I’ve done to get to see her on the East Coast and I don’t think she does either LOL. I just know that it’s all been worth it over the years…

I think by now you have a good idea as to who these people are that we all love and adore so much.

Continuing to Ponder South Africa

2009-11-17T08:13:00.001-08:00

There is no what I would call “typical” day for Santi. Her day generally starts very early as she becomes inspired in her dreams I think. She was usually up and working when I got up while I was there. She was also the last one who crawled up the stairs for bed as well!

Three days a week Pretty is there. Pretty is Santi’s housekeeper and she speaks very little English. This probably would have been a good thing to know before I had a conversation with her though! Santi and family communicate with Pretty through Afrikaans. She knows a few words, like “your welcome” and she is just a sweetheart. I don’t remember how many years Pretty has been with Santi but it has been many years now. She comes in 3 days a week to help keep the house and laundry caught up so that Santi can concentrate on her digitizing. She spends 1 day at Liese’s house and 1 day with Cara as well. Between the family they keep her working full time. She has 2 daughters and also grandchildren at home as well. Her husband is having trouble finding work, so their family pretty well depends on what Pretty brings home.

While Pretty is cleaning the house, she also brings Santi tea on a regular basis. I think of the times that Pretty was walking up behind Santi with a cup just about the time she was going to ask for it! So I guess we can say that Pretty knows Santi pretty well. Pretty also makes a killer cup of instant coffee as well! She kept my cup full and hot as well. Normally, I’m not an instant coffee drinker and I thought to myself… oh no! But the South African instant coffee there is wonderful and I couldn’t tell it wasn’t brewed! Of course now I wish I would have filled that suit case up with it to bring home for those times when I just didn’t want to brew a full pot of coffee! Peter was also pretty quick on the spot with tea for “Mom” and coffee for me.

Calling Santi “Mom” started with us calling Peter “Dad” at night when we would want tea/coffee and he was in the other room. We would kind of talk loud about how nice it would be to have a hot cup of tea/coffee and he either couldn’t hear us because he was so into his tv or he was ignoring us… So I just started to ask “Dad” what he was doing LOL.

Pretty reminds me of a woman from my childhood. My great-aunt Ruth, lived in South Carolina and worked long hours in the textile mills. By the time she came home from work she was covered head to toe with lint from the spinning room (where cotton was spun into thread). She would come in the door and go straight to the bathroom and change from her working clothes to her house clothes. As you can imagine 2 dresses a day means lots of laundry. Ruth had a woman who did her laundry for her. She would drop it off one day and pick it up 3 days later or something. Every thing was washed and starched! I would go with Ruth to “fetch” her laundry. I remember that this woman knew exactly who I was even if it had been over a year since I had seen her! I even used to know her name… This woman had disabilities that wouldn’t let her work in the mills and this was how she fed her family, by taking in laundry! Of course this was the 60’s and you could find someone who would do the work affordably. This was the aunt who thought that a dime was more than enough tip, regardless of what the bill was!

Pretty and my great aunt’s laundress both take pride in their work and it shows. I wasn’t overly comfortable letting Pretty do my laundry, seriously, I had been the chief cook and bottle washer for 30 years while I was married! Santi explained that Pretty would be insulted if I didn’t let her take care of me the way she took care of everyone else in the house. It was hard for me to let go of that independence of mine and now wish Pretty could have come home with me! It doesn’t take much time to get used to being pampered!

Pretty would come and go to work by “taxi”. Now wait a minute, I need to explain what a South African “taxi” is. They don’t have bus service the way most of us do, they use passenger vans and pack them as full as they can and call them a “taxi”. It’s nothing to see a van with over a dozen people jammed in there! While I think any of us would find it shocking, it’s a way of life there and no one thinks much of it, it is what it is! There are times when Santi, Peter or one of the girls will take Pretty home, if she has shopping to carry with her or for whatever reason.

Keep in mind here that not only do they drive on the wrong side of the car, they also drive on the wrong side of the street for me! Going out was always an experience for me. First I kept trying to get into the “drivers” door. A mistake that Santi frequently makes while she is here and I used to laugh at her, but no longer! Then when it looks like we’re going head on into traffic I would be looking for my brake peddle! There wasn’t one on my side of the car! Can you imagine the traffic accidents I would have been causing? I don’t know how they do it when they come here! I wasn’t brave enough to even try once while I was there!

While we stop for traffic lights, in Middleburg they stop for robots. I guess I can see where they could call a traffic light a robot, being automated and all but every time someone said something about a robot I’m looking for Robby the Robot! LOL I think Santi was ready to send me back home when I walked slam into on coming traffic not long after I had been there! I am use to looking left, right left again to cross the street, there it’s right, left and right again and I NEVER got that one down!

There is a lot of traffic in Middleburg in the downtown area near where Santi lives. On our trips out and through downtown, there were so many people going about their lives. The streets are busy with cars, taxis and people hustling about. There is a familiar feeling about Middleburg, the look and feel of it, with their busy streets and the brick houses that line so many of the residential streets. I feels much like the South, which I still call home after 49 years in California.

Even so many of the country areas bring back memories of our driving trips to South Carolina, yet some areas are so very alien, so different. Like so many parts of our own country, there are so many different shades of green that it stimulates both the eyes and the memories. Even the friends of the family were familiar in their gentle ways and manners. Their hospitality and their open hearts and homes to a “stranger”. Many of these friends of Santi have never met a stranger.

Elsie is a long time friend of Santi and she reminds me of my own grandmother with her in her mannerisms and her personality. Her home is an older home and they are doing some work on it right now but I think that they are trying to keep the “feel” of the house as original as they can. I wish I had taken pictures of the home but I felt that would be so very intrusive and I wasn’t sure she would understand why I wanted to have them.

Unlike my grandmother though, Elsie is a sewist. She does alterations for Santi and others and her sewing room is stacked with fabrics, trims and other crafting supplies. She is an older woman who has the vitality of a woman half her years. I am still sew amused with Santi and her family and friend. When Santi’s mind races she breaks into Afrikaans without ever realizing it! She does it in the trunk shows at times as well. There is no need to be offended, she isn’t talking about us, she just communicates faster in Afrikaans at times. When Santi and Elsie realized they were doing it as well it was easy to laugh with them. I knew they meant no offense, it was just habit.

I can never tell where these blog entries are going to go. I start off with one thought on my mind and it just wanders and one memory will bring up another. At times it’s hard to end the blog and move on to other things I need to be doing.

Starting to Ponder

2009-11-15T20:02:00.000-08:00

I remember how excited I was to see my first Impala with Cara. She never laughed but said I would get “used” to seeing them around! Oh how could that be? Such a beautiful animal with it’s horns majestically poised on his head, how could I ever get tired of seeing them? I never did Cara. I really can’t imagine a day when I would!

As I sit here at my desk, far from the wandering animals of South Africa, I do have a constant reminder above my desk. It is an enlargement of one of my photo from South Africa. It’s of two elephants in a meadow a large male and a smaller female. They are quite content as they grab bunches of grass in their trunks and sort of whip it up into their mouths. Even at the distance from which these photos were taken you can still see the eyes and how peaceful they are. They are not sad eyes but soulful eyes.

The brush is a light lemony green with darker thorn bushes thrown in. There is a shadow on the hill that pushes up the hill to the larger thorn trees in the full light of the sun. I remember the day this picture was taken. Cara, Stefan, Liese, Poppy and I were at Kruger Park. Those poor kids would stop at every elephant they saw for me. Keep in mind that they go to Kruger a couple of times a year and they have seen it all. There was a sparkle in their eyes when they found an animal for me to see.

As I never tired of seeing all of the animals, the kids always had a twinkle in their eyes when they found something other than a rhino-rock! For those who may not remember from the original blog, a rhino-rock is a rock formation that kind of sort of looks like a rhino! We found many of those on our wanderings.

Most of my memories of South Africa seem to go back to the animals I saw, out wandering in the open! But that’s part of the mystery of South Africa and for the continent of Africa as well for us I guess. Just as the animals have a different kind of a life, so do the people.

Middleburg is a small town that reminds me of the South during the ’60s and ‘70s. For me to sit here and say that race isn’t an issue there is foolish, just as it would be for me to say the same thing about our own country! Race is always an issue and unfortunately I can’t see that changing in my lifetime. The downtown area is hustling with people on their way to or from, stopping to see the vendors on the sidewalk to see what they have to offer.

Since blacks are 90% of the population they also occupy a large percentage of the service jobs in both Middleburg and in the country as a whole I would suspect. Most of the inhabitants speak more than 1 language and in so many cases more than 2! I’m trying to remember how many official languages they have in South Africa and the number escapes me now but there are quite a few. Most speak English as one of their languages though. I guess, at least in the areas that we were in, English was a common ground we shared.

Not all blacks are poor in South Africa just as not all whites are rich! I think this is a common misconception given the population of the country. What I found most interesting was the class struggle among the economic groups. I think it is safe to say that South Africa is still in the midst of a Reconstruction period in their history. Many things have changed since Apartheid ended some 10 or 12 years ago. They were faced with many cultural and political changes in a very short period of time. They are all still struggling with these changes. We know from our own history that change doesn’t always come easy to everyone. I think the “kids”, Cara and Liese’s generation, will come a far greater distance in a very short period of time.

I tend to equate South Africa to the years after our own Civil War ended but it’s not that simple. By the end of the Civil War, we had tamed the “Wild West” while there are still primitive cultural areas in South Africa. They haven’t tamed their “Wild West” and brought industrialization to all corners of the country. That’s one problem they face that we never did. And here is where I come very close to stepping on toes here without even wanting to, but, although things did change drastically in our own country after the Civil War ended, one thing was constant, we were still a country where the majority of the population was white. What, 150 years later we have finally elected our first black president? Oh no, we aren’t going to go there really, I use this as a contrast against South Africa where they went from white rule to black rule over night. I search back through all of the history I’ve learned trying to find a parallel to what they are going through there. I can’t find one in our own history. The world can only sit back and watch to see what will happen and how the culture will evolve.

The word Apartheid literally means “apart”. Is that any different from out own “separate but equal” period of history? As I said, they are struggling with these changes every day. The crime rate is high in South Africa. Farmers are leaving their lands and coming to the cities to make a better life for their families but there aren’t enough jobs for everyone. So I guess we all know what happens in those cases. With our current recession our jails are fuller as well!

I keep going back to the day Cara and I went to the Shangaan Village and since it was just the 2 of us, we had an opportunity to talk to the 70 some year old chief of the village. He said that many of the younger people had already left the village, his own older son had go to the city for work. They just couldn’t make it any longer in the village. The Shangaan were losing their cultural identity and it was sad. But how do you keep the “old” ways while fitting into a modern society? I guess we could ask our Amish or our Native Americans and see what they have to say! I’m thinking that it isn’t an easy task. It’s all about change and how well do we change.

In my own family history, 75% came from Europe, mostly England and France with a few Irish thrown into the mix for fun. Somewhere running around are some Cherokee but I can’t prove it. My Anglo lines pretty cut and dried and honestly boring to read about LOL It’s the Native American connection I’d like to make and let that become part of my personal history! I mention this because I have to wonder how many of those leaving the farms are going to miss those ways in a generation or two. You can’t have progress without giving up something though.

You may notice that I write these words with a series of checks and balances. I know that things are different there in South Africa but are they really a lot different from here? Every one is just trying to make it through to the next day. I'm still pondering my visit and my experiences in South Africa and now that you started to ask me more I guess I have to figure this out with you along!

If you have questions, please email me privately at: sewamused@aol.com and let's see if we can all figure the answers out.... I'm not totally sure of what you want to hear about.

Nuss/Brauwer Family Dynamics

2009-11-15T10:36:00.000-08:00

My perspective on the world is based on my knowledge of the world. I am the first to admit that my scope is limited to mainly the United States. I was born in the South and spent many summers there but I was mainly raised in California, a more liberal state than South Carolina in so many ways. Add in that things in the ‘60s and ‘70s were different then and yes, my world is colored by those events as well. I am also the family historian which has given me the opportunity to study history in a different way than what we were taught in school. Remember always that history is written by the victors in any society. We re-write our own history on a regular basis.

What I offer here is my own perspective of what I saw and learned in South Africa. I don’t brand it as the absolute truth, just my own humble musing. It is no intended to be a political statement of any kind. I will avoid that subject to the ends I can. And yes, my view of the world is different now than it was then. I believe one thing the reader has to keep in mind that my experiences in South Africa were limited.

With that said, I will give you my impressions of the Nuss/Brauwer families without violating their privacy past the point where it does become quite private. As with all very good friends, some information is never to be shared, by either party.

The family as a whole is “healthy” in their relationship with each other. Of course there are the occasional disagreements but that doesn’t stop them from being close knit. They have the love to work out the problems that occur between then. No one really stays mad at anyone for any length of time. I call that “healthy” because that isn’t the way it is in my family! They don’t walk on egg shells when they are together, they say what’s on their mind and then they talk about it. There don’t seem to be a lot of secrets between them, they are very open and frank with each other.

Santi…she’s an artist and like an artist she can become very frustrated at herself and her art at times. She is a perfectionist where her art is concerned and she is very involved in the work of others on the team. She’s harder on herself than she is anyone else where work is concerned. They all work so well together most of the time. They take the time to sit and critique each others work but not harshly. It’s actually amazing to see it happen! I’ve been around other artistic types before and it isn’t always a pleasant place to be when they start “sharing” ideas!

While most of us know Santi through the trunk shows, I’ve seen her as a mother, sister, friend, mentor and grandmother all at the same time. Declan is just the apple of her and Peter’s eyes. I know that Baby Zoe is here now but I don’t expect to see any change in their time or feelings for Declan, they will just grow more arms to open up for the newest member of the family! Santi loves to take Declan off for a weekend or take him off of Liese’s hands for a weekend! She gets him on Fridays and life comes to a screeching halt from the time he gets there.

Peter completes her. Peter brings a very special balance to her life, he’s calming when things around Santi get crazy. Peter doesn’t get caught up in the business drama at home. He takes his role as her new “tour director” very seriously and when I was there he was busy mapping out routes and calculating time between point A and point B.

When he is on the road with her, she sometimes needs to be rescued from trunk shows. She knows that the ladies have come, sometimes, from distances and she wants to personally take a minute to speak to everyone. I find her amazing in that respect. She remembers so many of the ladies from the list, I don’t know how she keeps up with all that she does! But at times, Peter has to play the bad guy and get her motivated to move on to the next trunk show or even just make her stop long enough to eat! No, she gets so involved in chatting with the ladies she doesn’t eat when she should.

While they are on the road their life isn’t so different from when they are at home really. They are simple people, just family to all they meet! So many here have opened their heart and homes to them and it gets a bit overwhelming at times. She really doesn’t understand it all but Peter sees it. If you watch Peter, you can see him smile with his eyes… or roll his eyes at her!

Santi could care less if there was a tv in the house or not but Peter likes his sports! What can I say, he’s a man! He tried to explain Rugby to me while I was there but it never really sank in. Like baseball or football here, they have their own sports heroes. And no, not all of the family shares the same favorite teams either!

Peter and his son Dylan (married to Liese) have a unique situation to contend with I think. It’s got to be difficult when one of your parents is married to your in law! It’s not always easy for the 4 of them but I think this is uncharted waters and most of us can’t imagine how that would work out! A blinded family is one thing but this? I don’t even know how to describe it!

Dylan and Liese live around the corner from Santi with Declan and now Zoe. You might be surprised how little embroidery there is in Declan’s bedroom! I was! I thought everything in there would be Hatched designs or even someone elses but there is very little there! I wonder if Zoe will be any different. Liese is a Winnie the Pooh fan so there was a lot of Pooh Bear in Declan’s room. Oh there are lots of toys in Declan’s room but then he was the first grand child of both families (Nuss and Brauwer) as I recall. Interestingly enough he really isn’t as spoiled as you would expect him to be but Liese can’t decide who is worse about spoiling him, Santi or Peter... but then Auntie Cara is up there in the running too!

Dylan owns his own business and he puts in long hours but when he comes home Declan is all over him! I know that in order to get a business going you have to put in those hours and I’m pretty sure that Dylan hates being away from Declan and Liese all of those hours but there isn’t much to be done about it at this point in the business growth.

I think right now that Liese and Cara spend more time on administrative duties than digitizing these days. I don’t think any of them thought that the business would grow into what it is! They were trying to find someone to take over some of those duties while I was there but you need just the right person to blend in to this business. It doesn’t always make sense to everyone!

Liese balances a family with a full time job and does a very good job at both things I believe. She’s bouncy and bubbly yet quiet and contemplative all at the same time… Yes, I read what I just wrote. There is always a smile behind her eyes when she is thinking and you can see her mind working I the background when she’s smiling and bubbly! Her heart is as wide as her eyes. Liese is quiet easy to read, but then there is Cara…

I had only met Cara once when I went to South Africa and she was a pleasant surprise to me! She has an amazing sense of humor. She can find the humor in just about any situation when she has to. She’s not easily defeated, nor does she give up often. She pushes through problems until they are solved or resolve themselves! Like her mother and her sister she is driven by right and wrong, they don’t seem to wander in the middle of that road very often. But they are never so driven as to close their minds to someone elses opinion.

When I first saw Cara in South Africa we had met them for a weekend at a resort. The “kids” were roughing it in tents while us old folks had small cottages! Unfortunately for the “kids” it rained a lot of the time that weekend and roughing it took on a whole new appearance! I felt sorry for them myself but they seemed to take it all in stride. We did take Declan out of the tent to the cottage though. Santi and Peter wouldn’t let him sleep out in the tent in the rain.

Cara and her friends, including Stefan, properly pronounced Stee-f-on and I had to work at that one, although he’s ok with Stefan, were busy with the cooking and chores of camping. They did find time to play in the water at the resort when it wasn’t raining. Stefan is an open book, much like Liese is but Cara is a little harder to read! LOL You always know where you stand with her but her humor is a little dryer, much like the English comedies… Maybe it comes from living in England for as long as she did but her smile will light up any room she is in. She’s as honest and giving as anyone I’ve ever met and best of all, she’s in love with Stefan!

Stefan, as I said, is an open book. He’s an easy read and he’s just a happy go lucky kind of a guy but he has his head on his shoulders even where Cara is involved! Cara is a little strong willed but Stefan doesn’t let that stop him at all! They actually have a wonderful relationship and I did get to spend some time with them together. Stefan is into bird watching and he is turning Cara into a bird watcher as well! It’s amazing how many birds he recognizes! I was impressed!

As I go along and add more to this blog we’ll get to more specific trips and observations, but I wanted to give you a little insight into the family dynamics. Maybe then you can understand more about the experience of spending that month with them…

Lesedi Cultural Village

2009-03-24T08:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I got to spend the afternoon with Elsa and her daughter-in-law, Marionette, at the Lesedi Cultural Village. Elsa is so much fun to be with and she's a talented photographer. Again, if you haven't done so, please take a few minutes and have a look at her photos. All of the photos on her site are hers! She's just amazing with what she can do with a camera! http://www.elsasdesigns.com/photography.html

http://www.lesedi.com/video-tour.htm
I found this link on line for the Lesedi Cultural Village and the video there isn't great quality but it will give you a great overview of the village! They have built 5 tradition homesteads, representing the Pedi, Sotho, Xhosa, Zulu and Ndebele people, showing how each of the tribes lived. It was fascinating to see how the villages were constructed and why they were built as they were. For example, the doors are very short and the reason for that is an enemy would have to stoop very low to get in the door, giving the occupants of the hut time to stop him. A very simple explanation that makes a lot of sense! Women always sit on the right side of the hut because when the door is opened, it protects them from an enemy!

http://www.krugerpark.co.za/africa_pedi.html This is a very informative link for the Pedi people.

http://www.kruger2canyons.com/learningcentre/kruger_people_sotho.php A very good link for the Sotho people.

http://www.slrk.info/profiles/xhosa.html A link for the Xhosa people.

http://www.mthwakazifoundation.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=50 I am not entirely happy with this link, but it is a place to start for further research.

http://africanadrenalin.co.za/IsibindiAfrica/zulu_history.htm A brief history of the Zulu people.

I found it interesting to see the evolutionary patterns between the African tribes and the Native American Indians. Just as the Native Americans drew resources from the land around them, so did the African tribes. There are striking similarities between the Native American artwork and that of the African tribes, with each using natural paints and colors and even into the intricate beading that they do. Each culture evolved with very unique traditions that they cherish and share even today. I really do want to do more research on the traditions and cultures when I return home.

And yes, even though the Lesedi Cultural Village is a tourist attraction, I did learn a lot about them while I was there. Most of the "employees" there were younger and seemed to be having a good time while at work! They were very open and friendly while inviting questions.

This was a marked contrast to the Shangaan Cultural Village that I saw a few weeks ago. I did reserve my comments there, but I still believe that the Shangaan people were "encouraged" to share their history and culture due to economic issues. So many of the younger ones are leaving for the cities and they will never return "home" after seeing what is outside of the village. Don't misunderstand, the Shangaan people were very wonderful people, but it wasn't like the Lesedi Cultural Village. There was never a doubt that the Lesedi Village was a tourist attraction, where for me, there will always be that question in my mind about the Shangaan Village...

Kruger National Park

2009-03-22T22:49:00.000-07:00

Thursday was a "homebody" day. I spent most of the day getting the Trunk Show photos ready for release. I have a few more hours to do on it and it will be ready to go. The final touches and editing are about done. Then I need photos of the newest projects that Santi is taking to the states! Since I leave here on Thursday, there is a lot to be done before then. This Saturday is Declan's Christining and then a few days after that, Santi and Peter leave for their working holiday in Holland! Peter was born in Holland and this will be his first trip back since he was very young. They will also be getting some site seeing while they are there.

Friday morning we were getting ready to go back to Kurger Park to spend the weekend there! Last weekend we did do a quick 3 hours there while we were in the area, but this weekend was 2 days on a photo safari. It's going to take me a few days to get through all 600+ photos for the weekend but I'm excited to start on it!

The quick list of animals and birds would be: Maibu Stork, a large herd of giraffes, baboons, hippos, Crested Barbet, Cape Glossy Starling, lions, White Fronted Bee Eaters, elephants, elephants and more elephants, crocadiles, duika, wart hogs, rhinos, cheeta, kudu, impala and a rock monitor, but that's not the entire list! And as I get into the blog later, I'll tell you what one of the more intersting things we saw were!

Friday morning it was beginning to rain. Summer rains here are like summer rains in the South at home. They can range from a drizzle to thunderstorms in a short time! We were supposed to leave at 1:30pm but the rain started to pour about noon. Liese and Cara decided that leaving a bit earlier might be a wise idea. So, we packed up the Kombi and started to pick up the rest of the "tourists" for the weekend trip. 5 of us went for the weekend, Liese, Cara and Stefan, Poppi (a family friend) and me. It was a good thing that we did leave a little early after all, we had to drive to Mari's to pick up the Kombi (it's parked there when not in use because Mari has room for it) and drop off Cara's car on the other side of town, pick up Poppi and Stefan who live near Cara and then hit the road. We left town about 2pm which is when the girls wanted to be on the road! It is about a 3 1/2 drive from Middleburg to the park entrance and we needed to be at the gate by 6pm. We thought we had enough time, but then there was road construction, horrible traffic and a little longer gas stop than anticipated.

We arrived at the gate at 6:01pm and they will not allow you to drive unescorted in the park after 6pm! They are pretty serious about that as you see. We had to wait for an escort to take us to the campsite at Skukuza. Then there is the part about having to wait for the rest of the tardy "tourists" until about 7pm. It was still drizzling while we waited and there was concern about rain over the weekend! So just as the escort arrived, the staff started to hand out keys for the challets and of course there was confusion about our groups keys! By the time everything was sorted out, we got to our rooms about 8pm and still had dinner to deal with. Santi had made some food to bring along with us, so we broke out the food and had dinner.

When everyone had gone to bed, I sat outside the room and listened to the night in the park. The insect life at night sings with the different sounds that the critters make. I did a little personal writing as I sat out there battling the moth from hell! This moth was close to the size of a humming bird and it decided to make bombing runs at me while I was writing! Moths are harmless I know, but when you're sitting out in the middle of the Savannah (jungles are farther north from South Africa) anything can and does startle you! The clouds from the rain obstructed the view of the sky which made the sky seem eearliy dark. I finally crawled into my bed and the next thing I knew my finely handcrafed alarms, Cara and Liese were telling me it was morning!

Friday was long day and Saturday promised to be even longer. Our day started at 5am. For safety, the gates in and out of the campsites are closed and locked through the night. The gates are opened at 6am and we wanted to be out and about as early as we could be. The best viewing time for the animals are early when it's cool and later in the afternoon after the weather started to cool as well. During the hotter part of the day, the most animals find shade to wait out the heat.

And we were off! We drove for a while without seeing much other than birds. The Kombi's occupants were getting a little itchy to find some wildlife out there and I think we were up before the animals myself! Finally they came out of hiding here and there. Stefan is getting into bird watching so when we couldn't find animals we were looking for birds along the way. South Africa has an amazing assortment of bird life in the park. Santi had gotten me a tourist book of the park and it gave information on most popular animals, birds, reptiles and trees in the park. That was helpful in identifying birds but there were many that weren't in that book so Cara and Stefan would look through Stefan's bird book that he brought along for the ride. I thought it was funny, kind of like looking words up in the dictionary, you have to come pretty close to the proper spelling to know where to look! But Cara and Stefan did a good job of identifying some of the birds that we got a good look at.

Some of the roads through the park were paved and others were dirt roads leading off into loops around the main roads. We took a lot of those dirt roads and got off of the paved road and it paid off in the long run. Early in the morning we really didn't catch a lot of animals, but once they started to come out of hiding we found a lot!

Many of the animals were a distance from the road so we were using binoculars for a closer view. I have no idea how these "kids" spotted so many that I couldn't see even with instructions LOL. "See that tree over there and the stand of trees behind it? OK look a little up and to the right and you'll see it." Oh yeah right! You would think it would be pretty easy to find a giraffe wouldn't you? I'll be uploading photos of the animals using the zoom lens and then photos of actual size. In these photos you'll see why I was amazed at the spotting talent of the "kids" in the Kombi!

We started off with Cara and Liese on both sides of the Kombi. Poppi and I had similar experience as spotters and of course There was Stefan... He was pretty good but between you and me, the girls were better :) It didn't take long before I was checking animals off left and right! We did very good in finding 4 out of the 5 "Big 5" this weekend!

For the record, the "Big 5" are the leopard (MIA this weekend), the elephant, the lion, the buffalo (with big curled horns) and the rhino. Liese told me why they were the "Big 5". I kind of thought cause they were the biggest kids on the block but Liese told me that it is because they are the 5 most dangerous when they are injured!

Before I close this, I want to add what, in my opinion, was the best parts of the weekend, other than the company of course... Remember the weekend before this, where we did the "Elephant Day" and the "Birds of the Dead" days? It was that weekend that made this trip to Kruger most interesting. Yes, we saw a bunch of animals, up close and personal, in their natural habitats and those are memories I'll never forget to be sure. But it was the lessons learned that weekend at the Elephant Sanctuary and the Moholoholo Rehabilitation Center were really put into persepctive this weekend.

First, there was a dead impala in the bush. We're not sure what it died from but we spotted first the circling vultures and found our way to where they were circling. There were many vultures of all types circling or waiting for the "big guy" to come and open the carcus. They circled, if you recall, to "call" the big guy (I think it was a variety of "Griffons") because he has the sharp beek to open the carcus. Once they too their turn it was time for the White Headed Vultured to come in and eat their fill. And then the smaller kids finish off the meat on the bones...

When we got there, as I said, there we many vultures waiting. There were other people who were looknig at them and wondering why they weren't just feeding! Of course Cara, Stefan and I knew very well and we shared what we had learned with Liese and Poppi. We waited for a while, but remember, there are few of the big guys (now don't I wish I had paid more attention to the lecture at the time???) and it can take them a while to show up at the party. We stayed there as long as we could but we had the time issue to worry about as well. We went to a picnic area about 2 k's up the road. We had a quick lunch and Liese suggested that we go back for a last look to see what was happening with the vultures.

We were suprised in that scant hour we were gone, the big boys had come and gone and the White Headed vultures were having their turn. Luckily we didn't have exactly front row seats, but we saw the vultures squabbling over the impala and they were making it a quick lunch as well! We watched for a while and although it seems cruel, it was interesting to watch them in action. I think we all found it more facinating because of our trip to the Rehab center the week before!

We had to move on before the little guys would get their turn, but keep in mind that we had been gone for less than an hour and the carcus was getting clean! We were told at the Rehab Center that it would take vultures less than 3 hours to clean a large animal and the impala was far from a large animal! Of the famiy here, no one had ever seen the vultures at work. They have a very important job in the life cycle of the Savannah.

We were tired and on our way out of the park when we came across a gathering of cars. We couldn't immediately see what the attraction was, but we did see that it was elephants within a few seconds. There was a tourist bus sitting in front of the elephants on the right side of the road. You could see all of the toursits in the bus had crowded onto the right side of the bus (too funny). There was a small red import car behind the bus. On the left side of the road, there was line waiting to see the elephants as well. All of the sudden we could hear trumpeting coming from the bush on the right side and then we saw a head pop out and she was shaking her head and trumpeting and she wasn't happy! Of course the tourist bus sat there, letting the tourists in his car happily snapping photos of the very unhappy elephants! She warned everyone with the trumpeting, shaking her head and flapping her ears! Any idiot could see a problem was coming. Cara had already suggested rather loudly that the Kombi should be in reverse just in case. She could barely get it out of her mouth before Mama as storming out of the bush! She began to charge the bus. Cara was hanging out the window trying to get the car behind us to back up! We're not sure, but we think that he couldn't see beyond the Kombi that Mama was charging! Cara finally convinced him to back up and the bus (who was making Mama unhappy in the first place) began to creep SLOWLY ahead. Remember, there was a red import between the elephant and the bus! We were a little concerned for him as the elephant was still moving closer. Now, the bus driver, who was definately an idiot passed us and we could see that he was looking back in his side mirror laughing! His tourists were being amused but I'm not sure if they even knew what kind of danger they may have been in!

The elephant calmed down as the bus moved away and out of the bush came 2 babies and another Mama. The 2nd female was herding the kids across the road, honestly, there may have been another adult but we were busy watching the first female. She was standing in the middle of the road daring anyone to come close to the babies! As the others crossed the road, we watched as she back up to the left side of the road and then looked both ways to check traffic and went into the bush herself...

I found that very cool (but remember, I had to be told to come out of tornado weather in TN a few years ago :) I wasn't the driver so there wasn't much I could have done and there was a car or 2 in front of us. When the red import finally came up close to us, Stefan asked, "So, how was it?" The driver was laughing and said, "exhaurerating!!!" I can believe that! I knew how we felt in our fairly safe place! Again, it was the visit to the Elephant Sanctuary and the information that we had been given there, gave me a very good idea, without explaination, as to what was going on.

What we saw after we passed where the elephants had crossed, was that they were heading down to a river. By the time we could see well, we saw that there were other elephants already down by the rivers edge and more were moving in that direction. We tried to get over to see them but we got a very limited view of them.

So, although we had already seen most of the animals on Saturday, we got a better view of several of them on Sunday on our wandering way out of the park and on the way home! Where Saturday I would call "eye candy", the education did come on Sunday!

We arrived home about 6:30pm on Sunday, tired yet still excited about what we had seen over the weekend! Now, I have to go through about 600 or so photos and decide which are going into the Picasa albums! I'm not sure that I'll get them all posted for a while though. I may have to wait until I get home to get them all up :) And let's not forget my trip to the Lesedi Cultural today with Elsa from Elsasdesigns.com....

Dinner Out With Friends

2009-03-18T15:08:00.000-07:00

Today was a pretty quiet day. Santi sat working on her new design set (that's almost finished by the way) and I piddled with the Trunk Show CD. She looked over at me this afternoon and asked me what was wrong, I was being so quiet. If you know me, you know this doesn't happen often! I turned and looked at her and said, "you're working and you're on a roll and I'm not going to bother you!" The phones and visitors were very quiet today and the muse was sitting on her shoulder whispering to her. I didn't want to scare the muse away! She's at a point where she is doing some very intricate fine tuning on her set and distractions right now can cause her to lose track of where she is and what she has done so far and that is extremely frustrating to anyone who is that focused on a project!

Tonight we had dinner plans with friends of Peter, Estelle and Frank. You know how it is when you first meet someone, you're not sure exactly how formal or informal you should be. But, being Peter's friends, I kind of expected them to be down to Earth and they were! They are such a fun couple, we sat around the table talking and laughing until about half an hour after the restaurant closed (ooops)! No one knew the place closes at 10pm, they thought it was 11pm! And the staff said NOTHING and continued to bring coffee and drinks after business hours! We finally noticed that the staff was doing their closing work and we decided we should be nice and let them go home.

They told stories about Peter and I told stories about traveling with Santi and I think we were laughing so loud we may have encouraged a few other diners to leave a little early? We talked about the differences between South Africa and the States for a while but it didn't take long before we were off topic (like the list gets at times :) and back to laughing and joking around. I really did enjoy the evening, I felt like I had known Estelle and Frank for years! Estelle and Santi sipped their wine but I guess they had been together often enough to know that although the boys drove us, the girls would be driving home! I did threaten Peter that I would be driving and not Santi, she really doesn't like driving at night. OK keep in mind that this was not long after Santi told on me for almost getting run over in the street not long after I arrived! These people drive not only on the wrong side of the road but on the wrong side of the car! Every time they turn I'm thinking they are turning into on coming traffic! It can be quite disorientating really. You are sitting there, letting your mind wander and soak in the view and all of the sudden you hear the van kind of lag a bit and you start going for the clutch to down shift!

I USED to laugh when we were traveling and Santi would head out to the van and walk up the (our) drivers door! I would hold out the keys and tell her, "oh, you decided to drive for a while?" I'll never do that again! I find myself doing the same thing. I keep telling myself "passenger, passenger, passenger" cause with or without Santi, I'm usually the driver. OK so "passenger" here is on the drivers side of the car! I'm getting better about walking to the car thinking, "driver, driver, driver" now. 9 out of 10 times I do find the right car door but at the same time I'm wondering where my keys are and who stole my steering wheel!

So we get Peter home and he's still feeling pretty good with a smile on his face even though we picked on his most of the night. Peter can take a joke! Frank asked how long I had been here and before I could say "3 weeks" he popped up with 3 months. I told him it just seemed like 3 months cause he was having too much fun! They have a good family friend Pam and quite often they'll say Pam instead of Pat, or Pam Pat LOL Tonight when Peter would call me Pam I told him Pam couldn't hear him did he want the cell phone? So can you get an idea of how much fun this evening was?

By the time we left it was drizzling outside, but it wasn't cold. Peter is pushing me out into the rain as we continue to talk and laugh and again I threaten him with me driving home on the wrong side of the road! He just had to guess who's "wrong side" I was talking about! We finally said our good byes and headed out to the car. Peter was probably OK to drive after wine with his dinner but Santi took the keys and showed him where the back seat of her 2 door 4 wheel drive (this isn't like Cara's 4 wheel drive mind you, it's a real one). Being "company" I get the passenger seat :) Now, before you get the wrong idea here, Peter really doesn't drink that much. He may have a glass of wine with dinner, but that's about it. Tonight was an exception. He and Santi hadn't seen Estelle and Frank for some time and you know how the boys get when you let them out to play!

Unfortunately for Peter, Santi and I were in a playful mood... so things didn't get any better for him once we got back home ;) Let's see, Santi locked the security door and told Peter HE had the keys to it. We had him wandering around to find where he had "dropped" his key chain (it had slipped his mind that Santi had his keys because she drove him home). Once he "found" the keys it didn't stop then, we just kept on him until he finally gave up and went to bed! Of course Santi and I continued to laugh about how he kept looking for the keys until she finally gave up and went to bed. Poor thing was so tired, not only has she had me for 3 weeks Monday was Mari's birthday (Happy Birthday Mari!) and Santi and Mari hadn't had much "sister time" since before I got here, while I was at Cara's for dinner last night she and Mari spent some quiet time together. Like sisters do, they were up late talking, so Santi was worn out tonight.

I'm heading off to bed myself now. My Social Directors may have told me if I have plans for tomorrow, but if they did that information flew out the window at some point! I am sorry to say that I didn't take my camera with me tonight but Frank and Estelle want to get together again before I leave and I promise to take the camera with me when we go! I've had requests for more "people" pictures and after reviewing the photos, I see I have been slacking off on that part of my "job" here. I will do much better and stock you up on photos of the family and extended family before I leave, I promise!

Sudwala Caves - Inside the caves

2009-03-18T07:50:00.000-07:00

I have been informed that I did omit some information about being inside of the caves. That was an ooopsie on my part. Just as we entered the caves, where the reception desk is, we could immediately feel the cool breeze, which was nice after climbing up from the car. Even from the reception area, we could see that the walls had small streams of water here and there that still flow to this day. Our guide arrived and we began to explore a very small part of the caves that go on for who knows how far. He explained that the walls of the caves were dolomite and continued to explain how the stalagmites and stalactites were formed. The water that seeps into the caves have high concentrations of minerals in it, as the water drips from the top, mineral deposits begin to form on the stalagmites at the top and as the water drips down stalacites begin to build up from the bottom up. Over the course of several million years (and in this case, many more millions of years to come) they will eventually meet to form a column. There were several columns that had already formed as we went deeper into the caves.

Here is the interesting part, as we moved into the first demonstration area, he turned the lights on. I'm assuming that these lights run off of a generator since I seriously doubt there are power lines running up this mountain! The first area was an old camp site from a tribe who was at war with his brother's tribe (please don't ask for names, they are in the link which is going to be posted at the end of this blog again). One of the brothers brought his people into the caves for shelter. The site wasn't too far into the caves but remember, they are still mapping all of the caves in the mountain. There was a stalacite hanging from the roof and because of how sound travels, the look outs would bang on this hollow stalacite and the alarm would be carried throughout the system.

Our guide used a rubber mallet to bang on the stalactite and we could hear the noise it made. I don't want to use the word echo here, because it wasn't an echo, just the pure sound of the banging. It's difficult to explain, but for the record, back in the 70's an amphitheater was built a little farther into the caves and a world renowned tenor from Italy came to test it. He said that the sound quality in the caves was as good as or better than any he had performed in. Now, if this was an echo I think that it would begin to sound garbled within seconds...

At this camp site, which was probably a forward look out as I think about it, there was a fire ring set up. They used the branches from a nearby tree and pounded them until the pulp had been mashed into a torch. The torches were used to light the caves. Now, keep in mind here that although man had mastered fire at this point, it was best if the camp fires kept burning. They could produce fire (oh and not with matches at the time) by twirling a stick inside of a hollowed out rock, with kindling at the bottom. This was a great method (and one I believe the Boy Scouts teach this technique to this day) but the problem was that it could take hours for the friction to produce a small fire inside of the rock. There was also a rock and stone "rolling pin" to grind corn into meal which then could be cooked for dinner along with whatever the hunters found for dinner.

At this point in the cave, there was still some light coming from the entrance so it wasn't too bad. As we moved from that area into the next area, our guide flicked on the lights for the new area and switched off the light from the previous area. Cara and I could clearly hear the sounds made by the switch just as clearly as if we had been standing right next to him!

So now there is only the lighting that came from those lights, they were bright but I could no longer see any light coming from the entrance. It was kind of eerie to stand there. It's not like I lost my orientation, but then, I wasn't eager to go far from the illumination either.

The next couple of stops we made along the way were fascinating rock formations. I believe that I did get a few photos of some of them. They were amazing. More colorful that I had imagined even though I had looked at the link below. Now, as we moved farther into the caves, the roof as it was, got taller and taller. The light no longer penetrated the darkness as it had earlier. I was hesitant about looking straight up because I got a little dizzy. My feeling of orientation was getting even shakier. Remember, as we moved into these different areas, our guide for the day, was flicking lights on and off. They were concealed very well so he would be out of our sight and we could only see the flashlight that he carried.

It's getting a little spooky in there at this point when the guide decided it would be fun activity to turn OFF the lights so we could see how dark it was in there! At this point, I barely knew where up was, although I knew I was standing on my feet! There was no sounds anywhere in the caves at this point and it was probably the most dark and senorsy deprivation place I've ever been IN MY LIFE! But at least there were no bats flying around.

Did I say bats? Yeah, there were a few hundred roosting in the caves and when our guide, who some may feel has a sense of humor, but I would not agree, decided it would be a fun thing to flash his light into the crowd and wake a few of them up! They were smallish (catch the "ish" part) fruit bats that were were not into biting you on the neck... and only a few few and a few more fluttered their wings.

The amphitheater I mentioned early was amazing. There were stone benches for the opera lovers to sit on while the stage had been built a little higher than the seats but not so high as you couldn't watch the performance. Our guide gave us a short but lovely, demonstration of sound within the amphitheater area as well. It's amazing how the voice resonated but didn't echo. Also, interestingly enough Cara and I did notice that as we moved farther into the caves, the temperature didn't change but the humidity did rise.

There was one more area that we were given the opportunity to see. You had to hunch over and almost on hands and knees crawl into another cavern. Cara took him up on it (being so young and all) but I choose to wait kind of patiently for them to return. Cara whispered that I hadn't missed much but a little back strain because it was very similar to what we had already seen. I would have been disappointed I didn't go if she said there was a diamond mine on the other side of that crawl space!

We had seen and been educated on the caves and it was time to be guided out of the caves (with lights going off and on again as we went along) but our gait was a bit faster on the way out. Then it was time to crawl back down the steps to the car and move along on our adventure for the day.

The Scenic Route - Saturday March 14th

2009-03-17T16:31:00.000-07:00

After we left the Rehabilitation Center, before we took a scenic tour of some of the attractions in the area, we stopped along the road for a picnic. We had packed up leftovers from our braai the night before along with lunch meat, some very tasty bread and assorted snacks to go with it. We stopped near a very large tree that I cannot for the life of me remember what it's called! Of course there is no one here to ask right now! I'll tag the photo as soon as I can grab one of my Tour Directors to remind me. I'm telling you, I'm so senile at this point that I'm good if I remember my name! So many new things to see, experiences coming...

I am not going to try to describe what I saw on that drive. I'm going to let the photos speak for themselves for a change :) I am still in awe at the things I saw on that little cruise down the "South African Super Highway". It's kind of a joke between us. The farther out of the cities you get the more potholes in the roads. I don't mention this to pick on the roads here, heaven knows we have the same problems in the States! I tell you this because one on the vistas on our route on Saturday is called, "The Potholes". Santi didn't bother to tell me this was a natural wonder in the area! I was thinking, "oh goodie, more potholes!" So not true! Again, I will let the photos speak for the view. Links will be added to the end of this blog if you want more information on "The Potholes" and the "3 Rondovels".

The only downside of the day was the low clouds did minimize the views to some degree. Cara reminded me that the town we were staying in was called "Hazyview" and I guess we know why that is, now don't we? Being higher in the mountains of course the clouds seem lower! I think in a few of the photos you can see that rain was threatening at different times during the afternoon.

To keep us entertained on the drive between destinations, we had Cara and her friend, Stefan, in the center seat of the Combi doing their best impressions of 7 years olds on a cross country summer vacation! Oh how I remember those days, "he's on my side of the seat!" and the "she's touching me!" I kept telling the "kids" that I was going to have "Dad" pull over to the side of the road and put them out of the car if they didn't behave! They did keep us entertained during the long drive! I did miss Liese this weekend and wished time and time again she had been able to join us...

Stefan is a good guy and fits right in with the family. He has a great sense of humor and he's great at working that grill for the braais! He's also good for carrying luggage around and hauling the supplies as well ;) He has been to the University but I think he majored in stand up comedy! I'm just kidding Stefan, if I didn't like you I wouldn't pick on you the way I do.

I will add that they are taking their turns at trying to kill me! First it was Cara and the caves and the elephant ride (my bum still remembers that one well!). Then it was Santi's turn. Before we got to the 3 Rondavals, Mom made it perfectly clear that I was going to walk DOWN to see the view. I know Santi well enough to know when there is no point in arguing with her. This was one of those times... The photos will give you some idea of the path we followed to see this miracle of nature! It was another one of those sites that was more than worth the effort to get there but Mom, PLEASE! LOL It was absolutely breath taking down there (again I use the word DOWN). Again, this is one of those times where I'll let the photos do my talking :) Then there was the crawling back up part... Yes, I admit, I WHINED and Peter just laughed at me! Of course this is the marathon runner I'm talking about. Ppppffffftttttt!

When we got back up the "kids" saw an ice cream stand and of course there were the screams of , "I scream, you scream, we all want ice cream". I'm going to tell on Santi now, don't tell her I told you this but remember those DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS signs I talked about earlier? A monkey appeared while we were having refreshments and Mom fed the monkey! And if that wasn't bad enough, Peter was teasing the monkey! It was getting harder and harder to tell the kids from the grown ups at that point! This little boy (ask me how I know he was a boy... photos again), wasn't afraid of people by any means, I guess he stayed close to the refreshment stand. Now, she said she did it for me... because I am still not used to seeing them running around in the more rural areas (no, like the lions and elephants, they have pretty much fled the urban areas).

We left for Hazyview for dinner and a good nights sleep for the ride home. Dinner was out on the patio of the restaurant and the breeze felt so gooooood! I think we've been pretty lucky in our travels, this is the end of summer here and it's still a bit toasty at times but there is usually a nice breeze to cool you off :)

Sunday on the ride home, there wasn't as much conversation. I think we were all ready to get out of the Combi and back into our own beds!

As far as Monday and Tuesday this week? So far, it's been pretty much spent on editing the photos for the albums. I did have dinner with Cara and Stefan this evening. Cara is a great cook by the way :)

( I think I've hit an all time record for the fewest type-o's [for sure not spelling errors] in quite some time! Yeppie for me! )

Birds of the Dead - Moholoholo Rehabilitation Center

2009-03-17T02:32:00.000-07:00

Moholoholo Rehabilitation Center is a haven for sick and injured animals in the Lowveld region. It is also a very sad place as well. I invite you to check out the link below and make sure you click on "Overview". The overview section is where they update their own journals or blogs about the animals they have taken in.

Moholoholo Rehabilitation Center's mission is, first to the wildlife and then to education. Brian Jones, one of our guides for the morning, was very quick to point out that, sad as it is, the Center and Kruger National Park (close by) are zoos of sorts. They are a non-profit organization that relies on donations from the outside. They opened their gates to visitors to educate them and for the resources it brings to them. Their own resources make the decisions on how much they can do.

Brian was an excellent speaker as he explained the life cycle of the Lowveld. Every creature depends on the other to exist, it's as simple as that. The monkeys and baboons sit high in the trees and strip off leaves, fruits and nuts from the trees (damaging to the farmers) and what they drop off of the trees is then eaten by the grazers of the field. The monkeys and baboons have sentries to watch for predators and when they see one, they send out the alarm. The alarm is also picked up by the grazers who also flee the area! The predator picks out the prey and attacks and if he's lucky, he has a meal. Once he's finished then other pack animals move in for the left overs and from there come the insects.

You thought I left out the vultures didn't you? Yes, the vultures are the Birds of the Dead, but they are selective as to their "diet". The predators and scavengers feed off of the fresh kills but not the vultures! The vultures have an immunity to the diseases of the mammals. Let's use anthrax for example. When an animal dies due to anthrax or other diseases, the vultures swoop in. Each variety with his own job to do. You've all seen National Geographic photos of circling vultures right? They circle for a reason, they are calling in the rest of the "family" for dinner. First comes the larger birds with the razor sharp beaks to open the soft skin of the animal. He eats his fill and moves on. Then come the more medium size vultures with their hooked bills. They are equipped to open those holes even further and eat their fill and once they are done they move on. Then the smaller birds move in for the smaller pieces of meat still on the bone. In a matter of 3 hours they vultures can clean a carcass! That's kind of interesting but what's the hurry? The hurry is that these animals died from a disease and if those bones aren't cleaned in a hurry a fly can move in and carry the disease to an entire herd of animals, killing them all, because of 1 small fly! A fly is used as an example here, but small pack of scavengers would do the same job in a lot less time.

Amazing to think about it isn't it? The vultures are natures way of controlling disease within a population. Not that they are very pretty birds by any means, in my humble opinion, but their task given by nature, is one of beauty! Vultures fly (or I should say soar) high in the sky and have very keen eye site. They watch the sky as they soar looking for "invitations" to dinner. When they see another vulture beyond what you or I could see, they flock to the area and wait their turn at dinner! No one is in a hurry, everyone knows that they will have their fill before the bones are picked clean! Their seating arrangement for dinner is bases on the shape of their bills! It's really amazing if you stop and think about it. The smaller hook billed vultures can't open the flesh of an animal, so they wait for the big boy to show up and "carve" dinner as it were. They "show" the larger birds the way by circling in the sky, marking the spot. As the others see the circling they join in and continue to circle until everyone is there and it's time to begin.

OK so vultures are not the most "romantic" of the animals, I agree, but there isn't much of a chance for the larger herds to continue to thrive without them! So maybe in nature it isn't all about how you look, but about how you do your job! I'm not going to pretend to remember the names of all of the birds or what their job is, I'm sure that there is information on the Internet that gives specific information and I'm sure one day, when there is time, I'll go back and investigate it further. It is interesting to scroll through the photos in the album and note the differences in the beaks of the birds. The orange faced vulture has a face only a mother could love, but look close at his eyes and see his eyelashes! I think it was Elsa who got me hooked on the eyes of the animals, at her website photo gallery! Thank you Elsa!

In the last set of vulture photos at Picasa, you'll see an enclosure that the public is invited into. Our guide explained that we would be very safe as long as we stayed alive! I felt pretty chipper so I ventured into the enclosure to get a closer look at these guys. They stand with their wings open to cool off by the way and if that doesn't work, then it's off to the bath for a proper washing and cooling at the same time :) I also thought it was cute that while one was in the water it seemed as though there was a line forming in back of him!

It in this set of photos that you'll find Stefan who got very brave and dawned the leather glove to feed the vultures a snack. The demonstration was to actually feel how heavy these boys get! I've had a macaw before, so knowing the weight of him and seeing the size difference, I had a pretty good idea as to how heavy he was, so I passed on the opportunity to feed them myself! Stefan even kind of dropped his arm a bit when the bird hopped onto his arm, so again, I got a pretty good clue as to his weight!

The DO NOT signs... yes, we've all seen them, Do Not Touch the Animals, Do Not Feed the Animals etc. First, I have to wonder why someone would have to be told not to stick their fingers inside of a lion enclosure but then I hope I'm smarter than the average monkey! What I find most aggravating are the "tourists" in these tourist traps! LOL Yeah, I know how that sounds, but you all know what I'm talking about! Everyone wants to get up close and see the animals and take pictures of the animals and then there are the ones who think that they are the only ones allowed to see... grrrrrrr!

Take the father with his $1000 (or more) Nikon camera with all of the fancy lenses and his approximately 7 year old son. Most of us would be fussing at our kids and watching them closely in an area that has a DO NOT sign posted, wouldn't we? Oh no! This dad is actually ENCOURAGING his son to touch the leopard! OK so the leopard at the time was laying against the fence with his back to us, does that make it any safer? Those big cats are fast, they have to be to survive in their world! Personally I was rooting for the leopard to have a little mid morning snack! Seriously, has this father been watching too many cartoons or what?????? Do you know why I could never be a guide at one of those kinds of places? Seeing the father encouraging his son, I'd invite the kid and his father inside the gate to play with the big kitty cat! Pppffffttttt! LOL

OK I'm done with that little ranting session! Granted, our guide through the Center has done this job for several years now (was asked) and so he goes through the same description over and over and over again, watching his visitors "do" when they should be "Do Not"ing (is that a word? It is now.) I'm not sure how many times he repeated that these animals cannot be released into the wild again. Every animal we visited he would repeat the sentence. OK I got it after the first few times, not to mention that Brian had explained in detail why most would never be able to be released, their exposure to man and his interference with nature. So the guide says, "these animals cannot be returned to the wild" and the next question he gets is???? The problem children of the day were a bus load of tourists from I don't know where but I was so happy when they had to leave with Tours Inc.! I really don't think anyone was sad to see them go, they were the pushy ones... So remember tourists, when you travel, be considerate to those with you or you may be thrown into the lion enclosure by the person next to you!

OK so I'm not done yet, sorry. One "tourist" asked if the animals "liked being here." Hummmm, I could see the wheels turning in the guides head as to how he WANTS to answer this question, but he shows more restraint than I would have with his non-committal reply. Most of the animals at Moholoholo were predators (outside of the birds of the dead), they weren't like the elephants that Cara and I spent time with the day before. Elephants are grazers not predators. These kids were clearly less happy to be there than the elephants at the Elephant Sanctuary were. The leopard paced most of the time we saw him, now part of that was that when he saw the guide he knew it was time for his snack from the guide but you could also kind of see the restlessness in their eyes.

I don't know, maybe it was part of the sadness of this wonderful place that I found most annoying. I saw the lion and lioness in their enclosure and my heart went out to them. The lion is a beautiful animal who is much bigger and muscular than I ever imagined. Again, yes, I've seen his cousin in a zoo, but not this close up! His size was surprising as was the beauty of his gait. You really wanted to go hug the big kitties, but again, they are called WILD for a reason.

If you wander through the Birds of the Dead album at Picasa, take note of the size of the guides hand as compared to the lion's or the leopard's head and mouth. Note also how he keeps his fingers AWAY from the cats? Look at the size of the claws on those kitties! They are most impressive in stature, so regal and so ....????

Again, the wild dogs were not what I had expected them to be either really. I'm not sure what I expected, but these were big dogs, highly alert and watching the visitors as they filed by. Do you remember what I said before about the amount of range that these animals need to survive? Each species has it's own needs and it can share some of it's range with other species but it still needs what it needs to survive. These wild dog packs can run and run and run, they exhaust their prey and still have the energy to attack and bring it down. Amazing when you think about it. I know my Pugs at home can barely get off of the couch and attack their food dish!

Before we get to the baby rhinos at the Center, there are 2 cheetahs who reside there and have been there for a very long time. They put these 2 kids on leashes and take them to educate the nearby farmers. They did lay out in the shade while we were there and kind of waved a paw at us from time to time, just to be social and say hello ;) There is always a problem between the predators and the farmers. The farmers say that the predators eat their cows and sheep. The Center will come and get them to move them to a safer place for everyone when the farmers call. Most times the farmers just poison the predators and call it fair. The farmers say the vultures kill their livestock so they poison a goat and leave it for the vultures. They come, they eat and they die! Sometimes by the hundreds. What the farmers don't understand is the interdependence of all of the life in the area. Now when a diseased goat, cow or sheep dies, the vultures aren't there to clean up that little mess and the disease is passed along to the rest of the herd! Sad isn't it? So the Center is very keen on educating the local farmers and they use the 2 cheetahs to help teach them.

So now we can move on to the baby rhinos. The center received a call from Kruger National Park, they had been rejected by it's mother. The center was called because the white rhinos are on the endangered species list. Once they are old enough they will be moved to a preserve that specializes in breeding and from what I understand they are in need of males at this types of preserves. So, let's hope that this does them some good and we don't lose the rhinos! They are incredible animals, but then, aren't they all? The babies are adorable, they are very sweet and love the visitors almost as much as they like feeding time! They are playful and seem happy. Both came to the Center just after birth and about a week apart so they are being raised as brothers. You can see how much they bonded to each other by the way they play and romp around. One of them was quite insistent on getting into Betsi's purse! Once the other tourists left (you remember them I'm sure), the rest of us were able to take a few photos and pet them :)

I've always heard the expression, "tough as a rhinos hide", well, I can better appreciate that expression now! You cannot see movement between the shoulders and the hips when they walk! It feels almost like a tanned leather and it's very thick. You can see on their sides, scuff marks made by the other rhino as they played! They do seem to play a little rough with each other, but then, their hide can handle it! We were there when they got part of their 15 liters of rhino formula! For our metrically impaired, that would be 7 1/2 2 liter sodas, per day... each! And yes, I'm one of those metrically impaired thank you! To grasp the amount of formula they get I had to visualize all those soda bottles lined up in a row! Once they have lapped it up from the bowl, the staff comes and wipes their faces off to stop any bacteria from growing. Like any child who has just eaten, they really didn't appreciate getting their faces cleaned though. The kids have been bottle fed since birth and they are quite comfortable with human contact, I think they thrive on it. I never did realize or appreciate how social most of these animals are... it's very heart warming to see that.

Some of you may want to quit reading at this point. The topic is Conservation and it's a very emotional subject in many parts of the world right now. If you choose to continue reading, please understand that what you are reading is only MY thoughts and mine alone.

Karen, you and I have had the "tree hugger" conversation before and I know that you read this blog. My thoughts are changing and I think I'm leaning towards the tree huggers side of the fence right now. I don't know where the middle ground is on the subject of man's needs versus wild life needs, I don't even know if there is any kind of workable solution. What I do know is that this trip has been a very eye opening experience for me. In some ways I think I was happier being ignorant... I know I've repeated myself on this part about the amount of range that each species needs for survival and the truth is that they are running out of space. Right now in Kruger Park there are too many elephants. The elephants are using up the grazing area for so many other species.

I don't know the exact number of elephants that there are in Kruger Park but they are 200+ over what the land can support. The sad truth of the situation is that they need to cull that 200+ in order for not only the other elephants to survive but so many other species. Kasper and Kitso ended up at the Elephant Sanctuary during other periods where they needed to cull the elephants. At that time the culled the adults and spared the calves. What they now know is that elephants are more emotional animals than they ever realized. They have a family social structure that is so close to humans, that they will have to cull entire herds of elephants to ensure survival of the others.

I think you, above all others, know how this news hit me. Of course there are the political debates over the subject right now and they are very similar to our own when man needs the land to expand on so I'm not even going to go there. I think Mr. Spock put it in perspective when he said in one of the Star Trek movies that, "the needs of the many out weight the needs of the few".

Anyway, I'm going to close with that thought for tonight. If you want more information on the Moholoholo Rehabilitation Center, you can click on the link below.

http://moholoholo.co.za/index.asp?pgid=5

Elephant Day - Friday Part 3

2009-03-16T08:18:00.000-07:00

As you can tell by now, Friday was just jammed packed with adventure! Cara and I had left Thursday afternoon and only 24 hours had elapsed when the rest of the "crew" arrived on Friday afternoon! The rest of the "crew" consisted of Peter and Santi, Mari, Betsi and Cara's friend Stefan. After Cara and I left the Shangaan Village, we met them at a local restaurant. We sat around the table for a while talking about the Elephant Sanctuary (no one had been there yet except for Cara and myself!) and all we learned there and then we talked about the Shangaan Village. After consulting around the table, it was decided that we would take a quick spin through Kruger National Park!

The park was not on the itinerary for this weekend but we were "so close" and the crew does love a drive through the park! Me? I go where the tour bus goes! So we drove out to the park but we only had a few hours to play there. Kruger National Park is NOT "Lion Country Safari" by any means. We headed out to our new lodging for the next 2 nights and checked in, dropped Cara's 4 wheel drive off and all piled into the VW Combi. Very nice for touring the countryside and our driver, Peter, always makes sure he hits as few pot holes as he can! It was no time before we were back on the road again, headed for Kruger National Park! It only took about 30 or 40 minutes of driving before we arrived.

I really have to laugh here because the family has been so very good to me and taken me so many places to see animals in the wild. I think they are more concerned with me seeing them than I am! So far, I'm thrilled at what I have seen and learned! As tour directors, Mari and Cara have been wonderful! Mari is astonishing with all that she knows about the area. I have to admit that she knows more about this area then I know of the area I live in at home! I know cat, dog, horse, squirrel, rat, mouse, cow and deer! (OK at this point there may be a few more that I'm forgetting.) And remember, it's a rare chance that I ever see a deer in the wild, which really isn't in the wild as it were, it just hangs out near the side of the road that I'm driving on!

To give you an idea of how large Kurger National Park is, Peter said it is about 180 miles long and 80 miles wide! Check out the link below for more details and if you look on the right side menu there is a WebCam that you can watch as well! They have cams set up all through the park so you can see what's going on. Just remember the time difference between the US and South Africa. I'm not sure what you would see at night... I just looked at one of the webcams and it's pointed at a watering hole and there does appear to be some light there!

http://www.sanparks.org/parks/kruger/tourism/map.php

We entered the park and before long we had the crew calling the animals... "here giraffeeeeee, here lion, here elephant"! The view of the country was outstanding and the varieties of birds with all of their bright colors kept me quite amused as it was. I guess maybe I just didn't want to get my hopes up but then too, I had just hugged an elephant! How much better could it get?

I have to upload the photos to Picasa first, because they go up there by photo number order. If it wasn't for this I'd be at a loss to keep it all straight in my head! Funny thing is that when I was tagging the photos of Part 3, I had to put in tags that said "Kruger National Park Scenery". Not so much for you, but for myself. I think that on Elephant Day I took close to 500 photos and we were laughing about having to go through the pictures later and say to myself, "why did I take this?". It is true though, at times things are hidden in the photo that you can't see very well. I shoot on the highest resolution that my camera can do so that later, I can go back in and zoom and crop if I need to.

As we entered the park, all eyes were on the bush. We would pass a little stream and Peter would slow down as we followed it as far as we could see it with our eyes. When we found nothing we would move along. At some point someone said "there's an elephant!". So I turn to look and I look and I look, but I don't see an elephant! They would point and say, "look do, you see that tree back there, next to the other tree? See how it's moving?" Ah, no. More pointing and directing but still I see no elephant. They decided that he was really too far from the road and we kind of moved on. Now, here is the tourist, sitting in the front seat of the Combi, high off the ground (it was like mounting a horse to get in the Combi by the way) and she can't see an elephant! What is wrong with this picture! I was beginning to think that this was going to be quiet embarrassing for someone and that someone would probably be me! We found lots of hornbills in the trees, smallish little birds hiding in the branches but I saw that!

Up ahead we saw something on the road, it was a tortoise racing down the road! For a little guy with short little legs, he was doing a fair clip down the road! Luckily for us, he was in the other lane of traffic, it would have taken him a while to cross the road and you are not allowed to endanger the wild life in any way, shape or form! The speed limit in the park is a sizzling 30 miles an hour, they have speed cameras in place not to mention a phone number/email address to report speeders etc! We waved good bye to our little friend and continued down the road. From time to time someone would shout out for Peter to stop because they thought they had seen something but it was only a rock or a tree! I got really good at spotting trees! Ha! That's really funny but what happens is that the tall brush moves with the breeze and it would make stationery objects appear to move!

We came across a few lakes, streams and creeks and took a close look for wild life having a cool drink in the sun but no luck there! Finally, someone from the back seat said to stop and there hidden by the brush in a little meadow there was an elephant! He really wasn't that easy to spot behind the bush among dead trees! Ah, so, the day did get better! As awesome as it was to be up close and personal earlier in the morning with Kasper and Kitso, seeing the baby in the wild was just beyond belief! Wow! He wasn't that close to the road but we could see him and watch him as he sauntered through the bush at a very slow pace. I think the tortoise we had met was making better time! The elephant appeared to have to place to be anytime soon. It's hard to pull away from him and move down the road, but there were 7 smiling faces in that Combi (van) when we did!

Moving down the road slowly we came across an Impala buck with his nose stuck in a bush having lunch. He was a beautiful animal! His antlers tilted slightly towards his back (I can see why Chevrolet named a car after him!). He's sleek and built for speed, his eyes are constantly moving to keep an eye on his surrounds and he's always read to dart off should he feel threatened. Sitting on his back was a Yellow Billed Oxpecker. The Oxpecker stays near these herds and feeds off of the ticks that attach themselves to the Impala's body. The Impala doesn't even realize he is there because that's where nature intended him to be. As we scan the surrounding area we find several more bucks grazing near the side of the road, they look towards us and find no danger so they go back to their grazing. Interestingly enough, with all of the Impala we saw that day all were bucks (males) and no does (females).

We ride on for a while and then on the right side of the Combi we see another elephant. He is well camouflaged by the dead branches of near by trees, but we do see him... no, there are 2 there! Wait a minute, is that 2 babies we see with them? We're up to 4 now! But look, over there, there is another one! 5! WOW! What a sight to see! Those babies are sooo small compared to the adults standing with them! I have no idea how old they are but they are already using (or trying) to use their trunks to pick up grass and find their mouth with it! They seem so small and helpless out there, even with the adults around them! The adults are very aware of their surroundings and they will defend those babies with their lives. Lions will rarely attack an adult elephant, they tend to go after the babies in the herd. Although the elephant has his tusks to defend himself, his size is his greatest defense he has. The 2 adults nearest them keep the babies between them and they seem to be constantly moving and herding the babies to keep them safe and near them. There was a little ravine near the road where we could see and bushes moving but we never really got a good view of the elephant(s) that were down there.

Creeping down the road again, there was a bird in the tree, I'm not sure what kind of bird he was, we just called him "Birdie"! Cara's friend Stefan had a bird book but he was busy watching the bird! Honestly, I'm sure someone told me what kind of bird he was but remember that senility issue! On the other side of the road we spotted yet another elephant! Since we hadn't gone too far from the "family" sighting, he was probably from the same herd. Now, without an up close and personal visit with the elephants it's hard to tell the boys from the girls! Both sexes have tusks (surprised me too!), so for my purposes they were all male but I tend to doubt that and would never swear to it! We stayed in that area for a while to watch the elephants there. If they were aware of our presence, they never showed it.

Moving along we saw more Impala and other antelope type varieties and finally we saw a Kudu. He is a unique kid. He is larger than the Impala and he has an interesting hump on his front shoulders. He moves with a gait very similar to the camel and he lumbers along, almost as if it takes him a great bit of energy to move and get those legs working together. But I have no doubt that he can move when he needs to. These deer/antelope type of animals are prime prey for the lions, leopards and cheetahs. They have to be fast or they would not survive in this world.

Finally, the tourist gets to show her animal spotting skills! A giraffe on the left side of the Combi! It was my turn to tell Peter to stop and back up! (Yeppie! 1 for the tourist!) He was only a short distance from the road and he lumbered on his course that took him across the road to the other side. Following after him were 4 zebras! They seemed to be traveling together as a group. I don't know why I found this so surprising really but I did. They wandered across the road; at a medium pace, not slow and not fast, just a leisurely gait across the road. The giraffe nibbled on the leaves of a throne tree while the zebras grazed on the grasses growing on the ground. Our little giraffe friend had a large scar at the bottom of his neck, near the shoulders from where he had been injured at some time in his life.

It's hard to leave these animals once you've spotted them. They are so beautiful and regal... Albeit that their rat race is quite different from ours, they are still in a race for their lives every day. We worry when we are in the inner cities (New York, Los Angeles or Chicago for example) that we are going to get robbed or worse, where these animals live is much more deadly for them. The lions major predator is man, he has no equal in the wild. Though he does take his life in his own hands when he attacks say an elephant herd, he doesn't fear walking through his neighborhood. If it were simply man against lion there would be little doubt who would win that contest, man takes a major advantage when he has a weapon to use against the mighty lion!

There are several places within the park that you are allowed to get out (at your own risk mind you) to look out over the bush. We stopped at one and everyone is getting out of the Combi. The tourist is one of the last ones who decides to crawl out, asking the ever popular question, "is it safe here?" I loved the answer, "yes, unless you get chowed..." It's as safe as it's going to get in the wild, the stop was located on a rocky hill. Lions and elephants don't get up in those areas and the animals who can get there either won't hurt you or they are more afraid of you than you are of them. Snakes don't count here... Since there are so many poisonous snakes, not only in the country of South Africa but on the continent in general, you're always on the look out for those critters! I decided to stay away from the sides and just steer a dead ahead course for the area that over looks the park!

You can see for miles from there and as far as the eye can see, it is all a part of the Kurger National Park! While we were out there enjoying the view and the breeze that came with it, you could see the birds high in the sky, soaring on the wind currents. Cara saw movement in the trees and got the binoculars and found a giraffe in the bush but it had to be at least a mile away! On the album, number 50 of 51 you can see 2 trees clearly in the mid ground of the photo, but you can't see any detail to show you what we saw! But he was there, I promise!

Exit time at the park is 6:30pm. Every guest is counted and accounted for at the end of the day. You sign into and out of the park. Those who are tardy leaving the park end up with a very large fine! I can't say as I blame them for that really, you don't want to get stuck out there after dark! I saw lodging inside of the park, but I think that's a little toooooo far out for me!

As we headed out of the park, one of the last photos I shot was of the vultures in a long dead tree against a fading blue skyline. How fitting was that? There were 5 vultures sitting in this tree alone, different varieties who all have their different jobs in life! We'll get more into that in the next blog, "Birds of Death". But if you think this day was over, just because the sun was going down, you're mistaken! The "braai" (BBQ) was the final adventure of the day.

We had planned a picnic under the stars for Friday night but there was still a stop at the grocery store on the way. Santi, Cara and Stefan (Cara's friend) went into the store while Mari, Peter, Betsi and I stayed outside and talked about the day and the area. Once the shopping was done, we headed back to Onsplek to braai and end the day.

It was a clear night and Santi showed me the Southern Cross in the sky. I hadn't thought about it before but being a half a world away and at the "bottom" of the world, the sky does look different! Onsplek (our lodging) was out away from city lights so there was a beautiful view of the night sky in all of it's splendor! Dinner was a community affair as all braais I've been to are. Stefan and Peter handled the grill work while the ladies prepared the veggies and salad. It was such a wonderful dinner, but I think by the end of the day we could have been eating zebra and would have loved it! Our evening ended and we headed out to bed.

Of note here, there is a river that runs along side of the lodging. There are many sounds of the night creatures clearly heard in the distance. It is so relaxing to sit there and listen to the sounds of night and the river flowing by. Before I headed off to bed, Cara and Stefan were doing a final check of the braai area to make sure we had tidied up nicely and the night secruity man told them that there had been a hippo who wandered onto the grounds on the back side of the sleeping room! The hippo lives down near the river somewhere and does come out to visit from time to time. Hippos can be a little cranky around humans, espeically at night when they are feeding, so I'm not all that disappointed that I didn't get to see him that night! But a little later, I did hear something chowing outside of my window, I'm not sure what it was, I was so tired and didn't have the energy to even go look out the window! LOL

And there ends, "Elephant Day"...

Elephant Day - Friday Part 2 Shangaan Villiage

2009-03-16T07:24:00.000-07:00

I am finding the Shangaan Cultural Village a little difficult to explain right now. There seems to be contradictions between what the Internet tells me and what I saw and heard while Cara and I were there. I'm going to have to come back to this blog after I've considered this a bit more... my question to myself right now is, how much of what I saw and heard is for the tourists benefit and because Cara and I did do a lot of Q&A while we were there, how much truth is there. I'm leaning towards more truth than "circus" as it were.

I've seen our own Native American village reconstructions that were meant for tourists to learn more about their heritage and it is very apparent that those villages were built for the tourist/educational interests. I think what Cara and I saw was a culture trying hard to hang on in an ever changing world. It's going to be difficult for me to express what I saw and how I felt about what I saw while we were there. I think the one thing I can say for sure is that I was saddened for the Shangaan people...

In the meantime, I have posted pictures taken in the village on the Picasa album in the album called, "Elephant Day - Friday Part 2 Shangaan Village". Also there is a link below with the ... tourist version...

http://www.encounter.co.za/article/137.html

Elephant Day - Friday Part 1

2009-03-16T03:51:00.000-07:00

Liese tells me I'm not writing fast enough for her! So I'll try to type faster, the problem with that becomes the spelling impossible for spell check to read my mind! But Liese, I'll give it a shot. I have a couple of more days to go through and there is a lot that happened in those days. For those who are keeping up and enjoying the blog/photos, thank you for your comments :)

I said before that Liese had typed up a very pretty and colorful itinerary for the weekend for me, but she left out a surprise. Down the road from where we stayed on Thursday night, there is the Elephant Sanctuary. This is a half way house for elephants who need temporary sanctuary until they are able to be moved into a safe environment when they are old enough. The day we were there, there were 2 elephants for the public to see and interact with. The key to survival, for tourist and resident alike is t remember that no matter how cute and cuddly they appear, they are called WILD animals for a reason. Kasper and Kitso, the elephants at the sanctuary, are trained and worked with every day. The trainers go out to their pen every morning and move them to their exercise yards. They then take them through their routine and here is where they check for elephants mood for the day! On cranky days, the trainers must work with them longer to help get them in the "mood" for their job. Their job is to entertain and educate tourists! Their trainers are never far from them at any time. Though they both came to the sanctuary when they were young, they are still wild animals. After interacting with them, it is easy to forget that they aren't domesticated, simply under control of their trainers. With that said, let's move on to the "hug an elephant day".

Santi has known for quite some time that my favorite animal is the elephant. He is such a "gentle giant", rather easy going up until he feel threatened. What Shepherd, our guide for the tour, said was that people actually would get wild animals (and again, I stress wild) for pets... They seem to think they have a large enough back yard to keep an elephant! It isn't long before they discover exactly how many acres it takes to support 1 elephant! The sad fact is that when nature becomes unbalanced then all of the wild life suffers. Right now at Kruger Park there are more elephants than the land can support. They eat more than their share of the grasses and leave other animals to go without. At this point Kruger is looking to move right about 200 elephants out of the park.

One thing that I did learn about elephants at the sanctuary is that elephants are very emotional animals. They have a gland that secretes a type of musk when they are happy, sad, excited and of course, in season! The elephant herds are bonded together as a family and they are very protective of their family! Even at the sanctuary they are torn between what is best for the elephant, yet they need to support their program which is why they have opened the sanctuary to the public. It's not their first choice but elephants just aren't cheap to keep! At the Elephant Sanctuary they strive to educate visitors about the elephants and give them a chance to look at them and even feel how different their skin feels from one part of the body to the other. Again, the trainer is very close to the animal and he uses a lot of treats to get the elephant to cooperate.

Cara and I were among the first visitors of the day. Kasper, the older of the 2 (he's about 25 and considered a young adult of breeding age) was a little fussy and his trainer did have to speak to him, but again, we were the first visitors of the day, maybe they stayed up too late watching TV? Kitso, is about 12 years old and considered a "teenager". He was very cooperative and almost seemed to enjoy the interaction with the group. He came to the Sanctuary when he was younger and he depends on Kasper to help guide him. Interestingly enough, I had always thought that the way the youngsters hold on to the tail of an adult was a "trick" that was taught, but it is a natural instinct that they learn from an early age!

Shepherd continued to educate us on the life and anatomy of the elephant while both Kasper and Kitso stood before us. Then it was time for each of us to come over to the elephant and get a "hands on" lesson about the elephant. I jumped up to be first, I couldn't wait any longer to feel the elephant! I went to Kasper and as I said, he was a bit fussy but his trainer spoke to him and he decided to be more cooperative, of course a hand full of elephant snacks didn't hurt either. I think he also may have his trainer a little trained as well! Cara did say that the Elephant Sanctuary (there are other such venues as well) had a reputation for a soft hand in training their elephants, they use the reward system in their training where as others do not. Kasper got a hand full of elephant treats and he also smiled as if to say, "see, who's the boss now?" I was amazed at how much expression that the elephants had! Of course I had seen them in zoos but never this close and never with an elephant who seemed at peace with where he was. Granted, his preference would probably be out in the wild to roam freely, but after they have so much interaction with humans they can never be released back into the wild. When man interferes with nature it seems he must continue to interfere... this is a sad but true fact.

I was guided through the parts of the elephant, such as the trunk. There are no bones in the trunk and it seems much softer than say his back or his legs. It's almost reptilian to the touch but not as cold I think. I've had snakes and reptiles and he has more the feel of a large lizard as opposed to a snake, but still not the same... Looking into his soulful eyes with his long eyelashes (that helped keep the flies out of his eyes), he watched me as closely as I watched him. You just want to hug him and tell him everything is going to be OK :) He uses the trunk much like we use our hands, to grab what he needs and to either eat it or throw it over himself! It's moist and warm, much like our noses, and the edges of the trunk are used as we use our fingers.

Being a young adult, Kasper's tusks aren't as long as a fully developed male at this point but I would estimate them about 14" (?) and I couldn't encircle them with one hand span where they were the thickest. They are basically the same material that teeth are made from and they feel cool to the touch but not as smooth as the polished ivory that you would see in a museum. I will mention that most countries in the world prohibit importing of ivory because the elephants were being slaughtered just for their tusks and the ivory. Make no mistake, there are still poachers who have a market for the tusks and the authorities are always on the look out for them. An interesting fact, the elephant replaces his back molars about every 5 years...

Moving down his body, the "elbows" are callused as he sleeps on his side on the ground at night. Kasper sleeps about 5 hours a night because his weight compresses on his lungs and it becomes hard for him to breath. I'm not sure how many times he may lay down in a 24 hour period, I think I forgot to ask that question. When he gets tired of standing on his feet, he does the same thing you and I do, he shifts his weight to one side and lets the other side take a little break for a while. Amazing isn't it? How much they are like us they are? His body is covered with wiry hair that alerts him to flies and other pests. He uses his tail to swat at them. One of the reasons they throw mud and dirt on themselves is to swat at the flies as well. His main body skin has a rougher texture to it. It feels more "man made" than biological in some ways.

He flaps his huge ears to cool himself. It's wonderful to be behind those ears when they flap when it's very warm outside! The ears themselves feel like soft leather and they are irregular shaped at the ends. I'm not sure if he's born that way or if that is just a natural development from flapping his ears as much as he does. He tolerates the heat with the help of those very large and soft ears! If I had ears like that I'm sure I'd do the same thing as Kasper does!

I believe he has 5 nails on each foot. The foot has a very rough texture to it, it has to to support his weight plus "bundu bashing" (walking in the brush). If you've looked at some of the photos on the Picasa site I'm sure you've noted the thorn bushes and their very large and SHARP thorns! Nature has given him the tools and ability to survive the areas, where he lives, in quite well!

Cara took her turn after me and she went to Kitso. Cara has been raised all of her life in South Africa and she has seen the elephants (as well as other animals) in the wild many times. I was eager to go play with the kids, while Cara was a little hesitant. I was laughing at her as she kept her distance from Kitso and she said that she had been raised all of her life to understand that these are wild animals! This was also Cara's first time being up close and personal with an elephant. So the "tourist" was accompanied by another tourist! I guess it's kind of like us, we have all of these tourist attractions around us, but we never really go there until we have visitors!

Before Cara was done with her up close and personal meeting with Kitso, he gave her a kiss! You can see by the expression on her face that she was surprised at this! He uses his trunk to give "kisses" and he even makes little kissing noises as he gives his kisses. Kasper doesn't give kisses, he was older when he came to the Sanctuary, where Kitso was much younger. Kitso's kisses are very gentile and oh so sweet!

After meeting the kids and seeing their pens it was time for the ride on the elephant. Now, since Kasper had a little attitude with me earlier, I wasn't exactly sure we needed a little "closer" relationship. Cara had also noted his little mood earlier so when it was time for the ride, she went first and chose Kitso, who is smaller and generally just a happy go lucky kind of a guy, at least from what we saw. OK so the problem with Kitso is that he is smaller, which was less of a problem for our tiny Cara but it did present problems for me and my ... ah.. mature figure shall we say? Now, we were told before we went that it was a bumpy ride and we should expect to be a little sore. I think the word "little" could have been modified just a bit here! Cara said that her bony "bum" was smarting a bit after the ride but she was fine the next day. Now, if you look at my more mature "bum" on the elephant you will see where tailbone meets elephant spine. Use your imagination on that one! I wasn't exactly "fine" on Saturday!

Here is the other thing, going uphill was easy really, the kids kind of sauntered up the hill and you start thinking, "OK, this isn't as bad as Shepherd said it was going to be..." Ha! Just remember, what goes up must come down... The down hill speed is a tad faster, which isn't a problem until the curves come up! It's kind of like being a passenger on a motorcycle. You are supposed to LEAN into the curves... NOT! For the record here, I'm not a good motorcycle passenger either! So as Kitso was going down hill and around corners I grabbed onto the trainer and very "politely" told him that to save himself he needed to save me too! LOL I kept telling him I was bigger than him and if I fell off he was going with me! I don't think a tourist has threatened him like that before because he just started to laugh! By the way, you do sign your life away before you go in there. There is a whole list of things you are agreeing to before you're allowed in. It was too much reading for me without reading glasses and I asked him why they just didn't make you sign a document saying "Nothing is Our Fault"! Seems to me that would cover just about anything!

So remember that "where human tailbone meets elephant spine" comment? Let's just say I had blisters where I never knew you could have blisters! It was a jarring experience and for someone who sits behind a computer all day, it was a workout as well! Santi asked me about it later and when I told her she just laughed! They had saved this as a surprise for me. I knew there was a surprise coming but no one let the cat (or should I say elephant?) out of the bag!

Although I think the experience as a whole was wonderful, that was only the beginning of the day. We said good bye to Kasper and Kito and continued on our merry way... This was going to prove to be a very educational and wonderful day by the time we were through!

For more information on the Elephant Sanctuary you can go to:

http://www.elephantsanctuary.co.za/hazyviewhome.htm

Sudwala Caves - Thursday

2009-03-15T11:52:00.000-07:00

Cara, my Tour Director, arrived promptly at 12:30 pm as she had threatened. I say threatened because Santi and I went out for a little bit on Wednesday, that turned out to be longer than expected. Nothing new when we wander :) So off we were in Cara, "4 wheel drive" VW, (we'll get back to that later in the blog).

We drove for a couple hours in the country and arrived at Sudwala Caves and Dinosaur Park in the late afternoon. The caves are nestled high on a mountain, a difficult road for Cara's little VW! The roads leading into the area are steep and once you turn off of the main road you are on dirt roads that are worn from the rains. There are potholes and places in the road where it has had ridges worn into it from the rains. Cara had to transverse these roads and she did it with great skill! Personally, I wouldn't have taken her little economy car up those roads! Cara is just plain brave is all I know! She does make a good point in that if something happens, it's not like it's a brand new pretty car! Anyway, there is a photo on the Picasa album of the road and how steep it is AND the pathway up to the entrance to the caves! It's not like it's a very long way UP but it is most definitely UP! Cara is younger than I am and she was still happily taking a break going up there! Of course, we didn't say we were taking a breathing break, we were looking at the scenery!

Although the day was hazy (we stayed in Hazyview by the way) there was a beautiful view across the valley to another mountain. Even as we crawled up the steps to the entrance of the cave, the path was lovely, with shades of green and lush foliage along the way. When we finally found the top of the path the view as more than worth the effort of climbing the steps! The foliage around the mouth of the cave was to die for! There were so many varieties of trees and vines up there to see. Of course the area around the caves are well maintained since it is a tourist attraction, the natural beauty of the area has also been preserved. Again, words fail me as I try to describe what I saw there, I can only suggest you view the folder, Sudwala Caves, at the Piscasa album to get an idea of what I saw up there. It is unfortunate that the camera cannot capture the colors and vivid detail that the eye sees.

Since our tour didn't begin for several minutes, Cara and I wandered around inside the mouth of the cave and had a seat inside of the cave. Here are a few quick facts about the caves. They are estimated to be 2 million years old and prehistoric people used the caves as a retreat during the years of tribal was and it's named after a Swazi officer names Sudwala. There is a constant flow of fresh air in the caves, but no one really knows where it is coming from. Inside of the cave it is cool and feels wonderful, almost like air conditioning. The further into the caves you go, the more humid it is though. Unfortunately trying to use a camera with "night" settings is more than difficult, there are only a few photos that turned out well. If you want more information on the caves you can go to www.sudwalacaves.co.za . There is a lot of history in those caves and one of these days I'll have to go through those notes in my head and get even more information down before it slips away.

I don't know what was more work, crawling up or down those steps! Many years ago, about the time that the dinosaurs roamed the planet, I played tennis in high school. Of course, being young and dumb, and not having the information on sports medicine as we do today, I would continue to play injured or not wait long enough after an injury to go back to playing, my poor knees are paying the price now! Since I work at a computer for 14+ hours a day, it is a safe assumption that I'm not in the best shape I could be in... so the climb up was a workout on those muscles that I haven't used in years and the climb back down was wearing on my knees! I'm sure you'll hear more whining about the fact that there is NO flat country here, only up and down! LOL

Moving away from the caves we drove to our accommodations for the evening. South Africa is a beautiful country and the landscape can change in just a few miles of traveling (that up and down thing again :) During the drive we passes banana plantations with acres and acres of banana trees. Cara explained that they put bags over the fruit to keep the birds and insects from damaging the crop. Then, when you thought it was safe, she shared information about the banana spiders in the fields! She indicated with her hands, the size of these spiders...does everyone know what a baseball looks like? There are photos of the "baby" at:

http://www.photographersdirect.com/stockimages/b/banana_spider.asp

Needless to say, we elected NOT to tour the banana farm in search of this spider! No, I didn't see one and for some reason that didn't bother me much!

We arrived at our destination and again, if you look at the photos, you will see the dirt road that Cara had to navigate to get us there, but be aware, that photo doesn't do the condition of the road justice! It looks pretty good in that photo! The guest farm we stayed at is located not far from the Kruger National Park and there are many like it in the area for visitors to the area. This is a very popular area to visit for both International tourists and South Africans. The farm itself appears as though in years past it was a working farm but now it's more of a Bed and Breakfast. The main house appears older but well kept and the. The rondavel (which we would consider more of a "cabin" in the States) is round with a thatched roof.

Once we were in and settled, we sat outside for a while and just enjoyed the view. There was a large tree with very large leaves that the table and chairs sat under and the leaves as they fell made a "plop" sound as they hit the ground. I mention this for a reason, so read on... It wasn't long before it was time to end the day and get ready for Friday. Just after we laid down, we found a very large moth in the room, it was about the size of a hummingbird. Seriously. It wasn't dangerous, just annoying as it flapped around the rondavel. Cara grabbed the trash bucket and a piece of paper and went on her own safari in the room. It took a few attempts but she was able to capture it in the bucket and take it outside! We were laughing and I finally got the camera out to prove she isn't afraid of moths! I decided to go out for one last smoke (I know, I know.) and as I passed the window I saw a grasshopper on the curtains. I grabbed the bucket and paper and went on a safari of my own. (Cara doesn't like grasshoppers.) My prey was much easier to capture and release outside as I was on my way. I stood by the door with my smoke in hand, listening to the the sounds outside. I heard several of those large leaves as they hit the ground and then all of the sudden, there was a much larger noise out there. I decided that it was time to come in and go to bed! I have no idea what it was, but I wasn't inclined to stand there and see if I could find it! Cara thought it might be an owl, but I don't think owls fall out of trees often!

And so the first day of our adventure ended...

Tuesday and Wednesday

2009-03-12T02:40:00.000-07:00

I can honestly say I don't know what happened to Tuesday and Wednesday! They were spent here at Santi's. We had some running to do but Hatched/AS is also getting some new things ready to launch tomorrow. Yesterday Declan was here for the afternoon. Poor thing, he is cutting teeth and has tonsillitis as well. All in all, he's every mother's dream! Cara and I are taking off today for a long weekend. Liese printed out an itinerary for the Lowveld. I'm going to take a few minutes to post it while I await my tour director for today :)

Thursday is driving and visiting the Sudwala Caves. I googled it to take a little peek as to what is in store for today. This area is rich in both culture and history. http://www.sudwalacaves.co.za/

Friday has a little touring in the morning and my instructions say, "wear long pants and tekkies for bushing (a walk in the bush)". Sounds interesting... Later in the morning the rest of the crew will arrive. The rest of the day will be spent exploring the area including the Shangaan Village. Although I did find a link for the village, I didn't have time to look at it closely, but here it is anyway: http://www.shangana.co.za/4.html Dinner will be a picnic under the stars and Liese tells me that I need to be sure to find the Southern Cross! I'm told they see different stars and constellations here but this will be the perfect time to actually be far away from city lights to see them brightly! Let's hope for some clear weather!

Saturday holds even more surprises to come! We will visit the Moholoholo area. Here is yet another link I haven't fully been able to explore http://www.moholoholo.co.za/ This should be fun! So much to see and explore! What a wonderful country this is in all of it's splendor! My itinerary says that we will be taking a scenic route back to Hazyview which will include Bourkes Luck, Blyde River Canyon and the 3 Rondawels, the Pinacle and God's Window... how beautiful does that sound?

Sunday is an early start to the day and the drive back home stopping at Pilgrim's Rest and finally, home sweet home!

So, what kind of weekend does this sound like? Sounds to me as though I'm going to be filling up those camera memory cards and the hard drive on my PC! At least I'll have the laptop with me so I can download and perhaps edit the images to be ready to go up as soon as we return on Sunday! I have a notepad ready to take notes and of course I'll be picking up the touristy kind of booklets as I go along!

I see my tour director is here and I must begin this adventure! I'll be back!

Botshabelo Historical Town, Museum and Nature Reserve

2009-03-09T23:47:00.000-07:00

Botshabelo is about 20 minutes from Santi's house, going the same direction as to Loskop Damn. Botshabelo means "a place of shelter" or sanctuary". It was settled by Germany missionaries in 1878. More historical information can be found at: http://www.footprint.co.za/botshabelo.htm . Sadly, like so many of our own National Parks, this one has fallen prey to the economy. One could easily fall in love with this settlement and live happily ever after. It is nestled in the rolling hills just outside of Middleburg. In it's day is was largely self sufficient with 1,315 inhabitants.

As you enter the reserve, the tall grasses obstruct your view to some degree. It was Mari who spotted a couple of zebra quite a ways from the road! Yes, I've seen zebra's at the zoo as we all have. But to see them in the wild is much different. You get a better idea of the majesty of the animals! Mari and I sat some some time just watching the kids graze in the grasses. After several minutes we continued on dirt road to the village of Botshabelo. I'm not sure how many still live there and tend to the village but it's far from the 1,315 inhabitants of 1873! The law now requires that the village be maintained and restored (as funds are available) to it's original state. Not an easy task when you consider that the large church was built with 300,000 bricks and stones! Even the buildings that both house the residents and those who that were used for everyday life when the village was alive with the business of everyday life. In those early days they maintained a large small mill run by a full time miller, planted fields, a bookbinder and a blacksmith. Although we are spoiled with modern conveniences, I would love to use the "Way Back" machine (a cartoon devise from many years ago) and see the town in all of its glory!

On driving into the village you see, on the right side a large school built in the early 1900's. It is still known as the "Practice School". This school house was used up until 1979 as a training college. If I'm not mistaken, this would be a trade school. It is well maintained from what we could see from the road. Again, due to fiscal issues, not all of the buildings were open with a guide. We went on a Monday and I'm not sure, but I would assume that there are more tourists there on the weekends, it appeared to be only a skeleton staff on duty.

Not long after passing the school and residences, in a shaded area near the river that runs through it, there was a large group of vervet monkeys! The group was so large, even I couldn't miss it! Because this is more of a tourist area, not to mention it used to be used quite a bit for weekend picnics by locals from Middleburg and beyond, these monkeys are not as skittish as some you would see in some lesser traveled reserves. We didn't get out and play with them, but when i got out of the van, they didn't panic either. I won't tell you how many photos I snapped off while watching them play and carry on with their lives!

One of my favorites (besides the monkey who looks like he's laughing at the tourist..) I think one of my favorite photos is the first, with the mother and her child, cuddling while the baby nurses. The mother is holding the baby close to her while watching the monkey next to her. These Vervet monkeys are as common as our squirrels are! From the Picasa album photos you can see the number of monkeys and I dare say that was all of them! Another favorite has to be the monkey that appears to be laughing at the tourist! There is so much expression on their faces that you feel you know what they are thinking!

Once we pried ourselves away from the monkeys we proceeded to the center of the village. One of the first buildings we came close to was the seminary, another older building that has been well maintained over the years, and unfortunately not staffed. The entire area is peaceful and beautiful. There are many trees that provide shade and a cooling breeze that blew through area. Although it was a warm day, the breeze felt wonderful and as long as we were outside, it felt much cooler than it was.

There is a bridge that takes you to the old village where the locals lived. There is a beautifully, brightly colored set of building across the bridge. Each symbol on this building means something. Mari and I tried to get a book about the area but there were none there. I guess I'll do an online search and see what I can come up with. To get inside of the buildings/huts you have to basically crawl in through the open door way. Considered what I have heard about the "lovely" varieties of spiders, I peeked in and decided that was about as far as I wanted to go! Mari laughed and agreed at the same time! More fascinating were the huts that were built which represent better the types of housing used by the native tribes. These were a semi-migrant society so not much time was spent building when they knew they would be moving along sooner or later. I guess the way I would compare it to US history would be our own Native Americans who used tents as their homes when they would follow the game in order to live. I'm still looking for a map of the area tribe who inhabit the area to this day.

I am a history lover. I feel you can get a better understanding of your own family history and get a feel for how your ancestors lived, but working on Genealogy. You can't get far or any kind of a feeling if you don't look at history and what was Politically Correct at different times in history. You really cannot appreciate the type of life they lived. Even 100 years ago, things were so different that I don't think I could live the type of life they had! Can you imagine (seriously) walking to the creek or river to collect the water you needed for the day? Can you imagine collecting the water and filling a tub for a bath but having to boil the water to make it warm enough to hop in there? Although I'd like to stand back and watch through the "Way Back" machine, it's not a life I'd like to live! As the family historian for my family, I can stand back and watch the evolution of our own country, see how the values changed as modern machinery came into use.

Enough of my philosophising. I've said this before, this blog is not only for my friends and family, it is also for me. The only way I can understand what I see is to compare it to what I know. Peter and Santi showed me my first Rugby game on TV the other night. Poor Peter is trying to explain the rules to me. The rules seem to come from both soccer and American football (I know, what came first, the chicken or the egg in sports!). I have a simplistic handle on the game now though.

Here, as well as in the album "A Day With Mari", we found local artisans at work. Though the traditional garb hasn't changed much, the colors have moved to more vibrant shades with the advent of new and better ways to add color. Early on the dyes were natural, those found in fruits and berries, (consider what handling blue berries does to your hands) but as dying techniques because more easily accessible the people were able to add the rich colors we see today. Each article they ware represents something from their culture. The metal bands around the neck and legs do not come off and as other levels are reached (in marriage for example) more are added. The beaded cuffs around the lower leg are all hand beaded. Those cuffs take at least a week to make. In the little curio shop I didn't find any for sale, so my assumption was that they were for personal use. These artisans do make trinkets available in the gift shops, all by hand. It is interesting to watch them work. I do not have the patience to pick up those beads one at a time and apply them to the project! I also wonder what they used for beads, say 100 years ago?

Liese came in last night as I was editing photos for the albums (I use high resolution for shooting but those files are too large for the Internet), she saw the photos of the colorful grasshopper that did go into the album! She said something about, "you and your bugs!". Well, one of the reasons I am fascinated by the "bugs" are their bright colors! If you look closely at the photo I think you can understand where the desire for the colors come from! So, laugh at my bugs but I took the photos for a reason :) As time goes on, you will find even more bugs that I will be adding!

For more information on the indinous, I found this link most informative: http://www.krugerpark.co.za/africa_ndebele_p1.html

Now on to tag the photos!

A Day in the Country

2009-03-08T13:08:00.000-07:00

It was Santi and Peter's turn to play tour guild for me and we were going to take a trip into the country, our destination, an area called Tonteldoos. It didn't take long to get out of Middleburg and you could see the gradual shift from urban to rural as we drove along. Coming down the mountain out of Middleburg we stopped to enjoy a view of the valley we were heading for. The brush had grown very high and there wasn't far before you could have easily fallen over the edge of the mountain. This was not a gentle bank of the mountain and I'm not sure I would have tried climbing down that side of the mountains in my younger years, so we decided that falling would probably be a very bad idea. While walking from the car to the edge, there were stacks of the tall grass that had been cut with a sickly and strapped together with more of the tall grass, that would be used in the thatched hut roofs that you still see here. The roofs are layered on top of the houses and help to keep the house cooler in the winter.

As we meandered down the road farther, the fields were planted with corn. As I've mentioned, the rainfall this summer has been well above normal and it is affecting the crops. They don't irrigate much so they depend on the rainfall to water the crops. There are miles and miles of corn planted, but Santi said it was nothing like the plains in the states! What I found very interesting was that out of nowhere came a coal mine! Even on a Sunday there were trucks waiting to be filled and there was a lot of activity around the area that I think was being used to load the coal into trucks. Peter said that if they found coal on the land, they would mine it. The companies are required to reclaim the land when they are finished, but it still takes several years to be able to plant again.

Once we turned off of the main road the roads were not as well maintained. There are signs indicating potholes ahead and there were! There had been places in the road where they had started repairs and ran out of money, so these large chunks of asphalt are still missing. These are 2 lane roads and each driver is careful to watch for on coming traffic. At one point over 3/4 of the road had been torn up for replacement. As we went farther on the road the paving have ended an we were driving on dirt. With the rain you can image the condition of the road at this point! Time and distance are used to relay information about one area to another. It's the same as we do, if someone asks me how far it is from Bakerfield to Sacramento, I tell them "about 300 miles". When someone asks me how far it is to downtown Sacramento from where I'm at my answer is "about 25 minutes". So, the more things change, the more they stay the same!

While traveling on the road to "The Barn", in Tonteldooes, (translation "flint box, used to light fires, much like matches) our destination for the day, there were small groups of homes, I would be hard pressed to call them towns. Most of these people live near the farm where they work. There was one house where the husband and wife (?) were tending to their property, he was mowing the lawn while she was cleaning up the yard. There was a small vegetable garden where they would grow their own fresh vegetables. Other houses were not that well tended. We came across a very, very old, dilapidated brick home that had not been cared for over the years, the brush was over grown and the yard within the fencing hadn't been cut in a very long time. My first thought was that the house had been abandoned for several years. Peter said that someone, in fact, lived there. We spotted 3 young children (under the age of 10 I would estimate) playing out in the brush in front of the house, they were almost so hidden by the tall, overgrown brush that we didn't see them immediately. The house was in such disrepair that you wondered if the family was that poor and then Peter saw a satellite dish in the yard! They had strung a line from the nearby electric poll, Peter said they were "stealing" electricity because the electric company would never do it the way it was done... and then the satellite dish...? It made no sense to me but Peter said that was how it was out in the "country". I have seen similar conditions out in the country in Bakersfield but in those cases there was no satellite dish!

On these roads, where we would see nothing for quite a ways, there were people walking along the road. I asked Peter where they were going because I could see no destination in site and he answered that back off of the road there were farm houses where the workers lived. Again, being a city girl, I couldn't imagine the walk they had from point A to point B.

One thing I will interject at this point would be the "bus" service in and out of Middleburg. There really isn't a bus system, they use vans as taxi cabs. The roads in Middleburg aren't really wide enough to accommodate buses. For those who don't own cars and live a ways out, they use these taxis to get around town. The taxis even travel out to the rural areas. There are many who live in town through the week and travel home for the weekend. Their only way to get there if you don't have a car. Many of the farmers in the area will load up their workers who live in and around the farm and take them into town to pick up what they need.

That reminded me of my Grandmother, who lived in a "mill village" in South Carolina and her stories of "going to town" when she was a child. They lived on a small piece of land when she was growing up. The family lived in a very small 1 room house that her father had built. I think there were 9 or so kids in family in such a small house. I remember her stories of her father hitching up the wagon and "going to town". They would get up at the crack of dawn (as always) and get ready. They would wear what my grandmother called their "Sunday go to meeting clothes (church attire). The trip to town took all day long! I don't think we can appreciate living that far out into the country! Even when she lived in town in Greenville later in life, her reward for a hard week at work was to go "to town". She would wear her hat and white gloves and wait on the bus to fetch her.

After a long ride (long because of the condition of the roads, not in miles) we arrived at "The Barn". It is a quaint little restaurant, out in what I would consider nowhere, owned by a very lovely 80 year old woman. The barn was built about 1878 and has been kept as original as possible even though some modern conveniences and newer portions of the original building have been added. If you look at the album, "A Day in the Country", you can see the building has been mostly built of rock and mortar. The rocks used are naturally somewhat flat and of irregular shapes. You can clearly see in the photos that where the stones didn't fit tightly, smaller stones were jammed into the holes. The original fireplace was also built out of rock and it was blended into the back wall. There are few tables inside, but they have long picnic benches to sit outside on the porch on nice days.

They had taken old, colorful medicine bottles and had strung them from an old tree branch outside and had a wind chime made by hand, using the bottles as well. Across the front of the building there were old farm implements hanging. At one point when we were looking at the antiques on the porch and Peter pointed out an old sewing machine that he called a Pfaff it was really a very old Bernina. I couldn't find a model number on this machine, but it was a light green with knobs and gears on front and on top. I think the oldest Bernina I've seen is the old 500 series. If someone has an idea as to what model number, I would love to know what it is. There was even an old Singer treadle machine as well, it took the old bullet style bobbin case. The poor thing was rusted solid and you could not even tell the machine should have been black. One thing I did find quite amusing is that a very old pair of leather work shoes had been used to plant succulents in! The shoes were well worn and I would have to guesstimate they were made in 1930's or before.

The house that the owner lives is in a house in the back that was built in about the 1930's. The woman said that it was so old that some of the vine type foliage was creeping to the inside of the house! She said she used to fight with it, but at 80, life was too short so she is leaving those problems to the one who comes after her. There is a walnut grove to the side of the restaurant and she loves to go out and collect the walnuts. Her daughter said her mother spends about an hour a day collecting her "treasures". The walnuts are used in the dishes they make, like the walnut torts.

They make their dinners and when they are out of a specific meal they are out! It's much like the old diners and the "blue plate" specials. There are chalk boards with the daily specials as you walk in telling yo what is available. They make preserves there on the property for sale. Santi picked up some quince jam for toast. I think that will be on the menu for breakfast! (Oh, and it is quite good today :)

The outside of the restaurant has walnut groves that the daughter said the monkeys get more of the walnuts than the mother can collect! I looked around but I saw no monkeys! Monkeys here are about the same kind of trouble as our squirrels are at home. It's just hard to imagine monkeys roaming around the country though! I did have to laugh at the Jack Russel mascot that runs the property. There is a large rock in the yard that is surrounded by wild flowers and the dog will jump up there and just look around to see what he can see!

We said good bye to our new friends and headed back down the dirt roads to the highway and the trip home. In the sky the clouds were billowing and the breeze had picked up. Later in the evening, Santi and Peter headed off to church and I could hear the thunder rolling in the sky from a distance.

When I'm at home, I do keep an eye on what times Santi sends either a post or an email and you're right she doesn't sleep much! I certainly can't function on the amount of sleep she gets! Like so many of us, she crawls out of bed and hits the computer. With the time difference her email can stack up quite a bit! I thought I got a lot of email! Whew!

Loskop Dam Nature Preserve

2009-03-08T01:10:00.000-08:00

The Loskop Damn Nature Reserve is located about 40 km from Santi's. It is a natural dam that has been enhanced. As we came down the road the view of the dam was spectacular! My camera was having a bad color day unfortunately (I believe "someone" had changed a few settings on it... (I am not going to mention any names here!) The range of color I saw here was much more vivid than the pictures show. That is about the only disappointment for the day though. Right now with all of the rain there is much more spill off than normal and the brush had grown much higher than normal.

Cara was my escort and guide for the day. Being that she showed up in her little "Volkswagen" I assumed that the roads through the preserve were in good shape! Silly me! To get to the preserve, we pulled off of the road onto a dirt road and drove over the little bridge over the Olifants River (olifants means elephants). Of course we had to stop and pay admission at the Welcome Center but once we pulled away from the nicely paved Welcome Center the roads were a little less kept. I realize it is a nature preserve and this has been a very wet winter for the area but what made me laugh was Cara's little "4 wheel drive" Volkswagen! OK it's not a 4 wheel drive car to begin with, it is a small economy car that is low to the ground. I told Cara that it may not be a good idea to kill her little car and she said it was no problem, she's taken the car on these roads before... So off on the adventure we went!

Loskop Dam Nature Preserve has a rhino breeding program with the park. Like so many other places, as man encroaches on the animal habitat, the animals are the ones to suffer. There is a wide variety of wild life in the park but the 2 biggest attractions are the rhinos and the giraffes. I was kind of iffy on meeting a rhino in the middle of the road but I thought the giraffes would be a sure thing! Cara and I were talking about it and she said they are not as easy to spot as people would think. Not to mention how many square miles and how few roads there are in the preserve.

Just as we entered the park Cara spotted a group of 3 warthogs. They were a little distance from us but I managed to get a single shot of them before they scattered away. I found it interesting they were as close as they were to the Welcome Center. Cara said that her mother loved the warthogs but I couldn't see the attraction! Hahaha! She thinks they are cute. Maybe I just wasn't close enough to them? We didn't run across any more so at this point I'm still kind of neutral about them. Cara was anxious to show me the animals and she sat and did a sing/song of "here bucky bucky". I asked her if that worked and she just laughed and said no. We did discuss a few thing about how to spot an animal in the bush (yeah, this information being given to a city girl who thinks it awesome to see a deer here and there!). I thought the landscape was beautiful and enjoyed being a passenger for a change. I'm usually the driver when I travel so it felt a little strange not only to be the passenger but to be in "drivers" seat at the same time! The first impala we came across, of course Cara found and she still had to almost slap me upside of my head before I saw it! Once I saw it, it was as plain as the nose on my face! So I thought, OK this is easy enough, I can do this.. NOT! We stopped at one point because Cara had spotted a dung beetle and she wanted to show it to me. The first one we came across had been hurt, but she was rolling a little ball of, ah... well, just as her name implies, dung. The dung beetle is about 1 inch long and wide around and this bug had a ball rolled up to about the size of a large marble. I thought it was impressive but Cara explained how much bigger those balls can grow! I thought, OK golf ball size! If you scroll through the photos at Picasa you will see how sadly mistaken I was! Although the name of the beetle is not very appealing, it doesn't its job in the ecology of the area. Nothing is wasted in the wild remember. I don't think I would want one as a pet but I was fascinated to see how she rolled up this ball that ended up being several times larger than she is. Again I was astounded at the size of the ball and Cara chuckled and said they ever get bigger!

Within a few inches of where we were discussing the dung beetle Cara found a worm much like the centipede. This kid (if you look at the Picasa album) is a very good fishing worm size bug and he has sections to his body and each section has it's own set of legs. Santi and I was just talking about what I used t call "rolly polly" bugs. I'm not sure what their actual name is but we used to play with them when I was young. You would tap the bug and it would roll up into a ball and try to roll away from you. In the case of this worm, it's too long to curl up into a ball, but Santi said that it coils much like a snake. Cara and I didn't touch the worm, I just took a photo of him. Santi tells me that he is harmless, much like our "rolly polly" bugs but as a TOURIST here, I'll enjoy nature from a distance for now!

All along the road there was just an explosion of colors! Flowers and butterflies mixed in with the tall grasses that were half brown and half green. By summer the grass will all turn to a uniform brown. But for now so much of it is lush and green.

One of the most recognized trees in Africa is probably the "thorn tree". Aptly named for its large barbed thorns. Santi tells me there are many different varieties of these trees and some of the thorns can get quite large. While we took a ride to the country today (next blog) Santi was sharing her knowledge of the indigenous foliage in South Africa. The "thorn tree" is the smallish tree that is flat on the top, this is the tree in so many photos of the beautiful African sunsets. I saw one of Elsa's photos the other day and I hope to capture my own very soon! The girls all agree that I need to be out of the city to hope to find that shot. Next week at Kruger National Park I hope to have the opportunity along with seeing the South African sky at night. I'm told they see different stars here than we do at home. I'm excited to see that, but again, this is better done next week. I wonder if my night time setting will capture any part of it? Only time will tell!

At one point where we stopped so Cara could get the binoculars out, I spotted, up in a tree, the Southern Yellow Billed Hornbill bird! I consider this a major find for me, I knew that South Africa had a gorgeous variety of birds, all very colorful and very different from what I've seen, but I never expected to see this guy. He was up in a tree and sitting so perfectly still that he didn't look real. Again, I direct you to the album at Picasa. I look at him in the photos and I still find it hard to believe he was alive, but just to prove it to myself, if no one else, there is a second shot of him when he turned his head. He looks like something that was fabricated in Hollywood! I stood there for quite some time just watching him sit and not move. I can appreciate how Cara felt when I found him, it's like when I got to show Santi and Betsi the Mississippi river! Betsi sat outside for quite some time just watching the river flow by. I'm sure I had pretty much the same look in my eyes as Betsi did!

As time rolled by, Cara was getting more anxious about finding the rhinos and giraffes. Both Liese and Santi called while we were on our photo safari and they all kept asking about the big kids! I know, from my own tour guide experiences, how it feels when nature just doesn't cooperate! I kept telling them that I thought they were more disappointed than I was. I had seen elephants and giraffes in the zoo, so it wasn't like I had never seen them at all. They assure me that I will see plenty at the Kruger National Park, as I said, they are more worried than I am. I was perfectly thrilled with my little bird! The scenery is so similar yet so alien in places, it's amazing.

Cara said that most times when she goes out there, it's by chance that you see what you do see. As I said, this is considered a small preserve that still covers many miles and there are lots of places for the kids to hide! She had said that many times as you drive through the park something will just appear on the road in front of you. This is the part about me being iffy on the rhinos... that's one big kid, so I was always on the alert. As we pulled around a corner of the road we saw an impala crossing the road ahead of us, so we rolled Cara's little "4 wheel drive" to a stop and just watched. We were afraid to get too close to them as they would scatter. Seeing first a couple, I was kind of excited, but as we sat there a herd of them crossed the road. Some of the youngsters would stop and look at us sitting in the car and they would stare. How interesting we must appear to them as well! For Cara, seeing an impala crossing the road is the equivalent of most of us from the cities seeing deer on the side of the road. I know that deer are more common is some areas as others, but for me, bring raised in the city, even seeing a deer is exciting for me!

I've been to the zoo many times and I've seen impalas in their little enclosure so before I actually saw one, I thought, OK good, no big deal. How wrong I was! I was in awe of these dainty little creatures in their natural habitat! I couldn't take my eyes off of them, and of course, the rules in park basically are that this is their home, we are only guests, so they are always given the right of way. It took several minutes for most of the herd to cross the road but it seemed like only a split second to me!

We saw many more of the herd as we passed by them in the brush near the road. They didn't seem to shocked to see us, but Cara said that this park doesn't have many visitors so they are more skittish than the ones in the more popular parks. The thing to remember here, just as at home, is that they are called "wild animals" for a reason! Although the impala is a very docile breed, the males with their horns can do some damage. We saw a few bucks but they were a little camera shy! The birds on the preserve are just so beautiful and colorful.. and FAST, it's just amazing for me to see it all!

Off of one of the roads is a coast line from the dam. There is a variety of birds and insects (and probably animals although not when I was there) around the water. One that I couldn't get a decent photos of (fast little brat) was a kingfisher. They were not only fast but at a distance but they hover in the air and wait until they see a fish in the water then dive bomb into the water. You can hear the splash they make and then several seconds later you see him come up out of the water several yards from where he goes in. (How many times can I use the words "awesome", "beautiful", "amazing" etc in this blog??? I'm running out of words! LOL) Near the waters edge I saw several different dragonflies and was able to get pictures of a couple of them. There is one there that you see the dark brown body and then close to the outside edge of wings are little "furry" of the same brown as the body. When this guy is flying it looks like 3 flying together, one in the center (the body) with 2 smaller ones on either side! I've never seen anything like him (duhhhh).

Leaving that area, there was a rustle in the trees that caught my attention since the breeze that was blowing wasn't enough for the way the trees were moving. Looking closely we saw a group of monkeys. I still have to look up their variety and change the caption on the photo in the album. Cara and I sat and watched them play in the trees for 10 or 15 minutes. Monkeys here are like squirrels at home. Very common and nothing to write home about, except for me! I love to watch the critters at play. Peter saw the photos and said they looked like the rest of my family... Peter has quite a sense of humor!

One the way out of the preserve we got a glimpse of another impala in the bushes, she stood there and kept perfectly still while I snapped a few shots of her. I thought at that point we were done with the animals, but once we got close to the Welcome Center, we stopped the car when we saw a baboon cross the road! Now, here is where I show my ignorance, I thought the baboons were farther north on the continent of Africa! Then there were several more crossing the road. Since we don't play with the animals here and the baboon is known for his bad attitude, I had to shoot the photos from inside of the car windshield. Keep in mind that we had been traveling dirt roads that became dusty during our little adventure! Once they crossed the road, we continued on our way to leave the preserve and there is a picnic area just before you leave. There were not people in the area, but there was a little girls room that I had hoped to stop at, but when we turned into the parking lot we saw a large group of baboons playing around the parking lot! The ones we had seen crossing the road were on their way to play with the large group! The large, dominate male was teaching some of the young ones manners! We were able to watch them for a short time, but before I could get the camera out of the case they noticed us and ran for the bush. Needless to say, I decided that I didn't need the ladies room that badly!

So that was our day at the Loskop Dam Nature Preserve. The family was disappointed that we didn't see rhinos and giraffes. I thought the giraffes would be easy to spot, being as tall as the kids are, but again it's a very large area we were in. As far as the rhino goes, we did see one, several miles away with the binoculars. I did get a photo of the area it was in and I was going to post it, with a "here he is" arrow but I couldn't find the arrow in the program!

Dinner with Friends and Family

2009-03-06T20:36:00.000-08:00

The morning was spent wrapping up business for the week. Checking to make sure all of the "t"s were crossed and all of the "i"s dotted. Isn't it always that administrative work that bogs down the creative side? There was a point where I thought that the girls sat around all day long digitizing! Pffftttt! I suppose as this industry goes, this is a mid size company, by far not a "digitizing" factory. It's kind of surprising to know how many people Hatched/AS has working for them really. Eventually I'll box them all in a corner and get photos up! There are a few that work from home but do pop in.

The team is constantly looking for artwork that is appealing, not only to them but for the customers as well. It's always more difficult to work on something that doesn't make you happy if you're not happy with the art work it becomes something you battle with to get done. I think that shows in the designs when that happens. They spend time, together, looking for artwork for each other so clip art is constantly on their minds.

I think I've said before that Santi has Peter on Fridays. For her, that's the best day to have him with all of the administrative work that goes on. Most days for Santi, the phone starts to ring early. Declan arrived at 8 am with Liese in tow. Liese lives around the block from Santi, an easy 5 minute walk, so when Declan arrives the Oma time begins as well. Liese made him breakfast and set him up on the counter to eat, Declan has a lot of things here at Oma and Opa's house but not a high chair or booster chair. Liese tries to feed him but Declan shakes his head and grabs for the spoon. For only being 18 months old I'm impressed with his skills with a spoon, he manages to get 90% in his mouth and not on himself! He's going to be a handful for Liese and Dylan as he grows up.

Once things slowed down, Santi and I ran errands for "Seafood Night at the Brauwer's". They had invited family and friends for a BBQ, known here as a "bri". You always think you're ready for those kinds of events, but there is that last minute shopping as we all know! We grabbed the shopping list and headed off to the "Woolworth's" to pick up a few things. About the only way I can describe it is a mini-WalMart. You wander from department to department, filling your trolley as you go and then hit the check out stand with all of the other shoppers. Outside of Woolworth's (and other shopping type centers) you'll find vendors with fresh fruit and veggies. I found that interesting, as in the States that would not only be frowned upon, but outright not allowed!

One thing that I did notice here is that the people walk fast! Not the leisurely pace most American's are used to. When Santi says she is going to fly though a grocery store that's exactly what she means! But even the people on the street are moving pretty fast. Percentage wise, there just aren't that many drivers/cars as there is at home, so I guess when you walk a lot to get around you get into the habit of not wasting time.

We got home and Cara was cleaning the shrimp and prawns. She was almost done so I asked her if I could help! She said she was fine and almost done. Liese later told me that Cara just didn't want to sit behind the computer yesterday so she had volunteered. Generally Santi's rule on Seafood Night is that if you don't clean, you don't eat! But since Cara volunteered, that rule went out the window last night!

Santi had just about everything ready when the guests started to arrive, there was a beautiful salad and rice. Santi also made a curry dish. I'm not a curry kind of person and Santi said it's an acquired taste. I believe her! There was a pot of rice as well. Santi's nephew and his wife brought some lovely fish that was put on the grill. I'm not much of a fish person but this was wonderful. The shrimp and prawns were not exactly like the ones at home, they were a tad bit sweeter and being cooked on the grill just made them that much better.

Unfortunately for me my camera didn't want to come out and play last night, but Liese's did. She'll be sharing her photos with me later so I can upload them. The festivities went on until well after midnight when I turned into a pumpkin. Cara will be here shortly and we're off on a photo safari to a local preserve. That should be fun and many pictures to take for me!

A Tour of Middleburg

2009-03-05T22:11:00.000-08:00

I got up yesterday and started to run when my feet hit the ground, well, almost. There were those 2 cups of coffee to open my eyes. Mari was here bright and early to show me the town of Middleburg and the surrounding areas. There are so many differences as well as similarities here. I "see" parts of the US in many of the places I've been. The only way to describe them would be to equate them to what I know at home. The section of South Africa that Santi and family live in is much like the rural South in so many ways! Middleburg is an older town. Like so many of our towns the center is the oldest part and as the city has grown around "downtown" you'll see newer buildings and places where the older buildings have been replaced with newer more modern buildings so you'll see contrasts within the downtown area. As the circle around downtown radiates, you'll find older housing with newer housing. I guess this is pretty typical even at home and it's fascinating to see the changes as you drive around the city. As you move out of the inner city area, it changes to a more rural area. Families have enough yard to have goats and chickens. There are gardens much like you see in the south, with a little corn and other veggies planted. I did see goats not so far from town yesterday. I say not so far out of town but since this city isn't as mobile as our society, we would consider it "not far".

What seems so strange to me is that they drive on the "wrong" side of the road for Americans! Yes, we've all seen it in movies and on television but until you sit in that passenger seat (known at home as the drivers seat) and see them turn into on coming traffic, you go for that brake pedal that isn't there! LOL Oh my! And Santi thought it would be a good idea if I got an international drivers license! Ha! I don't know how Peter did it on their last trip! I used to laugh at Santi when we would go to get into the car when we traveled together. She would constantly walk to our drivers side of the car. I don't know how many times I handed her the keys and said, "You can drive!" Now it's her turn to laugh at me!

Although I'm lucky enough to get my tours from the family and I have an opportunity to see things that are not on any tour group, Mari and I did hit a few of the "tourist traps" as well. There are reasons they are where they are! There is a lovely tourist hotel that has, attached to it, a craft fair for the tourist. I did enjoy watching the ladies as they worked. They were very proud to share about what they were doing. The beaded collar was extroidnary. The lady said that it takes them about a week to make 1! Mari said that they were very inexpensive for the amount of work that goes into them. Keep in mind that I'm still fussing over the currency here. I feel like Santi when it comes to "change" though. They are all "pennies" and I've put Santi in charge of pennies!

It's like when we take our visitors to our local attractions. Take, for instance, visiting the Grand Canyon. The Native Americans have their shop set up for the tourists to come share their money! It's much like when I went to Cherokee, North Carolina. The residents maintain this area as much as they can to celebrate their own culture and traditions, but that part of the reservation is not easily accessible to tourists. What you do see are all of the vendors who work openly and invite you to watch. While our Cherokee there want to maintain as much of their traditions and culture, they also know they must survive in the rest of the world. As I said, many things are familiar in concept.

Once we returned to Santi's it was off again, this time to visit Elsa. If you've been to her website, www.elsasdesigns.com you will see that she has uploaded many of the beautiful photos she has taken! It's amazing what an eye she has for photography! She also knows more about my camera than I do and she has graciously offered to take me for a day of photography lessons at a local preserve. I'm excited about having that opportunity! I love photography and have this very cool camera that I leave on AUTO settings because I haven't learned enough about it to start pushing buttons and changing things! I'm very lucky to have this time with her and learn from her!

Oh, for our Southern ladies, I fried up a "mess" of okra for Peter and Santi last night. Santi said that it's a fairly "new" vegetable to South Africa and it's mostly used in soups and stews. I talked to my step daughter, Jany, last night and told her about it and she was jealous! She told me that I never make fried okra for her! So I've put that on my list to do later this year when our own okra comes in.

An Afternoon with Mari

2009-03-03T23:36:00.000-08:00

Here's something new, the morning was spent on the computer. For Santi it was working on her new design sets and for me it was email and working on some of the photos I've taken and a little work on the Trunk Show CD photos. Liese said that she was going to add more photos to the folder but I don't know when she's going to have time to do that. She's working on her Fairy Land design set. She only has a couple of blocks left to do. I know the ladies on the list have been waiting for a while to get these designs. I know how hard it is to get something done with people breathing down your neck!

Mari invited us for lunch yesterday. She is such the hostess! Mari answered the door in her apron. Now, you might think that the apron was embroidered but it was one of our "work apron", not the pretty aprons that we don't want to ruin! Imagine that! My mother was the same way with the apron I made her. She rarely used it because she didn't want to get stains on it. (Which part of "I can make another one" didn't she understand???). The table was laid out beautifully.

After lunch Cara and Liese gave me the grand tour of Mari's garden. It was so beautiful and lush with flowers and so much green! The last time I saw a garden like this was at a botanical garden and I almost believe that Mari's garden was much greener! Mari's husband, Horst, has over 50 varieties of fuchsias growing on the property. Mari said that one day it became a passion for him. I did upload just a few of the colors that I saw. I have never seen nor did I know how many different sizes or colors of fuchsias!

After we said good bye to Mari, it was back to the office. Santi spent more time on editing the Sunflower designs. (She worked well into the morning getting them ready to test for final edits.)

Peter got home from work about 5pm and went directly for his 5 mile bike ride. He said he would be back in a minute and I couldn't resist throwing in the statement that the stop watch was running! Since we had a full lunch, Santi and I weren't ready to have supper when he returned home but he's pretty easy going. On busy days for Santi, he has no problem making dinner. He listens attentively as Santi explains the issues she's having with her designs or her software. Understand this though, machine embroidery is a totally new experience for him. He will patiently wait as Santi explains the problem. I think she is just talking to herself because many times she is able to figure out the answer as she "discusses" it with Peter! The only thing Peter can do is stand there so patiently as she goes through it.

Peter and Declan have a wonderful relationship. I watched him play with Declan when we were at Badplaas last weekend. Declan loves his Opa (O-pa). Peter is about the only one who can keep up with him! We all know how toddles love to run and how much energy they require to keep up with them! Peter has no problem with keeping up with him! One thing I can say is that this family is very supportive of each other. They know they can depend on each other when they need to. Santi takes Declan on Friday's so Liese can work undisturbed. Liese's mother-in-law also has a day with Declan. This Friday Santi said I have a job, to chase Declan so she can continue to work on her sets. Declan is just adorable and has a great personality. Of course being 18 months old he's learning how to say "now". He has a good understanding at his age of what "no" means and he knows how to use it! He's not a screamer unless he's chasing Cara's miniature Schnauzer's, Iris and Roxy, around! The "girls" are about 4 1/2 months old now. They are old enough to know that a toddler plays a little rough with them!

Santi hit the floor running for the computer first thing this morning. She didn't get as far as she wanted to with the Sunflower last night. She just upgraded her software and as we all know, upgrades come with bugs! She's working on sorting out all of the issues now but it's taking her longer to digitize because the software just doesn't cooperate. We've all been there and know the frustrations involved there!

I'm the "keeper of the list" while I'm here and I'm not talking about the groups. There is always so much to do that you lose track of it. So as I sit here and work on my own projects, I keep track of the "need to do" things. And like at home, everytime I take one thing off of the list, I need to add 3 more :)

I'm going to close for now and try to get more work done and more photos uploaded...

A Quiet Day

2009-03-02T13:34:00.000-08:00

Today was a pretty quiet day today, I met some of the team members. As they get a little more comfortable with me I will get some photos so I can remember all of their names! So many new faces and new friends already! Everyone I've met seems to be as sweet as Santi and the family. They are all considered family, just as I am considered family. What an interesting feeling to be sure.

I got to see Betsi today and she looks wonderful! Most times I've seen her have been towards the end of their tours and of course everyone is looking a little tired! There are lots of smiles and happy people around the office. Santi has a condo that she lives and works in, but she purchased the condo next to her which is more like an apartment that sits over Santi's drive way. Liese and the girls work mostly in the office but they are all up and down during the day.

Tomorrow I'm going to take a few photos of some new projects that they are working on. I saw a mini shower curtain today that was just too much fun using the curly designs combined. There are still more designs to go on it, but it's going to be quite impressive when it's done! Just another new idea for using the designs!

Today we went "downtown" Middleburg. It's a facinating older town. For a town of (estimated) 40,000 people, it is a busy downtown area. Of course there is a mall. I just asked Santi about how far it was and she said it wasn't far at all. For a small town it has a big city feeling to it with all of the activity. I did manage to almost get hit by a car today when we were crossing the street. I was looking the right direction, if I were home, but you have to remember that these folks not only drive on the wrong side of the street, but also the wrong side of the car! There was a point in planning this trip that Santi said I needed to get an International drivers license... does anyone seriously think I should be driving here when I can't even safely cross a street???? I think being a passenger is a very good thing! I can't do much damage sitting there.

The rest of the day was spent quietly (ok so chattily [is that a word?] sitting in Santi's office playing on computers. Right now she's working on several different sets. She has some designs she needs to test to see if the techniques she's digitizing are going to work for the designs, we will know more tomorrow.

It's after midnight again, so much for going to bed early tonight but that is where I'm heading shortly! Tomorrow is another day.

Badplaas - (Translation: A place where you bathe)

2009-03-01T10:06:00.000-08:00

March 1, 2009: Santi is working hard on teaching me Afrikaans and I keep explaining to her that I have enough trouble keeping up with the "Queen's English". Most of the time I get it but there are times I do have to say, "what????". At least I give her a few laughs here and there. Funny part is that although I have had little experience with Afrikaans, I am able to follow (somewhat) conversations. I also find at times, that because they do speak both English and Afrikaans they will through in an English word every now and then. Or Santi will start talking to Liese in English and then all of the sudden they are speaking Afrikaans.

So, back to Badplaas.... This is a mineral water spa not far from where Santi lives. It's a wonderfully, beautifully, lush spa/camping grounds. The water is very warm and there are several different size pools and temperatures. There was even a Declan size pool, it was maybe 12" deep. Oh, I so have to upload photos of Declan in is "cozzy" (costume)! Because of the mineral content he can't go in every pool. He is adorable and I'm not saying that because Liese reads the blog either ;) Declan is 18 months old now with his mother's blond hair and his father's crystal blue eyes. I have photos, I took over 150 just today. I'm the type of photographer who has to take 100 pictures of the same thing in order to get the ONE I want. Being that we now have digital cameras, I don't have to concern myself with the expense of developing hundreds of rolls of film. Anyway, I'm rambling on, but I do hope to start the Picasa album very shortly.

In my short time here, I've seen some very different birds, ones that only exist in this part of the world. I love the splashes of vibrant colors within the shades of green! It's truly amazing to see and hear South Africa it in all of it's splender, knowing there is even more to come! When we were driving back from the airport when I first arrived, it was kind of facinating to "recongize" regions of home and then in a matter of a few short minutes I was in an alien envirnment! It's hard to express in words what I saw. Unfortunately for me, my camera was packed at that time. I arrived on a Friday afternoon and I didn't take the time to dig for my camera, we wanted to avoid as much traffic as we could.

While we were at Badplaas this weekend it was overcast and there was a fair amount of rain. In my case, I found it very relaxing. Being that I call South Carolina "home", (even though I haven't "lived" there since I was 4 years old), I still miss things like summer rain. So for the campers in the group of 12 or so, I think maybe I enjoyed my weekend more than they did... Well, then there was the part where the "kids" were roughing it and we were in a challet, which was basically a studio with no facilites other than a sink. So it's not like Santi, Peter and I were out in the mud. We did keep Declan with us because of the rain but it wasn't a problem.

I was treated to my first, close up view to a new bird. It was called a ha-de-dah. I'm sur this is not the proper name for the bird, but this is what it is called. he is a bird about the size of a duck but shaped differently with lovely irriodecent colors seemingly floating on top of his main feathers. I have many pictures of this very docile bird and I will select the best photos to upload. Declan had a field day chasing after them and although they did move away from him it wasn't a paniced move. Peter said that the birds in the Badplaas had been around humans long enough not to be terrified of them, much like the ducks in ponds or pidgons.

One specacular tree that I immediately fell in love with was an African Flame tree. it has dark green leaves with a most striking orange flower on it! I spent quite a lot of time focused on that tree. It has bright yellowish gold ruffles on the edges and inside of the flower. Again I have several photos of the tree and Santi tells me I'll be seeing it again as it is an indiginious tree here in South Africa. I am just seeing and hearing so much that once I wait until I have time to sit down I am already forgetting things. I told Santi I'm going to have to get a notebook and take notes as I go so I can share this more easily.

For now though I need to wrap this up, it's midnight here and who knows what time is at home now! I'm so confused! I think a lot of this is going to make more sense once I have the photos uploaded...

Alive and Well in South Africa

2009-02-27T16:22:00.000-08:00

My day started at 4am Thursday and for a change all of my flights were on schedule and not canceled, a very shocking surprise from O'Hare! The flight from Washington DC to Johannesberg is a very long flight. But I survived that in 1 piece! Santi, Peter, Liese and
Declan were there at the airport in Johannesburg eagerly waiting for me this afternoon! Hugs all around and yes, I delivered your hugs to them as well. Mari came by this evening, I talked to Cara and Betsi on the phone... how wonderful! Fo far it really doesn't feel like I'm half a world away! What I saw from the airport to Santi and Peter's house looked much like northern Texas really. As we pulled into Middlesburg it seemed like an older quiet town, quite quaint as a matter of fact. I have met the cats, even Flum the naked cat! Although he does have a little bit of hair right now. Santi said he never fully lost his winter coat last year. We're sitting in the office now and he's up on the table wrapped up in his little blanket. Santi and I have been playing on the computer, playing show and tell with her new software. You just wouldn't believe the amount of art work she has acquired! She has enough to meek us all busy for the next many, many years.

We've been talking so long now, I think Peter gave up on us and went to be hours ago. He made me laugh when he said he was going to get me to go cycling with him tomorrow... I said 'good luck with that!" Well, it's almost 3am and it's time to call it a day, a very long day but a day indeed!

Final Countdown

2009-02-25T21:54:00.000-08:00

10 pm: I have been so on schedule for this trip it isn't funny. I am, by nature, a procrastinator to the max! But I laid out a schedule of when what needed to be done by and found myself yesterday with a quiet evening rather than the normal chaos associated with a trip! I thought I was doing good but we all knew that something was bound to go wrong.. and it did!

I have decided that the UPS drivers here in Sacramento are not the sharpest crayon in the box. Apparently they couldn't find the 122 unit apartment complex I live in. Santi's thread? It hadn't arrived by yesterday so I contacted Eli at Melco. He spent an hour on the phone with them to get them to deliver it today but no time specified. So that's good I thought. Because of the size of the packaging on the thread I have no problem with space or weight in my bags but it would make my life easier to have everything here when I was packing...

I've had deliveries as late as 7:45 pm from UPS and I fully expected them to take all day to get around to it. I did get all of my last minute stuff done while I paced the floor most of the day. By 6pm I was beginning to be unhappy for the first time since planning this trip! These idiots are messing with my perfect schedule! I was supposed to be in bed (according to the schedule) long before now. Since my first flight leaves Sacramento at 6:30am I need to be up by 3am. It's 10pm now and I have everything staged in the living room and now I need to go throw it in the suitcases.

So, I give up on UPS finally. I emailed Eli and told him I want a phone number for someone at UPS so I can have a "chat" with them. They had their chance with the very nice Melco salesman we have but he's done all he can. My friend, Karen, wants me to do this as a 3 way call (she's seen me when I'm not a happy camper and she just stands back and enjoys the show...).

11 pm: I have the stuff thrown into bags and all of the tops are still open just in case. When I have to pack like this, I tend to throw everything in the luggage that I can get my hands on! Great restraint was exercised here. Jazzy my fawn Pug knows something is up. You can see it in her eyes. Duchess (the black Pug) is more interested in the suitcases, she thinks she needs to crawl in there and go with me I guess. I keep telling her she doesn't have a passport so she can't go even if I had room in the bags, no passport no bye bye! So what am I forgetting? My liquids are in their little quart size bag, of course I had everything in the cabinet except quart size! Lisa, my neighbor, saved me a last minute trip to the store for that. The airlines are rather picky about things like that... All batteries are charged and ready to go, chargers are where I may some day find them (you know, those safe places).

12 am: I'm done for a few hours. I can't think of another thing I need to do at this point. I'm sure as soon as I close my eyes I'll think of something though. Or better yet, standing at the curb at the airport when Jany (my step daughter) pulls away! Oh well, it is what it is right now. Hey, I just remembered that I need a few pieces of jewelry! Oh Cara, I found a watch ;)

Counting Down to Take Off

2009-02-24T22:54:00.000-08:00

As my friend Karen would say at this point, it's 1 night and a "wake up" and I'm on my way. I still can't believe that I am going! My mind has been racing today, getting all of those last minute details attended to. So far I'm on schedule, well, my schedule. Tomorrow should be a fairly easy day, just the packing left to do and then relax! Well, I guess we all know that I'll forget something tomorrow at some point, but all of the biggies are covered, ticket... passport.. dog/apartment sitter.

I talked to Santi this afternoon and we were both excited. She said that she couldn't believe that I was actually coming and I said that I couldn't believe I was actually going to go. We've kind of "hatched" this idea for years, but in my mind it was always just talk. This is something that, up until I clicked that "buy" button I never thought I would see.

I've been told that this is one of the most beautiful places on the planet that I could go. I've never thought much about traveling outside of the country as there is so much to see here. Over time the thought, just the thought, about going to see Santi and her wonderful family sounded like a good place to start should I choose to see the world! I think that it's as much who I'm going to spend time with as where I'm going, and I think that I have the order correct there!

For those who have not had the pleasure of meeting Santi and her wonderful family, it is my intent in this blog to share them with you as I know them. They are quite simple "folks" as many of you have discovered. Santi laughs at her "fame" here in the states. She still doesn't understand how important she is in so many of our lives. We have learned to love her and her Team through their embroidery designs.

I'll be posting as I can. I normally do journal in the evenings so this shouldn't be much of a problem to keep up on. I'm saving this for me as much as sharing it with you. I want to remember everything I see and everyone I meet on this journey...