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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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