Safari!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is funny here, time goes by really fast but also drags on. It seems super busy all the time, but also as if there is nothing to do once work is done. I guess it depends on the day, your mood and your outlook. In the past few weeks it has been all of these things. We have had one wedding, ran out of water about five times and been reminded of how great it is to have so much space out here numerous times.
Like I said we had a wedding here. It was for to Mercy Shippers whom met at Gateway in Texas. Gateway is a six week training for coming to Mercy Ships that most people over nine months take part in. (I did not because of the fact that school was starting in a week and Gateway would not be again until January.) The wedding was here in the court yard and everyone was involved some way. We had teams of people going to pick wild flowers for decorations and setting up tables and chairs. We only had a half day at school so that we could all attend. The wedding was on a Tuesday because it was an exact year to the day that they had meet. It was fun to see so many people pitching in to do what they could. I took photos of the bride and bridesmaids’ getting ready, it was a lot of fun. The weather was beautiful and the day was lots of fun. Everyone got dressed up and relaxed it was what we all needed.
The rest of the week went by as normal. I stayed here on Saturday and just hung out and read and did a whole lot of nothing. On Sunday I went to a local church. We call it the surfer church it is about an hour away. That is one of the closer English speaking churches in the area. It is really relaxed and has made us all feel very welcome. After we went to a local shopping center for a couple of hours. On Sunday night my one-second-grade student fell from a tree about 8 feet up. He was taken to the hospital and was told that he had a minor concussion and a fracture in his arm. So he stayed home on Monday so I had a lot of planning to do. It was sad that he got hurt but really lucky that he was not hurt more and that the fracture was not on his writing hand. The rest of the week was pretty low key because of his fall. It was also just a four day week because Friday was a National and Ship holiday.
For the long weekend I arranged for a group of 10 of us to go on a safari. I had found this company in Lonely Planet and it sounded great. About a week after I started to organize it they told us that there was a different company who would do tours from Appelbosh as well. We stuck with ours and were glad for the chance to have a break from the larger community that is 24/7. There where two couples in our group, five girls and one guy. So a true Mercy Ship experience 5 girls – 1 guy.
We had been having a little trouble communicating with the company the last few days before we went so we were all a little unsure if it would even happen, but it did and was fantastic!
We started our trip at a very dark but warm start of 4:30 am on Friday morning. It was the most amazing drive, the sun was starting to rise and the moon was still shinning and lighting our path down the windy country roads. It was a very quite drive because we were all so sleepy. We got to the game park at about 9 and as soon as we where in the park we saw a giraffe walk across the road, warthogs running and impala (deer things) running around. We all already felt that it was worth it!
We switched to a Safari vehicle. It is really a little Toyota pick up with seats in the truck bed and a canopy from the sun or rain. It was the most beautiful day for a safari, it was warm and sunny but breezy from the open 4x4 that kept us nice and comfortable. We saw lots of animals right off the bat. We stumbled upon a mom and baby white rhino. It was crazy how close we were it was scary at first because the mom is so large and we are in an open truck so that was kind of alarming. Of course it was fine but you were constantly thinking this is a wild animal it could do whatever it wants. Through out the course of the day we saw 4 of the 5 Big 5, water buffalo, rhino, elephants and lions. We where in the park for about six or seven hours and had a great time. We kept singing lion king songs, which I am sure the guide, really appreciated.
We then drove the 45 minuets to our hotel in our Safari vehicle but with a plastic cover on the front. The whole time we were driving I kept thinking if we stop I will fly out of this car (I was in the front row) and nothing will stop me, my parents are gonna kill me. But we got to our hotel safe had a good dinner and much needed sleep. On Saturday we got up had a nice breakfast then went on a boat cruise where we saw hippos and crocodiles. We also saw other Mercy Shippers, which was not surprising considering all the different travel companies have the same itinerary. We then had lunch and went to a craft fair then went to a rare cat-feeding center. We were able to watch the cats get fed. After the cheetahs were fed they opened up the gate and we where able to go in with them for a bit more money. I did decide to go in because I new that I would never have this opportunity again. I did not pet it but I sat close-ish to it and its tail touched me and that was good enough. We drove back and all crashed from the long weekend.
On Sunday we went back to the surfer church and then went to the beach. I love the beach and just fell home at the beach no matter what beach. It was a very relaxing day with my feet in the sand and waves, I felt at home. This next week will be short as well because today ( Monday) is a planning day which means just four days with students. I am still really enjoying my time here and teaching again it makes me want to teach when I get home and that is good because before I was wavering about teaching.

September, 27th 2010

Safari?

This past week a lot has happened but at the same time not a lot. On Monday and Tuesday we did not have school but had curriculum planning. The days went fine and there was not too much going on. School started on Wednesday and it was nice to get in the hang of things again. I have a classroom here and three days a week I only ever have one student in it. It feels enormous, it echoes but it is nice to have a room to set up in and spread out to plan in. I stayed here on Saturday, I decided against going back to the mall. For 1 I don’t need anything and would just spend money 2 even though I only have one student I still have to plan just as many lessons. So I stayed and worked then hung around researching stuff to do in the area. It was bitter cold yesterday. It is spring here but many days it has been so cold, because it gets dark so early here we often just watch movies because our rooms are the only warm places to be.
Today a few others and myself went to Albert Falls. Which is about an hour away. It was a little hard to find but we made it. We first ended up at the lake created by the dam. It was a beautiful lake and is a place people go to fish, water ski and go tubing. We thought it would be a good plan to make friends with people who have boats just to go out on the water. Today was warm on the verge of hot. It is a lot like home it can be cold in the morning, hot in the afternoon and cold again at night. So we were pretty happy that today was so beautiful and warm. The park has a game park as well. It does not have the BIG 5 but still Zebras, Giraffes a white rhino and others. Those where the three we really wanted to see. We saw Zebras , monkeys, warthogs, antelope and loads of birds. It was our own safari, since we in a rover it really felt like a safari. Unfortunately the roads where pretty bumpy and Dulce and I where in the back of the rover, we hit a pretty big bump we both bounced and hit our heads on the ceiling of the car a few times. We are both fine, with just a headache, but the rest of the trip we sat on the ground our with our arms pressed to the ceiling so it would not happen again.
We left the park and wanted to find the water falls. We had read on line that it was an hour hike to the falls. Either we hike really fast or we did not find the main falls. It was only about a 5 minute walk and we were there. It was still pretty and nice to see a different part of this area besides the mall. It has been a good week, everyone is starting to get settled in here and come to terms with the fact that we have a six o’clock curfew because of how dark it is and how bad the roads are. We are all finding different ways to entertain ourselves. We have also started to go to bead a lot earlier because of it, it does not help either that we are getting up earlier either because of all the sun in our windows or the rosters who are all around. It feels like camping but with out the campfire and smores.

Our home for four months....

    Since my last post we have moved 150 people and all of there belongings off the ship. As well as all departments including the Academy which had 210 boxes all on its own. It was amazing how much everyone pitched in and help each other. It all started on Wednesday when we got into port in Durban. When ships go into ports the ports have a pilot who is familiar with the port and how to steer the ship, and he comes aboard. This is normal procedure but this time the pilot came aboard via helicopter. The Africa Mercy has never taken a pilot on via helicopter before. It all went very smothly, the helicopter did not land on the ship but lowered the pilot down in a harness. We got into port around lunch time but where not able to get off the ship until latter that night. We had not cleared customs yet so latter that night we were allowed off the ship on to the dock but not beyond the dock fence.
Thursday morning we all moved our personal belongings into the mid ship area of the ship. It was a huge pile of stuff at that point I think we all believed we all had way to much stuff and probably did not need it all. We then took a break and then moved all the offices with all the people helping it only took us 20 minuets to move all the Academy boxes. We had so may people helping out it was amazing to see what can happen when people pitch in and help one another out. We then broke for lunch and  packed up the moving vans. It was a lot of walking and steps because we had to walk down two decks and then back up two decks to get more stuff to do it all over again. We had the trucks all loaded in about an hour. We had to take brakes to let the moving company catch up with all the stuff we had already brought down.

At about 1:30 we all packed into the two buses and 24 land rovers to move to Appelbosh which is an hour and half outside of the countryside. We drove though the port and it took so long to get out. They had asked that we stay as a caravan and not split up. That means that if four cars don't make it through the stop light that the rest would pull over and wait. Luckily the busses where just allowed to go on because they would take so long anyway. As we drove we got lots of curious stares but also lots of friendly waves. We made our way through the winding twisting road of the African countryside. There are amazing valleys with houses built clinging to the side. There where large homes on the top of a hill with shacks towns occupying the rest of the hill. We thought we had lost the rovers but when we would take some sharp turns we could see the convoy of all the land rovers. It was a really cool site to see all theses rovers driving threw the mist and rain.

When we arrived we walked around and took in our new home. It was more then we could hope for. It was a teachers college that had been abandoned for 6 years. It is a little run down but it is going to be great and the team working on it is doing really well to make it all we want it to be. We unloaded the moving vans of all boxes and personal bags. We had chains going one for heavy boxes and one for light boxes. We were not sure if it was faster but it was less walking for sure. I do have to say that my Servpro life did aid well in this move. I new how to pack a box, do inventory (for customs) and how to do a pack out and pack back.
On friday we moved all the boxes to their offices and started to set up our classrooms. But first they needs lots of cleaning. Again Servpro days came in handy. I kept thinking to myself if the ladies were here how would they clean this and would they think this is clean enough. Well finally when my class room looked clean enough I started to unpack, but when you only have one student there is not much to unpack. Once that was done I tried to think of lots of ways to decorate the classroom to give it some much needed color. Friday night after dinner we played basketball. Although it has been a long time since I played it was fun. All those lay up drills definitely paid off beacuse that is my only shot but I make it 99 % of the time. On Saturday we went to the mall, it is the largest mall in the Southern Hemisphere. It was nice to eat fast food but the shops where a little less then what I was hoping for. I was hoping for a H & M but there is not one. We spent the day walking around and having the chance to shop a bit.
On Sunday we went to a church service in the local church, I know I have not been to church in a while but this was definitely different then I remember. It was nice and they made us feel very welcome.