And a Day-a-two-a in Africaaa

Well here we are at Day 2 - I may not get the chance to blog for a couple days so I thought I'd squeeze one in before dinner. Dinner last night consisted of beef, curry and veggies made by the wonderful Macy (who will NOT have her picture taken...haha hopefully I can convince her by the end of my stay.) It was myself, Lorna, Madelaine and Renee who had dinner together as Mary was down at the clinic with neumonia...poor woman. Here's a pic of us before dinner on the volunteer deck:

Today was somewhat eventful. I started the morning by getting up at 4 a.m...I don't think my bodies quite used to African time yet. I was on the Internet about 6:00 trying to figure out some tours for my long weekend...there's so much to do and so little time! 7:00 found me reading Nelson Mandela's autobiography by the pool with a steaming cup of coffee overlooking the conservation. What a serene morning. If that's all I can have here, that's all I need!

We were helping with soil erosion again today, Tamara driving the stick out to the wilderness! haha it was fantastic. Note the side I'm on - haha. Even the blinkers are backwards...so bizarre.

I also spent a good bit of time in the back of the truck, standing up as if on a safari. Well it was like a safari as we came across a pack of 8 giraffe...two babies...just adorable. We were 20 feet, if that from them. So serene.

(me on the back of the truck...holding on but having a blast!)

(a giraffe momma and baby)

(a pretty beautiful silhouette shot I got as we were leaving them)

It was HOT today let me tell you - that sun is hot. Lorna, the Aussie, and I ended our day with a Black Label in the pool, floating around and sharing Canadian/Aussie stories. Because the roads are hilariously bumpy on the reserve, I introduced her to the "holy shit handle" as we call it...haha we had a good laugh at that.

So, it appears that the Chinese volunteer who was to arrive late tonight got stopped at customs in Australia and can't make it...two more of the May volunteers cancelled also. Very unfortunate, but, sometimes there is a silver lining...it appears that the last week of April I could be by myself here -- meaning an opportunity has risen for me to spend a week or at least a couple of days at the sister program up 4 hours north in Venda, South Africa, which houses an orphanage and the school program. I've yet to talk to Tony & Mary to see if this is possible, but one volunteer is very unproductive seeing as there is a cook and a maid for us, so in a way it's almost counter productive. I'm assuming they'll let me go - and I've emailed Nyawira who coordinates the school program. Please send your well wishes to the Gods and cross your fingers that that opportunity opens up...if it does, that will make my LIFE! Two volunteer programs in one month...lets hope and hope and hope!

Tomorrow we go into Pretoria to shop, have dinner and possibly a film. Hopefully I sleep the night away tonight! Although the 6 a.m. mornings are so serene, I may not want to give them up!

I'll end the post with a couple pictures of inside the volunteer lounge from past volunteers...oh how they speak to my heart!

And a quick PS - I've sent a couple emails now but it appears the Internet connection is a little tricky here, so bare with me!

Love to you all!