2/9/2010

Today was moving day! We got up at 5 to be ready at 530, and then grabbed a quick breakfast so we could be on the road by 7. Once on the road, it was a beautiful drive to our next stop, Kruger National Park. Along the way, we saw some beautiful scenery, including amazing roads winding through the mountains (along which driving was a little scary, but mostly exciting ), but also very shocking images of desolate areas and impoverished towns. I saw people living in lean-tos, a shoddily made church surrounded by huts, and very malnourished children running around. Mostly it was fine, and the villages looked stable and happy, but it was very unnerving, as I am not used to anything of this nature, and feel very 1st world.
After driving for about 5 hours, we stopped for lunch. We had stopped earlier, gotten snacks, and also eaten our sandwiches that we had made. By this time it was noon, and we were stopping for a tourist/pancake break. We walked around the area, looking at the various trinkets and shawls, and also enjoying the wonderful weather. After a while, we decided to stop and get the pancakes that encompassed the second half of the stop. Laura and I shared a Amarula Chocolate Mousse “pancake,” which actually turned out to be crepes. Delicious. Then it was back to the vans, and off to Kruger!
This park is just gorgeous. We saw, within the first hour, an elephant, about 30 impala, about 6 warthogs, and a group of vervet monkeys. The warthogs and impala walk through the staff camp as they please, and the monkeys were in the tourist camp where we are staying. We are allowed in the staff area any time we want, as we are technically staff, but we have to walk in threes if we are leaving the tourist area. It’s just less safe. We first went through a safety lecture, as it is much more dangerous in this park than the reserve. Among the dangerous animals are lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos (white and black), buffalo and hippos. There are also cheetahs and hyenas, but those are not animals we really have to worry about. Cool, huh?
After the lecture, we set up in the bunks. The dorms are 2 rooms, each with a ton of beds, but enough for each person to have two. So, one bed for sleeping, one for stuff. Which is good, because I NEED A STUFF BED. Or at least a place to store stuff. It got bad last time. Once set up, almost everyone went over to the soccer field for an intense first game of soccer. It was so fun. I even bested Graeme, who is a machine, to get the ball, take it up, pass outside to someone who then scored. My life is complete. I almost died after that one though; I am completely out of shape. During the whole game, there were two warthogs just munching on the grass around the field. They were funny, because their necks aren’t long enough to reach the ground, so they have to get on their elbows to eat the grass. They looked so funny. There were also two kids just running through the pitch, riding their bikes around. The entire game included all the students minus eric, evan g, Stevie and lily, and then all the TAs and lecturers (minus Alan who was reuniting with his family, who lives in Skukuza year round).
Ok, I know this one is long, but bear with me. The last thing that happened tonight was a nice dinner (although I forgot to get my word! I’ll make up for it tomorrow), followed by some personal time to get organized and shower, as well as to call home and let people know we were alive. Some people haven’t called since we got here, which is almost 2 weeks ago. We then had a meeting about tomorrow’s field work and the schedule, and then drew names for our valentine’s day shindig. Should be fun . We are separated into early bed room and late bed room. I smartly chose the early bed room so that if I want to go to bed early, I can, and then if I don’t want to go to bed until X o’clock, I can just come in quietly later. I don’t have to worry about people being up until all hours of the night, thank GOD. We have some girls and some boys, which is kind of nice. People aren’t sharing beds, but it’s just nice to have that sort of small community. We’re all still getting along fine, which is great since we have to live together for the next 3 months :P. Thanks for reading!