Game Viewing

"Staring right back at you."

(Female Kudu, Kruger Park, South Africa)

Today I noticed some kids jumping and waving their arms ad infinitum in front of a TV screen in a computer store. They had no controls in their hands so it took me awhile to realize they were actually playing an interactive game. It kept them occupied for a long time and kept me pretty entertained just watching them.

But that was nothing compared to the game we saw at Kruger Park this week with our family (who we have since bid farewell to). Game viewing at Kruger Park is different to visiting a zoo. At a zoo, animals are in their pens and you wander around at your leisure checking them out. When you're bored (like if they're napping), you move on. In a wildlife park like Kruger, however, there's one very large natural "pen" and you're in it with the animals. This is one very good reason to stay in your vehicle.

When viewing animals in a game park you have to do a lot of driving and actively search for them. Once you find them, if you get bored with a particular sight, you drive and actively search some more. It's a totally different experience to visiting a zoo and every visit presents its own unique sights. Like these:

Elephants having a "pool party".

Note the guy on the right, bottom down, tusks facing the sky. Is he doing a back flip?

A giraffe, lost in thought.

Smoochy giraffes

A mossy crocodile. (Talk about a long wait for dinner!)

Yawning baby hippo.

Cape Buffalo staring right back at us.

Kind of like the Kudu but with an attitude.

Cute yellow bird taking his umpteenth sip of ketchup.

(Yes, little guy, we know. We're in "your" pen.)

The much-poached rhino. Rough skin, thorn bush scrapes, horn and all.

Zebra with a fascinating stripe pattern.

Did you know that each zebra has a set of stripes that are as unique to him/her as a finger print?

Mom and baby baboons. Very entertaining.

It's a bit disconcerting though how much these animals

act like humans (compared to the others) :)

A particularly protective mother elephant gently keeps us at a safe distance

by walking towards us.

(When an elephant walks directly toward you, you back up. Quite a ways, if necessary, in case you're wondering.)

I'll close with this next one.

A certain tourist taking the "we're in their pen" thing a bit seriously.

ttyl

En Route

Last week I promised to update this "asap", but it's taken longer than I'd thought. We've been en route, from the Mozambique bush to Edmonton, Canada via South Africa and Brazil, so a few extra quiet moments to sort through photos and thoughts have been hard to come by.

I'm currently sitting in a preschooler sized chair, working on a preschool height table in a preschool classroom at the Mt. Horeb mission in Brazil. So here's an update on the last 2 weeks.

Just a few days before our departure from Moz, a small group made up from the Mercy Air USA and South Africa leadership team came for a quick visit to see as much of the work as possible during their short time with us.

Since it was a Mercy Air team who helped to put the roof on the Chitundo health post just a few months ago, it was exciting for them and us to accompany the mission’s carpenter 2 weeks ago to install the newly made doors.




The excitement over this health post in the Chitundo community is palpable.

When we arrived, a group of men were busy digging latrines that will serve the health post. This is a laborious task--no big machines to make light work here!

We had a few moments to talk with the community leaders regarding the running of the health post. They would like the running of the health post to be a cooperative effort between the community and the mission. Three staff members have already been selected to go for training at the district hospital in Manica.

On our way home, we got a picture of this demining camp. It is set up between the mission base and Chitundo.
Apparently a land mine was found recently by a local resident and the demining outfit was alerted. So far, 7 landmines have been found and detonated. It’s a bit sobering to realize how many people, including ourselves, have unknowingly bush whacked through that same area building roads, exploring the bush, etc.

Amid a flurry of activity, we somehow managed to pack our suitcases and leave.

Keren came along to make a side trip to Uganda and to start the process of getting her temporary resident’s visa for Mozambique. Here she is grabbing a quick lunch at Mugg and Bean.

And working on illustrating the health manual as well, of course. ☺

We grabbed a few days break at Kruger Park, just this side of heaven.

It’s always a pleasure! Then it was off to Brazil via Atlanta. Atlanta, U.S.A. is not on the way to Brazil. At all. But it is the most reasonably priced route if you need to make a stop in Brazil on a trip between Africa and Canada. So, just to clarify: 27+ hours of flying time and thousands more air miles is cheaper than 13+ hours of flying time and thousands fewer miles. Go figure. I don’t think even the complicated formulas in my statistics course could work that out!

Back home on the ranch, the work continues. Ron and Barb are staying in our house until their furlough time comes up, and in the meantime, Ron is making great progress on my kitchen cupboards. YAYYYY!

The Mercy Air house is coming along nicely too. Here, the slab gets poured.

So to wrap things up here, right now, we're in Brazil. In Itaperucu, to be exact. First and foremost, we'll be attending Mt. Horeb's annual general meeting. But simply connecting with the good people here and encouraging them is a close second.

The street outside the famous "Wooden Hotel".

This little wood slat house was lovingly dubbed "The Wooden Hotel" by mission staff and the many visitors who have stayed here over the years.

One of the classrooms at Mt. Horeb's primary school. (Yep, that's the size chair and table I'm using right now. Boy, do I feel big!)

Best cooks in the world and what wonderful, loving ladies they are too!

I better run for now. There are many more places to go, things to do and people to see before we leave here next week!

Dwight, my dad and I navigating Curitiba.

Tchau tchau for now.

Timing Is Everything

A Flap Necked chameleon catches a bug on the wall of our house. (Yes, that's his tongue.)

I have tried to get this shot many times over the years, with many other chameleons, but have never managed to. Until now. They say the acceleration of a chameleon’s tongue is 50 g’s…5 times that of an F16 fighter jet. So what chance did I have of getting a shot just as that ballistic tongue flashed out? Probably almost nil. But sometimes, the timing is just right.

Speaking of chance and probability, this is a photo of my office wall plastered with statistics formulas on recipe cards and note sheets.
I'm doing a course in statistics and my completion deadline is April 1st (which is also the deadline for having the health manual done so it can go to press—yikes!), so I better get my timing right for finishing everything up by then!

We've had some long, dry spells this "rainy" season. But last week, it rained and rained. We’re very thankful for the rain. But last week also, between us all, we had many piles of laundry to do. Washing wasn’t a problem, but drying it all while it rained, was. So I strung what seemed like miles of clothesline on my veranda so we could get it all dry.

This photo is only the front veranda. The side veranda also sported several crisscrossing lines loaded with wet laundry which hung limply and watched the rain come down outside. Even after 3 days some of the clothes were still damp, so that wasn’t the best timing. At all.

Timing last week was pretty good for Bero though, who had to make a trip to South Africa for surgery on his arm. There happened to be room on the return flights with the U.S. (Hardwyk) team that had been with us the previous week, so he hopped on board with them. This means that on his flight down, he was surrounded by some pretty cool people! When he arrived at Mercy Air, Rick and Heather were still here (from seeing Rick’s folks off after their visit here), so they helped make him feel at home. They took a day drive to Kruger Park so Bero could see some animals.

What a great day for him! Then they took him to hospital for his surgery on Feb. 24th. (Thanks for the great shots of Bero, Heather!)

Meanwhile, Dwight and Andy were on a flight further north in Mozambique to assess the desperate hunger situation.

Below: Pastor Ricardo and Andy with local pastors in Tambara.

They met up with Mattias Reuter, of Mercy Air, who flew them to remote sites in the chopper.

(Thanks for the photos Andy. Click here to read Dwight’s blog entry about their visit.)

Also last week, Carey and Jeff wrapped up their 3 months with us. (They look FAR too happy to be headed back home :P) On our way to South Africa to care for Bero after his surgery and bring him home, we dropped the guys off at the Beira airport to catch their flight out. So that was pretty good timing too. ☺

So we now have a few days in South Africa before we head back home again with Bero. He is keeping himself busy with reading (really likes his Bible), watching his favorite DVD: The Story of David, and making friends. Here, he and a new friend chat via online Google Translate (he types Portuguese, she types English, internet translates). Cool, huh?

Over the next few days, there will be appointments to keep and things to pick up and do, as per usual. I’m also really hoping to cover some ground on my stats course and on the health manual. Here’s to hoping I can time it right and meet that April 1st deadline!

Wow Factor

When you think about it, we all have new experiences in some shape or form every day of our lives. It’s just that some of those moments have a much higher “wow factor” than others and therefore stand out.

This past week held many memorable “wow” moments for Bero, one of the mission’s sponsored students, as he experienced some major firsts like

flying in a small plane,

getting an international stamp in his first ever passport,

staying in a house with electricity, riding an escalator—in general, visiting the developed world.

The reason for Bero’s trip to South Africa was to consult a plastic surgeon regarding possible (post-burn) contracture repairs to both arms and hands. Bero, who is now 20 years old, was badly burned as an infant during Mozambique’s protracted civil war when an incendiary round was fired at his village and his family’s home caught fire. Although he received skin grafts and follow-up treatment, he has spent his life crippled by the resulting contractures. Compassionate, generous responses from people to his life’s story enabled us to bring Bero for a Dr’s appointment last week.

The surgeon felt that he could restore quite a bit of movement for Bero, so we were all happy to hear that. So it looks like Bero will be back in March 2010 for a 2nd stamp in his passport, a few more escalator rides just for fun, and to meet more of the medical team. Wow!

While Bero had his appointment, the Cessna 182 had its annual maintenance check as well at Mercy Air. This is the time when the plane gets pretty much entirely gutted and dismantled to make sure everything is running as it should be. This process always amuses me because if I were to totally dismantle then reassemble a huge machine, I can guarantee there would be spare parts left over. I’m also no engineer ☺ so, of course, I’m thankful for the competent people who tackle this job. Especially since we get back in the thing to fly it home again!

Other news:

After a great 2 weeks full of activities and fun for the mission’s school kids, VBS finally wrapped up on Friday. I take my hat off to Rick and Heather (blog) for organizing and conducting this event once again, and to this year’s volunteer help, Glenn and Keren. These two weeks actually concluded Glenn’s time in Mozambique and on Sunday he caught his flight from Beira back home to Canada again. We enjoyed having him with us and it seemed he enjoyed his unusual experience in the bush (because bush experiences are always unusual). But I can imagine his joy at being back home with family, friends and modern conveniences again. And who knows, maybe even a random escalator ride too, just for fun. ☺

To wrap up our own week we decided that while we were down here so close to Kruger Park, and since life has been so hectic for the past few months, we’d take a weekend in the park. I’ll close this post with a few photos of the beautiful beasts who live there.

Impala

Cape Buffalo

A baboon on the car's hood...he was after the snack bag.

Curious vervet monkey and her baby in one of the camps.

Lizards fighting. Never seen that before.

Male Kudu

Leopard in a tree. Always incredibly beautiful therefore always wow.