I've officially been in Africa for 4 weeks now... so hard to believe and it's been total chaos the entire time. Because I'm still living at the lodge with the volunteers, it's like I've been at work for a month straight. And because I am busy trying to get trained before Christy leaves, I have been out visiting all our projects... this week I spent one whole day actually at the office.
This past week was the first week at the projects for our new volunteers and I tagged along on Monday to see what goes down. In the morning I participated in sports day, followed by hospital visits in the afternoon to visit the sick [which is probably why I'm viral]. Because the kiddos are young, sports day is more like jumping rope, riding bikes, and doing the hokey cokey (as the British volunteers insist it's called). When you arrive at the center, the kids start screaming "teacher, teacher" and run and jump all over you... It's a tough job.
On this particular day, I experienced perhaps the most adorable moment of my entire life. The volunteers got a group of students to stand in a circle and they started "Dance Baby Dance". One at a time, each student takes a turn dancing in the circle... after they are done the student sings "I want to choose someone"... the circle yells "Choose!"... then the student sings "who will dance for me?"... the circle yells "Dance!" and then the student chooses a new dancer... and dance baby dance begins again. Not only are they the cutest kids ever, but damn... they can dance. When I come home for a visit, I will try to remember to show you all my new moves.
On Tuesday we had a donor from the UK visit and along with the Social Projects Coordinator, we took them to many of our local projects. In the morning they visited one of our neighborhood care points that we built, observed swimming lessons, participated in sports day, and then it was horseback riding in the afternoon. It was a fun, but exhausting day.
On Wednesday, Christy and I left bright & early to visit the conversation project for Swaziland. It was about a 1-2 hour drive to the eastern part of the country near the Mozambiquan border. There are four game reserves right next to each other where we do research projects. At the moment, the volunteers are researching rodent activity as well as trying to count the number of giraffes in the park. Yes, my friends... giraffes. I was all Safari Sarah in the company Mahindra as we drove around looking for the critters... AND we also saw a whole bunch of different elk/deer/gazelle type animals, wart hogs, zebra, wildebeest, monkeys and baboons. That night, we made smores, listened to Quinn play the guitar, and then Christy and I shared a tent. It was more game drives on Thursday at which point in time my African virus decided to pay a visit. We drove home mid-day and were lucky to see some elephants along the way!
And here I am! Today Susie & I did some more car shopping... It's been VERY difficult because the dealerships don't like to work very much and the only time I can go is Saturday morning. AND no matter what car I look at, what year, or what mileage... they always tell me the cost is $40,000 Rand. I'm beginning to become suspicious.
On that note... It's time for bed, my friends... tomorrow I am off to Cape Town for a few days, so I'm sure I will have some more stories :)
Elephants!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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