let me start by saying... AFRICA!

i have some issues with people who alsways want to talk about africa like it is some kind of magical, hypnotic place, exotic and mystical. on the tourist brochures they sent us with the plane tickets it said something corny like, "come to AFRICA, experience the magic, be changed forever." why do white people always try to come to africa and be changed forever? why must they always come like they are going to take something... the diamonds, the gold, the pride of the people here... this angers me.


but alas, here i am in africa and it is amazing, it is a place from which i will be changed forever. i think though, that God is the one about change through this experience. more to say about that later.


i did not know that we were going to a lodge that feels like more luxury than i have ever experienced in the states... that we would be greated with hot face towels and pinapple guava something else beverage, and that our french doors (with bars to keep out the animals) would open to monkeys outside our window. and that there would be a jacuzzi tub and lunch out on the boardwalk next to the stream. i did not know that we would eat dinner outside next to the bonfire with south african wine and a spread of food larger than i have ever seen with lots of new kinds of beef cooking on sticks and lanterns hanging from everywhere. sigh.


our guides' name was dieter, and just now he proposed to one of the women on my team. too funny, german, speaks africaans, german, zulu, and english, and understands dutch and a few more. a true bushman, when he took us back into joberg he got very anxious becuase there was more than three cars on the road. in our open windowed safari bus, for three days we laughed and snuggled on cold cold windy mornings with with dieter, a 72 cheeky british lady, a newleywed couple from london, and two australians. very different sense of humor, eh? (if i throw in a few catch english words, you'll understand why)

sounds of the bush in kruger park

elephants scratching on the bark of trees and staring with sad eyes
impala jumping through the grass, delicate and beautiful
a rhino snorting yards from my face as we giggle at the size of his ....
silence as giraffe run across the road in front of us
zebras munching, watching, munching, watching
owls hooting love calls from a huge tree next to the river
thousands of south african cameras clicking as the leopard walked in the almost dark
gasps of delight as two male lions surprised our group when we turned the corner
soft lapping as over 200 buffalo drunk from the water hole.


a glimpse.


the ride home, we took a scenic route through the country of south africa.... what a beautiful place. so varied and interesting (dieter has lots ot say, including many many dates, and did you know this is an actual fact?)


i feel sadness this evening though. i sat with dieter on the way back to jBerg for several hours and asked him many questions. he is a news and info buff on his country, and estimates the following.

that over 50% of black south africans have aids, and no one has the guts to face it and talk about it.
that aids will blow up here soon and many many will die and be left motherless.
that more teachers die of aids each year than retire.
that 85% of all black women here who go to the hospital go for hiv/aids related symptoms.
that rape is a part of the culture here, where men travel for work and prostitutes walk along highways waiting for truck drivers.
that most women (and according to kathy, all the teachers at our schools agree) have given up on men and are resigned to raise their children alone.
that cars hit and kill thousands of blacks walking the side of the highway each year.

then, we passed an accident site where someone had been hit.


a lot to mourn. a lot to celebrate.


peace