Glen Afric

Before my in-laws came to visit last month, they talked about this tv show they watch from the UK called Wild at Heart.  It's centered on a vet from the UK that moves to South Africa and opens a game preserve.  Well, it turns out they film the show about an hour from our house.  Lovely English Lass checked, and they did a Sunday Brunch.  Thus did we find ourselves headed out to NorthWest Province to see where this show was filmed.

The lodge was fantastic, and the food was very good as well.  The kids actually behaved, and the meal was a pleasant experience.  (For those of you with two small children, you understand that if you go through lunch without repeating, "Stop that.  Sit down!  Don't blow bubbles!" then you've had a good time.)  Then, our waitress said we should go down to the wall overlooking a field, as that was the next part of the brunch.

We walked to the wall and looked as Zebra, Warthogs and Wildebeest walked by.  Crazy Little Man almost ran into this little boy, and I quickly stopped him and apologized.  The little boy looked at me and said in a South African accent, "Are you an American?"  I confessed that yes, indeed I was.  He then asked, "From America?"  His father, looking at him as if he was soft, said: "Most Americans are from America, you know."  Feeling sad for the little boy I then said, "Well, Canadians and Costa Ricans are Americans too."  The guy grunted at me and walked off.  He did have a lovely Mullet though.

Suddenly, everyone quickly turned and faced the field, as two men drove three elephants up to the wall.  

A large tub was placed behind us filled with whole carrots.  The ranger in charge explained that we should place the carrots in the elephants' trunks so they could eat them.  Also, not to sit on the wall because if you don't have carrots the elephants will pull you over.

So everyone raced to get a carrot to feed the mama elephant and her two baby elephants.  (Daddy was probably watching soccer or cricket.  Not sure, really.)  Everyone that is except for my two kids, who were scared.  Lovely English Lass took a carrot, gave it to Lovely Little Girl, and showed her how to hand it to the elephant.  She was a bit scared, but after petting the trunk, and watching the elephant use the trunk to grab onto the carrot and put it into his mouth, both Crazy Little man and Lovely Little Girl were hooked.  They ran back and forth getting carrots for their new 2 ton friend.  As LLG gave a carrot to the little elephant, I reached over to give his trunk a pet.  I was thanked for this by him sneezing on me.  Nice.

                                          Gesundheit!

After about 20 minutes, the carrots were gone, and the two men again drove the babies and mama back to their area on the lodge.  Crazy Little Man, who earlier had told me he didn't like elephants because they were scary, talked and talked about how much he loved feeding the elephants.  Considering his issues with texture, this is a definite good thing.

All in all, a really great family outing.  And to think, it was all because of a show in the UK that stars Hayley Mills.  Crazy country we live in.

A great "Task" for a good school.

My boss, the CG, bought last year two new basketball hoops.  One for his residence and one for the Consulate.  Problem was, the Consulate already had a hoop.  So, in an effort to make lemonade from lemons, he had a contest amongst the local staff.  They could nominate a village or a school in Gautang (again, pronounced How-tang), Free State or North West Province to receive the gift of a new basketball goal with basketballs and a pump.  A great idea, I thought.

The winner was Task Academy near the Central Business District in Johannesburg.  Task Academy is a private school whose students are mainly refugees from Somalia that can't get into the normal state schools.  The kids must be well behaved, they must learn English and at least one other language from South Africa, and they are required to maintain good grades.  Sounded like a perfect place.

Yesterday was the day that we went to the school to deliver the basketball goal.  But first, before presentation, we had to construct the actual stand and goal.  Here's some things I learned:

1) When dealing with black metal equipment during the summer in Africa, it's probably best to assemble it in the shade.  After 30 minutes in the sun it will feel like molten lava and you won't be able to touch it without leaving part of your hand on the metal.  You'd think that 5 grown men would have been able to figure that out before assembly, but no.
2) If you have more than one man assembling something, you will have massive confusion and it will take longer than it should.  The time on the instructions said 45 minutes. It took us almost 2 hours.
3) Schools in South Africa don't use bells to move from one class to another.  They use what sounds like an air-raid siren.  Numerous times during the installation our nerves were shattered by this loud siren going off right over our heads.  I kept looking for dive bombers.

After we finished putting it all together, the head teacher called for some of the kids to come and stand around the CG as he and his son, who had donated the balls, made the presentation.  Then, two children, one boy and one girl, were given balls to take the first shot.  The girl had been getting ribbed by the boys in the crowd about playing basketball.  She steadied herself, and made the basket on the first try.  The boy on the other hand, took 4 tries to get it in.  I wish I had taken a photo of her smirk as he kept missing, as it was priceless.

After the presentation, the school choir sang two songs, and everyone had a great time.  It was a good feeling to help a school that had almost nothing.  Their buildings are falling apart, and there appeared to be many more of them than should fit in the space.  But there was something that felt welcoming about the school. 

It was funny though watching the boys try their best to impress the girls with their basketball skills.  It was also funny, and somewhat familiar, watching the girls jump into the pictures we took and posing behind everyone else trying to look grown-up and like a fashion model.  I guess teenagers act the same all over the world, right?

KZN Photos

So here we go with photos from our recent trip to the Drakensberg Mountains in Kwa-Zulu Natal.  Hope you enjoy them.  (Photos from Lovely English Lass.)

                                                        The Sacred Ibis that came by for dinner

                                       This is a Bishop.  (This is what I thought of when I saw this bird.)

                                                    This is a Weaver Bird's nest.

                                             One of the Monkeys that came by the apartment.

"I Bless The Rains Down in Africa" (I always thought it was "felt the rains")

Here's something I found quite surprising in South Africa.  "Africa" from Toto is HUGE here!  I would have thought they would have found it a little pretentious or "White-man's burden".  (Let's be honest, there are fewer Whiter bands than Toto.  Maybe Air Supply or Loverboy.)  However, they use it in commercials, beginnings of shows and even as the hold music for the Protea Brands of Hotels.  It's insane.  In fact, once you mention the song, and maybe sing some of the words, it becomes one of the longest lasting earworms ever.  Ranks up there with The Proclaimers "500 Miles" or "Hey Mickey".  I like the song, but it does get a bit wearisome to keep hearing it.  Especially when they try to cram 20 syllables into a single song phrase.  ("As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus from the Serengeti.")  The reason I started off on this song is, this is what runs through your head when you travel by road in South Africa.  I'm not the only one to say this.  Many others I've spoken to here have said the same thing.

Last week we drove to a resort at the base of the Drakensberg Mountains.  The drive took us from Gautang Province (pronounced How-tang), through Free State and into Kwa-Zulu Natal.  This route takes you past very high hills, grasslands, farms and into a lovely area near Cathedral Peak.  (The entire time, "I bless the rains down in Africa.")  The area we stayed in was the battleground for two separate wars in South Africa.  The Zulu War and the Boer War.  The battle that was the basis for the movie "Zulu" was not far from our hotel.  Winston Churchill was captured about 30 minutes away during the Boer War.  As a history buff, this was awesome.  ("Hurry boy she's waiting there for you....")

Anyways, the kids seemed to have fun, and Lovely Little Girl was on her best behavior. The mountain air seemed to do her some good.  Crazy Little Man, on the other hand, was Crazy.  He yelled, told me I was naughty, hit his sister and his father, and generally acted like he constantly needed a nap.  Not always, but enough to make me think that the baboons that lived across the way might do a better job of raising him.  The area we were in had monkeys, the aforementioned baboons, birds of all colors and shapes, a stoat and a porcupine that crossed the road in front of us one night.  (When I told Crazy Little Man about the porcupine, he asked, "A very deserving porcupine?"  Yes, yes it was.*)  One of the houses next to us left their door open and 4 monkeys got in and stole bananas.  A bit stereotypical, but still funny.  The Sacred Ibis came up to our dinner table and looked at us quizzically.  Very cool though.  The morning we left, I packed the cars up to the sounds of baboons growling at me. 

I got to play golf, which was lovely.  Even made par on one of the holes.  (Ok, it was a par 3, but it was the 4th hardest hole on the course, and it was difficult, so leave me alone.)  I was a little worried when there were signs warning of puff adders in the fairway, but never saw any. 

We found lovely restaurants to eat in, and a bakery that served fantastic scones and had a playground for the kids.  I also found that while Johannesburg loves the music of the 1990s, KZN is still firmly entrenched in the 1980s.  The Toto song of course, but also Air Supply, "She Blinded me with Science", and even "Come on Eileen."  It was awesome.  Not all the food was great.  Lovely English Lass did eat a Spinach and Feta pie that was horrid, but choked it down because she didn't want to disappoint her parents who were with us.  We also ate bacon, or what was labeled as bacon, that probably was from wild game. 

Everyone felt a little sick once in a while, and the entire area seemed to roll up the sidewalks after dark.  The only musical entertainment in the area seemed to be The Drakensberg Boys Choir.  So, it was a little boring in the evenings, which meant everyone went to bed early.  Which was good because Lovely Little Girl was usually up at 5 or 530, talking and singing at the top of her lungs.

We did some cool stuff, though.  We went to Spioen Kop Nature Reserve which cost R20 per person (roughly 3 bucks a pop).  Inside a giraffe walked along followed by it's baby.  About 5 zebras crowded the road and looked at us strangely while we photographed them.  (Is it a herd of zebra?)  We saw Impala and Spring Boks and Black Wildebeests.  (I do a great Wildebeest.  Ask my friend Gee.  Always makes her laugh.)  We had gorgeous views (and photos will follow, I promise) and saw just how beautiful this place really is.  (Again, "I bless the rains down in Africa."  Seriously, the entire 3 hours we were in there that song was on a loop.)

We also saw some funny stuff as well.  Every time we went into this little shopping area, which was a lot due to the grocery store being there, a group of little boys would line up in two straight lines and start doing a stomp routine.  It was pretty funny, but also pretty cool.  We gave them some money for their enthusiasm.

Our return trip was back through the gorgeous areas of KZN and Free State.  I knew I was back in Johannesburg when I got cut off by and Audi and was almost hit by a Honda Civic with two toddlers in the back seat with no seat belts.  It was good to be back home, but it was also nice to see new areas.  Maybe one day soon we'll go back.  And yes I'll be singing Toto in my head the entire time.  "Hurry Boy it's waiting there for you...."

*It's from Harold and the Purple Crayon.