Elephants, Trees, and Shak Attak

Greetings to all readers :)

Apologies for the lack of blog last week, the computer seemed to have ignored what I wrote and published it's own agenda, but we are now back on track for blogs as I'm going to re-write it :) Enjoy


Well, the week before last was spent predominantly in Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary, where we were to be making MORE elephant dung paper, maintaining roads, and planting trees (and not to forget de-worming goats) We arrived from pouring in Muhaka, to glorious sunshine in Mwaluganje which was to last all week :D

Our first job was to plant more trees for the buffer zone around the village of N'gozini, to stop the elephants from rampaging and gobbling up their crops, so we spent a morning planting about 70 trees, and it was absolutely ROASTING! The afternoon was spent, in the tree nursery sifting through the good and bad plants, and re-planting ones that had been removed accidently. It was a long day, as it was not very demanding work, and time did not choose to go quickly. By the end of the day we had had enough and went back to camp, and collapsed, as doing nothing seems to make much more sleepy, than when your actually doing something (if that makes sense :D )

Our second day was spent, planting more trees, and de-worming more goats. The tree planting took no time at all, and we finished early and went back to camp to prepare for goat de-worming, and a sports day that was too take place afterwards. Goat de-worming, proved to be easier than last time, as the goats were all tied up to a tree, or a bush, ready to be de-wormed, and the girls seemed to have a knack of grabbing the small, speedy ones, whereas we seemed to be at a loss with the goats. It was soon all done and dusted, and we were off to compete in the sports day events. The lads took part in the 100 metre sprint, which was a very close race, with everyone basically crossing the line at the same time. The girlsdid shot put, and seemed to do pretty good, meanwhile we had moved on to take part in high jump. The bar started very low at about 1 foot in height, which was easy to clear. The jump was on to sand so as the bar rose higher, we had to resort, not the 'Frosby Flop', but to diving straight over the bar headfirst. However, the schoolboys just cleared it in a jump, legs tucked and over they went. They did this to a height of about 4-5 feet. It was absolutely incredible to watch!

All in all I think we held our own in the sports, although we were tired and ready to sleep when we got back to camp, so sleep we did. Thursday. We did some more tree planting, and helped shift rocks to be used for road maintenance, which was a very strenuous job, with all of us having massive biceps by the end of shifting, massive rocks : D In the afternoon we had another game of netball, which was not as close as the first game. It was a total anhilation, for the school against predominantly the girls, who were netball experts. However, in good spirits we all got involved in a song after the game, which was great, and I ended up terrifying some small children, which was also very fun.

The day of leaving came round very quickly. The night before, we had chosen to sleep outside, as our tent had a hole in it, which meant the tent flooded when it rained on the last night, so we slept outside, not caring about hyenas, or elephants, or creepy crawlies. It was great to wake up to the sunrise, over the hills, although it started to rain again pretty soon after dawn.

What we had'nt realised was that, all the rain had obviously made the road, turn from dirt, to mud. Our small wheeled bus machine, was not designed to ride over gnarly mud roads, as we were soon to find out. We encountered an 'urban' jeep (a jeep that isn't really a jeep) stuck deep in the mud, not far from our camp, so we spent about an hour getting them out of the mud, and as it started to rain again it was very difficult. The flip-flops were off, mud was everywhere. This was Africa. We eventually got them out, and then our 2nd bus arrived beyond the patch of treacherous mud, which meant we could carry our bags over the mud and get back to camp. It all turned out ok in the end, and we arrived back in camp, and had a lovely cold shower (I can't wait to have a hot shower, and a bath!!) haha!

We spent the weekend at the beach again, and in the evening went out to Forty Thieves again, where me and Tess had to match drinks the whole night. Lin, got quite drunk and by the time we left Forty's and went to Shak Attack, had a boogie with the locals, and about to leave, she was paralytic on the floor. We had to carry her, to the taxi, and then from the taxi to her bed. She remembered nothing in the morning.

The next blog is about to be written in about 20 minutes so see you all in a bit.

Upendo

Josh