South African Christmas

WELL Well well. Time to start blogging again!

There's just so much to talk about and so little time to type it! We had about 4 weeks off for the Christmas holidays. So I will tell you what we did.

The first week isn't very exciting. We stuck around the school. There was a huge tiling job for the kitchen and dining hall. We stayed to help with that, which took the entire week. I helped here and there, but it was mostly a few men working on it. I also was feeling pretty sick the last few days, so that was ok. As long I got better for my actual vacation. And I did.

We started by driving down to Lusaka. We sis that in two days. The roads are terrible here, but it's very interesting to see. There's a lot of goats on the road to avoid. We also drive by some towns and they are just totally caotic. I felt like just staying in the vehicle with the doors locked. But I don't think it's very dangerous. We were just excited to get to South Africa.

Finally the day came. We flew in to Johannesburg (about a 2-hour flight) and we were driven to the Lion Park. This is where we pet baby lions :) We stayed in big luxury tents. It was really nice. There was also a giraffe that had stepped over the fence, so it was walking around our tent. We also went on a night drive in the park. There we got to see a lion feed. Also a bunch of animals like jackals, cheetahs, leopards, white lions, zebra, ostrich, and a few other types. It's very cool. We woke up quite early, I think about 5 am. Probably because we were excited and not used to sleeping in a tent. But in the morning you can hear all the lions roaring. It's really something to hear. I loved it.

The next day we just stayed at a hotel in Joburg. Then headed for a 4-day camping trip to Kruger National Park. This was also very fun. This is where we saw the majority of animals. We have a lot of pictures, but I could never upload them all. I'll just put a few of the best ones. Here we went on Morning drives, afternoon drives, and night drives. We got to see lions feeding on a giraffe that they had taken down. Also, on one of our night drives, there was a male lion sleeping on the road, so we drove right up to it. We were standing in the open vehicle about a meter away from it and it was roaring right there. It was amazing. Lions are soooo cool.

Then we headed back to Joburg for another night and then we took an overnight bus to Cape Town. Long bus ride (about 18 hours) but we slept most of the way, so it went very well. The trains were all booked, so we got stuck with the bus. Apparently all of Joburg heads to Cape Town for the holidays.

Cape Town was BEAUTIFUL. What a great spot to vacation. Table mountain, the beach, the vineyards. It was awesome. We spent a lot of time at Clifton Beach and went to Camps Bay for Christmas. They are really nice beaches, with huge waves. We got some good tans and enjoyed picnics on the beach. At night we would go to the V&A Waterfront. There's always live music there, a lot of shopping and movie theaters and restaurants. We really enjoyed going to the movies. It's been so long and it was cheap!

We had perfect weather the whole time we were there. The only day it was a bit rainy was the day we did our Christmas shopping, so it turned out perfectly.

We also decided to try surfing. A few people have heard about this already. We took the local train to Muizenburg. It's a great place to learn how to surf. They also have shark-watchers so you don't have to be worried. It's a beautiful beach. Well the third time we went (surfing is very fun) the shark alarm actually sounded. There are a lot of penguins nearby, so the sharks like to visit to find some lunch. Well when we heard the alarm, just just looked at each other, got on our boards and paddled as fast as our arms could go, hoping a wave was coming that could push us to shore. It was very surreal.

When we got to the beach, and everyone was out of the water and looking for the shark, we could actually spot it. It was right in the area we were surfing! We watched it for about 5-10 minutes and finally I decided to run to our locker and get my camera. This is what I got. Also, we were done surfing for the day.

We also went up Table Mountain. We went after surfing (that's the day we saw the shark, also the last day in Cape Town). It was very awesome. We went for the sunset. Once the sun sets, it gets very very cold up there. It was just beautiful though.

Anyways. There's a lot more I could say, but this is long and I have to upload these pictures and then head down to watch the kids swim.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas. It really isn't the same without friends and family, so we were thinking of you and missed you all.

xoxo

Christmas Assembly

Wow! Two posts in one day!

This one will be short, but with a few pictures.  On the last day of school we had a Christmas assembly.  It was an awesome show.  It was sort of a musical about Sherlock Holmes.  The setting was in Bethlehem at the time that Jesus was born.  Sherlock is trying to figure out where and when Jesus is born.

After the play Mylon was Father Christmas and gave out gifts to the grades 1-2 and candy canes to other kids. Check it out.

Christmas Plans

I guess I should share a little about our plans for Christmas. We have about four weeks off. So obviously we have to get off the school property and visit stuff!

We are staying here for the first week. Mylon will be busy with others setting tiles in the main kitchen and dining hall. After that, we'll be heading to go to South Africa for about three weeks. This should turn out to be an awesome trip. We have a lot of things planned and a lot of days unplanned. So it will be fun and relaxing. We are going to the Lion Park in Johannesburg. That is where you go to pet baby lion and see other animals and go on game drives. We will be camping there for one night. We are also going on a 4-day camping trip to Kruger Park. It's the largest game reserve in Africa with many animals, including Africa's Big Five (lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, leopard and rhinoceros).

After that, we are taking a very long bus ride to Cape Town. There we will spend about two weeks (in a nicer hotel for Christmas then a cheap hostel afterwards). Going to the beach, shopping, climb Table Mountain etc. There are a lot of things to do there. I can't wait. But at the same time, the school term is ending very quickly! I can't believe it is done this Wednesday.

I was busy reviewing all the report cards today before printing them. There are practises for the end of term show, lots of visitors to prepare for.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and holiday season. I don't know how much blogging I will post while we are on vacation.

Take care.   

Sable antelope

Oh boy. Ok I'm getting behind. It seems like not a whole lot changes around here and there hasn't been much to write about. But I guess there's a few things to talk about. A few weeks ago, Mylon and I went to our neighbour's place, who own a game park. They have many different animals, including sable. Here's a picture of them. Also, a picture of two male sables fighting over the ladies. It was pretty neat to see! And we weren't far away!

Anyways. So on this particular day, we took a day off school to help with capturing the sables for transfer. So there was a vet driving around shooting tranquilizers into the sables. Then a group of workers from the farm would pick them up and put them in the back of a safari-type vehicle, and they brought the animal to the transport. All together, they would lift the animal, put it in a compartment and then I would scan the tag, and Mylon and I both injected the sables in the butt full of sedatives. They had a long drive ahead of them. Here's us and our tools :)

We are so lucky that we live close to these wonderful people. We get to try new things that we would never otherwise dream of doing. It's so neat to work beside these animals.

I will write another blog very shortly about other things. Take it easy!

And Happy December!

SCARY!

I just had my most scary moment so far here in Africa. I was carrying a load of things back to my house just before lunch so that I wouldn't have to bring it all later. And I got to my door and this is what I saw. Luckily, one of the things I was carrying was my camera. So I took a picture and went and found a maintenance worker who had a shovel and he came and killed it for me. I think my heart is still racing. I'm just so thankful that it wasn't inside my house! After the worker killed it, he showed me underneath the spider, you can see the red fangs where the spider would poison you. Another worker said if it bites you, you will be “paining for a long time”. I'm not sure if it's a tarantula. The locals said it is poisonous like a snake or scorpion. Thanks to God for watching over us! (I don't even want to look at this picture.)

KALENE

This weekend I finally went up to Kalene for a short visit. I stayed at a lady's house who is also from Kapuskasing. It was so nice to go visit, it was long over-due. She took such good care of me. I had amazing pizza when I got there a delicious full home-cooked meal for supper. And the next day for lunch we had bacon, sausage, omelet, home-fries and toast. It was so good to have foods that i haven't had since I left Canada. I also got to have a hot shower which was a treat itself. At our place here at Sakeji we only have a bath and the water is heated by solar panels so when it's raining and cloudy, it's much colder outside and then there is no hot water. (This week we've had to boil pots of water to pour into our baths.)

So in Kalene, I got the grand tour of the hospital there. It was much bigger than I thought. And the lab: much smaller. I took a few pictures, so here they are:

For my nerdy lab friends:

The lab is very small because the money is just not there to operate as a full lab. What I understand is they do CBCs, ESRs and cross-matches. I tried to ask what they do if someone has an antibody but I'm not even certain that they do an antibody screen. I could be wrong, the lab tech was difficult to understand, but I didn't see anything that would indicate that they do. They also do ZN stains and Gram stains, but that is it for micro. There is zero chemistry department. I know they do screening tests for HIV. Maybe urinalysis. But I think that's it. Here is a few pictures of the lab.

The road to Kalene was very bumpy and full of pot holes and puddles. It a terrible road, but probably still not the worst it the area. I think we went about 40km/hr on the smooth parts. So a 15km drive took almost an hour. Luckily the weather was good. On the way there there was a puddle no the side of the road and as we got closer, two little pigs crawled out of it. They were so cute! My camera was packed away in the back though.

At the hospital, we went into the children's ward and as soon as a little girl (maybe about 1-2 years old) saw us she started screaming her head off. I thought it was quite hilarious. Kind of made me feel like a huge monster to her or something. But apparently people will sort of threaten their kids when they are being bad that they will take them to the hospital and the white people will give them a needle. So they think we are bad and scary people. It probably worked better before because the staff was all missionaries, but now they are getting more and more Zambian staff, so that will change around a little little.

Sunday we went to church in the morning, which was really neat. I think it's the biggest church I been to around here so far. And everything was translated into English so I could understand what was going on which was nice. After we went back to the house and had our delicious bacon and egg lunch and then relaxed and watched a very sad movie about a dog. Then we went for a short walk to the Orchard Get-a-way. It's a lively place to stay for a weekend with fruit trees, a nice pool and a house-type place which reminds me of a cottage. Maybe one day we will go there. We'll see. I took some pictures of the fruit trees but I will post those another time because it takes so long to upload pictures.

So I guess that will be all for now. Mylon didn't come with me, he stayed in at Sakeji and read his book and went to a friend's to play video games lol. So I don't think he even missed me at all!

Talk to you later. Bye.

Chickens etc.

Oct. 20

This term, one kid came back from his holidays with the chicken pox. Guess what happened. Yeah. Then there was 3, then 6.....now about 22 kids have the chicken pox. And wow, I have never seen so many chicken pox dots on people. And they look sooo painful. I feel very bad for everyone who has the chicken pox here. They are itching an crying all the time. They also use a LOT of calamine lotion. They basically paint their entire faces with it, and arms....and the rest is covered in clothes, but I assume it's all over. I think they should make a calamine lotion that is a dark brown colour, because they are all dark-skinned and have light pink lotion all over. Anyways. Just an idea for someone who want to visit the Dragon's Den I guess.

On another note, about chickens. Here at Sakeji, we raise our own chickens. I guess it saves money in the long run. Yesterday was killing time. So Friday afternoon, instead of playing games, the senior students have to help out with that. Here's some pictures that I took. I didn't get a finger dirty. I'm not there yet. I think they kill chickens once a term. So I have another chance next term. Maybe I'll just take more pictures though. It looked really really gross.

Oh, and after the chicken killing, a jackal came around. They are not common to see as they are very shy dogs. Somebody told me they only come around where people are when they are rabid. So everyone was a little worried. I think it smelled the chicken stew we were making. They haven't caught it, and I think it's gone now. They did leave out some meat with poison (rat poison maybe??) But I haven't been updated with the story. Time for my rabies shot I think though.

Well this is my weekend off. I'm going to have a work out, probably read a book and have a nice afternoon.

Have a nice weekend everybody.