Watching the Elephants and other animals at Addo

Here we are at the amazing Addo Elephant Park.  Whenever we do things that are out the ordinary from our regular life, we feel a surge of excitement and joy run through our creaky bones. Our trip to the Eastern Cape was no exception to this, and the Addo Elephant Park was a most amazing experience. I was so filled with excitement as we drove into this self-drive nature reserve of over 300,000 acres, that I could barely stay in my seat. Then we saw a single little warthog behind an old rickety fence and for a second I wondered if it would all be like that. Sister LaPray who was riding with us said, “Don't bother taking his picture----you'll get lots more much better than that!” I felt better. And within a few more seconds we happened upon a wonderful herd of elephants. They were peacefully eating and minding their own business---much too busy to note our presence or give us much more than a glance. As I might have told you in another of my blogs, they have to eat most of their day in order to keep their massive bodies healthy. Some of us may feel that would be a somewhat enjoyable lifestyle, but for them I'm sure the search and destroy mission they live must at times become unbearable. None of them seemed unhappy, however, as they valiantly moved forward on their quest. One thing we noticed is that they are extremely destructive of nature's beauty and basically tear down and break apart trees and bushes constantly. They use their feet to kick at the ground and pull up plants that don't come up easily as they munch along. Even the little ones are hard at work on the destruction detail.

We watched them eating in different parts of the park for a long time.  They are so very large and their bodies seem so cumbersome, and yet there is a certain grace about them.  

We saw some really ugly, hairy old warthogs . . . .

and some sort of ugly and a little more attractive warthogs . . . . . .

And we saw some kinda cute and much less hairy and warty warthogs . . . . or am I just getting used to them?  I can't help it, I started thinking of Pumba in Lion King when I saw this one.   It is so cute the way he is down on his front legs eating.  On Wikipedia they said they were on their wrists . . . . which kind of made my arms hurt.  Now I need to go watch the movie again and see if they ever showed him on his wrists!

And of course, when you see Pumba---Timone can't be too far behind.  I suppose there were lots of meerkats in this park, but we only saw a few.

Here's another big guy wandering through the wilderness.

The zebra is such a fantastic animal.  They all seemed so calm and stood so still ----they may have been frozen with fear, but I'm sure these animals see enough cars drive by that they are not very afraid.  None of them ran away.  Addo Elephant Park really tries to keep the animals the same as they would be in the wild, so they do nothing to keep one animal from attacking another.  Elder and Sister LaPray told of seeing a lion take down a small zebra once when they were here.  That might have upset me, because I am now so in love with these animals.   Glad I didn't see that.

They seem so pure, so beautifully marked and so naturally graceful.

   They are all just a little different too.  This reminds me of another movie--Madagascar.  This is very typical countryside in South Africa.  As you drive along the highways, you will see mile after mile----oh, I keep forgetting to say kilometer after kilometer of these low rolling hills covered with brush and low trees.

You can see that something is here, but you're not exactly sure what it is.  We almost drove right past it.

It is a nyala---and this animal is fast becoming another of my favorites ----partly because of the extremely beautiful horns ---they don't shed them so they aren't called antlers.  You can't see the coloring here, but they have stripes on their bodies and yellow feet!  The white line between the eyes is one way to be sure it is a nyala. And they have long hair in a strip down their backs and running all along both sides of the lower body.  He looks like he's wearing a long hair skirt.

Some people down here do love their bugs and this really proves it. This sign means "Watch for Dung Beetles"! The dung beetle is a huge insect that lives on elephant dung. You can see them when they are on the road, and you DO stop for them.  They are endangered!

Yup!  We stopped and took some pictures of this one, but unfortunately he didn't have any dung with him.  They usually push it ahead of them.  Nothing like a great picture of a dung beetle!  They are about as big as a small frog and look like a huge stink bug!

We enjoyed seeing the different ways the elephants interacted.  Here they are leaning against each other----they seem to do it just to rest for a minute or just to be close to each other.  None of them seemed upset when they were doing this and no one seemed to feel he was being squished!

This guy brought us the most exciting moments of the day. . . . we came around a curve in the road and he was standing way down at the end of the road as far as we could see.  We didn't know if we could get past him, so we just stopped and waited.  After a few minutes, he started to walk toward us.  As he got closer and closer, we realized that he wasn't going to get off the road.  I could have zoomed in on these pictures, but I wanted you to be able to see the hood of the car at the bottom.   He really was very, very close. 

He stopped for a minute right in front of us and then he decided to walk past us right on the road.  He came down right beside the car on my side and I was frozen!  I did not take one picture of it! Vic was thinking - I;ll bet she'll have great pictures.  I don't know what I was thinking . . .I just remember that I didn't want the camera in front of my face!  I wanted to see him!  I think I could have reached out and touched him, but I was also afraid if I moved it might frighten him and he might turn on us!  You'll just have to imagine it!  It was fantastic! And very scary!!

Here's a couple of cuties--- finally!  The water was especially enjoyable for them.  It was a cloudy day and they really didn't get into the water like they would have if it had been hotter.

Their trunks are so fascinating and they can do so much with them.  It was fascinating to just sit and watch them doing very ordinary things like scratching their ears.

This is another animal that we saw quite a bit at Addo---it is a red hartebeest.  The horns form sort of a heart, but the name hart means deer in Africaans, so it is a deer-beast.  It is one in the family of antelope found in this country that are so strikingly beautiful.  The dark coloring on the legs keep the legs warm in winter I expect.

This is a black-backed jackal that we were very lucky to see.  They are mostly out at night, so we were very happy.

 The last group of elephants we saw was a little family of a Mom and two young ones.  Mom has on some kind of a collar that must be monitoring her behavior or something.  It didn't seem to interfere with her eating or taking care of the kids. 

Here's a cute picture of her trunk as she is carefully picking what she wants from this bush.

In this picture the two little elephants are both trying to eat in the same area.  One is ahead of the other and the little one is pushing his "brother" from behind so he can get up to the food.  We actually watched the front one's bottom come up off the ground as his brother pushed.  You can see it there in the picture.  And then suddenly this little trunk came up over the back looking for a way to latch on to something I guess.  It was so cute and just kind of hilarious.  And his big brother just kept on munching.



I know this is long, but I wanted to add a few pictures of the couples who were with us.  We went to eat at the restaurant in the park and Vic had a kudu steak and I had ostrich steak---we had just never tried them and never really had the opportunity.  We were having so much fun--we were glad we were able to squeeze two more pictures out of our camera before it died!

I'm talking to Elder and Sister O'Dell.  She tries to get out of the picture and tends to turn her head if she can before you click.  She is so adorable and really fun!  They both are.  Everyone in Port Elizabeth is so fun and they are able to get together a little bit when they have time.

These are the Robinsons ---they are so adorable.  They are kind of newly-weds I think.  A second marriage for them and a great match!  They come to Cape Town every other month for their job as employment specialists, so we go out to eat with them or do something every now and then.  They put on workshops about getting a job or running your own business.  Sounds really fun.

Here's another shot of the O'Dells, but again not a great shot.  They are from Arizona and he was a dentist.  Second marriage for them too.  We had so much fun staying at their place in Port Alfred.  They live right across from the golf course.  I'll say a little more about that in my next post.  We did get a few pictures of that when our camera battery got recharged!

So much for the elephants---an unforgettable experience.  We are so humbly grateful to get to do this because President Probst made it possible by getting us out of the office for a week.  This is not what a mission is about, but it is "the icing on the cake".  It is wonderful to have the opportunity to meet people and see things in another country with another culture.  South Africa is such a fascinating place!

On the Road Again!

On Tuesday, 4 January 2011 President Probst came to the Mission Office and told us that he wanted us to travel to the Eastern Cape for his week of trainings there so that Elder Herbert could see the flats and the cars that are out there.  It was very exciting!  The plan was that we would fly to East London and then drive all the way back to Cape Town---about 650 miles!  When we checked the price of the one-way tickets, we realized they were too expensive because we were only 2 days away from traveling.  Then the President asked if we thought we could drive both ways.  We quickly agreed because we love a good road trip and haven't been on one since we got here!  The only problem was that we would have to leave by noon the next day----so much for careful packing!  We threw some clothes in the suitcase and grabbed some snacks from the cupboard and got ready to take off!  The biggest problem was that I had a few things to finsih and needed to get all my work done for a week ahead so that everyone would be able to travel and do what they needed to do.  I had to finish my monthly baptism report and a few other minor details, but by Wednesday at noon we were driving out of Cape Town toward the east.

These are a few pictures of what we saw as we drove.  The highway stretched out before us and seemed a lot like home.

There were miles and miles (I should say Ks and Ks) of open land with not much to see but the beautiful country. This looked a little like home, but it was much wetter and more colorful.

 

And of course, you wouldn't see a "watch for warthogs" sign in the US!  When we first saw it, we thought it was a picture of an elephant, but we knew that elephants do not run wild in South Africa.  So we stopped at the next one to take a picture and then we realized it was a warthog. Hah!

There was quite a long time of very dry area where it looked like they had already cut the wheat or something.  The fields looked ready to plant, but it was so dry.  It would be interesting to go back later and see if they planted anything.  I love those trees there---they seem like some of the Dr. Suess trees.  --I'll try to find out the real name.  There will be more about these because I am seeing them all around Cape Town now.

Thought you might like to know that ALL of South Africa's electrical energy is generated by nuclear power plants.  At least that is what people say.  We think that is what this is---haven't seen many things like this in US.  But Vic did say it might be graneries where they store grain, but I don't think so!

Actually we haven't seen anything like this in America either!  We were surprised to see these young men trying so hard to plow with these two cattle.    Two men were guiding the animals through the rows and one was trying to keep the plow down in the dirt.  They were weeding between rows of corn.  It looked like pretty hard work to me.

That first day (Wednesday) we drove from noon until 9:00 pm and reached Port Elizabeth. We have three couples living there that are really missionaries with area responsibilities---they do employment, the PEF loans, and seminary and institute coordination. We stayed with the LaPrays (they are from Texas)who have an extra bedroom and two bathrooms, so they don't mind having company too much. In fact all of the couples really wanted company because the worst thing about mission is not having lots of friends around that you can visit with. They can get pretty lonely out there because they don't have the office to go to every day and they have lots more free time.  It was so great to spend some time with them and just feel their spirit and get to know them better.  We took no pictures there---I guess we were too tired and too excited about the next few days to even think about it!  I feel terrible because I would love to have some pics of the LaPrays, the Robinsons and the Taylors who all came over at 9:00 pm to meet us and spend a few minutes together.  I do have some later on the way home, but you'll just have to wait to see them!

We stayed overnight and took off again early the next morning (Thursday)so that we could reach East London before noon (it was another 4 hours to East London) and attend the first zone training meeting. There were two zones in attendance and we checked all their cars while they were in training. It was so fun seeing some of the missionaries that we have worked with in the Cape North Zone----they seemed happy to see us too. We stayed that night in the Gonubie flat (Gonubie is the name of a little city in East London---like Sandy is in Salt Lake) Our Senior Couple in East London went home a week before Christmas, so we have no adult leadership there any more.  We are dying for couples out here. The flat is a few blocks from the beach and it also has a beautiful back yard view of a tree-filled valley with a little water hole at the bottom. Everyone said there were monkeys in the trees, but we never saw any. Maybe the locals have driven them away. We heard the cows mooing and the crickets chirping and it really reminded us of home (in Idaho!) We drove down to the beach and watched a fantastic sunset on the Indian Ocean, but it was dusk and the beach was rocky so I didn't get to wade in the water.

This is a picture of what you see from the back deck.  It really looks like a jungle out there.

The pictures don't begin to show how beautiful it was.

It was another fantastic evening sunset----with huge waves rolling in and hitting those rocks and spraying up.   The colors and sounds were just so relaxing and enjoyable.
The next day (Friday) we drove another 2 hours up to Queenstown for another zone training meeting and checking the cars and apartments in Queenstown. This area is where all the cars get rough treatment and the apartments are always having problems. It was good to go there and spend some time in the apartments. The Elders really hate to bother us with little repairs that are needed in their apartments---like the sink coming off the wall or lots of mold under the sink, but these things have to be taken care of. So Elder Herbert has a list a mile long of things that need to be done. We spent a little time with the Elder and Sister Farris couple who live in Queenstown and it was so good to see them again.  Everyone had told us the Queenstown is a difficult place and I pictured it as more primitive and not so modern as Cape Town.  But it was pretty and very nice in the areas we visited.  We didn't have time to visit any townships where the people live in shacks, so we only saw what I've shown you of them.

The drive to Queenstown was interesting because we saw some very African things.  As we got out of East London a few kilometers, we began to see groups of shacks everywhere---on almost every hill for just about as far as the eye could see.  The different thing about them was that they weren't built on top of each other.  There was land between them and they looked like nice little communities.  We did not expect this really.  I guess we should have known that life would be better and cleaner and roomier out in the country than in the city. 

Some of the areas were almost pretty--with goats eating in the front yard.  I tried to get some good pictures of the hexagon shaped "rondavels" that they seem to build next to their homes.  These are traditional shaped houses from long ago except that they were round before.  I think the hexagon shape came when they started using bricks to build them.  They are the ones with the pointed roofs. (rooves doesn't seem right!)

 We just kept wondering where these people work and how do they stay alive.  They must travel miles every day to the city to work.  Some of them might work on farms in the area, but all of them couldn't.  There were a few brick making factories around, so some probably worked there.  We never saw a store or a city center, but there probably were a few.

One surprise was this African milk truck!  It was a VERY HOT day (at least 95 degrees), and we saw this truck driving the two hour drive to Queenstown.  Maybe he was stopping sooner---we can only hope!  Many cartons of milk without a bit of insulation to keep them cool.  We have wondered why the milk sours so quickly in the fridge here!  Honestly this is very unusual, but I doubt you would ever see this in most states in the US.  They don't have health laws or quality control here.  I do need to mention that they have a drink here called masi (I think that is how they spell it) and it is made by leaving milk out of the fridge for a couple of days until it is spoiled.  They think it tastes so good!  It is used for special days like Christmas dinner.  No, I haven't tried it, but some of the Elders have and they say it is just sour milk.  Sometimes they put a little sugar in it.  Maybe he was working on some of that.

I love strange plants and I thought these little aloe vera type plants were so interesting.  We saw hill after hill of these---I don't really know, but I assume they are like cactus plants.  They look like little people standing on the hills. 


 We drove back to East London and went to dinner with one of our landlords who owns several of our flats in East London. His name is Billy Van Heerden and he is a white, Dutch-descendant South African. He is a member of the church and has been the Stake President in East London. He and Vic have become close friends and he has helped us a lot with cars and flats in East London. When a car breaks down in East London, we call Billy and he goes and tows it to the repair shop or helps the Elders get it running again.  He does the same with the flats when something is wrong.  He helps us get it fixed.  He doesn't seem to ever get paid for any of it, but maybe his towing bill is included in some of the repairs.  It seems only right. 
We went to a little restaurant owned by a couple from India and had a quiet dinner and laughed and talked until after 9:00 pm.   They told us their love story and we told them ours.  It really was so facinating to hear of their conversions and how their children are doing in the church and how they feel about life in South Africa.  They sort of assumed that everyone in America comes to church on time, pays their tithing every month and has every child active in the church.  Well, not exactly that, but they were surprised to hear that we have many of the same struggles as they do.

It is very amazing that the people of South Africa are so critical of their country---they always point out the negative things like the violence, but we have not really witnessed  much negative behavior.  We hear about it on the news, but that is really about the same as home.  The reporters are much more graphic in their descriptions of what has happened, and I'm sure many of the crimes are more violent than I have even heard about in Idaho.  But I can't help feeling that these things also happen in America in large cities---I just haven't lived in one.  As we were doing missionary work on Saturday, we visited a very rich man who asked us how we liked South Africa.  We told him we loved it here, and he said,"Doesn't the violence bother you?"  I was shocked that it would be his first question.  I had to answer, I haven't seen any violence---I have met mostly kind and gentle people filled with caring for one another and trying to help each other for the most part.  I thought about it later, and realized my feelings for these people are very deep.  Many of them are desperately poor, begging for even a loaf of bread, doing all kinds of silly jobs like backing you out of a parking place so you will give them a handful of change, and rummaging through trash cans for any small item they can use or sell.  They stand at the traffic lights and try to sell you sunglasses, little things they have made, or newpapers.  It is not surprising that many of them resort to stealing anything that they can just to get a little food.  My heart breaks every time we drive through town and I can see how easy it is to become blind to them as we try not to look at their suffering.  I can't begin to see a way to help them other than to give them the gospel of Jesus Christ to give them hope and a place to go when they reach the end of their rope. 

Here is part of what will be or already is the Hope of Africa.  These two Elders were the Assistants to the President a few months ago.  Elder Msimango on the left is from Durban and is a very intelligent and articulate young man.  Elder Dodoo on the right is from Accra, Ghana and he already has a degree in business and a young woman he went home to marry.  They will build up their communities and their wards and stakes and help Africa step out of the hopelessness it is facing at this time.  It may be one family at a time, but I think it will become much larger than that.  We send home four or five of these fine young men every six weeks.  They have learned how to live in the world and not become a part of it.  They have had money---most of them for the first time and they have learned how to budget and use it wisely.  They have helped people find jobs, solve family problems or realize their potential----they know how to serve people and yet help them keep their self-esteem.  It may come slowly at first, but I think it is beginning to explode, and Africa will come forward out of the darkness into the marvelous light.  I just know it! It has already started!

I'm going to stop here so I can start our trip home on the next blog.  What an exciting time we had seeing much more of South Africa than we had ever seen before.  There is so much more to see that we will never see while we are here---Johannesburg, the Kwa Zulu Natal area, the great Karoo, Victoria Falls, Lesotho, Swaziland, The Free State, Limpopo and Polokwane to the north.  I can't begin to tell you about it all.   Ah, maybe someday we will come back for a visit!

Food, cars, trinkets---it's all downtown

I know some of you have worried about what we are eating here in Cape Town.  I took a few pictures of this special place where we shop for food so that you can see where to shop when you go downtown Cape Town.

One of our favorite places to shop is Fruit and Veg City---they always have lots of things we love.  They even have bulk nuts and candies and dried fruits of all kinds.  Of course their specialty is fruit and veggies!  But they also have a great deli with Sweet Chili Chicken Pizza (actually lots of kinds of pizza, but thats our favorite) and roasted veggies and African Mac and Cheese.  Here are some pictures we took there.

They have these great little carts that they call trolleys that just have a basket on top and one on the bottom.  They are fun if you aren't buying too much. 

Here are some of the fruits---peaches and nectarines at 19,99 rand a kilogram!  That's about $2.50 a kg or $1.25 a pound.  They have so many kinds of fruit and lots of veggies too.

Watermelons are just coming into season and they are really good.  We were waiting for the price to go down a little.   49 rand is just a little more than $7 right now, but they are really big melons. 

This is the cheese area - I know---it looks like Costco with every kind of cheese imaginable. . . .except Swiss, for some reason they don't have Swiss cheese down here. We have eaten a lot more gouda and parmesan than we did at home.  We aren't much into the specialty cheese like brie etc. yet! 

Here are some of my fellow shoppers who were lining up to check out.  I forgot to get a pic of the deli and the bakery.  The bakery is so super---all kinds of fresh rolls made daily and of course lots of kinds of bread.  We especially like their seed bread which has all kinds of grains and seeds in it.  And they sell ciabattas 5 for 10 rand---that's about 5 for $1.25.  We use them for lunches and quick dinner sandwiches.

And of course they have someone to help you out to the car with your yummies.  They really like it if you give them 4 or 5 rand so they can buy some food too.

Elder Herbert really hates this cobblestone road that you drive on when you go out, so we usually go a different way.  But I did want to get a picture of it.  There are a few like this around town.

If we have time, we stop at the local car dealers and check out the new Ferraris.  They are just around the corner from Fruit and Veg.

On this day we had to do some Christmas shopping and we drove down around the city square where the generals are all memorialized and went to Green Market Square.

We thought there might be some new and interesting items, and it is not hard to find some things that we haven't seen.

I always like to check out the jewelry and this young girl was very anxious to sell me some beads or earrings.  I finally ended up buying an African CD that they were playing and I really like it.

There is lots of art work, but I am not too great an art critic and have a hard time choosing because they are all so unique and fun.  If you see anything you want, be sure and send me a message so I can bring you something home!  I love the little tapstries painted on canvas and their hand printed fabrics. 

I asked this man about this stick that looks like a cane, but it is a little bit short.  He said, no its not a cane, it is a stick to protect yourself.  I told him someone would probably grab it from me and thump me with it.  He got a good laugh out of that.  We don't really need sticks for protection in the areas where we go, so don't start getting worried!  You can see that they use everything for their creative artwork.  The little rectangular pictures on my right---there on the corner of the table---are pictures made from banana leaves carefully pasted into scenes of Africa.  I haven't bought any yet, but I plan too.  I am watching for just the right ones.

These masks are pretty popular, but somehow I just don't like them and can't bring myself to buy any.  You can see it is kind of like going to the fair with everyone very anxious to sell their wares.  There is always music playing and lots of dancers and entertainers all around to keep you there too.

I really hope to go back later and buy a couple of paintings from this man.  He is really very good and very enjoyable to talk to.   You can't see his best work in this picture, but he paints scenes of Africa.  We mostly bought items from next door, so he was pretty frustrated with us.  But we will go back and see him some day.

I wouldn't want you to think Green Market is the only place to shop in Cape Town, so I'll include this picture of a shop at the airport that we saw when we went to pick up some couples who came to town for a conference.  We had a fun chat with this little lady, but I didn't get any beads----expensive!  She doesn't really have a flag sticking out of her head---that is something behind her.  Just love the dress---they really love color down here---especially orange.

I just remembered this shopping experience that is worth sharing.  This is a little market in the township in Paarl.  We went in to see if they knew where someone lived in the neighborhood. Elder Leach is right in front of me---he is our future TV announcer from Utah.  Next to him is Elder Parry---he is our rugby player from Wales.  I'm not sure I would ever buy anything in this store.  This is the opposite of self-serve shopping.  You have to point at what you want and they will get it for you.  There was NOTHING out where you could touch it or pick it up.  Ah, the joy of owning your own business in South Africa.  These little shops are on almost every street we go down.  Usually they are built in an old railroad car or a shipping container and you don't walk in, you just buy from the end.   

I think I'll include a couple of pictures of eating out with the couples because I haven't shown any for a while.  We went to the Braza Grill and had the kabobs again and I got a great picture of Vic!

His food was all on that thing hanging in front of him and he had just removed it from that.   He looks ready to eat, huh!  You can tell we haven't missed any meals down here. 

The Mahlers shared this huge platter of different kinds of meat with a good helping of chips on the side.  I think they even had some prawns on there.

This is not a great picture, but it shows how many of us were there.  We were sitting right across from the Mahlers, so that's why you can't see us.  Elder Ladle is looking at the camera--he and his wife had just arrived in the mission and everyone in Cape Town came out to meet them. 

I think this was my meal---it was chicken strips in a spicy sauce with lots of roasted veggies. They definitely know how to serve up a nice meal here in Cape Town.  I am coming home with lots of new recipes---especially rice and curry and chakalaka (beans and tomatoes, onions and carrots--a Xhosa favorite), bread pudding, malva pudding, savory rice, baby potatoes wrapped in bacon, German potato pancakes, and the Dutch Baby oven pancakes and even South African Lasagne.

So when are you booking your flight?  They say that March is the most beautiful month of the year here.  It cools off and the wind dies down for beautiful sunny days.  Better check on those tickets today!  And let us know when you are coming!  I'm sure we can find something for you to do.

Until next time---stay happy and plan for a mission as soon as you can!  Even if you just go in your own town---what a great service experience.  It is the most important thing you can do as you come to the October or November of your life.  I would not have missed it for the world.