An Overdue Update

16 February 2010

Well, it’s been awhile since I’ve written anything but since we haven’t had Internet still I haven’t had much incentive. This trip has really only gotten better though with each day. I love it here in South Africa. We’ve been at Skukuza in Kruger National Park for a week today and it’s so great here. It’s beautiful and there are amazing animals everywhere. Little Vervet monkeys run through the camp a lot so you have to make sure you watch your clothes that are drying on the line and other random things like that. We’re staying in the tourist camp for these few weeks in Skukuza which is nice cause we can walk around when we want. It’s a ridiculously big place actually. We have our only little section of buildings that includes a kitchen/dining room/classroom (yes, all one room) and dorm building with two big rooms that the students share and a few rooms for the TAs. There are about 32 twin beds lined up right next to each other in four rows in each of the student rooms but everyone has at least two beds to themselves, usually one for sleeping and one for stuff.

We’ve been crazy busy since we got here because we started working on our independent projects the first morning we were here and haven’t stopped since. We did research for four days and now we’re on our second day of data analysis. Our rough drafts are due tomorrow so we’ve all been working pretty hard to get stuff done. It’s crazy busy but it’s nice because everyone is doing similar things and we’re all just working in rooms together. It’s actually pretty fun. Right now people are gone playing soccer but a few of us managed to not stretch enough before soccer last night and my quad seized up so I’m sitting out tonight and write this update for people back home instead. The first night we were here we played soccer (on a cricket field) while two warthogs walked around us grazing. It was so weird but so cool because that just showed how natural it was for us to be right in with all these awesome animals. It really made me excited for my time here in the park.

This place really is amazing. It’s so wild. Just to give you an idea, tourists are not allowed to get out of the car when in the park outside the gated tourist camp. We get out of the GDVs (Game Drive Vehicles) to do our research but only when we are accompanied with a game guard with a rifle who has gotten out first and checked the area for dangerous animals. Usually one of our instructors, either Laurence or Graeme, carries a rifle as well. The first night we were here they sat us down and talked about how dangerous some of the animals here and what we should do if we ever encountered a lion, leopard, Cape buffalo, rhino, or elephant on foot. It was a little scary but I think they made it that way on purpose to scare us into listening. There have only been a few times elephants have come on people while they were working but really they’re babies and a little noise will scare them off. I just love the fact that I’m right in with all the animals. We see something cool while we’re driving almost everytime we go out to the sites. I’ve seen two big male lions with dark manes, elephants very close to the car, a few Cape buffalo, a leopard hiding behind some trees, hippos play fighting, and lots of baboons. The group that did their IP on birds was super lucky because they got to leave every morning at 445h and saw all sorts of cool things, including a pride of young lions and Wild Dogs! I was so jealous and mad because I was supposed to go with them that morning but talked myself out of it the night before. But I’m going out for a drive tomorrow morning at 5h30 so I should see some things I hope. It probably sounds like I’m crazy waking up that early but that’s really how are schedule is here. It was about 43 degrees Celcius on our research days, which was like 105 F, so we would eat around 5h15, leave for the field at 600h, then come back at hang out at camp in the pool or inside from 1100h to 1400h then go back out until sunset at 1900h. Most people go to bed by 2300h, and the past few nights it’s been closer to 2200h for me. I woke up at 500h this morning and couldn’t go back to sleep. It’s such a different schedule for me, and I feel like my dad :P (Speaking of, if you read this dad, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I hope it’s wonderful and I’m sorry I’m missing it. )

I’m really having a great time here, if you couldn’t tell. I just love it. The past few days I’ve been missing some people back home but luckily God has blessed me with joy, contentment, and even just busyness so that I’m really making the most of this whole experience and really just living in every moment. It’s been a great experience so far and as of now I don’t know how I’m ever going to go back to regular school again… The people here are really nice too, and I’ve really gotten close to some of them too now that we’ve been together for a while and I’m having a lot of fun hanging out with them. I’m hoping to get to use the Internet tomorrow (it’s been down because some monkeys chewed through the wires) and then I’ll post this and hopefully put some pictures up on Facebook too. I’ll try not to wait so long before I write again so I can keep people better updated, but until I write again know that I miss you all so much and I hope your lives are going well! Just email me if you need to tell me something and hopefully I’ll be able to check it!

Elizabeth