Swaziland

Got up at 5am this morn got ready for Kruger. Last night Orai and Linda Lehman called E&D's room and said they were in the Lobby. They were surprised to get a call at all because no one knew we were staying at that hotel. They said that they saw our car and that they were staying at that same hotel. They were on their way to Jo-burg to pick up another work team.

We left the hotel about 6am and got to Kruger at around 6:45am or so. The sun was just coming up as we were driving. Didn't see a ton of animals, but we did see four of the big 5. We saw about 4 rhinos (didn't see them last time), a few elephants, water buffalo, and hippos. We saw many impala, Kudu and birds and we saw three klipspringers.

At one point we were out and we saw a guard/guide person...whatever they're called. The african guys that are out and about around the animals and always carrying a gun. They wear a green outfit and badge...professional hunters or whatever. Anyway, we came to a place where one was eating his lunch and he asked us if we wanted to see the hippos up close. We were able to get out of the car (very lucky!) and go down with the guard down to see hippos. Normally they have a strict rule "don't get out of the car" accept a few different places in the park where it is allowed and safe to do so. This place it wasn't safe without a guard. We were on the other side of the river from the hippos, but we got to see them fairly close...those big blobbery animals. They were sleeping. They are so funny looking.

When we were coming up to some baboons I said, "op, time to close the windows." Dorcas said, "oh they won't hurt you." Now, I've heard of a baboon coming inside a car and attacking someone. Anyway, I thought it would be important to not take that risk, but dorcas didn't think there was any harm and so we didn't. One of the baboons came up on the passenger side of the car and they had their windows down and were taking pictures of it. Mathias thought it was cool to see a baboons up close...he was pretty excited. Then, all of the sudden, when we were getting ready to move on, the monkey jumped up and reached into the car through Heidi's window. Luckily she moved out of the way quick enough that it didn't grab her, but it leeped up and grabbed into the car. Dorcas swatted at him (almost touched him) and he got down quick....After that loud scream heidi made and the threat on our lives, I said, "That is why I thought we should close our windows."

I got to drive for a couple of hours in Kruger. It was really odd to shift gears with my left hand. I put it in first instead of reverse to get out of the parking spot (but dorcas corrected me right away) and I put on the windshield wipers instead of the blinker...but, I only made those mistakes once. I'm pretty much a professional driver now.

We got back home tonight at about 9pm. On the trip we talked about police in swazi and how corrupt the system is...just like other countries. I asked, "What if they're trying to make you pay for something that should not be a fine and so you just drive off. Will you get in big trouble? Like do they have radios?" I like to ask the trouble-maker questions when it comes to driving. Dorcas said that they might follow you and they might not. Since they are breaking the rules, it would only get pinned back on them. The problem with the system is that they live for themselves, not the governmental laws like they're supposed to. Anyway, I might learn a bit more about that sometime.

We also talked about the great movies that they have here (and don't in America)...I'm getting some exposure to the "foreign-made" movies, I guess you could call them. I almost like them more.

PS~As corn is to Indiana; sugarcane is to South Africa.