Well it's been quite an adventurous week! It all began Tuesday night after finals :-)
That night we went to the Jesus Culture concert in Durban and had a blast! It was great to get away for the night to listen to fabulous music and worship God! I wasn't familiar with Jesus Culture before the concert but I really enjoyed the band and their music. This was definitely a great way to end classes and begin the new segment of our time here in South Africa. After the concert I prepared and packed for the big adventure to come on Wednesday... Safari!
Wednesday morning we left for Safari. We traveled about 4 hours by bus to the Hluhluwe Imfolozi Game Park, where we would be spending the next 2 days on Safari. Once we got to the game park we ate lunch and jumped in our safari vehicles. It was so exciting and surreal to be in an actual safari vehicle on an actual safari! I just couldn't believe this was happening! It was about noon when we started our drive through the park in search for animals. Our first animal sightings consisted of many Impala and Zebras but we soon got to see some of the Big 5. About and hour into the safari we began spotting bigger animals like buffalo, rhinos and elephants. When we first saw the elephants they were far away but we waited and two of them eventually came up right in front of our vehicle. There was a pool of water and mud that we had parked in front of, so the elephants came up to it and began to bath in it. It was so cool to see this take place no more |
| Our fancy tent |
than 20 feet in front of my eyes. Later one of the elephants even tore down a tree with his trunk! This was by far the highlight of my day because it was just so shocking how calm the elephants were and how close they got to us. After seeing more animals that day we made it to our camp and got assigned our tents. The tents we were staying in were NICE tents, they are permanent tents set up in the camp with their own big beds, bathroom, kitchen, and deck. I loved that we got to stay in these tents it was incredible, I felt like I was camping but also in a hotel at the same time :) That night me and my roommate slept deeply and peacefully to the sound of nature.
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| Rhino that charged at us |
The next morning we woke up at 4:30 to begin our full day of Safari. Our goal of the day was to see some cats but unfortunately that didn't happen. We did however see more elephants and rhinos. There was one moment when we stopped to look at some Rhinos that were about 15 ft away and one of the rhinos tried to charge our vehicle. It was staring at us for a while and then it began coming at us but luckily it stopped after our driver had stomped on the gas to get away. I was a bit frightened after this but I also loved the adrenaline rush! Even though we didn't see lions, cheetahs, or leopards that day, I still had a great day with my Safari group driving around the game reserve on the search for wild animals. We also got to enjoy a lot of delicious food that day, which was quite nice! That night when me and my roommate were sleeping quietly inside our tents, we heard the sound of Hyenas at night walking through the camp. It was incredible to hear this because I got to realize just how amazing it is that we were sleeping among all this wild life. On Friday, we had an early start again because we were determined to find some big cats before we left the Game Park at noon. But sadly, we drove around the whole morning and saw none. We did however see a herd of giraffe, herd of elephants, and a crocodile. Also we learned that we had just missed a leopard sighting by a minute. If only we had been a minute faster! After a great morning and an experience I hope to never forget, we left the Game Park and headed back to Pietermaritzburg. Due to Friday traffic we finally arrived at campus around 6pm. That night we relaxed and got a good nights rest before a fun Saturday to come.
Saturday we decided to go cliff jumping. After breakfast we packed up and headed to a nature reserve where we could go cliff jumping and have a Braii (South African barbeque). It was fun to go out on this adventure with a group of about 20 of us and not have to worry about any homework. Also, I love cliff jumping! So I was excited to for this adrenaline rush :) When we got to the nature reserve, most of our group headed down to cliff jump, while some stayed behind to make our lunch. Cliff jumping was great and I jumped from the highest rock about 3 times. A lot of our time was spent convincing people to jump, but I was glad to see that we got everyone to jump off. We then returned to the camp to eat a delicious meal of barbequed meat sandwiches, salad, and other snacks. After lunch those who didn't go down to the river the first time joined us and we got to see some new people make the big jump. Once we had our adrenaline fix for the day we all headed back to the vehicles to return to campus. That night our group got dressed up and went to Thai food for dinner. This was a great way to end such a fabulous day!
Sunday we went Zip-lining! We drove about an hour away to Karkloof, where we would be doing the Karkloof Canopy Tour. This excursion was one I had been looking forward to for quite sometime, so I was really excited! I've only been zip-lining once before and I loved it so I knew this experience would be just as great. When we got to the zip-lining place we broke up into groups of 8 and went up the mountain, after we had been given all our equipment. There was a total of 8 different zip-lines we would be doing that day. The second one was by far my favorite! It went really fast and it was the first time we got to see the incredible view of the valley below. I loved soaring through the air and seeing the beautiful landscape of South Africa! We later went on many more zip-lines with gorgeous views but nothing compares to the first time I saw that view. The day was great and although it was sad that our weekend of adventure was coming to an end I was excited about what was to come.On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we were in our Community Engagement class from 8 to 4 everyday. We had breaks throughout and our professor is incredible, so I actually really enjoyed it. I have learned so much valuable information from our teacher, Francis, and I am so excited to apply the information when working at my service site. Francis speaks a lot about empowering communities and how our job in the community is to be a facilitator. He continually tells us that we are not to go into a community and give, give, give or lead them but in fact walk along side them and listen to what they have to say. By listening to them and showing them they have all they need to accomplish their goals they can create a sustainable solution to any problems they have. I have gained so much wisdom about community engagement throughout the past 3 days and I'm so glad we are able to learn from such a brilliant man!
Tomorrow we start service sites and I am so excited although a bit nervous too. I can't wait to get there and see what God has in store for our group to do at RivLife. Bring on this new adventure! Well time for sleep, I'll let you know how service sites go after our first few days. Take Care!
God Bless,
Yvette
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