Sylvia's Africa Diaries: Kruger, Part 1
Day 1: Sunday, June 19, 2011
First of all, let me just say how wonderful it is to be back in this country! I have been away for so long, and to feel the cool winter breezes on my face and see the acacia trees glistening in the blue, cloudless skies makes me smile. But sadly, today was probably the longest and worst day I’ve ever had in Africa. What a way to welcome me home!
Let me explain. The mission for today was simple enough: make all the right transfers, arrive with all my luggage, get a rental car, get a cell phone, get my money changed over, make it to Kruger through the main gate, arrive in the Skukuza reception center and then check into the place where I was to be staying, buy some food and get ready for work in the morning. Simple enough, right? Is ANYTHING EVER simple enough?
Thank the LORD, my flight went off without any problems. All FIVE transfers. Yes, five. Africa is pretty far away, after all. I went from Roanoke to Washington to New York (JFK) to Johannesburg to Nelspruit/Kruger International Airport. And there were no problems, no hurries to catch a flight, and no strip searches along the way. And after arriving in Nelspruit, I was so delighted with the airport I almost couldn’t contain myself! It was a small, very tiny building that was built with thatched roof and wood to look like a traditional South African hut. It was gorgeous in every way and I had no trouble finding a phone and finding where I should get my money changed and car rented. So great! All three checked off my list, right?
Now here’s where I talk about what a scary experience it is to drive on the wrong side of the road. Many people have told me that in a car that’s built for left-sided driving, it’s much easier and you get the hang of it quickly. Maybe. I did not however expect the shifter to be on the left side of me. Every time I wanted to shift the car I grabbed frantically at the door of the car with my right hand before finally remembering that, oh yeah…it’s not on that side! And another thing - here in South Africa, common motor courtesy is to pull off to the side of the road if you are going slower than someone else so that they can pass you. Even if it’s a 2-way street, with little room, people will want to and try to pass you. They don’t have yellow lines in the middle of the road either. They are dashed white lines. So it’s easy to forget when you’re turning which side of the road you are supposed to be turning onto. >_<
Thankfully, I picked it up easily enough to get out of the airport and onto the highway. But then I encountered a new problem: getting to where I was going. Now, thank goodness Sue from Brothers Safaris had left me detailed directions of how to get to Skukuza in Kruger. All I had to do was follow them. And then she even left me a number of a friend of hers in the area that would be on hand to assist with directions if I got lost. Thank goodness she was there, because get lost I did. Multiple times. I mean, unlike here in America, the road signs here are terrible and the roads are hard to tell if they are going to a highway or to a dead end. And finding yourself in an unknown part of a city can be nerve wracking when alone and by yourself. So I called her many times and eventually she got me out of the town of White River and onto the road to Hazyview.
And that’s where everything went wrong.
I’m driving along the R40 highway, excited to be getting to Kruger relatively on-time (the gates close at 5:30pm, which is sundown here) and I was getting the hang of driving on the highway. Then, suddenly, there’s a loud bump on my left side and suddenly the car seems to have shifted lower to the ground on the left side. I pull off to the side of the road and my stomach turned a knot as I got out of the car and saw - you guessed it - my tire was completely flat. In a panic, I called Sue’s friend again who gave me the directions and pleaded my case to her. And she called up someone she knew to come out and fix it for me. Waiting alone on the side of that highway was one of the most nerve-wracking things I’ve ever done. And then, I got another call as the minutes ticked on - THEY COULDN’T FIND ME. I glance at the clock and it’s getting dangerously close to 3:00, with Kruger still being about an hour and a half away. Finally, after about 15 more agonizing minutes, the couple found me and helped me change my tire. They were so wonderful and sweet and were the best things to happen to me over here because I don’t know what I would have done without them!
After the spare tire was put on, or “biscuit tire” as the locals call it here, I sped as fast as I could (80 kph, because my tire will not go above that safely) and made it to the main Paul Kruger gate JUST in time. But I still had to go about 15 km or so to Skukuza and they closed soon after dark as well. I made it to Skukuza and breathed a sigh of relief. Really, I should have waited, because Africa wasn’t done with me yet.
Reception didn’t know what in the world to do with me! They asked for the reservation number, and I of course didn’t have one because I was supposed to be working with the vets in a separate part of the camp that they took care of. But when I tried to explain that, and showed them the letter of acceptance, they didn’t know what to do with me. So I frantically phoned Wisani who made the arrangements, but she wasn’t answering her phone. So I called Dr. Peter Buss, and HE wasn’t answering either. So I left him a frantic message and just waited, hoping somehow that something would happen because at this point, after dark, I’m NOT ALLOWED to leave the area unless I have a place to stay. Finally, after a few minutes, I get a call from Dr. Buss who tells me that he was supposed to meet me at the reception area, but he’s not in Kruger. So he’d send someone else to come and get me.
Well, they did after a few minutes, and by now it’s completely dark and all the shops are closed. So I can’t buy food or water or anything. I was introduced to the two other students - both local South African fourth-year vet students also doing this program - and they kindly offered me their Brai. Brai is traditional South African fare - it’s gobs and gobs of meat barbequed over a roaring fire. I told them I didn’t eat meat, and they were like, “No worries…have some of our beer then, at least!” And I told them once again that no, I didn’t drink. So the girl (Karen) looked at the guy (Neil) and said, “Well, let’s throw a potatoe on there for her then!” I will tell you, after 2 days of plane food and hardly anything to eat, that fire-roasted potato was the best thing I had ever eaten! And honestly, I would have been fine with just collapsing in bed. Which is very nearly what I did.
Day 2: Monday, June 20, 2011
Today it was up early to meet the vets at 7am for our first day of capture work! It was light when I woke up, and I had time to inspect the camp a bit before having to rush off to morning duties. We are currently staying at the veterinary camp, which is just a 1 minute walk from the veterinary wildlife services building near Skukuza rest camp. Our little compound, like all places that house people overnight here, is surrounded by a 15 ft tall electrified fence to keep out those nasty pests (animal, human, or otherwise) that might want to invade our camp. We’ve heard rumors that the monkeys love to come in and steel our things, so we are advised to keep all our doors closed and/or locked during the day. The compound is made up of several separate buildings, each one serving its own unique purpose that when put together would form one very large and impressive house. One building by the main gate consists of nothing but tiny rooms - even tinier than my spare bedroom in foxridge. In fact, they are tinier than most dorm rooms I’ve seen, with enough room for a bed, a desk, a cabinet, and about 5 floor tiles of empty space where you can put a suitcase or turn around in. But really, who needs much when you’re out in the veld? Leading out from this building, we have a stone walkway leading to another building with more rooms. These are nicer and bigger, and are reserved for more distinguished guests (researchers, medical students, etc.). This building is connected to another building that is not but a maze of bathrooms and showers poking out of all directions. Across from this building is our beautiful fire pit, made out of a ring of wood piled up about 10 feet high surrounding a dirt area with a big stone circular center piece on which you build your fire. This is where most of the action occurs at night. It’s a lot like primitive camping, and I love it! It’s so nice to sit and stare at the fire lazily and wonder where the energy to get up in the morning is going to come from.
A little ways away from this building, across the garden, is our kitchen building. It doesn’t have much, but it’s enough to function in any way we could want. I have big plans to cook things here when I actually get to go down to the shop and buy food. At the moment, I’m still living on sweet potatoes, corn flakes, and fire-roasted potatoes, which isn’t so bad really. Across from the kitchen is a covered dining area as well that we used during the day for lunch. To be honest, this little camp is so charming and beautiful that it makes me feel cozy inside. I have always thought how cool it would be to have a house like this - where it’s basically a big plot of land with little houses separate from one another that each contain a different part of your house that you have to walk outside to reach. It reminds me of living in Rivendell actually, without the water or the big shady trees…or the elves. This style works well because we have warm weather here all the time…even in the winter, so there’s no need to really keep things closed off or extremely close together.
After meeting at the vet camp early in the morning, we were taken to where they load the darts and they went over how they do it for capture. They use the dan-inject system, thankfully, which is the one I’m most familiar with. They explained some of the drugs they used and what the procedure would be for the white rhino we’d be catching this morning. We’re going to be doing two of them, and I’m anxious to see how Kruger does it differently from Dr. Brothers. As we bounce along in the veld, we begin following the chopper. Now, the chopper is a marvelous creature that is extremely intelligent and very very helpful when capturing game. The pilot, if he knows his stuff, can herd the animals right where he wants them to go with speed and accuracy. And this pilot knew his stuff. They managed to herd the animal after he was darted RIGHT to the side of the road for easy pick-up by us. How marvelous!!! And while Dr. Brothers relies on man-power to move his animals, we use etorphine, butorphanol, antipamazol, and cattle prodders in combination to move our animals. This combination of drugs is fabulous because with just a cattle prodder and a few big men pushing or pulling to guide the rhino, we can get him to walk himself into the crate instead, then load the crate onto the truck! Things went very smoothly and we were back in the lab soon, running the blood, making smears, and fixing the skin and tissue samples we took from the rhino. Not a bad first day, I must say!
Tonight they braied again and this time, we had visitors. I had heard their strange voices the night before, taunting us with their eerie lullabyes, but this time they were louder, noisier, and easily seen just outside the fence. Our flashlights would catch the tapetum lucidum of their eyes, making them shine in the darkness around the perimeter of the fence. Hyenas. They smelled the meat and had come to see tasty morsels cooking tasty morsels. And later, as the night wore on and I was asleep in my bed, I heard the familiar deep, guttural groans that signaled the arrival of my favorite predator - the lion. Though we could not see them, we knew that somewhere out there, in the African darkness, they waited.
Day 3: Wednesday, June 21, 2011
People at the vet school seem to think that getting up for 7:00 rounds and treatments is early. Huh. In this line of work, that’s sleeping in. We had to be up at 3:00am to be ready to leave the vet camp at 4:15am. Yes, in the morning. The sun was not up yet, and as I made my way to the shower at 3am I shivered in the winter air. The hardest part of my day seems to be those few seconds in the early morning between taking off my pjs and jumping into the warm shower. I am grateful every morning that I have hot water (and electricity, as power outages are extremely common here). I’m also grateful that the water here can be drunk straight from the tap - a luxury here in Africa, really. The American girl that we are with from Oregon state does nothing but complain about the things we have here, but honestly, I am perfectly content.
The four of us did our rhino captures this morning and everything went off without a hitch. No problems, no injuries, and a great communication among all party members made today run smoothly. We also met another student who came out to help us who is in the middle of specializing in wildlife and exotic medicine at the university of Florida. I didn’t realize you COULD specifically specialize in that area. Something to look into when I get back to the states. Perhaps there will be some more school in my future after all…
In my notebook, where I keep a daily diary and devotional, there’s a quote for today’s date that, as I read it tonight, seemed rather fitting:
“God never promises to remove us from our struggles. He does, however, to change the way we look at them.” ~ Max Lucado.
Today I faced a very interesting struggle that I wasn’t expecting to face here. The three other students decided to go on a run together through the golf course and around the little town near Skukuza. There was only about 30 minutes left of daylight so they assured me that a 30 minute run was all they had time for and it wouldn’t be long. Being a runner myself, I said that I would love to go. All the others were adamant that they ran super slow, so I shouldn’t be upset if they didn’t keep up. I smiled and assured them that I would probably be running in the back of the pack and would never leave anyone behind. We parked our car near the community center and pool and then started off from there. What they said would be about 3 miles or so around the town soon became about 5 miles in and out of the veld.
I also learned an important lesson that day: NEVER ever trust runners that claim that they are slow. EVER. They are not. There seems to be, among runners, three speeds. I call them horse, hare, and turtle. When runners say “I’m slow”, they mean, “I’m a hare”. While those that are turtles like me tend to give up easily and quit running because the hares make them feel like they are lower than dirt when they run. Hence what happened with me. I remember the girl from the US calling to me from the front, “Hey, you okay back there, Sylvia?” I didn’t say anything because I was huffing and puffing to keep them in sight, when suddenly she just turned and sped off around a corner and out of my line of vision. I suddenly realized that I was alone, running through an unfamiliar town in the bush, where elephants and leopards and lions were often seen. And it was getting dark. Every time something would rustle the bushes beside me, my heart would race a little faster and I would remember the words of Neil from earlier that day: Even if you’re the fastest runner ever, you still look like the slowest thing a leopard’s ever seen.
I think if it wasn’t for that fear pushing me on, and not knowing where I was, I would have long since stopped running. But my fear pushed me on. Karen was the one saving grace that I had. She waited and slowed for me just enough so that I could still remain in her sights. Soon, she slowed even farther and threw up her hands. Then I noticed that there was a split in the path and the others were completely gone. We had no clue where to turn. Karen called back, “Okay, we’re making our own way around now.” And we did. We probably ran about a mile or so more than they did, because when we finally got back, the sun was just starting to set…and the car was gone. Yes, my friends, they left without us. And Karen was pissed. I asked if we should walk home because it really wasn’t that far from there. But she looked at me and said, “Not when there are bloody elephants roaming around these parts that they’ve had to shoot at because they’re being troublesome. I know…let’s go check out the pool while we wait for them.”
This was, in fact, a very brilliant strategic idea. The pool was completely fenced in, even if it was a little further back from the main road where the others would likely be driving by to try and find us. We sat at the edge of the water and talked about our lives in our respective countries and how things have changed. When they finally picked us up again, they were apologetic, claiming to have just missed us and been looking around for us a long time. But those 15 long minutes we spent in the fading light waiting for their car to come around were terrifying. At least for me. Karen never lost her cool for a moment. I thank God for her often.
Day 4: Wednesday, June 22, 2011
I once watched a special on the national geographic channel about mass capture in Kruger with Wildebeests. I remember learning about the technique from Dr. Brothers in his Immobilization class here last year, and the use of make-shift bomas to funnel massive numbers of animals into a tiny shoot where they could be worked and loaded easily without darting. But not being used very often, I figured I would never have the opportunity to partake in such a venture.
But God had a surprise up His sleeve today for me. In Kruger, they do mass captures only about once every 5 years. The last one they did was the wildebeest that was filmed. And today, they did it again. This time, with about 40 zebra. We had a briefing before the mission started, to make sure everyone knew what was going to happen. The crew had painstakingly built these bomas out of wire, poles, and movable curtains over the span of two days, making sure that they accounted for the most probable wind direction and other natural features of the land in their construction. They made sure that all the ground crew knew the drill, because one small mis-step and we would have to break down the entire thing and move it all about 100 km over and try again.
The procedure involved a series of curtains that made up gates that would close at specific times, as soon as the zebra were herded into the area with the helicopter. The helicopter would give us a signal with a long siren, and the first gate would close. People would run as fast as they could, pulling curtains attached to rods hanging above them, and close them before the animals could turn around and bite, kick, or run back in their direction. The curtains were each tested, making sure that they didn’t snag on anything while we were running them. One snagged curtain would leave a hole that the zebra would find and run through, and then all would be completely lost. I was working in the second gate, and at the second long helicopter siren, Marcus, our boss, would blow a long, low whistle, and we were to run as fast as we could across the gap to close the curtain.
The first group of zebras came in. The copter zoomed above us, and I sat for a split second and took in the situation around me. Poised and ready to spring to action from a shout and a whistle. Knowing that there was a good chance that one of us could be kicked, bitt, or attacked by scared zebra trying to break through and find freedom. They said we should attempt to look big and scary if they turned toward us and looked like they were going to attack. The whole situation was scary and thrilling at the same time. I suppose this is what recruits find joyous about the military, and war games - in a way, it’s very similar.
We ran the curtains four separate times, each time getting family groups of zebras anywhere from 17 to 5 in number. We made sure to load the trucks specifically so that family groups would be held together and not mixed. Individuals unlucky enough to be put in the wrong family group would be mutilated to death by the other zebra. As we worked, only two male zebras gave us trouble. While in the trucks, they began mercilessly biting and kicking one of the young foals. They were being such a huge nuisance that we decided to immobilize them and release them back into the veld.
The rest of the day was spent working these zebra through the makeshift shoots, much as we would work cattle on PMM back at the vet school in America. Finally when we were done, we drove back to the camp, all of us sore and tired, but so happy to be a part of this experience.
I was finally able to go to the camp store and get some things today. Yesterday I visited the small staff shop to pick up bread, apples, and corn flakes. But the tourist shop in Skukuza had more things to choose from, and so I bought what I could. I was elated when I saw they had some ready made tomato and cheese sandwitches. This is their veggie option here in South Africa, and sometimes they even add eggs to them. What a delight!!! It’s the simple pleasures that you really learn to love when you have so little. I bought some that I planned to use as a special Sabbath treat when the weekend comes. And I looked for cheese, but alas, it is an expensive and rare commodity at the shops here. So I got some laughing cow spreadable cheese and have been using that as my sandwitch filling. I also bought some eggs and was amazed when I opened them up to look at them in the store, how filthy they were. Covered in feathers, dirt, and chicken poop. I smiled. These were definitely farm fresh eggs all right. I also bought what I thought was a can of tomato sauce in hopes of making corn flake patties tonight for my fellow vet students, especially those who were so nice in sharing their food with me when I didn’t have any. I figured out how to light the gas oven and began mixing the ingredients. I opened the can of tomato sauce, and realized that this wasn’t quite what I thought it was. It was…well…chopped tomatoes. Whoops! So my corn flake patties didn’t have as great of a tomato flavor as I would have liked, but that’s okay. I made a big batch of them and saved the rest to reheat and have for later days. I also bought some mac and cheese and other noodle types to make some night that I have time out here. It’s the little comforts like these that make the veld home.
Day 5: Thursday, June 23, 2011
Of all the animals to dart, there are two species that give us the greatest difficulty. Giraffe are one, because their extreme size and fragile bodies make it very hard to get them loaded into trailers or on the ground safely. The other is the elephant. Not only because of its massive size, but the anatomy of its respiratory system makes them unable to breathe out their mouth, and air having to travel such a vast distance from the end of the trunk to the mouth makes hypoxia a very real risk. This is aside from their extreme aggression (which I know of all too well by this time). So when the calendar for today mentioned elephant capture, I grew excited. Another once in a lifetime opportunity! Not many crews have the facilities and manpower to be able to handle an elephant capture. And we were going to do two of them! Fantastic!
I was thoroughly surprised at how well everything went. The first elephant was a breeze, as the chopper was able to maneuver the elephant straight to the road where it sat down (nothing stranger than seeing an elephant sitting like a dog). We covered its eyes with a blindfold and placed a small stick in-between the lips of the trunk to hold it open so the elephant could breathe - a little elephant intubation, if you will. My job was to get a fecal and temperature from this massive beast. But I couldn’t accomplish this while it was sitting down. Being in a sternal position for a long time is massively hard on most of these animals because of their ginormous size and the weight of their organs pushing on their diaphragm. And since elephants and rhinos are hind-gut fermenters, they don’t have a rumen to worry about filling up with gas if placed in lateral, so it’s a much better position to work them in. After getting about 10 people to heave and roll the elephant over, I was finally able to bend down and stick my arm inside the massive elephant rectum. I felt around, making most of the opportunity (Dr. Wittier, eat your heart out!) and trying to see if I could feel anything. Sadly, I couldn’t. It was still rather hard to get far in to the elephant when it was in lateral, so I did the best that I could and then came out again. I must say, I think I’m one of the only students at VMRCVM to say that they have rectally examined an elephant. :)
After the elephant, Brittany and I got to get a special lift back to the vet building via the chopper. I had flown in one of these many times before, but each time I do I still get that feeling of awe and wonder. To see the world pass below you like a child’s toy set is such a thrill. We soared above the earth, zooming over rivers, dry watering holes, and above the spreading acacia trees. We spotted wart hog, cape buffalo, elephant, and rhino from the air. I can’t wait to be able to ride in one again, and perhaps dart something from the side with Dr. Brothers. Yes, this is my job. Be jealous. :)
Upon returning to camp, we waited for the others to arrive and then made a mad dash to the bomas to treat a sick rhino who had some lacerations on her. By this time, we were all running along smoothly with our jobs and working like a well-oiled machine. If only blocks here were three weeks, not two! Then I could stay here longer.
Day 6: Friday, June 24, 2011
Would that I had been able to come in late August or October to Kruger instead! Then I could be immobilizing lions all day and every day! But instead, this is all Rhino. And it will be all elephant and rhino for the rest of the time I’m here in Kruger. This time, we got a bit of a test of our skills. We were divided into two groups - Karen and Brittany together and I with Neil - and each of us was to deal with a rhino. They were knocking them down in pairs - a cow and calf. The first cow and calf were knocked down away from the road and very far apart from one another. I was told my job would be to bleed the rhino cow - and not having drawn blood before for them yet, I was slightly nervous. They need a LOT of blood from these guys for all the various studies and data bases that they are doing in Kruger, so I popped a vacutainer into an ear vein and filled tube after tube with blood. It took quite a long time and by the time I was done Neil had done everything else already by himself. The other group was in charge of her calf on the other side of the road about 100 meters or so away.
Once they loaded her into the crate, the seller asked if we could determine her status for him - in other words, was she pregnant, open, or in heat? So they cleaned her out thoroughly of any feces in her system, and then used a portable ultrasound device to check for a fetus. I’d seen these machines in the states - Dr. Currin likes to use them a lot when he has to do herd pregnancy checks. They are extremely handy units; a small probe fits in your hand while the image is transmitted to a set of goggles that you wear on your eyes. It was sad that we didn’t get to see it ourselves, but the thought of preg-checking a rhino made me smile.
The chopper took off again in search of another cow-calf pair. But an hour or so went by and they still had not found one. The seller had been very specific in what he wanted and the age of the female and calf. But finding a pair that met those exact descriptions was proving to be very difficult. So we changed tactics and went for the other animal we needed - a rhino bull. We found him and knocked him down in the middle of the wood. Not an ideal place to say the least. So he had to be walked with the cattle prodder all the way down to where the trucks were. As we drove further and further out, we still had not found a cow and calf pair, and we were wondering what to do about it. Finally they found one about a two hour drive away, and we had no choice but to zoom through the veld and find it. By the time we’d reached it, it was late in the afternoon and my water was back in the car, not on the buggie (Land Cruiser). Riding around the veld in an open land cruiser truck bed takes its toll on you, and the sun started beating down on my head mercilessly. When we got to the cow and calf pair, we waited for the first responders to check the animals and make sure they were down and put blindfolds and ropes on them, in case they start to wake up. As we approached the calf, we noticed it had gone down, but the cow was still up, and charging through the bush half-awake (the etorphine was making her prance like a tenessee walking horse). Not wanting to get in the way in case she charged for us, we hung back with the equipment in our hands.
Suddenly, Marius screams at the top of his lungs at us to get the hell over there. With one last glance at the rhino cow still thundering through the bush, we drop our equipment and race over to the calf where a crew of strong men are desperately pulling on a rope attached to its head. Only then did we realize what we could not see before - the calf had gone down right on the edge of a steep embankment, and was rapidly falling off the edge. With a huge heave, the crew pulls on the rope as hard as we can, and the calf does not budge forward one bit. I wished then that I was so much stronger than I was, for I felt more like a burden than a help to the crew as we desperately tried to save the calf. If it were to tip over the embankment, we would never be able to get it up there again and would have to reverse the mother and set her free with the calf, if the calf even survived the fall. Finally we succeeded in pulling the calf enough out of harm’s way that it ceased to slide down the cliff and we could work on it. At this point, the mother crashed onto her side in the bush and we began to work on her just as the first one.
After all samples were taken, we then ran into another problem. Though the mother and calf were a lot closer together this time than the first pair had been, we needed to take them back to the trucks…a very VERY long way away, and through thick bush. Ever tried to drag a drugged rhino? It doesn’t work very well. And its very very tiring. With the cattle prod and a bunch of big, hefty guys (oh yeah, and me) we eventually walked the cow through the bush and into the truck where she was preg-checked and finally loaded with the other one.
By this time, I was thoroughly dehydrated and it was getting even later in the day. As the land rover started off, we went even further down the road, looking for a cutoff that would circle back to where we were before. After about half an hour, a concerning message came onto the radio - one of the trucks was MIA. In the African veld, that’s not a good thing! How could a large truck with a freakin’ rhino disappear? So we hurried back to where the other trucks were and tried to guide them on the radios with directions. But as it was getting late, the vet students were told to take their car and drive it and a few of the vet techs back with them to start processing samples. That meant that one person had to stay behind in the hot sun for a few more hours with the vet until the truck came. And guess who that was?
Hey, how’d you guess???
Thankfully it didn’t take too long before the truck was back on the right road and all five elephants were loaded onto the same truck and it was speeding on its way. We had a long drive back to the vet building where more work had to be done, and finally we got back home to our little camp just as the sun was setting - just enough time for me to run and grab my new rental car. Seems they couldn’t find an appropriate tire to fix the one that was flattened on my car, so they decided to just give me a new rental car. Thank goodness that mess seems to be done with!
And now, the only thing that is left hanging over my head is my next destination. I’m supposed to be working with Dr. Tordiffe at the Pretoria zoo. And I will be. But he was supposed to make arrangements for my stay at the zoo and he didn’t. And while that wouldn’t be so bad normally as I could just get a hotel or something, the zoo is in the worst section of Pretoria. NOT a safe place outside of their gated walls. So instead, it appears I might be staying with the vet at HIS house! But I don’t know where that is, and I don’t know if I should get my own food, be dining with them, if it’s a room in their house or a separate chalet, or what the deal is. So I’m putting it all in Sue’s capable hands and just winging it (that seems to be the theme of my adventure here…just wing it and God will provide).
To all my friends at home that might be reading this: I miss you lots, and I hope that someday you can come with me back to Africa and I can show you all the many reasons why I’m in love with this place! The sunsets every night make me cry with their beauty. The animals sing to my heart and remind me of a fabulous God who has such a vivid imagination and cares for all living things. The people remind me what friendship is, and are a great example of kindness, sincerity, and friendliness that is unmatched in the states.
Until next time, via dankie for reading this. I hope it was lakur (awesome, cool, nice) to read. God bless each and every one of you, and warmest wishes from Skukuza, Kruger National Park, South Africa.
First of all, let me just say how wonderful it is to be back in this country! I have been away for so long, and to feel the cool winter breezes on my face and see the acacia trees glistening in the blue, cloudless skies makes me smile. But sadly, today was probably the longest and worst day I’ve ever had in Africa. What a way to welcome me home!
Let me explain. The mission for today was simple enough: make all the right transfers, arrive with all my luggage, get a rental car, get a cell phone, get my money changed over, make it to Kruger through the main gate, arrive in the Skukuza reception center and then check into the place where I was to be staying, buy some food and get ready for work in the morning. Simple enough, right? Is ANYTHING EVER simple enough?
Thank the LORD, my flight went off without any problems. All FIVE transfers. Yes, five. Africa is pretty far away, after all. I went from Roanoke to Washington to New York (JFK) to Johannesburg to Nelspruit/Kruger International Airport. And there were no problems, no hurries to catch a flight, and no strip searches along the way. And after arriving in Nelspruit, I was so delighted with the airport I almost couldn’t contain myself! It was a small, very tiny building that was built with thatched roof and wood to look like a traditional South African hut. It was gorgeous in every way and I had no trouble finding a phone and finding where I should get my money changed and car rented. So great! All three checked off my list, right?
Now here’s where I talk about what a scary experience it is to drive on the wrong side of the road. Many people have told me that in a car that’s built for left-sided driving, it’s much easier and you get the hang of it quickly. Maybe. I did not however expect the shifter to be on the left side of me. Every time I wanted to shift the car I grabbed frantically at the door of the car with my right hand before finally remembering that, oh yeah…it’s not on that side! And another thing - here in South Africa, common motor courtesy is to pull off to the side of the road if you are going slower than someone else so that they can pass you. Even if it’s a 2-way street, with little room, people will want to and try to pass you. They don’t have yellow lines in the middle of the road either. They are dashed white lines. So it’s easy to forget when you’re turning which side of the road you are supposed to be turning onto. >_<
Thankfully, I picked it up easily enough to get out of the airport and onto the highway. But then I encountered a new problem: getting to where I was going. Now, thank goodness Sue from Brothers Safaris had left me detailed directions of how to get to Skukuza in Kruger. All I had to do was follow them. And then she even left me a number of a friend of hers in the area that would be on hand to assist with directions if I got lost. Thank goodness she was there, because get lost I did. Multiple times. I mean, unlike here in America, the road signs here are terrible and the roads are hard to tell if they are going to a highway or to a dead end. And finding yourself in an unknown part of a city can be nerve wracking when alone and by yourself. So I called her many times and eventually she got me out of the town of White River and onto the road to Hazyview.
And that’s where everything went wrong.
I’m driving along the R40 highway, excited to be getting to Kruger relatively on-time (the gates close at 5:30pm, which is sundown here) and I was getting the hang of driving on the highway. Then, suddenly, there’s a loud bump on my left side and suddenly the car seems to have shifted lower to the ground on the left side. I pull off to the side of the road and my stomach turned a knot as I got out of the car and saw - you guessed it - my tire was completely flat. In a panic, I called Sue’s friend again who gave me the directions and pleaded my case to her. And she called up someone she knew to come out and fix it for me. Waiting alone on the side of that highway was one of the most nerve-wracking things I’ve ever done. And then, I got another call as the minutes ticked on - THEY COULDN’T FIND ME. I glance at the clock and it’s getting dangerously close to 3:00, with Kruger still being about an hour and a half away. Finally, after about 15 more agonizing minutes, the couple found me and helped me change my tire. They were so wonderful and sweet and were the best things to happen to me over here because I don’t know what I would have done without them!
After the spare tire was put on, or “biscuit tire” as the locals call it here, I sped as fast as I could (80 kph, because my tire will not go above that safely) and made it to the main Paul Kruger gate JUST in time. But I still had to go about 15 km or so to Skukuza and they closed soon after dark as well. I made it to Skukuza and breathed a sigh of relief. Really, I should have waited, because Africa wasn’t done with me yet.
Reception didn’t know what in the world to do with me! They asked for the reservation number, and I of course didn’t have one because I was supposed to be working with the vets in a separate part of the camp that they took care of. But when I tried to explain that, and showed them the letter of acceptance, they didn’t know what to do with me. So I frantically phoned Wisani who made the arrangements, but she wasn’t answering her phone. So I called Dr. Peter Buss, and HE wasn’t answering either. So I left him a frantic message and just waited, hoping somehow that something would happen because at this point, after dark, I’m NOT ALLOWED to leave the area unless I have a place to stay. Finally, after a few minutes, I get a call from Dr. Buss who tells me that he was supposed to meet me at the reception area, but he’s not in Kruger. So he’d send someone else to come and get me.
Well, they did after a few minutes, and by now it’s completely dark and all the shops are closed. So I can’t buy food or water or anything. I was introduced to the two other students - both local South African fourth-year vet students also doing this program - and they kindly offered me their Brai. Brai is traditional South African fare - it’s gobs and gobs of meat barbequed over a roaring fire. I told them I didn’t eat meat, and they were like, “No worries…have some of our beer then, at least!” And I told them once again that no, I didn’t drink. So the girl (Karen) looked at the guy (Neil) and said, “Well, let’s throw a potatoe on there for her then!” I will tell you, after 2 days of plane food and hardly anything to eat, that fire-roasted potato was the best thing I had ever eaten! And honestly, I would have been fine with just collapsing in bed. Which is very nearly what I did.
Day 2: Monday, June 20, 2011
Today it was up early to meet the vets at 7am for our first day of capture work! It was light when I woke up, and I had time to inspect the camp a bit before having to rush off to morning duties. We are currently staying at the veterinary camp, which is just a 1 minute walk from the veterinary wildlife services building near Skukuza rest camp. Our little compound, like all places that house people overnight here, is surrounded by a 15 ft tall electrified fence to keep out those nasty pests (animal, human, or otherwise) that might want to invade our camp. We’ve heard rumors that the monkeys love to come in and steel our things, so we are advised to keep all our doors closed and/or locked during the day. The compound is made up of several separate buildings, each one serving its own unique purpose that when put together would form one very large and impressive house. One building by the main gate consists of nothing but tiny rooms - even tinier than my spare bedroom in foxridge. In fact, they are tinier than most dorm rooms I’ve seen, with enough room for a bed, a desk, a cabinet, and about 5 floor tiles of empty space where you can put a suitcase or turn around in. But really, who needs much when you’re out in the veld? Leading out from this building, we have a stone walkway leading to another building with more rooms. These are nicer and bigger, and are reserved for more distinguished guests (researchers, medical students, etc.). This building is connected to another building that is not but a maze of bathrooms and showers poking out of all directions. Across from this building is our beautiful fire pit, made out of a ring of wood piled up about 10 feet high surrounding a dirt area with a big stone circular center piece on which you build your fire. This is where most of the action occurs at night. It’s a lot like primitive camping, and I love it! It’s so nice to sit and stare at the fire lazily and wonder where the energy to get up in the morning is going to come from.
A little ways away from this building, across the garden, is our kitchen building. It doesn’t have much, but it’s enough to function in any way we could want. I have big plans to cook things here when I actually get to go down to the shop and buy food. At the moment, I’m still living on sweet potatoes, corn flakes, and fire-roasted potatoes, which isn’t so bad really. Across from the kitchen is a covered dining area as well that we used during the day for lunch. To be honest, this little camp is so charming and beautiful that it makes me feel cozy inside. I have always thought how cool it would be to have a house like this - where it’s basically a big plot of land with little houses separate from one another that each contain a different part of your house that you have to walk outside to reach. It reminds me of living in Rivendell actually, without the water or the big shady trees…or the elves. This style works well because we have warm weather here all the time…even in the winter, so there’s no need to really keep things closed off or extremely close together.
After meeting at the vet camp early in the morning, we were taken to where they load the darts and they went over how they do it for capture. They use the dan-inject system, thankfully, which is the one I’m most familiar with. They explained some of the drugs they used and what the procedure would be for the white rhino we’d be catching this morning. We’re going to be doing two of them, and I’m anxious to see how Kruger does it differently from Dr. Brothers. As we bounce along in the veld, we begin following the chopper. Now, the chopper is a marvelous creature that is extremely intelligent and very very helpful when capturing game. The pilot, if he knows his stuff, can herd the animals right where he wants them to go with speed and accuracy. And this pilot knew his stuff. They managed to herd the animal after he was darted RIGHT to the side of the road for easy pick-up by us. How marvelous!!! And while Dr. Brothers relies on man-power to move his animals, we use etorphine, butorphanol, antipamazol, and cattle prodders in combination to move our animals. This combination of drugs is fabulous because with just a cattle prodder and a few big men pushing or pulling to guide the rhino, we can get him to walk himself into the crate instead, then load the crate onto the truck! Things went very smoothly and we were back in the lab soon, running the blood, making smears, and fixing the skin and tissue samples we took from the rhino. Not a bad first day, I must say!
Tonight they braied again and this time, we had visitors. I had heard their strange voices the night before, taunting us with their eerie lullabyes, but this time they were louder, noisier, and easily seen just outside the fence. Our flashlights would catch the tapetum lucidum of their eyes, making them shine in the darkness around the perimeter of the fence. Hyenas. They smelled the meat and had come to see tasty morsels cooking tasty morsels. And later, as the night wore on and I was asleep in my bed, I heard the familiar deep, guttural groans that signaled the arrival of my favorite predator - the lion. Though we could not see them, we knew that somewhere out there, in the African darkness, they waited.
Day 3: Wednesday, June 21, 2011
People at the vet school seem to think that getting up for 7:00 rounds and treatments is early. Huh. In this line of work, that’s sleeping in. We had to be up at 3:00am to be ready to leave the vet camp at 4:15am. Yes, in the morning. The sun was not up yet, and as I made my way to the shower at 3am I shivered in the winter air. The hardest part of my day seems to be those few seconds in the early morning between taking off my pjs and jumping into the warm shower. I am grateful every morning that I have hot water (and electricity, as power outages are extremely common here). I’m also grateful that the water here can be drunk straight from the tap - a luxury here in Africa, really. The American girl that we are with from Oregon state does nothing but complain about the things we have here, but honestly, I am perfectly content.
The four of us did our rhino captures this morning and everything went off without a hitch. No problems, no injuries, and a great communication among all party members made today run smoothly. We also met another student who came out to help us who is in the middle of specializing in wildlife and exotic medicine at the university of Florida. I didn’t realize you COULD specifically specialize in that area. Something to look into when I get back to the states. Perhaps there will be some more school in my future after all…
In my notebook, where I keep a daily diary and devotional, there’s a quote for today’s date that, as I read it tonight, seemed rather fitting:
“God never promises to remove us from our struggles. He does, however, to change the way we look at them.” ~ Max Lucado.
Today I faced a very interesting struggle that I wasn’t expecting to face here. The three other students decided to go on a run together through the golf course and around the little town near Skukuza. There was only about 30 minutes left of daylight so they assured me that a 30 minute run was all they had time for and it wouldn’t be long. Being a runner myself, I said that I would love to go. All the others were adamant that they ran super slow, so I shouldn’t be upset if they didn’t keep up. I smiled and assured them that I would probably be running in the back of the pack and would never leave anyone behind. We parked our car near the community center and pool and then started off from there. What they said would be about 3 miles or so around the town soon became about 5 miles in and out of the veld.
I also learned an important lesson that day: NEVER ever trust runners that claim that they are slow. EVER. They are not. There seems to be, among runners, three speeds. I call them horse, hare, and turtle. When runners say “I’m slow”, they mean, “I’m a hare”. While those that are turtles like me tend to give up easily and quit running because the hares make them feel like they are lower than dirt when they run. Hence what happened with me. I remember the girl from the US calling to me from the front, “Hey, you okay back there, Sylvia?” I didn’t say anything because I was huffing and puffing to keep them in sight, when suddenly she just turned and sped off around a corner and out of my line of vision. I suddenly realized that I was alone, running through an unfamiliar town in the bush, where elephants and leopards and lions were often seen. And it was getting dark. Every time something would rustle the bushes beside me, my heart would race a little faster and I would remember the words of Neil from earlier that day: Even if you’re the fastest runner ever, you still look like the slowest thing a leopard’s ever seen.
I think if it wasn’t for that fear pushing me on, and not knowing where I was, I would have long since stopped running. But my fear pushed me on. Karen was the one saving grace that I had. She waited and slowed for me just enough so that I could still remain in her sights. Soon, she slowed even farther and threw up her hands. Then I noticed that there was a split in the path and the others were completely gone. We had no clue where to turn. Karen called back, “Okay, we’re making our own way around now.” And we did. We probably ran about a mile or so more than they did, because when we finally got back, the sun was just starting to set…and the car was gone. Yes, my friends, they left without us. And Karen was pissed. I asked if we should walk home because it really wasn’t that far from there. But she looked at me and said, “Not when there are bloody elephants roaming around these parts that they’ve had to shoot at because they’re being troublesome. I know…let’s go check out the pool while we wait for them.”
This was, in fact, a very brilliant strategic idea. The pool was completely fenced in, even if it was a little further back from the main road where the others would likely be driving by to try and find us. We sat at the edge of the water and talked about our lives in our respective countries and how things have changed. When they finally picked us up again, they were apologetic, claiming to have just missed us and been looking around for us a long time. But those 15 long minutes we spent in the fading light waiting for their car to come around were terrifying. At least for me. Karen never lost her cool for a moment. I thank God for her often.
Day 4: Wednesday, June 22, 2011
I once watched a special on the national geographic channel about mass capture in Kruger with Wildebeests. I remember learning about the technique from Dr. Brothers in his Immobilization class here last year, and the use of make-shift bomas to funnel massive numbers of animals into a tiny shoot where they could be worked and loaded easily without darting. But not being used very often, I figured I would never have the opportunity to partake in such a venture.
But God had a surprise up His sleeve today for me. In Kruger, they do mass captures only about once every 5 years. The last one they did was the wildebeest that was filmed. And today, they did it again. This time, with about 40 zebra. We had a briefing before the mission started, to make sure everyone knew what was going to happen. The crew had painstakingly built these bomas out of wire, poles, and movable curtains over the span of two days, making sure that they accounted for the most probable wind direction and other natural features of the land in their construction. They made sure that all the ground crew knew the drill, because one small mis-step and we would have to break down the entire thing and move it all about 100 km over and try again.
The procedure involved a series of curtains that made up gates that would close at specific times, as soon as the zebra were herded into the area with the helicopter. The helicopter would give us a signal with a long siren, and the first gate would close. People would run as fast as they could, pulling curtains attached to rods hanging above them, and close them before the animals could turn around and bite, kick, or run back in their direction. The curtains were each tested, making sure that they didn’t snag on anything while we were running them. One snagged curtain would leave a hole that the zebra would find and run through, and then all would be completely lost. I was working in the second gate, and at the second long helicopter siren, Marcus, our boss, would blow a long, low whistle, and we were to run as fast as we could across the gap to close the curtain.
The first group of zebras came in. The copter zoomed above us, and I sat for a split second and took in the situation around me. Poised and ready to spring to action from a shout and a whistle. Knowing that there was a good chance that one of us could be kicked, bitt, or attacked by scared zebra trying to break through and find freedom. They said we should attempt to look big and scary if they turned toward us and looked like they were going to attack. The whole situation was scary and thrilling at the same time. I suppose this is what recruits find joyous about the military, and war games - in a way, it’s very similar.
We ran the curtains four separate times, each time getting family groups of zebras anywhere from 17 to 5 in number. We made sure to load the trucks specifically so that family groups would be held together and not mixed. Individuals unlucky enough to be put in the wrong family group would be mutilated to death by the other zebra. As we worked, only two male zebras gave us trouble. While in the trucks, they began mercilessly biting and kicking one of the young foals. They were being such a huge nuisance that we decided to immobilize them and release them back into the veld.
The rest of the day was spent working these zebra through the makeshift shoots, much as we would work cattle on PMM back at the vet school in America. Finally when we were done, we drove back to the camp, all of us sore and tired, but so happy to be a part of this experience.
I was finally able to go to the camp store and get some things today. Yesterday I visited the small staff shop to pick up bread, apples, and corn flakes. But the tourist shop in Skukuza had more things to choose from, and so I bought what I could. I was elated when I saw they had some ready made tomato and cheese sandwitches. This is their veggie option here in South Africa, and sometimes they even add eggs to them. What a delight!!! It’s the simple pleasures that you really learn to love when you have so little. I bought some that I planned to use as a special Sabbath treat when the weekend comes. And I looked for cheese, but alas, it is an expensive and rare commodity at the shops here. So I got some laughing cow spreadable cheese and have been using that as my sandwitch filling. I also bought some eggs and was amazed when I opened them up to look at them in the store, how filthy they were. Covered in feathers, dirt, and chicken poop. I smiled. These were definitely farm fresh eggs all right. I also bought what I thought was a can of tomato sauce in hopes of making corn flake patties tonight for my fellow vet students, especially those who were so nice in sharing their food with me when I didn’t have any. I figured out how to light the gas oven and began mixing the ingredients. I opened the can of tomato sauce, and realized that this wasn’t quite what I thought it was. It was…well…chopped tomatoes. Whoops! So my corn flake patties didn’t have as great of a tomato flavor as I would have liked, but that’s okay. I made a big batch of them and saved the rest to reheat and have for later days. I also bought some mac and cheese and other noodle types to make some night that I have time out here. It’s the little comforts like these that make the veld home.
Day 5: Thursday, June 23, 2011
Of all the animals to dart, there are two species that give us the greatest difficulty. Giraffe are one, because their extreme size and fragile bodies make it very hard to get them loaded into trailers or on the ground safely. The other is the elephant. Not only because of its massive size, but the anatomy of its respiratory system makes them unable to breathe out their mouth, and air having to travel such a vast distance from the end of the trunk to the mouth makes hypoxia a very real risk. This is aside from their extreme aggression (which I know of all too well by this time). So when the calendar for today mentioned elephant capture, I grew excited. Another once in a lifetime opportunity! Not many crews have the facilities and manpower to be able to handle an elephant capture. And we were going to do two of them! Fantastic!
I was thoroughly surprised at how well everything went. The first elephant was a breeze, as the chopper was able to maneuver the elephant straight to the road where it sat down (nothing stranger than seeing an elephant sitting like a dog). We covered its eyes with a blindfold and placed a small stick in-between the lips of the trunk to hold it open so the elephant could breathe - a little elephant intubation, if you will. My job was to get a fecal and temperature from this massive beast. But I couldn’t accomplish this while it was sitting down. Being in a sternal position for a long time is massively hard on most of these animals because of their ginormous size and the weight of their organs pushing on their diaphragm. And since elephants and rhinos are hind-gut fermenters, they don’t have a rumen to worry about filling up with gas if placed in lateral, so it’s a much better position to work them in. After getting about 10 people to heave and roll the elephant over, I was finally able to bend down and stick my arm inside the massive elephant rectum. I felt around, making most of the opportunity (Dr. Wittier, eat your heart out!) and trying to see if I could feel anything. Sadly, I couldn’t. It was still rather hard to get far in to the elephant when it was in lateral, so I did the best that I could and then came out again. I must say, I think I’m one of the only students at VMRCVM to say that they have rectally examined an elephant. :)
After the elephant, Brittany and I got to get a special lift back to the vet building via the chopper. I had flown in one of these many times before, but each time I do I still get that feeling of awe and wonder. To see the world pass below you like a child’s toy set is such a thrill. We soared above the earth, zooming over rivers, dry watering holes, and above the spreading acacia trees. We spotted wart hog, cape buffalo, elephant, and rhino from the air. I can’t wait to be able to ride in one again, and perhaps dart something from the side with Dr. Brothers. Yes, this is my job. Be jealous. :)
Upon returning to camp, we waited for the others to arrive and then made a mad dash to the bomas to treat a sick rhino who had some lacerations on her. By this time, we were all running along smoothly with our jobs and working like a well-oiled machine. If only blocks here were three weeks, not two! Then I could stay here longer.
Day 6: Friday, June 24, 2011
Would that I had been able to come in late August or October to Kruger instead! Then I could be immobilizing lions all day and every day! But instead, this is all Rhino. And it will be all elephant and rhino for the rest of the time I’m here in Kruger. This time, we got a bit of a test of our skills. We were divided into two groups - Karen and Brittany together and I with Neil - and each of us was to deal with a rhino. They were knocking them down in pairs - a cow and calf. The first cow and calf were knocked down away from the road and very far apart from one another. I was told my job would be to bleed the rhino cow - and not having drawn blood before for them yet, I was slightly nervous. They need a LOT of blood from these guys for all the various studies and data bases that they are doing in Kruger, so I popped a vacutainer into an ear vein and filled tube after tube with blood. It took quite a long time and by the time I was done Neil had done everything else already by himself. The other group was in charge of her calf on the other side of the road about 100 meters or so away.
Once they loaded her into the crate, the seller asked if we could determine her status for him - in other words, was she pregnant, open, or in heat? So they cleaned her out thoroughly of any feces in her system, and then used a portable ultrasound device to check for a fetus. I’d seen these machines in the states - Dr. Currin likes to use them a lot when he has to do herd pregnancy checks. They are extremely handy units; a small probe fits in your hand while the image is transmitted to a set of goggles that you wear on your eyes. It was sad that we didn’t get to see it ourselves, but the thought of preg-checking a rhino made me smile.
The chopper took off again in search of another cow-calf pair. But an hour or so went by and they still had not found one. The seller had been very specific in what he wanted and the age of the female and calf. But finding a pair that met those exact descriptions was proving to be very difficult. So we changed tactics and went for the other animal we needed - a rhino bull. We found him and knocked him down in the middle of the wood. Not an ideal place to say the least. So he had to be walked with the cattle prodder all the way down to where the trucks were. As we drove further and further out, we still had not found a cow and calf pair, and we were wondering what to do about it. Finally they found one about a two hour drive away, and we had no choice but to zoom through the veld and find it. By the time we’d reached it, it was late in the afternoon and my water was back in the car, not on the buggie (Land Cruiser). Riding around the veld in an open land cruiser truck bed takes its toll on you, and the sun started beating down on my head mercilessly. When we got to the cow and calf pair, we waited for the first responders to check the animals and make sure they were down and put blindfolds and ropes on them, in case they start to wake up. As we approached the calf, we noticed it had gone down, but the cow was still up, and charging through the bush half-awake (the etorphine was making her prance like a tenessee walking horse). Not wanting to get in the way in case she charged for us, we hung back with the equipment in our hands.
Suddenly, Marius screams at the top of his lungs at us to get the hell over there. With one last glance at the rhino cow still thundering through the bush, we drop our equipment and race over to the calf where a crew of strong men are desperately pulling on a rope attached to its head. Only then did we realize what we could not see before - the calf had gone down right on the edge of a steep embankment, and was rapidly falling off the edge. With a huge heave, the crew pulls on the rope as hard as we can, and the calf does not budge forward one bit. I wished then that I was so much stronger than I was, for I felt more like a burden than a help to the crew as we desperately tried to save the calf. If it were to tip over the embankment, we would never be able to get it up there again and would have to reverse the mother and set her free with the calf, if the calf even survived the fall. Finally we succeeded in pulling the calf enough out of harm’s way that it ceased to slide down the cliff and we could work on it. At this point, the mother crashed onto her side in the bush and we began to work on her just as the first one.
After all samples were taken, we then ran into another problem. Though the mother and calf were a lot closer together this time than the first pair had been, we needed to take them back to the trucks…a very VERY long way away, and through thick bush. Ever tried to drag a drugged rhino? It doesn’t work very well. And its very very tiring. With the cattle prod and a bunch of big, hefty guys (oh yeah, and me) we eventually walked the cow through the bush and into the truck where she was preg-checked and finally loaded with the other one.
By this time, I was thoroughly dehydrated and it was getting even later in the day. As the land rover started off, we went even further down the road, looking for a cutoff that would circle back to where we were before. After about half an hour, a concerning message came onto the radio - one of the trucks was MIA. In the African veld, that’s not a good thing! How could a large truck with a freakin’ rhino disappear? So we hurried back to where the other trucks were and tried to guide them on the radios with directions. But as it was getting late, the vet students were told to take their car and drive it and a few of the vet techs back with them to start processing samples. That meant that one person had to stay behind in the hot sun for a few more hours with the vet until the truck came. And guess who that was?
Hey, how’d you guess???
Thankfully it didn’t take too long before the truck was back on the right road and all five elephants were loaded onto the same truck and it was speeding on its way. We had a long drive back to the vet building where more work had to be done, and finally we got back home to our little camp just as the sun was setting - just enough time for me to run and grab my new rental car. Seems they couldn’t find an appropriate tire to fix the one that was flattened on my car, so they decided to just give me a new rental car. Thank goodness that mess seems to be done with!
And now, the only thing that is left hanging over my head is my next destination. I’m supposed to be working with Dr. Tordiffe at the Pretoria zoo. And I will be. But he was supposed to make arrangements for my stay at the zoo and he didn’t. And while that wouldn’t be so bad normally as I could just get a hotel or something, the zoo is in the worst section of Pretoria. NOT a safe place outside of their gated walls. So instead, it appears I might be staying with the vet at HIS house! But I don’t know where that is, and I don’t know if I should get my own food, be dining with them, if it’s a room in their house or a separate chalet, or what the deal is. So I’m putting it all in Sue’s capable hands and just winging it (that seems to be the theme of my adventure here…just wing it and God will provide).
To all my friends at home that might be reading this: I miss you lots, and I hope that someday you can come with me back to Africa and I can show you all the many reasons why I’m in love with this place! The sunsets every night make me cry with their beauty. The animals sing to my heart and remind me of a fabulous God who has such a vivid imagination and cares for all living things. The people remind me what friendship is, and are a great example of kindness, sincerity, and friendliness that is unmatched in the states.
Until next time, via dankie for reading this. I hope it was lakur (awesome, cool, nice) to read. God bless each and every one of you, and warmest wishes from Skukuza, Kruger National Park, South Africa.