Elephants, giraffes, lions, oh my!

The days are speeding by. There’s been little chance to record what we’ve done. During our stay at the Phinda game reserve, we spent our mornings and evenings on game drives, often taking four hours or more out on dirt roads in a 4x4 scanning for animals. In an attempt to get up to speed, rather than reciting every single story (talk to me in person if you want to get pummeled with them), I’ll just list the major animals we’ve seen:

• giraffes
• zebras
• wildebeests
• nyala
• white rhino
• elephants
• lions
• impala
• cheetah
• warthogs
• crocodiles
• baboons
• red duiker
• suni (apparently a very lucky sighting, since the suni is an endangered species and the third smallest antelope in the world
  

These sightings are thanks to our amazing guides, Ross and Nicky. We went on five game drives total in a period of four days. I have a few unique stories, however:

Lions. Everyone goes on safaris in Africa with the burning hope that they will see lions. Not only did we see lions, we were, at points, only five feet away from them. Plus, we were in an open air vehicle, which makes everything seem a lot closer and more real… plus, going 80 km/hour down a road in one is beyond exhilarating. We started towards the lions when we heard about a sighting over the radio. We rushed over, and there they were, a male lion, four lionesses, and two cubs lounging in the sun. We watched them for quite a time and were rewarded with the sight of the male lion (Mufasa, we called him), sitting up, stretching, and walking over to an open area where we could drive up and watch him. After we left, to top it off, we saw the reason they were so lethargic: a giraffe kill with its body literally a hollow shell and its intestines lining the road. Call me morbid, but I thought it was pretty cool.

We also found many, many elephants. We first sighted a small herd of about fifteen, according to Nicky. The elephants started moving our way, so we backed off. When they began to move off, Nicky thought she knew where they were headed, so we took a large loop to try to intercept them. As darkness fell, we were arriving at the watering hole when I shined the spotlight on a large object up ahead. It was, in fact, an elephant drinking, but not the same herd as we’d just seen. The crackling noise of branches breaking sounded out to our left, and to our initial excitement, and Nicky’s dismay, we discovered we were surrounded. When she told us not to panic and started hastily backing up into a bush to turn around, we began to figure out that maybe it was a little more dangerous than we’d previously thought. Fortunately, we made it out safely. When asked later, Nicky responded she’d rather be surrounded by lions than elephants. Lions are predictable but elephants are not and are massive as well.

The time at Phinda was phenomenal. We were very lucky to be there, since the camp we were at was not even commercially available. The food was delicious, the accommodations were surprisingly comfortable, the game drives were eye-opening, and our staff was a mix of some of the most dedicated and upbeat people I’ve met. Actually, there are at least three people on this trip who mentioned, with varying degrees of seriousness, that they now want to work as rangers at Phinda. I know I’d return in a heartbeat, if I had the chance.

Before we retook the seven hour drive back to Johannesburg, we dropped off a flip camera to the Dev Centre. The head of the Dev Centre and the head of the health clinic were both extremely excited to receive it, the latter especially. He was wearing his Obama shirt that day as well. I explained the simple basics of loading the video onto the computer to the Dev Center head. Jenny asked if I needed to go over the basics again, when the Dev Centre head mentioned that it was a lot like the digital cameras she’d used. I felt a little bit stupid for acting as if she’d never seen a digital camera before—she was the head of a tech center, after all. On the other hand, it didn’t hurt to make sure she understood it before we left. I got a little jump of happiness as I watched them smiling and using the camera as we left the Dev Centre. Hopefully they’ll be able to create film and send it over to YouthGive in the future. For now, it’s enough to know they’ll use it in the community for education.

Lastly, a few Zulu words I’ve learned throughout the trip (spelled phoenetically because I have no idea what the actual spelling is):

• sahn-ee-bon-ah = hello to multiple people
• sahn-wu-bon-ah = hello to a single person
• yeh-boh = yes (or a greeting in passing)
• gaya-bong-ah = thank you
• sal-ah-gat-ay = bye