While the team took time to set up the clinic, I used the opportunity to take pictures and socialize with the kids. I took a picture of two young boys and then showed them the image on my camera screen. Within seconds, I was surrounded by children, all wanting their pictures taken and to look at them! And it seemed that the group of kids just kept getting larger and larger. They were hanging all over me, nearly pulling me down! They loved seeing the pictures and they laughed so much. Some wanted to take a picture of me and with me, so I let a few of them, and they really enjoyed it.
As I continued to take pictures and show them after, I could feel the girls behind me playing with my braided hair. They just stroked it and pet my head, saying how soft and beautiful it was. After a while, I decided to take it down for them to really play with it. They brushed their fingers through it and were so fascinated by my hair. (All of the children in the school have their heads shaved or hair kept very short.) Even though my hair became a frizzy, knotted mess afterward, it was neat to share with them, allowing them to explore something new and different then they are used to. The rest of the clinic went about the same as the others did, except it was a bit longer and we didn't get home until 12:30am.
Friday morning we set off to South Africa to experience Kruger National Park, one of the biggest parks in all of Africa. We rented a small VW car, which once again was manual so Emily had to drive the whole way. Our plan was to drive to an airport in Nelspruit, where we would be picked up by a guide for our weekend package deal. I looked up directions on Google, which said the drive to the airport would be just over 3 hours. So we left at about 9:30am, giving us plenty of time to make it to the airport for pickup by 1:30-2pm. The first hour of our drive was entirely normal and smooth. Then the road the directions had us turn onto became a dirt road. We laughed about it initially and weren't too surprised, since we are in Africa and its not uncommon. But the road continued to get worse, and we were concerned we weren't on the right route anymore. There weren't any signs telling us the name of the road, let alone which direction we were going. Luckily I'm pretty good at reading maps and I was able to tell we were on the right path.
We got to a town where google's directions became unclear and we circled around for a while trying to find our turn. We stopped at a tourist hotel and asked a man for directions. After trying to explain them to us with no success, he offered to just hop in the car with us and we could leave him in town right before the turn. So that's what we did, and he pointed us exactly where we needed to be. He was a nice guy and I felt like we should've given him a tip/gift or something, but he was out of the car before we could offer anything, so we continued our drive. This road was dirt and rock as well, and worse than the last road. And the quality of the road just continued to decline. There were several times that I thought it couldn't get any worse, but then it did each time. There were several times that the road forked and we just had to guess which way was right because there were no signs at all.
We then got to the worst part of the road we had been on yet, it was loose dirt and ash with large loose rocks that I was sure were tearing up the undercarriage of the tiny car we were driving. Plus, it was on the steepest of all hills we had yet to climb. We felt the car struggling and there was no way to dodge all the rocks. Hopelessly, Emily just stopped the car and put it in park halfway up the mountain. Our anxiety levels had built up to the max and we had no idea what to do anymore. We still didn't even know if we were on the right road. On the Swazi phone we had I tried to call the emergency number, but the man who answered didn't seem to speak English and he just sat the phone down. I was sitting there with silence on the other line for more than one minute. I don't think I've every prayed harder in my life! After sitting for over 5 minutes contemplating the next step, a truck with a couple of border patrol workers pulled up behind us. They confirmed we were going the right way and we were almost there. Knowing that the car would not pick up speed easily to continue the climb, not to mention the numerous rocks in the way that would make it even more difficult. Stephanie and I got out of the car and started throwing the bigger rocks out of the path so that Emily could get the car going without having to dodge things. She got it going without sliding back (remember its a manual car) and Stephanie yelled to just keep going and we'd catch up at the top. The car successfully reached the top and we continued our way to the boarder. Of course, there were still very few signs and the google directions did not clearly tell us how to get to the border, but we eventually made it. At this point, we had been on the road for over 4 hours, and we were only halfway there.
After crossing through the border, the roads were paved the rest of the way, however it was very curvy and still climbing up mountains. But we were just happy they were paved, so we didn't complain. The scenery was beautiful, and two large Baboon's ran across the road just feet from our car! I wish I had gotten a picture, but it happened to fast. I also wish I had taken a picture of the road before we crossed the boarder just to get the point across on how bad it was, but I had other things on my mind (like getting out of there)!
Our next dilemma was that we were obviously going to be late for our pick up. We tried to get there as quick as we could, but there wasn't much we could do. By the time we finally made it to the airport, after much more bad/incorrect directions from google, it was almost 4pm. I was sure that the person that would pick us up would be gone by now, since we were about 2 hours late. But to our surprise, he was still waiting! It took us a little while to find him, with some help from other tour guides, but he was indeed still there. We explained to him what happened and continued to thank him for waiting. We were the only people he was to pick up so we thankfully didn't hold up anyone else. From the airport, we rode another 3 hours in the van to our campsite. Upon arrival he took us on a short sunset game drive, which would have been longer had we made it on time. We still saw a good amount for a short drive. We actually witnessed two giraffes mate, which they said is very rare to see. I managed to get a decent picture of one, even in the dark.
When we went back to the camp we enjoyed the best dinner I've had my whole time in Swaziland and we socialized with other people from all over the world staying at there as well. We met people from London, Canada, France, and even Israel. After such an eventful day, we were ready to settle in for bed as soon as the took us to our tree house/hut. It was really cute, but there was not a full seal from the outside so there were plenty of bugs, which was understandable. I slept under mosquito net for the first time ever, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was alot like what I imagine the princess canopy beds would be like. The staff warned us that in the morning we need to bring all food back to them to be locked up, because monkeys WILL find their way in and will destroy things to eat the food, no matter how well you thought you hid it.
Being in a new environment with lots of new sounds and movements that get your attention, we all slept pretty lightly. I woke up several times in the night, and so did Emily and Stephanie. One time Emily got up to go to the bathroom and her walking woke me up because it shook the tree house. I was still half asleep, then all of the sudden Stephanie screamed monkey sounds!! It scared Emily and I both to death (Emily said she felt her knees buckle and go weak!). Turns out, Stephanie had been woken up by the sounds of a monkey earlier in the night. When she heard Emily get up and rummage through her things she thought we had a monkey in the room with us. The only thing she could think to do to alarm it to leave was yell monkey like sounds. We had a good laugh over that in the morning! It still makes me laugh out loud just thinking about it.
We got up early in the morning to meet up with our guide and head to Kruger National Park after enjoying a nice breakfast. We spent the entire day inside the park, and saw alot of animals, mostly from a distance. We saw more giraffes, zebras, antelope, wildebeest, elephants, buffalo, baboons, and a hippo. We even saw wild dog, which apparently is pretty rare, but I couldn't get a good picture because they were under a large bush/tree for shade. I was disappointed that we didn't see any African cats though. We all decided that a visit within Kruger park should be longer than one day because the place is so big (its bigger than the nation of Swaziland). It was also very hot out, reaching at least 40 degrees C/104 F, but we still enjoyed our full day safari.
We returned to camp as the sun was setting and again had a tasty dinner. Once we went back to our hut, we cleaned up and went to bed early. Since this post is getting long, and I still have so much to share, I'm going to split it up into two parts.
To be continued...
i'm glad you're having a great time sis. i miss you so much! can't wait to see you soon. you've only got about two weeks left. make the most of them (:
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