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October 12, 2003 Hi all well to tell you the truth this is the third time that I have had to write you this letter. I saved it on a disk and when I went to the Internet cafe it would not come off. I ended up ruining the disk and lost the letter. It has now been almost a month since I left for the trip so my memory is not that hot. I will try my best to rewrite the letter but I'm sure it will not include the detail that my first one did, so sorry, Well here is goes. We left on Thursday morning from the bus station in Joburg. It was a group of 17 exchange students and one advisor. We road the bus to our first destination which was the Eagle Adventure camp. That first night was a real nice icebreaker since most of us only knew one or two people on the trip. We all had to get up in front of the whole group and stand on a tabletop. Here we had to tell everyone our name where we came from and something about ourselves. Then we had to pick six people to come and catch us as we fell backwards off the table. It was fun. We also played volleyball and had a wonderful sturfry dinner, were we each got to make our own sturfry. Then had a campfire and it is interesting to see how many people know the same songs. The next day was exciting. We did abseiling in the morning and then swung from trees in the afternoon. Abseiling is also called repelling, the only thing is that we did not climb the rock first we just went over the edge. I was in the first group and we were all girls from North America. There was Natalie (one of the girls I flew into SA with) she is from Barrow Alaska, Molly from Minnesota, and Kirsten from Canada. It was fun, we were all really nervous at first but we were laughing by the time we got to the bottom. The giant wing was also fun but it took a lot more will power to get yourself up there. We were attached to a harness and had to climb up 30 meter into a tree on a rope latter. Then we had to let go and swing. The climb up is the hardest because all you want to do is get down but they wont let you. Once you put the harness on you have to do it. Afterwards of course we all wanted to do it again. That evening we had a huge storm and the funny thing is that the people who run the camp had been complaining that it had not rained in 2 years, well they got it. That night we got about 4 hours of sleep because the storm was so noise. It also broke a window and we had to put a board and a matrices against the window to keep the rain from coming in. The next morning we all got on a bus and went out sight seeing. Unfortudently the weather was still bad so Gods window was a wall of nothingness. It felt like you were at the edge of the world and if you fell over the edge you would never hit the ground. When you are there on the clear day like Thomas and I were before it is beautiful and you can see forever. It was such a change from the first time. We went and saw the famous potholes and they are truly amazing. We also saw either the worlds 2nd or 3rd largest canyon, the guide was talking about both so I can't remember which it was. The colour difference is so amazing for the Grand Canyon to which is all orange, and red, this one is blue, and purple, and green. That night we were back at the camp and we roasted marshmallows and had a lot of fun. Sunday morning we packed our bags and headed off for the bush. We were staying literally in the bush at Tshukudu bush camp, which is a private game reserve. This place is truly amazing and this is the part of the trip that reminded me why I love animals and want to work with them. The first thing that we did when we got there was play baseball, and I will remember this game for the rest of my life. Not more then 100 yards away was a group of Rhinos. Yes-live wild Rhinos, they were feeding on hay that is put out for them. It was so cool I guess the second best part is that my team won but I think that is because we had all of the Americans on it. I never imagined in my life that I would be so close to such animals and have fun at the same time. It was truly amazing. Little did I know that my encounters with animals had just begun. Afterwards we went for a ride. We all got onto a big safari truck and headed out. We came to a water hole that had a heard of buffalo, and there was an elephant and her calf. Our ranger Duncan introduced them to us as Becky and her baby Nascence. Becky was hand raised by humans and so she has no fear of them, and this she has passed on to her baby. Becky walked right up to Duncan and they greeted each other. This is done opening up her mouth and Duncan putting his hand in it. She would then suck on it. This is there way of saying hello to each other. It was so cool and me an animal lover I wished that someday I could get to do it to. We drove around some more and saw more rhinos and buffalo. Afterwards we went back to camp and had dinner then sat around the fire until Duncan showed us a movie on the park. After the movie some people went to bed and others stayed up until who knows what hour. I have to say that then next few days are a jumbled mess because we did so much and I loved it all so. I am just going to tell you things that we did since I can't remember what days we did what on. Duncan had a lot of team building activities that we could do. One was we had a rope hanging in a tree and we had to get the whole group from one side of a large branch to the other, but we could not touch the branch. Only a few of the guys in the group had the strength to climb up the rope and swing themselves over so the rest of us had to be passed over. We stood straight and then laid back while the rest lifted us up over the log to the people on the other side. It was a lot of fun and we work really well as a team. Another one of these activates was we had two get everyone through a spiders web of strings but you could only use one hole twice, and you could not touch any of the strings. We had to do a lot of planning as to who could fit through what hole and so on. It was hard and we had to start over on a few people but we had great teamwork. Each day we would go for a walk and a drive. On one of the drives I got to touch Becky and then Nascence sucked on my hand. Becky and Duncan were greeting each other and Nascence came up to me on the truck she opened her mouth and the next thing that I knew I was sticking my hand in her mouth. It was so amazing she wrapped her trunk around my arm and tried to pull me out of the truck. I will never feel anything like it again (unless I get to stick my hand in another elephants mouth). She was so gentle and just wanted to have fun. I hope that I will get to do it again cuz that is another thing that I could easily get addicted to, and it wouldn't be a bad addiction like my one to chocolate. Over the week we also met a Cheetah named Savannah. She was hand raised as well and they would release her into the wild but they are scared that she will get killed by lions and they also want to use her in there breeding project. They also have a King Cheetah but she was not hand raised they are currently waiting for a male King Cheetah so that they can breed more since they are so rare. Tshukudu is widely known for there breeding project with lions and it is an amazing thing. Some of the lions have been hand raised but as long as you don't hand raise there cubs the cubs will retain there natural fear of humans and then it will be okay for them to be released into the wild. They sell a lot of the lions to other game reserves and this is a good thing since a lot of the lions in other parks are sick from there own strain of HIV and other virouses and in 20 years there will be hardly any lions. Tshukudu is a big player in the conservation and rehabilitation of South Africa. On one of the day Duncan took us down to the river here we had some more tasks to do. We were split up into two groups and we had to build a bridge and see who could get the group across and back first. My team lost but it was a lot of fun. Then we had individual tasks to do. There was a small log that lay across a creek and we had to cross it or fall in. Only a few people were able to cross without falling and was not one of them. I feel in but got out and tried again and fell in again. Oh well I tried. It was a fun day we got to go swimming and the rocks were so slick with agley that it was like a slip and slid. We could also swing out on a rope and drop into a pool of water. It was a great day and the area was so beautiful. The food was great and I ate like a pig. Each night Duncan had a movie for us to watch and then we would sit around the fire. One night we all slept outside on a platform. I thought that I wouldn't sleep but I slept like a baby it was great. Unfortudently it was cloudy so we could not see stars. The camp is primitive in some ways. During the day we do not have electricity, at night they have a generator, and once that is done then they run off of the energy collected by the solar panels. The water is heated by a fire stove so you have hot showers but you can't stay in for long. I did not want to go home at the end because everything was so wonderful. My only problem was I had run out of clean underwear. It was amazing to hear the lions calling at sunset everything was so beautiful and the plants weren't even green yet. It is a trip that I will never forget. Luckily for me I made friends with Duncan so I might go back and visit during the holidays since rotary does not have a trip planned for us. I took pictures and will send them to you as soon as possible. Not much new has happened in the last couple of weeks. Yesterday I got to take a group of girls to a sunsilk makeover. Sunsilk is a brand of hair products, which is very popular over here. They were trying to make it into the World Guineas Book of Records by washing and styling the most hair in 7 hours. It started at 9:00am but we left at about 8:15 so that we could miss some of the crowed. Well this kind of worked but kind of didn't. We were number 930-937 but there ended up being over 4000 people who were there so we were lucky. The girl's hair turned out so cute mine wasn't very good but I don't know if the stylist for me had worked with white peoples hair much. I saw about 5-10 other white people they're getting their hair done the rest were all color. This is the first time I have really felt like a minority. Tuesday is Thomas 18th birthday so he is looking forward to that. I am going to try and bake him a cake but I don't know if it is going to work. Hopefully. Ian also comes back on Tuesday so we are looking forward to his return, that way we get free Internet again. J I hope all is well for you guys and sorry if I forgot anything. I love you all so much. Cheers,
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