Monday September 8th - Visiting a local village

Today we visited a small Zulu Village in Hluhluwe, what an experience.  Life here is very difficult and many families are without any income.  On our drive to the village, you never know what you are going to see...

We started our day with stop at a local grocery store and we purchased some groceries for a family we would be visiting.  Now we are heading to the small village and a quick stop at their local 7/11 store, WOW this is truly incredible.  This store is where they do their every day shopping and if they need anything other than the VERY few supplies found in this store they must travel to the grocery store (long way to go on foot!)

We went to a local school and met the principal of the school and they explained about the education the students received.  Next we would visit one of the classrooms, but first they said “it looks like you brought things for the students… you can leave them here and we will hand them out”  WHAT????  We didn’t haul 16lbs of goodies from (US->Dubai->CapeTown->Johannesburg->Richards Bay->Zulu Nyala) to hand the goodies over to the principal!!!  They could tell by the looks on our faces that this wasn’t going to be acceptable to us.  They said “oh did you want to give the gifts to the students?”  Us “Well ya, that is what we were hoping” 

We headed to a classroom of 3rd graders, first the teach explained the curriculum that the students were doing that day and what was required for the students to pass this grade and move to the next.  Through the 3rd grade the education is taught in Zulu, 3rd grade through high school is taught in English so it is very important that the students do well so they can move past 3rd to English speaking classes.  The students sang a song for us and some of the boys got up individually and did a little dance where they stomped their feet really hard, seemed like the goal was to stomp as hard as they can.  After this we were allowed to hand out the goody bags, what an experience!  The kids we so happy to get the bags, we could hardly hand them out fast enough.  I was trying to take pictures and hand out bags, but eventually gave up and focused on taking pictures.  It was an incredible experience to have the opportunity to give them something that put huge smiles on their faces.

The school...

Some of the students...

Cheryl handing out the goody bags...

They were so happy to get the little gifts...

Next we were off to visit a local family 7 minute walk off the paved road and we arrived and were welcomed in by the Grandmother.  Oh my these people have a very hard life, 15 people were living in 3 very small huts.  The Grandmother was home with two of the younger grandsons, other kids were at the school we just visited and some other olders ones, she said they were out somewhere but she didn’t know where.  Her son was out looking for something to drink (beer), this was disturbing!

The walk to the home...

The grandmother in the home...

 She is weaving a mat like the one she is sitting on above.

We opened the door to go out of our room and a warthog was standing in the landscaping, he moved too fast so we couldn't get a picture.  Several animals are walking around in the landscaping around the lodge and in front of the rooms. A couple from our safari group got a picture of a warthog drinking from the pool.

Back out on a night drive, still looking for a leopard and hippos out of water.  Our guide is looking so hard for us, but still no luck!  We still had a great drive and watched a beautiful sunset and moonrise.   It’s surreal to sit in the quiet in the middle of the reserve and stare at the beautiful scenery!

Our search for a leopard took us on a “E ticket” road, first time on this road and what a thrill doing it at night!  Hold on tight that is a really steep cliff!

Unfortunately the mosquitoes finally found me… so far I count >30 just on my lower legs and feet.  Going to need some antihistamine! Cheryl, of course is unscathed.

Fun fact:

• Giraffes amble when they walk, which is moving both legs on the same side at the same time, when they gallop they move opposite legs together.