Day 3 - Friday, June 26th

Well, today was certainly an adventure. We're back at the inn, all safe and sound, so no worries on that front

Because we got to the inn and to bed so late yesterday, we had a bit of a late start today. We ate breakfast around 9, quickly nicknaming it “the breakfast that never ends”. At first there was yogurt and and granola bread and jam and papaya juice and coffee. That really would've been enough for us, but then they set out some sausages and bacon and mushrooms, which made us pretty ecstatic. But THEN they set out the little pancakes and we were in heaven. After that, they served scrambled eggs. Amazing.

Alex and Rebecca showed up towards the end of breakfast with Liam, who was in good spirits even if they weren't. Apparently his nap in the car last night meant that he was up all night. The rest of us, on the other hand, slept like babies. The home we're staying in doesn't have any real heating system, but there were electric blankets and warm comforters, so I was set.

After breakfast we divided up the donations into two, for the two teams (DeWilt and Ingwavuma) and then drove out to DeWilt. We got a fantastic quote from Alex before we left as he was trying to explain our route: “So, we'll take a couple of lefts and a few rights and then take M5 out of town!” Thanks, Alex, very descriptive. We got another great quote off of a bumper sticker on the drive out: “Fat people are harder to kidnap.” Dunno what that was about, but I'll take their word for it.

When we got there the other team was able to check out the house they were going to stay in and then we got a guided tour around the park to see the animals. Animals we saw: cheetahs, African wild dogs, impalas, monkeys, a nyala (which is like a large goat-ish thing with horns), a meerkat, two honey badgers (one of which was an albino), numerous guinea pigs, and Egyptian vultures.

The cheetahs were amazing, of course, but I was surprised with how much I loved the African wild dogs. They are smart pack hunters, and so as we were driving through they were chasing our truck. They had members of the pack circling around the truck in what was clearly an organized fashion, all while yelping. They don't so much bark as squeak, and it sounds kind of like a tape rewinding. Strange.

The cheetahs were fantastic and we got pretty close to them, even if we didn't really stop in their enclosure because we had Liam in the car and apparently they thought he looked nice and bite-sized. We respectfully disagreed and kept driving.

The real trick was the drive back. Since it's winter here it gets dark just after 5, which is about when we started out. The roads up were terrifying on the way up, but that was nothing compared to them in the dark. On top of adjusting to driving on the other side of the road and on the other side of the car, the roads were extremely narrow and had pretty much no shoulder. On top of that, the sides of the road were often kind of steep and full of pot holes. Not to mention that people here drive more aggressively than anyone from Illinois, heh.

To make a somewhat long story shorter, my car blew a tire. If having a flat tire is nerve-wracking in America, it's ten times so on a dark road just outside Johannesburg. We'd been told by the rental company that they'd come fix any flats we got, but when we called them they definitely did not want to help. On top of all this, our car did not seem to have a jack in it.

So we had three cars in the dirt off the road and about 6 people aiding in changing the tire/holding flashlights. It was DARK. Luckily Alex's car had a jack in it. He and Jessy really rocked at changing out that tire; I was quite impressed. It was cold and dark and felt like it took forever, but we did it.

So now that we've made it home we are kicking back, ordering some chicken, drinking sherry and tea, and having a generally wonderful and calming time.