M to M to M to M to M to M

     Some of you may be wondering why--after more than a five-month delay--I should suddenly complete the last two blogs from South Africa.

     The answer is simple:  I'm going back to Africa!  After much agonizing about whether I should go, whether Scott would like to go too, and where the destination should be, all indecision is now officially resolved:

     Scott is NOT going, but I am.  I am going to Modisa, near Maun, in Botswana, leaving March 5.
The title of this blog?  McNaughton to Mondulkiri to McNaughton to Moholoholo to McNaughton to MODISA (and with any kind of luck, back to McNaughton).  This time, it's LIONS!  Click here for more info from Modisa.

layover at Joburg

     My flight from Huidspruit arrived in Johannesburg more than five hours before my flight to Paris was scheduled to leave. Lots of time, and no relatives to share it with. So I decided to have a nice leisurely lunch. 

     The airport at Johannesburg is large and modern--lots of fast food restaurants. But I was looking for one where I could enjoy a sit-down and a drink. I found a place called Kegs and Aviators--sounded just fine.

     When I walked in, a loud roar arose from a crowd. Obviously, I was startled, not expecting quite so enthusiastic a greeting.  The guys at the door laughed and explained that two of the most popular football teams in South Africa were playing each other, and one of them had just scored a goal. 

     The patrons at the bar seemed to be pretty much equally divided among the two teams, and the histrionics of both the staff and the patrons was exciting. I was confused by this drone going on while the game was on. Sounded like distant mosquitoes--and lots of them--but I gathered it's some sort of horn that is blown pretty much continuously during African football games.

     Well, it was by the far the happeningest place I've ever seen in an airport! Maybe people are not restricted from entering airport bars like they are in the US, but these were undoubtedly FANS, certainly little different from Packer fans at their most rabid.

     Scott often scoffs at my method of ordering at a restaurant. By habit I always ask, "Could I have a xxxxxx, please?" Scott thinks that is ridiculously deferential; it is, after all, an establishment that is the business of serving its customers FOOD!   

     But when I ordered at this restaurant, the waitress firmly said "no." I smiled and said something to the effect, "Oh, you're out of that?" And she said "No, it's not NICE." When I looked puzzled, she repeated, more firmly this time, "It's not nice!" I relented and ordered what she agreed I could have. She was right-- it WAS nice!

Last Day in Limpopo (and Mpumalanga)

     After we reluctantly left Hlokamela, Mona took me back to the Otters Den to get my luggage and get ready for my long flight home.  I felt genuinely sad to leave Otters Den for--probably--the last time.  I will always savor the memory of that fabulous bridge swaying precariously under my feet and the lovely Blyde River flowing beneath.   Here I am, re-enacting the concluding scene of one of my favorite movies of all time, The Man Who Would Be King.  Be grateful that there is no soundtrack to MY photo, but take the time to enjoy this fabulous scene.  Click here to see it  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apfaDqcf2FA

      My farewell to the Otters Den was somewhat friendlier and less dramatic--PLUS, unlike poor Sean Connery, I lived to tell the story myself!

     Mona had one more place to show me before we went to the airport in Hoedspruit.  Knowing how much I admired the Blyde (pronounced BLI-duh) River, she thought I'd like to see the Blyde River Canyon, one of the biggest canyons on earth and the largest "green" canyon--green because it has lush tropical vegetation throughout. I simply had no idea there was anything so extraordinarily beautiful just a couple of miles from Moholoholo.  





    

       Mona and I walked up a trail following a small tributary to the Blyde where there was a pool.  A local family was picnicking there, and they had two of the most fetching little children ever.  The girls were trying to catch minnows in their swim goggles, and the parents kindly permitted me to take their  photos.  The setting was so idyllic--why, it reminded me of a shampoo commercial!





This photo is, I think, the best one I took the whole trip.  I love how the sunlight is reflected in the girl's face.

    

On the way back, I irrevocably broke one of my faithful sandals which had served me so well throughout my travels.  There was no point in hauling them home, so I threw them in the nearest garbage can, but not before taking a commemorative snapshot.

      And that was that!  Mona rushed me to the Hoedspruit airport barely in time for my flight to Johannesburg, we hugged good-bye, and I was on my way home.

Hlokomela

       I think that one of the very best things about travel is the totally unexpected, unplanned-for thing that turns up by the merest of chance.  Hlokomela was one of those things.
       While we had been driving around, Mona told me about her work.  Mona is a 22-year-German woman who has not quite decided what she wants to do with her life.  She has no children, no boyfriend, but a big sense of adventure and of social commitment.  She decided to work as a volunteer for Hlokomela near Hoedspruit.  She was offered housing at Otters Den, a walking distance away, for the duration of her one-year commitment (which she hopes to extend), and that's how I was lucky enough to meet her.
       I find it difficult to describe precisely what Hlokomela is, so I have resorted to the Box of Truth (the internet) for a description.  Here is what I find:  "Hlokomela is an award winning HIV and AIDS educational and treatment programme targeting workers and communities in the Kruger to Canyons Area, Limpopo and Mpumalanga Provinces.  The programme aims to reduce the HIV vulnerability through peer education, awareness raising, prevention and treatment.  The project has been runing successfully for the past 6 years and is currently rolled out on 70 sub project site.  An estimated 12,000 people are reached through the activities of the programme."  http://www.givengain.com/cause/2936/
       One of the activities Hlokomela conducts to raise funds is an herb farm, and that is principally where Mona works.  The herb farms grows and sells beautiful fresh herbs and flowers to local restaurants and markets and uses the proceeds to help support the services.

 

Here are the extraordinarily well-tended gardens--all under protective netting to provide shelter from the blistering African sun, cut down on evaporation, and provide protection from bugs.  The gardens are tended to by the people requiring the services, and the care is meticulous.  Check out these gorgeous lettuce beds!     Not a weed or even so much as a yellowed leaf in sight!

And here is the building where they dry herbs and make items for sale, such as lavender pillows,

potpourri, dried flower arrangements, food items, and the like.  Like the gardens, it was completely well-tended and neat as a pin.

                                                                                                                                  

      By the way, you can just see how blistering the sun is, can't you?  My poor little iPad could hardly stand up to the glare!

      And here are my heroes, Mona and Angie (one of the main directors of the program) and her husband (who are English).  They are standing on the porch of their extremely modest little home overlooking the Blyde River and the Drakenburg mountains.  It was as pretty a location as I've ever seen, and these people were doing work as good as any I've ever seen.

                                                                     

                                                                            

  Hippos hang out in the river in front of their home.  I could have sat and watched them for hours.  But, I couldn't.  It was my departure date, and Mona still had more to show me before I left.  I did make a modest donation to Hlokomela.  If you feel moved to make a donation too, I see there is a place on their website where you can.  I doubt whether you'll ever make a more appreciated charitable contribution.http://htt.org.za/

 

Kruger National Park

       It turned out that the road Mona and I had taken from Hoedspruit to Hazyview ran parallel to the west boundary of Kruger National Park, so we decided that on the way back, we would drive into the park and see what we could see.  The photos that I got there are much more indistinct than the photos I got at Moholoholo and Hazyview because the animals we saw were truly (or maybe, MOSTLY truly) wild animals and definitely not approachable.  I have no fancy zoom lens; the only camera I used the whole trip was my iPad mini. 
       One is not permitted to even get out of one's car in all of Kruger National Park except in extremely specified (and fenced-in) areas.  The areas of the Park we saw were NOT spectacularly beautiful, though some areas were quite pretty.  One thing one can't help noticing from the get-go is that LOTS of elephants live there--in fact, way too many!  [I never thought I'd ever think there were too many elephants ANYWHERE!]
       The land reminds me of an area where there was a tornado last year.  The trees and bushes are smashed down and torn up--this is the result of over-grazing by elephants.  And the roads are amazingly strewn with elephant turds!  I can't for the life of me imagine why the resident elephants like to walk on the road so much, much less use the roads as a pooping grounds!
       Anyway, here is a blurry--sorry--photo of a small herd of elephants in Kruger.  It was thrilling to see some actual "wild" elephants.

This guy did not seem to be happy about having to yield the road to motorists.  We waited about 10 minutes for him to complete his business and saunter off.  If you google Kruger National Park, you will see many reports of elephants charging cars.  Oh, and by the way, it seems that virtually all cars in South Africa are white, for obvious climate-related reasons.

Here's a pretty big crocodile sunning himself on the mud flats.  Thankfully, the only crocodiles I saw in Africa were this one and a couple of others a safe distance off in Kruger National Park.  I am truly afraid of crocodiles!







 





And here is a contemplative water buffalo enjoying a drink
in one of Kruger's many rivers.                        









We saw many many elephants, zebras, giraffes, baboons, impalas, kudus, and lots of other wildlife, but none of my photos of them are very good.  But this one photo is the Kruger National Park photo
I like best of all--unexpectedly, not of an animal at all, but rather of a BAOBAB tree.  What a wonder!

 

Well, after all this excitement, two weary, dusty, but very happy travellers found their way back to Otters Den, had an OSTRICH supper, and I settled in for my last night in Africa.

 

Gotta see some ELEPHANTS!

     At Otter's Den, the staff was really solicitous about what I wanted to do during my three-day stay there.   They were ready with suggestions and willing to make reservations and inquiries for me.  Incredibly, Maritza offered me the use of her car to get about, asking only that I fill her gas tank in exchange.  I was hesitant to use her car, since they drive "the British way" there.  Driving on the left side of the road isn't so confusing to me, but driving from the right side of the CAR is very disorienting.  And I saw that the roads have a decidedly "mixed" use--that is, lots of pedestrians practically on the road, lots of mopeds, bicycles, cattle, etc., making for rather nervous driving.  So I wasn't so keen to drive.
     Enter Mona.  Mona is a young German woman who has a living arrangment with Otter's Den.  She helps out there, but mostly she works at a local volunteer agency (more about that later).  Maritza helped her negotiate a day off from her work so Mona could drive me to Hazyview, about 50 miles away, so I could visit some elephants up close and personal.  How could I possibly visit Africa without seeing elephants?  There were closer sanctuaries, but I didn't like the looks of them on the internet.  They seemed extraordinarily touristy, and they featured riding elephants with those awful crates for riding.  I had learned in Cambodia that those frames are really detrimental to the health of elephants' backs, and so I wanted nothing to do with anyplace that used them.  Hazyview DID offer elephant riding, but bareback only.  Alright!

      


The next morning I was awakened by the sound of the burners from a balloon directly overhead.  I ran to see if I could see it, but because of all the trees, I could not.  I enjoyed a pleasant breakfast on the deck (did I mention that I was the only guest at Otter's Den?  Their summer is their off-season), and Mona and I planned our day, and we planned to do a LOT!







     Off we went in Maritza's little car, Mona driving.  I was very surprised that when we reached the outskirts of Hoedspruit, the town I was somewhat familiar with, we were almost immediately in another town.  I had not realized that Hoedspruit is an almost entirely "white" community.  Hundreds of blacks WORK there, but they do not live there.  Instead, they live in the neighboring town, I believe called Acornhoek, and commute into Hoedspruit.  I don't believe there is any actual law requiring such segregation, but I suppose it must be a leftover from apartheid days. Acornhoek was spread out for miles and miles along the road, and there were lots and lots of pedestrians clustered along the road waiting for their busses into Hoedspruit.  I was relieved not to be driving.
    

In short order we arrived in Hazyview and located the elephant sanctuary there.  It was a very attractive, orderly, and well-tended place.  Mona and I were the only visitors, and we got instructed on basic elephant anatomy and natural history.  The feet and tusks you see in the background are replicas made of fiberglass, by the way.  And then it was real live African male elephants!

 

Incredibly huge--MUCH bigger than the Asian elephants I had known--very amiable and extraordinarily well-trained.  They seemed to enjoy an affectionate relationship with their mahouts, and I was very much impressed with the care they obviously received.  I was perplexed that male elephants could be so trustworthy, but I suppose my attitude toward male elephants could have been skewed by Bob in Cambodia, who had suffered so much abuse it was not surprising he could be moody.   I had learned about how dangerous male elephants could be when they are "in musth," which is apparently some hormonally-triggered time that comes a couple of times per year.  These guys told me that musth is apparently caused by nearby females coming into heat, and so since they had ONLY male elephants, they simply never did come into musth.

     And here's an experience I know I will never have again, and I'm sure I don't have to tell you how exciting it was!

You gotta do what you gotta do

   You might imagine that after having my alarm set for 6 a.m. for more than two weeks, it would be likely that I would have a nice sleep-in my first morning at Otters Den.  But, NO!  I had to set my alarm for 4:20 a.m., because that's when I was being FORCED to take my MANDATORY balloon ride! 
     Otters Den is a very small lodge, and they no longer accept guests who are not customers of their main business, which is called Suncatchers Hot Air Ballooning.   Here's a link to their website:  http://www.suncatchers.co.za/index.htm     When I found Otters Den on the internet, I decided I wanted to stay there so much, oh dear, I decided I'd have to take the balloon ride too!  And any of you who have been ballooning know that it's an early morning undertaking, that just when the sun is rising is the time when the lift is most conducive to good travels.  And in March, the sun in northern South Africa rises a little after 5 a.m.
   
 Maritza was the pilot for my excursion--well, mine and the two British women who arrived for the balloon trip only.  Here what she is doing is heating up the air in the inside of our balloon in the early morning light.  She had two helpers preparing the balloon, and one could tell immediately that this was a highly professional and safety-minded enterprise. 

 I remember their filling a regular balloon with helium and letting it ride the wind upwards into the night sky, all the while shining a strong flashlight beam on it, in order to get a sense of the direction and velocity of the wind from land surface upward.  It seemed so poetic to keep watching that little white balloon climb higher and higher into the darkness--it seemed we watched it for several minutes.













   After some brief instructions, we were off!  and right on schedule, the sun popped over the eastern horizon, giving us all an opportunity to get some nice early morning photos of the Blyde River from the cool morning air. 
    I have so many photos and videos of this one hour long trip that it's hard for me to select which of them to post, but here goes just a couple:






    


Here's the view to the west--toward the Drakenburg Mountains.  You can see the river and the neat rows of one of many many mango plantations to the right.

 





And somehow I found it fascinating to contemplate our shadow on the farmlands below:

Our pilot Maritza (in the blue shirt) said it was the first trip she could remember when all the riders were women.  Here we are.








And HERE is the oh-so-traditional glass of champagne that is absolutely required at the end of a balloon ride.  Somehow I managed to get it down!

 

I wish I were able to describe even a portion of the sheer exhilaration of this hour of being in the air.  If I could, you'd all be busy on the internet making your reservations!

Next stop, Otter's Den

     Originally I had hoped to go home from South Africa with a stop in Kenya.  I so wanted to see the Sheldrick Foundation Elephant Sanctuary near Nairobi.  I wanted to see Mutara, the orphan baby elephant my group of friends had adopted a couple years ago, and of course, the scores of other baby elephants who have been orphaned primarily as a result of poaching in Kenya.  However, it turned out I couldn't go to Kenya--or perhaps I should say I SHOULDN'T go to Kenya, because they were in the midst of elections at the time, which I gather is a very dicey time.
     I didn't want to go straight home from Moholoholo so searched the internet for someplace that would be good to visit for a couple of days.  I happened across the Otter's Den, very near the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, so made my reservations for three nights.  It was really a pretty arbitrary choice.  I am an otter fanatic, so "Otter's Den" sounded good.  
     Talk about fortuitous choices.  I knew I was in for a treat while still at Moholoholo.  My friend Kate told me she was friends with the owners of Otters Den and that they were the son and daughter-in-law of Jamie Uys.  I was well aware of Jamie Uys because he directed two of my favorite movies, The Gods Must Be Crazy, Parts 1 and 2.  I also had some friends who knew Mr. Uys.  What a small world!  So I went to Otters Den prepared to be intrigued by the director's family.
     So, Kate drove me there, and I thought we were lost.  We took a dirt road off another dirt road off another road, etc. etc. and ended up at a little turnaround in the middle of the woods.  We walked down a little path through the woods, down, down, and more down, and then we came to this:

 

Bridge Across the River Blyde!!  And a long bridge it was, and it lurched and swung as we walked across, and it made me wonder about all those crocodiles and hippos I heard about in the Blyde River.  But is was so very lovely, I marched across with hardly a second thought.

     And this is what I found at the end of the bridge, a sneak peek at the lodge itself together with a comfortable outdoor lounge overlooking the river, and oh my!  I had no idea how tired I was from the hard work and long hours at Moholoholo until I came to this haven in the jungle.  Before I knew it, I was installed in a cozy chair, glass of cool dry white South African sauvignon blanc in hand (had I mentioned that no alcohol was permitted at Moholoholo?), looking out at the river from the profound shade of giant trees . . . 

 and here was my companion:

                                                                                                                                                                                                 Jack!  who spoke a universally-understood language that transcends all time and all distance, and that emanates a generosity of spirit that tolerates any imagineable difference-- that language being "yellow lab."      Yup, I was in my element!

 

 

Good bye to Moholoholo

     Well, my two weeks at Moholoholo went by amazingly quickly, and before I knew it, I was running around madly taking photos so that I would remember everything about it.  Some of these photos were of signs that tell Moholoholo's story better than I could, so I will just publish the photos.  

 

 Kate was planning to go "into town" for some errands anyway, so she agreed to take me to my next stop.  We had lunch together in downtown Hoedspruit and then she drove me to Otter's Den.  So, as for me, that was the rather abrupt end of my stay at Moholoholo.

Miscellaneous unrelated photos and stories

      Now that I've been home awhile, I've had lots of time to look over my photos from Moholoholo and I have found several that didn't fit in with my narrative.  I'm going to add them just in case any of you might be interested.

This unattractive little creature is a baby warthog who goes by the name "Mrs. Pig."  One thing that IS glamorous about her is her eyelashes, though.  She was smart and responsive, but--- I don't know---even the most dedicated animal lover doesn't seem to take a warthog seriously.

Here is Athena the honey badger.  I heard she was tame; Charlie in particular really liked her and spent a lot of time keeping her company.  I was leery of her though, having seen the YouTube video "Honey Badger Don't Give a Shit" several times.  How could I forget how incredibly tough and tenacious honey badgers are?  I REALLY didn't want to cross Athena, despite Charlie's assurances that she was very sweet.  And if you don't know what I'm talking about, here's the link to the YouTube video in question, which, incidentally, has been viewed 59 and 1/2 MILLION times (almost as frequently as Elephant Pith):
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg  
[CAUTION: this YouTube video is NOT appropriate for tender ears!]

  

I sometimes forget to even remember, much less mention, how beautiful Moholoholo is.  These are the Drakenburg mountains in the background.  They were surprisingly close and very picturesque.  I had an opportunity to see more of them later (and you will too!)  

Holy cow!  Porcupines in Africa aren't the somnolent slow-moving creatures we're accustomed to here in Wisconsin.  They are BIG!, and ACTIVE!  Run around like  proverbial monkeys, rattling their quills all the while.  This guy was bottle-raised at Moholoholo and then released.  He liked to come to Forest Camp, the gorgeous lodge where we ate most of our meals, for handouts.  One evening he fell asleep under the dining room table.  It was kind of odd to stretch your legs and run into a moving mass of porcupine quills!  I understand some of the guests at Forest Camp didn't really take to this guy.  Can't imagine why not!

There was this fabulous HUGE tree on the grounds of the wildlife center.  I believe it was called a sycamore fig.  Its trunk was amazingly huge and gnarled.  And speaking of huge and gnarled, here's Einstein the Malabar stork enjoying a spot of late afternoon sunshine in front of the tree.

And take a look at this moth I found on the grounds of the wildlife rehab center.  It looked a lot like a white version of the giant silkworm moths we have at home.  Cecropias, for example.  Hey!  I thought:  maybe they ARE a silkworm moth!  I had seen signs for silk farms in the vicinity, but when I asked around, I was told, no, this is not what silkworm moths look like.  But you gotta admit, it's a great bug!

Drawings

     Well, Moholoholo provided an awful lot of opportunities for this rank amateur artist,  I can tell you!  Everywhere I looked, there was something begging to be drawn.  I vowed I would take a lot of photos and catch up when I got home, but that never feels as right as drawing the animals live and up close and personal.  
     I've been showing you stuff all along that I did, but here's a couple more.

 Kate, who is an employee at Moholoholo, loves all primates.  In fact, she is sorry that in general, Moholoholo does not keep any primates at the Center, but rather sends them off to specialized primate centers if one should come in.
      Bush babies ARE tiny primates.  To my eye, they look far more like an over-sized flying squirrel, and they're hardly bigger than that.  But they are an incredibly cute-looking little primate.  They're cuter to look at than anything else, though.  Since they are nocturnal, they're not much company for us daylight lovers.  Kate asked me to draw a bush baby for her, and here it is.  I left the original drawing with her.

Jamie requested that I do a drawing of her Ollie.  It turns out that rhinos are as easy to draw as elephants, all planes and shadows.  Here he is, vaguely contemplating a charge, just for fun.

When I got home, a friend gave me a book on how to use colored pencils, and I found out that you're actually supposed to use WATER when you're drawing with pencils.  It softens the lines and gives your stuff more of a watercolor look.  I liked the way it worked with this drawing of Bullet the Cheetah.

 

Though, of course, I had a special fondness for Bullet himself, having had so many memories of 

great meals of killer elephant meat with him.    Now, if I can just keep up with my drawings now that I'm actually home!

 

The heart and soul of Moholoholo

       The founder and manager of the Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Center is a former Kruger

 National Park ranger named Brian Jones.  He interviews every new volunteer the morning of the first day they are there.  Part of it is to check out the volunteers, I think, but the biggest part is to convey to them Brian's message about wildlife in Africa.

       I found it to be quite a mixed message.  He began by railing against the "bunny huggers" who are opposed to shooting excess elephants in South Africa and who dictate South African game management from overseas by threatening boycotts and other economic sanctions, while not having a clue as to what elephant over-population means to the African environment.  
       I had already heard the praises of big game hunters sung.  Apparently they are seen as bringing huge revenues into the area while culling superfluous animals--a perfect win-win situation.  They say.
       I pointed out to Brian that I was a bunny-hugger from way back, and he laughed and said, "Well, so are we all."  I liked him better after that!  And I could NEVER doubt that Brian sincerely loved the animals at Moholoholo.  One thing I especially admired was that ALL animals were welcomed and nurtured there.  It didn't matter whether they were common everyday canaries or a rare black rhino or million-Rand sables--they were all treated with scrupulous care.  And I mean scrupulous.  I have never seen such attention given to sanitation and proper feeding and care.  It bordered on fanatical.
        Brian is convinced that soon there will be no wildlife at all in Africa, that the overpowering human presence is quickly destroying any vestiges of "wild-ness" from even this most wild of locations.  He refers even to the huge and hugely-respected Kruger National Park as a "zoo," meaning that is so controlled and managed that it is misleading to even think of the animals there as "wild."
        I understand that most conservationists in Africa believe that "nature should take its course," and that Brian's policy of intervention for the benefit of individual animals is unwise and sentimental.  I'm pretty sure Brian would say there is no nature to take its course, that man has interfered with nature to its detriment to such an extent that it is necessary for man to interfere with nature even more for its benefit.  And I for one agree with him wholeheartedly about that, having seen that theory played out to a much more advanced state here in Wisconsin.
      When I got home, I found that Brian has a world-wide reputation and has been featured in the National Geographic television series and in such reputable publications as the Christian Science Monitor.  He has also received recognition from some very interesting sources.  Check this stuff out!


http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Wildlife/2008/0806/meet-south-africa-s-dr-dolittle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD3TZD9H8Pk

The Dedicated

       Some of the volunteers and some of the "employees" at the Center were students of veterinary nursing.  I was not aware that veterinary nursing actually is a college granted degree.  Maybe it's not in the U.S.  But it is in South Africa.

       Jeanette already is a veterinary nurse, and she has actually been employed at Moholoholo for a short time.  She had thought about opening her own practice in rescuing needy animals and came to Moholoholo to learn best practices.  She wound up getting hired, and she absolutely loves the job.  What animal lover WOULDN'T love the job?   

       Shortly after Jeantte started, a brand new baby lioness broke her rib somehow and the mother couldn't deal with it.  She abandoned both her cubs, and they were found and brought to the Rehab Center.  You know them as "baby LI-ons!!!!"  They are Jeanette's first baby lions, and I think one look at this photograph will tell you how she feels about THAT!

 

This, incidentally is the drawing I'm working on, obviously based partly on the above photo.  Man!  People are SO much harder to draw than animals!  I'm still trying to figure out a way to make Jeanette look less ghoulish.

Here is Cass, who is a part time employee and part time volunteer.  Her training is in some sort of  management, but she is a huge animal fan.  Especially cheetahs.  Though not so much as the guy who used to volunteer at Moholoholo.  I'm told he wanted to dye his hair with cheetah spots.  It was thought he had some cheetah "issues."

And this is Cindy, another young woman who hopes to become a veterinary assistant, with the eagle you've already met, Chicken.  Cindy would be perfect for such a position.  She is soft-spoken, kind, smart,and conscientious to a fault.   She thinks that her experience at Moholoholo will improve her chances of getting into a veterinary nursing program, and I hope she's right.

There were so many other amazing animal lovers at Moholoholo.  I didn't get pictures of them all, so won't try to introduce you to a wordy description.  I, however, was very fortunate to have met them.

And then there are PEOPLE at Moholoholo

       I've spent a lot of time introducing you to the animals of Moholoholo, and a lot of time going on and on about ME at Moholoholo, but you may have gotten the impression that the animals and I were on our own.  You HAVE met Jan our supervisor, and Jamie the "mom" to Ollie the Rhino and Melmin the giraffe, and you've seen Charlie and his sables, but that's about it.  With this blog, I intend to rectify that situation and begin to introduce you to some of the other people there.
       There were many black people employed at Moholoholo.  I never was so much as introduced to any of them except Oskar, whom I will introduce later.  I feel very strange about this fact.  I may have told some of you that one of the reasons I was eager to go to South Africa was that language was an incredible barrier in Cambodia.  I could not even say the most basic things to the local people there because the language was so completely different from any language I'd ever spoken.  I could not read it at all.  It was totally bewildering.  I knew that most people in South Africa speak at least some English, so I thought my chances of getting to communicate with local people would be much greater.  I was wrong.
       Of course, language is not the only barrier among different groups of people.  At Moholoholo, we all worked--very hard, I might add-- side by side.  BUT, we might as well have been on different planets.  Blacks seldom even made eye contact with whites and never spoke more than the briefest of greetings.  And vice versa.
       There was a very unpleasant event while I was there.  One of the non-South African volunteers--a young woman--went out of her way to be cheerful and pleasant to all the black workers there.  One of the workers--a young man--concluded that she must be interested in him and began some rather aggressive flirtation.  On one occasion, he stood in front of a doorway she was attempting to pass through and told her she couldn't go through unless she gave him her telephone number.  That scared her, and she mentioned it to her supervisor.  The next day the guy was fired, and I saw him being escorted off the premises, sitting forlornly in the back of a bokke (truck).  She felt terribly guilty, and I'm sure he was sorry to have his lost his job.
       What can one say about such an event?  Should she not have been friendly?  Shouldn't he have "known better"?  I find myself completely confused over the matter, and after that happened, I made it a point to be friendly but very formal with the staff.  And I felt like a completely hypocritical jerk doing it.  But even so, I still don't know what the "right" answer is.
       Well, for some reason, this guy Oskar overcame all that racial stuff, and he was apparently well-respected and well-liked by everybody.  He was included in our occasional nights out and seemed to feel comfortable mingling with us all.  I would be interested to know why that was, but I was being too polite and formal to ask!  He was clearly well educated, very articulate and bright, and funny and personable.  He was employed as a tour guide and showed tourists around the Rehabilitation Center, but also helped with some of the animal tending that required expertise. 
       Here is Oskar

 


Besides Oskar, all the rest of the many black employees at the Center were referred to as "the green men," in reference to the green coveralls they all wore.  They were electricians, carpenters, groundskeepers--an unbelievable amount of work goes into maintaining a place like Moholoholo.  They also processed the enormous amount of meat that goes through the place  [In this photo, they are working on some of the killer elephant meat that would eventually find its way to Bullet and others' bellies], and I'm sure many had responsibilities I wasn't even vaguely aware of.  I wish I had made more of an effort to find out.

CHEETAHS! and then some

By far the most numerous of the cats at Moholoholo is the cheetah.  It seems not only are there are a lot of them around, but also they get into trouble a lot.  So a lot of kittens have arrived at the Rehab

Center over the years, though, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, none so far this year.

Here's an old lady who has lived at the Center for about 8 years.  She was raised by bottle and now enjoys a compound, all to herself, that must be at least a couple of acres in size.  She is far too tame to be released, but she is what is called here an "ambassador" animal, in that she will amicably pose for photos with people and hopefully help to educate them about cheetahs.  She seemed to enjoy that a group of us came to visit her one afternoon, and we sat with her on a little hill and felt most companionable.

And, in fact, here she is, amicably posing with some tourist.






And here I am, together with another volunteer who came from Madagascar, with the yearling cheetah cubs.  They were mostly very nice, but when the two smaller volunteers from Madagascar (aged 10 and 12 years old) were near, they suddenly took on the "predator" look rather than the "kitty cat" look.  I heard that big cats are notorious for having a predatory attitude toward children; that's very eerie.

 
And this is my favorite cheetah, Bullet, who lived very near my little house.  One evening--after all that elephant meat came in--I saw Bullet's supper, and it had to be at LEAST 10 pounds of meat.
This is Bullet the next morning contemplating and discussing the meal of the night before with me.

Please turn your volume up high so you can hear what he has to say!

And here, for no good reason, except they're really pretty birds, and there's room for them here, are:

A rare Bateleur eagle named Chicken who also has lived at Moholoholo for years and who loves to have his neck scratched. And he's got the prettiest pinky-orange beak and feet imagineable.

 

And this guy--a ground hornbill, also rare--spends his day making an odd hollow gulping noise in an apparently futile attempt to attract female company.