Dassies

      The very first day I was at the Rehab Center, I went and sat in the area called the "student commons".  This is a large room with a complete kitchen in it, lots of tables, easy chairs, and a computer area, surrounded by verandahs all around.  A very comfortable place.  I sat there trying to make contact with home, when I heard a bit of rustling around, and here's who I saw sharing the comfortable coolness of the student commons.

Looked like an ordinary woodchuck to me, and also looked very content.  He (or she) did not go out of its way to be friendly to me, and when I approached it too closely, it made its way outdoors, but it seemed quite comfortable in my presence.
I really did not pay much attention.



Later I noticed that there was a colony of these guys living near my little house, and that they were an active communal-living family and pretty cute to watch.

I asked around and learned that these were "dassies."  At least, that's what Africans call them, though their correct name is "rock hyrax."  OK, I thought, "cute."
     I don't think I've mentioned one of the students who was working at the Center, the only other American, a fellow Cubs fan from Chicago named Alex.  Here's a photo of Alex that SHE accidentally took with my camera one day:

 Alex is brash and melodramatic and SO nineteen years old, and a lot of fun and warm and generous.  I learned that one of "her babies" was a baby dassie named Houdini, and she agreed to introduce him to me and even let me give him his bottle.  I bonded with Houdini so much, she generously let me feed him a couple of times a day.  After he had his bottle he would nestle under my chin and squeak, and I was deeply in love.

In fact, my last morning at Moholoholo, I gave Houdini the last bottle I would give him, and I started crying.  And you know what he did?  
He licked the tears off my face!!!!!
Seriously!!

Here's the drawing I did of Houdini.
              




      Here's the interesting thing:   when I got home,  I looked up the rock hyrax on The Box of Truth (otherwise known as the internet) and found that they are the closest living relative of . . . . you're not going to believe this . . . . . the ELEPHANT!!!!!