July2-4

July 2-3, 2016 

The trip was long!  My flight left JFK at 11:15 AM on Saturday, and landed in Johannesburg  at 8:20AM on Sunday morning.  There is a 6 hour time difference.  I wasn’t able to sleep much on the plane- it wasn’t very comfortable.  I had a very short layover in Johannesburg, during which I had to find my next gate, get my passport stamped and then go back through security.  When I arrived at my gate, I was quite surprised to see a bus outside of it, not a plane.  We boarded the bus and drove to what felt like the other side of the airport to board a much smaller plane for a short flight to Bulawayo.  The Bulawayo airport was very, very tiny.  The Visas are handwritten and they only looked at my passport when I went through customs, apparently I looked harmless because there were other people that had bags looked at and it took them a bit longer to get through.

It’s cool here!  Apparently they are in the middle of a cold spell…but their cold spell is in the 60’s.  I was met at the airport by Nicole, one of the owners of Chipangali.  There were 8 other people getting picked up to go to the orphanage.  The steering wheels are on the wrong side of the cars, they drive on the wrong side of the road, and at one point we were driving on a four lane road and I THINK two lanes were for each direction, but there were only white dotted lines in between each lane so I’m not really sure you know where you are supposed to drive!!  On the way to the orphanage we stopped at the “market” to pick up any snacks that we wanted.  There are very few American brand names here.   

There were many, what I think we houses, that looked not finished along the sides of the road.  Many, if not all, of the houses, especially in town and on the edges, were surrounded by walls, with razor wire and/or electric on the top of it.  The landscape is pretty flat, and looks barren- with lots of scrub grasses and occasionally trees.  The soil is red and looks like clay.  

When we arrived, we were shown to our cabins.  I am sharing a cabin with three other girls- they are from England, Sweden, and Madrid.  One is leaving on Monday (July 4), and there are two more volunteers getting picked up from airport.  Some of the other people here are from the UK, Israel, and several from the US.  I believe there are about 14 volunteers total here right now.  We have one of the two “new” cabins so we have a toilet and shower in our cabin.  Otherwise, there is a bath house for everyone else to use.   We went on a very short tour of some of the orphanage and then had some time to get settled before dinner.  All of the volunteers eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner together.  After dinner, we built a small bonfire and got to know each other.  Monday’s are our day off.

When you wake up in the middle of the night here- aside from the possibility of being tangled up in your mosquito netting, the noises are so very different from NJ.  First off, you can hear the lions talking back and forth.  It is a very neat sound.   And there are bird and insect noises all night.   It has also been cool enough during the day that they are more active and talkative. 

July 4, 2016

This time change will take a bit to get used to…I woke up at 7 this morning and probably could have slept a while longer, but I forced myself to get up so that I’m tired tonight and can get on a regular schedule. 

Very strange not celebrating the fourth today!!  Since it is Monday, we are “off”.  Some of the volunteers that have been here went on trips that have been arranged.  There are lots of opportunities to go on various trips- that are arranged through the orphanage.  Even on the day off, the “babies” still need to be taken care of so we had the option of helping with those after breakfast- of course I’m going to help with the babies!!!!  Some of the animals in the nursery are hedgehogs, night apes, tortoises, a duiker, an owl with one wing, mice (they are food!), a bush pig, and a serval.  The nigh apes are very interesting little creatures…huge eyes and ears and a long tail…actually…they kind of look like Shamus!!  They are about 5 inches high- full grown- and love to climb and jump.  They actually pee on their  hands to make them sticky and then they start jumping all over the place and climbing on the walls and ceiling!  I took care of the serval this morning- he is here because there were kids tormenting him in a park and he was in a tree and the kids were poking him with a stick and knocked him out and ultimately broke all four of his legs.  He is completely healed now, and will actually be getting introduced to the other two servals that are residents of the park.  He hides in his little house and just hisses at people, but apparently he is all bark and no bite.  Each day we are allowed to spend time with the animals in the orphanage, so there are some people the serval will take to and actually let you touch him! 

After helping with the baby animals, I walked around for a while and took pictures of the animals that live here and some of the scenery.  There are HUGE cacti here.  The leopards are beautiful- they have the most beautiful eyes!  They come right up to the edge of their cages.  No one is allowed to go in with any of the big cats…for obvious reasons…but they are amazing to look at.  One of the female lions has epilepsy.  Up close, the lions are amazing- the sheer, raw power of these animals is amazing.  Their paws are huge.  Their eyes seem to stare right through you when they look at you.  It is an awesome experience to just sit by their enclosures and watch them.  One of the enclosures has 5 males in it.  At one point they were rolling around and playing with each other- it was like watching a litter of puppies play…large puppies- that could easily rip your throat out, but puppies none the less.  The monkeys are very cute but naughty, and can be nasty…one of them grabbed my sweatshirt when I walked by and they was very mad that I got my arm away from him.  The cape buffalo aren’t here yet…hopefully they will be here soon! 

It is very interesting talking to people from other countries, and the cultural differences.  For examples, one of the girls staying in my cabin is making a decision about going to college, and she is from Spain- so her college options are in Spain and Switzerland.  I guess it’s the same as us going to different states for college.  Since it is the winter time here, the kids are still in school as well.  The owners of the orphanage have two students- one is 17 and still in “high school” and the other is 19 and in “college”.  The 17 year old was just recently suspended for having a flare in school…what would happen to a student who took a flare to school in the US??!?!?

While I am here, I am connected to wi-fi, so text messages don’t work (I can get them when I am not connected to the wi-fi, but they cost an arm and a leg), so you can email me or use facebook messenger.