Birds of Prey, Sunburn, Mud and Waterfalls

A couple of days ago we all set out to attend a bit of a flight show. Not with the typical array of airplanes, but with several different types of South African birds of prey. When we got there we were able to wander around and view many of the different kinds of birds which are kept at the sanctuary, the birds who live there are mostly ones who have come in with injuries and are being nursed back to health before being releases back into the wild. Eagles, vultures, hawks, owls and a few other types of winged creatures can be found there. Some of those birds, if they were to stretch out, would no doubt have wingspans longer than I am tall. And yet they are less than half my weight. The show was pretty cool, we got to see several of the birds in action right up close as they flew mere feet in front of our faces. Of course making it that much more of a bummer that I could not spread my wings and fly with them. But I suppose there are things I can do as a human which they can't.

When that was done we all sat around at picnic tables and in the play ground to eat our lunches and visit before climbing back onto the buses and vans to take a tour of downtown Pietermaritzburg, where we saw the place where Ghandi was forced to leave a train for sitting in first class, for which he had a ticket; this was the event that set him to doing many of the things he later became known for in regards to racial reconciliation and passive resistance.

Then we all drove up to a place overlooking the whole of the valley in which the city rests. It was a marvellous view and many pictures were taken (PS if you are wondering, I have been posting photos via facebook since trying to get them all up here would be a great hassle). Perhaps it is key to add that it has been quite sunny here the past few days, and whether or not the sun is stronger in the southern hemisphere, or if it is due to the hole in the ozone being near here, I don't think there is a single one of the 55+ of us who came out of it without at least a small amount of sunburn, some worse than others.

With the sun comes a great deal of increased activity in the local monkey population, there have already been several cases of monkeys breaking into rooms and making a mess of things, as well as getting into the dining hall in search of scraps. Each time their presence is made known by a thunderous shout from everyone nearby of "MONKEY!" at which time all the girls stand to watch and the 'men' take chase...regardless of the fact that we have been warned that they can be quite viscous given the right set of circumstances. It always makes for great entertainment - I say this, of course, having not had to deal with the mess of one of them getting into my own room yet.

The large slip and slide which was bought by a previous group has seen a great deal of use in the last couple of days as well, and the local waterfalls have become a great place to get away. The other day two groups set out to climb one of them in order to get to the bigger and better one a ways beyond. I was part of the second group, which was all girls. We took about one and a half hours to go both ways. It started out easy enough, but soon we were trudging through the river, as there is no path running beside it, and scaling 15-17 foot waterfalls. One of the girls took a bit of tumble, but she recovered well and continued with us. It was a good stretching opportunity for many of us who had never done something like it. After trekking for about 45 minutes we finally reached our destination and got ourselves soaked in the water falling from above - at least, a little more soaked than we already were from the journey up there. Then it was time to head back, trying to make it for dinner we had to pick up the pace a little. By the time we got to that first waterfall and had to scale it back the other way, we were already running late. But this was not something to be rushed. Luckily it was surprisingly easier to go down than it was to get up the first time. Maybe this was our stomachs driving us on, or maybe it was because through the fears of many we were able to pull together as a group and work side by side to get back down. Of course at this point, being covered in water, the rest of the trek - especially up a particularly muddy hill - only served to get us very dirty, which was of course half the fun of the whole adventure. Finally we all made it back and were greeted with cheers from the rest of the group, as well as the one who had returned about 30 minutes before us, and a great deal of awesome food, which was increased because of the appetite we had worked up. All in all, it was a great adventure, which I hope we can repeat again in the not too distant future. If you have never scaled a waterfall, you are missing out. Just make sure you are not alone when you do it.

Yesterday was Sunday, meaning church, and then some of us attended a night service where we were served wors (sp?) rolls (I am told is is a very SAfrican food) before heading back and crawling into bed eventually in order to be ready for another week of classes.

Love you all, thanks for the continued prayers! Till next time,

Ntombi Wezintaba (my new Zulu name!)