Our First African Safari in the Greater Kruger National Park in South Africa

We had an awesome opportunity this past week with the other 5 couples that serve as Public Affairs Missionaries in Southeast Africa.  Our Area Director, Sean Donnelly, took us to a Couples Seminar at the Baobab Ridge Lodge in the Klaserie Reserve.  This is 80,000 hectares of absolutely game-packed pristine savannah about 6 hours by car northeast of Johannesburg.  We flew into Johannesburg on Thursday, loaded up in vans Friday morning and spent 5 days in the bush at a self-catering lodge.  Our hosts were the owners, Jason and Nini, and our director and his wife, Dianne, catered the event.  We were the only guests at the lodge.   Every morning we did a sunrise drive for 2-3 hours and every evening we did a drive starting at 5. The evening drive always went into the night-time so that we could have the opportunity of seeing nocturnal animals.  We spent 2 and 1/2 days in training seminars and that helped us see all the possibilities in our role as public affairs missionaries.

This was an unforgettable experience and we thought we would share some of our photos.  We saw thousands of animals, some were too camera shy and others were too fast and elusive.  But, here is a pretty good sampling.   

 

 

 

This is a lioness feeding off a Cape Buffalo that the pride killed during the night.  There were 5 young Cape Buffalo killed by the 7 lions in the pride.
There stomachs were bulging...they were so full.  The cubs could hardly walk as they had eaten so much.
Hidden and out of a good camera shot were the jackals, vultures, and hyenas just waiting for the lions to leave the scene so they could move in and feast also.


 

This is the bungalow that we stayed in.  Each couple had their own bungalow.  Each had a living room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, and deck.  All four sides had big windows so you could look out and see animals in the bush around you.   
 

At night we could hear the monkeys scampering across the roof of the bungalow.  Around the entire compound was a high electrical fence but nothing that would stop a Cape Buffalo, rhino, or elephant.

The main lodge that contained a beautiful stainless steel huge kitchen with all the modern conveniences.  The lodge also had a large dining room and a large conference room.  See the Land Rover with stadium seating that is parked on the left.  There were several of these to take us all on drives. 

 

 The swimming pool at the lodge... but we took the photo to show the water hole for the animals in the background.  Animals would come here often.  At night we could lay awake and listen to the roar of lions that were nearby.

Boma...built to keep cattle contained at night and safe from wild animals.  This was constructed by the owner to provide a safe place for campfires at night and a large grill for cooking.  We had BBQs here several evenings. Our director's wife was a chef when she was younger and she fixed wonderful meals for us...three times a day.

 Picture looking into the boma.

 

 

Close up of a large elephant.  We were shocked at how close our drivers would take us to the animals.  We had strict instructions to never stand up in the vehicle.  If we sat we blended in with the vehicle and the animals came close but did not bother us.  They told us if you stand you attract attention and they can see an individual and can become aggressive.
 

Herd of wildebeests.

 

A kudu
 

 

A zebra... they are fast and hard to get a picture of.  They have weak backs so have never been able to be ridden or used to pack anything.  The African zebras are not only black and white but also have a gray stripe.  You can see that on the hind quarter of this zebra.  In Africa they do not make the "e"a long sound...instead it is pronounced like the "e" in the word "bed" or "red." 

 

  Lion from another pride coming to "spend the weekend" with this lioness.  The safari drivers learn to know these animals and can tell who belongs to which pride.  He was very protective of her.

She would walk about 20 feet and lay down.  The male would lay or stand nearby and keep a watch on what was going on around them.

 

Giraffes are so amazing to come across.  But, they are very elusive and disappear quickly into the trees.

 

A vulture

A white lion.  These lions were in a nearby reserve that we visited.  They live in a fenced reserve because they are trying to keep them from breeding with normal lions so they do not become extinct.

 Close-up of a white lion.

Can you believe how close our driver took us!

 

Elephants on parade...in all sizes
 

...and shapes 

...some baggy, saggy... 

 

 We watched this elephant wrap his trunk around a young tree with an 8 inch diameter and rip it out of the ground.  There are a lot of dead and dying trees on the ground in Africa as the elephants pull them out and eat the tender young roots.  They also strip all the bark off the trunk of larger trees and eat a pinkish-red layer under the bark.  This causes the tree to die because the upper branches and leaves can no longer receive nutrients.

 

 

This hippopotamus would only show us the top of his head...
 

 and the top of his back.
 

Our grandson, Jackson, sent us Flat Stanley to travel around Africa with us.  We took him on our safari drives.  Here he is sitting in the seat on the front of the Land Rover where the spotter sits on the game drives. 

 We could not figure out how to get the camera to focus on Flat Stanley and the elephant in the background.

 

This was an unusual find...wild African dogs.  They were very frightening to look at.  We came across an entire pack of them.
 



This elephant became quite aggressive as our driver kept changing the position of our vehicle and trying to get us closer.  This was a little too close.

 

 



This was a young elephant

 



 and an older one.

 

 Always fun to watch the young ones keep up with the herd and the older ones position themselves to protect the younger ones.

 

 A male Cape Buffalo

 

 

 

These three males were resting together.  The females have horns but not the big head-dress across the head. 

 



Rhino... all by himself.

 He became quite aggressive and started running and prancing around our vehicle.  They can move fast for as large as they are.  

 

 

More rhino... 

 

 

 

 

Mother and baby Impala.  We saw thousands of these. 

 

Steenbok 

 

Dracker

 

Evening approaching on the savannah.  Notice the large termite mound on the left.  The bush came in many varieties.  Sometimes the vegetation was dense, other times more sparse. 

 

We have lots more photos but that gives you a good idea of what we saw during our 5 day stay.  We loved the game drives and learned so much about how nature balances out itself and that there is a purpose for every creation. 

 

 

 



The first African bridal shower

I had a most interesting and fun day...

 

A young woman that works in our Mission Office and also happens to be the National Public Affairs Director for Uganda is getting married on Dec. 28th.  There are many single women and men here because the men cannot afford to pay "bride price" to the family of the bride, so they do not marry until later in life. (Think of the movie "Johnnie Lingo and the 8 Cow Wife" -- that is just what happens here, they have to pay with cows or land or money or food in order to get permission to marry a girl.)  Anyway, Sussie is a delightful African woman who has served a mission and has graduated from college.  She is one of the smartest people I have met.  She is Kenyan and was raised by her father from the age of 2 because her parents separated.  She joined the Church when she was 12 because she had 2 old sisters who had joined and they took her along with them.  Both of her parents have died.  She is probably the only one of her sisters that is employed and has a good job and so she helps many people in her family and in the village. I heard that the people in the office make about $500 a month and are some of the best paid employees in the country.

 

Anyway, our Mission President's wife decided that we should have a bridal shower for Sussie as Sussie was not having a reception because of the cost.  Sussie was so nervous, she had no idea what a bridal shower was.  She invited 24 friends and all 24 came.  It was at the President's home today.  We had Hawaiian haystacks, fruit kabobs, homemade rolls, fruit slush, ice cream and brownies.  She had no idea that people would bring presents.  Here they do not give presents for Christmas or birthday or weddings.  Sometimes they will contribute to the wedding budget to help cover the expenses, but no gifts.  So, after lunch we moved into the living room and Sister Wallace handed Sussie a gift to open and she literally did not realize it was for her and she was to open it.  Everyone brought a gift or went in on a gift with several others so there were lots of gifts.  Sister Chatfield had put on the invitation that if you wanted to donate to a group gift you could -- it was a kitchen shower.  Anyway, every gift she opened the whole room would Ooh! and Ahh!  It was so fun; they were all so excited for her. And the games, they loved them.  They were so competitive.  They also played the game where they had asked the groom questions about himself and they then asked Sussie to see if she could give the same answers and to see how well she knew the groom, Moses.  They usually do not hold hands in public here or show any public affection, so Sussie would laugh and put her hand over her face when they asked her some questions about him.  Everyone would laugh at her...they had so much fun.

 

It was just delightful.  No one wanted to leave.  It was to have started at noon but no one except the Senior Sister Missionaries came until 1:00.  It was 4:00 before we finished and got home.  I thought about it and wondered if it is right for us to expose them to our culture -- especially the gift giving.

They keep life so simple and are so kind and giving anyway -- but have never done the gift giving like we do in the United States.  But, they seemed to love the entire afternoon.  I asked one of Sussie's friends if they do anything similar to a shower in their culture and she said "No, but friends would have taken Sussie to one of her auntie's in the village where Sussie was raised and the auntie would have talked to them about how to treat a husband."

 

Anyway, it was a fun memory of some beautiful African women experiencing their first American style bridal shower.

 

And just a side note...in Uganda they have to be married in the country before they can go to be sealed in the Johannesburg Temple in order for the country to recognize the marriage.  Sussie and Moses are being sealed in Johannesburg the first week of January 2014.

 

Sussie, in traditional African dress, with Moses (on her left) and his family and friends that escorted him to her village in Kenya to ask for permission to marry. 



Trip to Rwanda

This week we traveled to Rwanda and spent four days with the two senior missionary couples serving there.  It was a great week to go because just one week ago (Oct. 25th) the Church became officially registered in Rwanda and now the missionaries can proselyte.  We also have 6  young Elders serving there.  We are in the process of now deciding how to celebrate the announcement of the registration in the country.  That will probably occur early next year as we are hoping to have a nice dinner at one of the hotels and invite key opinion leaders in Rwanda.

We found it to be a beautiful, clean country where they drive on the right side of the road, have no potholes, obey the laws, and do not have as many motorcycles.  The country allows no plastic garbage or shopping bags and garbage is picked up weekly.  There are sidewalks and shoulders on the highway.  Even the rural areas are clean and well kept.

It is called the "land of 1000 hills" and reminds one of San Francisco and even Hawaii.  There are many poor people but their property is clean and tidy and everyone has gardens.  It is one of the smallest countries in Africa but is the most densely populated.  All the hillsides are terraced to allow more flat land for farms and gardens.

 

This is a country where prisoners do hard labor.  This is a prison farm and prisoners were working in rice fields and gardens.

This is a picture of the outskirts of Kigali, the capital city. 

This is more countryside as we were headed south out of Kigali.  The houses are made of sticks covered with mud.  Some are made of bricks and they usually all have a tin roof. 

We stopped at the United Nations Field Office near a refugee camp.  Again, this camp is refugees from the DR Congo.  The lady in the green shirt is giving them instructions on cooking with a new German made stove that uses very little wood.  

Here they are cooking beans in new cooking pots they are all being given.

This is the German made stove they cook on.  Each family is given one.  It uses a lot less wood than the open fires they currently use. 

This is inside the Congolese Refugee camp.  As you can see it is very hilly.  The homes are put up by the UN and consist of plastic and mud bricks with tin roofs.  The houses are 6 ft x 8 ft and are 1 meter apart so it is very crowded.

Another shot of the refugee village-- and the hills are quite steep all throughout the village.

This is the laundry area in the camp.  The water taps are here and the women wash in plastic basins.  The yellow cans are Jerri cans they fill with water to take to their homes for cooking, drinking, and bathing.

More of the washing area for the 18,000 refugees in this camp.

We see this all the time.  Women carry very heavy and large loads on their heads.  They have a rolled cloth or turban that sits on their head to balance the load. 

This is Ray's National Geographic shot-- he had no idea the mother on the right was nursing her baby until after he took the picture.

Two hundred women in the camp have formed a co-op to help better themselves.  They make washing soap to sell, do tailoring for the village, and bake bread to sell.  These ladies were members of the co-op and happy to show us the soap.  In this refugee camp the Church is building latrines and teaching hygiene classes as cholera is a risk and brought by the refugees from Goma in the DR Congo.  In this compound the Church is also building a bowery so the women have a place to make soap, a place to sew, and a place to sell their bread.  The Church is donating 6 sewing machines and having a new brick oven built for them.

African grandmother or mother and child sitting by their hut. 

 

 Darling children following us as we drove out of the camp.  The little girl in the plaid dress never stopped smiling and waving.

 

Back in Kigali....this is a picture of our hotel.  It was very nice and modern.

 

This is a picture of a building that one of the 3 branches of the Church rents for meetings.

 

Another branch is just finishing the remodel on this building that they are moving to. Behind the building is a garden the Relief Society planted so they can help needy families with food.

 

 

 

We are standing at the gate of this hotel in downtown Kigali.  This is the hotel that the movie "Hotel Rwanda" is based on.    

 

This "Hotel Rwanda" is where over 1200 Tutsis hid during the 1994 genocide.  The Hutu made up 84% of the population, the Tutsis made up 15%, and the Twa made up 1%.  The Tutsis had been the ruling class for generations, owned cattle, and were more affluent.  They are taller and have a more angular nose.  The Hutus were the working class, farmed, and were servants. They are shorter and have a more flattened nose. It is not unusual for Hutus and Tutsis to intermarry. When the nation's president was killed (he was Hutu), the extremists that were Hutu began a propaganda war over radio and TV and began killing Tutsis.  They had some guns but mostly used machetes and clubs.  Over 1 million people were killed during a 3 month period. People were literally cut in half or limbs severed and left to die.  Bodies were piled along the roadside.  Other people were beaten and thrown down latrines.  It is said that 10,000 people were killed daily. 

Rwanda had been a Belgian colony, but they pulled out and did nothing.  No one came to the Tutsis' aid, including the United States.

Millions of Tutsis fled across borders into neighboring nations.  In 1994, Paul Kagame ( a Tutsis who had fled with his family to Uganda years before) led a rebel army back into Rwanda and took back the capital city.  He remains the dictator today and seems to have done much for the country.  Neighboring countries like Burundi and DR Congo still have persecution going on today against the Tutsis.      

 

These are children from the Twa village.  The Church did a water project for their village where they collect rain water from the roofs with gutters and drain pipes and store it in large collection barrels.  These people are from the mountains, are very poor, not educated, and short -- almost pigmy.

We are holding Flat Stanley that our grandson Jackson sent to us.  His class is mailing Flat Stanley all over the world and we email back pictures of everywhere we travel with him.