Game drives

One of the exciting parts of this trip is the game drives (safaris) we've gone on. I'm currently living on a game farm in Limpopo province just south of Mokepane called Shikwaru Game Lodge. The game lodge profits support a ministry called Reaching A Generation which is dedicated to changing the lives of children in Southern Africa (http://rag.org.za/home.asp).

One of the advantages of living on a game farm is that I can go out anytime on a game drive or a walk to see the animals. It's pretty cool to be out walking and see a giraffe or a baboon. This farm doesn't have lions or rhinos so I don't have to worry about being attacked. However, there is a leopard that isn't supposed to be here but everyone assures me that it won't attack me!

One night last week, the team went on a game drive at Entabeni which has the predator type animals. It was really, really cool to see elephants, lions, rhinos, zebras, etc. up close and kinda scary.

Here are some photos of the drive at Entabeni:

Abby, Caleb, Bob and me in the drive vehicle.












The beautiful landscape of South Africa on the game drive. I was surprised at the mountains. I've always pictured flat terrain but the area I am in is surrounded by mountains.













View from the front seat. We had two guides - Godfrey who sat out front as a spotter and Simon the driver. Note the rifle...just in case...












The rest of our team in the other vehicle. You can tell it was pretty cold since it is the Fall season here.












Zebras















We watched a herd of 10 elephants for about 30 minutes as they made their way through the bush right by our vehicle. It was pretty exciting...I have it on video.



More elephants
















We watched as a lion/baby rhino drama unfolded right in front of our car. First we saw the mother, father and baby rhino. Then we saw 2 lionesses stalking the baby. At one point the dad rhino was holding the two lionesses at bay but then one of them snuck around the side of him. Eventually a third lioness showed up and two male lions. The dad rhino and one of the lionesses got into a little tussle as he protected the baby. Eventually the rhinos ran into the bush and the lions followed. Not sure if the little one survived but it was amazing to watch just a couple feet from our vehicle.

Dad rhino is holding off one lioness as the other one snuck around him. The momma and baby rhino are off to the left but not in the photo.














Dad goes after the other lioness who is trying to get the baby

















Two more lions show up

















Shows how close we were to the action (this is another team).












My camera died during the lion episode so most of these photos are courtesy of Kelsey Blessman.

Eye clinics

I finally have some time to sit down and write about what we have been doing here in South Africa. A lot has happened in the last week so this will either be a really long post or I'll have to write part of it later. On April 19, a group of 10 of us from Lutheran Church of Hope and 1 from Gloria Dei Lutheran Church left Des Moines for Johannesburg, South Africa. After a 2 hour flight to Atlanta, an 8 hour layover, a 19 hour flight (with a 2 1/2 hour stop in Dakar, Senegal), we made it safely to Joburg. We were met by a team from Blessman Ministries (BMI), the organization we are partnering with (more on them later but check out their website at http://www.blessmanministries.org/).

We stayed at a beautiful bed/breakfast just 15 minutes from the airport. We were surprised at the accommodations since we were prepared to sleep on church floors. We had a great evening of pizza and connecting with our new BMI friends. Sunday we drove about 3 hours north to Rustenburg where we would be staying for the week. Again we were surprised by the beautiful hotel we were staying in. We each had our own room and mine was like an apartment with 3 separate rooms. Each night we returned to the hotel with an amazing dinner prepared by the hotel chef.

Note to anyone considering coming on this trip in the future. Our accommodations were very unusual. The school district with which we are working is responsible for accommodations and generally the teams stay in hostel-type dorms and move to a different one each night. So to say the least, we were extremely lucky.

On Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday (Wednesday was election day and thus a holiday so no school) we went to a different school each day and set up eye clinics. Because I'm going to be doing 2 additional outreaches, I was able to learn most of the jobs in the clinics over the four days.

Here's how a typical day unfolded: we met in the dining room for devotionals at 6:45, had breakfast, then packed up our stuff for the day and drove about an hour - two hours to a school. We set up a registration table, a counseling area, an area where the kids eyes were scanned by a retinomax, and a glasses distribution area.

First, kids were lined up and pre-screened by looking at the E chart. Anyone with 20/30 vision or better was given a book called the Book of Hope and sent on their way (check out this great ministry called OneHope at http://www.bookofhope.net/). The book has lots of teachings about Jesus aimed at the appropriate grade level.

For those children who had worse than 20/30 vision, their eyes were dilated and then 30 minutes later one of the team viewed their eyes with a retinomax (some kind of machine that tells us what eyeglass prescription they need - it's more complicated than that but I'm not exactly sure yet how it works). A script was printed and the child waited for a counselor.

As a counselor, we did three things: determined which eyeglasses worked best for the child, did a teaching on HIV/AIDS and talked to the kids about how much God loves them. The eyeglass part was pretty easy...we had the child hold up one pair of glasses and then another pair...then they choose which is better.

The AIDS teaching was a little harder in the beginning but we eventually were comfortable with it. Talking about sex, condoms, God's plan for marriage, etc. isn't something most of us do with regularity so it was uncomfortable at first. Many of the kids have been directly affected by AIDS and some of had one or both of their parents die from it. South Africa has one of the highest incidence of AIDS in the entire world.

Talking about Jesus was the easy part...I could probably do that all day! We ended with prayer and sent them to the eyeglass distribution area where they would pick up their eyeglasses. At the distribution center, we would verify the prescription was correct and then adjust the glasses to fit their face. Off they would go with their new glasses!

Eye clinic photos:

Tamara teaching about HIV/AIDS




Susan with a new friend

Teaching children VBS songs while they are waiting to be screened

Beautiful with new glasses

Singing

Rob praying

Terry using the retinomax

Abby praying

Me with my new friends

Kelsey

Caleb checking the eyeglass prescription

Brad working hard at drinking his tea!

I have a lot more to write about but will save that for tomorrow. I have a test in my advanced physiology class so I'll be studying tomorrow rather than working. My Hope team left yesterday and the Blessman team left today. So there are three of us left here living in the Blessman's beautiful home.

More stories to come about safaris, orphanages, and living on a game farm!

Photos

I've finished my first week here in South Africa. We've conducted four days of eye clinics where we've seen hundreds of kids and given out hundreds of pairs of glasses, played with kids at an orphanage, been on a couple game drives (safaris) and spent a lot of time in the car driving from place to place. While I compose a long post with everything that we've done, I'm posting some photos for you.





New eyeglasses!







The orphanage.


Greg playing with the kids at the orphanage.














Baby in her crib at the orphanage. But not for long!







Cute little girl waiting to be seen at the eye clinic.











Entertaining the kids who were waiting to be seen at the eye clinic. Some of our team led them in VBS songs.

One of the schools where we setup the eye clinic.

Baby Ottilia at the orphanage.