South Africa!!!

Ok so i only have internet once a week down on this project so i'll write as much as possible in as little time as possible. So i flew down to Joberg for an uneventful night in a hostel behind a barbed fence. that was scary SA but everything since has been splendid.

all of us volunteers for the GVI program were picked up the next day at the airport and split into two groups for the two sites. i really lucked out and went to the "better" site with really great people. this one is just better established and has a better building and more animals. we all settled into our dorm living at a nice enough group house which has its share of critters like spiders and scorpions and occasionally snakes. but we went to a reptile center and learned more about the above so we feel much more comfortable and informed. our location is karongwe reserve, about 5 hrs north of joberg and an hour west of kruger. it used to be several farms but the landowners decided to lose the fences and bring back some animals and now there are a couple research centers like ours and some ecolodges.

so the first week was lectures and game walks and drives. it was amazing! class was a few hrs a day and very interesting and easy. also we did a day of first aid training and i got certified which was a nice bonus. on top of that we did walks and drives to see birds and all sorts of antelope, big cats, hippo, rhino and elephants. our group was on a drive that accidentally spooked some elephants and we got charged. it was incredibly crazy but i got it all on video! i'll upload it soon...promise! one female rushed us from the front. we reversed and that wouldve been the end of it except an adolescent was several hundred meters behind us so we had to stop backing up. thus she was still upset as we hadnt given her sufficient space so she trumpeted and flapped her ears as she came around our truck. fyi this is a narrow road with trees on both side so she was close! then the other matriarch and all the babies came running up to the front of the car and also came around the side. it was intense and couldve been dangerous. thankfully that didnt stop me from recording the whole thing :)

we also learned to do telemetry tracking so we're following the collared lions, cheetah and leopards. the cheetah are habituated so we can actually walk up to them (staying about 20 m away though, with a rifle and a well trained researcher). the others would not be so blase but are also very used to people being around and arent "maneaters" so we are fairly safe at all times (the elephant situation was potentially way worse!). so two days ago we were tested on our lecture information (everyone passed) and then split into two groups of four and went on a long walk through the reserve to a campsite. we cooked over the fire, and each team sang songs and presented the photos we had to take while on our walk. we also had collected giraffe poo which was used in a giraffe poo spitting contest (it's really hard and all leaves). i came in second for poo spitting and our team won overall thanks to our funny photo we had to take. we had collected a bunch of poo and wrote "gvi is the shit" and then mooned the camera squatting over it. anywho, it was very fun and we took turns staying up to make sure the hyena didnt come too close in the night. we saw one just on the perimeter before we went to bed. soooo amazing. lets seeee - what else. my group is headed up to the mtns today to do some work with small mammals, reptiles, insects etc. basically we are just supposed to humanely capture a bunch of stuff and record it. should be easy and fun and a different landscape. this will be wetter and colder but really gorgeous. might even get to swim in the river up there.

ok! my ride is about to leave! i'll write more when i'm on next week. it's such a great experience! i'd recommend it over a safari drive anyday to anyone who can cope with some communal living and some dirty work. such a great experience :)