Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Sunday, June 7, 2009
I arrived!!
We just finished watching "The Lion King" on their big screen wall tv. Actually, they have a projector and they take their tapestry off of the wall and WALA, it becomes a screen. We HAD to watch it. They were unmerciful in their ridicule of me and said I had HUGE gaps in my education because I had not seen it. I guess after it has been out for 15 years, it's time.
Today I made Chili. The Boshoffs are now officially Adventists. They have experienced Chili Haystacks. Of course it was a Mexican dish with an African flavor because instead of ground beef, I used ground Elund. An Elund is a very large animal such as our Elk. Tonight we had tea and wonderful deserts at Jaco and Christa's home. Their two children, Bolo and Chene were there as well. They raise Cattle, sheep, goats, potbellied pigs, cats, dogs, they have and continue to bottle feed an Oryx, (look it up), a Springbok which is probably similar in size to our Florida deer. It is a wild animal that Chene has been raising since it was a day old. I got to feed it and my oh my did it ever push on that bottle and guzzle down that milk. The pig tried to eat my shoe, my leg, my foot and more. All of the men were talking in the living room and strategizing how they were going to set up the Canvas wall (it is 200 - 300 meters - Delwin help us out with that conversion). They are going to round up several Oryx and Elund. They are doing this to supply 2 game farms with these wild animals. They will the canvas to make a funnel typed corral open at the wide end.The men will use all sorts of vehicles, bakkies (which are TRUCKS) to drive the Oryx and Elund into the funnel. As soon as the animals are inside the corraled area, some of the Tswanas will pull a canvas curtain behind them to close the opening in the corral/funnel. They will not capture the Oryx and Elund together as when they are stressed and confined in a smaller area such as a truck, they could kill each other. The Oryx have very large, straight sharp antlers and before they are loaded the men will put PVC pipe over their antlers so they do not hurt each other. Tuesday the men will capture whatever they did not get tomorrow. As you can imagine all of these big brave men are as excited as little boys to go on the "HUNT". It was a bit troublesome to me that Jaco reminded us women to not wear perfume and to be very quiet. We are in DEEP trouble if we smell good or make a single sound. We are going to obey. I of course had to ask if we could at least wear deoderant. We can and I am happy. So is every one else.
The Meerkat is cuddly and sassy. He can't stand to be cold, or bothered when he is warm. The Duiker bok is still young and as cute as can be. Karin still feeds it a bottle. I am quite certain it did not taste what it was guzzling. The Bateared fox is very very soft. They put the Duiker bok in the small pen and let the fox have the run of the yard. He really ran.
Lots of baby lambs,calves and big goats.
Karin stayed home to do the washing and Ras and I drove out to the Cattle posts. What a wonderful ride through the deep red sand. The cattle are beautiful. The scenery is something that I don't have the words to describe. it is silent with the sounds of cattle, Hornbills (Watch "Animals are Beautiful People" to know what a Hornbill is. and Donkeys used to drive the Kalahari Ferraris which are wooden buggies use by the Twanas) The sky was so blue. I have thought of many of you and how I wish you were here so I would not have to try to come up with words. I am sure some of you are wondering how I am doing out in the wilds. I am loving it and love being with this family.
More later I promise. I could go on and on, but we have to get up earlier tomorrow to go get Botswana money for crossing over into Botswana on Wednesday and then we go watch the big boys hunt. I will take lots of quiet pictures.
Love,
Patty
Today I made Chili. The Boshoffs are now officially Adventists. They have experienced Chili Haystacks. Of course it was a Mexican dish with an African flavor because instead of ground beef, I used ground Elund. An Elund is a very large animal such as our Elk. Tonight we had tea and wonderful deserts at Jaco and Christa's home. Their two children, Bolo and Chene were there as well. They raise Cattle, sheep, goats, potbellied pigs, cats, dogs, they have and continue to bottle feed an Oryx, (look it up), a Springbok which is probably similar in size to our Florida deer. It is a wild animal that Chene has been raising since it was a day old. I got to feed it and my oh my did it ever push on that bottle and guzzle down that milk. The pig tried to eat my shoe, my leg, my foot and more. All of the men were talking in the living room and strategizing how they were going to set up the Canvas wall (it is 200 - 300 meters - Delwin help us out with that conversion). They are going to round up several Oryx and Elund. They are doing this to supply 2 game farms with these wild animals. They will the canvas to make a funnel typed corral open at the wide end.The men will use all sorts of vehicles, bakkies (which are TRUCKS) to drive the Oryx and Elund into the funnel. As soon as the animals are inside the corraled area, some of the Tswanas will pull a canvas curtain behind them to close the opening in the corral/funnel. They will not capture the Oryx and Elund together as when they are stressed and confined in a smaller area such as a truck, they could kill each other. The Oryx have very large, straight sharp antlers and before they are loaded the men will put PVC pipe over their antlers so they do not hurt each other. Tuesday the men will capture whatever they did not get tomorrow. As you can imagine all of these big brave men are as excited as little boys to go on the "HUNT". It was a bit troublesome to me that Jaco reminded us women to not wear perfume and to be very quiet. We are in DEEP trouble if we smell good or make a single sound. We are going to obey. I of course had to ask if we could at least wear deoderant. We can and I am happy. So is every one else.
The Meerkat is cuddly and sassy. He can't stand to be cold, or bothered when he is warm. The Duiker bok is still young and as cute as can be. Karin still feeds it a bottle. I am quite certain it did not taste what it was guzzling. The Bateared fox is very very soft. They put the Duiker bok in the small pen and let the fox have the run of the yard. He really ran.
Lots of baby lambs,calves and big goats.
Karin stayed home to do the washing and Ras and I drove out to the Cattle posts. What a wonderful ride through the deep red sand. The cattle are beautiful. The scenery is something that I don't have the words to describe. it is silent with the sounds of cattle, Hornbills (Watch "Animals are Beautiful People" to know what a Hornbill is. and Donkeys used to drive the Kalahari Ferraris which are wooden buggies use by the Twanas) The sky was so blue. I have thought of many of you and how I wish you were here so I would not have to try to come up with words. I am sure some of you are wondering how I am doing out in the wilds. I am loving it and love being with this family.
More later I promise. I could go on and on, but we have to get up earlier tomorrow to go get Botswana money for crossing over into Botswana on Wednesday and then we go watch the big boys hunt. I will take lots of quiet pictures.
Love,
Patty
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Today is the day that has taken forever to get here. I am packed and ready. One of my suitcases weighs as much as a family of 5. I am going to try my best to keep up with this blog to let you know where I am and what I am doing HOWEVER this is in the Kalahari Desert and connections are not good. The Boshoffs have to run their email and internet connection through their cell phone. I leave Orlando tonight at 5:30. Fly to Atlanta, change planes and begin the 16 hour flight to Johannesburg. The Boshoffs will pick me up at 5:10 on Thursday afternoon. That will be 11:00 AM our time. We will stay with Ras' mom in Pretoria Thursday night and then leave Friday for Vryburg which is where they buy their groceries once a month and attend church. I will have the sermon at church on Saturday and then we will leave for their home. It is 240 km from Vryburg and should take about 3 hours. The roads are mostly gravel to where they live with their 5 dogs, 1 Meerkat, 1 Bat eared fox, 10 ewe goats and 30 head of cattle PLUS whatever wild animals/snakes happen by. They manage a 10,000 acre farm for a man who owns 50,000 acres. I will try my best to learn how to post pictures so you have something to look at. Patty
It is the day of the beginning of the big trip. Thank you to my friend Lynn who has helped me set up this blog and tells me how to not make comments to my comments. I am going to try my best to keep it up each day. We will, however be camping for about 5 days so you will not hear from me then. You MAY not hear from me at all after that because we are camping in TENTS in the Kgalagadi Frontiers Park in Botswana and the northern part of South Africa. There lives black maned lions, worthogs, oryx, eland, and other animals that we do not have in the states.
The Boshoffs are an Afrikaans family that I have been in contact with for almost a year. Ras, is a part time cattle farmer, and 1/2 time Vet tech for the government. Karin, is a mom, and teacher. Willem is 11 years old and has lots of fun in the out of doors. What child would not love having all of the space to play and explore. This is a delightful family who I am REALLY looking forward to just living life with for the next 3 weeks.
Patty
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
