Pretoria - 9 April 2007
Well, this morning I was picked up by Jennie, my driver, who was (thankfully) running an hour late. I realised, whilst packing, that my alarm clock had stopped working, that my (cheap) jewellery was all entangled and in a complete mess, my rain jacket was also completely soaked as I had left it under the a/c unit which had dripped all night, etc. Dear me. What a great start.
In disgust I went to have breakfast... and found food comfort + additional thrills observing the many hornbills on the ground and took some nice shots... and even a little squirrel seemed to like me. He was hopping along from one thorn tree to the next, looking very gorgeous. They also have a colony of baboons on the ground too and even an ostrich. Yipee.
I said good bye to my African friends and we eventually drove to Pretoria. On the way Jennie told me about other projects she tries and promotes... one place raises cheetah and leopard cubs and you can also go into the wild with a vet to rescue injured animals... there seems to be SO much one can do. Or you can work with elephants, brush them, pad them, walk them, ride them... Africa does have a tremendous amount of opportunities like that for anyone who loves to feel close to wild animals as much as I do. She also told me that she tries to think of projects to benefit the local communities too but was quite upset to find that most local schools for instance will refuse to do any work for money. She wanted to buy them threads and beads and ask them to make necklaces so she could sell them on their behalf but they refused, though they badly needed the funding, saying that they would rather get the money for nothing !!! She felt that this was one of the downside of too much fund-raising from the West ! :(
She kindly drove me past the Union building, which is the most beautiful in Pretoria. Very European architecture. Pretoria is one of the capitals of South Africa and has many beautiful streets with countless jacaranda trees (unfortunately not in purple bloom at this time of the year).
She then took me to Backpackers, my base for the night. I am currently awaiting my 5pm briefing on the lion park project and thought I'd update my blog quickly (well, I've been on the PC for 3 hours by now!) .... as there may not be much opportunity to do so over the next few days.
I have already upgraded to a single room for tonight (well worth $10 extra I felt!) as I didn't fancy a dorm... not just yet. I'll delay the process for as long as possible !!!!
We have a BBQ tonight too, but with lots of vegetables... under the stars. Should be nice. We'll be off to the park at 9am tomorrow... fingers crossed that all goes well !!!
Send me emails when you can, always good to have news from my friends ... makes me feel less lonely till I make some new ones.....
Well, this morning I was picked up by Jennie, my driver, who was (thankfully) running an hour late. I realised, whilst packing, that my alarm clock had stopped working, that my (cheap) jewellery was all entangled and in a complete mess, my rain jacket was also completely soaked as I had left it under the a/c unit which had dripped all night, etc. Dear me. What a great start.
In disgust I went to have breakfast... and found food comfort + additional thrills observing the many hornbills on the ground and took some nice shots... and even a little squirrel seemed to like me. He was hopping along from one thorn tree to the next, looking very gorgeous. They also have a colony of baboons on the ground too and even an ostrich. Yipee.
I said good bye to my African friends and we eventually drove to Pretoria. On the way Jennie told me about other projects she tries and promotes... one place raises cheetah and leopard cubs and you can also go into the wild with a vet to rescue injured animals... there seems to be SO much one can do. Or you can work with elephants, brush them, pad them, walk them, ride them... Africa does have a tremendous amount of opportunities like that for anyone who loves to feel close to wild animals as much as I do. She also told me that she tries to think of projects to benefit the local communities too but was quite upset to find that most local schools for instance will refuse to do any work for money. She wanted to buy them threads and beads and ask them to make necklaces so she could sell them on their behalf but they refused, though they badly needed the funding, saying that they would rather get the money for nothing !!! She felt that this was one of the downside of too much fund-raising from the West ! :(
She kindly drove me past the Union building, which is the most beautiful in Pretoria. Very European architecture. Pretoria is one of the capitals of South Africa and has many beautiful streets with countless jacaranda trees (unfortunately not in purple bloom at this time of the year).
She then took me to Backpackers, my base for the night. I am currently awaiting my 5pm briefing on the lion park project and thought I'd update my blog quickly (well, I've been on the PC for 3 hours by now!) .... as there may not be much opportunity to do so over the next few days.
I have already upgraded to a single room for tonight (well worth $10 extra I felt!) as I didn't fancy a dorm... not just yet. I'll delay the process for as long as possible !!!!
We have a BBQ tonight too, but with lots of vegetables... under the stars. Should be nice. We'll be off to the park at 9am tomorrow... fingers crossed that all goes well !!!
Send me emails when you can, always good to have news from my friends ... makes me feel less lonely till I make some new ones.....
posted by Sylvie at 2:09 PM
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