Braveheart Home and Gno Gnus is Ggood Gnus

We began the day with the cheetahs and finished up with more lions. After a quick breakfast, we headed off to Braveheart Home, a future orphanage for HIV-Aids children. The home is located about 30 minutes from the reserve. On the way, we saw real, life baboons along the side of the road. I had never seen real live baboons by the side of the road before. There are a lot of things that I had not seen (or done) before arriving in S. A.

At the Braveheart Home, we heard an impassioned talk (short!) by the woman whose dream it has been to open such a home. She knows what frequently happens to a family when a parent is diagnosed with HIV-Aids and understands exactly what happens to children in the local squatter villages when that diagnosis is received. Children are left to struggle for themselves. She has spent many years pursuing this dream, and it is with great hope that the home will open in June. She has rallied the town (De Doorns) around her and has received much support from local farmers (mostly grape growers) who see the need for such. The locals have given her money to buy the house, time to make renovations, and moral support in the hope that her dream will be realized.

We were a little leery as we arrived and saw the condition of the yard around the house (which has been vacant for some time). As "gardening" is a four-letter word to us now, having done so much of it under, at times, trying conditions, we really had hoped to do other things, such as painting, roofing, sanding, cleaning...pretty much anything but gardening. Well, we were divided up into five groups and were asked to clear the weeds (dense!) for up to a meter from the house on two sides. Another group, mine, was asked to clear the rubble off the patio. Well, there's rubble and then there's rubble. This was rubble of the sort that is cemented to the patio. Well, with shovels and pitchforks, we were able to clear away much cement. Andre, a farmer who is helping Ahmoret (the women opening the home) brought us a pitchfork. Amy and Cricket went to town on the half of the pile that was left. We cleared it out pretty quickly, swept the area, and headed off for other work. The two weed killing groups worked hard throughout the day and accomplished quite a task. There was a rhythm to that work - and as anyone who worked that detail will tell you, the popping sound of the roots snapping is like music to one's ears.

Vancy, Jiachen, Corinna, Amy, Cricket, Margaret, and Catherine after having demolished the large mound of cement.





Christina swings a mad machete as Akeila looks on.

Other groups painted in the house. Doors that were ready for varnish were treated to numerous coats. Cricket and Cheryl scraped walls of one of the bathrooms and were covered in robin's egg blue paint chips for their trouble. Ron and his group moved massive furniture in one room, and cleared weeds from one side of the house. There were also rumors that he was leading his group in some rap songs, but this is largely unsubstantiated.

A path is cleared, and one can see the beautiful, previously rubble-covered, patio.

Don Wood led the charge on one side of the house and ended up, with his group, clearing quite a distance and creating a path to the back of the house. One word about just about all of this work today: dusty. We were absolutely covered in dust and dirt (and had to reapply sun screen over the dust and dirt throughout the day). Yuck.

Lunch. Lunch was delicious, though there were some sausages that left us wondering. Most did not partake of them, but they were the target of many a joke and some uncontrollable laughter during our all-too-short lunch break.

At 3:00, we left Braveheart with it looking much better than when we'd arrived. Ahmoret and Andre were most impressed with all of our work. At the beginning, Andre looked at the group and said, "I thought there'd be more men." Well, these girls worked straight through the day with, as always, good humor, a great spirit, and creative thinking in order to get jobs done with the tools at hand. (Opening the can of varnish required four people and several implements which one would probably never associate with this task. You never know when an old towel rack will come in handy.)

Back at the ranch, we had an hour and a half to clean up and relax. I was able, finally, to use the outdoor shower (a stone addition to each bathroom, open to the sky and quite airy). I am going to use it tonight just to view the stars, which are, by the way, spectacular. I could see the Milky Way quite clearly right in the middle of the sky last night.

We began our second safari ride with the same guide in my vehicle as last night. Well, he sure likes to talk and repeat himself, but the trouble is, it is sometimes hard to hear him (what with the motor running and all, and his somewhat soft voice, and his accent). Well, he began quizzing us on last night's information, some of which we remembered and some of which we could have sworn we had never heard before. There was quite a fascination tonight on his part, with the gnus. We sat and looked at the gnus for a very long time, which, combined with fatigue, led to a certain amount of punchiness on the part of the adults in my vehicle. If we could add a "g" to a word and arrive at a barely funny utterance, we added it and we uttered it. Clever sayings such as "Gno gmore gnus!" and "Gno he didn't!" and "Gnight, gnus!" peppered the evening air and left us just breathless at our own ability to think that really dopey things were funny!

The best linguistically-challenging part of the ride, however, occurred when our guide stopped the truck, picked a few leaves off a plant, held it up, and exclaimed, "This is used very much with the enemas." Hmm. This did not really compute, so our internal vocabulary databases began clicking through other possible words that he could have said. "Enemy?" No. We are on a safari ride. "Enema" just does not make sense. Gno, it does gnot." It finally clicked that he was saying "animals," and our realization (and punchiness) had us laughing at that funny misinterpretation to the point where the driver should have left us to fend for ourselves in the lion area.

Ah, the lion area. We went back tonight as were treated to an even closer contact than last night (last night - 10 feet). Tonight, those crazy lions really wanted to get up close and personal with us to the point where they kind of chased us a little. This of course, caused us to basically see the chance for even more interesting photos. Click. Click. There was one parent who thought that maybe we should head for the exit, but cooler (hmmm, crazier?) minds prevailed and we have some fabulous shots of these beautiful (and hungry -- apparently they are not fed again -- by the ranger anyway -- until next week) animals.

A memorable day in many ways (we saw baboons by the side of the road!!!!) -- a fine combination of hard work for an important cause and just plain fun. Tomorrow, we will be given the chance to see the leopard who was hiding this morning and then leave for Cape Town and Robben Island at 7:30 a.m. Several kids have asked me if there will be any gardening at Laurencia, the school where we will spend our last three days (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday). The short answer is "No!"

It is now almost 5:30 p.m. on Sunday. Sorry for the delay. The Internet has been a nightmare!

More tomorrow!