News from South Africa

I talked to Melissa. She said that internet access is difficult to get to and expensive so I’ll pass on some of her news for her here…

They were in Waterval Boven first, getting to know everyone and starting classes. They kicked off the weekend with a hike using a GPS to a campsite where she and a few others “cast away the mattresses in exchange for the ground (at 55 degrees) to sleep under the stars”. She went Rock Climbing (which she liked) and Biking (which she was not so fond of). One night their rock climbing guide spontaneously invited them all to his house for ice cream and taught them some Afrikaans.

They went in to a local township school and talked with the girls there. It was hard to get people to understand that she did not live in New York City--- they wanted to know if she knew any movie stars. Before leaving Waterval Boven, she rappelled down alongside a waterfall—a little scary, really cool. I am supposed to be seeing pictures of that soon!

Their truck—a big double decker blue one-- arrived and they headed to Kruger National Park. They stopped at an animal rescue—the details are escaping me a bit here but I do remember that when they got to their campsite at Kruger they couldn’t get in because there was a rhino in the way!

So there you have it, going on two weeks in South Africa now, told without the eloquence and emotion that Melissa adds but a bit of news just the same. When we said good bye, she was off on a sunset safari.

I’ll post the pictures here when I receive them.
Viv