The End Is Here

Yesterday, Marshall boarded a plane headed for Europe, where he has gone to travel with his brother and friend, leaving me here for only two more days. Today was not very eventful but Marshall and I have accomplished quite a bit while we have been here so today was alright. I apologize for my terrible grammar in this posting, but I am still packing and rushing around getting ready to board my plane tomorrow. I shall be leaving at noon from Hoedspruit and then enjoying an awesome seven hour layover in Jo-Burg airport before boarding and flying direct to Atlanta, GA and then on to the glorious state of Michigan. So on Thursday afternoon I shall be back in the States once again. The experiences I have had while living here in South Africa have all been for the most part positive with the occassional bad one, but overall this trip has been a very eye-opening experience and truly makes a person reevaluate where they're heading and what the future may hold. Not saying that this is something for everyone but it is indeed a wonderful opportunity that I have been gone through and reccomend to most of you out there. I thank everyone who has helped me and given me support throughout this time, without you I would not have been able to do the amazing things that I have done over the course of these three months. Thanks for reading, hope you all enjoyed my writing, sorry it is not the best. Any questions just shoot away and I would be more than happy to answer them for you.
-Allen McCarty

The Wait Is Over

I sincerely apologize to those loyal people following my pathetic excuse for a blog. I realize that it has been sometime since I have last given an update. So without further ado, here is a very, lengthy, South Africa update. Over the past few weeks Marshall and I have been kept busy. We have interviewed several children, parents, and grandparents from SAME’s support homes with the intent of using whatever footage we can for a visual project that shall be elaborated upon at a later date. Marshall and I have also built a kitchen for three separate homes. Two of the kitchens were constructed for residents in Sigagule village and one in Keyalani. The kitchens, for those of you unfamiliar with what SAME does, consists of four poles acting as the corners and support for the corrugated sheet metal that acts as a roof. There are also four, two by fours cut to three meter lengths that act as support beams for the roofing and the entire structure. So far that is all that is there for these kitchens, we shall be adding walls to block the wind and other natural elements at a later date. Marshall and I have also been helping Shirley-Anne with updating the current database on all of the homes that are aided by SAME. We have constructed two water filters and the only thing left to do with them is find them a nice home. Today, we ended up planting in the gardens with all of our home based carers and home based workers, along with mothers and grandmothers from the homes we support. The gardens are a way for those that do not have enough land of their own to grow food can grow inside of our gardens and the agreement is that as long as they work and take care of the piece of land than SAME shall provide whatever is necessary to keep the garden flourishing. But despite all of the work that Marshall and I, along with all of the home based carers and home based workers and Shirley Anne, do we still find time during our weekends to have fun. Marshall and I have recently been to Nelspruit for the day, braaied with some South Africans on occasion, started to work out more, been to the Blyde River Canyon, and this weekend we shall be spending time camping in the Kruger National Park among all of the awesome wildlife. The weather here has become cooler, due to the winter season setting within the Limpopo Province. It has rained on and off for the past two weeks and fans are becoming unnecessary and long shirts and pants comfortable on certain days. I apologize once again to all of you loyal followers. I must say that it is difficult to update every day due to my limited access to the internet, but I have no excuse for why I have not written as of late. As for the continual promise of photographs, I am sorry that I have not uploaded any photographs still. My time here has felt pretty surreal and quite an experience so far. Marshall and I both have roughly around three weeks left here and I shall try to update more consistently in my last, couple of weeks here in South Africa. Thanks for reading.

Update

I realize that I have fallen behind on my updates and I apologize for this profusely. Over the past couple weeks, Marshall and I have built three water filters, found some homes in need of repairs and have updated the database on the homes that SAME helps. We have also had the awesome opportunity of loading and delivering a number of beds, donated by the wonderful, new owners of Ilkley Game Lodge in Avoca. These beds were donated to us to distribute among those in need, within the village. This past weekend Marshall and I went to the Blyde River Canyon and to Graskop. In Graskop we had a delicious meal at Harrie's Pancakes. Although we went to the Blyde River Canyon it was slightly disappointing for the rain made it hard to sightsee. Well I am pretty tired and cannot remember everything that has been going on, so I am going to wrap this up. Tomorrow, Marshall and I will be going into Keyalani Village and Gazita to do more updating for the database and hopefully fix some more water filters. Thank you very much for reading.
-Allen

Update 14/3/2011

Today, Marshall and I went into the village with Shirley Anne. We conducted a few home visits, while Shirley Anne had a meeting with Busi and Elika along with another meeting with Annie and Mavis. Busi and Elika are our Health Care Workers and Annie and Mavis are in charge of the community creche and Sigagule creche. While we were on home visits we saw some building repairs that need to be started and completed and also a few water filters that need to be repaired or replaced. We hope to get these few building projects completed in the next few days. Marshall arrived safely a little over a week ago. Everything is running smoothly so far and we should be accomplishing a lot, hopefully, soon. Thanks for reading, and sorry I haven't posted images like I promised but I am super busy right now and there is just not enough time in the day.

Waiting for Marshall

So I ended up touching the Cape Buffalo. Pretty exciting stuff watching the vet prepare to dart the buffalo and then shoot it with the tranq gun and see it run off into the bush and slowly fall down. I was able to hop out of the bakkie and touch the magnificent animal while it was sedated. No way would I have touched it if it had not been sedated. The Cape Buffalo is a very aggressive and dangerous creature that one respects and doesn't go and be close to, much less touch. Pretty cool and I uploaded some photos to my Facebook but I still haven't quite figured out how to upload photos to here, but that shall be accomplished by the end of this week. Promise. Also, this Sunday a certain guy shall be touching down in South Africa for the first time and will be joining me here to help out and experience another part of the world. Marshall is his name and he is going to be keeping me more sane while here and give me another American's perspective on what is happening here. Should be pretty fun. Got the flat almost kitted out and ready for us. Going to finish that tomorrow and hopefully complete the building of a water filter. Have some building security and water filter repairs to be done in the village which shall be tackled as soon as possible. Well until I post again, thank you very much for reading!

Update! 2-26-2011

So I am terribly sorry for the lack of updates this past week. I have been kept very busy with Sue's Team. We did many home visits to HIV/AIDS victims/orphans and handed out clothes, soap, shampoo, blankets, caps, and stoves and also treated anyone who needed any form of medical attention. We finished the week with having two patients hospitalized immediately due to their terrible medical conditions at the time of inspection. Both were suffering from severe HIV/AIDS and TB along with various other forms of illness in correlation to HIV/AIDS and TB. We held a clinic at Sihlekisi Primary School and also at the Church of the Nazarene Community Creche, where the doctors on the team were able to help see several people. The building team was able to construct three ovens and most of a kitchen. Quite an impressive feat I must say. The mixing of the cement/concrete was done all by hand which was very different than what most builders and construction workers do back in the States. The sorting of clothes for homes was done by Sue's Team and that was another awesome feat, tons of clothes all sorted into age groups and sizes and all were distributed. I shall finish this update later for right now I must run because I am going to go touch and see a live Cape Buffalo! Thanks for reading!

Updation Station 2-18-2011

So I haven't updated in a few days and I apologize for this profusely. Been busy preparing for Sue's team that just landed in Jo-Burg!!! Have most of the building materials sorted out and paid for, food for the creches and such, made an inventory of all the tools on the farm, seen quite a few giraffes to the point they're like cows, and been generally running around preparing like I'm a chicken with my head cut off. A few hours of relaxation tonight before the real cwaziness begins! This week shall be hectic with Sue's team here and ready to help out. Also I forgot to mention in my last update that a poor, young woman had been thrown from her vehicle late in the night and had died about a mile from where I am staying. Please pray for her family and such as they go through this difficult time. She was from Germany and had just purchased her own safari vehicle for freelance work here in South Africa and had just dropped some tourists off at their accomadations at what I believe was Kapama lodge when she hit a pile of sand and was in a fatal accident. Gotta be careful here in Africa. Well I'll be sure to update later on with more information about what we will be accomplishing here this week with Sue's team! Thanks for reading!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!

Happy Valentines Day Everyone! My favorite holiday of the year and being spent all in the glorious country of South Africa! Woke up today and had some breakfast and a fresh mango with some Lichi juice. Superb. And then got to digging up some sand from a termite mound. For the sand from a termite mound is taken from deep within the earth by the termites and when they form their mound they use the secretions from their mouths to "plaster" the sand, which causes the mound to become fire-resistant. So the sand from the termite mound is needed to build some ovens, seeing as concrete or cement would crack and bricks made from finely ground termite sand would not. So I dug up enough sand from the mounds for three ovens. All while three giraffe stood nearby and watched me. There was a baby giraffe among them which was simply awesome to behold and see. Along with the mountains in the backdrop and the large expanse of the Timbavati on both sides of me. Hope everyone has an awesome Valentines and thanks for reading!

Update 2/13/2011

Just spent the weekend in Avoco with Shirley Anne and Frank. We went to their little getaway in the bush for the weekend to relax and enjoy the peacefulness out there before the upcoming hectic week here. Next week Sue Bleyart's team shall be arriving and we need to have all the preparations here on the ground ready and everything set to go right away, for Sue's team has a lot planned and we have very limited time to accomplish everything they want to do. So this week will be entirely spent running around with our heads cut off and doing a whole lot of work. But it shall all be good and fun and hopefully everything shall go smoothly. This weekend was so relaxing as well. Had a few game drives and got to see some impala, waterbuck, cape buffalo, lions, hyena, sable, giraffe, and some other animals including a roan which is incredibly rare and which I was informed will more than likely be the only one I'll ever see in my lifetime. Very magnificent creature. Overall it was an outstanding weekend. I'll update later and hopefully figure out how to post photos later on. Thanks for reading!

Update 2/11/11

So far I have been here for two days and I have seen wildebeest, impala, warthog, cape buffalo, giraffe, and other such creatures. But also I have been to the creche and also the clinic area and orphanage where I will be doing a lot of work soon. I have only been introduced to everyone and been shadowing Shirley-Anne to better understand the day to day workings of SAME. I have redone a loo while here, which wasn't all that glamorous but glad to help out wherever, and also installed a fan and done some other various work. I'll be glad once I've got a handle on everything so that I may be of more use and do more. I'll post pictures at some point of the children and some of the animals.

SOUTH AFRICA!!!

Currently I am at Afton in Johannesburg, SA!!! Landed at around 10:30PM South African time. Got in from Amsterdam with no problems and all my luggage is safely accounted for. Tomorrow I shall be hopping aboard a plane headed for Hoedspruit and from there I shall be picked up by Shirley-Anne. Then I shall be on my way to the Beretta's farm where I shall start work! Happy to be here and without so much jet lag.

Awesome Story! Please Read

So yesterday I was sent this awesome story by my soon to be host in SA. Please read this and pass it on.

THE SIGN…
A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet.
 He held up a sign which said: "I am blind, please help."
There were only a few coins in the hat.
A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the  sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words. Soon the hat began to fill up.  A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were.
The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my  sign this morning? What did you write?"
The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way."
I wrote: "Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it."
Both signs told people that the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people that they were so lucky that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?
Moral of the Story:  Be thankful for what you have.  Be creative. Be innovative. Think differently and positively. When life gives you a 100 reasons to cry, show life that you have 1000 reasons to smile. Face your past without regret.  Handle your present with confidence.
Prepare for the future without fear.
Keep the faith and drop the fear.
The most beautiful thing is to see a person smiling…
And even more beautiful, is knowing that you are the reason behind it!!!

Possibility of a Friend/Update

So yesterday I got a call from a recently acquired friend asking if they could join and it appears that there is a high possibility that they will be joining me out there at the end of February! Pretty stoked. I'll update more later but at this moment it's all up in the air. Also I shall be leaving this coming Monday, the 7th of February and will be flying out of Pellston, MI and then on my way to Amsterdam and then AFRICA!!!

Back From Baja Mexico and Going to South Africa!!!

So I have just returned from a trip to Baja California, Mexico, where I was with 8 awesome people, 2 awesome instructors and one instructor that was the best! And one member that I didn't get along with the best, but was good person. We all kayaked down the coast of Baja for the past three weeks, living the simple life. Now back to Africa! Right before getting on the plane to Loreto, Mexico and those three weeks, I received a call from my father informing me that I was all set and ready to go to Africa! I'll be leaving on February 7th and shall be there for two-four months! Getting stoked to go!!!