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!!!