Day 3- Saturday Safari!

team swazi at christy's.

We woke up at 8am feeling very refreshed and excited about seeing Swaziland during the day time. We got ready after an ice cold shower and headed over to the main room for breakfast. The table was set and a buffet was waiting for us. We were greeted by Lindeway (Lin-dee'-way) who prepared everything for us. Our buffet included scrambled eggs, 3 cereals, yogurt, ham, baked tomatoes, beans (like pork and beans without the pork), sausage links, toast, coffee, and juice. Not too shabby-and this would be our breakfast every morning!
the view from our room.

We headed down to Christy's for devotions. We talked about how God got us their financially, emotionally, mentally, and how hard it was to leave family behind. We talked about how peaceful it was where we were at-- a LOUD peace (as Dr. Sarah so gently put it). Like God was telling us to chill out and enjoy just Him. Some key verses shared: Mark 10:29, Jeremiah 50:4, II Timothy 3. Christy shared one of Rita Springer's songs with us (whom I have sweated as a worship leader since I was like 12.) It was a great time in God and time to bond as a team.

We drove to theey Children's Cup office to pick up some bottled water and to drop a short email (they do not have high speed over there!). We then drove to Randy (i believe) and his family's house as they packed us a sack lunch for the road. We were heading to Hlane Game Park, stopped by the airport to see if Tenae's baggage was there (which it was NOT), and enjoyed the gorgeous Swaziland scenery for our hour-long trip.

We pulled up to register and could hear the beat of a tribal drum. It was my lucky day- there was a dance competition there and we were there in time to spectate!!!!!!! awwwwww yeah!!!!!!!! Everyone was dressed in their tribal gear with amazing moves and kicks. After watching for a while and hearing a men's group sing, we went to our "cabin." It was beautiful! 4 bedrooms, kitchen, bath, living room- all with NO electricity, just lanterns to guide us at night. It had very tall ceilings made out of straw bundles attache to thin log beams. Thank goodness it was winter in Africa, so bugs were not too much of a worry! Oh and winter is in the 70's during the day, 40's at night. Can we say awesome????
the tribal dance competition.

I almost forgot-when we pulled up to our cabin, we saw several rhinos just chilling at the watering hole just a couple hundred feet away from our cabin with pretty much nothing separating us from them! It was awesome!!!!! We ate our lunches and relaxed until 4pm.

We headed to our first African Safari!!!!!! At first, they didn't have us on their schedule, but they made it work. There were locked gates that the driver had to get out, unlock, get back in to drive forward, get back out and lock again. A remote controlled gate would have been a little easier.... The weather was perfection with the breeze blowing as we rode in our safari truck. We drove down paths surrounded by dry brush and trees. The elephants had destroyed most of the trees by picking the bark off. We drove for about 10 minutes and guess what animal we saw first???? Through the brush, we spotted a lion!!!!!!! At first we thought we saw 2, but as we sat there a majestic male stood up and their cub played nearby. We were maybe 30 feet away from these un-caged cats...... It was safe to say I was shaking in my sandals.

After gawking for a while as other safari trucks appeared, we then proceeded on. We came across a momma elephant with her baby near the path. We stopped to admire and shoot photos . I was so awesome! We also shot the amazing African sunset- something my camera just could not do justice. We spotted more animals and lots of impalas.


After dark, we got back to the camp for some rest before dinner. There are no lights anywhere so the tables had lanterns, we ate outdoors. Our dinner buffet included coleslaw, salad, rice, impala stew (like beef stew but with impala), wilderbeast sausage, and chicken breast with chocolate pudding for dessert. The impala was actually very good (minus the bone chunks in it-shuddddder). Eating dinner was very entertaining and just fun hanging out. Back at the cabin we looked at the stars. I can't even describe how amazing and bright the stars were-and the Milky Way was just so plain to see! It was like a girl's slumber party playing truth or dare (naturally everyone chose truth) and then coke or pepsi. We had a blast getting to know eachother even more.

Oh and on this fine day I received the nickname "safari barbie". I guess most don't wear big silver and rhinestone earrings with bling sunglasses to check out safari animals. hahaha. and it was discovered that "safari barbie" snores. who knew? i didn't! hahaha.