Weekend fun

I did actually get out this weekend, which was nice. I could practically walk normally too, because of the medicine the doctor prescribed for my knee. On Saturday, Sunel and Gawie went to Nelspruit, which is a city maybe two hours away from where we are at the college, and it's where anyone goes for recreation around here. It's the closest mall, movie theater, and decent selection of restaurants. I went with them, and I enjoyed it. I walked around the mall on my own, which was incredibly American for the most part, which was a bit depressing, bought pretty African things for my sisters, got a snack, and met up with Sunel and Gawie to see a movie. Nothing was playing that any of us wanted to see (they import almost all their movies from Hollywood), so we just left. We went out to lunch at this seafood place, which was actually really good, and I had kingclip, a traditional white fish from the oceans around South Africa. It was cooked in a lemon-butter sauce and some herbs, and it was fantastic. I've had my fish fix now, so I'm happy.

We stopped at a couple of other places on the way there/back, which were more African curios shops, and more of what I'd been looking for to get for people back home. There's also this store we went to called Trappers, which sells all sorts of things for life in the bush: camping equipment, weapons, tools, clothing, shoes, etc. I'm not normally much of a clothes-and-shoes type of girl (I wear them because I have to, not because I'm into fashion), but I really enjoyed the wares at this place. Lots of khakis and muted earth tones, high-quality handmade leather shoes from local villages, and of course it's all really expensive. Worth it, because it's the type of stuff that will last forever, but expensive. I didn't get anything, but I know where I'm spending my next check. I'm going to come back from Africa dressed like a freaking ranger. I'm sure my fashionista younger sisters will cringe at this, but I enjoy the practical elegance of bush clothing.

The countryside between the college and Nelspruit was gorgeous. Rolling hills dotted with village houses, mountains in the distance, river running through it. I mean, really. Picturesque. And I did take pictures, and I will upload more to the blog at some point, I promise.

Sunday I did laundry (which consists of hand-washing everything in the scullery sink and hanging them out on a line to dry), and later went on a game drive. We didn't see too much big game this time, but there were a lot of birds. All the rain of the last few days caused a termite hatch, which means easy pickins for all the birds who live around here. I can't tell you how many different kinds of eagles I saw. Cranes, too, and waterfowl, and lots of little birds. I really don't know that much about birds, so I can't really get into it, but I was with some people who were really into their bird-watching, and they were quite excited about what we saw. I also tried a wild fruit called sour plum, eaten the same way as the marula fruit, by squeezing it out of its skin and sucking the fruit off the pit, and it was good. Tastes just like the name suggests: sour, but good. Apparently you can eat termites, and according to Gawie they taste great pan-seared in butter, and are very high in protein. I have yet to partake in such a delicacy, but supposedly they taste like peanut butter. I'm sure I'll let you know if that's at all true should I ever happen to consume them.

We also saw some more of the damage the rains had caused. Earlier in the week, I'd seen the flooded roads first-hand, but inside the park the roads are not paved, so in places they were completely washed away, sometimes taking underground pipes and wiring with them, which accounts for part of why we don't always have power and running water on the campus, particularly after a bout of bad weather.

Yesterday the resource centre got sprayed for termites, which means that all day workers were drilling into the foundation of the building to inject poison, which means that it was loud and smelled awful all day, and there were points where I just had to leave and go for a short walk because I had a headache and the fumes were making me sick. Hopefully they're done, now, though, because that, on top of the incredible heat yesterday really did not make me a happy camper. After work I ate and went right to bed. It was that bad. It rained overnight, so it's considerably cooler today, and hopefully the library will now be bug-and-interruption-free. And maybe today I'll actually do something after work besides sleep.