Safari Day 3

Waking up before the sun rise again today was extremely hard, but the promise of big game motivated me... I had not seen a male lion so that that was all I was praying for and maybe another elephant... 
not even 20 minutes into the drive we spotted 3 beautiful lions relaxing after a night of hunting.  There were two males with golden manes and were even bigger than I had imagined.  As i stared at their majestic beauty I slipped a headphone into my right ear and pressed play on my ipod.  As Little Lion Man played, the awesomeness of those creatures became even more inspiring.  The rest of the morning was quite boring in relation to animal sightings... unfortunately I had to say goodbye to the reserve and animals and I can only that I shall see them again one day...
We finished the weekend off by watching The Lion King!

Safari Day 2

We woke up before the sun today in order to see the animals in their morning bustle.  We were not ten minutes out of camp when we came upon a pack of 5 elephants.  One "cheeky fellow" began threatening the vehicles adn even fake charged at one point.  It was an amazing start to a day of big game sightings. 

I am slightly distracted right now because of what has happened in the last thirty minutes.  Me, Riley, and Matt bulit a fire outside of our bungalow.  It was slightly raining so it was difficult, but at one point matt went out to collect some dry twigs and suddenly came back sprinting saying that he heard a growl.  We stopped to listen and from the bushes again came a low growl.  We freaked and barricaded ourselves on the porch and were too afraid to do anything else.  Which brings us to now... now I am listening to the strange howl of a hyena, something you only hear on television... but its real and more chilling than ever.  Now we sit on our porch and await what comes next.  This is Africa!

Safari Day 1

We got chased by an elephant!!!
So we were driving along and then BAM! There was a giant elephant standing right in the middle of the road.  As we approached he turned to us and began walking towards us.  Baba threw it into reverse and began backing away and as he did the bull began to approach us at a quicker pace.  Now it is prime mating season and that is when male elephants are extremely dangerous... fear gripped all of us as Baba reversed over 300 yards.  Finally the other jeep caught its attention and it stopped.  Our guide then threw rocks at it to scare it off!

Pain & Prayer

I have spent the last four weeks working in a South African township and I feel unworthy.  Why am I so blessed with this experience?  Why do I have so much? Why? 
Yesterday I visited a woman in the hospital who had tried to commit suicide and the scary thing is I may have done the same thing.  She had scars covering her body from a fire that killed her baby last year.  I looked in her eyes and all I saw was pain.  There was so much pain within her and it broke me to see something so beautiful hold so much misery.  I was speechless... what could I say?  Who am I to tell her its going to be okay, a rich white American who has never felt anything close to her hardships.  All I could do was pray.  It seems that real change only comes through prayer.  Some may disagree with me and say that the house & garden we built are real change but they can rot, or collapse, or be neglected.  The real change is what that lady does with them, which is sparked by the acts themselves... but we cannot control what she does only God has that influence and only through prayer can we be apart of that.