First Impressions

Sorry this is coming a bit later than I wanted, the internet has been out at the center since yesterday morning so I haven't had a chance to get online for a little while!

      Since I only described travel last time, I figure I should probably be a bit more descriptive of what it is like here so that the rest of the blog is easier to understand. Well it is Africa! There are many things similar to Ghana that I was not surprised of: non-main roads in pretty bad condition, very dry air (until December), shortages of water and electricity, very laid back people, the typical ‘Africa’ things I suppose. But there are differences as well. The scenery here is a bit more Lion King-esque, as well as the plethora of animals. Especially during the dry season when animals need to come to the Chobe River for water, there are elephants, buffalo, baboons, waterbuck and bushbuck, lions, hyenas, wild dogs, jackals, impala, and many others, passing through the town or the outskirts from day to day. The birds are remarkable! All different colors, shapes and sizes. Some are similar to American birds (we have heard a dove several times, and seen some vultures) but they are different as well. Most have some kind of bright coloring or special tail or beak. We will be going on a birding trip this weekend in the park so I can’t wait to find out what all of them are.

     Yesterday, a Ground Hornbill was brought in to the center by a person who saw it get hit by a car. This species is an endangered species of hornbills so we are trying our best to save it! Maria, the veterinarian here, gave him water and got him situated. He survived overnight and this morning we thought we may be able to get an x-ray on him at the hospital because he was still unable to stand on his legs, even though he was flapping his wings. We drove him over there only to find out that the machine was broken. We brought him back and rigged up a sling so that he could ‘stand’ without assistance and hopefully get his strength back. His right leg seems to be the injured one so we hope we can get him back to full health to be released!

     Anyways, Kasane is much smaller than I imagined, for being a ‘city’ with an airport (granted the airport was very small). There are two main roads that run parallel to each other, with an area with houses and neighborhoods between and shops on the other side of the road closest to the river. There is pretty much everything you need there, but it is rather minimal! Kazungula is a smaller town about 6 miles down the road where we are living. I don’t think there is as much there, but don’t know that area as well. Maria lives close to us so she picks us up in the morning and brings us to ‘work’. The past couple days have been very laid back as we wait for the rest of the team to get here and we get work to do. I will most likely not start teaching until August because we are reaching the end of a quarter so they have finals and then have a ‘winter break’ for all of July. So I will be helping mostly at the center until then, and preparing the lessons and a schedule for when I do start teaching. That’s all for now, I think. Don’t want to bore you too much!