This weekend was the weekend for seeing the big animals. Enough of the monkeys and fleas. Well, actually our flea problem has been solved. The university technical services people came over and cleaned the carpets and sprayed those nasty carnivorous, mutant bugs. No, no, no, there is no opportunity for a plastic flea-type flatlet for these guys. Just a nice ride in the steam cleaner. My treat. It took a few days, but they finally arrived. We have found that life in South Africa is more of a process of living rather than the typical U.S. "Go dogs, go" approach. People here are involved in what they are doing that day, and that is quite enough. Recently coming from the US, it has been hard to adapt to this lifestyle. It's not as if the people here don't work hard, but rather they VALUE the process of work and how it fits into their living. For example, we called up Piet, the owner of "Ouma's Laundry Service" and asked if we could get on his service route for laundry pick up/delivery. Yes, I know, why not do it ourselves? Well, not having a washer/dryer and with the inexpense associated with laundry service as compared to the do-it-yourself launderette, we decided to go with a laundry service. Remember, there's a guy for everything in this country. So Piet, who actually converted his garage to accommodate his laundry business which consists of himself and his wife, insisted we sit down for a meeting prior to signing up for his service. We had a very relaxed "meeting" in our flatlet, complete with coffee and scones, and we came to an arrangement of when he would pick up/drop off laundry. We received our first drop-off return and I have to say I have never seen more neatly folded clothes in my life. All for less then 10 bucks.

If you remember, Bekah hasn't yet been to Africa until she has seen an elephant. So, Andre suggested we go find some wild animals so Bekah can finally settle in. We decided that our first adventure in this area should be a game park just outside Port Elizabeth (known as PE around here) called "Kragga Kamma," pronounced "Krggkrggcchtggchtagggggga Kamma" (or something like that). Andre picked us and his kids up and we headed for the park in the UPE Kombie. Riding shotgun, I felt like I should've been hanging out the window banging on the side to attract customers. I don't think we had to worry about being car jacked, as one look at the pile of kids we had in the back and a car jacker would reconsider. This was a great game park as we saw many animals, including in order of the pictures to the right, zebra, giraffe, grysbok (with Bekah demonstrating how tall the grysbok actually are, give or take a couple feet), bontebok, nyala, and white stork. We also saw a number of ostriches, warthogs, waterbucks, wildebeests, and rhinos. Unfortunately the memory stick (which is like the digital camera diskette) on the camera filled up before we could take pictures. We were able to see some more of the Cape Vervet monkeys on the "monkey walk." A plant that grows in South Africa in abundance is the "prickly pear" plant. Not sure what the real name is but that's what everyone calls it. The plant is like a cactus and the fruit is a type of pear that sort of has thorns on it. They sell in the grocery stores everywhere. Even guys will pick them wild and sell a bucket full for 5 Rand or so (about 60 cents). Quite tasty.

Not so pleasant was our first view of the townships that surround PE. These are truly what you read about-shanty towns made of bits of corrugated steel, wood, plastic, and whatever else can be found. They literally go on for miles and miles, as far into the hills as you can see. Millions of people live in the townships that surround PE. I have never seen such a vast expanse of economically poor people in my entire life. We have many poor and homeless people in the US, but no where near anything to this proportion. It is truly an unbelievable visual that one must see to truly comprehend. And this is only one small city in South Africa. At one such township, we passed a field that had been converted into a cemetery and filled with small crosses. There were at least 3 different funerals occurring the moment we passed them. What was striking was the number of freshly dug graves, which was rows upon rows. Andre and Marina told us that on the weekend funerals happen continually, most due to the effects of AIDS. It is only the highway that separates the field of shacks from the barren field converted into a cemetery. A road which enables the resilient to climb out of that environment. Unfortunately, most will never travel it but rather just cross it into the field of crosses.