the lion sleeps tonite

the following will be my attempt to give you a short version of a long day since i have about 17 minutes before the mosquitoes wake up and start to swarm.

 

sunday i went with the ADRA crew to Kruger Park.  they rented a bus and driver so everyone could ride together.  we only found out, as we stopped to fill it up with gas before heading south, that the driver had never driven that bus before, didn't know where Kruger Park was, spoke very little portuguese (mostly spoke xangana) and was a nervous individual to begin with. 

 

we met at the ADRA building at 5am, waited for a few stragglers and took off at 5:40.  stopped for gas (found out the above information) and then headed to the border.  we reached the border an hour later.  i got in and out of immigration quickly.  this was routine for me.  it took a while for some of the others, the officials knew they wouldn't make any money if they let their own peeps go.  while i was in the bus, waiting with a few others for the rest to join us, i noticed a guy running towards the mozambique side.  apparently its not a good idea to run over borders.  some border police got a hold of him.  they didn't handcuff him, they only held him by the back of his trousers.  he argued with them but never physically fought them.  i wish i knew what all the fuss was about, it did make for interesting viewing though.  they escorted him towards the mozambique side, which makes me curious;  that's the direction he was running towards in the beginning.

 

i thought the next bit of excitement would be seeing the animals at the wildlife national park.  i was wrong.  everyone gets back on the bus, but not until after we step into these filthy buckets of water to supposedly clean the bottom of our shoes off, and we cross the border.  we start to pick up speed and head down the hill into south africa and some guys run out in front of the bus.  they were dressed in regular clothes (meaning no visible uniforms).  somehow they convince the driver to pull over even though darcy (the head director of ADRA mozambique) and his wife Judy, who are sitting directly behind him, are telling him not to stop.  they come up to the window and ask for papers.  they don't identify themselves, they just ask for papers.  i should mention at this point that they have blood shot eyes and breath smells like alcohol.  darcy of course notices this too and tells the driver to NOT give them anything and drive on.  the already nervous driver is caught in the middle.  the guys outside refuse to speak english even though they can.  if their hope was to confuse and make the driver more nervous, they succeeded.  finally darcy yells at the driver, "via agora!" (i think it means "i told you not to stop in the first place and now i will not pay you if you don't go now") the driver hit the gas.  we get to the bottom of the hill but the drunk and disorderly dudes were not easily dissuaded.  they hopped in their car and caught up to our rickety bus.  they blocked us off and the driver had no choice but to stop.  they stepped in front of the bus and yelled for us to turn around and go back up to the top.  darcy kept asking why.  no one would tell him.  after a couple minutes of this, he noticed one of them had a gun.  he told the driver to turn around but we didn't stop where they wanted us too.  we went all the back to the border.  darcy and john (director of logistics) convinced a border policemen to escort us.  he did.  when we got back to the point where the guys stopped us, they were now wearing plain reflective jackets.  i guess that was legit enough for the cop and i guess the cop's presence was legit enough for darcy.  he let the driver show our papers.  they saw the papers and smiled and let us go.  neither the guys nor the cop ever told us who they were even though darcy repeatedly asked, someone in the bus said something about taxes or IRS but no one was sure.

 

we head to the crocodile bridge entrance of the park.  it's closed and barricaded.  the river is high and is covering the road.  we must back-track and go another 26 minutes to the next closest entrance.  (would have been nice if they would have put a sign at the beginning of the 11km road that it was closed but these are the same intelligent people who have us get out of the bus to 'rinse' our shoes off and not taken a second glance at the wheels of the bus) 

 

we get to the other entrance and join the line of a hundred or so cars waiting to get into the park.  they are short staffed today and are only letting 20 cars in at a time.  the temp is rising and the bus is turning into an oven.  supposedly it had air conditioning but we are short on fuel so we bake for free.  most of us get out and walk around, trying to enjoy what little breeze there is.

 

its now 10:30am.  our plan was to be half way through the park by now and we haven't even gotten through the gate.

 

30 minutes later and we are finally driving through Kruger Park, expectant faces pressed against the glass, cameras ready.  by 11:45 everyone is sweating hot and dozing off.  hardly an animal in sight.  the day was not going as planned.  i began to pray that if i saw any animals i wanted to see an elephant, a giraffe and a lion.  they said i was being too hopeful to see a lion, but i asked God anyway.

 

by lunch time we had seen several impala's, 2 giraffes in the distance and a buzzard.  everyone was getting discouraged, most people would have seen an elephant or two and some zebras by now, but the park seems desolate.  we stopped for a long lunch.  the plan was to eat and start off again by 3.  maybe it would start to cool off a little and we'd see some more animals.  i emphasize that was 'the plan', but since nothing went according to plan today i'm surprised i expected anything to change.  at 14:50 (2:50 for you non-military/medical folk) john and the driver decide to put some more fuel in the bus.  they collect as much rands (south african moola) as they could and drive to the park's nearby petrol station.  i was thinking they should have put more gas in the thing when we left maputo or left earlier to fill it up now. but what do i know? i'm just an american, anxious to see some more of africa.  by 15:30 we still haven't left.  i see darcy and he shares the latest development.  they put diesel in the bus instead of unleaded.  the driver said he told the petrol people to put unleaded in it but the fact that he drove up next to the only diesel pump at the station leaves some argument.  so now john has to convince the petrol folks to share the blame 50/50 and help us siphon the diesel out and fill it with unleaded.  this is going to take a while.  about this time jair and hanlie along with hanlie's sister and brother-in-law, show back up.  they taken off after lunch in their own car to do some more exploring.  i would have volunteered to go with them earlier but thought i should stick by my comrades and wait with them.  after the diesel/gas incident i wasn't feeling so loyal.  jair told me they saw a huge family of elephants and then he said if i held isabella on my lap, i could go back to maputo with them.  i think i was in the car before he finished asking me.  (i'm such a traitor)  

 

as we headed out, i saw my elephant.  she was alone, grazing.  she sat by the side of the road for a while, just looking at us and eating.  it was awesome.  now, where was my lion?

 

it was nearly dusk as we drove the rest of the way out of the park.  we neared the gate and joined what seemed to be a traffic jam.  the guys thought maybe the folks were looking at hippos.  we looked over the bridge below to see what everyone was pointing at; two females lions.  we scrambled out of the windows to try to get a glance and a camera shot.  jair and hanlie said they hadn't seen lions in years.   the traffic started moving but we stayed glued to the spot.  all of a sudden the king comes strutting out of the tall grass.  he was amazing.  he laid down near a lioness and sprawled out on his back.  we noticed some movement by the female who at this point was also stretched out.  two cubs were playing and climbing over her stomach.  i got my lion and his family. 

 

now i'm thinking i should have made my list a bit longer.  (but now i'd just be a greedy traitor)

 

ok, so this turned into a small novel again. sorry. the mosquitoes held off longer than i thought they would.