Public slideshow

For those of you here in Bend, I will be doing a slideshow for the public on Sat Oct 19th at 2:30 pm at the East Bend library. I will of course be doing another one for my friends at my house...but just FYI. :)

Link to Flickr gallery

I'm not sure why, but the link seems to keep disappearing! Here it is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chandravan/sets/72157635045247408/

Or click here

My favorite picture....

I think this may be my favorite picture! This is the kids singing dad happy birthday in English and Zulu. He's SOOOO happy!

On my way...

Currently in Frankfurt, two hours til my flight to Seattle. I have a 6 hour layover there, so hopefully I can update more. I've added a couple pics to Flickr....I'll try to add as many as I can with my free 30 minutes... :)

It's been SOOOOO awesome! Been bittersweet leaving. Sigh.

Still here...

Sorry for the long wait, haven't had Internet access until today. Spending the day at a local hotel with unlimited wifi. Did not make it to Mozambique last weekend...there was an annual Zulu festival, the Reed Festival that would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see....so everyone decided to do that instead. This weekend they all went to Mozambique, but since we're leaving tomorrow, we couldn't go. SOB! I really wanted to go...but it's ok, just means I have to come back again. I'll try to update more later today, but just wanted to say hey, still alive. I did manage to give myself a nice machete scar on my arm! :) Those darn things are dangerous. Clearing grass, not paying enough attention. Yea, easy to do! 

What research

Taking advantage of the wifi while we're still in St Lucia! :) Ok, so the research we're helping with. It's very interesting. So one of the issues happening in SA is that in some ways there are too MANY elephants. There are really no non-fenced animals, they're all in reserves or private land. Because they can't migrate like they used to, they do more destruction to the ecosystem, AND their young and old aren't picked off as much as they used to be. Herd growth in limited areas spells trouble. They're trying a new form in contraception which will hopefully have less of a negative impact on the elephant herds than other kinds.

What we're doing is going out, counting the elephants, IDing them, watching their social interactions and their impact on the surrounding environment. With other forms of elephant contraception the change in hormones have created big issues in the herd (pushing elephants out, causing strife etc). One worry with this kind is how the females will react to their babies...will they coddle them more than they "should", and for longer because there's not another baby on the way, or will they kick the calves out sooner...? Will it change how the females interact? Will the females react differently to the males? All these things are very important, so we go out every day looking for them.

There's this invasive plant that has just taken over, so another of our jobs is to work to remove as much of it as we can. It's truly amazing how far it's spread. It arrived....hmm....back in the '60s?? Not sure exactly when, but it arrived in horse feed and has spread over the whole country. It's called...hmm, I'll have to go find out what it's called.

Hippos and crocs!

We just got back from a hippo and croc boat ride. OMG they're so cool! I've never seen hippos in the wild. They're quite impressive. There's this big sign at the place we're staying to beware of hippos and crocodiles after dark. Evidently the hippos come out of the estuary behind this place and go through here to the rest of town to graze. It's not uncommon to see a bloat (group name for hippos... Isn't that awesome?) of hippos wandering down the main street. St Lucia is a small town, so really just one main street. And sometimes at night you have to share... :)

Some of the group tried to go whale watching this am, but the winds were so strong and the ocean so rough that it was cancelled. :( two of the volunteers are going kayaking with the crocs and hippos...now I'm not adverse to some risk...but that's waaaaay too risky for me!Tomorrow I'm going with one other volunteer on a horse ride, then we leave at 4:00 to return to Thanda. Home sweet home.

So many animals!

 Have the weekend off, so I'm in St Lucia on the coast with a bunch of other volunteers. Tomorrow we're going in a hippo and croc "safari". :) I'm having such a great time, so are my mom and dad. Even though we're here on the elephant and rhino research, we're also going out with the large predator research, which is great. I'm working on updating the elephant ID kit, which means sifting through thousands of photos, identifying the elephants and then putting them into these documents along with their identifying marks. To take out on the vehicles, so we can try to identify them on the spot. Anyone know how to ID elephants? :) I'll tell you at the presentation. Hee hee. Have to be able to ID them to make any meaningful interpretations of their behavior.

There's this group here who are doing a photography course. It's four weeks and pretty darn intensive. Man, if I had the money, I'd totally do it! SO COOL! Ok, so our day begins with either a research drive or a game count drive at 6:00 am three days a week, Tues and Thurs we start with conservation @ 7:00 (conservation is stuff like clearing bush etc). All of those activities last until 9:00. Then back for a coffee/tea and muffin break. After that its either work on your research projects or some days we go to a community school. Lunch is @ 12:00, then more research work or a lesson about something. Then at 3:00 there is another either research drive or game count that lasts until 6:00. Dinner is 6:30. We're all usually in bed by 9:00! No late nights here! Not when you're out on the vehicles at 6:00.  :)

I really like everyone we're working wi. We're a small group right now...a ton of people left the day we arrived. But small means we all are getting to know one another very well. I've uploaded as many pictures as my free half hour of wifi has allowed. :) I'll try to do more tomorrow. I'm trying to think if there is anything else I just HAVE to tell you....

Hope all is well there...

At the airport...

Here at the airport, found our group, waiting for one more person and then we'll be off! :) Three hours drive and then we'll be there. I'm SOOOOO excited. Lots of the newbies are here for the 6 week photography program, but a couple for us. Hooray!!!!!! :)

Call out the S.W.A.T. team for the vanEijsnbergens!

Whew! What a great way to see the country, but man, those were three VEEEERRRYYY long days of driving! Arrived here in Durban, being hosted here by the family of someone my parents know back home. OMG their house is amazing, and they've been so generous. Ok, last couple days:

Wow, its been a crazy three days of driving. 9 hours, 8 hours and about 7 hours, all in a row. but we did get to see a lot of the country! Tsitsikamma is AMAZING! Our cabin was right on the water. Huge crashing waves, got to see my first rock daisies (OMG they're so cute!). Passed a lot of beautiful farmland on the way there. Reminded us a lot of Europe. After a hike to the suspension bridge, and lots of talking to the daisies, we head off to our next stop, Butterworth.

After Tsitsikamma the land started to become more arid. As the day went on, it became less and less lush farmland, more and more scrub and poorer houses. Butterworth was.....a bit overwhelming at first! It's in an area formerly called the Trans-Kei...95% black, and quite poor. We arrived at 5:00 on a Friday....huge masses of people all over the road, we had barely seen anyone in a day...overwhelming. By the guest house was fine, and the people lovely. Had a fabulous breakfast and then off for another day of driving! There's really been no stopping along the way...

Arrived in Durban, and mom wanted to go see the main square in Durban. Okaaaaay, we have no map of Durban, but mom asked some random guy and he gives us directions. Actually quite easy to find. However...our directions to where we're staying tonight were not from the center of town (Durban is SA's third largest city), but rather from the main highway. We have NO idea how to get anywhere.

Then I notice across the street from us is a SWAT team car, so mom goes over to ask for directions. She's over there a long time. Dad jokes that ha-ha mom's going to get them to take us there. OMG guess what??? Evidently they were shocked that we had no cell phone, no GPS and no map...they decide to escort us. OMG, we're being escorted on our way by the SWAT team!!!! :) I mean, who else other than the vanEijsnbergens would get an escort like that through town! :) hee hee.

Tomorrow we're going to check out the beach, then it's off to the airport to meet the others coming in this week along with us. Then a 3 hour drive to Thanda, and we're off and running! Hope I'm able to update often...but not sure what the Internet access will be.