In chronological order:
Safe Arrivals in Swaziland and first day shenanigans
Mhlosheni Welcome Center and distributions for the locals
Local church and the Summerfield Botanical Garden and Resort
Hho Hho Farm Day
Heat, Rain, and Rhino’s
A Healthy Dose of Swaziland Culture
Three Countries in One Day
In Giving I Have Gained
End of travel and LIONS!
A foodie recap (what I ate)

 

Or go directly to YouTube to watch it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWBK0UuFhsY

On March 18 we left Lesotho mid morning to head back to Johannesburg, South Africa. To be completely honest, I don’t remember much of that drive. On account of having a pretty nasty cold and still dealing with a leftover migraine, I decided to take a dose of NyQuil. Great for sleeping, not so great for coherency ;) I did manage to make it through 2 more border crossings though, so that’s good!

(These types of ads were everywhere. Aids is a huge issue in all three countries that we visited)

(Jo-burg)

March 19 wasn’t much better. To make a boring story short, I could hardly get out of bed to get down to breakfast, so after picking at my food for little bit I climbed back into bed while everyone else went to church. I ended up sleeping the entire time the group was gone though, thankfully! It seemed to make quiet a bit of a difference. In the afternoon, the original plan was to go to Pretoria to visit a botanical garden there, but due to the torrential downpour, the group voted to have a bus tour of Johannesburg instead.

(The 2010 World Cup Stadium)

(More World Cup remains)

(The Mandela House and Museum)

For dinner we headed out to a buffet restaurant that was popular with the locals. Since I hadn’t eaten really for most of the day I went pretty crazy with the food there. They has all sorts of cool things, some of it was traditional South Africa food but then they also had cuisine from all over the world. I got a lot of Indian food… couldn’t help it, it’s my favorite ;) We were also attacked by a group of traditional singers at one point. You got to wear a cone shaped hat and they would dab your face with a cloth. It was all very awkward really (and awesome!)

(Craziness at the Boma Buffet)

March 20th I was back on my feet! Still had the head cold, but it was manageable again. I’m so glad too because it was our last day in South Africa. We had a fun day ahead of us though. We had a 10am appointment at a lion and game park, which we were really excited about! We were told that we would get to see the lions feeding and also get to pet some baby lions. How cool!

On the way to the lion park, we hit some trouble on the highway. We were in stand still traffic for over an hour and a half. At first we were all disappointed because all we could think about were the lions and that we were missing them. But some of our group decided to walk up along the traffic and see what was going on. We were all humbled in our disappointment about the lions when we discovered that there had been a very serious accident where 7 individuals were killed. It was a pretty heartbreaking experience, especially as we drove past some of the remains of the wreckage. Ironically, our group had had some issues come up when we were trying to leave our lodging earlier that day. We ended up leaving over 30 minutes later than we had intended. Many of us couldn’t help but think that we may have been spared.

(It was really hard to have to see this. But I guess it was a good reminder for us to be thankful for our own safety.)

Even though we were late to the lion park, our tour was luckily still booked. We missed the actual feeding of the lions (when the trainers drive around in a big truck and push the food off and the lions come running), but we were still able to see them enjoying their fare, which was pretty wild! Well, not technically as these were mostly tame animals… but you get the idea ;)

(Nom nom nom)

We rode around in a range rover type vehicle that had a cage on it. It felt really weird, but it was neat because we were able to get up really close to all the animals. We started in the lion section, where they were all pretty visible. That was neat since the last game park we visited we weren’t able to get a clear view of the hiding lions. There were a couple different breeds that we saw, some were darker with almost black mains (think ‘Scar’) and others were more tan (think ‘Simba’) and then there were even some white lions (this time just think ‘unnatural’! haha). Even though we didn’t get to see them running after the food, we DID get to see them eating, which was really fun. At least for those of us who could stomach it. We even got to see a male lion steal food from a group of females, which was pretty lively and fun.

(Although lions are cool, these were my favorite little guys at the park. Wild dogs! They look a lot like hyena’s; they have the cutest round ears!)

In the rest of the park, we were able to see a lot of neat animals. There were more impala of course. I think it’s safe to say that at that point the majority of us were not thrilled by this. Impala aren’t exactly hard to come by in Africa. We’d had our share by the last day :) But much to my excitement there were also wild dogs, cheetah, giraffe, zebra, wildabeast, and whole slew of other things I’m too lazy to list right now ;)

(Here is our group and our guide. I’m surprised we didn’t dump the vehicle with all of our weight on one side… It was kinda cool to be caged in though!)

They also had a large prairie area, which is where we saw the zebra, giraffe, and wildabeast. At one point we had a surprise visit from a giraffe who insisted on licking our truck. It was really awesome actually, I’d never been so close to a giraffe. His hair was rough and stiff but he was still really fun to pet! I was somewhat scared of the big purple tongue though, so avoided any extreme contact with that!

(This was just before these Zebra’s starting acting on their natural ability to perform acts of reproduction. Aren’t you glad I spared you? ;))

Once our ‘safari tour’ was completed, we were taken over to a section of the park where they have baby lions. They have two different living environments that they keep them in and visitors are allowed to go in, up to eight at a time, to pet the lions. This was also, in my opinion, an ingenious way for them to tame the lions and have more manageable adults. We actually went in the pen that had a lion that was just a few weeks from being able to go into the main park (not pictured though), so that was neat. I got to pet two of the littlest ones, who were so cute! We were given strict instructions to only pet them on their midsections, no paws or heads or tails. Well, as I was petting one of them, another one started to lick at my hand. And then apparently it liked what it found, so it started chewing. Dayle was so kind to remind me that I had just been eating a bag of salty peanuts just before we entered the pen. Which apparently the lion decided was pretty tasty ;)

(I was taken by surprise when the little guy started to chew on my fingers… but since the trainer said it was okay, I decided I was gonna play it cool and let a lion gnaw away at me ;))

When we finished at the lion park, we drove straight to the airport. Because of the recent issues regarding Libya, the security was a bit extreme. Once we went through the regular rig-a-mar-ole, we had to get a pat down and our carry on bags search before they would let us into our gate. But we all made it through without getting too many items confiscated, which was good. 15 hours later I was in Atlanta, Georgia. One flight to Philly and I would be home!

Overall, what an amazing experience. And how thankful am I to have had the opportunity to go? A huge thank you to both my undergraduate school (Andrews University Agriculture Department) and my current graduate school (Longwood Graduate Program) for making this trip possible!

I’m considering today to have been one of the most memorable of my life.

(Lesotho is a very poor country, even in the towns there were homes like this. But look at how happy this gentleman is! :))

First of all, I was coming off of a pretty nasty migraine from the night before and so my brain was a bit foggy. It has been a cold rainy day, which wouldn’t have been as much of a turn around, except we were just in Swaziland, which average temps of 100 degrees. So today in Lesotho, with the temperature around 65 and the wet damp rain that seemed to soak through our skin and into our bones – it felt really cold! Most of us are a sneeze-y, sniffle-y mess. Although, luckily I’ve seemed to have escaped the fever bug that has been going through our group, at least for now.

(Lots of lots of erosion! It was beautiful, to be honest, but it was also horrible to see so MUCH of it throughout Lesotho)

(I heart Lesotho – how could one not?)

(Aloe’s galore! On our drive from the hospital to the school alone, I saw more aloe than I have seen in my lifetime combine. I guarantee it. So that was neat :))

We left the Maluti Hospital as early as we were able, which ended up being closer to 8am than we had hoped. It was quiet a long drive to get there, not because of the distance but more because of the weather and the road conditions. Lots of rain on dirt roads… you get the idea :)

When we arrived at the school, we all piled out of the bus and gathered around not sure what was happening next. Then out of the high school side of the property came a group of students carrying their chairs. (The Emmanuel Mission School is divided into two sections, the high school and the elementary school). While they were walking from their classrooms to the church, they sang for us and were having such a good time giving us a performance. It was SO FUN! It was also neat to see a large group of all ages of school kids completely happy to carry a chair from one end of the property to another; like it wasn’t a burden, like they were happy just to have a chair at all!

(Here they are singing and carrying their chairs to the church!)

(Even the younger ones didn’t mind to carry their own seats – or walk in the horrible mud!)

We planned to do one last round of distribution here, but because we had limited donations now, we asked the leaders there to identify the most needy children in the group. What a horrible thing to ask someone to do with this group! They were all so needy, many of them had little besides their school uniforms. I pulled out a water bottle at one point and kids kept asking me if they could have the bottle when I was finished with the water. It broke my heart.

(In their midst. The best place of all!)

All the school children gathered in the church when we got there and so did we. We were actually put up at the front and some even on the stage. I managed to weasel my way more into the throng of kids, I wasn’t too keen on being in the spotlight. I got a lot of their singing on video, which I can’t wait to watch! I hope it will be as beautiful and powerful as it was in real life. When the singing was beginning to wrap up, Dr. Chittick pulled me aside and said that the principle had gathered a group of ten girls who would benefit from learning to crochet. I walked outside into the rain and there they were. Standing there looking at me curiously. I, of course, was so nervous at this point. This was it! This was my moment to make a difference in someone else’s life. And it was petrifying.

They helped me carry my large duffel bag full of yarn (they insisted! They were so polite and cheerful about helping!) across the property from the church to the high school area. The principle gave us a classroom that was very hidden and out of the way, which was perfect for working with the girls.

(My first group of ten girls learning how to make a chain with their newly acquired crochet hooks and yarn.)

I started by pulling out just a bit of yarn from my bag and had them pick their favorite color.  Then I went through the steps of showing them how to create a chain. Most of them wanted to make scarves, so I showed them to make their chain as long as they wanted their scarf and told them that I would then show them how to make it thicker as the next step. Each of them got so excited when they were ready for ‘step 2′, they’d call me, jump up and down, yank at my shirt; all sorts of things! It was fun :)

(They were SUCH fast learners!)

Oh my, it was such an amazing experience. I found that their energy and interest kept me going. I started around 11:30 and didn’t leave that room until around 4pm. Once the first group of ten had been taught, we decided that a lot more girls could learn too – so they started to flood in. I then started teaching them on a ‘come in’ basis. All the way up until there wasn’t any yarn left. And there had to have been at least over 100 skeins. A few girls got more than one, but there were a lot of girls that had to the chance to make something.

(Once the word got out that some of the girls were learning to crochet, the room flooded with more eager girls! I could barely keep up!)

(I had knitted the hats to be about the size of a small child’s head, but the way that they like to wear hats here [not covering the forehead], they worked really well for the girls! They wanted me to take a picture with them all wearing the hats – which I was happy to do!)

(This was the dean of the girls. She was by far the fastest of them all!)

(These girls gave me so much. I feel like I hardly gave them anything in return.)

They hardly let me leave them, when it was time to go. I got at least 2 hugs from every girl (thats A LOT of hugs), tons of ‘when are you coming back’, and even a few – ‘stay with us, we love you!’. They were so cute. And real.

(Here I am with Grace, one of my fav’s. She insisted on a copious amount of photos with me!)

I got really close to a few of the girls, one sister pair specifically (Grace and Jeniet (said like Jeannette)). They were so full of joy and happiness, and they kept chatting with me the whole day. I got their address as well, I’m planning on sending them a letter when I get home with pictures from the day. I also want to send them more yarn.

(Some of my girls were spotted out and around the school property crocheting as well. Many chose not to stay in the ‘instruction room’ after they had learned.)

So my heart is full (my eyes are droopy, my throat is scratchy, my skin is itchy, my brain is fried and I’m exhausted from today) but truly… I am filled with peace and happiness and I just can’t believe how blessed I am to be here and to have shared in such a beautiful experience with the girls here in Lesotho. I don’t want to leave tomorrow morning (we’re headed to Jo-burg in the AM). I will miss them.

(We also organized a well to be drilled while we were there. Here it is in action)

(After I finished with the crocheting and said goodbye to my girls, I met this little one…)

(… and she stuck with me, much to my happiness. My heart was stolen.)

(We had to go on dirt roads a few times because parts of main roads were closed off. This was actually just before the border crossing into South Africa.)

Today was a travel day. We got up rather early, had breakfast, and were all packed up in the bus and ready to go by 8:15 in the morning. And then we were in the bus for over 14 hours. It was an interesting day!

(We found a Rhinoceros beetle!)

In Swaziland, we saw lots and lots of sugar cane fields and small villages made of various types of huts. Some were almost all reed, some were all out of concrete cinders blocks, but the majority of them were a mixture of the two. When we crossed the border into South Africa we saw a lot of the same. Less poverty for the most part, but not by much. There were still huts and very rural areas of poverty. We also saw lots and lots more sugar cane fields. As we neared Lesotho though, it turned almost entirely to corn fields.

(So much sugar cane! We saw it for miles upon miles – in the South of Swaziland and then for a long time in South Africa)

(Dayle and I at lunch – trying to find a wireless network for his phone)

Lesotho, in my opinion, has to be one of the most beautiful countries I have ever seen. And for a girl who left half of her heart in New Zealand and the other in Scotland, that is saying a lot! Lesotho is a mountain region and all I can say it wow! The pictures hardly do it justice, on account of my silly cheap little point and shoot camera.

(The rolling plains of South Africa – we saw quiet a bit of wild life as well!)

(Loved these hills, we were starting to get closer to Lesotho at this point)

(This is how I spent the first 9 hours of the trip!)

(See, I wasn’t the only one!)

About 9 hours into the trip, my fingers started feeling numb. This is something I’m used to when I get migraines. Unfortunately I had been taking the normal doses of IBProfen just for general head pains (13 hours on a bus… you know what I mean!), so I wasn’t able to take any exhedrin migraine that I had with me. We finally arrived at the Maluti Adventist Hospital around 10:30 that night. Which, as many of you know, it well past this gals bedtime. But I was pretty out of it, on account of the migraine. The hospital had a bunk house that the majority of the group use d (some stayed in a guest host), but the facility didn’t have running water. That night though, I didn’t care. It was 1) find a bed, 2) put on some sheets, 3) take off shoes, 4) finally take some exhedrin, and 5) crash. I’m so thankful for some of my friends on the trip who took care of me while I had the migraine. Luckily, by the next morning I had slept it off. What a blessing!

(Coming into the mountainous region of Lesotho!)

(The Mantenga Cultural Village)

Today we had the opportunity to immerse ourselves into the history and culture of the people of Swaziland. We visited the Mantenga Cultural Village and Nature Preserve which is located just outside of Manzini, Swaziland. Today is our last day in the country. Tomorrow we head south to Lesotho (produced lay-soot-two).

(The entrance of the Village)

We had a late start this AM which was GRAND. We’ve been having pretty busy days, so the fact that we didn’t leave until after 9 AM was surely a treat. It was about a 30 minute trip to get the Nature Preserve. Once we were through the entrance, we had a bit of a drive on a dirt road back through the Preserve. We pulled up to a small dirt parking lot and were met with our guide, who was dressed in traditional Swazi garb. He took us around to the entrance of the historical village and our tour began.

(I loved this shot because it shows that even the old Swazi villages had enough sense to have a landscape – see the three container plantings? :D)

I got a lot of his talk on tape, which I will be culling and putting together in a video when I get home. For the most part, I found their heritage to be very similar to that of the Native American’s a few hundred years go. Our guide talked a lot about the women in Swazi culture, mostly because I think he liked getting a rise out the majority of our group. Here, more than one wife was common. Although, the man had to be able to prove he could afford more than one. In almost all cases, wives long survived their husbands because by the time the men could afford a wife, they were in their 30′s. Women were usually ‘bought’ in their teens. 17 cattle was the average price for a virgin. However, if there was a young lady who was not a virgin, the man was allowed to negotiate with the family for a lower price. We had one girl in our group that was offered 12 cattle for marriage – which now we all find somewhat amusing ;)

(Stan demonstrates how the Swazi used to sleep in the huts – with a wooden head rest and animal skins. Love it :))

(Some of the cultural dances we got to see and take part in!)

We had a chance to see inside some of the huts, which was neat. They were extremely cool inside, which we weren’t expecting. The reed grass that they use to make them held out the heat. They also could have fires inside the huts and it would simply permeate out through the reed grass walls. It was really crazy! You’d think they would burn, but they don’t!

(He was my favorite. He really got into his drum playing! He also made some of the coolest sounds when they were singing)

After we saw the village we experienced some of the cultural dances they have. Some were to do with marriage ceremonies, others with harvest, etc. They made the neatest noises, it wasn’t just singing! Clicking and whistling was in almost every song and it really added to it. I got a lot of that on video too; it’s hard to really explain how neat it was!

(Cheeky monkey!)

Lunch was with the village as well, they served us a buffet style lunch. We had people actually standing around us to keep the monkeys away! At first we all thought that was silly, but at one point a monkey ran across the dinner area, grabbed a piece of bread, and had to be chased away! Cheeky monkey indeed ;)

(Cheesing it up with our guide)

My favorite part of the day was next. We walked about half a mile up the side of a mountain to see a waterfall! Whoo waterfalls! It was absolutely gorgeous. We didn’t have time to get really close to it, but I was happy non-the-less. We also found a lot of native Lantana and Ageratum on the walk, which was neat.

(Waterfalls equal Aubree happiness)

(We got the actual jump to show in someone else’s camera. I’m surprised we didn’t all fall in, the ground was really uneven and we were right next to the water! Fun times with us Hort students. Good to know the current crop of hort students at Andrews are just as crazy as they were when I was there ;))

Then we spent a little bit of time shopping at a local handicraft center before heading back to our lodging. Tomorrow we head out bright and early to go to Lesotho!

(Hand molded candles by the Swazi natives – shown here cooling in a large bin of water)

(Shopping! Normally I’m not a fan, but this kind is fun :D)

(At the entrance of the game park, there is a large length of what we thought was fence. Turns out, all the wire shown [and much much more that isn't shown in this picture] is wire that was collected from poachers. The backpacks and clothing items are, in some cases, what remains of some of the poachers. It’s a trophy wall of sorts, made by the workers of the park)

Hlane National Wildlife Park – It’s pronounced s-h-laney, I think. It’s one of those sounds that us American’s can’t seem to wrap our tongues around. Either way, however it’s pronounced, we had an amazing time visiting it!

(What? You would have done it too! :))

Not your average Monday, that’s for sure. Although, we did have an early start of breakfast at 6:30 and out on the road by 7:30. (Okay, not really. My roommate and I have consistently been getting up at 5:45 every morning. What can we say, we like our routine!) It was about an hour bus ride out to the Hlane National Wildlife Park. At one point along the way, there was a police patrol set up and we had to get off the bus and be searched. Luckily the police were extremely nice and didn’t dig too deep into your bags. It was an interesting experience though!

(More reminders of the damage that poachers used to do in the past. They don’t have the poacher problems they used to, thanks to their monitoring and protection of the animals)

So apparently I hadn’t really wrapped my brain around what a game park was, because I’ve been to so many ‘controlled’ animal parks, like zoos. This was basically a huge amount of land fenced off and maintained to keep control over poachers to these animals. The park is 47,000 hectares, which I think it just under 120,000 acres. So A LOT of land. And everything in it is wild and only mildly controlled (being fenced, the lion section has a limited number of sacrificial impala, etc).

(Here we are traipsing around in the bush with our awesome guide Maxwell)

In the morning we did a walking tour in an area of the park that was considered ‘small animals’. They broke us into three groups, each group piling into the park vehicles, which were really just massive land rovers with roll bars and a soft top. They drove us to who knows where and dropped us off. To fend for ourselves. Yes, yes, I’m kidding. Our driver was also our guide, so he got out with us. For part of the walk we were on dirt paths, but for the majority of the morning we walking through the actual bush. Some of us even had to pick off some ticks when we it was over. Some of the animals we saw were zebra’s, water monitors (one alive and one very much dead, but it was neat to see the structure), impala, water buffalo, wart hogs, a whole host of birds I can’t even begin to pretend to remember the names of, and my personal favorite, dung beetles. They’re huge, shiny, and roll around in waste. It doesn’t get much better than that does it? ;)

(We did our best to not rub up against any Acacia. Or any plant for that matter. Most all the plants in the area only had survived the animals because they were poisonous or had some physical protection; like thorns.)

(It was just gorgeous there!)

(You’ve likely never seen so many people get so excited over a pile of poop… but to be fair, the dung beetle was pretty darn cool!)

(My group’s wheels!)

(Lunch break! See, I told you this is what Dayle and I do :D)

We had about 30 minutes for lunch, in which time is poured on us. But that was such a blessing it turned out, because for our driven tour around the big game sections and the lion section, we had overcast skies which made the animals more active. We saw elephants (and the most adorable little baby chonking away on the bush!), rhino’s, more wart hogs (I don’t know why, but I just love wart hogs – maybe it’s all that Lion King watching when I was kid, who doesn’t love Pumba?), a few giraffe, hippo’s, and then we saw their oldest male lion, who was fully mature. We got pretty close but couldn’t see him too great because he was enjoying the shade of a shrub. Our driver actually got out and shook the shrub a little bit, which afforded us some pretty cool angry lion noises (our guide, Maxwell, was pretty awesome. Obviously ;))

(Just a little friendly game of chicken)

We spent about 2 1/2 hours driving around looking at animals. It seemed more like 30 minutes, it went by so fast! But when we got out of that vehicle, our stiff legs let us know, that yes, we DID just spend that much time bouncing around the African bush. It was awesome :)

(Baby elephant!)

(“What do you wanna do?”. “I don’t know, what do you wanna do?”. “Oh, don’t start that again!”)

(Here is a view of Piggs Peak; we’re about 1 mile from the farm.)

Wow. All I can say right now is wow. We just had the most amazing yet exhausting day. And its only 5pm! (I have a feeling most of us won’t be doing more than eating dinner and then hitting the hay, so to speak). Today we went to a farm that supports a local church. Andrews University has been working with them for years and is currently in the process of trying to get more funds to continue the projects there. Today we had the opportunity to do two things, distribute clothes to the members of the congregation who were in need (around 50 people came!), and to help plant some crop. We were originally going to plant bananas, but they found that their need for having corn planted was greater. It’s all the same process really – dig the trench, drop the seed, add fertilizer, cover the seed – etc etc.

(The farm and the mountains behind. Just breathtaking and when you’re standing in the fields looking up at it, you feel so small!)

So we left this morning and there was cloud cover and small spirts of rain. We were all pretty excited actually, it’s been pretty hot here and rain would have been nice! However, by the time it was all said and done, the thermometer on our bus read that the outside temperature was 40 degrees Celsius. That’s over 100F people! And no rain. Not a drop after 10am. Oh, and we don’t have a bus with air conditioning. I’ll let you come to your own conclusions there :)

(These little boys kept performing to have their pictures taken. They even convinced me to video them doing some tricks :))

When we drove into the area, we were all awestruck at the beautiful mountains and surrounding landscape. Pictures simply can’t do it justice; the fog over the mountains didn’t stay long, but it was just as beautiful with the sun beating down on them.

(Here is part of the group from the church who were in need of some warmer clothing. They’re smiles and joy were infectious!)

We started with clothing distribution and playing with the kids – both were fun and exciting. The kid’s smiles are next to nothing, if you get one you feel on top of the world (and you get them!!!) Giving clothing to those who need it is always such a joy because they are so thankful and appreciative. We had one lady who literally danced out the door with her new sweater and skirt (can you believe they all want warm clothes? It is coming up on their winter though and it gets chilly at night. Where we stay at our lodging, we also experience much colder nights – so even though it seems crazy to be giving out sweaters in 100 degree weather, the people need them and are so thankful for them).

(At first I was somewhat offended when this gentleman came over and showed me how to properly cover the seed, but then I realized that he was doing it for everyone. I was so glad that he did though, because his technique was obviously so much better – and it used a lot less energy, which we found to be really important!)

Then we attacked the field. The first fifteen minutes the 10 or so of us that started out were going at break-neck speeds. But then the heat really hit us. I for one had to work in shifts, heading back under a tree and drinking as much water as I dared before going back out again (at one point in the day, we ran out of water, so I knew that what I had with me was all I would have for the remainder of our time there… had to be smart about how I drank it!) It was really hard work! I think it was just as good for us to be doing the work as it was for us to be helping the people there. They do this as their livelihood, and for just under what equals $3, but in rand, a day. To be fair though, that is actually a very generous wage that the farm is able to give them, at least in terms of the economy in Swaziland.

(Another view of our surroundings)

(You really had to bend over to reach the bottom of the troughs with the size of the hoes they had. Not very long. All I know is that the workers there must have backs of steel! I don’t think farming is my calling… you likely agree ;))

The soil there is heavy heavy red clay. Beautiful to look at! Hard to scrape off the skin, if you get my drift. Also, even good ol’ 30 SPF didn’t do it for us this time. Most of us got pretty sun burnt from working out in the fields. But it was worth it :)

(They use a lot of ‘old fashioned’ but smart techniques. This is using reed grass in the irrigation trenches to keep the water from moving down to fast and not filling the sub trenches. The reeds also soak up water, so they help to disperse it)

(Just to give you some perspective, maybe… here is me when we first got there. White, clean, sort of normal looking… [whatever that means ;)])

(And here is me when we got back to our lodging. Check out those legs! No, I’m not wearing red leggings… haha)

(being silly with the boys while waiting for church to start)

Exciting day three! Although us horticulture nerds on the trip have been examining plants (trees, grasses, flowers – you name it!) everywhere we go, we were all very excited about our visit today to a local botanical garden in Manzini, Swaziland. But that would have to wait until after church.

(Dayle and I doing what Dayle and I do best… kicking it back after a big meal :D)

Church was in walking distance from our lodging and the place itself was a lot more pleasant than I think a lot us were expecting (it had a breeze and was cool inside!). The locals were incredibly friendly and happy to have such a large group from the states visiting them. It was especially fun to sing with them all. After the service, my professor and I chatted a bit about the plants that were surrounding the church. We were especially interested in them because the Welcome Center that we visited yesterday requested that Stan draw up a planting plan for them. As tropical plants are not Stan’s forte, he wanted to start seeing what survived well and what didn’t. Aside from some of the obvious choices, such as plumeria and bougainvillea, we found elderberry and smoke bush were doing well! So that was fun to see.

(a very cheeky spider plant – see text)

Then we walked back to the hotel, got on the bus and headed over to one of the member’s homes for a lunch they were so generously providing themselves. Some of us also walked around their yard a bit and had fun identifying (okay, in some case it was only TRYING to identify) some of their plants. One of the funny ones was actually a liriope looking plant in a container. Stan asked me if it was a Liriope or a Sedge and I knew it wasn’t a sedge, so I went with liriope. I should have known, of course, that it was neither. He’s tricksy like that. It was actually a spider plant! Without seeing the new growth that it typically has (you know, the spider bit?) and not seeing the in my grandma’s kitchen threw me off, for sure. It’s funny how plants can be more difficult to identify if they are out of context and you just don’t expect to see them where they are.

(I know, I’ve posted lots of views of the landscape – but I can’t help it, it’s so beautiful here!)

We left the families home around 3 p.m., after everyone had a chance to eat. We stopped at our lodging for about ten minutes so we all could change and then headed right off to the Summerfield Botanic Garden. Yay! When we got there, we found out that it is also an exclusive resort. And wow, what a place to vacation! The plantings were beautiful, there were many tantalizing water features, and it was all so secluded and peaceful. Although there were many plants common to Swaziland, we certainly enjoyed them as something unusual to us. There were some beautiful Agave’s, the African tulip tree was well represented, and of course, a myriad of gorgeous palms.

(Whoo, a botanic garden! :D)

After walking around for a while with the horticulture students from Andrews, who were all assigned to take photos of and identify at least 30 different plants in the garden, I headed off on my own to do that I like to do best at botanic gardens. Explore on my own! Among all the cool plants, planting schemes, and hardscapes to be found, I also ran into a few interesting animals. Particularly a peacock that seemed a bit cheeky to me. At first, he bored me (which I have on video), but then when I was peacefully sitting on my own towards the end of the visit (see below) he snuck up behind me and scared me out of my wits!

(SWEEEET Agave plant. Seriously. I want one.)

So yes, about half an hour before we had to leave, I found a nice spot under some palm trees and got comfortable. I realized that even though I work in gardens, that I’m not that different from the average guest. I cherish the peace and quiet, the cool breezes, the sounds of the birds in nearby trees, and just a chance to enjoy some tranquility. Minus a few swollen bug bites (I don’t THINK there were any malaria carrying mosquito’s ;)), I made it home quiet intact and, in my humble opinion, all the better for having visited the garden.

Here are a few more photos from the garden:

(The Entrance)

(it’s expanding in every direction!)

(It’s a resort too! Nice vacation spot, indeed!)

(I just love how they planted different sections. These palms were a fav)

(Can someone please explain to me why this Hibiscus is trying to pick my nose? Not cool…)

(Our bus apparently is trying to sneak into the garden… Not too well hidden though, I must say…)

(Bigfoot is alive and well in Swaziland!!)

(The magnificent view looking out from the botanic garden)