The Wielers enjoying the garden tour
Hi everyone, we had a good long sleep in and woke up ready for another exciting day. John and Charlene made a nice breakfast for everyone complete with orange pecan french toast and bacon. Then we headed out to Sandys Creations which was essentially a very beautiful garden center where we had coffee and homemade donuts with Nutella. Its the kind of place Mom, that you could have spent hours at.
After we drove to Munde Wenga a wild animal conservation park with extensive grounds with stone pathways winding throughout, beautiful plants and water fountains. We had a picnic lunch and then had a guided tour of what is essentially a small zoo. The added attraction however, is that they throw huge masses of raw meat to the animals and its definitely more exciting animal activity than anything I have ever seen at the Winnipeg zoo. The most exciting animals to watch were the pride of 6 lions. They had about 10 very large chunks of meat spread around the pen and then released the lions. They of course attacked the meat and it was entertaining watching the lions crunch and smack on their quarter goat dinner. The lions were quite close to us and it was a little disconcerting to see how flimsy their "cage" was. No sturdy metal bars here, just a double layer of loose metal grid type of stuff...hmm hopefully they like goat more than girl. At the end of the afternoon we all went for a swim in one of their pools and then headed home. The weather continues to be amazing, 20 degress or so at night and 30 or so in the day. For supper we are having a braai (barbecue).
Our first horned animal ...
Our friend the bush pig (not for the brai)
lions, cheetahs, dinner - oh my!
Today was a very pleasant day and tommorow promises to be a real contrast. We will be going into the country side to visit Amy a worker out here who is working with the local people. The villages should show "the real Africa" and I am really looking forward to it. People here do not seem to like having their picture taken but apparently we will be surrounded by willing children tomorrow. Hopefully I can capture some of their beauty and reality on film. I love to look at the people here. Many of the women take a lot of care in how they look. Not only are they dressed in vibrant colors and patterns, their hair is just as interesting. You will see intricately braided extensions with curls and highlights etc. Even many of the little girls have their hair done very fancy.
I forgot to mention one observation from being at the market yesterday. There was a group of children playing outside the market and their clothes were dirty and torn and they wore no shoes. There they were, happily playing in the dirt. None of the boys had toys, so instead they were pushing an old shoe and a used plastic drink bottle through the dirt pretending they were cars. My first thought was that it was a scene I wished the kids could have witnessed.
Until day 3 ....
African Flora
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