Two Months as a Swaziland Resident and our First Visit to Kruger Park

Living Like a Swazi

November 8, 2013

 It’s been over two months already and finally we leave the country.  We have arrived at the beautiful lodge near Kruger Park’s Crocodile River, called Buckler’s Africa.  The backyard is Kruger Park.  Hoping to see some elephants chewing the leaves tomorrow morning at breakfast.  We are going to do our first real safari..One where we see real animals not inside cages.  Hoping to spot all the animals..They say the "Big Five" include rhinos, elephants, lions, leopards and water buffalos.  Jason packed our food and cooked an awesome dinner.  Alyssa was excited running around the lodge, and being daddy’s helper.  Mom was the co-pilot and got us there safely.  Despite not having a GPS we made it with simple paper and maps. 

Alyssa is sure becoming accustomed to the lifestyle of Southern Africa.  She spends her spare time collecting millipedes in the garden, puts it in a container and calls it her pet.  She is playing with our guard saying, “my guard is helping me get the avocados.”  I’m getting more accustomed to driving in Swaziland.  It is a bit disturbing to see a school kids walking alone on the highway.  It just doesn’t seem safe to me.  Walking on the highways seems common here.  Yesterday I got to volunteer and read to a bunch of African school kids (3^rd or 4^th grade) at the library.  They seemed interested although no one had questions..the little ones were more drawn in. 

Two great things happen this past week.  We got our housekeeper finally and she is a great addition.  Coming home to a made-up bed, dishes completed and laundry done..Not only is it peaceful sanctuary but it means I’ll have more free time on weekends.  I will try to enjoy the additional help these three years in Africa.  We also got our household effects and both Jason and our maid has done a great job unpacking and organizing.  Nice to be able to have our stuff and settle in.  We will do some shopping in Nelspruit and get the remaining 220 appliances that we got from our welcome kit.  Jason’s waiting on when to start working and been busy Christmas shopping.  Doing online shopping can be frustrating with the slow speeds but we are making it work. 

My task the next few weeks are to work harder on my diet planning and seriously getting back into exercise.  I can see my belly bulging already..The food, desserts is good but I must remember the hard work I did to lose the weight.  Working on sleep, self care and study will have to be my priorities..of course along with balancing family life.  I found a church, I found a bible class group and now the remaining is finding an exercise class and a buddy for accountability and to start scrapbooking again.  I am continuing to find my niche. 

November 9, 11:03 PM- Nelspruit

Well, we sure had one hell of an adventure at Kruger Park.  It really amazing to see so many large animals up close.  We saw two of the “Big Five” of the park, which isn’t bad for our first visit.  Most of the best interactive experience was off the beaten path..Yes, the dirt roads.  We saw zebra, giraffe and antelopes crossing the road.  The two of the big five we saw were elephant and rhino.  We didn’t see any predators this visit but we bought a wild card so we will be sure to come back!  We entered through the Crocodile Gate bridge and right away, we spotted wart hogs, zebras and a variety of deer, antelopes and llamas.  We even saw turtles, monkeys, and lizards.  The most amazing experience was seeing a giraffe peer through the woods as we drove through a dirt road of “nothing.”  Then we spotted two, then three giraffes!  This was all on the S130 road.    I caught a nice picture of the crossing on the street.  My colleague at work who went just a week before got to see a lion eat the giraffes which was a sad story – but it’s part of life, the food chain!  We had a great time at Buckler’s Lodge and the hosts were friendly and gave us tips on liking the Kruger Sightings Facebook page so we can find out which way to go!!  It’s good that we did take the dirt road..After the giraffes we saw two huge elephants right off the road.  It came out of nowhere and imagine…. We heard stories of how an elephant got territorial and sat on a car, killing people in it.  We got a warning not to get too close to the elephants, both from the Regional Security Officer and our hosts from Buckler’s Africa.  We were literally less than 100 feet away from these beautiful creatures.  They were eating so they were peaceful as we drove by them without even seeing them at first!  Definitely, the elephants and giraffes were the highlights of our trip.  I’m happy with what we saw.

The rest of the evening did not progress so well.  I had reserved a hotel at Easy Stay in Nelspruit only to find out it was reserved for the wrong night.  It’s Murphy’s Law..What could go wrong, can.  Just glad it didn’t happen at the park.  99.9% I always have my hotel confirmation # and this ONE time I didn’t have it, screwed me up.  We now are resting in a smoking-room at the hotel across from the one we had planned to stay at…I lost my Blackberry in the car and could have called ahead to confirm.  Of course, as I said..it was Murphy’s Law. 

Tomorrow is shopping day.  I just realize how real important it is to prioritize for a peace of mind.  We just got our household effects two days before which was not the ideal thing..I would have thought of a lot more, blah blah blah.  Anyways, I’m grateful for my experience.    

November 14, 2013

We ended up buying 3,744 RAND worth of appliances -- that is $374 US dollars.  This is easy to convert.  Just move one decimal point over.  SWEET!  While I'm on the topic of local currency I thought I'd share that Swaziland accepts both South African RAND and Emalangeni while South Africa only accepts RAND.  Like the local say "shame!"  Shame is a word I hear a lot among the locals which really means too bad.  Well, that's the news from Bo's front this week.  Stay tuned and bookmark this blog!!   Til next time...