June 28: Nearly three weeks

We haven’t done anything particularly exciting this week since we’ve been working from about 8:30 am to 4:30 pm every day and it gets dark early. I’ve nearly finished organizing data spreadsheets, which has taken the bulk of my time for many days now, and will be starting to write my manuscript next week. I gathered a decent sample of Venda children and mothers and will be interested in seeing the results of the data analysis, hopefully at the end of next week. I also never want to see a spreadsheet again. Probably got some sort of arthritis in my copy-paste fingers.

Speaking of ailments, I developed a stuffy nose last night. I’m thankful it’s not something horrible, like cholera or Ebola. I started taking an anti-viral as soon as I felt symptoms and I have cipro on hand if I need it. The drastic temperature changes, from blazing hot in the daytime to freezing at night, might have something to do with it, particularly because we forgot to turn on our heater a couple nights ago and the three blankets on my bed weren’t sufficient enough to keep me warm. Constantly mopping my nose is loads better than anything I would be doing had I eaten something wrong, though, so yay. I took a decongestant that’s made me exceptionally drowsy and I hope that this post is coherent. I’d been trying to study for the physics section of the MCAT but kept dozing off (that might have been more of the basic physics than the medicine).

Besides a lot of ruckus on our roof at the beginning of the week that one girl from California thought was an earthquake, we haven’t interacted much with the monkeys lately (called vervets, according to my mom’s research). They seem to have decided that some people camped in tents across the park are a better group to frustrate. Before they moved away they stole a box of laundry detergent from our porch and perched it in a tree, leaving a nice line of powder for us to follow. I hope they didn’t try to eat it, but it’s more likely they just wanted a good laugh at us.

We’ve been getting dropped off and picked up from Univen every day by other students working on water filters and there’s a pretty hectic two-lane traffic circle that we have to pass around to get back to Acacia. Nobody has been sure of how to navigate the circle so we ended up in the inside lane to go a quarter of the way around the circle. As we were turning out, a mini-bus flew by in the outer lane, nearly hitting us. We stopped in a panic, slightly in the outer lane, and just as we started moving again, a pickup (called a bucky here) sped by, missing us, or so I thought, by just millimeters. We decided that we hadn’t hit it and made our way out of the circle. The pickup came right after us, though, and we pulled into the entrance of Acacia so our driver could talk to the lady in the bucky. Turns out she was a police officer in her personal vehicle and she was angry. Three of us sat in the car feeling helpless while our driver, a grad student, talked to the lady. We could hear the officer screaming at her, saying she was lying and that we hit her baby.

Due to her inattention (she had to have seen the mini-bus problem and we were turning out before she came around), the vehicles had just barely grazed, which left a faint streak of dirt and pain on her car and worn spot on ours. The damage wasn’t anything to be mad about (I could rub off her “scratches” with my finger), but the lady still called the police and still yelled. Someone in our car called some people and several professors from Univen came over, worried we’d had an actual accident. The driver of our car handled the situation wonderfully, keeping her composure and eventually getting a good explanation of how the circle works. I definitely would have been in tears if I’d been yelled at like that by anybody, let alone a police officer in a foreign country. The on-duty police officers came and diffused the anger a bit while they filed an accident report and by the end of the ordeal (an hour later) we had three cars of students, a police truck, two cars of Univen professors, and the mad lady’s husband all standing on the side of the road because of a tiny little scratch. The husband evaluated the situation, said that he wouldn’t require us to pay for the damage and our driver didn’t get a ticket, so besides a lot of stress, we left without consequence.

I’ve been warned to avoid police officers here if I can, owing to their reputation for trying to get large sums in bribe money to get out of a bogus charge. At first we thought the lady was overreacting to try to get money, but she was actually upset and handled it in a very inappropriate manner for someone in uniform. The two officers who came to file the report seemed alright, but I think I’ll still try to avoid the law. I never carry enough cash on me to bribe anybody anyways.

We’re all glad our “accident” wasn’t anything more serious. Roads are notoriously dangerous here, cited by many natives we’ve talked to as the part of our trip we need to be most careful about. There are cars driving all over the place, often not heeding signs and lights if there are any, and to make it worse, people just walk across the road wherever and whenever they want. Parking lots are absolute nightmares. We’ve witness many stupid people behind the wheel and a lot of close misses. As annoying as it is to have to depend on other drivers, it’s well worth not being responsible for a car and passengers when the chances of getting into an accident are nearly 100%.

My roommate and I went out to lunch with our advisors today. In one of the crazy parking lots, our advisor greeted a man and then told us that he is the chief of the area in which she lives (which I’ve been to and it looks like a nice suburban neighborhood). I asked how she could tell he’s a chief since he just looked like a man and she responded that you just have to know the man and that times have changed enough to allow a chief to go out by himself. Now I’m worried I might accidentally bump into a chief or hold him up in a queue since I can’t tell who he is. Another student from UVA recognized one in a parking lot and went up to introduce himself, which appalled several people since one can’t just talk to a chief without knowing him already. There are a lot of social constructs that I haven’t learned yet that I hope I get the chance to before I offend someone.

We’re going out to some villages tomorrow to take some measurements and check a few kids I pinpointed as being potentially in need of medical attention based on some calculations I’d done earlier. I don’t think we’ll end up at a chief’s house, but we never know.

For those in need of a summer read, I just finished Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut. It’s about the evolution through natural selection of a colony of humans stranded on an island while the rest of the world dies because of economic crisis and a bacterium that destroys human ova. I must caution that it contains a number of adult themes and is not at all suitable for those younger than 17 or 18, but the story is wonderfully arranged and quite comical. I only have one more book with me (besides my MCAT study books), so I’m slightly upset that I finished Galapagos in two nights, but it was so good that I couldn’t have made it last longer. It was also a fitting book for this week since Lonesome George just died.

We’re planning on going to the big tree and some waterfalls this weekend. It should prove to be a fun and photo-conducive trip, so I hope to have more interesting things to write about in a few days.

These are plastered on every public surface and by a number of different companies.

Doing laundry the old way (and ineffective way).

Yay kinda clean clothes!

This guy is so hard to get photos of.

Popcorn on the stove!

Monkey on my porch.

Monkey on my roof.

 

A really poor-quality video of monkeys all over the place.(Also here)

Rest in peace, George.

For those of you who aren't reptile news followers, I'd like to share probably the saddest news of the year: Lonesome George, the last Pinta Island tortoise, was found dead this morning.

He was estimated to be over 100, and looks it too, but now his species is forever extinct. The center at which he lived had been trying for years to get him to breed with similar species to preserve some of his DNA, but hadn't succeeded.

Click here for more information.

:-(

June 23: A lot of harrowing people and monkey interaction

My roommate and I are transportation-less for the weekend, but that hasn’t stopped it from being pretty exciting.

The UVA faculty member who was staying at Acacia left for the U.S. this morning so we joined the other students to throw a farewell braai (barbeque). There were burgers, chicken kabobs, veggie kabobs, homemade guacamole (avocados are super easy to get), and a pot of lentils and green beans that  my roommate and I made. A coworker and a bunch of other Univen people joined us, including some microbiology professors from UVA who are teaching a class at Univen.

A traditional Venda braai includes a lot of meat and a lot of music and dancing. Since there are four vegetarians in the group and limited barbeque space and food funding, those in charge of the meat opted for healthier and cheaper options, which upset at least one of the Venda ladies in attendance. She kept asking for more meat and saying that the meat we had wasn’t good enough. To her credit, she tried a veggie skewer and made it through a bite before giving it back.

The cafeteria on campus generally only has rice, pap, and several types of meat and quite a few people are astounded that both my roommate and I are vegetarian. One guy asked how we could get enough iron since we lose a lot of it every month and we often hear comments about how other people would die if they couldn’t eat meat. A lot of this area is still rural and the food they get is either grown in the garden or slaughtered and one man explained that those who live in the towns often can’t afford meat and must enjoy it when they can get it, so it’s understandable that “vegetarian” is a foreign concept.

We had an iPod playing the whole braai with upbeat American music and the same lady who wanted more meat turned out to be a spectacular dancer and tried to get us to join her (after saying that she wanted gospel reggae music). It was a lot of butt shaking and chest shimmying in ways my body doesn’t move and complicated arm movements that I couldn’t do without hitting myself in the face, but was great to watch. She used to lead the line in a traditional dance that her people do with drums and showed some steps to us. In return, someone showed her how to play Angry Birds.

We’ve been going to bed around 10 p.m. and getting up between 7 and 8 a.m., so it was a struggle to stay awake until 11 p.m. I’ll definitely have some problems of getting myself back to the 2 a.m. to 9 a.m. sleep schedule I’m usually on, though what I’m doing now is probably better. I tried to sleep in late today, but ended up just lying awake from 6:45 to 9:30 listening to things on the roof.

There was finally sun and time to do laundry (hard to believe, I know). We had some fun figuring out the best way to wash clothes in buckets and hang them on cord I tied across the porch. I finally got a picture of the huge (size of my forearm) blue-faced lizard after chasing him around someone else’s cabin for a while. Lizards are amazing at that game where you run around a pole to hide from someone coming after you around the other side. I couldn’t even trick him by switching up which way I ran.

While we were outside, we watched one large male monkey scout around for food, thinking it was the coolest thing ever. Within an hour, monkeys were everywhere, so it wasn’t as cool. They avoided us, mostly, and pulled stuff out of trashcans. One stood on a water heater and tried to turn knobs and pull out hoses.

As I was writing that last paragraph, actually, my roommate yelled at me from the porch because a bold monkey was sitting right in front of her eyeing our laundry. I ran out and charged him and a little pack of juveniles nearby to scare them off and then got angrily clicked at by the first one, who’d perched on our roof. We naturally ran inside to hide lest he urinate on us or fly at us with teeth bared. Some of the other students came out and started throwing rocks at them to scare them out of the park, mad that some monkeys stole guavas right off the porch while they were there. Monkeys actually suck to have around, what with their opposable thumbs and knowledge that they could take us in a fight. We thought we’d sufficiently scared them and settled back out on the porch and then they came back! I expect a monkey or two to be wearing my clothes in the morning or waiting to ambush us.

Anyways, earlier in the day we got tired of watching monkeys do monkey things and decided to take a nice walk around the area. Within a minute of leaving the guarded gates of Acacia, we were being yelled and whistled at by two guys on the road. They persisted even though we ignored them and came running down the hill to talk to us. We’re used to random people wanting to shake our hands and ask where we’re from, but these guys were quite drunk (at 3 p.m.) and one kept telling my roommate that he loved her. They asked for our phone numbers and we insisted that we didn’t have any until they gave up and left.

We made it across a street and down a few blocks to a shopping center, where we went into a grocery store I hadn’t been in in before called Spar. A lot of people were looking curiously at us, a white girl and an Indian girl wearing knee-length shorts in an area where there generally aren’t white people (though there is a large Indian population). A lady came up to me and said she liked my really scratched up Doc Martens and that she preferred to dress like a man even though she’s a woman (was she saying I looked like a man?). Next, right when I was excitedly pulling cartons of pasteurized grapefruit juice off a shelf (finally found some!) two guys came and forcibly shook my hand then asked for a cigarette. I told them I had none, that I couldn’t understand them since they were protesting in another language, and walked away. While we were standing in line, two young men and a girl stood behind me (potentially under the influence of some leafy drugs?). The boys shook my hand and requested I shake the girl’s hand, then asked for my number. I told them I didn’t have one so they asked to get a picture with me. I said no and they tried to sneak one and I very rudely put my hand in front of the camera lens. I think they were able to get one when I had to pay the cashier, though (I’ve turned around a few times to find even coworkers sneaking pictures to take home to their children).

The store opened into a dingy mall full of clothing stores. We walked through it just long enough to hear some guys comment on how nice our legs are and made our way back towards our route home. Another man came up to us and started asking for 2 rand, saying we were his sisters and that he needed to get home. We kept refusing and walking away, but he pressed himself against us and kept asking. It was at this point I was really beating myself up for leaving my pepper spray and my knife at the cabin, since he wouldn’t leave no matter how quickly we walked and how many times we said we didn’t have money and kept leaning in so his torso touched my arm. My roommate got a little sassy with him just before I steered us towards the doorway of a store where some security guards stood, causing him to veer off the other way, thank goodness.

We’ve walked around a decent amount at Univen and in a smaller shopping complex and not encountered anything like the harassment we got in the hour we were out today. Generally people are just interested in making basic conversation since we look so out of place, so we felt safe enough to walk a few blocks. We both had small cross-body bags with our money in them and kept at least one hand on them at all times, so I was pretty sure nobody could steal from us because it’d take a lot of effort, but it’s still unnerving to have people follow us around and audibly make comments about our bodies (which I don’t understand because pretty much every woman here is among the most beautiful I’ve ever seen). I definitely won’t leave without pepper spray and a knife again, though, and I’m glad I know self-defense.

On the sidewalk back, we ran into a group of grade 11 girls. Kate, who was wearing very nice purple skinny jeans, walked with us a block and asked questions. I was somewhat ashamed that I’d ignored her at first because I was still reeling from the last guy. She said that she can tell that we aren’t South African white people because the shade of white is different and made some comments about how the weather must be colder in the U.S. because we’re so light-coloured.

The security guard at the gate stopped us for conversation too, telling us that the monkeys here are peaceful (lies!) and that we’re lucky we don’t have baboons because they target women and children and will steal anything from you right out of your hands. He asked us to learn Venda and share it in the U.S., saying also that he wishes he can visit the U.S. sometime since it’s such a wonderful place. He’s a real sweetheart and spent a long while telling us that he’s glad we’re staying for so long because he likes to be around people who are so kind-hearted and smile all the time. I think he and Kate made up for the offensive men at the shopping complex.

One last exciting event is that I made popcorn in a pot on the stove very successfully. We don’t have a microwave (not that there’s microwaveable popcorn anyways) and I’ve been wanting popcorn for a while, so I went ahead and bought a bag of kernels. It took two of us wondering why it wasn’t working and messing with the burner to get it to go, but it wasn’t burned and it tastes like real popcorn. It even pushed the lid off of the pot. I’m getting really good at that kitchen thing.

I have to wait until I can use the Univen internet on Monday to post any pictures. We finally sorted out our modem, but the data gets used quickly and I have to conserve it for a couple online classes I’m taking.

A portion of the Univen campus.

Walking to a subject's house in a village.

Watch out for hippos on the road!

Lizard lost his tail to distract a predator.

Monkeys!

A part of one of the shopping centers in Thohoyandou.

June 21: You might be able to call me an expert in literature searching

This week has been spent refining our research topics and searching journals for similar studies that can give us an analysis direction or point out where we’re lacking data. I’ve gone through hundreds of articles and have found maybe seven applicable studies, but the ones I have are quality and I’ve found that nobody has looked at my topic in South Africa before and published, which is great for me. I’ve settled on looking at maternal anthropometry. Not as disease-related as I’d hoped, but still an area that needs to be looked at. Now I just have to continue looking through articles and designing the data analysis. The expectation of the program is that I’ll have produced a paper of my own by the time I leave Venda, which is five weeks from now. It’ll require a quick turn-around once I get my topic approved and figure out how to do the statistics.

I met with the microbiology professor at Univen to discuss the feasibility of some of my topics on Tuesday. He’s involved in the science aspect of the MAL-ED project where he and his students test the stool samples and other collected materials. Some of his graduate students were doing topics that I was considering and backing them up with lab work they’d been doing for months, so I had to let go of those. He was such a delightful person to talk to that I didn’t mind, though. He invited us to come observe his students work in the lab and examine some of the samples they’re analyzing, which will be wonderful. We’ll also get the chance to go out to the field a few times next week to help the field workers and see more of the people whose data we’re analyzing, so I’m looking forward to that.

We left the office early yesterday to visit the Thohoyandou Art and Culture Centre with a lady we work with and a UVA faculty member who is leaving for the States on Saturday. It was basically a place for local artists to display their work – everything from photographs to sculptures to handmade paper – and maybe make some money by selling it to tourists. The majority of the works centered on the local culture, so there were sculptures of diamond miners and women in traditional dress, paintings of tribal ceremonies, prints of huts, and bracelets made in the local style. There was also a painting of George W. Bush, though it looked very out of place.

We pondered over a basket of small but expensive chunks of wood with little holes poked in them for a while before the proprietor told us that half of them were elephant bones and are used by the tribal shaman as divining bones. They’re trained to throw them and read the configuration to gather information. I hope to be able to witness traditional practices like this in person sometime before I leave (though I did see some Univen students practicing some traditional dance today).

The lady who accompanied us showed us some sculptures there that her dad had carved. We ended up meeting him afterward and saw a half-finished but already intricately-carved wooden drum that he made from one piece of tree trunk with a chisel by working 8am-5pm every day for three or four months. Eventually a piece of animal hide will be stretched over it and it can be used in traditional dances and ceremonies. I wanted to buy so much of the art there, especially since all of the money goes back to the artist, but luggage limitations and the worry that they’ll break in transit kept me from getting any of the beautiful items. There were even some tortoise carvings I had to leave behind.

We went with the water filter team past Louis Trichardt (another town about 140 km away) to a lodge called Shilivari to meet some architecture students from UVA for dinner last night. It was somewhat expensive (R160 which equals about $20, so not expensive in the U.S., but expensive here), but was absolutely wonderful. They served a butternut soup, pasta and vegetables for the vegetarians, and lemon tart for dessert. I never really liked butternut squash, but I’ve had it quite often here and turns out it’s pretty great. That lodge is 800 times more luxurious than Acacia, but I think I’m ok “living rough” in Thohoyandou since I get a better feel for the area and living on my own. Of course we’re covered in dirt all the time just from walking outside, people keep taking our porch furniture, we have to use a pocket knife to cut vegetables, and there’s the risk of lizards crawling through our bathroom window, but it’s a lot less touristy than putting up in a nice hotel for two months. I even hung a complex clothing line system outside our cabin this morning (trying to avoid the spider egg sacs everywhere) and we’re going to do our laundry in little buckets once the sun comes back out (it’s drizzly and overcast today) and hope no monkeys steal our shirts.

I came here in anticipation of monkeys that are to this area as grey squirrels are to the U.S. and was disappointed for more than a week at seeing none, even though I could hear them prancing on my roof. Then, on Monday morning, we walked outside and the monkeys were everywhere. They were fighting, sunning, scratching, climbing trees, digging in the trash, and just generally being the most adorable animals ever. I’m not sure the species, but they’re little grey ones that are out around 8 a.m. and then disappear for the rest of the day unless someone leaves the lid off the trashcan. If not for the threat of rabies, hemorrhagic fever, parasites, and monkey fangs, I’d try to befriend one.

The language I thought was Dutch is actually Afrikaans. I knew that descendants of Dutch settlers in South Africa are called Afrikaner, but I never put that together with the language. Apparently the difference between Dutch and Afrikaans is like the difference between American English and British English, which is why I identified it as Dutch. I’ve watched some soap operas in Afrikaans and someone attempted to teach me some words, but I’ve been having a language overload and keep mixing them up in my head. This area uses English, Afrikaans, and Tshivenda as well as a number of other native languages. So far I’ve only been somewhat successful in picking up Tshivenda (more than the last time I wrote about languages!)

My faculty advisor at Univen grew up on the western side of the country and speaks Xhosa, which is one of several languages that incorporate clicks and other sounds made in the mouth. Her name actually uses a click, but I’m not comfortable saying it that way yet. She has explained that there are four click-incorporating languages similar to hers that she can understand despite not knowing them fully. The other native languages used in the Venda area, though, are different enough that she can’t use them. I’m not trained in picking out the different languages and just assume everyone’s using Tshivenda (which is a decently safe assumption in this area. Most people know Tshivenda on at least a basic level). The soap operas based in Johannesburg will often use a mix of an unidentified language and English, supplementing with subtitles for anything they think English-speakers won’t understand. We’ve actually gotten pretty hooked on one called Isidingo, which has eight plot lines at once and likes to cut off right when something is about to happen.

I met my advisor’s son who is in primary school and interested in robotics and singing, according to himself. He could speak English really well, which is apparently a result of watching American TV (he was watching the Disney Channel when we walked in). His mother said that he insists upon using English at home and had an aversion to learning her native language for most of his life, so he would ask her to use English if she tried speaking in a different language. More recently, he’s been teaching himself Spanish just for kicks. A very precocious boy, for sure.

I’m not sure if we’re doing anything cool this weekend (besides living in a country halfway across the world!), but there are certainly many places to visit in the area, if only I had transportation at my disposal. There are a lot of minibus taxis around, but I don’t trust them because they like to break the already lax traffic rules and drive on the sidewalks and they’re just really annoying to be around. Our main transportation provider is leaving on Saturday, so we’ll have to try to arrange other methods of getting to Univen, the store, and attractions for the rest of our stay.

June 18: Really long weekend recap

A herd of African elephants enjoying a watering hole. (Click for a better picture)

My venture into the African bush this weekend was one of the best, if not the best, experiences of my life. I want to share as much of it with you as possible, so be prepared for a very long post. Plus I learned so much information over two days that it’s a wonder my brain didn’t catch fire from all of the data transfer.

Wallowing cape buffalo

We were at Gomo Gomo in the southern part of the park, which is reputed to have the best animals. After lunch, we got into a Land Rover with a guide named Iwan and a tracker for a night safari (it gets dark around 5 p.m.). Almost immediately, we ran into a herd of cape buffalo at a watering hole. There were hundreds and Iwan said they might travel in herd of up to a thousand. We were maybe 50 feet from a large bull that kept rubbing his head in the mud to coat his horns as a protectant and then just threw himself onto his back and started wallowing, looking a lot like my dog when she’s rolling in the grass trying to scratch her back. The buffalo covered himself in mud and would sigh and roll over in his contentedness. It was adorable and awe-inspiring all at once, since these buffalo are some of the most dangerous creatures on the bush. One guide said that if you were to encounter a lone bull while on foot, there would be a 95% chance that one of you would be dead and it’d probably be you.

The night ride was pretty fruitful after the buffalo. We found some male lions, one of which just sat in the perfect spot to catch the sinking sun on his mane and looked at us like a sleepy little house cat. Another male also displayed some of the pre-mating behavior with a female, which was pretty interesting to see so close. A number of herds of hooved animals was around, though they’re pretty skittish and would start leaping away when we drew close. My favourite of those is a steenbok, which is barely taller than the grass when it’s mature. The guides said we were immensely lucky to see two different leopards in a night, too, since they’re more elusive and they hadn’t seen them in a few days. I was hoping to catch site of a honey badger, which is also nocturnal, but they were well-hidden or maybe busy fighting some cobras in the thicker brush. Apparently they like to try to break into the kitchen at night. I would not want to meet those teeth in the dark. Or in the light. Just never want to come into close contact with one of those.

Dinner was set up in a large circle around an open fire outside the lodge. We had potato and corn chowder, grapefruit salad, and a little vegetable quiche. All the omnivores got to have impala as their main course, which was incredibly disconcerting considering we’d just watched a herd of them drink from the lake outside the lodge. But we know they’re free-range…

Towards the end of dinner, the lions started roaring to establish territory. They sounded so close (and actually come to the lodge occasionally and take up residence outside some of the rooms). They continued until late into the night and a bit in the early morning.

We actually ended up falling asleep shortly after 10, since it’d been dark for so long already and there weren’t many real lights. The lodge gave us walkie talkies in case an animal got into our cabins at night and we weren’t allowed to leave since the nocturnal hunters were about. There was a high electric fence around most of the area, but that was mainly to keep the elephants from getting in and damaging the buildings. All smaller animals could still get in.

The guides woke us up at 5:30 a.m. (I woke up naturally at 5:15 since I went to bed so early). We left in the car again for a morning ride. It took us a while to find any animals other than the birds, which were in every bush and tree and had so many different colours and varieties that the guide needed a book to verify species. Guinea fowl were especially present, running out of the bushes when we drove by and being stupid enough to run in front of the vehicle instead of off to the side, so we were constantly chasing them around unintentionally.

Iwan and the tracker were observant of tracks, dung, branches, and sounds and communicated with other guides out in the bush to locate the animals. I was impressed that they could find their way around such a vast area, first of all, and second locate a single animal over large expanses based on some fuzzy marks in the sand.

White rhino.

They eventually found some white rhinos, which I’d heard were difficult to see since they avoid the cars, and we were able to observe several rhinos and even a baby for a while as they grazed from bushes. These animals are absolutely beautiful and their faces are heart-wrenchingly adorable, though they could definitely spear a person with their horns. Poaching rhinos is a huge problem in the area, where people will shoot them from helicopters, land, cut the horn off, and fly away again, leaving the entire carcass to be picked by vultures. The horns are used in some superstitious medicine and a newspaper published an unfounded report that the horns could help cure cancer, so they can get maybe $60,000 per kilo for a horn and a typical male will have up to eight kilos. These prices are ridiculous considering the horns are made completely of keratin, the same substance that makes up our fingernails (but if I went to the black market with a kilo of nail clippings, I definitely wouldn’t get any money). If the killing rate continues at what it is now, estimates put total extinction at 10 years. A lot of preventative measures are being enacted, including nightly flight patrols around Kruger by the air force, vehicle patrols, and people who sleep in the bush near the rhinos every night. The government recently passed a law that says that a suspected poacher or poaching helicopter can be shot on sight without having to verify whether it was actually a poacher. A couple hundred have been shot since. Elephant poaching used to be a problem, as well, which is altogether slightly less stupid considering their tusks are made of ivory, but still atrocious. What the government did to fix that was to legalize the selling of tusks for about a week. This allowed reserves and parks to sell all of the tusks they’d collected from elephants who died naturally and it flooded the market, killing any illegal trading. Perhaps a similar method might help the rhinos. Their horns can also be harvested without killing the animals since they’ll grow about seven inches per year.

After the rhinos, we drove around for a long while tracking elephants. In the interim, we saw some more hoofed animals, like the kudo and some impala that were fighting. Eventually we tracked down a herd of elephants nearly stampeding towards water, which they hadn’t seen in days. We followed at a close distance, but made sure to stay out of their way. A large female got annoyed at us, however, and started charging. The tracker on the front of the vehicle banged on the hood and deterred her, thank goodness. The herd met with more elephants on the way and all made it to a large watering hole, maybe 20 elephants strong. They baby elephants play-fought each other for water rights and one of the elephants just plunged himself in. Whenever they walked back out of the water, their skin turned black where it was wet and they all looked like they were wearing boots. It was amazing to be so close to them, hear all of their noises, see them play and squirt each other, and enjoy the water and the chance to rest. The baby elephants were my favourite, since they just skipped along (as well as an elephant can skip) and flapped their ears around. I learned that they’ll actually eat their mother’s droppings for a while to develop a good immune system and to get some food that their small bodies can digest easily. It works for them since elephants only digest about 40% of the 250-300 kg of plant matter they eat every day.

At one point, a male elephant, visibly in heat, came to the lake. Iwan said that if the bull were to get near, we would definitely need to run away. The other elephants avoided him and he eventually left, but I felt bad for him- he can’t help it that his hormones were heightened to the point that he was literally dripping testosterone from his sexual organs. It was just time for him to reproduce. (Human males aren’t allowed to garner sympathy with that excuse, though.)

After breakfast and observing some shy turtles in the lake at the lodge, we went on a short bush walk with Iwan. He showed us some plants and how to identify dung and some tracks. At one point he picked a leaf off of a bush and ate it, telling us it was sweet and to try it. I did and it tasted awful, so I discreetly spit it out. Turns out he was lying and the plant, a silver clusterleaf, uses bitter substances to keep most animals from eating it. A few of the leaves will cure a hangover, though, if you ever find yourself with a lot of alcohol in the bush. At the very end of the walk he picked up a handful of dry impala droppings and gave us all one. We then had a spitting contest with them. It’s now at the top of my list of weirdest things I’ve ever done. They’re completely safe and made of repeatedly digested plant matter, but weren’t comfortable to have in my mouth. I don’t recommend trying it without a trained guide, though - you might end up with the wrong animal’s dung in your mouth.

After we checked out of the lodge (with a grand total of under $200 for all of the luxuries provided and wonderful experiences that can never be matched), our caravan split into two groups. My car went down the road to the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre, where we watched an informative video on the inception of the center, which began as a cheetah reserve and breeding program, and then went on a tour of the area. They understandably mostly have cheetahs, which are rapidly declining as a species since they’re at odds with farming and the small tracts of land available can’t support them. We saw many cheetahs and even a king cheetah, which has beautiful black stripes and tufts of hair due to a recessive gene (they were coveted by the ancient Egyptians). The center has a well-researched breeding program that has produced over 200 cheetahs for relocation and even some to act as “mousers” for air force bases that had problems with small animals on the runway.

We were able to park our vehicle within inches of a group of African wild dogs (close enough that if I reached my hand out, I could have pet one), vicious animals with the third hardest bite force in Africa. The ones inside the reserve are habituated to humans and ignored us while we were there. They urinate on each other to establish a social hierarchy, so they smelled pretty bad, but looked so peaceful sleeping in the sun. A pregnant female releases hormones that put the other females in the pack into false pregnancies. They’ll all start lactating and can help feed the one litter of 12 pups.

Besides those, we saw an orphaned zebra roaming free around the park that was adopted by two goats (the guide said that the goats were too stupid to recognize that the zebra wasn’t theirs, so they’re perfect surrogates), a genet (looks like a tiny cat), a variety of antelope, many ugly vultures, and a bunch of lions. Most all of the animals that we could see were abused somehow and couldn’t be released. An older male lion with a black mane had been raised as a “canned lion,” a practice where male cubs are collected and raised by humans and once they’re old enough they’re sold to foreigners who come to South Africa, enter an enclosure with a lion who is drugged, and shoot it. Like the guide pointed out, it’s murder, not hunting, and is illegal in most provinces. There was another lion there who didn’t have a mane. He used to belong to an Asian circus and had been castrated before the hormones that make him grow a mane kicked in. The circus went bankrupt and abandoned the lion and a female on the road. They were tracked down and prosecuted for animal cruelty since the lions were abused beyond belief. Neither of them could possibly interact normally with other lions and have such a fear of humans that there’d be a huge risk of one feeling threatened and attacking someone.

Tortoise! This guy is the largest species in South Africa.

The best part of the center, by far, was the enclosure with TWO TORTOISES! They were kept as pets and had holes drilled into their shells for a chain, but since keeping wild animals as pets is illegal in the country and they were only being fed lettuce (not good for a tortoise as the primary food!), they were brought to the center.

Every time I do something related to animal reserves, I get largely concerned that I’m headed in the wrong direction by going for an MD/PhD for research. I’m certain that I would enjoy working as a vet or an animal specialist at a reserve like this one or the one that I visited in Ecuador that rehabbed animals confiscated from traffickers. Instead of studying for years towards a job that I might end up getting bored with, I know I’ll love every minute that I act as a guide and get to teach people about my animals and work to preserve species or even one abused animal’s life. I can’t see myself not getting a research degree either, though, and I want the chance to work to build up the knowledge base in my field and become an expert on the immune system. It’s quite a quandary, especially since I’ll have to take the GRE to apply to grad programs that would let me study zoology and I’ve barely enough time to take the MCAT and apply to medical schools in the couple weeks after I’m back from South Africa.

Anyways, there is a program for students where one could spend three weeks at the center helping with all of the animal care, breeding, learn tracking, sleep in the bush, and take the elephant-back bush tour. It sounds amazing and if I had the financial means and the time to come back, I would seriously consider it.

We got back to Thohoyandou late Sunday and got up early on Monday to meet with a psychologist at Univen. The rest of the day wasn’t too eventful, but we did get a very good lunch that was catered for someone’s birthday. There’s a staple food here called pap that’s made of finely-ground cornmeal. Nearly everyone we’ve met since we got here has asked us if we’ve tried it so it was high time we did. I thought it was mashed potatoes at first, but it was a very thick, heavy bowl of plain cornmeal. It tasted like very fine grits all smashed together and with no salt at all. Not too bad, but definitely needs gravy or something. There are a few different types, including a fortified version since straight cornmeal has no nutritional value. Besides that, we had rice, beetroot (one of the best recipes I’ve tasted yet!), butternut squash, and a yellow coleslaw that I was hesitant to eat since the cabbage was raw. Haven’t gotten sick yet, but I don’t think I’ll attempt raw green vegetables again unless someone offers me some toboulleh.

Surprisingly, there was one soymilk brand at the store. It’s called Ma and tastes like normal soymilk, just saltier. I can’t guarantee that it’s not GMO, but it’s handy to have to use in coffee (fake coffee…there aren’t even any ground coffee beans at the store) and cereal. There are a lot of foods that I can’t find, though, including dark chocolate, grapefruit juice (or any juice that’s real juice and/or pasteurized), any snack food not made of maize, and fresh green beans. All the canned green beans are soaked in brine, which is unfortunate, and there’s no frozen section in the grocery store except some open cold bins that have ice cream and frozen chicken and beef.

This week is mainly devoted to finalizing our project topics, so I expect to spend most of it sifting through literature. I’m having a lot more trouble choosing a topic than I expected, since I’d wanted to do something related to disease but most of the children in the study are pretty healthy and I can’t get a high enough sample size for any disease that is statistically valid. Good for the children, bad for my topic choice.

As if this post wasn’t already a novel, I’d like to share some interesting facts about horseshoe crabs I picked up from a magazine. They have blue blood, of course, but that blood is very sensitive to toxins from bacteria and will clot immediately to shut down blood flow to organs to protect the animal. This property is utilized in a process called Limulus Amoebocyte Lysate (LAL) to detect toxins in body fluids and to monitor contamination in medical supplies and intravenous drugs. About 30% of a crab’s blood can be withdrawn without affecting it negatively, so they can be caught, stuck, and released. The article also said that a component of the blood called T140 might inhibit replication of HIV, so it’ll be interesting to see how research on that turns out.