Living abroad has been both challenging and rewarding. The biggest challenges for myself are that I have not been able to work and just trying to keep busy. People always say "Oh I can't wait to retire to do nothing!" --- take it from me, it's not all that fun. Heck I used to always say that. I guess it comes down to liking what you are doing for a job. I remember all those long nights working front desk thinking I would rather watch paint dry than stand there another moment. I guess that's another thing I figured out while living here away from it all. When I get back to the States, I am getting a career that will make me happy. Not some job to fill the time.
One of the most rewarding things about being here is that it has allowed me a lot of time for "reflection". I think a lot about the people that have come in and out of my life. Some that aren't in my life anymore that I wish still were, and others that I say good riddance. Perhaps what I am trying to say is that by being away from relationships, you learn the true value of them. So to all those people who haven't lost contact with me, who even just send a friendly hello through text/facebook/email, or to my mother that calls me everyday, I would like to say Thank You. Being away is hard and it can make you feel lonely and secluded. Messages from friends and loved ones make every day here a little bit easier.
I guess if I want anyone to read this I need to stop being so sentimental and just tell you the facts. Lets be honest, no one really wants to know how I feel, they just want to see sharks and lions and bears? Well we haven't seen and sharks recently (plans to go again in the winter), we won't go see the lions until June, and I'm pretty certain that we won't be seeing any bears period. BUT we have been spending a lot of time at an eagle sanctuary about 45 minutes from our house. This place is for injured birds to either be rehabilitated and released back into the wild, or a "refugee camp" where they can safely live out the rest of their lives. Bobby (as I am sure you have noticed from all the bird pictures on FB) has become a bit obsessed with birds. I'm not a huge bird fan, but I do enjoy the birds of prey. I don't like the ones that just poop and eat bird seed.
Below are some photos of the birds at the sanctuary.
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| Bobby attempting to feed the baby. Meanwhile the larger owl swooped in and stole the food! |
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| Owl on B's head |
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| Yuck. Holding the snake. |
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| Rock Kestrel landed on my head. Jasmina thought that was funny! |
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| Cape Dwarf Chameleon. Pretty adorable little guy. |
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| They should call it an Owl Sanctuary... |
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| They are so soft! |
One last thing to report. Our beautiful Lion's Head (that's the mountain out our back window) caught on fire a few weeks back. It was absolutely awful, but pretty cool to watch. I was laying on the couch reading when it started to smell smoke. I thought for sure our building was on fire. (This is South Africa...not so sure you should trust a fire alarm.) I jumped up and thankfully saw that the smoke wasn't coming from our building but the mountain. It was a very very windy day and the mountain itself is very steep so it appeared that the "firefighters" were really doing much about it. We watched it just burn for at least an hour before they finally called the helicopter to start dump water on it. I would say it burned for a good 12 hours. No one was injured and no property was damaged. However the mountain did take a beating.
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| This was particularly cool to see the helicopter right out the window picking up water and racing back to dump it. |
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| Burning into the night. |
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| The next morning. Notice all the dark vs. the green on the left side. Today those trees on the right side are all brown and dying. |
Okay. That is all for now. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone! See ya next year!(possibly literally??) Hope everyone has a fun and safe New Years.
XOXO from Africa.
