The Lion Park

This last Thursday we finally made it out to the Lion Park. I’ve wanted to go there forever! We went out with Julie, a past field studier who has returned to scout out PhD possibilities. She came with her two little girls, Joyce and Grace, some of the cutest kids on the planet. Dylan came along too, our fellow adventurer. The Lion Park was very cool. It is just a little place, privately run. They had two brown lionesses,  three white lionesses, a white male, a cheetah, a white tiger, a normal Bengal tiger, a giraffe, a crocodile, some boks, lots of peacocks, some meerkats, rabbits, tortoises, and the high light of the journey – three nine week old lion cubs. The whole allure of the Lion Park is that you can pet lion cubs…and we got there and wandered around and weren’t seeing any lion cubs and it was kind of a bummer. I did commune with the tigers for a while and Dyl made friends with the meerkats. And then we wandered into a little café and there was a crib with what I thought were three little lambs – jokes, they were lion cubs! The sign said to stay away and not touch, but then a lady came out and told us we could sit in the crib one at a time and hold them, we had to sanitize our hands first. So I climbed right in and they kind of woke up and crawled on my lap. It was awesome! Emily and Joyce wandered over and found us and Holly, Julie, and Grace followed. We all took turns in the crib. The lion cubs were so adorable! They were all white lions with super blue eyes and curly fur. Two boys – Sampson and Gimpy and a girl, Bella.

We pumped the lady about them. She came out with three bottles of milk and took them one by one to feed them. So cute! She is the mother of the guy who owns the park. Him and his wife bought it nine years ago. They bred lions before that…it took them several years to breed white lions, but they have it down now, I think. The white lionesses can do two litters a year – even three, but they don’t want her to. They have to take the cubs away right away because the male will kill and eat the cubs, he is super jealous of the females. So they have to take them away and hand-rear them. That means feeding them five times a day – a special formula and also raw chicken and beef. For the first several weeks they also have to toilet them. Baby lions don’t know how to go to the bathroom! Their mother licks their bellies and this helps stimulate something, teaches them how to go to the bathroom…so when they are hand-reared, you have to rub their bellies until they learn how to go on their own! She seemed very fond of the cubs and said it was hard to see them go – they usually raise them until they are two or so and then sell them to other parks. People don’t want to buy them earlier because they are extremely susceptible to human germs and the mortality rate is higher…so people might speak for them, but not actually buy them until they are older. She said they are such smart animals and each cub has its own personality. She told us a story about a lion they sold to some place that breeds lions – her daughter in law went out to the farm once to do something and this lion saw her and totally remembered and recognized her and came running to say hello.

The lions are teething or something – the female in particular just wanted to chew on our shoes and jeans. After they were all fed they went back to napping. SO CUTE! Joyce and Grace each took a turn sitting on someone’s lap. Joyce was pretty nervous of them, didn’t want to touch or be touched by them. Grace totally went for it, petting their heads. Funny girls! We spent quite a while with the cubs…it would have been cool to interview the lady about relationships…but I didn’t bring any forms. I had originally planned to use the lion park in my study – but there is only her, her son and daughter in law and a couple other people who come on weekends. She had no experience/formal training with lions or raising lions, she said you just learned as you went. But her son had been into lion breeding – how does one get into that, I wonder!? Anyway, it would have been interesting, but I think I am good with what I have.

I wound up buying a purple apron that says EL Lion Park and has a lion on it. And then I also got this really cool peacock skirt – it was made by the wife of one of the neighboring farmers. It is a traditional wrap around skirt like lots of ladies here wear, it is really cool! I’ve wanted to find a cool, more traditional skirt, hurrah!

Hogsback Adventures

So we’ve gone to Hogsback twice now. Hogsback is this little town up in the mountains; it is beautiful! We went once with all our YSA friends, chasing snow. It had snowed the night before, but then it turned to rain and all melted. It was actually a beautiful sunny day, very autumnal feeling. I loved it! We hiked around a bunch, down to different waterfalls and to this 800 year old tree. The second time we went with Cornelius and Kathy and I’m just going to use my journal entry for that : )

            Saturday morning we woke up and got ready for Hogsback. We left about 8:30 with Kathy and Cornelius. It was great! We got to ask them a bunch of field study questions. That was the first half of the drive, I fell asleep past King William’s Town. Cornelius knows everything, I swear. He has so many interesting tidbits to share! East London has the most millionaires out of all the cities in SA. The largest informal settlement is just outside of EL. And the largest township too? Or second largest? That is Mdatsane. The freeway between EL and King Will’s is really nice, because back during apartheid EL and King Will were white cities and they built the road to connect them because they were surrounded by all these black areas. EL got its name because it was a shipping port and a bunch of the workers were from the slums of East London, England. There were several German settlements and a whole boatload of Irish ladies came down to be married off, but they didn’t like the rough Germans so they married other people…all these stories! It was a gorgeous morning, clear blue skies. Hogsback is having its annual Christmas in July Festival right now, so when we got there people were wearing red and white elf hats and there were booths and stuff all over. We went and used the toilets and then drove to Swallowtail fall. It was a short hike/walk to get there, very beautiful. Then we drove up to Kettlespout – a thin stream that shoots out over the edge of a cliff. Kathy stayed in the car for that one, it was a lot steeper of a hike. Cornelius lived in Hogsback for nine months once, in a little cottage. He did all the walks and wandered through the woods…it sounded like a really cool time.

            Walking up to Kettlespout part of the trail was completely surrounded by tall trees, like walking through a narrow tunnel. It was cool, especially with the sun shining down through the leaves. I really liked Kettlespout. It opened up there and you had a great view – again, I was reminded strongly of Moscow! We jumped the little stream to look at a place that Kathy and Cornelius came to once for a champagne breakfast? For their anniversary I think. Poor Emily slipped and took a little dip. Oh! I forgot – when we were sand boarding Emily had a good run and then fell off right at the end, when it was already flat. Her foot got stuck or something. Anyway she landed right on her tail bone and the poor girl has been limping around since then. She can walk fine, but bending or sitting down or getting up cause her pain. No fun! But she didn’t land on it again in the stream, she caught herself…earlier Cornelius said something about how we couldn’t say we’d really walked a trail unless we crossed the stream via log. So I immediately found a good log to clamber over. He said he was just kidding! But I got extra credit. Cornelius is funny…he just kept saying our names. “Quincey Belle Cole – you sound like a film star” and “Emily Mae” and “Holly, Holly, Holly” – some movie quote? We went back down to Kathy and then we drove around Hogsback and wound up at a big field where they had a big tent and booths and some groups performing. The booths were all the stuff we’d seen before, nothing too exciting. The performing people were cool – younger guys and girls and singing and dancing and drums. We sat and watched for a bit and Cornelius ate some spring rolls. Then we got back in the car and drove over to the Edge. There is a little café there and one of the world’s largest labyrinths. It was cool, but not as cool as I thought – I was envisioning shrubbery and a maze and spending hours lost …it was actually just stone paths with little flowers and no maze, you could only go way. It was cool though, we walked the whole thing, curving around and around. 1.6 km to the middle, I think? We walked down to the Edge – a cool stone cliff. Think the scene in Pride and Prejudice with Elizabeth and dramatic music “Liz on Top of the World” I think? Took some pictures.

            Pile back in the car. The weather had shifted by then – clouds and wind. It was definitely a bit colder. OH well. Cornelius drove us past where he used to live, I would love to live in Hogsback. There are lots of fun little properties and cabins. Next we drove to this little chapel, St. James? St. Patricks? It was cool – stone with thatched roof. Originally built in 1913 and then expanded…it burned down though in 2010 and was rebuilt. We were all pretty tired at this point – climbing in and out of cars and driving around is seriously exhausting! What the heck! We drove down to the Butterfly Bistro a super fun little café type place…there were a bunch of hippies camped outside. I mean hippies! Dreadlocks, bare feet, clothes. One guy had a sweet leather hat and goggles – aviator style. But the hat was covered in beads and pins. They were selling some crafts and some food – toasties.  The Bistro was a cool cabin type building. They had a Christmas Tree up. The ladies at the counter were all wearing crazy clothes and sparkly make up and glitter and had designs on their faces…haha, it actually reminded me a lot of Harry Potter really. Think of some witches in Diagon Alley. I got some soup and bread…it took a long time! They were quite busy. Emily and I made ourselves comfortable at the counter, they had stools. They were selling candies and butterfly mallows and beaded butterflies…stuff like that. Kind of ketchy, but cute too. My soup finally arrived and we went out to the car where everyone else was waiting and we left Hogsback. Farewell!

            On the drive home we pumped Cornelius some more. Asked about education and other stuff – I’ll write it up for my field study assignment. He told us about moving to the USA. He and his family lived there for six years while he studied at Notre Dame. I didn’t realize they were there for that long! They came back after apartheid had ended.

Temple Trip to Joburg and Art Fest in Grahamstown

Excerpts from the latest adventures!

We had the opportunity to go with the ward on their annual temple trip. It was a quick three day adventure involving a lot of driving and a lot of baptisms. We left on a Wednesday night at midnight and drove and drove and drove…

We reached the temple about noon. The temple is built on a hill, at the top. The temple grounds are not super huge, but the temple complex includes the hill and several more buildings, including patron housing and offices and a house for visiting general authorities. The hill has several little stone trails and trees and a little stream with several waterfalls. This little wilderness area was so cool – I mean it was tiny, but green and the water running sounded beautiful. You could either walk around on the road, or you could cut through this little nature area that had flat round stones for a path and a section where you cross the stream using two big rocks. There were several benches scattered around. There was a distribution center too. Our rooms were not ready when we first arrived, so we went into the lounge/dining area and piled all our luggage around and relished being out of the car. . .Then we went to wait for our rooms…which took a long time! But it was okay. There were some couches, so I got out my bracelet making equipment and set up shop. Other people were sitting around and Emily, Holly and Yondela got down to talking about dominion and race and gender…ha so interesting to listen to. Holly and Emily are both really passionate about that kind of thing and Yondela is a very outspoken guy. He brings race into everything, half joking, but half serious. And they had some issues about cultural differences. For the black guys in South Africa there is a strong culture of being dominant and always being right etc., so of course that leads to some clashing with the gals. I enjoyed listening and occasionally piping in and I worked away at making friendship bracelets. I got sweet colors – purples, blues, a turquoise. Everyone really liked them – by the end of the trip half of the YSAs were wearing a bracelet : )

We did one round of baptisms Thursday evening after which everyone just relaxed, ate dinner, and played games in the patron housing.

The next morning we went up to the temple for another round of baptisms.

It was just our group this time and I really liked it – it was nice having a smaller group and it was nice knowing what the routine was going to be. We all sat in the waiting room and watched some old LDS movie for a while and then Brother Jubber came and got everyone sorted and we got our clothes. There was a couple from Mdatsane that joined us and a couple of men, which was good because they helped do confirmations. They were short a recorder, so when you were confirmed you just held the words and the name for them, worked perfectly. When it was my turn the guys asked if I was from America, I said yes, from Utah. Oh Utah! They said – but they pronounced it Oohtah, it was great. Gerhard did all the baptisms. The black sister helped with towels and hair elastics (they were really strict about not wearing any color hair tie expect for white). She called me sissie, which I thought was cool. She was just a cool lady! The lady who helped us on Thursday was a Sister Bird, definitely from Utah, we could tell from her accent. But we didn’t get a chance to visit with her.

After baptisms all the YSAs went ice skating at this mall. The Quantum and its driver showed up to transport us there, so we got to see some of Joburg – it is a big, sprawled out city. Ice skating was pretty fun. The ice was awful! Super cut up and it was rather wet – there were puddles of water. And the skates were not super sharp. And there were a lot of people there – there was a birthday party, so lots of little kids and high schoolers. They liked to stand right in the middle – who goes to an ice rink to stand!? They were playing music really loud and they would turn the lights off sometimes and use colored spot lights. It was a regular sized rink, at least not three quarters. We had a good time – Hyrum and Yondela and Emily worked on going backwards, Dylan picked it all up pretty quickly and was speeding all over. Most of the YSAs had never skated before or had gone only once or twice. There aren’t many ice rinks in South Africa.

We had one major mishap when Shantal wiped out and split open her chin. People were pretty calm and we got her bundled off to the hospital. That kind of put a damper on the rest of the day. We all went back to patron housing and had dinner and wound up playing games again – 30 Seconds and Settlers of Katan. It was a nice relaxing evening, everyone was worn out. The next morning we had a brief Testimony Meeting with everyone up on the temple grounds. That was very sweet. We took a bunch of group pictures after and then everyone rounded up their luggage and we set off on another long drive.

 The other recent adventure was a trip to Grahamstown for the National Arts Festival.  We convinced Dylan to drive us and spent a lovely Saturday in rainy Grahamstown. We watched a film called The Last Lions. It was a documentary, sort of…it was all about some of the last wild lions, a pride in Botswana, in the Okovango Delta. This place keeps showing up on my radar, I think I just need to go and work there. The film was all about this one female and her three cubs. Her mate is killed by a pride that is pushed south by humans and takes over their territory. It was Lion King on steroids. Amazing animal shots and a really amazing story. It was filmed by a married couple – they’ve been working for National Geographic for ages. Incredible! And it was narrated by the guy who does Scar’s voice from the Lion King – so it was even narrated by a lion.

              Our next destination was the Village Green, where all the crafts and souvenirs live. It took a little while to find parking, we had to make loops around the green. Grahamstown is a really cool place, I wish we had more time to explore it. It reminded me a lot of New England or Ireland – old stone buildings, thatched roofs, the rain. Luckily all the crafts and stuff were under these huge white tents. There were several craft tents and a couple food tents and a big information tents with tables and chairs. We all kind of split up – Emily and I stuck together. We were going to try and watch this free show of dancers, but couldn’t find the venue…instead of wandering around in the rain, we just went back to the Green and really scoped out the possibilities. We walked through each tent and asked about different prices. I kept notes in my notebook about where things were and how much they cost. I got all of my gift shopping done! There were tons of African crafts – jewelry, bead work, wood carvings, wall hangings, drums, traditional clothing, animals galore. And then there were all the indie hipster booths with their vintage clothing and scarves and adorable prints. And leather booths with belts and wallets and jackets. And the hippie booths with those simple baggy cloth pants and shirts and wool ponchos in earthy colors. And soap and paintings and herbal remedies and olives. I mean it was all the fair stuff, but on steroids, so much cool stuff!

After we were shopped out we went in search of this little theater where different groups were dancing and singing. We wandered through a few buildings and asked directions and finally found it! It was a group of guys dancing and singing in a little outdoor amphitheater, covered from the rain, thankfully. They were really fun! There were four dancer/backup singers and the lead guy was a hoot. And there was a bassist, a drummer, and a keyboard fellow. I filmed a bunch, it was great! They are super into rhythms and it was fun to hear this traditional kind of music played on electric bass and guitar and keyboard. Next we went and watched this Chinese Acrobat and Dance group.

They did fun things with spinning plates and juggling and jumping through ropes and some crazy acrobatic stuff and dancing and magic tricks. Garron and Dylan were both used in the magic trick portion, those dorks. Dylan helped with this sweet trick. He tied up this little Chinese lady – her hands were behind her back and then her arms were tied to her body and the rope was tied around her legs. Dylan had his jacket on and sat down next to her. They covered them both with a big cloth and then the magic trick lady, who was dressed in this spectacular sparkly pant suit, counted down from five, and they flicked off the cloth and the tied up lady had Dylan’s coat on, underneath the ropes! It was pretty crazy, even just getting Dylan’s jacket off him and then on, without being tied up, would have taken a couple seconds. Magic : )

So that was Grahamstown! Whoo, I wrote a lot, but there has been so much cool stuff going on! We have only four weeks left, which I can’t believe. It has gone by super quickly! I am determined to make the most of our remaining time.