This was a great week, starting on the high note of joyfulness in service. Our church in Vryheid held an AIDS memorial service Sunday, with a candle lighting to remember friends and loved ones who have died of this scourge. Barely able to hold back tears, Brendon and I lit candles, remembering the good-hearted driver who clowned around to make the patients laugh and the hard working kitchen helper. The minister’s sermon was even more compelling as she stated that we are all infected or affected by AIDS and that we are One in this disease as everyone could be HIV positive. Her message was refrain from judging others; rather offer love and kindness. Her final admonition was to “Joyfully serve HIV/AIDs patients, especially the poor.”
I took the message to heart and found that the work at Mountain High Hospital was a pleasure when the “Joyfully Serve” message is applied and that the Sewing, beading and bingo activities went well when my attitude improved. When I come to the patients with a smile and a song, they respond with smiles and warmth. When I am intent on just getting the job done without any supplies pilfered, they are withdrawn and anxious. Joyful service is contagious. This week the Zulu nurse and young male assistant broke into song and started the Zulu stomp dance which raised the spirits of the patients as we
celebrated another day of life. No one complained about the projects for the day or the inadequacy of the materials. The group was united in Ubuntu-the joy of humanness.
Tonight we are at Hluhluw
e Game Park, using up our last few days of leave before we return to Mountain High to complete our tasks, pack up and head to Pretoria for medical exams and a close of service conference. For the Bond’s the Game is the Thing in South Africa and today was no disappointment. Hluhluwe was the Zulu King Shaka’s hunting grounds and the park contains all of Big Five in a lovely mountainous setting in KwaZulu-Natal. The terrain is as interesting as the game with grassy savannahs, acacias and aloes dotting the hillsides, beautiful tree canopies, marula trees that are delicacies to the many elephants and comfortable, reasonable accommodations. At a view stop on the game drive we spotted four Cape buffalo, two elephants and two white rhino on the three sides of the hill, three of the big five with a turn of the head.
We stopped to look at a mother and baby rhino by the side of the road. The b
aby turned to look at our little white Nissan and thought she had found a playmate. The baby ambled towards our car. We backed up but the baby continued forward to meet this new friend. We backed up again and started to get a little anxious when the baby was only 5 feet in front of our car. By this time another car had stopped behind our car and we couldn’t back up any further. The horns on the baby looke
d huge not to mention her mother who started to glare at us ominously. Finally Mother took matters in hand and using her horn prodded to her child’s bottom to get off the road and not play with strangers.
A short time up the road from Mother and Baby Rhino we spotted 5 adult rhinos grazing on the side of the hill. (White rhinos graze, black rhinos browse). They headed up the hill to the road with the intent to cross to the other side which was a hilly embankment. The sight of 5 huge rhinos crossing a narrow one lane road was utterly amazing but the story does not end there. The first rhino to cross the road had evidently taken the wrong path and didn’t know where the trail was on the other side of the road. Soon all five rhinos were milling about, carrying on a rhino-conference, debating the finer points of navigation and berating the poor fellow who led them astray. Traffic began to pile up as cars parked and could not proceed through the rhino roadblock, and of course the rhino’s way was blocked by the cars – gridlock Hluhluwe-style. It is unclear who looked more stupid – the rhinos contemplating possible paths up the hill or the drivers contemplating being stranded by a rhino road block for the rest of the day. After about 10 minutes of indecision, one brave rhino turned again to the hillside and bravely created his own path up the incline. Soon his pals followed in suit and the show was over. Engines started and the drivers moved on to the next extraordinary sight.
I took the message to heart and found that the work at Mountain High Hospital was a pleasure when the “Joyfully Serve” message is applied and that the Sewing, beading and bingo activities went well when my attitude improved. When I come to the patients with a smile and a song, they respond with smiles and warmth. When I am intent on just getting the job done without any supplies pilfered, they are withdrawn and anxious. Joyful service is contagious. This week the Zulu nurse and young male assistant broke into song and started the Zulu stomp dance which raised the spirits of the patients as we
celebrated another day of life. No one complained about the projects for the day or the inadequacy of the materials. The group was united in Ubuntu-the joy of humanness.
Tonight we are at Hluhluw
e Game Park, using up our last few days of leave before we return to Mountain High to complete our tasks, pack up and head to Pretoria for medical exams and a close of service conference. For the Bond’s the Game is the Thing in South Africa and today was no disappointment. Hluhluwe was the Zulu King Shaka’s hunting grounds and the park contains all of Big Five in a lovely mountainous setting in KwaZulu-Natal. The terrain is as interesting as the game with grassy savannahs, acacias and aloes dotting the hillsides, beautiful tree canopies, marula trees that are delicacies to the many elephants and comfortable, reasonable accommodations. At a view stop on the game drive we spotted four Cape buffalo, two elephants and two white rhino on the three sides of the hill, three of the big five with a turn of the head.We stopped to look at a mother and baby rhino by the side of the road. The b
aby turned to look at our little white Nissan and thought she had found a playmate. The baby ambled towards our car. We backed up but the baby continued forward to meet this new friend. We backed up again and started to get a little anxious when the baby was only 5 feet in front of our car. By this time another car had stopped behind our car and we couldn’t back up any further. The horns on the baby looke
d huge not to mention her mother who started to glare at us ominously. Finally Mother took matters in hand and using her horn prodded to her child’s bottom to get off the road and not play with strangers.A short time up the road from Mother and Baby Rhino we spotted 5 adult rhinos grazing on the side of the hill. (White rhinos graze, black rhinos browse). They headed up the hill to the road with the intent to cross to the other side which was a hilly embankment. The sight of 5 huge rhinos crossing a narrow one lane road was utterly amazing but the story does not end there. The first rhino to cross the road had evidently taken the wrong path and didn’t know where the trail was on the other side of the road. Soon all five rhinos were milling about, carrying on a rhino-conference, debating the finer points of navigation and berating the poor fellow who led them astray. Traffic began to pile up as cars parked and could not proceed through the rhino roadblock, and of course the rhino’s way was blocked by the cars – gridlock Hluhluwe-style. It is unclear who looked more stupid – the rhinos contemplating possible paths up the hill or the drivers contemplating being stranded by a rhino road block for the rest of the day. After about 10 minutes of indecision, one brave rhino turned again to the hillside and bravely created his own path up the incline. Soon his pals followed in suit and the show was over. Engines started and the drivers moved on to the next extraordinary sight.
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