A week of South Africa: Day 6

They called it khaki fever.
Unlike in America, it is a social norm that after high school (white) men and women would take a year or two and work for a resort/game reserve before attending college. They would be tour guides on safari's, live in the middle of the bush wearing hiking boots and shorts, and entertain guests from all over the world. Some would end up doing this for the rest of their lives where others it seemed to be a right of passage. During our stay in South Africa we went on a total of 12 safaris. We got to see the majestic big five (lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo, and rhino) running freely in the wild among MANY other animals. Lesley, Jamie, and I even got to have tea with giraffes on a private game reserve.

While with the mission trip group we were fortunate enough to stay at the coolest little game reserve that had tons of "khaki fever" kinda guys. Of course Lesley, Jamie, and I made friends with them and Loren (one of the guys) had a rugby game in a small town near the lodge. So we hopped in a truck and headed to our first rugby game ever. The entire crowd spoke Africans along with the guys we went with (they spoke some English), but MAN was it the awesome. They even gave us a bunch of SA Rugby stuff (I think I ended up with a hat).

My uncle (who is actually a cousin), his wife, and their 3 girls live in South Africa and they were generous enough to let us stay with them after the mission trip portion was over. Troy is a pilot for a company called Federal Air. Among other things, they do fly-in safaris with private game reserves like Sabi Sabi. It isn't everyday that you get to stay at a five star resort in the middle of the bush but Troy pulled some strings and all 5 of us got to stay at Earth Lodge. I mean Anna Kournikova and Will Smith stay at places like this, not poor college students. We went on 3 or more safaris a day with a private tour guide. That way we got to see all of the different types of animals at different times of the day. On evening safaris, the guide would pull out a table on the back of the truck and we would snack on cheese and crackers, sip on wine, and watch the sun go in the middle of the bush. In the mornings we would have tea and scones.