Cheetah Farm

Hello Everyone,
Here is a "short" update on the past few days. Friday we were at the Bridge School in the morning playing basketball with the boys. We are trying to switch boys and girls between soccer and basketball so that neither one is associated with just boys or girls and so that the kids expand their horizons. The picture is of the boys playing basketball. Paul, the evangelical Christian is there, as well as Emmanuel (blue shirt) who is about my age and very helpful with the kids. In the afternoon we had a good day at the BNC and the kids were fun. Friday evening Sebastian, Mark, Kristen and I went across the street to where they are building a new restaurant and every Friday they have drinks and sampler foods laid out amongst the construction and the head chef/owner is there mingling. It seems like the place will be very nice and he hopes to open in four weeks. I am hoping he opens within four weeks so I can try it out. Friday night there were a large number of us hanging out on the front porch drinking and socializing. It was a nice evening and since we didn't go out dancing, I saved a little money. Most of the people we hang out with are German but they all make an attempt to speak in English so Michael and I can understand.
Saturday was soccer day. I was referreing soccer from 930am until almost 7pm at night. The sun is intense but I lathered up pretty good with sunscreen and protected my face with another shirt so I did not burn though I was filthy from all the dirt and extremely exhausted when I got home. I barely made it through dinner and a shower before falling asleep. The same cast of characters came over Saturday night but I took a raincheck and went to bed. All in all, the soccer was fun, but the Pumpkins, the cute girls team I brag so much about, was extremely disappointing and their attitudes on Saturday sucked. Alfrida, the oldest and one of the better players on account of her size, always has an attitude yet her team reveres her because of her talent. She quit on her team during the game and left the field because they were losing and then tried to come back on later in the game. When I refused to let her play, telling her that her attitude was rubbish and she could not play anymore, the team got mad at me for enforcing rules. The worst part of the day was how only six girls actually played the whole game, the rest had walked off the field, including Wendy which was especially disappointing. They let me down.
So then came Sunday and our visit to the Cheetah farm. The cheetah farm is about an hour drive from Windhoek to the north and we all piled into the pickup truck for the ride. There were 10 of us in total, with eight in the back of the pickup truck. The picture to the left is Kristen in the back of the truck flying down the highway. It is funny how riding with your ass hanging out the back of a pickup truck going 120km down a highway seems reckless in America but for some reason it seems safe in Namibia. The ride up was beautiful and the sun was shining and the land is still very green even though the rainy season appeared to be over. I say appeared to be because as we would soon find out, the rainy season was still in full force.
The cheetah farm is 18km off the highway down a dirt road. The ride down the dirt road was scenic and adventurous. We saw baboons, warthogs, wildebeest, and two oryx fighting in the middle of the road. All the animals were extremely close. The oryx I find to be very beautiful- they are similar to deer but grey and black and bigger with long pointed horns. We even had to slush our way through two streams. The ride was very scenic and was very close to the mountains and it looked like it would be a beautiful day to see all the animals. When we arrived at the gate, a woman hurried us onto two landrovers as the tour was about to begin. It seemed a little odd the way we were piled into the Land Rovers with out registering and when the tourguy offered me Barbeque scented suntan lotion, I became a little unnerved.
MB and I went in the front row of the front car with a mixed group of Europeans who were all very friendly. Normally the front row of the front car would seem like a privilege as we have the most unobstructed view, but to our dismay, we found out that also means that our faces are used to clear the way of all the spider webs and branches that have formed across the trail. The spiders here are enormous with black and neon orange coloring and their webs are yellow, sticky, and as thick as dental floss. Oh yea, and there are these prickly bushes all along the trail with prickers as thick as tooth picks.
So our first stop on the trip was to feed the leopards. The Namibian in driving the truck placed chunks of raw meat on a tree trunk and the leopard came around, climbed the tree, and feasted. It is an awesome sight to be within ten feet of a wild animal like this. The leopard was beautiful with huge paws and beautiful eyes. It was a thrill to see the animal this close in its natural habitat. We then drove on to another part of the park to see and feed a cheetah. The cheetah is beautiful, too, but a little thinner and more timid. Right around the time we saw the cheetah, we began to feel a few drops of rain ... and then the flood gates opened. The rain began pouring down on us in buckets and we had no protection from the elements. We went racing down this narrow trail in the Land Rover back towards the gate, but it was about a 10 minute drive in the rain. It was raining so hard that we could not see 10 feet in front of us, the wind from the car made it cold, and we kept driving through spider webs and spiders fell ontop of us. It was absolutely insane! We could do nothing but laugh at what was happening to us and just huddle together until we got back to the gate. Needless to say, everyone was drenched and as we were standing underneath a covering, soaking wet, I overheard one guy say to the other guy sarcastically, "Thanks, again, for letting me use your sunscreen."
The rain kept falling but no one from the park was around to offer us a cup of coffee, a towel, or even collect our money. We stood inside a little room for about an hour waiting for the rain to stop and though it never totally cleared up, we finally just decided to hop into the truck and get home. The girls were offered a ride by a young couple from South Africa who were on their way back to Windhoek anyway, and the five guys and MB took the truck back. On the way down the dirt road towards the highway, the owner of the park came speeding towards us like a madman because we had left the park without paying. Since no one was around the entire hour we were waiting in the rain, we assumed we would drive home, call them, and return at a later date to do the tour again. The owner was furious that we did not pay, but when we explained ourselves he let us go. The rain finally stopped near the highway but it was a cold, wet ride home. So that was our memorable adventure at cheetah farm. We all agree that we would like to go back in a few weeks because there is also a game drive with many different animals including giraffes, oryx, etc.
That is all for now. Hope all is well with you... please note that Sunday I posted some more pictures which some of you may not have seen yet, so don't forget to scroll down and view them!