While I was at the Rehab in SA Global Vision came and filmed a piece of their documentary on the work I was doing, to see the finished project (which is in Japanese) Follow this link and fast forward to the 12min and 43 min marks to see exactly what I was doing...this link will only be available for a limited time, but I should be getting a DVD copy of the full movie in a little while, and I'll put that up as soon as I get it!

http://www.twellv.co.jp/minogashi/index.html

Footwear

I have never loved a pair of shoes as much as I loved my plain white Vans. time took its toll on them before Africa, but they were still wearable and extremely comfortable. So I brought them, and wore them well for the first 7 weeks or so of my stay. One day we had work cutting down Acacia bushes that were overrun. As fate would have it, I took a bad step and was stabbed through the sole of my shoes, into my foot. the rubber was holding the thorn in place, and the angle of the thorn was against the way I would pull the shoe off, so removal of the shoe meant a broken thorn in my foot. The only solution I saw footing was to cut my foot off. Just kidding, but I did have to cut the shoe. damage to my foot was minimal, but the shoe was "beyond repair". I went to work anyway, and sewed it back together, and wore it for the rest of my stay. unfortunately my sewing came undone when I got home, so I had to buy a new pair of beautiful white Vans. These pictures tell the story pretty well...

The Addo Elephant Park

Ranked as the best place in the world to see Elephants, the Addo Elephant Park delivered a weekend to be remembered. We were able to ride an elephant, which while awesome was actually mildly painful for its entirety. Feeding the Elephants was also an amazing experience, and I could not asked for a closer experience. The elephants were rescued from a routine culling at the Kruger National park, which is actually in elephant excess by double the normal amount. The guys who rode the front of this animal basically used a long stick to direct the elephants by the ears. You never really understand how huge one is until you're riding on it!