Being here in South Africa, working for Elephants Alive and Bring the Elephant Home, brings me both expected and unexpected moments of joy throughout the day. Random encounters, funny thoughts, and moments of immense appreciation. I started writing some of them down (not necessarily in a particular order), so I wouldn’t forget and you get to read along, just in case you enjoy it too.
To start with some general moments:
Having really nice colleagues and housemates, that also enjoy sports
Enjoying a nice braai
Meeting more and more inspiring people
Learning about South African life, history, and rugby (for example)
Hearing the word ‘lekker’
Having a day where temperatures don’t rise over 25 degrees Celsius
Seeing trees completely taken over by termite hills
Having to eat my ‘kruidnootjes’ (which I brought for December) already, because the package broke
Simply appreciating that I have this opportunity
Watching clouds roll over the Drakensberg from the garden (special occasion)
Seeing three funny mountain tops on the way to the office (still trying to make a nice picture of those)
And of course, there are plenty animal-related happy moments.
Realizing that four meters from my room are two active hives of these ‘incredibly dangerous’ bees (which, as you may understand, is not as bad as it sounds), and a third hive is located two meters from the driveway.
Being able to identify mammal or bird species, especially when I see them for the first time this year (if you’re interested, I have a list. I’m being an absolute nerd and I love it)
Living in a bush lodge in a wildlife estate, and related to that:
seeing warthogs, mongoose, and antelope from my garden
finding a gecko in the bath-tub (photo)
encountering giraffe tracks during a jog
seeing a herd of giraffe when cycling (photo)
hearing a leopard at night
hearing the weird and typical sound of e.g. grey go-away birds
considering the insect diversity in our house (part of bush life I guess - honestly makes me laugh a bit, and luckily haven’t seen any seriously creepy crawlers)
Last but not least, some incredible moments of happiness that I experience by working in the bush, collecting data on elephants, bees, and trees.
Seeing numerous animals from Kruger on my way to the office (varying from birds to elephants along the fence)
Spotting even more animals during a day of field-work (varying from ‘regular game species’ (which I still enjoy) to leopards and a huge pack of wild dogs) (photo)
Sitting high in a game vehicle, scanning the environment with a nice breeze
Walking, working, and chilling in the Greater Kruger Park
Learning about the bush and its species
Observing elephants, peacefully foraging, feeding, or engaging in a little play. Simply being there, hearing them chew, watching them break branches, push over trees, or dig for roots, watch them taking a dust bath, watching them watching us. Being amazed by their size, elegance, and intelligence.
Being Dutch however, I have to complain about something, right? Honestly, I haven’t had any proper reasons to complain yet. But if I have to live up to my Dutch heritage, I would complain about:
The tap water. It’s safe, yes. It’s drinkable, alright. But the taste? I seriously miss the Dutch tap water, and I must admit I’ve bragged about it to my colleagues. Of course, I could just buy cans of nice water at the supermarket, but I’m not too eager on doing that because of plastic waste. And besides that, it wouldn’t be very Dutch to spend money on something you can get for free, right!
The heat. Come on, it’s not even summer and it’s approaching 40 degrees Celsius on some days?
And now I’ve already run out of real complaints. Just this: I have my own bathroom (which is really nice!), but the only downside is that I have a bath with a low tap instead of a shower, which kind of complicates matters if you just want to quickly wash your hair. Luckily I can use the shower of my housemate if I want to, so why am I complaining?
Despite the minor, minor complaints, I absolutely love it here… I’m sure the list of happy moments will only increase over time!