One of the nights, Kara and I had a three-inch gecko in our room that Lauren spotted. I'm pretty sure we were screaming our heads off for about ten minutes trying to catch it with a coffee mug or a bag to bring outside. I've seen Parent Trap with Lindsay Lohan and I was not about to let any kind of little animal crawl into my mouth as I was sleeping. Hahaha.... We were pretty much screaming bloody murder whenever the little guy squiggled along. One of my friends, Miranda (the Canadian) actually wrote a story about it that is quite humorous and pretty much sums it all up.... here it is:
Once upon a time there was a young nursing student abroad in the great land of South Africa. She climbed waterfalls, stared down giraffes, roughed it in a cave during a severe African storm and could run miles without losing pace...then one night there appeared...a GECKO!!!! No ordinary creature, this gecko stretched a whole three inches long and had fangs the size of pin heads; the brave nurse did not know what to do, and in a moment of sheer terror she screamed with all her might, causing her fellow chalet-mates to echo the same fearful call into the night air. All around, chalets full of curious girls began to seek out the source of this howl, slowly coming to realize just what had happened...then they laughed and rather than being frightened, only wished they had been there to see it all play out. What happened to the gecko? Perhaps some day the world will know...
My buddies, Lauren, Mary Bette, and I went through the game reserve near campus for one of the last times. We are trying to commemorate every last moment here on campus because we aren't sure when or if we will ever be able to come back. The game reserve here is no safari, but it sure is beautiful.... it has about 6 zebra, a plethora of Mpala (which are like deer), and a plethora of monkeys. God's creation is seriously so amazingly beautiful! Just looking at this land here and its beauty is proof of God's amazingness! :)
Sooooo the stories you have all been waiting for... the Safari.... dun dun dun.... To sum it all up, it was an amazing two and a half days and we serve an amazing God! It was so very neat seeing all the animals in their natural habitat and seeing with my own eyes just how amazing God is. Our tour guides were absolutely amazing when it came to educating us and telling us about all the animals and being fearless enough to get as close as they could to the animals. The safari experience was most definitely one of my favorite, if not the favorite experience we have had thus far in South Africa. So, Africa has this "Big 5," which basically includes elephants, rhinos, buffalo, lions, and leopards. Out of those five, one will most definitely see the first three and possibly the fourth on every safari, but the leopard is the hardest animal to see. Our faithful leader here, Reg, is over 60 years old and he has only seen the big 5 twice on a safari in his entire life. Today, however, my friends, this trip became his third time in his life. This is how amazing our God is though: I really wanted to get into the guide's car that we had yesterday, but it filled up too fast, so I could fit, but another one of my good friends could not fit. So we all just so happened to go in Reg's jeep and we just so happened to sit in the front row of the jeep and we just so happened to go ahead of another jeep because they had to take a restroom break and we just so happened to pull up behind a white SUV that just so happened to point out a leopard to us that we just so happened to see (or the first two rows of the jeep did anyways) a leopard for about 15 seconds. Just so happened? I think not. It was most definitely a God thing! We saw all the big 5 on one Safari! God is good! We didn't just see the lions one time either... we saw a lion or lions 5 different times within the two and a half days we were there! We were seriously blessed! God loves us! :) I considered that one of the best love letters I have ever received from God, other than the Bible of course. :)
Here are some random facts for you that just go to show me how amazing God is and how much He has a hand in Creation: a giraffe's gestation (pregnancy) is 13 months and it is born 6 ft tall. An elephant's gestation is 22 months. Nearly 2 years! A white rhino's gestation is 16 months. A black rhino's gestation is 15 months. A zebra's gestation is 9 months. A dog's gestation is 63 days. A human's gestation is 9 months. A lion's gestation is only 3 and a half months! Why in the world would God allow the elephant more time to cook in the oven and not the lion?! Because God knows what He's doing. That's why! If a pride is scarce on food, the baby lion is the first to starve to death because they are expendable. The lionesses are needed to continue to have more babies and the males are needed to lead the pride and do their part in the breeding process. The gestation is only 3.5 months because lions need to continue to have multiple babies in order to keep their pride going if some babies die off. God is amazing!!! :) I am in love with God's Creation and South Africa! This coming week is our last week at African Enterprise and then on to Cape Town and bungee jumping! :)
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