A Day in the Park

Disclaimer: Upon reading this post, many of you might find yourselves thinking "hey wait a minute, didn't I give this kid money so he could go be of some use to people? Why was his weekend so blatantly superior to mine?" Honestly, it’s a fair question. But before you feel you've been hoodwinked, bamboozled, or otherwise screwed over, let me just say everything I did this weekend was due to the generosity of my host family the Obidas. That being said, yeah... pretty darn good weekend.

Before I begin, I just want to say a slightly delayed Happy Birthday to Wiz a.k.a. Lizzie Merriman, who is 23 as of last Friday! If I could say happy birthday in the local language, I would, but alas I can't understand a word anyone here says to me. But regardless, 23! Woah!

Anyway, the weekend.

It started Saturday with a 4:00am alarm, which in my experience is not an ingredient in the standard recipe for a great day. I thought it seemed a tad aggressive. But, stop the presses, I was wrong. It turns out that if you want to see lions in their natural habitat, you've got to stay away from the snooze button and get moving. We were headed to Kruger National Park, the pride of South Africa and essentially the best place in the world to see wildlife. 

We arrived at the park gates at about 6am and began our drive. You can sign up for guided tours but honestly, unless you happen to be Mr. Magoo, you don't need any help spotting your fair share animals; you can just drive yourself through the massive park. Case in point, within three minutes of entering the park, we spotted two lions sitting near the side of the road, guarding a carcass. The picture doesn't do it justice, but just in case you have the audacity to doubt me:

Simba himself.

The drive was pretty unbelievable, my rap sheet of animals spotted reads as follows: lion, giraffe, elephant, zebra, buffalo, impala, warthog, nyala, wildebeast, and baboon. See what I mean about my weekend? These animals aren’t behind fences or in designated areas. They’re just there, doing what animals do. I don’t have enough internet allowance to load all of my pictures, but here are a few of my favorites for you:

The size of the buffalo is exceed only by its ability to pose for photos.

Don't hassle them... they're local.

Oh hello.

Copyright Gates Merriman 2013

We stopped for lunch at a fenced in area and did some grilling for lunch and then continued driving all day, never going more than a few minutes without spotting our next animal. It’s a very surreal experience turning around a bend and finding the road blocked by a herd of elephants. But at least they move faster than the traffic in New York! Am I right?!?!

Really sorry about that. Moving on.

Let’s just talk about Sunday. Those of you who know me well will remember my stunning portrayal of “King Number Two” in the 2001 St. Paul’s Christmas pageant, so it should come as no surprise that this morning, I found myself in church. It was, however, a decidedly different church experience than my WASP roots prepared me for. The music was upbeat, the preacher was animated, and people danced as they sang. Historically speaking, I have had difficulty staying completely awake for an hour-long service at home. This service lasted two and a half hours, but it was so high energy that I never so much as yawned.

At the end of the service, the preacher announced that there were two visitors from the US and invited us to stand. The congregation greeted us with cheers and applause. Afterwards, Eli and I were swarmed by people hugging us and thanking us for coming. I don’t think they get many Americans or (and I’m just going to go ahead and say it) white people at their congregation so we were something of a novelty. I was incredibly gratified by the outpouring of kindness and the warm welcome… the people in this town have been amazingly warm from the moment I arrived and it really goes a long way in making me feel comfortable and glad for having made the journey.

The day capped off with a drive to a place called “Big Tree.” The Big Tree is 3000 years old. It’s so large that its roots stretch over 3 miles underground. If you’re feeling environmentally friendly and want to give it a hug, you better bring 29 of your buddies with you in order to wrap completely around the trunk. There’s a cave inside of it. In short, it’s a really, really big tree. It may be the biggest tree in the world, but that’s hard to say because for some reason I’m having trouble getting onto Wikipedia right now. Anyway, here are some pictures:

For scale, please refer to the person under the tree on the right hand side.

Can't tell you how often I used the phrase "I'm gonna go out on a limb here..." while this picture was taken.

So, as I said, REAL solid weekend. Just tops.

But this week we’re getting back to work. Monday, we are meeting with the CEO of the hospital to present him with the supplies that we brought here to donate and to discuss the development of our foundation. My experience in the hospital so far has been great. The doctors and nurses are incredibly passionate, but are handcuffed by their lack of resources. So hopefully this will be a productive meeting in figuring out the next stages of our collaboration and support of their efforts!

Thanks for reading! Hope everyone is happy and healthy!