busy, busy

It's been an interesting couple of days. Tons of tourists from Europe and the US come through here every day to see the cheetahs and leopards, and, since part of the volunteer bit is to talk to guests at meals and make them feel welcome, you find out a lot of cool stuff about people. To give an idea, I've met a South African woman working for USAID in Windhoek, an Italian guy who makes cosmetics in his own factory in Bologna, and lots of German families who seem to be traveling for a month or more on family camping holidays.

I'm also getting to know the staff a bit more. There's an 18 year old who helps in the kitchen, who is patiently trying to teach me a bit of Damara (there are 4 kinds of clicks, and I can only do one convincingly). I need some sort of diagram to figure out where my tongue should go to make these crazy sounds in the middle of words. Another cool person I've met is the main chef (let's call her "J"). J has published poems in a compilation of Namibian women's poems and short stories. The books are put together by a women's empowerment workshop in Windhoek, and the publication is supported by UNICEF, among others. I was so impressed by this woman, as she has lived her entire life on the farm, yet she has found a voice to speak out for change in these writings. She said she plans to write an autobiography - I love it! 

In terms of the natural surroundings here, we've seen the reserve cheetahs and leopards feeding, which is amazing to say the least. These animals are not in any way tame, but, since they are fed by humans, they're not nearly as reclusive as they would normally be. The cheetahs were literally 5 feet from the car, jumping around to get their bit of meat. The injured cheetah I spoke about before had to have its back leg amputated, unfortunately. It's a bit sad, but the owner has high hopes that she'll adapt and be able to run around with the other ones soon. Since she doesn't have to hunt for her food, she can still have a pretty good quality of life in the reserve. Speaking of the reserve, on a long walk yesterday, I heard this growling nearby, which stopped me dead in my tracks. It ended up being one of the reserve leopards, so it was on the other side of the fence, but this does make me think twice about attempting jogging alone here. Eek!

Well, that's about it for now. The dinner bell is ringing...