Brills in a Big World: Nazinga Wildlife Park

I would say so much has been going on, but that wouldn't be totally true. Life has been pretty slow the past few weeks. We had an easy transition from Christmas break into school with the youth. They jumped right back into Bible studies and WIRED meetings.

I have continued going to two orphanages each week. I love playing with the kids. While most of them don't know any French, it is fun to practice a tad of my Moree, which is all of maybe 10 phrases, but it works! I put a baby to sleep last week in my arms. Second time in my life to do that, second time to do it here (realizing I wasn't around kids this much in the States). It is the sweetest feeling. Especially when they snore and snot.

Seth and I are both in graduate school this summer. Thanks to technology, we are both taking online classes. It has been challenging due to internet cuts, power cuts, and time differences. But it's going to work! We really enjoy our classes, so it is worth it!

We have a few exciting plans coming up: next week, we are going to a village called Dano to help some friends pack up to move back to the States. They are some dear friends of ours, so we are looking forward to some quality time with them and their kiddos. In March, we will be going on vacation beyond West Africa. Whoop! We are going to the Motherland/England with my parents. We've been busy planning that!

Here are some updates from recent adventures:

As I have written about in a previous Christmas post, my parents brought us a puppy for Christmas. Best gift ever! We love our little pooch. She is quite the ninja--she opens doors, shreds rolls of toilet paper, chews shoes (especially Seth's), and refuses to be house-trained. And we love her more because of it...except the last one.

February 3-4, we went with some friends to Nazinga Wildlife Park. We had an excellent time! While the park itself was wonderful, the company was even better. Our adventuresome group made the whole experience even more special. One of our dearest friends here will be going home in March, so we enjoyed spending some quality time with her, even though we're pretty sure she had malaria during the trip. But she was a great sport! Her mom is here visiting, so we enjoyed getting to know her. Also, one of our youth moms got to come, and she was a great team player--translating, driving, spotting animals, and speeding away from charging elephants.

Welcome to Nazinga! This is the entrance to the park. But, wait! Don't get too excited. Continue 35 kilometers to the ranch. Doesn't sound like much? It's possibly the worst road I have experienced in LIFE. But we kept our eyes peeled for wildlife along the way!

Look at what we saw first! Donkeys...

Once we reached the ranch, we realized we had a flat. Lucky for us, we had Seth. But he didn't get to do too much. We played the guessing game of how many Africans would want to help. It ended with about 9-10 (if you count the guy who popped off Susan's lug nut and the guy who nearly dropped the car on his head with the car jack). They had the tire changed fairly quickly and off we went! Also, to show how prepared Susan was, no worries, we had 2 SPARE tires. What a girl scout!

Ready for adventure! So for this safari, we got to use our own car, and a guide tagged along to point out animals and give directions. Susan drove, and the rest of us piled on top of the car to spot the animals. My legs were so sore the next day from flopping around.

Caution: ELEPHANT CROSSING. So we are cruising around the dirt roads (reminded me of 4-wheeler riding in Philly) when a troop of ELEPHANTS crosses in front of us. Legit! It was a pack of all males who had adopted a baby after its mother had died. They were snacking on some trees as they mosied on by.