14.6.2007 von peg_frosch.

Hello home, I miss you and I would be very interested to hear from you! How are you doing? - all the best greetings Peggy

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14.6.2007 von peg_frosch.

This week I worked in the Care Project. I liked to go to the clinic to have another big challenge :o). It is really fun to work here in the clinic. The clinic is sponsored from the Royal Swazi Government. The patients have to pay only 3 Emalangeni (30 Cents) for consulting fee and medicine. That is really cheap and is only a community donation, which is used to pay the gardener. The only mistake I have done was to be onest to the question if I believe in God. The people here are so religious. I didn’t know that. Each day they try to convert me to christanisation :o). The job I’m doing in the clinic is not so exciting, but it’s interesting to see the people coming and going, to talk to them. And at the end, it’s so relaxed, as I can come whenever I like and go when I like to go. So I’m working just for 3-4 hours. They are getting big packages of pills and liquids, which we put into smaller portions. We are labelling small plastic packs or small bottles and than we fill into each e.g. 15 pills.

Today, Thursday I needed one day off from the clinic. Yesterday I had enough of this guy who is trying the whole day to convert me to christanisation :o). So I helped another girl at the NCP, which is like a pre-school for kids, which have no more parents and only live with their aunts or similar, but which have no money to feed or educate the kids. I really enjoyed that day. It was great. We did a lot of games to teach them in English.

Tomorrow morning I will go for the weekend with two other girls to Skt. Lucia, which is on the South African Coast. Than I will be again for 2 weeks in Ponta, to work there one week on the coral reef research project, and I will have one week off, to enjoy the beach and all the things you can do there.

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7.6.2007 von peg_frosch.

This week I am in Mlawula, in the low fields. We are doing some more research here on cycades. Mlawula is at the South African and Mosambique border. The cycades we looked for yesterday had been just over the border. So we jumped over the fence :o) … so easy to come over the border … :o) … we took pictures of the cycades, logged the GPS data and some other data …

On Wednesday we did a game drive in Hlane Game Reserve. All-Out is helping here as well from time to time with some research projects, so we could go there for free. It was so great. We saw lions, elefants, impalas, whartogs … etc. … It is great to have some more time after the 4 weeks in Ponta. It’s a little bit like holiday. In the evening we had a nice fire, as it is freezing cold in the night. So you need to warm up, before you go into your sleeping bag :o) … during the night you hear so many voices … that is just so great … and the african sky is so amazing … 

Thursday we looked after 3 other cycade species. We found plenty of plants and just counted the ones we found in an area of 300 meters.

Friday we finished our work already at lunch time. So we packed everything and drove back to the All-Out Camp in Ezulwini.

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7.6.2007 von peg_frosch.

… time is running so fast, even here. We start working very early in the morning, at 6 or 7. I am just taking very often the chance to have my breakfast, which is some very good porridge :o), at the ocean and enjoy the sun rise. The best sun rise, sun set and sky at night you see definitely in Africa!!!

… During the day we have different tasks to do here, help at the Dolphin Encountour Camp with the guest, go out on the boat, log the data about the dolphins, like behaviour, pot size etc, we also do shore spotting (3 hours sitting on a good spot side looking for dolphins)

… teaching English in the school, organize beach clean ups with the kids, explaining them, what rubbish is, and what not, analyzing the rubbish, analyzing questionaires of the customers, I did my diving course, and now I can also help in the coral reef research project.

We do presentations, to make the people aware of the environmental impacts … etc.

Unfortunately I hurt my eardrums a little bit during my last dive. So I couldnt go into the water the last week. Which made me very sad, as I missed the balance between the work and the fun. But guess what, on last Saturday we found a beached whale on the beach. And I helped to cut this big one into pieces and to analyze it. It was a southern humpback whale, a female, 4 meters long. We messured the lung, heart, stomach … etc. and take some examples, which will be send to the university in Maputo to study this one. All the flesh had been cutted and put into a big hole, and the skeleton had been put into a big plastic and then into a big hole. After some years, they will get it out and put he sceleton togher … What was so exciting!!! … A lot of blood, but luckily it was raining, so we have been very wet, but the blood washed away :o) …

Sunday we drove back to Swaziland. One Month in Ponta is already gone. But I like to come back in two weeks, when my ears are ok again, and do some research dives and maybe one week holiday. As we had to work Monday-Saturday there had not really been time just for me to enjoy this beautiful place here. …

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25.5.2007 von peg_frosch.

The alarm clock wake us up at 3 o clock this morning. We liked to go for the weekend to Maputo, which is just 70km from Ponta, but the “bus” is going there only on Fridays starting around 5 o clock. We have been at the busstop at quarter past 4 and there had been already a long queue … the bus had been full, before we could get a chance … but there was coming a truck, which was also going to Maputo, we jumped on the back and had a funny long trip …. after 4 hours we arrived in Maputo ….

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25.5.2007 von peg_frosch.

liebe peggy,

wie geht´s dir und wie war dein start auf dem schwarzen kontinent?
martina hat kurz erzählt, dass einige girlie-praktikantinnen dort herumspringen, die nicht so dein ding sind und dass du auch viel unterwegs bist. ich hoffe es ist (trotzdem;-) toll, interessant, spannend eine bereicherung und alles schön.

wie bist du untergebracht? was arbeitest du so? welche besonderen tiere hast du schon gesehen? was war dein tollstes erlebnis bisher?

Fragen über fragen…

fühl´dich ganz fest gedrueckt!
Ich wünsche dir noch gaaaaaanz viel spaß und totte erfahrungen und erlebnisse!!!!
liebe Gruesse
Julia

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14.5.2007 von peg_frosch.

Mozambique is quite nice.

27 degrees, warm in the evening and 25 degrees temperature of the ocean. I learned already a lot about Dolphins, have been the first time so far on the ocean, and swam/snorkeled my first … it’s so great … even here the day is going so fast … …

the internet here is so slow, it took me 25 minutes to open this page, now I have only 5 minutes left … here from you! … Peggy

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7.5.2007 von peg_frosch.

… today, Monday I will leave to Mosambique and join there the dolphin project … I will be there for one month … the first week I will learn diving, and than help to get more details about the dolphins there … what this work will be exactly, I will see …

As far as I heard, I wont have any possibility there to get any internet connection …

I will think on you … Best greetings Peggy

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7.5.2007 von peg_frosch.

On Thuesday we left the camp to go to the Malolotja Nature Reserve to the  first expedition. We have been checking the last 23 cycades they found here and logged in 1996 with GPS.

They started already last year to investigate some more time to check these plants and to try to grow the population, which must not be easy, as there are male and female cycades, and they cone very seldom. So we searched 3 days at 3 different places for them and unfortunately all have been stolen. … We have been very sad about that … the hiking tours to find them have been really exciting … Malolotja is a really great place … it’s a hiking park, where you can also find different kind of antilopes, like zebra, blesbock, etc.

… we had as well a hut here in the camp, with a real toilet… we cooked with gaz and had in the evening a nice fire to keep warm … the shower had been outside … very cold, but you get used to it … so you have a shower with a great scenic view … isn’t that great!!!

… on our last day there we have had a nice Braai … Saturday morning we drove back to Ezulwini, where our base camp is … we have been to a nice concert, where I got 6 condomes ;O) … the HIV rate here is over 50%, so they are using every possibility to tell the people, that they should take care of that … 3 bands played, one must be very popular in South Africa … it was quite fun … after that we just chilled out at the terasse at our camp …

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5.5.2007 von peg_frosch.

Except, that it took some time to get my flight tickets at Frankfurt airport my journey to Swaziland (Manzini Airport) went pretty well. The airplane had been completely booked, so there have been a lot of people. It was great to leave so late, so we could do a bycicle tour in the morning and enjoy a last coffee at home at our balkony. I will really miss these times with Matthias, but also look forward to all the exciting things I will do now.

… At Joh’burg airport I have had plenty of time … I just sit around and watched the people getting the flights to somewhere … yeah! I’m in Africa now … till now I cannot realize, that I will be here now for half a year …

… From Joh’burg to Manzini I flu with an extremely small airplane … with 17 people the plane had been full ;o)

… I had been very scared about that … but, finally I arrived savely in Swaziland … also my luggage had been there, and Sifiso waited already for me … at our way to the base camp in Izulwini we talked about the king … actually he has 17 wifes and 8 palaces … he is taking a new wife each year … the last king had 70 - yes, seven zero, not 17 - wifes and 300 kids … quite busy man :o) … 

… the base camp is a hut, where we have 2 big sleeping rooms, one for the girls, and one for the boys, a big citchen, a TV-room and a nice big terrace … at the beginning I had to get used to this, as the girls are really girls, clothes all over the room, they change their clothes several times a day ;O) … but luckily I will be in the base camp only for some weekends, and even than, I’m planning to see a little bit of Swaziland … … everybody is eating when ever he like, only dinner is together …

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