Christmas and New Year with the Elephants and Lions

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Happy New Year One and All.

We have had a truly wonderful Christmas and New Year here in South Africa. From water parks to safari parks; Christmas day swims to surfing the New Year's waves; and braai after braai after braai after braai; it has been great to experience this all with our little brood and Laurence's family.

The lead up to Christmas was an interesting one. While I waited for all the triggers of sparkling lights, mulled wine and mince pies, Christmas markets, Christmas songs, and the familiar smell of Christmas trees, to lull me into the Christmas spirit; I was a little disappointed initially when it didn't materialise. And even when it did, singing 'In the bleak mid winter' in my shorts and t-shirt didn't seem quite right. You would have found me pacing round the house asking Laurence, "Where is Christmas?"

In my daily interactions with people I started to get a sense of what Christmas means to people out here. Over the years, a lot of people have moved to the cities to find work, leaving families in rural areas, or even in different countries like Zimbabwe. December is known as the 'builders holiday' and many people take a long holiday from work. People therefore make the long and dangerous journey home, having only been home once or twice in the year, to see loved ones and their home communities. So the lead up to Christmas was a combination of exhaustion at people not having had a break for a while, desperation at needing to earn enough money to get home, and a wonderful excitement as people prepared to go home to their families. So I began to see Christmas as a time to give generously, in time and money, for people's produce and service, in an effort to join in and help make Christmas a happy time for everyone. There was a sense of this spirit in Lonehill, and in the end, I realised I was enjoying Christmas in a different but thoroughly worthwhile way.

For Laurence, it too is about holiday with family, and it was such a pleasure to share that with him and his wonderful, and quite large (in number), family.

Whilst Laurence's mum, Lynn, lives near us in Johannesburg, Laurence's Dad, Geoff, lives on the coast in Port Elizabeth. So after a lovely Christmas with Lynn, we headed to Geoff's for New Year.

The 11 hour drive took us through vast swathes of countryside and through little rural towns and villages called 'dorps'. Surrounding the dorps are crop, cattle, sheep and ostrich farms. Often owned by the Afrikaans community, with the word 'Boer' meaning 'farmer', we got a glimpse of the slower pace of rural life. Many wind turbines called 'windpompes' are scattered over the landscape which pump water to the surface for the animals to drink from. They are quite iconic and show the dutch influence here in South Africa, and these were a constant feature on our drive. The occasional baboon or mongoose ran across the road in front of us as we drove along, and we even saw a sports field full of sheep, deployed to keep the grass short for the upcoming school term. It wasn't all rosy though, and the drive also featured us having pop corn thrown at our heads by those in the back, but if we would chose to drive 11 hours with children...

A windpompe creating a waterhole for the animals

A flock of sheep keeping the grass short on a school pitch

With Pops, Granny Bev and Auntie Robyn, in PE

We had great fun in Port Elizabeth, teaching the girls how to body board and spending time at the beach. I even squeezed in a Parkrun with Laurence's sister Robyn. Running along the sandy beach, with the swash of the waves at our feet, was an amazing experience. Next time I'll join the bare footers for this one!

Kings Beach, PE

Hobie Beach Parkrun, Port Elizabeth

We spent a day at a safari park where it was quite incredible how close we got to the animals. Watching the elephants silently plodding along with their kind eyes and long eyelashes was breathtaking and then all of a sudden somewhat nerve wracking as they walked towards us with no sense of changing direction! And seeing the harsher realities of life in a pride of lions eating a young buffalo they had caught that morning, was sobering. It was also interesting to discover the lengths which people will go to, to both protect and poach rhino. Safari parks will not mention whether they have any rhino just in case people have come to poach them. So like Lord Volemort in Harry Potter, the Rhino really is, 'he who shall not be named' out here in South Africa!

A big old elephant commanding the road

    

Female lion eating a young Buffalo

We are back home now in the last week of the summer holidays. The new school year begins on Wednesday 16th when routine can reign once more. The elephants and lions can hang up their trunks and manes until we descend on them again in a future school holiday.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year and that 2019 is both peaceful and kind.

As always, lots of love, Jess xxx

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