A weekend at Hluhluwe and 5 birthdays celebrated!!

Well we arrived home late last night from a safari weekend about 3 hours straight north along the coast to a place called Hluhluwe (pronounced Slusluey). It was a gorgeous weekend, we had the hottest weather we've had yet and the 6 of us from Agape and 5 from the Dreamcenter all went up together Friday afternoon. Saturday morning we took a boat cruise along the river to see the hippos and crocodiles and I got to drive the boat! We saw tons of monkeys too but we have them constantly in our backyard at home so we're getting used to them climbing around us. In the afternoon we went to a local market - with tons of crafts, furniture and jewelry and delicious fruit! We then went to a cheetah farm where they've rescued injured cheetahs in the wild because they are endangered species and will breed them and put their offspring back into the wild so they can keep on existing - we had the opportunity to go into the cheetah cages but i stepped back and thought I'd stay on the outside. Back at our lodge we relaxed with some wine and watched Russia win over the Netherlands in the Eurocup and lets just say Ninke and Jer are a little touchy about the subject.

We got up bright and early on Sunday morning at 4am to hop onto the 4x4s and out on an 8 hour safari ride. We were picked up and only drove 20 minutes from the lodge to begin the safari and started off seeing the giraffes as the sun wa rising. It was an incredible day with the sun shining, us offroading in the trucks filled with rhinos, giraffes, zebras and a lion in the distance. Photos are below. As we started on our trip in the pitch black outside it was freezing and Margs and I were huddled under blankets and I thought it was appropriate to sing Hakuna Matata but she said quickly that 5am was too early for a Lion King sing along, I couldnt stop laughing and kept singing Lion King songs all day long.

Its kind of sad to be back at Agape today because the children left for London early Friday morning and wont be back before we leave. Only 12 of them flew to sing at Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday celebration but its the older ones that we hung out with a lot so its a noticeable change in the atmosphere at Agape. We had a massive party on Thursday to wish them good luck and a goodbye party. We had a massive bbq (they call Braai here) and the older boys were out there for about 2 hours cooking meat for 55 of us. All the kids and aunties and us ate and ate and we also celebrated 5 of their birthdays from that past week. We bought 5 birthday cakes for the kids and each of us came in carrying them with candles for Lungile, Manazi, Mthobisi, Nobuhle and Boy and their faces were glowing as we handed them their cakes and presents. It was really special to share their birthdays with all of them and then the older boys started a cake fight which was more than hilarious for the little 4 year olds covered in cake. It was a late night as we played games with prizes and gave out sweets but I didnt want to leave and say goodbye to the kids! Eventually we had to and said our thanks to Pam, the manager for everything and keeping my fingers crossed I will see them in New York in November for KCA's Black Ball, but its all up in the air right now.

I cant wait to talk to everyone once I'm in London and be more in touch and I cant believe I only have 10 days here left - margs and I are heading to Cape Town on Saturday to travel for 5 days and do a winery tour, head up Table Mountain and out to Robben Island to see where Nelson Mandela's prison cell was. I'll hopefully write before then!
Love Lou xox

Photo 1: Myself and Sizo - she wrote me a note and wrote dear Luwiz.....so cute.

Photo 2: Me and my little man Mthobisi who turned 9 and is heading to London

Photo 3: Birthday Girl Manazi is 3!

Photo 4: Us with most of the kids after the party on Thursday night in the main hall (donated by Alicia Keys)

Photo 5: These guys were dancing as we got off our boat cruise and I decided to get in touch with my African dancing side

Photo 6: Getting on the trucks at 5 am heading on the safari

Photo 7: Zebras!

Photo 8: African Sunrise

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