1. Sophia and Chris’s African Adventure For those who don’t know, Chris works for a program called IE3 Global Internships (http://ie3global.ous.edu), which places students from around the northwest in internships all over the world. As the Africa Director, Chris has the arduous task of traveling to Africa every 18 months or so to visit their partner organizations and try to recruit new partners. Sophia was lucky enough to accompany him on this trip.
3. Cape Town First stop, the KirstenboschGarden http://www.sa-venues.com/attractionswc/kirstenbosch.htm
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7. For dinner the first night we went to the Waterfront, a touristy area of Cape Town with great restaurants and shopping. Check out Table Mountain in the background
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11. Chris did some rogue street photography with his new zoom lens
13. For you World Cup fans – the stadium isn’t far from the Waterfront. This is one of 10 stadiums built just for this summer’s World Cup (we saw another one in Durban)
14. Chris had to work the next day, so Sophia went to the Castle of Good Hope and explored the shops and great restaurants along Long Street
15. Talk about starting the morning out right with breakfast! Look at that beautiful fruit salad.
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18. The restaurant at Constantia Uitsig Winery, where one of Chris’s students is working (for more about the Constansia Valley: http://www.constantiavalley.com/)
40. No, seriously, we really did. Safari #1 was at Hluhluwe National Park.
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43. It’s not just the zoom lens – we literally drove right past them!
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49. We got stuck behind this guy for 2 hours. He was in the middle of the road and a bull elephant can flip over a car, so there wasn’t much we could do
50. Who knew they sometimes cross their ankles while they eat?
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54. This is where we stayed – the “tree house” at a bush lodge frequented by bush babies (If you don’t know what a bush baby is, do a Google Images search for one. They’re super cute and you’ll find funny pictures of George W. Bush holding a crying baby too)
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56. When we went into town to buy groceries we drove by a pineapple farm! We bought a farm fresh pineapple and ate it with dinner that night.
58. Swaziland Chris sometimes sends interns to Cabrini Ministries, which runs a hostel for children affected by HIV/AIDS and a health clinic. Some of the kids showed off their dance moves for us!
66. We stayed at Cabrini the first night, but we had a hard time finding anywhere else to stay in Swaziland. We ended up at backpackers lodge in Mlilwane Park, Swaziland’s largest public game park. Safari #2, anyone?
74. Last stop in Swaziland: Ngwenya Glass, producing fair-trade products from 100% recycled glass http://www.ngwenyaglass.co.sz/
75. Lesotho(pronounced “La-SU-tu”) Another IE3 Internship opportunity is the GRO Foundation, which helps local people start businesses to support themselves and their communities http://www.grofoundation.org/programs.php
110. Yes, that really is Chris hugging a cheetah. These cats were raised from birth at CCF and they’re super friendly. Their purring sounds a little like a tractor.
114. In the “play trees” where cheetahs search for prey
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116. To make sure the cheetahs associate food with running, the staff throw them chunks of donkey meat from the back of a moving pickup truck every morning
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119. THE END Hope you enjoyed! Please let us know if you have questions or want more information about anything we saw. We have LOTS more pictures we’re happy to share, including about a zillion picture of penguins!