Paid in full!

Last night I was able to make the final and full payment on all 3 of my volunteer projects! Not much left in the kitty, but what a relief to have that taken care of. I want to extend huge and heart felt thanks for all the love and support from everyone, friends, family, neighbours and even the occasional strangers, who have donated so generously to the cause through the Dolly project and 'just because"!!! Thank You All! But, don't forget, there's till time left and dollies to be sponsored.
I was also able to finally decide on where to stay during the last few days of the trip. I was finding it really hard to pick somewhere in Durban, things seem to be much more expensive there now, and I was getting a little stressed with costs and what are the safe areas to stay in. Then I had an epiphany! I finally remember when we were there in 2009, there was a new airport being built, with an eye on the World Cup tourists that would be arriving in 1010. A good thing I remembered, or I would have been trying to catch a plane from an airport that is no longer functioning and wondering what the heck!  The new airport is a distance out from the city, approx 20 km or so out, actually near the turn off for the KMP area where Nikki lives. Not a great distance by car, if I need to travel into Durban to visit with my friend Nobuhle, or visit the craft market that runs along the beach front (that I have such memories of, me being extremely apprehensive at the selling techniques, but I did get amazing deals on the few souvenirs).  I've picked a B&B called Dolphins View at Umdotli Beach. From what I read, you can actually watch pods of dolphins in the bay and occasional see whales travel by. Should give me a couple of nice days to unwind and it's only approx. $40.00 a night. They unfortunately don't take credit cards though, so must try and get the bank to transfer money to the B&B account on Monday. Not sure how that will work, as the bank wasn't sure how to go about it, when I tried to make the initial payment to African Impact. I've suggested Dolphins View  open a PayPal account so they can take all forms of payment in the future. Hope they listen, would probably help their rental capacity in the future.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wheretostay.co.za%2Fdolphinviewbnb%2F&h=FAQGNpU99AQE5e1-RnTbyaoRNDKO98OoJToA3yNKw8tiMSQ
My training course for HIV/AIDS education that was scheduled for Thursday night was cancelled, due to the snow,  but has been rescheduled for Feb 2nd. The course last week on HepC was interesting, but probably nothing I will be able to use, in anyway, while at the projects. I still haven't found a specific course on treating burns, so looks like I will just have to re-certify my standard first aid and CPR. Certainly won't hurt, but would have like to have found something more in tune with what the project wanted.


I was invited to give a talk last Sat. morning to the ladies breakfast group at a local church and I really enjoyed myself, I hope they enjoyed it as much. I always find it re-energizes my passion for Africa. They did sponsor some of the Dollies, so I take that as a good sign of enjoyment. One of the ladies who attended is an elementary principal in Sooke and has asked me to come next month and speak to the children at her school. I'll need to get to work to put together another new presentation. Kids are always fun to talk to and can ask some really interesting questions. You have to be prepared for anything!


I have just run across some YouTube videos of some of the projects and thought I'd post them here for anyone interested. The first is about the Alert lion project (although it is the one on the Zimbabwe side of the river). You may run across the one for the Victoria Falls project, but I didn't link it, as it has a lion kill of a buffalo and I just knew if I were there, I would be in the background bawling my eyes out. I know it's what wild animals do, but I can't bear the sight of animals being killed. Makes me wonder how I will deal with this part of the program. Do you think they'll be upset when I start yelling "Run, Buffalo, RUN!!!"? I do have to admit though, that I think I am most excited about participating in this project. Perhaps I'll be allowed to interact with some of the cheetahs (my ultimate favorite) in the area I was at last year.
http://youtu.be/s1mZMuk4Hnw
I found this one as well about the Maramba Clinic Livingstone Zambia, which is where I believe I will be stationed.
http://youtu.be/CUSdxJEQ1fE
I hope you'll take the time to watch them, they are fairly short, but quite informative. You may even find more that I didn't have time to scroll through yet.
That seems to be all I can think of for now, so enjoy the video's and let me know any comments or thought.
The time is fast approaching (but not fast enough!)