Ngonyama

 Ngonyama in Zulu means lion.  It is also shouted at the very first of the movie Lion King.  
Just after Christmas we went to a little game reserve and lion park and got some really great photos.  Here are a few.  South Africa takes the holiday season very seriously.  Schools and many businesses, other than retail, shut down completely.  Some for 4-6 weeks. It brought our PEF work to a halt.  So we had some time to play a little.

 He obviously does think that he is King of the Jungle--very stately.  It was a very nice cool summer day and he was just catching all the scents.

 How is this for close to an elephant?  Taken through the front window of the car hence the little glare.  This is a 35 year old female named Emma.

 She really is quite habituated to vehicles.  It might be disastrous if she did decide to stomp the car.

 A really big dung (elephant) beetle.  We dug him out of a pile that we saw him fly into.  The Egyptians believed that the sun was rolled across the sky by a huge scarab beetle.

 A smaller but prettier scarab.  This one was unfortunately run over while in a pile of elephant dung and is a little worse for the wear.

 A Maribou Stork.  These are very strange birds both looks wise and behaviorally.  They are carrion eaters feeding on dead things just as if they were vultures.  They are also predators on lizards, birds,  and small rodents.

 We saw these zebras in an open field with no fences after we left the game reserve.  Not sure if they got out of a reserve or what was going on.

 On our trips to Swaziland we see these big black balls in the trees and wondered what they were.  We kind of decided that they were hornet nests as they were always built around branches and twigs.  This one was on the security fence and some vines at the Hillcrest Chapel so I was able to inspect it.

 Not hornets but ants!  There was a steady procession of them climbing up the wires and vines bringing globs of dirt to build this nest.  They are quite small but might be like fire ants.

Holiday is almost over and we have started another PEF class in KwaMashu, about 40 minutes from our flat north and toward the ocean.  It is good to get a class going again.  We have over 30 students that need to finalize their loans but have been delayed by the holidays.  So those, added to this class, will keep us very busy when holiday is completely over.  As fun as it is going to game reserves and such, nothing beats meeting and working with the members.  After all, that is why we are here.