Very early in the morning (3:00 am) before the sun has risen, roosters start crowing. They do this about every ten minutes until the sun has shown its face. The noise wakens me and I squish down in my warm sleeping bag. As I lie there in my half-awake state I realize that someone, something is standing by my head on the other side of my tent. I lie still and listen as it slowly walks back and forth. I’m pretty sure it’s trying to get in my tent with it’s long, scratchy claws. It’s a chicken.
At about this point I hear a loud mooing coming from another direction. I’m cautious about moving around in my tent as the ground we’re on is filled with rocks and really pointy vegetation. Move to quickly and I could end up with a hole in my tent or worse, pop my sleeping pad. As morning approaches, the green on the tent starts glowing an orangey-yellow and I hear my teammates yelling, “Look, look at the zebras”.
I stumble out of my sleeping pad and into my jeans and sweatshirt. As I head towards the tiny bathroom I’m greeted by entire chicken families (moms, teens and baby chicks). Some are drinking from the pool of water formed at the base of our outside faucet. (This is where we wash our dishes and laundry). A calico cat lazily spreads itself out on the dirt in the mist of it all and watches us. I hear laughing and turn around to see what my friends are looking at. A momma cow and her two calves have wandered over to our tents and are eating from the lemon tree near by.
This is our first morning in the country of Swaziland. It seems to be a greener, softer, gentler side of Africa. Today we’ll meet up with Nicholas (a Swazi man) who will take us to the four care points in the area. As I haven’t been to one yet, I can’t tell you much about what they are but soon I’ll write again. I do know they have to do with starving children and the people that love them.
