Another interesting week in the community; got to spend 5 days at the crèche's this week and it was nice when the children recognised me and remembered games we had played last week and wanted to play again. There were again only a few children at one crèche and more at the other. The normal teacher was away at one on Tuesday and the teacher who used to be there was filling in. It was disconcerting when she took a seat, put her head on the windowsill and promptly went to sleep! Guess it was lucky we were there to look after the children. Thankfully the normal teacher is always involved with activities and ensures that the children are ok by changing nappies, translating, etc. On Friday morning it was raining and so we only had 4 children, the other 30 were kept home. It is a long way to travel for the clinic so apparently children are kept home in bad weather. Interestingly when we were driving back to the reserve we saw a number of children who should have been at crèche playing on the side of the road. I asked Ziggy about the fact that children are allowed to play unsupervised by the roadside at 2 or 3 years old. He seemed unconcerned and said, well their parents probably don't want them there, but they can't stop them. My Western thought process of proper supervised play did spring to mind, but it doesn't seem to be the way in this part of the world.

On Friday I also had the chance to visit a local Zulu man and his wife in their home and learn about Zulu culture. Ziggy of course came, as he was needed to translate. The gentlemen, whom I can not spell or say the name of, was so welcoming and taught me a lot in just the hour I spent with him. He is 71 and well respected in his community. The most interesting lesson was the fact that it costs 11 cows to get married that a man must pay to his future wife's family. He then explained that as more and more people are having children out of wedlock that it costs 2 cows to have a child. These are also bought by the father to be, one is for the mother's family to eat and the other is to be a young cow for grandmother of the future child. If you were then to marry the mother of your children you only have to pay 10 cows for the wedding. I asked about what you did if the family did not want cows and it was confirmed that cold hard cash was also acceptable.

All the volunteers gathered on Friday for a run down of the week. It was lovely to have some of the research volunteers to say that they feel that I have made more of a difference and made the most impact in the last 2 weeks than anyone they have seen in the last 2 months from the research or the photography groups. It is a shame as there seems to be lots of promises of making a difference, however it is very difficult to see how that translates from the research and photography work that happens. I am excited about my photography month, but hope that I will have lots of opportunities to go into the community still.

14 new volunteers arrived on Sunday and with them my new room buddy, Alina. I was happy to see the back of Sophia, 2 weeks was plenty of time sharing a cabin with someone that I just didn't have anything to say to - despite trying really hard to come up with conversation topics. Alina is 20 and from Holland. She is very smiley and super enthusiastic. I think she will prove to be an amenable roommate.

We had another Lion in camp on Saturday night. Thankfully it was on the other side of camp from my cabin and was at 1am when most of us were tucked up safe in bed. One of the volunteers slept in the main lodge on a couch as she could hear the Lions and thought they were close, as it was right outside her cabin, it was the best decision that she has probably ever made. Her roommate was the one who saw the Lion, but was also limited in her ability to warn her. My fingers and toes are crossed for them staying out for the coming weeks, or least until after my departure.