After the rain

This morning I woke up at 6.30 and first thing in the morning I went for a short run, on the road going the opposite direction to Otto and Mayas (from now on 'O&M') house. It was a short run. I crossed a couple of fields, flat red sand, and saw a couple of times monkeys crossing the road in small groups, just 100 meters away. At some point a small river cut my way and I had to stop. Around it black loam, washed away from the rain of the day before. 

I went back and found that we had to walk to the O&M in order to go to the office. The office is about 9 km away, you do not get there in short time without a car. Normally they would pick us up, but the road had been made nonviable by the rain. We got there to find out that the office could not be reached. Also, an house in the area had been washed out, it rained 24 mm yesterday night. 

Instead of going to the office, we all jumped on the 4x4 car (including the dogs, and the small Leya) and we went into the fields to check what the soil conservation interventions had done, and if they survived the night. Cedric, the neighbour of O&M joined us.

Cedric used to work at the university in Port Elizabeth with his wife, before retiring to the Baviaanskloof some years ago. As far as I understand he has done a whole lot of hiking and cycling here, although he was operated to his knee some years ago his pace is still amazing. This guy clearly has walked much in his life. 

On this bumpy, rocky road we saw quite some bergbokken running and some kudus. Kudus population is very big in the Baviaans. For that reason., farmers are allowed to shoot a certain quota, and sell the meat.

Anyway, we spent most of the morning inspecting soil conservation and restoration measures. I felt like jumping into one o

f the manuals I had to study on during my bachelor. Half-moons, silt traps, dams, plantings and cuttings of natural vegetation. So much to think about. It feels like my brain is overloaded and can't stop thinking. Maybe for that reason around 12, when we got back to O&M place, I was completely wasted again. 

While the other students went home I stayed a bit longer at O&M place, I needed to have a talk with Maya, a kind of introduction about working here. We ended up talking a lot about the Baviaans, interesting topics about history and social issues. This conversation went out for some time sitting in the porch, while Leya was sleeping. The peace was of course not to last indefinitely. At some point the little, cute earthquake woke up.

That provoked quite some interruptions, but it is so much fun to see this child running around. I love how she is cared for and protected, but not too much. I think children should be allowed to get dirty and play on the ground. She is lucky enough to be allowed for errors and minor injuries (stepping on a spine from time to time) which I think are great teachers. Otto and Maya are this kind of super-humans. Somehow they manage to coordinate a baby, a puppy, a dog, different students and a project.... while also being such lovely, caring people. I know them for so little, but I have the idea already that I can learn so much from these amazing people. 

I won't linger on the details of our conversation, as I think they relate more to my academic 'mission' here than the travel experience. But It really motivated me to work hard to try to make a difference for this area. 

Just when I was going to head home it begun to rain. I hurried down the road to get home in time, accompanied by Billy, the dog of our host-farmer Berend (the owner of the building we live in ( I met him today the first time). I got a strong wind in the back during the whole route and I arrived home soaked only on my back.