The next school we saw was such a contrast to the school that Mrs Zikhali runs. It is called Mthambalala. There are 185 pupils ranging from 14 to 23 years old. Children go to school when their parents can spare them, so the age ranges in each class are 3-4 years between youngest and oldest. This school serves a community of 20,000 with 3 class rooms and a headmasters office in a portacabin.
Event the school bell is battered. I asked the deputy head what he wanted to help the school. He said two things

- Water for drinking/sanitation
- More classrooms

This is one of the projects that the funds from the Art for Africa Auction is likely to support. It would be great to see the same energy, colour and excitment

Bikes to Ride to School

Often children have to walk for miles to get to school starting off at 5am just to get to school in time. These yellow bicycles have been donated by charities to make the journey easier and safer for children. People don't really talk about the attacks on children and the rape that goes on, but this has been a driving force to provide these bicycles. Rape is endemic here and it is one reason why all the schools have razor wire fences to protect the children. There was some misinformation that if you slept with a virgin then you would get rid of HIV/AIDS, perhaps this is why it happens.

Mrs Zikhali's School - Nkomo Primary

Mrs Zikhali is a local superstar. She is the headmistress of this school. Her father didn't let her study to become a teacher and so she had to wait to get married before she could study to start her career. At first she had a school across the river and she would canoe to work and take 35 children with her each day, then the river flooded and she decamped to under a tree - she proudly showed us her 'office'. Then she decided to ask for money to build a classroom, but the more she built the more children started coming to be taught, so she was always stuck under the tree as her office. One group of American donors parked in the shade under the trees on one trip - BIG MISTAKE - Mrs Z was not happy - and you wouldn't mess with her either. She now has an actual office and has developed this school to be the model for the charity.

These two little boys ran around the corner of the school to hide behind the water butt with their stash of biscuits. How cheeky are they!

More cheetahs

Some more photos of the resident cheetahs. When we arrived we asked if the game ever came near the house and we had our answer this evening when the cheetahs were spotted walking across the drive of the house.....um. Must remember to take a stick with me if I go for a walk.

Positive Health with Andries

Andries works in our lodge as the chef, he started out in the gold mines in Johannesburg, got made redundant and then started at the safari reserve as a staff chef. He is now the head chef for the clients at the lodge. HIs real passion is the campaign "Positive Health" and he wonders whether to resign or not just to focus on working on nuritional education in the communities. Good nutrition is an essential part of the jigsaw for the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Even if someone has been dignosed with HIV and is lucky enough to get the anti-viral drugs these only work if there is a base level of nutritional health. A diet of Phuthu, (ground maize), is not enough. Andries has to teach local people about the evils of sugar and how to create their own allotments, (called trench gardens here). They use all the green refuse form the kitchens as compost and then teach them how to tend the allotments. Luckily I don't take sugar with my coffee as Andries would not be happy. He is also a 6'2" Zulu, so I'm not going to mess with him! He has just decided that we will have phuthu for dinner tonight as part of an African banquet...

The Cheetahs

The rangers keep in continual contact with the lodge staff whilst on safari via radio, keeping track of the game and guiding the jeeps towards the animals when there have been sightings. It is important that the guests get to see the game to fulfil their safari dream, without happy guests no-one has a job out here. Some guests get hooked and even come to the reserve from the UK for a long weekend several times a year. Today we saw a cheetah mother with her three adolecent cubs resting in the bush. Our ranger, Luke, decided that we would go off road in the Land Rover, (including down a very steep ditch), in order to follow them. The mother decided to start looking for food and the cubs followed her. Cheetahs are bad climbers and one of the cubs was showing off and jumped up this tree and then got stuck. He wedged himself in between the branches for a rest and then skidded down the trunk, he looked kind of embarrased.

A note on monkeys

The rangers and wardens get very animated about the monkeys. Some favourite monkey passtimes include sitting on the roof picking out the thatch, sliding down them for fun holding on to the thatch as they go, (baboons mainly) and stealing food from the kitchen. After a bout of thefts from the kitchen a while ago, the rangers devised the perfect plan....a fruit salad monkey trap arranged outside the kitchen....every fruit the monkey's heart could desire. They waited on the lookout for the monkey ready to spring the trap...and waited....and waited....only to turn round in the kitchen to find the monkey inside at the other end of the room stuffing himself with chocolate chip cookies - great cheekfuls and fistfuls from the jar...I still haven't seen any monkeys but I am told to close my door as they also have been known to go inside to play with lipsticks and mascara.

Khulani means "Growth"

An unscheduled stop to a school for disabled children. I was not prepared for the emotional reaction and struggled to hold back the tears for the entire time I was with them. In fact for the rest of the day I have been very tearful when thinking about the visit. The woman who started the school had her own disabled child - now grown up - and she has continued to develop the school. The local chief has donated a larger portion of land nearby and granted permission for a new building to be built for the school. This will mean that the children have a dormitory instead of sleeping on the schoolroom floor, access to running water and electricity and the dinner ladies don't need to light a fire to cook by, they can use a stove. Before we leave the children sing for us - a song about 10 little fingers and 10 little toes. One of the children clamps on to Susannah as we leave and the teacher has to prise him off - he wants to come back with us. It's a stretch of the imagination to go from the fundraising auction, "Art for Africa", being held in London at Sotheby's in September to this little disabled boy, but it reminds us why have got involved and why it makes a difference. It is worth getting it right.

Baby Rhino

The safari industry is the economic engine of the entire area, it provides jobs and attracts investment to the region and promotes best practice for conservation. Apart from that - a safari is great fun! Here we saw a two-week old baby white rhino nuzzling with its mother by the side of the road. At two weeks old the baby wasn't used to the safari jeep and got very protective of its 1.5tonne mother. He started off by charging a small bush and then turned his attention to the jeep - and charged us! The mother looked on like any indulgent parent....

Lunchtime at the pre-school

Just as we arrived at lunchtime the children emerged from the classroom taking their chairs to the dining room ready for a hearty lunch of rice and beans. The pre-school looks after about a hundred children enabling the mothers to find work to help support the family. We were told that government officials were due to visit next week to check that the staff were following the curriculum. The government only helps to fund projects like this after they have been up and running for a while and proved themselves viable. This is where the charity can help by starting these facilities off with the local communitites that then become sustainable with the help of the government in providing trained teaching staff and additional finance.

The "DEV" Centre

DEV stands for Digital Eco Village and is the local hub of activity. Here we met Isaac, the Director of Operations for the charity and Nondumiso, here in the picture, who runs the centre. Her focus is education and she told us about how she is giving her staff extra English lessons to practice speaking English. Most people here learn English and can read it, but don't like to speak it as they are shy and don't practice. The DEV centre runs computer courses and, most importantly, has a fax and photocopier machine which has revolutionaised the ability for local people to apply for benefits. Before then it was a 30 Rand taxi drive to the nearest town.

At the clinic

We spent our first morning visiting projects in the local area. There are five communities surrounding the reserve that are supported by the charity. We stop off at Mduku clinic and meet one of the nurses. The clinic is a good example of a combined effort between the government, the charity and the locals. The waiting room is packed, and the nurses are so busy. Six nurses live on site with their families and provide 24-hour coverage. I pop my head round to the delivery suite and imagine having my children here....at least the midwives in Africa know how to deal with a breech birth though, unlike back in the UK where you get whipped off for a Ceasarian at the drop of a hat. Our guide says they do suffer with a brain drain of African doctors and nurses heading to the UK and the Middle East to work there....