Noticing the Impalas

I'm interested to hear others' perspectives on life in Maputo so the other day I did a search for blogs about Maputo and came across one backpackers' take on my beloved city. I think their reflection on the city would be indicative of most tourists' opinions of Maputo:

"We have really enjoyed our day in Maputo, but don't think we would want to spend too long here. There is a certain charm to it, but there is more rubbish here than any Asian city we have been in- parts of it are extremely dirty and smelly."

Reading this made me chuckle to myself. There certainly is a "certain charm" to Maputo and when you first arrive, it is certainly hard not to notice the trash and smells. However, if I had met these backpackers, I would have let them know that if they moved here, they would fall in love with the city. Maputo is not a place for tourists- there really isn't much to see for travelers- but it is most definitely a great place to live. After a few weeks, the trash fades into the background, the smells seem to disappear and beauty seeps out of the corners of the city in places you might not expect. It truly has been a wonderful city to live in but that being said, it is also necessary to escape into South Africa every once in awhile. Madalena and I recently went to Kruger Park on my final "farewell trip" through the park. This is one of my favorite spots on the planet which I will greatly miss.

To give some semblance of order to the gazillions of pictures I took on my farewell journey, I'll start with the animals at the end of the alphabet because there were a ton. First, vultures. I've never seen so many in my life and would be OK if I never saw them again. Did I mention my slight bird phobia? I wasn't kidding. We stopped to take pictures of a bunch of them sitting in a tree which was odd and then suddenly there were at least 50 of these terrifying feathered beasts flying over our car and circling a carcass that apparently was lying behind a bush right by the road which hindered our view. I was incredibly tempted to run out to sneak a peek but then I remembered how I run extra fast past crows because I'm scared they will pluck out my eyes (I think I was traumatized by that scene from The Passion of Christ) so we opted to just take pictures as they landed on some poor dead animal.












We also saw several of the not-so-adorable-in-my-opinion but very entertaining vermet monkeys. I do not believe in evolution but could not help but notice this one particular fella who seems to be blessed with the infamous "Hardeman toes." At least we don't eat the jam from our toes like he was doing. I don't ever get this apparent "jam" in my toes and don't really understand that expression if I'm totally honest. Do people really get gunk stuck in between their toes?

























Now to the W's... The very first animal we saw was a Pumba (aka a warthog). We stopped at the bathrooms at the entrance and a mama warthog was feasting on the grass with one of her little ones. I don't have a fear of pigs so I squatted rather close to get the picture. A man watching me take the pictures said, "Aren't they beautiful?" which made me awkward because I wasn't sure if he was kidding or not. "No, no they are not beautiful. They are hideous," is what I was thinking but I guess some people think all of God's creatures are beautiful. I, however, do not belong to that school of thought. Some animals are just plain ugly. They're still cool but let's face it, they're quite repulsive. Later, we were delayed on our drive by another mama going for a jog with her 4 little ugly offspring trotting along behind her.













The next animals don't sound as impressive as they truly are. Wild dogs are really rare so they rank up there with the big 5 and cheetahs. We didn't get to see lions or leopards on this trip but it was pretty cool to see this rare species hanging out by the side of the road. Funny how if something is rare, it makes the animal that much cooler.












We also saw a bunch of waterbuck on this trip. They are the ones with a white target on their butt (how could anyone deny that God has a sense of humor?). I've only really ever seen their rears so it was a rare treat for me to get a good look at their faces. Why don't the females get any cool horns? Unfair.












The final "w" animal was one of the most common beasts on this particular trip: the wildebeest. They are usually quite anti-social so I've only ever seen them from quite a distance but this time we saw several very close. Mada and I went on a tiny back road early in the morning and stumbled upon a big herd of them right by the road. Horses get a lot of crap for having long faces but check out the length of the faces on these guys!












We didn't see any Xenopus toads or yaks but we did see plenty of one of my all-time favorites: zebras. Zebras win the "party animal" award of Kruger because they seem to have made friends with several other species. They even have befriended the typically anti-social rhinos and wildebeests.
























The following is perhaps my favorite picture from all my ventures to Kruger. I didn't even notice the apparently very angry zebra until I put my pictures on my computer. Although one will often see the same animals when visiting Kruger, each trip is special because you never know what the animals are going to do. I've seen plenty of kudus, giraffes, elephants and hippos but I've never seen them do the following:












Need I remind you that I grew up sharing a bathroom with Trent and Travis? Of course I enjoy bathroom humor. Madalena grew up with 4 brothers so between the two of us, we got such a kick out of catching animals relieving themselves. Four pooping animals in one day! That has to be some kind of record. We really wanted to see a rhino in action because apparently they have some very unique bathroom rituals but the hippo made up for the rhino. We were in a viewing station with two other people who were speaking in whispers so as not to disturb the animals. Suddenly we heard what sounded like a machine gun rapidly firing. We whipped our heads around, searching for the sound and saw a hippo who had sneaked out of the river without us noticing and was projecting his poop like rapid fire and his tail was whizzing around in a circle simultaneously. The other two people watched in apparent awe while Madalena and I couldn't hold it in and started laughing hysterically. I laughed so hard I couldn't get a picture of it actually happening but did get a shot of the culprit so I'll never forget:) Mr. Elephant on the left appears to be a bashful about his doo doo and has ducked his head.













Speaking of elephants, I always love seeing these ginormous beasts and they did not disappoint on this trip. We saw a bunch of lil "dumbos" and for the first time I got to see them bathing at two different watering holes.
























Other highlights included seeing two types of animals which aren't often seen in the park and that I would never want to meet on foot: rhinos and ostriges. (That fear of birds is only magnified when the bird is super fast and giagantic)
























Just try and tell me that if you saw that monstrous beast to the right lifting his wings like so and exposing his muscular thighs, you wouldn't freak out too. Apparently that is what an ostrige does when it is hot.

There is a common tendency among tourists in Kruger Park to consider it an unsuccessful trip if you don't see a lion. I, however, strongly disagree. I love seeing lions but there is so much beauty in the park which sadly, often goes unnoticed and I made it a point to try to be more appreciative of the beauty around me. On this final trip, I was ooooed and awed yet again by God's creation. Even without the animals, there were many many breath-taking views with His fingerprints all over them. Here are a few:early morning
dusk
sunset
sunrise

Mada still teases me about the first time we went to Kruger and I made her keep stopping so I could take pictures of impalas. These antelope are full of grace and beauty but aren't appreciated because there are so many in the park. A common conversation in the car goes like so: "See anything?" "Nope. Just impalas." Just impalas. Just these amazing animals but they are common place so let's keep driving. We all do it. We all drive by without pausing because they are "just impala" and the park is overflowing with them. Sadly, I confess I often have this same attitude about God's blessings. I am eager for the "big blessings" for the "lions" and often fail to appreciate the "commonplace blessings" or the impalas. He provides and blesses me every single day with glimpses of beauty and grace and mercy, but do I take notice? Do I stop and thank Him? Sometimes I do, but not nearly enough. I am so thankful for the "lions" in my life- the big blessings of coming to Africa and now having a job at Valley. However, I want to also be daily mindful of His other blessings. Perhaps if I stop more often and acknowledge the simple beauties, I will notice amazing things like Mada and I did when we stopped once to acknowledge some impalas:

His beauty and blessings are everywhere. The question is, will we slow down to notice and appreciate them?