The story of Rebecca’s journey home from the magical land of Oz.

Lions, and leopards, and Lilac Breasted Rollers, oh my!

One of my colleagues at MCC got married this past weekend in Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique. She has been working there for the past three and a half years, met a Mozambican, fell in love, and you know the rest. We all traveled to the city to celebrate their marriage. It was a lovely time. Since most of the rest of the MCC’ers (including myself) live in harder to get to places, we took advantage of being in the city to go on vacation as it is much cheaper and easier to travel from there! Another Canadian family who’ve been working in the north of Mozambique invited me along for a trip to Kruger National Park in South Africa. It was amazing. Absolutely amazing.

In addition to seeing lions and leopards (twice!), we saw impala, many other small antelope, rhinos, elephants, giraffes, zebras, African painted dogs (endangered wild dogs), hyenas, crocodiles, hippos, buffalo, bush-babies, mongooses (mongeese?), warthogs, baboons, other monkeys, and much more! I got to see the hyenas very close up- they have developed the habit of patrolling the campground fence searching for leftovers people have chucked over the side. I came to my tent one night and there were six glowing hyena eyes not 5 feet from where I was standing. I knew they couldn’t pass the electric fence that lay between us, but it gave me the chills to see them so close nonetheless! As I turned off my light I heard the swish of their feet in the grass, off to find a more promising site.

We stayed in Kruger Park for three nights. Every morning we got up and left the campground at 5:30AM, came back for a late breakfast, and went out again mid-afternoon.  The family I was with knows I am something of a birder, and were kind enough to stop the car every time we saw an interesting bird on the side of the road. Their 6 year old son also has an interest in birds, so at least they weren’t stopping just for me. I’m beginning to understand how normal people feel around birders though. It wasn’t long before I was thinking “oh yay, another zebra… OH LOOK! A RED-NECKED FRANCOLIN! We’ve only seen a Crested Francolin so far!!!!” We weren’t allowed to leave the car, which makes birding rather difficult, but nevertheless, I saw 38 lifers that trip, which is amazing as it was raining half the time! I won’t bore you with a list, but here are pictures of a couple. The first is, you guessed it, a lilac breasted roller (only this is a juvenile, so he’s not so lilacy just yet)...

Lilac Breasted Roller. When they are adults they have bright blue wings and bright purple chests and wonderfully long tail feathers. The only reason I bothered taking a picture of this one with my small camera is because I couldn’t tell at first WHAT he was.

African Janaca- a bird with unbelievably long toes!

Zebra...

Zebra with a Red-Billed Oxpecker on his back!

For all you mammal lovers. 

And finally, a vervet monkey with his adorable unibrow.

 And now, after a short but amazing holiday, I am back in Beira. I think the best part of being away for a small vacation was the glorious feeling of coming home again that I experienced upon my return. It was my first time being way from Beira since I’ve arrived. I didn’t know how I would feel coming back, but it felt great. Pastor Madeira and his wife waited up for me, even though my plane was several hours late and I didn’t come in until 1AM. I sat down and ate the supper they left out for me, not because I felt obliged to, but because I wanted to. They left a note on my pillow saying “Welcome home! We are happy you are here again!” Sunday morning I slept in late, being exhausted from my much delayed and slightly stressful flight home. I asked if it was OK if I stayed home from church this once. Pastor Madeira said, “that is fine. In fact, that is perfect, you can prepare lunch for us! We will be leaving soon after church to go to a graduation ceremony in the afternoon; you can join us for that. Also, you have homework: have a half-hour devotion time and when I come back, tell me what you learned.” No rest for the wicked!

I was surprised to find when I got home that it was already half way through December! I dug out my Christmas decorations last night: a tiny tree that stands about 15 cm tall, some Christmas tree decorations that dwarf the tree, but oh well, and a string of lights that I put over my mirror. As I was decorating, I cranked the music- nothing brings back memories of putting up the tree at home like Barbara Streisand’s Jingle Bells! Yesterday at the office, I sat enjoying a delicious cup of Sleigh Ride tea from David’s Tea, thanks to my dear sister Janet who sent it from Canada. This time I listened to Bing Crosby & the Andrews sisters and watched the palm trees sway, dreaming of a white Christmas. It’s not that I’m pining for slush covered streets and frozen finger tips, but there is something magical about snow at Christmas time that palm trees can’t quite pull off.

Blessings this Christmas Season

Rebecca