Black Bush

Hey everyone, today we went into an area called black bush. You walk down to the entry way they call the polder and have to wait to catch a bus that will take you in. The ride into black bush is an experience. The road is half dirt and half concrete thats been driven on so often that its almost dirt. So the bus driver is swerving all over the place and you are sliding back and forth on the seat hitting people in the process. It was a 10 minute drive into the area we were heading. After we got off the bus Shameniel told us that it was time to walk. We walked for 20 minutes to get to our destination. The walking in this place is interesting because you have to cross a lot of bridges. We arent talking about the bridges you see in america with rails and boards that are secure. These bridges are 3 planks laid across a stream sometimes in the middle they are connected with nails. The wood is rotting and the 3 planks arent even with each other, they are all different heights and the wood bends when you walk on it. We are deathly afraid of falling in the water, especially after we were told that there are alligators in the water. They tried to make us feel better by saying that normally the alligators know they are smaller than you and will leave you alone. I am not so sure I believe them.

We walked to the house for a good 20 minutes only to find that nobody was home. Thankfully the next door neighbor was home and gave us some information. They were so friendly, they had us sit down and gave us something to drink while they were tracking down the girls mother. The people here are so sweet but sometimes they do things that are awkward. Like this family for instance has a son about our age. Now today he was home and sitting in the hammock listening to our conversation. The mother told us that he recently became without a girlfriend, and that now that we will be visiting this area one of us should be his new one. Because of the whole accent thing it took a minute for us to figure out what was meant. So its very possible that when we laughed at that comment we were agreeing in the process. At least it makes for a good story. Finally though the mother of the daughter came over and we were able to meet her and setup next weeks study.

So when we were able to leave after visiting for a while we started to head in the direction of the other study in that area. We walked for another 20 minutes when we met up with a herd of goats. There were about 100 goats all being led by a little boy. I have lots of pictures because the little baby goats are so cute. I really want one. There was one that was standing behind a barb wired fence and he wanted to go but didnt want to get close to us so he tried to make a run for it. Apparently when goats are little they dont have good eyesight because he ran right into the fence and was knocked over. We had to back away from the fence before he would go and even then he made a break for it. Another goat made a noise that sounded like a man yelling at the top of his lungs.

It seemed like we were going to walk forever when a group from english pulled up alongside us and offered a ride. We crammed 7 people in a car that wasnt made for 7 people. Once again the person we were supposed to be visiting wasnt home:( So all in all today was us getting used to the area, but at least we tried. The most eventful time today was definetly our ride home.

So we waited for a bus for 25 minutes and when we got on the bus I think I would have prefered to wait for a different one. The guy didnt try to miss the potholes but instead hit them at full speed which made me fly up in my seat and slam my head against the ceiling. The whole time home we had to hold onto the seat in front of us and the local women that were sitting in front of us were laughing at us the whole time. By the end of the ride we were laughing so hard that we were crying. It was either that or we cry. So when we pulled out of the black bush area there was another bus waiting for us to load into it, there were more people then spaces and we were going 120mph. That isnt a joke and its not kilometers, I asked. We were going around a corner and i swear we almost tipped over we were going that fast so I looked up at the speedometer and it said 120. I signed that to Dani who was sitting behind me with Shameniel and Dani said that she thought it was kilometers so when I told her I was pretty sure it was mph she asked Shameniel who confirmed that I was in fact right. I always wanted to ride in a race car. I guess that it was in a bus instead. We think that if there is any possibility of us getting in an accident while we are here it will definetly be in a bus. Ok thats it for now:)