Today was our day in Bloemfontein to prepare for our service project on Sunday and to go see the baby kitties. Thankfully everyone is feeling much better and we had a really great day!
To start the morning, we had a yummy breakfast with South African style bacon and sausages with eggs, yogurt, toast, and some sort of delicious OJ. Our friend who is driving us around, Adrian, picked us up and we were off to the cat place.
The cat place is called “The Cheetah Experience” and is a place where orphaned cats (lions, cheetahs, etc.) or cats who need a home go for a while. Jeff was particularly excited to see the Cheetahs and although we thought he bonded with the Dassey on Table Mountain, he really seemed to be one with the Cheetah.
There were others with us on the tour that was led by a really nice tour guide. There were about four kids on the tour including an 11 month old baby. We went to see the lions that are now about 16 month olds that Lynna and Bo held last year. They are huge and now have a sort of mohawk mane. They were relaxing in the shade until that baby started fussing a little. The biggest one came right up to the fence and started pacing back and forth while staring at the baby. We pretty much agreed he was thinking “woohoo, lunch!”
We then saw other animals and made our way to the cheetah enclosure where there are two adult female cheetahs. One is friendly and was happy to let us pet her while she slept. The other one is a littl bit wary of people and spent her time looking at the sheep next door and wondering how to get over the 12 ft. fence.
This afternoon Abbey and Jeff spent time planning the service project which so far includes twenty soccer balls, a blow up water slide, and KFC. More details and plans to follow because the competitions starts tomorrow!!
We went tonight to a meet and greet with all the coaches and participants for the competition. Everyone involved is very warm and receptive to our team’s participation. Abbey and Jeff had the opportunity to talk to the judges who will be judging tomorrow’s round and to get a feel for the competition.
Keep your fingers crossed and we will share the experience with you tomorrow!
