Zululand

Tomorrow, I shall use my digital camera to snap some of the sights of Zululand! On Monday I will be up in the Game Reserve, and I will probably only get to take snapshots of interesting Game. I hope we will see some interesting Game. I will then have the chance to include photos on my blogs!

I rather enjoy blogging, as it gives me a chance to express some of my innermost thoughts! I cannot encumber my headshrink with them as some of them are a bit "Out there!" Still it gives me a chance to express my thoughts and inner feelings! I do not have to face people who obviously are thinking that because I cannot speak clearly, I must be nearly brain dead! It always amazes me on the first Sunday of a month, when we are involved in a testimony meeting, that most of the youth are not able to speak as clearly as I am! My problem is that I have a spastic diaphram, where I cannot speak that clearly all the time! I realised that speech is not so much a function of your vocal chords, but rather a function of breath control. Thinking about this, it should have been readily known, as when I ran in races, I could not speak properly until I had recovered my breath. It is the same now! My diaphram does not take in enough oxygen, so I battle!

If anyone reads my blog, it is not apparent to them that I speak badly at times! That is a cross that I have to bear, but like is told in a church story, someone was invited into an area where there were numerous crosses. He asked "What are these?" and was told that they were humanity burdens. He was free to choose which burden he wanted to carry, and after much searching, he took up his own burdens. When asked why, he said "They are MY burdens, and I can cope with them!"

I know that I would hate to wish my problems on my worst enemy, as I know that I can cope with them, but I am comfortable with them. I dont know if:-
Others could cope OR
I could cope with different ones!

My trials are for ME to cope with and to learn from. If I fail to learn, what more can be done so that I do learn? I have learned that bees are not the cute yellow and black insects portrayed by Disney. Sad thing is that they nearly killed me! As I say, "you live and learn" - I lived and they learned, the hard way! Where I was stung there were thousands of bee carcasses lying, not quite knee deep, although that depends on who is talking. Not my knees, but an ant or a ghecko?

I often think that Heavenly Father had so much fun creating our world for us! I despair at how some "learned men" can get things so wrong as to "prove" that we evolved from swamp slime! Another thing that gets me going is the arguement that man is inherintely bad, and is creating Global Warming. That supposes Man is more powerful than his Maker! It amazes me that Man thinks he is so dominent, but even bees can kill us! Dont even get me started on how we are so brave facing elephant, rhino or even lion or leopard - from behind sheet metal, called a car!

I enjoy telling the Missionery Elders - usually from Salt Lake City - that I have survived being bitten by a lion. Ask my brother and he will confirm that I, he and our youngest brother have been bitten by a real live lion. Sure it was only weeks old and playfully bit us whilst we played with it! Being so young, its teeth were not so intimdating as to even break the skin. We had fun telling visitors to his home in LA that we were bitten - in Africa - by a lion. We did not let on at first that it was a lion cub - only about a month old! Still, a lion is a lion... is a lion. I still think that somewhere, I have a snapshot of "Ruff" the lion!

They could barely believe how we can live where you have to look both ways before you cross the street in case there were lion, elephant or rhino roaming! I suppose we sounded a bit like hunters of old, where the Game freely roamed the savannah, and were not fenced into Reserves!

I once saw a genuine African elephant about a kilometer from my home! It belonged to the circus that was visiting the village then, and was not wild! I saw a Zebra at the gate to the complex where I live! Sure that was wild, but not that wild! It was being herded back to it's home!