Camping and working in Chobe National Park

Hello all!

So things ended up working out wonderfully! Skiller arrived later than expected but he did get here. We set off for the park and they directed us to a campsite at the old gate, just past Chobe Safari Lodge where we've stayed in the past. We were met by an old man named Cash and his wife Porche who showed us the camp. It's very run-down now with most of the buildings in disrepair but there is water, toilets, showers (fairly sketchy, but working), and electricity in Cash's place. Our camp is farther up the hill on top of the foundations of some buildings that are now gone. Stepping into our campsite for the first time was interesting...there was a buffalo skin that was all that remained of some lion or hyena's meal about 10m from where I was told to pitch my tent in one direction and when I looked at the tree in the other direction, I saw the skin of some antelope hanging from it...the work of a leopard who stashed his kill there. That first night herds of elephants came walking just behind our camp, just outside of the fire we started to keep them back. There are certainly animals a plenty here, which though a little scary is also amazing. The other incredible thing is the view. We look out on the Chobe River and can see the herds of animals grazing in the morning and evening and watch the sun set over the river. People pay a lot of money to go on boat rides to see the view we get from our tents. Definitely a blessing.

Work in the park has also now started in earnest. In the last two days we've done 21 training samples (to link satellite information about vegetation to elephant impacts on the ground). This is far more than I expected, which is wonderful! We have had some interesting experiences along the way. Yesterday we walked up a hill and started recording data only to have an elephant get up from where it had been resting about 15m away on the other side of a bush! It was a big bull but lying down we didn't see it. We hurried back down the hill and were fine. We decided to come back and finish that site later (we did it today and no elephant this time). This morning we were collecting data at another site when tour operators said there were lions nearby. We returned to the car for a while but never saw the lions and since we were working in the opposite direction we finished our sampling. Then later we ran into worse problems. We got stuck in some thick sand. Unfortunately our shovel and tow rope are with Thata and we're getting them this afternoon so we were down in the sand digging with our hands until a tour car came along and lent us the shovel. The tourists had a great time laughing at the "Do Not Follow" sign on our car and the fact that we were stuck. All this has worked out fine and the Lord really has provided for us but please do keep praying for safety from animals, sand and other things in the upcoming weeks.

Skiller has been amazing! He is a hard worker and dedicated. He knows some of the trees, which has been a help, and he took it on himself to look through the guide book I have and to write down the English and Setswana names so he can learn what the ones he recognizes in the local language are in English. I've been very impressed with him so far. He has a certificate in building construction but wants to go back for a degree next year so he can start his own building company. I hope all the best for him. I'll admit he won major points for me when we were in the store this afternoon and asked if we wanted some after dinner drinks, now that we had ice for our cooler box. I said sure and he walked to the juice aisle and started looking around. My kind of person!

That's about all the internet time I have for now. I hope you're all doing well!