my stay in south africa

8/3/2019 My Stay in South Africa

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Terrence White/ENG191/Ms.Smith-Muhammad/Narrative Essay/5-26-08 White 1

How Living in Africa Changed My Life

Between March 1984 and July 1985, I was privileged to live and work in the Republic of

South Africa. My purpose for being there was missionary work, and although I did

indeed engage in a great deal of that type of labour, I feel that I gained more from my

experience of living there in otherways than would be apparent, were I to mention onlythat one activity. My brief time in South Africa was one of the two most profoundly life-

changing experiences for me in all my life. I hope I can show how and why this was the

case.

Although in most respects South Africa is just as modern a country as the United States

or Europe, with all the industries, factories, gold and diamond mines, suburbs, cities,towns, shopping malls, interstate highways, railways, airports, and other amenities (and

headaches) which modern civilized society offers, and although I there met many

wonderful and selfless people, who (unasked) helped me in many ways, it was not so

much these aspects that proved to be significantly life-changing for me. Rather, it was my

several excursions into the wild bushveld (or wilderness) that proved to impact me themost.

Africa is arguably one of the most ancient, primitive and starkly beautiful landscapes on

earth, and South Africa in particular does indeed have many wilderness parks and game

preserves in which to observe much of that natural beautysome of them quite large.

Together with two friends, I visited several of the bigger game preserves--includingSouth Africa's famous Kruger National Park, and the privately-owned Timbavati GamePreserve next to it. I will describe these two momentarily. First, I want to mention Mountain Sanctuary Park, which was one of the grandest and most beautiful of thewilderness parks I saw. This place even has a website, at http://www.mountain-

sanctuary.co.za/ . I would recommend looking into their site, as it contains many

beautiful and representative photographs of the place.

We were lucky enough to visitMountain Sanctuary Parkon two separate occasions. This

park has a lengthy mountain ridge which runs through most of it--part of the vastMagaliesberg mountain range, which stretches on literally for miles and miles. On theside of this mountain there were no trees of any significance, scattered troops of baboons

which dined on small citrus-type fruits, and herds of tiny deer-like gazelles, and the

mountain ridge was cut by numerous ravines, gorges, and gullies--some of which werequite large and hundreds of meters deep.

On both occasions, starting early in the morning, before the sun had become too hot, my

friends and I slowly hiked up to the top of the mountain ridge, where the ruins of a fortfrom the Anglo-Boer War still sat on the edge of a cliff. There had been an important

battle during that war not far from here, we were told. Here, the mountain-ridge dropped

away to the vast valley below, providing a spectacular view for a distance of many miles.

While we were sitting on the top of that mountain-ridge, perched on the ruins of that fort,the wind coming up from the valley below was furious, and, despite the otherwise hot
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I did indeed see a lot of wildlife. But Africa is not quite the place that most Americansexpect from watching National Geographic. Wildlife does indeed exist there in great

numbers, but it does so only in the larger game preserves, and one often has to travel

great distances to see them. Elsewhere in the country are only endless fields, farmland,

suburbs, gold and diamond mines, many small towns and occasionally larger cities.

Timbavati Game Preserve, which I mentioned earlier, is where, a few years ago, a minor

strain of naturally "white" lions (previously only legendary) made their appearance (seethe website http://www.responsibletravel.com/Copy/Copy101740.htm ), and the Kruger

National Park is the largest game preserve in South Africa (and one of the largest in the

world). There are several websites mentioning the Kruger National Park.

The Kruger National Parkis so big that you can literally drive around in it all day long

and never see a single sign of human life (other than the dirt track in front of you and

behind you). It is about the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island together. It was like

being trapped in an episode ofDiscovery Channel, orNational Geographic. I saw plentyof gazelle, giraffe, wildebeest, hippos, lions, elephants, zebras, antelope and springbuck,

plus baboons, tree monkeys, wild dogs, hyenas, etc.

That huge diversity of God's creatures there, plus the deafening silence constantly

surrounding us, and the incredible sense of desolate isolation, left me overwhelmed with

emotion, and thinking that I had at last found the fabled "Garden of Eden" itself. Such asense of peace and tranquility exists out there! I honestly did not want to return to the

States--to my own home, and family! What sort of experience is it that can produce an

effect like that?

That sensation ofutter and profound isolation is what so significantly changed my life. I

was only there in that game park for one day, but that one day, and the raw experiences it

contained, was sufficient to forever alter the course of my life and my thinking.

You who have always lived in a house, in a city or suburb, and have never spent more

than an hour or two literally a hundred miles from the nearest other human beings (oreven sign of human life), have no idea how overwhelming it can be, to experience

isolation like that. Persons shipwrecked on a desert island, like Robinson Crusoe, lonely

explorers in the vast Sahara, or perhaps scientists in Antarctica, or oil-drillers in Siberia,will have had such an experience; but not many people normally have experiences like

that. This is why, when they do occur, they are life-changing experiences.

I grasp at words, trying to describe what is was like for me, standing there that day on thehot, dusty African plain, with nothing for literally a hundred miles around, except my two

friends, one automobile, one dry, dusty dirt road, and endless miles of grass, bushes,

scattered thorn-trees, occasional wild animals, and endless blue sky and puffy white

clouds. I struggle, and cannot seem to find the right words to convey just how awesomean experience it was, and how reverently and profoundly moved by it I was. Such

overwhelming peace, and tranquility! One could literally sit there all day long, and never
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hear another sound besides the breeze occasionally rustling through the tall grasses! It is

absolutely impossible to imagine what this actually feels like, if one has neverexperienced it. I felt like we were literally the only people alive and walking on the entire

planetso far away did all other life seem. This gives one a completely new perspective

on life, believe me!

I suppose a person who is easily bored would probably be driven to the edge of insanity

by isolation like that. I could easily envision a possibility like that. But not for me: it was

a balm of Gilead to my soul. And I have always wanted to go back there andexperience it just one more time.

Needless to say, after having had such a profound experience as that, and coming back to

everyday civilization, even seeing New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and justabout every other sight and experience that America has to offer, I still have felt

somewhat cheatedbecause I was always conscious that something greater still lay

elsewhere, and I knew that I had been there, and experienced it firsthand. I suppose the

astronauts who walked on the moon must have felt similarly, after they had returned totheir usual, routine lives in suburbia, commuting to their jobs every morning, and I do

not wonder when I recall that several of them are said to have experienced severe

psychological problems of readjustment upon their return. Only those who have hadsimilarly profound, life-altering experiences can know what I mean here. Had I the time,

and my listeners the patience, I think I could probably write a whole book about what I

saw and experienced there. Hopefully, this brief essay will suffice for the moment.

Photo taken during our visit to the Kruger National Park, in the Spring of 1985. Shown

here is a herd of Impala. We had to be very quiet, so as not to frighten them.

my stay in south africa

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