Turning 21 in Africa

On Sunday, October 4th I celebrated my 21st birthday here at Na/an Kuse. The night before we celebrated with a couple of drinks but nothing too extravagant! On the day, I had booked a Sunday brunch trip to the tourist lodge (also on the reserve). After helping out in the morning at food prep and getting greeted with tens of “Happy Birthday’s” I headed over with a group of volunteers. The lodge was absolutely beautiful and the food was to die for! CAKE!! When you’re in the middle of nowhere little things like a piece of cake becomes a BIG deal! Chocolate cake and apple crumble was definitely what I needed on my Birthday :)

That Cake!

The Lodge

The Lodge

After spending a couple hours at the lodge relaxing we headed back to the farm. Within 15 minutes of coming back to the farm, Stu came to us and said there was a big forest fire by a neighboring farm. Outside Windhoek there is no fire brigade so instead neighboring farms help each other out in the case that a forest fire does break out. So everyone that was fit and up for it got changed and got ready to help out. Three pick ups were loaded with large fire extinguishing containers along with us volunteers. Never in my life have I gone that fast in a pick up truck whilst standing in the back! Stu, who was driving, put the pedal to the metal and reached speeds what felt like 100 km/h! The ride was definitely and adrenaline rush, but at the same time very beautiful as the sun was starting to set. 

After a 45 minute drive we got to the fire and were ready to go. Given that the fire was on a mountain, we had to get out of the car and attempt to fight the fire with shovels, rakes, water towels , etc. The strategy to fight the fire was to go from the back (where the forest was already burnt down), this would prevent us getting burns! With some flames about 10 feet high, this was definitely a challenge. Every little fire we would extinguish by covering them up with dirt, whilst the bigger fires were a different story. Hats off to firefighters around the world, my god, the heat and the smoke made it a very grueling task!!

The Forest Fire!

As the sun set the area was lit by the forest fire, which we were slowly able to control after a lot of hard work and effort! We then maneuvered our truck motorcade back through the forest and onto the road back to Na/An Kuse. When we made it back everyone was starving and exhausted, which is when I got a very pleasant surprise. The kitchen staff had made me a very nice birthday cake, and Hannah (and the other volunteers) had gotten me an awesome shirt and a poster signed by everyone! It was a hectic day but definitely a very memorable birthday. It might not have been the crazy party 21st birthday that most people have, but nevertheless a birthday that I will won’t forget!

My Cake :D