Sara's Blog

This week I’ve moved onto the second leg of my South African journey—to Pretoria, which is close to Johannesburg. (Yes, my luggage came with me too!)

The classes in Plett went really well, I was delighted to see students from last year and so many new people. There were 120 students altogether! I’ve put some photos of them “in action” during class in the Photo Gallery. I think they all learned something new and had a good time.

Lots and lots of people entered the layout contest. Their work was excellent! I put a few snaps of some entries in the Photo Gallery—these are just a few of the many pages, basically the ones that didn’t get too much of a glare off the page protectors.

In between class sessions I got a chance to visit the nearby Elephant Sanctuary and Monkey Land. Both places are dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating animals—as an animal lover, that’s definitely a cause I can support. In the Gallery you’ll see me with my new elephant friend (and her caretaker, with his pouch of elephant treats). We got to walk trunk-in-hand and learned so much about these beautiful animals. Monkey Land was another great experience—they take in monkeys that have been used in laboratories and kept as house pets and reintroduce them to the forest. The black and tan monkey you see sunning himself was kept as a house pet. He’s drooling like that because his teeth were removed by the previous owners. They say there’s not much chance he’ll ever go out into the wild, so for now he just hangs about on the patio. In the midst of this, I’m so glad there are organizations dedicated to taking care of these amazing creatures and giving them at least a safe place to live. I’m also grateful to have the experience of seeing these beautiful, intelligent animals.

Well, enough of the tour guide! Wish me luck for the next round of classes!