From Extraordinary to More Ordinary

Anyone that knows me will probably not find it too hard to believe that I have become involved in the CCF gardening project. There is a nice garden here that seems to have gone through times of production and times of being ignored. Today I joined forces with two CCF staff members and two of the Namibian workers to plant, transplant and harvest the garden. Cantaloupe, beans, tomatoes, and greens were planted. Chard, cukes, basil, carrots and beets were harvested. It is summer here in southern Africa.

One of the things I pondered as I went out to water the garden this evening was how some of the more extraordinary things here have become more ordinary. As I was moving hoses and sprinkling plants, on the other side of the path (and behind a fence), 10 feet away were four cheetahs. They all came over, wandered along the fence, checked me out, then found their own spots to lay down. It is not often one gets to garden with cheetahs hanging about.

Each morning, as I walk the path to my office, I go past three cheetah enclosures. The enclosures are big, maybe 5 or more acres. There is no guarantee that you will see a cheetah but most days I do. It has become more ordinary, not expected or taken for granted but ordinary. It has also become ordinary for me to see things such as Crimson breasted shrikes and Go Away birds. It is normal to see the warthog family with the male, female and two young go past the dining hall at dinner time. I have grown accustomed to encountering the gecko that lives in my bathroom. I am used to the smell of the thatch roof of my rondovel. I know that every day will bring a stunning sunrise
. Dung beetles, bazillions of butterflies, ants from tiny to giant, have become a normal part of my life.

Yesterday, on the way out to feed cheetahs, some of the staff saw a leopard run across the road. Last night the farm manager had to kill a cobra that kept coming up to his front porch. Tomorrow the director and several of the staff, along with a film crew from CNN, are headed out to track a cheetah whose radio transmitter batteries are getting low. They need to find her, tranquilizer her and replace the batteries. Extraordinarily ordinary events that occur as part of our everyday life here in Namibia or at least at the Cheetah Conservation Fund.