Samara Land Rehab Day

Just got a couple of more volunteers at the program. They are two 17-year-old Alabama boys. They tend to only talk to themselves, but I’m working on getting them out of their shells. Today we did some land rehab, trying to make the water, that makes such terrible erosion down the hill sides, flow into areas that have shrubbery and rocks that will help seep up the water. We did this by tying two reeds together, and making a wall structure that will hopefully collect sediment/seeds, and push the water to a vegetated area. Alwyn, Drew and Michael worked on building a dame further down the gully, while I was given the privilege of planning and constructing the “reed” project! I had the two Alabama newbie’s, and two women that picked up small rocks to fill in gaps. After a few grueling hours of making these reed blockages, and making them work nicely with each other, the project was complete… at least in the small section I was assigned to do. Then a news reporter from Port Elizabeth came to check out the work we are doing. He interviewed Alwyn his dame project, and me about my “reed” project! He thought I was joking when I told him my name was Reed. I gave him my idea as to how this project is theoretically supposed to work, told him a bit about my background, he took a couple pictures, and that was that! Now I’m about to go on a little night drive, and hopefully find a caracal, genet, porcipine, and another aardvark! I can’t get enough of those things…