Saturday in Swaziland



And they're off!

Today, I volunteered as the doctor for a mountain bike race in Swaziland. I had been asked by Jono if I could fill-in for him, as he was out of town this weekend.

I was there by 7a.m., and Angela was kind enough to accompany me. We rode along in the race organizer's truck. There were over 400 participants in 4 race categories: 72K, 32K, 20K, 10K. Nick and Grace were participants.

The race went through all three of the nearby game reserves: Mbuluzi, Mlawula, and Hlane. It looked like a tough (but beautiful!) course. The biggest differences that I saw from races in America:

 - Some of the volunteers posted at the turns/turnarounds had a rifle on them (to shoot game if the wild game were to attack a bicyclist)

- At the beginning of the race, they gave some instructions: be careful at the water crossings, watch out for rocks, and...watch out for the giraffes, wildebeest and other wild animals. (Apparently Dr. Nick game across a giraffe on the path during his ride, and had to carefully maneuver around it!)

We had a nice time, but business began early when one of the race organizers' father-in-law got stung by a bee and was apparently deathly allergic to bee stings. She asked if I had an epi pen (which I didn't)...apparently he had forgotten his in his other car. He looked he was doing fine, but we had the local ambulance take him to the clinic just to be sure.

We had two other people who took some nasty spills, but no broken bones that I could tell. They'll just need some ice, ibuprofen, and some rest.

Don't mess with this volunteer! Armed with a rifle in case any wild game get out of hand.
 

Later in the evening, Nick, Grace, and I cooked up a storm at Jono and Helen's house and then hosted a dinner party. We made tons of amazing Indian food. Nick was actually the chef, and Grace and I were the sous chefs :)

The delicious spread!

One other thing I wanted to share. There was a group of Swazi singers (Possible Dreams International), who came to sing for us at Mabuda Farm last week. They performed in Jono and Helen's shed here on the farm. They were fantastic!  They are now touring England for two weeks. http://www.possibledreams.org/

Concert in the Mabuda shed
 

I am currently working on a few projects here in Swaziland dealing with eye health, etc. I am going to post more about those in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!