Tala Game Reserve

Today we had the opportunity to visit the game reserve that borders the orphanage (remember, there is no fence between where we are staying and the game reserve...)  One of the teachers from the orphanage drove us through the reserve in a four wheel drive vehicle from the orphanage.  We saw lots of animals up close (and I mean up close)!  There are no large predators at the reserve and the animals seemed to ignore the cars.

A massive male giraffe crossed the road right in front of our car.  

We saw an entire group (herd? - I'm not sure what the right term is) of giraffes. I would guess there were at least 8, maybe 10. There were some young ones and some that were full grown. This young giraffe was lying down - isn't it cute!?!

Rhinos are massive animals when seen up close.  These 2 were drinking at the lake and then decided to come walk on the road where we were parked.  I'm glad I wasn't driving because I probably would have stalled once I knew they were walking behind us.  They then crossed to the other side of the road and continued walking through the grass.  They are definitely fierce looking animals!

Miranda's favorite animals were the zebras and she loved saying the word "zebra" :)  The babies are especially sweet.

This evening Miranda seemed sad and wanted to go see her house mom (I now recognize those words in Zulu).  Whenever we went outside she wanted to walk up the hill towards her house.  We had already invited her house sister, Andiswa,  to come play with her.  As soon as Andiswa arrived Miranda said "Bye, Bye" because she thought she was leaving with Andiswa to go back to her house.  Miranda was out of sorts and did not even want to play with Andiswa at first.  Then they had a great time playing before dinner. 

After dinner they were playing outside and I noticed that Miranda was becoming very demanding.  She would cry whenever she didn't get her way and was not sharing any toys.   She cried when I said it was time to come in.  She was clearly tired from a big day and upset about the transition to living with us.  Once inside she refused to share a book...sounds like typical two year old behavior!  I said it was time for Andiswa to go home and Miranda launched into full-scale screaming mode.  The worst thing was that another adoptive family is staying here and their little girl was spending the night for the first time tonight.  Miranda's screams caused the other little girl to start crying, too.  Dad took Andiswa home and I tried to calm Miranda down.  She was fine getting her bath and then started to scream again as soon as we walked into the bedroom.  Thankfully, the screaming didn't last long. She was definitely one tired little girl and finally settled down and went to sleep.