Our last night in Capetown we woke up at 3:45 a.m. packed our bags and headed to the airport.We flew to Johannesburg and then drove 9 hours North to Punda Maria in Kruger National Park.We arrived around 5 pm exhausted and frazzled from our 16 hours of travelling.Our energy levels rose quickly when we saw the extremely nice accommodations including rooms for 2 (when you've been living with 10 - 20 people in one room this is a blessing) with our own bathrooms, a pool, and a porch with a desk and chairs.The buildings were styled after the original accommodations in the 1920s when a train connected all of the camps in the park.The first week in Punda we spent writing our History and Culture papers and exploring archaeological sites.We visited Thulamela which is a site left over from a Zimbabwean community built on the side of a mountain.Here we saw gigantic baobab trees where we each sat alone for an hour reflecting on what we have learned thus far from our time in South Africa.After our baobab reflections we went to a lookout point where a river separated South Africa from Zimbabwe and Mozambique.Then our professor smooth talked our way across the Mozambique border.We walked for about 10 minutes into Mozambique.Even in this short distance you could see the difference in wealth between the two countries.The South African side had nice brick buildings while the Mozambique side had run down buildings without any facilities.After visiting Mozambique we headed back to Punda.The following day we visited a research camp that our professor helped build called Hamaquoya.Here we walked around for 2 hours identifying the plants, birds, and trees in the area in order to assess the biodiversity in the region.We learned what the local villages used each tree for as well as medicinal purposed of many plants.The research camp consisted of small cabins with balconies over looking the river and surrounding mountains.The next OTS group will be the first to stay in these accommodations in order to properly perform biodiversity surveys to help with future conservation efforts.After visiting these two areas we spent the next few days working on our independent projects.These projects are designed entirely by us the students based on our personal interests and of course resources in the area. My two friends Carly and Kelsey and I decided to take on a less science based IP and teach in a local school.The idea behind our project was to begin a connection with OTS/SAN parks and the local community through education.If our day in the school went well then OTS would expand on this in the future which hopefully would begin a trend of sending scientists within the park to communities to use the park as a teaching tool.This particular school that we taught in had recently been chosen by Oprah to receive an entirely new school with all the resources the teachers desired.The first step in this connection was meeting with three teachers and showing them how we learn in the field with OTS.We asked them questions and spent the day forming a relationship and getting a better idea of what exactly they need in the school.We then had exactly one day to prepare for teaching grade 12 students ecology.WE had no idea what to expect, how much they new about biology, if they would be able to understand our English (Americans have terrible accents.. i've been learning this slowly).We planned the most interactive lecture we could with pretty complex concepts that we broke down using diagrams and local examples.The next morning we woke up at 6am and began our 2 hour drive to Thohoyandou, a small village outside the park.Along the way we picked up Freddie and drove about another hour to the school.The school consisted of 4 classrooms for about 400 students.Most of the windows were broken, there were no computers or proper equipment for the labs they are required to teach, and the bathrooms consisted of 1 outhouse for the entire school.The teachers had 1 room where they all kept their books and collaborated on lesson plans.It took the students a while to get used to us.Everyone we passed would giggle at us and then turn to their friend and speak in Venda (the language native to the north eastern region of South Africa).A few girls introduced themselves to us but for the most part the students kept their distance.We toured the school and talked with the teachers for a bit and set up our computer and projector.Oh I forgot to mention that the school we taught at, Vele Secondary School, was chosen by Oprah to be funded and in 2010 an entirely new school will be built based on everything the teachers asked for.It is pretty exciting and Freddie was very grateful to finally receive resources to give the kids the education they deserve.This school is 1 of 6 or 7 that Oprah funded in villages without any resources.This school was chosen based on it's 100% matriculation rates.Anyways so we spent the morning teaching and it was a great success.The students were incredibly bright and applied our lesson to their experience with natural resources in their villages.The first 10 minutes of the lesson we had to explain things a few times but they understood.Most of them were incredibly interactive and they worked really well in groups.They were all eager to learn and we had a really good time interacting with them.After class we took pictures and said goodbye to our students.Freddie explained that he was extremely happy with us and that our lecture was important in many ways.His appreciation made the hard day before it completely worth it.He is already setting up another lesson with OTS students next semester.The day at the Vele school was by far the most memorable and rewarding experience I have had thus far in South Africa.