Look what we saw today!

Today for our prep day, we went with a district of missionaries to see the animals at the Botswana Army Base here in Gaborone. These animals are used for training the soldiers on how to handle animals in the wild. These were beautiful animals and we got to see them up close and personal! There weren't too many but it was fun to see them.

The only thing that was separating us from each other was the chain link fence. We could have pet him, but didn't want to worry about missing fingers and massive amounts of blood.

This kitty just wanted to be loved. Luckily the guide with us was willing to do that. Ahhhhh.

The guide also gave the kitty a soccer ball to play with. Of course, she immediately bit the ball but she had fun rolling around and playing with the ball corpse.

This Hyena was pretty docile and the Hyena in with her kept sticking it's nose into the camera. But,I was really happy to have a fence in between us.

Wild Dog cowering in it's corner. Didn't like us at all!

This is picture of the same wild dog standing in it's water. Hmmmm.

This is a Leopard! The lighting was dark and we were fairly far away. This darling animal actually jumped into the fence and scared us pretty good.

These are pretty laid back cheetahs. Leopards are much more aggressive than cheetahs. Cheetahs are often in groups but leopards are always alone unless it's mating season.

What trip would complete without a monkey? Kind of a cute little thing.

This is the district we toured with. Tomorrow are transfers and we'll be losing 1/2 the group. We got to the park a big late and missed the snake area. Snakes are gathered from around botswana when someone calls to tell the army they have a snake. The last snake they picked up was a boa that had just eaten a farmers dog. Apparently, it's still a very bloated snake! Two of the girls got to hold a snake, the two on the left. The one in the blue blouse held the front end, the one in the purple held the back. Everyone found out that snakes can hold quite a bit of liquid....probably a pint. Poor Sister Banda. No one wanted to shake hands with her after that. (Our guide is in the army clothing.)