Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe, September 3-12

For spring break I went on the 2-way travel Botswana/Vic Falls camping trip. It was the most fun and legit experience I’ve ever had. It was a ten-day trip that entailed a lot of travelling, getting dirty, camping, and laughing with friends. I loved it :)

September 3: On the first day we flew from Cape Town to Joburg. I was in the Lions group - led by George. We were a very international group, made up of Germans, Norwegians, Canadians, a Mexican, a South African, and Americans. From the Joburg airport we were introduced to our truck, Peter Tosh. We were warned by the driver Bevin not to call it a bus or van - but that it was a truck because it was not high-class luxury. It was made for bumpy roads and off-roading. Peter Tosh was definitely by no means a luxurious ride - we drove a lot of days on super bumpy roads, and my head got smashed into the window multiple times due to my trying to sleep as we drove over potholes. On the drive out of Joburg I saw my first safari animal, a dirty zebra standing all by his lonesome. After driving for about 6 hours we made it to the South Africa/Botswana border. But due to unforeseen circumstances (i.e. one of the German’s passport was not working) it took us about 3 hours to get across the border. We ended up reaching our first campsite, Camp Itumela late in the nighttime.

September 4: Day two also constituted a lot of driving. We drove for the day and arrived at the campsite in the early afternoon. We hung out by the pool and later ate dinner. George busted out some songs on his guitar, and we sang Wonderwall. It was a fun day.

September 5: Day three we drove from our campsite and arrived in the Okavango Delta. From the town we loaded into a safari truck that took us to the actual Okavango swamp. From there we all loaded our stuff and ourselves into mikaro boats. The mikaro boats are carved out of wood, and are the primary means of delta transportation. Lorenza and I got by far the sketchiest mikaro, but the driver, Rasta, was really nice and didn’t tip us over. Our boat was made of wood and the bottom covered with straw. There were so many spiders in the boat and on me due to hours of travelling through the reeds. Needless to say, I got very accustomed to having large spiders crawling on me, and am no longer afraid of spiders. After an hour we arrived at the island where we were to camp for the next three days. We set up our tents, along with the local mikaro drivers who were to spend the next three days with us. After setting up the tents we took the mikaro’s out and went swimming in a clearing close to our campsite. I paddled a mikaro…it is a lot harder than it looks.

September 6/7: Day four and five blended together. We spend these days in the Okavango delta at our campsite. We went on multiple “game walks” where we saw absolutely no living animals. We saw lots of animal prints and bones, but because the water levels were so high, there weren’t as many animals on our islands. It was rather disappointing, but beautiful nonetheless. We rode in mikaro’s so much I got tired of it. These three days I was dirtier than I have ever been. We didn’t shower or bathe. It was intense, but really fun.

Memorable Delta experiences:

- getting mobbed by huge Delta spiders. Spiders on my face, in my hair, on my body. So gross.

- paddling around the Delta in mikaros

- swimming in murky Delta water, trying to wash my clothes in the water. They came out dirtier than when they went in.

- Hanging with people in my group, and making new friends

- trying to nap in the intense heat….not very successful

- looking at the starlight while watching fireflies and listening to a symphony composed by crickets and delta frogs.

- Curtis and George playing the guitar as we rode along in the mikaros

- laying in the mikaro as it glided along the delta water

- long truck trips - bad for sleeping/reading - but good for conversations

On day five we left the Delta and travelled to our halfway point - Planet Baobab. Planet Baobab was the nicest campsite I have ever been to. It was really fancy, with a gorgeous pool, and a snazzy camp bar. We had a lot of fun that night. I also took a shower on this day. It was the best shower I have ever taken; I have never felt so clean! The Baobab trees at the campsite were really cool. Baobabs have mystical associations in African society due to their unusual appearance. They can live thousands of years and grow to be huge.

September 8: On the sixth day we arrived in Chobe. At Chobe we saw all of the safari animals (besides the lions) that we had missed out on in the Delta. We went on a Namibia/Botswana game cruise late in the evening. It was a lot of fun and we saw elephants, zebras, crocodiles, buffalo, hippos, and baboons. I laughed a lot, our group was so much fun :)

September 9: On the seventh day we woke up early for an overland safari game drive in the morning. I saw zebras, giraffes, elephants, warthogs, baboons, buffalo, crocs, sable antelope, impala, roah antelope, hippos, waterbuck, and buffalos. Again we did not see any lions, but we did see tracks that they had left on the road. After the game drive we loaded Peter Tosh again and drove to Zambia. We crossed the Botswana/Zambia border via ferry. This entailed taking a barge across No Man’s Land. Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Namibia all meet at the corner where the river flows, thus I can claim to being in four countries at once. Pretty cool. After crossing across No Man’s Land we drove to the Livingstone campsite in Vic Falls where we were to spend the remainder of our trip. The campsite was also really nice, with a great pool and bar. There were tons of monkeys at this campsite in the trees. In the evening we went to Victoria Falls on the Zambia side. It was absolutely gorgeous, and I can see why it was one of the Seven Wonders. After walking around Vic Falls we went to the market where I bartered my way into getting a bracelet. I purchased it for 20R, which was a good deal. He wanted to trade me for other things though, and even asked for my hair. I told him that I would not trade my hair for a bracelet.

September 10: The eighth day was the most legit day of the trip. We went for a full day of river rafting down the Zambezi river. The Zambezi is the border line between Zimbabwe and Zambia. Our guide, Malvin, was pro status and explained to us about the river and the culture surrounding it. There were 25 rapids in total ranging from class three to class five. The class five rapids were so gnarly! We paddled into them, and the Malvin at the last second would yell down. At that point we would throw ourselves to the side of the raft, and cling onto the side rope with all of our might, to avoid being thrown out of the boat. The rapids were larger than me, and it was so freaking fun! I fell out of the raft on the first rapid, but after that I managed to stay in. Our raft didn’t tip over, because we were such superb rafters, but all of the other rafts did. The river was gorgeous as it wound through a large canyon. There were crocodiles that could be seen hanging out on the edge of the river. Malvin said that they ate fish, but nonetheless it was crazy to think that I could have been swimming with crocodiles. We jumped out of our raft a lot since it was so hot. One time we got out and jumped off a 20 ft rock - very fun! We wore life jackets and helmets while rafting. The life jackets were tighter than a corset to allow for us to be heaved into the raft via the jacket…not very comfortable. There was a lot of horsing around and pushing people off of rafts. It was by far the most fun experience of my trip, and I’m so glad I decided to do it!

September 11: On day nine I hung out at the pool in the morning with two other girls. We ordered cooked crocodile tail. It tasted like tough chicken fish. After the pool we went across the border to Zimbabwe to visit the markets. I bartered my way into a few touristy things. It was very hot and we had to rush back to the campsite for our dinner cruise. We were late so seven of us girls piled into a taxi to take us across No Man’s Land to reach the Zambia border. It was quite a feat piling all of us into the taxi. Zimbabwe was crazy because I used four different currencies in one day, haha. Needless to say, I was doing a lot of conversions in my head between the currencies. After coming back from the markets we went on our dinner cruise/booze cruise. It was super fun to cruise along the Zambezi river with friends that I had gotten to know so well over the past week. After the cruise we had a dance party and hung out at the bar until late in the night.

September 12: On the tenth day we travelled back to Cape Town. We drove to the international airport where we flew from Zambia to Joburg and then home. It was sad to have reached the end, but I was looking forward to showering and doing some laundry. This trip was by far the coolest thing that I have done yet in Africa and I am so blessed to have been given this opportunity to explore and meet some really rad people!

Botswana Here I Come!!! September 2

After a long week of paper writing, it is finally spring break. YAY!

Tomorrow I am leaving for my Botswana Safari trip. I fly into Joburg tomorrow, and am leaving here at 4:30 am (so sorry if this is short, but I have to wake up in less than four hours as it is.) From Joburg we take a safari bus and drive to Botswana. We will be spending 8 days going to the Okavango Delta, going on a lot of safari walks, driving through Botswana, driving to Zambia, spending time at Victoria Falls, and a day in Zimbabwe! I'm super excited and will have pictures up as soon as I get back!

Yay for three more stamps in my passport! Cheers!!!!

Surfing with… Whales (?) August 29

Today is Sunday. I went surfing with Bryce at Muizenberg. We missed the train, and had to wait 45 minutes for the next Sunday train to arrive. Luckily, I had my book with me, so I read while I waited. When we got to Muizenberg the waves looked very disappointing, but since it was sunny, and not too windy, we decided we would go out anyways. There weren’t too many surfers out because it was the middle of the day and pretty blown out. I caught a few super fun waves. We went in after about an hour though because it was so mushy and blown out. When we were waiting for a train I saw something huge jumping out in the ocean. I could not tell if it was a whale or a shark…it was probably a whale though, since it is whale-breeding season. It was so rad! I’ve never seen a whale jumping in the ocean before, and to think that I was surfing with it :)

Kate told me that September is whale-breeding season. She says that Hermanus is the best land whale-watching site in the world. You can hike along the cliffs and see the whales below the cliffs with their babies. There is the Hermanus Whale Festival in late September that I really want to go to. It would be super cool to go kayaking with the whales.

After surfing today I went to Common Ground Church. It made me miss Flood a lot! It is a very college oriented church, which made me miss my Upper Room friends, and the community I have back in SD. But I am so thankful for God’s faithfulness, as he has given me a new community to be a part of while I am here :)

Tomorrow I will be giving a presentation in class on the Rwandan Genocide (super depressing topic…) and then after that I will begin my last paper that is due before break. This paper is for my medical history class, and is about Sister Henrietta Stockdale and her contributions to South Africa nursing…kinda dry. I don’t know how I will write 7 pages on her. But after that is done, then I can start preparing for the Botswana safari! yay!!!

District Six Museum and The Old Biscuit Mill, August 28

Today was yet another rainy Saturday. We went to the District Six Museum, located in downtown Cape Town. District Six was one of the many communities that were affected by the forced removals of the apartheid government in the 1960’s. District Six was a diverse community consisting of colored, black, malay and white peoples. It was declared a white neighborhood during apartheid and the people were forced out of their homes. They had to move 25 miles out to the Cape Flats townships. All of the buildings in District Six were torn down to make room for white developments. These developments never came into being, and the land has remained a desolate site in Cape Town, where the memory of those affected by apartheid lives on. The museum was in an old Presbyterian church that remained standing in District Six. It was filled with everyday objects, pictures, and art of people that were forcibly removed. It served as a memory to those who lost their community and homes during apartheid. It was a very moving museum, and a tragic part of Cape Town’s history.

After the museum some of us went to The Old Biscuit Mill. The Old Biscuit Mill is a farmer’s market that looks like it came directly out of an Anthropologie magazine. It was the cutest market I have EVER been to. The food was absolutely amazing :) I got a delicious lamb pita. I also bought a loaf of sourdough bread! (the lack of sourdough bread is one of the many things that I miss about the States…they don’t have very good bread here). We went and looked around at the shops that were set up - all of them looked very Anthropology-esque mixed with Urban Outfitters, and were unfortunately in that price range as well. It was a very cute market, but it made me miss home a lot, I’m not quite sure why.

After going to The Old Biscuit Mill we took a mini-bus cab home. (I’m getting quite good at flagging down mini-buses :) And now I’m at home, procrastinating. I should be working on one of my two papers that are due next week. After I get these two papers done it is spring break! Botswana here I come!!!

Piano Playing Friday, August 27

This week has been relatively ordinary. I have spent it going to class, doing readings, writing papers (or trying to at least), hanging out at the Student Y, playing piano, and learning how to cook dinners for myself. I walk to class everyday, up the huge hill, arrive at class winded, and then after a few hours walk back home. On my way home I always stop at the Student Y office, and say hi to whoever is in there. On Tuesday my house was being fumigated. I hung out at the Y for 3 hours, then came home (earlier than I was supposed to) and immediately fell asleep. This was probably a bad idea since none of my windows were open. I had a bit of a headache when I woke up. I absolutely love being able to play the piano everyday on my way home. I have been learning new worship songs, new classical songs, and have been composing new creations. It makes me feel so happy to sit at that old piano and play and sing!

Today I went to the Student Y Large Group, HUB. They had asked me to play the piano with the band. I played worship music with a band for the first time tonight! We practiced a little bit prior to worship. I didn’t know some of the songs. It was intense to play worship with a band, but I really enjoyed it. I am not used to being directed by other people, I’m used to playing with my own direction. A few times I felt lost while playing the songs, but since the music was so loud, my mistakes didn’t really matter. But I really liked being able to add to worship, and will hopefully continue to play with them. Nick, one of the student leaders, had asked me prior to today if I wanted to play a solo to show my God given talents. So I also got the chance to play on my own, one of the songs I have made up. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it, and I got a ton of compliments on it. My favorite compliment was from a man who said it sounded like “George Winston.” Haha, I listed to a lot of him growing up, so it is quite possible that my song was influenced by his style of playing.

Now I am at home with my friend Dudu, and am preparing a presentation that I have to give on Monday. Tomorrow I am going to the District Six museum and a barbeque after. This weekend is going to be really busy with fun stuff and a lot of writing papers!

Rain and Wellington, August 24

Sorry that I have been slacking on the blogging (as my dad recently reprimanded me for). School has picked up and I find myself doing lots of schoolwork and not much else to blog about. But here is what I have been up to lately/thinking about:

1. This weekend I was very sick. Luckily I am feeling a lot better now due to the magical “Corenza C.” I think I will stockpile this Afrikaans drug, and make sure to bring some home. Hopefully customs won’t mind?

2. I went to Wellington this weekend to visit the Bliss’s. Deborah and David Bliss had me, and Jade (a visiting Harvard graduate student) over to their cabin. It was an “ex-slave quarter” located on a farm that is now used for organic farming. It was a very stormy weekend and did not stop raining the whole time. Deborah made us delicious Mexican Enchiladas (she grew up in San Diego also :). I think she knew how much I had been missing Mexican food. Needless to say, I probably gained five pounds from this weekend! We listened to records, talked about missions work, and ate by the fireplace as the rain pounded overhead. It was splendid. We stayed in the loft of their cabin, and could hear the rain pouring down onto the tin roof above our heads as we fell asleep. In the morning we attended Deborah’s Presbyterian church, toured the town of Wellington, and visited some friends on a Vineyard. I had a lot of fun this weekend, and would love to go back!

3. I have been getting better at cooking! It is a gradual process, but today I made some delicious chicken pasta and had some garlic potato wedges on the side. My meals are random, but nonetheless improving.

4. I have two papers and a presentation due next week, so this weekend promises to be slightly unbearable. Wish me luck!

5. I am slightly obsessed by “Iron & Wine” right now, definitely digging this music.

6. I hope to go surfing this weekend (given that I am feeling better), and will probably play piano for worship this Friday! Yay!

And those are some of the random things I have been up to. Cheers!

Rainy Day and Corenza C, August 18

Today I woke up sick. I felt achey and my throat hurt. I was going to go running, but decided to sleep in instead. As I was walking to class it started sprinkling. I did not wear my raincoat to classes today. After class got out it was absolutely pouring! (I think this is the kind of rain that so many people warned me about as the Cape Town “winter”) I was very much underdressed, and thus by the time I had walked half of the way my pants and shoes were totally soaked. I stopped by the Student Y anyways, and played the piano and talked with some friends. After that, I ran home and quickly put on warm clothes.

Once I had warmed up I decided to go down to Main Street to do some grocery shopping and buy more Corenza C. (Corenza C is the meds that helped me get better with impressive rapidity three weeks ago, hopefully it works again!) I purchased some much needed chocolate, milk, and banana bread (among other things), and hauled my heavy groceries up the hill to my house.

After putting away all of my laundry I did some reading and homework until 6 pm, which is when I left to go volunteer for a SHAWCO adult’s clinic. This was my first Adult Clinic, and I was seriously considering skipping it because I still didn’t feel that well. It is a good thing I didn’t skip it though, because it was another great SHAWCO experience. It is amazing the cases we see at these clinics. Among a lot of minor cases a man came in complaining of chest and back pains. He was extremely weak, dehydrated, and his skin lacked elasticity. We found out that he had already been treated for TB multiple times and that he had been diagnosed with HIV a year ago. He hadn’t been taking his medications, and was in a bad state. The doctor classified him as having State 4 HIV, which is the most developed form of AIDS, and he probably only had a week to live. We had our driver take him to the hospital ER where with help he might live for another year. It was a very sad situation. It was hard to see that someone would let HIV progress so long without being able to do something about it. So that is what I saw at SHAWCO today. It was definitely something I would never see in the US, but is a very common medical experience here in South Africa. I am thankful to be able to help out with the SHAWCO clinics, and look forward to learning more about what it means to be a doctor in poor urban township communities.

Oh, and hopefully I will get better soon so I can go surfing :)