Heading home

I'm about 90% packed and will be leaving for the airport in a few hours.

We had a nice dinner last night at the Roma Revolving Restaurant, it was on the 32nd floor of a building near the harbor and since it spun while you ate we had a continually changing view of the city. We stayed up pretty late talking with some of the people from the res hall, and didn't go to bed until after 1 am.

Then Gideon, Sam and I got up at about 6:15 to go out and watch the sunrise from the top of one of the tallest buildings on campus. It was pretty great.

I'm sure I'll be exhausted in a while, but I do have a very long plane right ahead of me so I guess that's ok.

Flight to Jo'burg at 2:40, flight to D.C. leaves at 5:55. About a 16 hour flight, with a stop in Senegal (I think to refuel). D.C. to Chicago, then finally Chicago to Minneapolis. I'll get in to Minneapolis around 1:30 pm (Sunday).

My cell phone will be on starting Sunday night. I'll be at Dad's for most of the week, starting my senior project at the U on Tuesday. I'll be heading to Rochester on Thursday or Friday to spend the weekend there.

Thanks for tagging along on my adventure. See you guys soon!

The Western Cape... in pictures

Instead of telling you all about my weekend, I'll let the pictures do the talking. Yes, there's more than just what's shown in the pictures -- but I'll be home in less than a week, and the rest can wait until then.

That's driving on the left side of the road for ya... sitting in the right side of the car.

^^It wasn't really a sex shop... just a restaurant/bar with a funny name in the middle of nowhere.
The views along our way were spectacular.

^^Standing on ostrich eggs... they can stand a lot of pressure from above (like 200 kg or something)

Fulfilled one of my African fantasies by riding an ostrich! Scary, but fun.

On the way...
... to the waterfall!


We took a tour of Cango Caves

It was called the adventure tour... because we got to make our way through tiny little tunnels

Beautiful sunset at Cape Agulhas...
a.k.a. the Southernmost tip of Africa, and the point where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet

It was a great trip... naturally there's always more I wish I could have done. But it was pretty great for only being 4 days.

The last hoorah

With every day that passes, my mood takes a turn for the worse.

4 of the people from my group are leaving tomorrow. It's hard to think about, and it makes me sad. It won't be long before I, myself, am leaving and that saddens me as well. There are lots of things I'm looking forward to at home, I'm just not really ready to leave... or at least not ready enough to be very excited about it.

Gideon and I have decided to take one last trip because we had an overlapping break in exams. I take my last exam at 9 am tomorrow morning, and he has his last one on the 13th.

So we have plane tickets to Capetown, where we're renting a car and driving into the mountains and along the coast a bit. I'm pretty excited about it, maybe because it's one of the first trips that I've really done most of the planning for. The weather will likely be a little chilly but I think being away and experiencing a new place will help take my mind off my looming departure.

I'll have plenty of time for more reflection and updates when I get back on the 12th, as all I'll have to be doing is packing and cleaning.

For now I'm just going to try to get through my exam in the morning -- I've been studying for ages and just don't feel confident. Then I'm going to have a lovely trip and try not to think too much. Since I'll still be in South Africa I imagine that my phone will still work, though in the mountains I'm not sure if I'll have reception or not. I guess my point is if you need to talk to me you should be able to get ahold of me, but I'm not really sure. I'll be back the afternoon of the 12th either way.

Have a great weekend... and I'll see you all soon.

A few of my favorites

I've completed half of my exams now, and since my next one isn't until the 6th I decided I could take some time to upload some pictures for you guys! I figured you'd most enjoy pictures from my safari... so here you go!



Having an open-air truck was nice because we had an unobstructed view. Every time I looked at our driver, Daan (the white one), I couldn't stop thinking about how much he looked like my uncle Dean! Our spotter (can't remember his name at the moment) was excellent and thanks to him we got to see some stuff that isn't normal... like a cirvil (sp?) which is like a mini cheetah.

The ostriches really liked to hang out on the airstrip. I thought they were funny to watch.
This is a sounder of warthogs... they were really cute and kept running in a pack along the road.

We thought we hit jackpot when we saw this jackal and the bird in the tree one morning. The bird looked like a vulture (but we found out it was a strangely colored Eagle) and we thought we were in for a kill... we could hear lions in the distance. That didn't turn out to be the case, but it was a neat sighting anyways.

There were tons of giraffes everywhere in the park. They're graceful and gorgeous and they were one of my favorite things to see. We were always able to get pretty close and they made me think of Trevon. One evening after our snack break, we were able to see several giraffes drinking from a waterhole... a very neat experience because they have to spread their legs out wide in order to be able to get low enough to drink -- unfortunately the lighting wasn't right for pictures.

Our elephant sighting was pretty neat as well, because we were able to drive right up in the middle of the herd. One of them put its trunk within a few inches of my face... it was a little scary. They're huge animals and I don't think pictures do them justice.

Our hippo sighting left something to be desired... they don't come out of the water much except for at night when they're feeding. They're massive animals though, and just watching them lounge in the water was quite entertaining.

We got to see this praying mantis spinning its cacoon... the guides said it's not a typical thing to get to spot.

The buffalo were amazing as well. We drove up really close to a whole herd of them on our first drive and it was cool to be so close to such huge animals.
The zebras were scattered throughout the reserve, always proving to be quite the eye candy. I never got tired of looking at them... they all look different and uniquely beautiful.
Wildebeest were also quite common, sometimes termed "poor man's buffalo" they're very skiddish and when we were on a walk one evening they ran away from us, as if we posed a real threat.
The lions were obviously one of the most exciting animals to see. We came across several of them napping in the afternoon (they're generally only active at night and in the morning) but they got up to play for a few minutes when one came closer to the other members of the pride.

We got really lucky with cheetah, having three separate sightings. This was the only one that was really suitable to pictures, and even still it was difficult to get good ones. They're amazingly beautiful and graceful animals. I could have watched them for hours.

It was definitely a million times different seeing all these animals in a reserve vs. a zoo. Yes, a reserve is still controlled somewhat and it's not like they're just living out in the wild, but it's pretty close. All of the animals there were self-sustaining and the ecosystem balances itself out. We did get to see rhinos, but it was at night with a spotlight so I didn't get any pictures. It was an absolutely amazing experience... hope you enjoyed the pictures. I have a couple hundred more, so I'm sure you'll be able to see more if you're interested!!

On the road again

Classes ended today... it sort of marks the beginning of the end.

Exams are beginning early next week, but I've decided to take a little vacation this weekend. Kelly, Raj, Gideon and I are traveling down to the Wild Coast, the Eastern area of Transkei, to a city called Port of St. John's. I guess there are a lot of nice beaches, good hiking, and you can do other outdoors-y stuff like canoeing and horseback riding. I'm hoping it will be a very enjoyable weekend.

The weather here this week left something to be desired... it felt so cold (although it was probably only in the 50s). The sun is peaking out again, and I think it will be warming up for the weekend.

I plan on writing about my reflections on my academic experience here. It's certainly been different than school at home. I just finally got some of my assignments back though, and I did quite well on them. There is only one class that I'm remotely worried about, and that is because I didn't do well on the test -- the professor seems to want regurgitation of the text book rather than an interpretation or application of learned concepts. More on that later...

For now I'm going to finish up a little bit of work and prepare for an amazing weekend. Hope all is well!

P.S. All of my flights are officially scheduled and I will be back in Minnesota the afternoon of June 17th.

Getting back into the swing of things

My headache pain is finally starting to subside... with pain persisting but much less of the migraine tendencies. I've sort of become resigned to the fact that my head might hurt for a while and I just have to try to enjoy life regardless.
I went to a choir concert at Durban's city hall on Friday (one of the neatest looking buildings in the city... I'll try to get a picture by the end of my time here but it's not the safeset area to be flashing a camera). The choir from Brigham Young University was touring here in South Africa and performed in the concert along with a few choirs from UKZN (my school here). It was a really good concert, and it made me a little nostalgic for my choir days.
I didn't have the best day yesterday, but I did spend a few hours at the pool (a little disappointing considering I was planning on the beach... but I got over it). Both Friday night and Saturday night we went out... and I had a blast on Saturday night.
We got up really early this morning to go out for breakfast then spent most of the day at the beach. I finally feel like I'm getting brown again. I felt so pale for a while!
I also just thought I'd leave you with a few pictures, because I know a few of you appreciate it when I do that. I know I still need to get those safari pictures up... although at this point I think I might be too lazy. I'll try to post something with at least 1 picture of each type of animal... an attempt at a "best of" kind of thing, but it would probably be easiest to share my safari pictures in person.
Here are some pictures from Saturday night:

^^ Me and Peter... he's finally stopped missing America so much and is fun again :)
^^Jess, Kelly, and I with Mo (Jess' South African boyfriend) and Peter in the background
^^Gideon, Kelly, and I.
^^Kelly and I on the cab ride back to school
^^Back at the res this terrible picture was taken. It's Kelly, Jumbe and I. Jumbe is the Zambian guy who lives next to Gideon... who has cooked me dinner and who I hang out with from time to time. He's really nice.

P.S. yeah... in case you couldn't tell... I was a little tipsy :P

Bad News

Much to my disliking... I've had a headache (with some migraine tendencies) for the past 9 days. It's a bit too reminiscent of last summer for comfort.

In the past few days the pain has become so intense that I haven't been able to sleep at night or get anything done during the days.

I went to the doctor on campus yesterday, who referred me to a neurologist. I had to wait 4.5 hours at the neurologist's after being told to hurry there because he'd see me right away. I waited there in excrutiating pain while he helped other (African) patients who showed up much later than I had. He did a brief examination and instead of writing me some scripts right then made me wait in a loud/bright lobby for another hour and a half. What made matters worse was the fact that by the time he finally wrote the prescriptions and we had settled my account (having to pay nearly $100 to have him write the scripts for me), the pharmacy was already closed so I had to spend another night in misery.

Surprisingly I was able to sleep last night... I think the exhaustion helped me overcome the pain at least in short term. I went to a pharmacy this morning and got the prescriptions filled... a "migraine" medicine that is simply naproxen, some sleeping pills, and some patches to put on my neck which has been very sore. Another $80 spent on prescriptions and here I am. I'm still in pain, but I'm trying to be optomistic.

I have a ton of work to do, and it's really hard to make myself do anything when I feel this way. I'm going to have to try, and hopefully succeed. Wish me luck, and keep your fingers crossed that this headache goes away (without 12 weeks of pain passing).

Back to reality

After a wonderful weekend in the bush... I'm back in Durban facing the realities of being in college. Yes, that's why I'm here, but sometimes it seems like it'd be much more fun to be out galavanting non-stop!

The experience this weekend was absolutely incredible... we saw pretty much everything I could have imagined, except for a leopard. I think I got some great pictures, though I've only seen them on the little screen on my camera because I'm refusing to let myself upload them to my computer until I finish my work. I'm very excited to see them full-size though, and to share them as well!

There were many times during our safaris (we had 6 game drives total) that I wished I could have friends and family from home with me, so that I could share the experience with them... but stories and picture will have to do until I can afford to bring everyone to a place like that ;)

Two Zulu orals this week, and two papers... followed by several assignments due next week as well. As soon as I make some noticeable headway I'll reward myself (and you guys!) with some lovely pictures from my weekend with the animals :)

Off on safari!

Hey all,
Just a quick note to say that I'm headed out on a weekend of safari-ing, starting early tomorrow morning and will be back Monday afternoon :)

I'm going to a private game reserve (www.mkuzefalls.com) with Gideon and his family. I'm super excited and sure it will be one of the best experiences here. I'll be sure to share all my pictures when I get back!!

What you should do:

I don't know if this is applicable to any of you... but I thought I would mention it anyways.

If you happen to have a microphone for your computer, you should do the following and we can talk for free!

1. Download Skype from www.skype.com
2. Create a user name and share it with me
3. Add me to your contact list, my user name is vanessapelletier1286
4. Talk to me on skype!

If it turns out I'm not able to talk to many people on there, I'll be buying a phone card soon.

My return date of June 17 is fast approaching... I'm not so excited about that at the moment but it will be good to see you guys. Hope all is well.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

I apologize for the delayed update. It was a hectic week with school and I didn’t have much motivation for putting this up. Plenty to share though, so I thought I better get to it. I also apologize for the length of this entry... I know it's super long but I didn't want to leave out details. I hope you'll take the time to read it at some point... if not I guess you can wait until I get back to tell you all about it.

For what little plans we made before leaving for the trip, almost none of them went right. They all worked out in the end, but it was the middle that was frustrating. First of all, the train we were supposed to be taking to Johannesburg didn’t happen because apparently no trains were leaving from Durban anymore. So we, along with a few hundred other people, waited in a very long line to get put on some busses (not nice coach busses…) that were going to take us somewhere. We weren’t sure exactly, but after about an hour on the bus—where we were party to hearing an old man scream out a large prayer and preaching session, followed by half the bus standing up and dancing and singing along with the old man—the bus pulled up to a train station in Pietermaritzburg. As we waited with the masses to get through the gate and get on the train, we noticed that a lot of people were throwing their bags over the large fence. This didn’t make much sense to us… we wanted to keep our things with us. People started to get impatient and started rushing towards the fence although the gate remained closed. Suddenly, we saw the gate start shaking furiously and soon it was hoisted into the air and thrown onto the ground on the other side of the barrier. Everyone started pushing and shoving towards the gap in the fence; we followed, though I almost tripped on the fallen gate. It was a pretty scary experience all-together, as we followed the crowd down some stairs into a dark, narrow hallway, then had to go back up some more stairs. Several people tripped and one lost her flip flop. Eventually all was well and we managed to get 14 seats near eachother on the train. The train experience wasn’t nearly as exciting as I’d hoped, as the train was quite bumpy and loud once we finally got going. It also stopped frequently to pick up more people… by 4 am the aisle was filled with standing people. We finally arrived in Johannesburg at about 9 am.

From the bus station we decided to head to the airport. Upon leaving the bus station we were immediately yelled at by at least four different people, saying that it was unsafe for us to be out in the city center like that and that if we continued we wouldn’t make it to the airport with any of our luggage. We found some taxis, but were a little nervous about them too. As we were driving, the cab I was in stopped and got out of the car at a stoplight in downtown, to go talk to the other cab driver. He later pulled over on the highway. We were all sure they were going to steal our stuff or do something. But we made it to the airport without incidence, so maybe we were just being paranoid. Unfortunately, we had to spend the entire day in the airport… and what’s worse is that we had to wait for about five hours outside of the terminal because we couldn’t check in that early. When it finally was time to check in, we went down to the counter and were told our flight had been delayed. Eventually we passed through security and were on our plane to Lusaka.

More unpleasant surprises awaited us at the Lusaka airport… as we found out how Zambia does visas. The group of people that I was traveling with had all prearranged visas through the hostel we were staying at. The other 10 people we had flown in with, however, had intended on buying their visa at the airport. The problem was that the visa price was $100 instead of the $30 they’d been expecting, and immigration wouldn’t accept payment in South African Rand… and there were no ATMs in or near the airport. The officials at the airport began to threaten to deport all of them, saying they’d have to spend the night in cells and fly back to South Africa in the morning. With the help of the driver who was to be taking us to our hostel, and some friendly airport police officers, we were able to arrange it so that they could come with us that night, and return in the morning with money to pay for the visas. I was just happy it wasn’t me—we only had to pay $10 each and there was no worry of spending the night in jail.

The next morning we all split up, as they tried to take care of their visas and headed off to Livingstone. Raj, Kelly, Gideon and I were sticking around Lusaka before heading to Malawi. As we explored the city, which really didn’t entail much besides walking along the side of the roads, we came across the bus station. We were initially disappointed because there was only one company that went to Malawi and its schedule didn’t match our travel plans. We found out that there was another area where we could catch combi’s (mini busses) and a few other random busses. We found one that was leaving at 3 pm that day that would get us in around 9:30 pm, and decided that it was worth it to miss our second night in Lusaka in order to make sure we could get to Malawi and the falls. Unfortunately for us, in Africa schedules don’t really mean much. We were at the bus an hour ahead of departure time, as we were told to be, but found that we sat on the bus for three or four hours before we were told that this bus wouldn’t be leaving and that we’d be taking a combi instead. We piled into that and finally left around 7:30. The ride took much longer than expected, and around midnight we stopped in a little town called Luangwe to fix a flat tire and have a little break. We got back on the road and drove for what felt like forever… finally arriving in Chipata (which is still in Zambia, but close to the Malawian border) at 9:30 am. We then had to hop a cab to the border… but our cab got stopped at a police check on the road, and we were told the cops were going to impound the car for not being painted blue (as all cabs are supposed to be, apparently). This problem was eradicated by the cab driver forfeiting our fares to the police. The border was an interesting experience because there were people on each side offering to exchange money for you. I was skeptical at first, but after we did some math of our own decided that we needed Malawian Kwache and they were giving a fair price. Once in Malawi we had to catch another cab to a nearby town of Manje or something like that, where we were able to catch another combi that was leaving for Lilongwe. It was such a relief to finally get to Lilongwe… to walk around and not be shut up in a vehicle. It took us a little while to find a place to stay, but we ended up staying at a place called “Budget hotel” where we were able to have private double rooms for $12 per person. We walked around the city, which I really enjoyed. Everyone in Malawi was very friendly—even the people who weren’t trying to sell you anything. There were a lot of neat crafts and woodworkings, and if I had had more cash on me I probably would have bought some of them. There are these tables here that come in two parts, a carved circular part that serves as the face of the table and then the legs are three pieces of wood that are all connected, but they fold up. The carving is all intricately done and I would love to get one, but the logistics of getting it home sounds much more complicated. We’ll see though, if I can find one near here I’ll probably get it. The city was pretty nice, much cleaner than I’d expected and there was a beautiful Mosque in the middle of it, though we didn’t get close enough to see the whole thing. Unfortunately we were told it wasn’t safe to walk at night so we had to stick near our hotel for dinner, but there were some neat places in the center of the city that looked like they’d be a lot of fun at night.

The next morning we walked back through town to the bus station to find a combi going to Lake Malawi. Our decided destination was Senga Bay… and I’m very happy about that decision. We easily found a combi and in a matter of 3 hours or so we were in Salima. We were told the only way to get to Senga Bay from there was in the back of a pickup truck… so we went. That was an interesting experience as well, as the bed of the truck filled up with about 25 people. This is a common means of transportation in Africa, and I’ve shook my head while watching this type of truck passing in the past… I still can’t really believe we did that. It was about a 30 minute drive, and on the way a guy from the village we were going to introduced himself and was talking to us about places to stay and things to do. He offered to show us the hotels and help us get settled in. Although initially skeptical, as I tend to be anywhere new here, he ended up carrying some of our bags and showed us 3 different places. We ended up picking Nyamachoma Lodge, where we were able to get double private rooms with their own bathrooms for $11 a night per person. The guy who’d helped us find it, Kenny, walked us to the Lake (about 100 meters away) where we saw a quaint little fishing village and an enormous lake. I might have said it was an ocean if I’d been looking at it unknowingly. Walking through the village, Kenny got us some sugar cane (a common treat around there… you saw all sorts of kids and even adults carrying the cane and tearing at it with their teeth) and we all dug in. I had troubles eating it… it hurt my teeth, but eventually I got it started enough to where I was able to tear off the outer casing and suck on the cane inside, which was dripping with a delicious sugary liquid. He brought us to a restaurant where we were able to get a traditional meal—which would have seemed much more unique if we hadn’t already been eating it for 2 days. Most small restaurants (not parts of chains) in those areas serve Nsima with meat, beans, or vegetables. Nsima is essentially maize meal (corn meal) that’s served very hot with some other substance, and you roll the Nsima up in your hands, and grab some of the other substance with it, and eat it that way. It’s quite a messy meal… fun at first but it got old fast.

Later that night, Kenny took it upon himself to show us what nightlife was like in the village. We went to a few “backyard bars”, where people allowed others into their yard (which usually consisted of the dirt/sand that was everywhere else, but with benches and some kind of roof built over it) and sold this beer that’s main ingredient was maize meal and was packaged in cartons like milk along with shots of an alcohol called Cane. I tried some of the maize meal beer, it was disgusting. I didn’t have any shots of Cane, but Gideon had a few even though he said they were terrible. At one of the “backyard bars” we actually saw the big kettles where they make the Cane… and the next day Kenny brought us back when they were brewing it to show us how it was done. After we finished with those, we went to some of the real bars, I think three or four different ones. It was amazing to see how many people were out, and almost all of them were men. For much of this trip I was wondering where the women were. After also having seen the nightclub of the village, we decided it was time to figure out plans for the next day and get to bed.

The next day was probably my favorite day of the trip… possibly of my time here in Africa so far. In the morning we went on a tour of the village with Kenny, which included a breakfast from the market. We bought eggs from one vendor, and went to the vendor selling “chips” (fresh French fries) and had them fry the eggs for us and got some fresh chips to go with it. It was deliciously unhealthy, washed down with a Coke (which I’ve started drinking out of necessity when there’s been no other options). After breakfast we went to Kenny’s house for him to pick up some things, and continued through some of the other residential areas of the village. Everywhere we went, the kids would scream “Hi”, “Hello” and “How are you?” with a few also saying things like “Give us money?” but all with very friendly tones of voices. Replying once wasn’t enough… if they said “Hi” five times they expected you to respond just as enthusiastically. It’s also assumed that the thumbs up is popular with Americans, because the kids and even adults did that to us everywhere as well. Kenny was able to point out the Chief’s house and the women of his family were outside. Kenny explained the necessity of greeting the women because it’s a sign of respect of the Chief. We walked up this huge hill scattered with corn plans and houses, and the view from the top was amazing. Partially it looked like a rainforest or jungle because there were large trees and everything was just so green, but moreso it just looked like a village in the middle of the wilderness. I loved that view. At the top we visited a little hut that served as a workshop for an ebony carver, it was really cool to watch him work. We spent some more time in the area of the village near the Lake, where we played with all of the kids who rushed us as soon as we got there. We played games of making faces at eachother and other things that were nonverbal because most of them couldn’t speak English beyond the initial greetings. They also really liked having their pictures taken and being able to look at it on the camera screen.

Finally our motor arrived (a man had to fetch it from another village… and carried it on his back down to the boat) and we were able to set out on our main trip of the day. After trudging through the almost waist high water and climbing into the boat (in my jeans) we were able to set off for Lizard Island where we’d be spending most of the day. The lake was gorgeous and fairly calm, the short ride out was quite enjoyable. Once we got there one of Kenny’s friends said he’d show us around the island. We climbed up a lighthouse and the view from the top was incredible. I would have stayed up there half the day if I could have. We continued walking through the lush, green vegetation and I just couldn’t believe I was in Africa. It seemed something more suited for Central or South America. We got to an area referred to as “flat rocks” and decided to hang out there while Kenny was making our lunch. It was a beautiful day with the sun shining and it felt good just to lay out on the warm rocks. We didn’t really remember how to get back to the other side of the island, but made an adventure out of it as we jumped across the big rocks and avoided tripping over the roots and vines that covered the ground. We got back as Kenny was finishing up lunch… so the other three in my group decided to go swimming. There were tons of fish right off the shore, and because I’m such a baby I didn’t want to go swimming with the fish. It was entertaining to watch though, because some of the fish looked tropical, being bright blue or yellow and traveling in schools. Lunch was simple… Kenny made Chomba fish (which is a kind of fish only found in Lake Malawi, though they’ve unsuccessfully tried to introduce it in other places) and rice for the other three, and made rice and this peanut soup with potatoes for me since I don’t eat fish. It was delicious! After chilling for a little longer, and another swim for everyone else, we had to head in. The boat went all the way around the island so we could see the whole thing… again, breathtaking. We had a low key evening near the hotel in anticipation of all the upcoming travel. We spent it sitting around the outdoor hotel bar and chatting with some of the locals we’d met throughout our stay there. Two of them began talking with us about how we were planning on getting to Livingstone (we were having some worries about not having enough time to make it there). After much bargaining and deliberation amongst ourself, we decided to take them up on their offer of driving us from Senga Bay (in Eastern Malawi) all the way to Livingstone (in South West Zambia) for $75 each. I was skeptical because Kenny had warned us that the man making the offer was a bit of a drunk… but he was another tour guide so we thought it might have simply been some competition sparking the comment.

We left bright and early around 5 am the next morning, with Kelly and I in the cab, and the guys and three locals in the bed of the truck. We had originally agreed that we would pay when we arrived there, but they needed some money for gas so we paid small amounts as he frequently stopped for gas. I thought it was a bit peculiar that he never filled up beyond ¼ tank, but tried not to overanalyze it. When we reached Lilongwe they said they needed about half of the money because the driver needed to pay his boss and give money to his wife. We were all a bit hesitant, but decided that we didn’t have much choice and that now that we’d reached there they’d probably want to fill up on gas before leaving Malawi etc. Another hour down the road, we were stopped at a police check, where the driver’s license was taken by the cops. Oddly enough, he continued on down the road, telling Kelly and I that everything was fine. When we asked if he’d be able to cross the border without his license he said no and that we’d need to talk about that. Shortly thereafter he pulled the car over and the guys in the back started getting into an intense conversation. Basically the local guys said they’d only be able to take us to the border now because they couldn’t get through without the license and because the police in Zambia probably wouldn’t let them continue with so many people in the back of the truck. These were all things that Gideon specifically, but also that rest of us, had inquired about the night before when we saw the transportation they were arranging was a pick-up truck. He had assured us that everything would be fine. They said that since they had gotten us “most of the way there” (maybe 1/3 of the way, in all actuality) that it was close enough and that they’d just have to go home now. Our boys were arguing quite heartily, saying that there was no way we were leaving without getting a lot of our money back. It became apparent that they had been scamming us all along and had never intended on taking us when we were talking about how much it would actually cost them to get back from where we were (about 1/5 of what we were supposed to pay them in total) and doing the math there’s no way the price they’d given us would have even covered there trip all the way there and back, let alone offer them a profit. After a bunch of haggling and a conversation about involving the police who had taken the driver’s license, the driver finally went back to get his license (I was confused as to why he hadn’t bargained for it when he was stopped originally), had to pay a bribe, and they drove us to the border and gave us some money back. We each lost about $35 on the deal… much more than we would have paid for the combis we had taken to get there, and it didn’t save us any time.

After a cab ride we were back in Chipata, where we were ecstatic to find out that there was a bus leaving that afternoon for Lusaka. We though we’d be able to make it to Livingstone after all. Disappointment struck once again when we found out that there would be no bus leaving that afternoon and that we’d have to wait for the 4 am bus the next morning. We found a cheap place to stay… and proceeded to make it cheaper because the boys decided it would be worth it to just get 1 room for the 4 of us, so we split a $7 room 4 ways. Though none of us really wanted to be there, we made the most of our night in Chipata with a walk into town… where we were the only white people. We also had a nice dinner of Nsima at a lively place with a pool table. What was interesting about Malawi and Zambia is that everywhere we went, the guys got much more attention than Kelly or I did (in contrast to Mozambique, for example, where I couldn’t get guys to stop talking to me). Another interesting fact that I forgot to mention is that in Malawi, when men are talking to eachother they often hold hands for the duration of their conversation… interesting at first but after seeing it a few times it seems to extend their friendliness and makes sense.

The next day was our best day, travel wise. Our 4 am bus left by 5 and we were into Lusaka by 1 pm. Amazingly enough we found a nice bus leaving for Livingstone that afternoon… and it actually left that afternoon!. We were into Livingstone by 9:30 and already had reservations at a backpackers there, so things went smoothly. For our single day in Livingstone we decided to spend it at Victoria Falls… which was why we were there in the first place. At the park that you enter to see the falls, there were tons of large monkeys (possibly baboons) running around and there was also a large market area with very persistent salesmen. You could hear the falls from the parking lot, and I was really excited to see them. They were amazingly powerful, but no place that we were ever gave us a great view of the whole thing… it was just too big. As we started walking along the path we came to a point where they were renting out rain coats and umbrellas etc. saying you’d get very wet. We (excluding Gideon) decided to get rain coats and a camera bag. I was so happy I had it, at first, because about 20 ft beyond where they were renting them, it felt like a downpour. A lot of times you couldn’t even see the falls because all you saw was a white cloud of water particles. Every once in a while they would clear and you could see the water flowing down amazingly fast. I was disappointed when it became obvious that my rain coat wasn’t going to do much… I felt my clothes becoming soaked beneath it, but I was caught up in the moment so it didn’t matter much. As we were talking, we became pretty sure that Victoria Falls is one of the world’s seven natural wonders, so it was pretty cool to be thinking of it that way while we were in front of it. We walked across this narrow bridge (I think called knife-bridge or something like that) that had water up to your ankles to continue on the path. It was a little scary because the bottom and handrails were all covered with some algae so it was pretty slippery. From the other side we were able to continue to see the falls that seemed to go on forever, but also had a view of the bridge further down the river channel. It was the bridge that we’d heard people could bungee jump off of… it was a gorgeous location for it. There were two rainbows crossing the river just under the bridge, and we saw someone jump. I had made my mind up long ago, but seeing that just reaffirmed that I was going to have to bungee that day. We continued along the falls, taking photo opportunities when we could. After we were through with the wet part we were all completely soaking and decided to take some time to sit in the sun and dry out. We walked up to the top of the falls, and it was a neat view from the top too… seeing how fast the current was going and watching the water drop off into a cloud of mist. Once everyone else was dried off (I remained pretty wet because I had jeans on, again) we decided to take a walk through the market, where I was approached because of the hair band on my arm. One of the vendors said he wanted it for his sister, and said he’d give me a discount on something if I gave it to him. At first I thought he meant I’d be able to get something for the hair thing, which didn’t end up being the case. I feel like I got a pretty good deal on what I did buy… but we all decided afterwards that it was just a ploy to get you to buy stuff and that they could easily get a hair band (or socks, which they bartered with Gideon for).

Once we were finally able to shake the vendors at the market (again there was tons of stuff I thought looked really cool, but I didn’t have much money on me) we made our way for the bridge. The bridge is technically in no-man’s land… we had to leave Zambia through customs and if we had gone all the way to the other end of the bridge we would have been entering Zimbabwe. We went up to register for bungeeing, originally thinking that Kelly would go with Raj and that Gideon and I would go together, if he got up the guts to go. Kelly and Raj together exceeded the weight limit, so they weren’t able to go together. Kelly and I decided to go together (it was cheaper) and neither of the guys decided to go (wimps!). I was thrilled as we were walking out onto the bridge… the river and canyon were so gorgeous, it just felt right. We got all suited up in our harnesses, then had a few minutes to watch a couple of people before us and talk with the guys. Gideon was really freaked out and just went and sat by himself, but the rest of us were really excited about it. When it was our turn, we had to go out onto the little cage thingy and they attached our harnesses to some security thing. Everytime they did something they explained how it helped assure their “100% safety”, because this particular bungee venue had a 100% safety record. They were briefing us on what their procedure was for getting us ready to go, and then explaining what we should do while we jumped to make sure we didn’t spin around in a million circles and that it would be as fun as possible. While we were getting the knots tied around our ankles some guys came up and started talking about how stupid it was to bungee on Friday the 13th (funny coincidence, I know) and it got to me a little but I shook it off with a laugh. When it was time, I had Gideon video record it on my camera, and Raj took pictures with his. I didn’t get scared until we were standing right on the edge with our toes over. He had told us that it was imperative that we jumped at the same time, and I was nervous about getting our timing right. But as he yelled 5-4-3-2-1 Bungi we both bent our knees and jumped (seemingly in slow motion) at the same time and it was an amazing fall. Unlike a rollercoaster or something like that where you get that strange feeling in your stomach, it’s just this calm sense of falling. After a few seconds it got to be a little scary, trying to anticipate the pull back up… but I loved it. The view as we were bouncing up and down was amazing, we seemed to be going much slower than we really were and it seemed to last a lot longer than I know it really did. On the first bounce we went up under the bridge, on the second we were able to see everyone on the bridge, after that I just enjoyed the scenery. It got to be a little nerve-wracking again once we had pretty much stopped bouncing, but not quite, because all I could see then was the river flowing tumultuously below and I could feel the thing around my ankles tightening and in the back of my mind I was worried that it was going to slip off my feet. They send someone down to get you, and I remember thinking that he couldn’t get there fast enough. It probably didn’t help that so much blood was rushing to my head. The guy who brought us up was quite friendly, making conversation as we slowly ascended again. Once we were on solid gating, Kelly and I hugged and both felt like we’d bonded a bit… it was funny. She had been scared the entire time apparently, and although she had fun was a little freaked out for most of it. I was really disappointed when we got back up to the registration area and found out they only had the tshirts in an XXL… so I didn’t get one. I also decided against the professional version of video and digital pics, thinking that the ones the guys got would suffice.

We treated ourselves to a very nice meal that night, and ended up playing cards and having a few drinks in the bar at our hostel. It had been a great day and I was still going a little bit on the rush of adrenaline from the jump. The next morning we had a leisurely breakfast than found a bus heading back to Lusaka. When we arrived at our backpackers in Lusaka, we found that Jenia and Nora (two girls from our interstudy group, who had also gone with us to Mozambique) were staying there as well, and had actually been in Livingstone the night before. We talked with them and compared vacation stories, played some more cards, and called it an early night. We had an early morning the next day heading back to the airport and flying back through Johannesburg.

Although this is an extremely long account of the trip, I’m sure there are things I’m leaving out. It was a great time, and although we could have planned it better to allow for less traveling had we known our destinations when we booked our first plane tickets, I would do it again if I could. Me being as antsy as I am, am already trying to figure out where else I can go and when. We have a long weekend this next weekend… and I’m trying to work it out so that a few of us can go to Drakensburg to actually see the mountains since we didn’t really get to on our excursion trip. Then Gideon and I might take a weekend trip in May and I’m looking at a place in Transkei called Hogsback that was suggested to us by several travelers we’ve met. I still don’t know my exam schedule (it’s extremely frustrating that they post it so last minute) to figure out if I’ll have any time for traveling at the end of my stay. I have registered to complete my senior project this summer, so I will be keeping my original flight and returning to the U.S. on June 17. It was a tough decision and I still don’t know how I feel about it completely, but it will allow me to graduate in August which is a priority, so it’s probably for the best.

Hope all is well and I’ll try to do better about keeping this updated. Hugs to you all!

Check this out!

I'm back in Durban after an amazing vacation. Things didn't go exactly as planned... but everything worked out. We spent about half of the time traveling, which was a little disappointing but it was an experience in itself. We were able to spend half a day in Lusaka, most of a day in Lilongwe, two days at Lake Malawi, and a full day in Victoria Falls. Zambia was alright, but I much preferred Malawi.

I'm not up for a full recount of what happened over my trip... just wanted to leave you with this:

Alive and well

Just a quick post to say that I'm safe and having a good time on my trip.

We're back in Zambia (barely, we're in a town near the border) and the time in Malawi was amazing.

Transportation has been a bit of an issue, and as such we were unable to take the afternoon bus we bought tickets for this afternoon and are stuck here until 4 am tomorrow... which means that getting to Livingstone to see Victoria Falls could be a bit tricky. I'm trying to be optomistic because I really want to get there... but we'll see.

I just didn't want anyone to worry, I tried writing from Malawi but had some technical difficulties arise.

Plenty to say about the trip... but I'll save that for when I'm not paying for my internet time.

Taking off

I'm heading out in a couple of hours to go on my amazing trip :)

Just wanted to mention that I'm not only super excited about my trip, but also about a little bundle of joy back home. Dad just sent me a link to some pictures from the hospital of Rebecca Ann, you can see them at http://www.growingfamily.com/webnursery/babypage_view.asp?URLID=5N6H6Q6Q6V

I'll do my best to have a safe but incredibly fun vacation!

Be back on the 15th.

Finalized Easter Break Plans

So the other night we finally figured out (more or less) what our plans are for the upcoming break. Here's what it looks like:

Thursday night we're taking an overnight train from Durban to Jo'burg.

Friday morning we fly to Lusaka (in Zambia), where we'll be staying Friday and Saturday night.

On Sunday we'll be traveling to Malawi... though our final destination in Malawi hasn't been decided yet, I think we're planning on renting a car in Lilongwe and then driving to some town/village on Lake Malawi. We'll be spending several days in Malawi, hopefully enjoying some of the culture and other fun experiences, and maybe hitting up a game reserve.

Thursday we'll be traveling back into Zambia to go to Livingstone, which is where Victoria Falls is. We'll be spending Thursday and Friday night there... while there I hope to maybe bungee jump off the falls. We shall see!

Then Saturday we'll be traveling back to Lusaka, and we'll fly back to Jo'burg then Durban on Sunday.

Lack of technological progress in Malawi is the main reason that we don't have everything set in stone. We weren't able to figure out what towns had places to stay by looking online, so we'll have to wait until we get to our hostel in Lusaka to find out where the best destinations are. We're thinking about a fishing village called Nkhotakhota (sp?) that's supposed to be one of the largest traditional villages in Africa.

I'm getting really excited about the trip... though it still feels ages away. I have a Zulu test tomorrow that I'm still preparing for and also have to write up a short essay for my Linguistics class. I'll be writing a post soon about the academics here, it's definitely not like home!

So yes, I'll be gone for quite a long time, and unfortunately my phone won't work while I'm away because my SIM card is a South African SIM card. I plan on trying to get online at least once (because I need to try to register for my senior project while I'm on the trip) so hopefully I can let you guys know that all is well.

Hugs and smiles!

Kwamashu -- A Durban Township

Last weekend I had the opportunity (along with about 15 others) to visit one of Durban's townships, supposedly one of the best-known townships in South Africa. I was very excited about the trip, and I'm happy to have done it.

Our trip wasn't just to the township though... we also went to a lower-middle class area of multi-family houses and an area where the government is building more houses in a township. These stops were to give us something to compare the township to, and to give us a wider perpsective on living situations within South Africa. Our trip was guided by two of the local South African students who live in the guys' residence hall.

This is the first place we went... a lower middle class neighborhood I guess you could call it, with all these buildings that had tons of little apartments in them. We went in two different units in this area... one only had 2 rooms (including the kitchen, and the bathroom was essentially in the same room as well) and we were told it usually holds about 7 people. We also went into a slightly nicer unit which had a living room / kitchen then two bedrooms and a separate bath. I thought it was strange that they would have such different units within the same building, because it would be hard to deal with some living in fairly decent conditions and others living more or less unsanitarily. The electricity in these units kind of work like my cell phone here... on a pay-as-you-go system where you buy cards and put them in the machine and you only have electricity on when you need it, and if you can't afford another card then you don't have electricity.
The kids here loved our digital cameras! They thought it was so much fun to take pictures of us and eachother. Some of them were quite insistent on keeping the cameras for a while, and they thought they were really good photographers.

There were monkeys playing in the trees... they were really cute. These are the same kind of monkeys as we have on campus (which I've still not had my camera with when I've seen). They usually put on quite a show.

This is the view from the road... you can see there are tons of units. The van thing in the pictures is what I refer to as a combi or public taxi... it's how we get most places in town because it only costs $.50 one way.

The kids were pretty cute! Peter (below) really wanted to take one of the kids with him... the young ones were pretty shy though and kept running away from us and not talking much.
(Below) Gideon was trying to get his camera back from the horde of kids... it took him about 5 minutes and was pretty amusing.

The view of a fairly new township that is being expanded on.

These are the new government houses that are being built. We didn't know anyone who lived in this township so we walked around one of the new, empty ones to try to get a feel for it. It was obvious that they're poorly constructed, as these particular houses were probably less than a week old and the cement was already cracking and crumbling.
You can see how tightly packed they are, making the most of the land.

The inside was pretty small, and although these new versions had two separate rooms, neither of them was really big enough to serve any real purpose. Sleeping arrangements in this house for a family would be pretty cramped. The South African students we were with said a lot of times the families who are allocated these houses end up abandoning them and returning to squatter camps eventually because life isn't much more comfortable here.


This is in the old township, Kwamashu, where we spent most of our time. In this township, we went into one of the old government built houses (above) that again had two rooms (one being the kitchen) so people are basically forced to sleep everywhere. There was also no refrigerator... which made me wonder what they do for eating meat etc. but I guess they figure it out or just buy fresh. This tap and basin (below) serve as the sink for washing hands, cleaning dishes, and preparing food. It was a little unreal to imagine life like this... the brick structure is the outhouse (shower included -- with cold water). Definitely made me feel a bit spoiled. The government issued houses oftentimes serve as the started point for houses in this township... with people adding on when they can afford it. Additions are made with various materials and sometimes don't look very nice (below) but it's amazing that they're able to make a better home and life for themselves.

Animal slaughter is a big part of Zulu culture, and there are specific rules for its procedure. The slaughtering has to occur in specific ways in specific places. The shack below is used for skinning and cutting up the animals after they've been slaughtered.
This is inside one of the houses in the townships that had been expanded on. It's much nicer and has many more amenities than most houses seemed to have. They even had a computer. They made Zulu beer (in the black bowl above) and the drinking of it is almost a cultural ceremony. They burn the incense and pray to their ancestors, then drink in a certain way. While we were in there all the men had to sit on one side of the room and women on the other side. Men were always served first, with women following. The woman whose house it was makes her living by beading. The pictures below are some of her creations. They were pretty amazing. Unfortunately I didn't find any jewelry I liked, and the large beadings were very expensive. An amazing talent though, and not a bad way to make a living I suppose.


There's probably more I could say, but it's almost midnight and I've been trying to write this for a while... so I'm going to leave it at that. Hope you enjoyed the pictures and my story.