Week 7: Botswana/Zambia

After returning from our safari in Chobe, we spent an evening christening the new bar (made from a mokoro, which is a traditional dugout canoe) our hosts had installed where we were staying. We were able to meet quite a few locals and chatted with the other girl staying on the property. She is doing hippo research here for 15 months! We found out that our host, Soren Lindstrom, is quite well known for his history of hunting and wildlife photography, and we thoroughly enjoyed hearing his amazing stories of animal encounters. He told us about a hippo that had climbed into his backyard swimming pool, a woman who had insisted on having a grand piano flown in to a safari camp, and showed us a picture he captured of a leopard leaping out of a tree. He has hunted and killed the “Big Five” (lion, leopard, rhino, elephant, cape buffalo), and has eaten all of them except lion. He has also eaten hippo and said it was delicious!

We started out taking taxis straight from the place we were staying in Botswana, but we were told that if we just listened for elephants and cape buffalo, we could walk outside of the wildlife fencing to the highway. It was only after we had done this walk a few times that we were told about lions having roamed in the same area. We did see signs each time we drove anywhere warning about wild animals in the area, but everyone reassured us that they come out more at night. Sure enough, as soon as the sun went down each night, we would hear the honking of transport trucks waiting to cross the border, trying to scare the elephants away from rummaging through the loads they were carrying! These transport trucks, by the way, might wait as long as TEN days to cross the border into Zambia!

We took a trip to the CARACAL Biodiversity Center, where we told about a range of snakes found in Botswana. They had a Black Mamba and a Forest Puff Adder, two snakes I definitely would NOT want to run into in the bush! We also got to see a range of owls, mongoose, and some bush babies, which were SO cute.

We also went to Seboba Nature Park. We hadn’t really heard much about it, and weren’t overly impressed when we first got there. We were the only ones there, and there wasn’t much set up to tell visitors about what they were seeing. We visited a nice amphitheater they had, and then took ourselves through four traditional huts they had set up. When we were in that area, the guard from the gate appeared to make sure we didn’t get into trouble with an elephant who was eating nearby. He had this little monkey with him who had lost his mom when he was very young and now thought of the guard as his mom. He clung to his leg or arm wherever he walked! This guard ended up turning the whole place around for us- he walked us over to a boardwalk, which we took to a great picnic spot. He then took us out on a hike to the waters edge, where we got much closer to hippos and crocodiles than we ever would have gone on our own. We jumped over rocks to get out to an island, where we found five elephants eating and watched them cooling themselves in the mud. We continued on hiking to see more crocodiles and hippos out in the water. It turned out to be a surprisingly great walking safari!

elephant footprint next to mine!

On Friday, we made the trip across the border at Kazungula into Zambia. You must take a small ferry across, and we had heard horror stories about the challenges involved in crossing here. Lucky for us, we aren’t travelling with a vehicle, and it was very simple for foot passengers. Once we were across, we took a shared taxi for the 60 km drive into Livingstone. We enjoyed snacks at Munali Café before unexpectedly meeting up with our host, Ivor. The house we are now staying at is in a low-density housing area, and is set up for volunteers. There are five people staying at the house along with us, and Ivor’s family of four. Two people in the house are doing a placement at the local hospital, while the other three have been working on building a shelter for a local school.

We have now been three times to the school site. Before the shelter was built, there were three classes being held outside on Miss Mary’s property. We have been told that up to 150 children have attended on any given day. Hernan, a Colombian staying at Ivor’s house, found out that they didn’t have any shelter from the sun or rain, and graciously funded the building of a shelter. By the time we arrived, they had already put up the pillars and roof, so we helped with adding walls and painting. We also assisted with getting the kids to add their handprints to the inside walls of the school, and have helped teach the classes. 

Highlight of the day: Will's leg hair

We have also enjoyed two ‘fire’ nights with Ivor’s friends and some of the others staying at the house: Yishai, Meriyahm, Hernan, Ivana, and Ben. These nights consist of a lot of dry grass burning (and yelling “Boomcha!” every time a pile of grass is added to the fire), Chibuku (terrible tasting local beer), great music, and dancing.

On Sunday, we were picked up early for a day of whitewater rafting with Bundu Rafting Company! Despite having just gone whitewater rafting a little over a month ago, we couldn’t pass on the opportunity to raft the Zambezi! I was feeling nervous after hearing how intense the rapids were, how many whirlpools there were waiting to suck you in, and… what was the other thing I was nervous about…Oh, that’s right, the crocodiles waiting on the sides to gobble up any swimmers. However, we are very thankful to Lizzy and Tyler Jorgensen for the recommendation because we had a BLAST! After reading about rafting here, it appears to be one of the top-rated rafting locations in the world, and we could definitely see why! We enjoyed a gorgeous day on the water, with 24 rapids rated class 2-5, and 10 additional smaller rapids. It seemed like we were constantly going through rapids, with very little paddling in between. We walked around one rapid that was a class 6 rapid. The river really snakes back and forth, so it was neat to experience those twists and turns in the raft. When we got to rapid 13, the Mother, we flipped. We had been told to be sure to swim to the right if we flipped because there was a very strong current on the left. After flying in the air and choking on many waves, I looked around for Will and couldn’t see him. The safety kayaker signaled to ask if everything was ok, and I indicated that I couldn’t see Will. He looked around quickly, signaled that everything was ok, and paddled away. Turns out, Will was thrown to the left, and as soon as the safety kayaker saw him, he told him to drop his paddle and swim as hard as he could. He did just that, and said that he could feel that he wasn’t moving an inch. The safety kayaker got him out of there, with the help of Will’s kicking. His limbs turned to jelly for a while, but he recovered pretty quickly, and was able to thoroughly enjoy the rapids we were allowed to swim through. We did get our raft stuck on one rapid after that, but didn’t flip anymore. We also spotted three small crocodiles on the waters edge throughout the day. When we finished rafting, we had a big hike up out of the gorge, but it was a lot more of a gradual trail than the Zimbabwe companies’ use. We then enjoyed an awesome lunch with the South African couple we rafted with!

We visited the Livingstone Museum yesterday with our Colombian friend, Hernan, and were surprised by how informative it was. There was a lot of information about the general history of Africa, local customs and traditions of Zambia, and David Livingstone himself. After a few hours at the museum, we all ventured off to Royal Livingstone Hotel to watch elephants and hippos in the water, and then enjoyed the incredible sunset! After heading back to the house, we learned how to play a local board game called mancala.

Behind the scenes…

Ten Realities the Photos Don’t Capture:

We were inspired to put this list together after seeing some photos posted on Facebook with descriptions detailing how things were not as they seemed in the photo. Tears had just been shed, people were incredibly tired, kids were in a terrible mood, but they had all put on the happy faces required for a picture perfect shot of happiness. We have talked a lot about how so much of what we see and hear about on social media is crafted… not to say it isn’t real, but it often isn’t the full story. We felt it was time for us to add our little ‘dose of reality’ to the mix! Of course, this is NOT meant to be a list of complaints, and we don’t want anyone going away from this thinking we’re ungrateful. It’s hard for me to write these things because I don’t want it to seem as though I have the nerve to complain during a year off of work, but I do want to paint a full, realistic picture of our travels. After reading a lot of travel blogs, we simply feel like we want to share some of the mundane, uncomfortable, and downright terrible experiences along with the amazing ones! Plus, as one of my favourite authors, Gretchen Rubin says, “the things that go wrong often make the best memories”.

• With a year of travelling, we can’t be doing treks and excursions everyday. On the days between these adventures, we have a lot of down time… we read for hours, and we play a lot of cards. We do laundry by hand, and search for places to hang our wet clothes. Will plays games on his phone, and I write. We often try to find beautiful places for these low-key activities, but sometimes we are limited to a small bedroom.
• When we have internet access, we lose many hours with nothing much to show for the time spent. We have also spent hours doing research about places we will be travelling in the weeks to come.
• Things don’t always go the way we think they will. Just the other day, we walked 45 minutes in the heat of the day to find out that the kids at the school had just come for an hour in the morning and were gone for the day. We also found out the supplies we needed to continue doing any work there were nowhere to be found, and that the woman running the school had sold some of the pillars for the school because someone offered her money for them. This is the same woman who has told us that she cannot teach the 150+ school children properly without a DVD player, and is pushing us to buy it for her.
• When I say that we taught at the school this morning, you might imagine a group of children watching and following along as we led them through a few lessons with their regular teacher’s help. That’s awfully cute. What it really looked like was this: a group of 40 children, ages 2-9, breaking their bamboo mats into small pieces and either chewing on them or stabbing other children with them. At least 3 children were crying at any given time, and many children were coming and going without any explanation. Children yelled throughout the morning, all in a language I couldn’t understand. At best, I had 10 students watching and following along at one time. Many of the young children were not yet toilet trained but were not wearing diapers either. The most successful activity was singing action songs with them, which most of them would enjoy for a few minutes and then start hitting the person beside them. At one point, I had one student at the side of my head pulling all the hair out of my ponytail, another wrapped around my leg with his arms and legs, and another trying to claw the chalk out of my hand. When I told them it was time for break, I was nearly trampled by all the kids running out of the shelter. And that regular teacher? She would pop in to say, “they are not supposed to do that. Sit down, or I will beat you” and then disappear again.
• We DO have our own bedroom in the place we’re staying, unlike the three people who are sleeping in the living/dining room. However, our very thin mattress seems to have been used to store multiple sets of bowling balls in the middle of it. My morning yoga routine that was simply enjoyable before has become totally mandatory, and I can feel my massage therapist frowning at me across the miles. 
• It is also so, so, so very hot. All day and night. When we attempt to open our windows at night to get a breeze, the mosquitos flood our room. Our first night with windows open, we had accidently left a gap in the mosquito net over our bed, providing the mosquitos with a true dining tent.
• We have cockroaches. Not the huge cockroaches, thank goodness, but medium ones and babies. They run all over everything. Luckily, my mom had shared her own cockroach travel tales with us before we left, so we were somewhat prepared. Will, who usually likes to throw his clothes around any room we’ve been in for more than 10 minutes, has been VERY good about zipping every last item into his bag each day.
• With all of this heat, we are going through gallons of water. We are not drinking the tap water here, so we are left with the options of boiling water and waiting for it to cool, or buying tons of large bottles of water. When we go to restaurants, the only drink options come in a plastic or glass bottle. Recycling does not exist here, so the bottles are thrown into the garbage pit in the backyard. When the pit is full, it will either be burned or the garbage will be buried and a new hole will be dug.
• Remember that fun fires I described? Well, the first one WAS a lot of fun. That is, until Martin, a guy who had followed the boys back from the bar, puked on my leg and foot. And then continued to dance. Before agreeing to attend fire night #2, we confirmed that it would be Martin free and we had a great time.
• We are sharing a bathroom with 11 people. Not really feeling the need to elaborate on that one. We are out of the world of showers for the time being, and are using a broken bathtub and small bucket of cold water to wash up. I am able to do a decent job of keeping water off the floor, but big ol’ Will is having a harder time. 

BONUS: I hesitated about including this because all I could imagine was people rolling their eyes and saying, “she’s complaining about the speed of internet in AFRICA??!” but I’m doing it anyway. We have had internet speeds that rival dial up internet, or no internet options at all, making it extremely difficult (and frustrating) at times for us to do things like banking, looking up activities, and yes, this very blog post.

This was happening behind me as I posted this list...who needs a mattress anyway?

Random act of kindness: Our host in Zambia, Ivor, has been a great host. He has showed us around Livingstone, including best restaurants to try and places to restock on anything we need. He’s given us tons of tips for bartering and arranged for taxis that were better prices than we could get ourselves. He arranged for our whitewater rafting trip, and has welcomed us to be part of the work he is doing at the school. He has answered so many questions we’ve had about the Zambian lifestyle, and has involved us in bonfires and fun with his friends. His wife, Seala, has made dinner for us and the other five people staying at the house each night for such a small fee, which has allowed us to connect with everyone. These dinners have also led us into great conversations and fun game nights that we know we wouldn’t have experienced if we stayed in a hotel!

We will be flying out on Friday, staying overnight in the Nairobi airport, and arriving in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Saturday morning. We have not been able to get much information about the availability of internet/cell service there, so we may have a delay before our next post. Fingers crossed there’s not too much time before we can write again!