Spring break Zimbabwe '09

Dear Steve Erwin,
I hope this will reach you posthumously but I saw crocodiles!!!! Ok they were babies and not nearly as vicious as the ones you have wrestled but still they were awesome to see speckled and laying on the riverbank in the sun. Last week was my spring break trip to Kasane (the town), Chobe (the national park), and Victoria Falls (in Zimbabwe). We left mahalapye at 6:30am to pick the rest of the group up in their respective towns. I wasn't as sad as i thought i would be saying goodbye to my family. It was kind of rushed and I was very excited about moving on to the next adventure. The drive to Kasane was LONNNNGGGG. We stopped in Francistown for lunch at KFC (sometimes it feels like you never really escape America) and the road after that was rough. At points we were driving on the shoulder because there were less potholes there than in the actual road and that's not saying much. The coolest part of the drive which completely made up for getting so tossed around was that elephants were crossing the road in front of us and all along the roads. it was so surreal to see something so big and something i associate with "the wild" just walking across a paved (well sort of) road.

In Kasane we stayed at a nice lodge with really comfy beds. We were all so happy to have a vacation and be able to be American kids for awhile. We went swimming and even made gin and tonics one night. On our first full day we went to Victoria Falls. To see the falls we went into Zimbabwe. The falls were amazing! My friend Sarah had suggested i throw in my raincoat just in case it might be wet at the falls and oh man...we had no idea. We entered the park to view the falls and it was a sunny day and as we got closer it started to drizzle from the mist. At the first vantage point we could see some of the falls and had fun taking silly tourist pictures. By the time we reached the furthest vantage point it was like being in the worst downpour i have ever experienced. We were wading through water and could not see beyond the cliff we were standing on...it was just a white wall in front of us. It was incredibly exhilarating and we took turns screaming into the sheer vastness and power of all this water. I think the guide said something like a million cubic liters per second go over the falls (but don't quote me on that). We hiked back out to see a hundred year old bridge where people were bungee jumping and I realized that i was just as wet inside my raincoat as out. Brendan's camera didn't make it through the falls which is awful because he is the one person on the program who is really into photography.

After the falls, we dried out over a picnic lunch and then headed to the outdoor marketplace for souvenir shopping. This was one of the craziest experiences yet. There were probably thirty stalls filled with wood and stone carvings and plenty of shopkeepers trying to hustle you into buying their stuff. My first purchase I got totally ripped off because I didn't have my head on straight about negotiating. By the end I was negotiating in dollars, pula, and i even bartered a pen i had. They used an exchange rate of 10 pula=1 dollar which, with how the dollar is doing right now made dollars a better deal for me. This was great except some shop keepers only wanted pula because they have to go to botswana to buy food because the economy is so screwed up in Zimbabwe. They were even selling their currency as souvenirs because it is basically worthless to them. It was also crazy because every stall i went in, the owner wanted to know what i would trade for my faded, old, baseball cap. Unfortunately, i wasn't willing to part with it for sentimental reasons but i probably could have gotten something good.

The next day we took off on our two night camping trip. I was super psyched but some of the girls on my program were being wet blankets about having to sleep on the ground (and not in the posh lodge). When else do you get to wake up in the morning to baboon poop outside your tent and hear howling hyenas while you fall asleep? One night there was a big commotion as the guide ran to get a rifle because a hippo was trying to come on land right in the middle of our camp. Very exciting. We also got to go on game drives where we saw tons of elephants, giraffes, all sorts of antelope (springbok, kudu, eland, etc), lions (!!!!), cape buffalo, warthogs, tortoises, monitor lizards, and baboons. It was crazy how close to the animals we got and the only time I saw the guide get rattled was when we came around a turn and there was a lone cape buffalo bull (they are most dangerous when male/alone) he threw the safari vehicle into reverse so fast! On the second day we went on a boat cruise on the chobe river. One girl fell in the river as we were getting on the boat and we were all terrified she was going to get snatched by crocs but we got her out ok. The highlights were seeing a 4-5 day old baby hippo and its mom and a large group of elephants bathing. The baby hippo was the cutest thing ever and kept twirling its ears while its mom made the angry threatening stance at us. The elephants were swimming around play fighting in the water then going up the bank to stomp in mud puddles and throw the mud over themselves. They finished by powdering themselves with dry dirt. It was amazing to be close to something so big in the water. At one point we got really close to a group of hippos and our guide was describing how hippos are very territorial and show agressiveness with these behaviors (all of which they were exhibiting at that point!). Some of us were wondering why we kept getting closer but he seemed to know what he was doing and even us sitting in the front of the boat made it back alright. The only bummer was the mile long cloud of gnats on the way back that i was practically breathing in they were so thick. All part of the experience...

The drive back took 12.5 hours....which is basically forever when squished in a van going over tons of potholes but we were all mollified by pizza once we got to Gaborone. I have just finished my first week in gabs. I have a new host family (mom, dad, 8 year old boy, and three year old boy, and a maid from zimbabwe). The boys are cute but have absolutely NO concept of privacy and can be a bit much. They are really nice though! The only bad thing that has happened was this little turd of a neighbor kid punched me in the stomach. I was so shocked I didn't know what to do (I wasn't expecting it at all). I gave him a stern talking to but who knows if it sunk in. He hasn't punched me since but it was the last thing i was expecting in a place where repect for elders is such a strong cultural value. He seems just like a mean kid though-made my host brother cry and said the neighbor girl smells like poo. Oh dear. Thankfully, I have school (lectures and write-up of my time in mahalapye) so I don't get home till 5 ot 6pm.
Ack. out of time. I've been pretty homesick and city life is really weird. I'm looking forward to my independent study in Maun starting in two and a half weeks. Miss you all soooo much!
love,
Caitlin