I realized it has been a while since I have written a detailed blog, so this will be a long one. I apologize if you have written me a message or email in the last few weeks and I haven't responded yet - I haven't forgotten you! Since I am back in the office this week, I should have a little more time (and internet access) to catch up and to reply to emails.
This week marks 3 months in Africa now. As I always say with each month gone by, I can't believe how time is flying!
We were granted a 2 week break from work over the holidays, so we decided see some of the rest of Botswana. On our first day of holiday, we caught a 4:30 am bus to the town of Nata, en route to our final destination of Maun which is the gateway to the Okavango Delta. The 'bus' was actually kind of a mini-bus, and, in typical fashion, all of the passengers were squished in like sardines. Jason and I were crammed into the far back corner, jammed so tightly with everyone else that neither of us could move in the slightest. The road from Kasane to Nata is notoriously bad, with car-swallowing potholes along it's entire route. For 3-1/2 miserable hours we endured:
1) The driver slamming on the brakes to avoid upcoming potholes.
2) Swerving wildly around mazes of potholes for several minutes, often amidst oncoming traffic doing the same thing.
3) Driver flooring it to the next set of potholes to make up for lost time due to the last pothole delay.
4) Repeat.
Thank god I had been awake since about 3:00 am and so was in a half-sleep/stupor for most of the trip!
Finally we reached Nata, and transferred to a bus headed towards Maun. This was more of a traditional Greyhound style bus, so this 3-1/2 hour journey was much more comfortable. Our destination in Maun was a place called Audi Camp, where we would be staying for the next week. We don't have our own camping equipment here, so we rented a 'bedded tent' which was actually quite nice. It was complete with beds, shelves, mini-dresser, even electricity and a fan! The tents also had a sort of verandah in the front, with a picnic table and fire pit, so we had campfires on several nights. To make things still better, the rates included a huge, yummy breakfast in the morning. Awesome-o.
After some serious relaxing and checking out the town for a couple of days, we arranged to do a couple of excursions. For Christmas Day we set up a mokoro trip into the Okavango Delta. A mokoro is a traditional wooden canoe, usually carved from the sausage tree (yes, these trees do produce seed pods that look like enormous sausages!). It is propelled by 'poler' - a guy standing at the back of the mokoro who pushes the canoe along with a very long, carved pole. The ride is absolutely silent and beautiful. A couple of hours of the trip was also spent on a bush walk. At the beginning of the walk we were told that it was very possible that we could bump into lion, elephant, buffalo or other dangerous animals, and that we may need to run at some point. *gulp* We were even told not to touch *anything* - not even insects or any kind of plant - because, well...everything here wants to hurt you. Even the insects and the plants (at the moment I am sporting 3 gashes across my forehead from accidentally walking into a thorny acacia branch...grrr...). Our guides were, of course, expert trackers and pointed out lion tracks...from the night before, fortunately. We did spot hippos from a distance, but no nasty run-ins with anything else.
A couple of days later we did a horseback trip. It was a perfect day, overcast so not blazing hot and not raining (it had stormed like crazy the previous day). We had met a fellow American , Trish - a Peace Corps volunteer doing HIV education in Botswana - and she came along with us on the ride. We did several river crossings in which the horses actually swam across the deep water. An amazing feeling to be up to your chest in water on the back of this enormous creature that is swimming so gracefully...
We had hoped to arrange transportation to make it down to D'kar and Ghazi, small towns in the Kalahari desert and part of the stomping grounds of the San bushmen. The San are believed to have been around for 30,000 years - 30, 000 years!! - and their way of life has not changed much in that time. Unfortunately, our transportation fell through so we didn't get to go. In August there is a 3-day dance festival, in which many San tribes come from all over the Kalahari and perform their traditional dances, so I hope to make it there for that.
It became time to start heading back for home. Once again we had a smooth bus ride from Maun to Nata, but the trip from Nata to Kasane was a nightmare worst than the last. Not only were we sardine-packed into the bus, but the bus was so full that we had to *stand* for the entire 3-1/2 hours. Gaaaahhhhh...!
Once we were home, we did a whole lotta nothing for the next several days, just relaxing and chillin' in town here and there. When I worked at the zoo, I used to be into doing ink and clay impressions of animals feet, so since I've been here I've been doing a lot of photographing of tracks. This week I picked up a really excellent book of animal track ID's, so it's been really cool going out each day to see what animals were around our house the night before. The other day right outside the gate we found hippo, mongoose, impala, warthog, baboon, kudu, elephant, serval, porcupine, snake and tons of bird tracks, just from overnight! We've also gotten into making casts of the tracks, so I hope to have a cool little collection by the time I come back to the states.
Last month we had Big Birding Day, in which teams had an informal competition to see how many bird species we could spot in one day. In a couple of weeks, we will have the water bird count, a formal census in which go out on boats and count the actual number of each water bird species we see.
It is still rainy season here though we haven't had any rain for about a week, and it has gotten really hot again. Everything is soooooo green, lush and beautiful that it is easy to forget that you are in Africa. The dense vegetation makes for terrifying times walking to work, though, as you would never be able to see a lurking lion or elephant. Every time I startle a warthog that I haven't seen and it goes crashing through the bush, I nearly have a heart attack.
We have a hippo that seems to have taken up residence in one of the pools in the flood plain behind our house, so every night we have been treated to deep, bass-like grunts, belches, and gurgles. It's quite amusing!
It's been difficult trying to stay fit here as there as there are no gyms in town. Although we do a lot of walking, I'm starting to feel atrophied as the terrain is completely flat here. No hills, no stairs. I haven't walked up any stairs in 3 months! My neighbor and I have decided as of this week that we will get up at 5:30 am every day and do something active before work. Monday was yoga. Today we went out for an early walk and walked to the Zimbabwe border (it still amazes me that I can walk to Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Zambia from here). Tomorrow...well, I am feeling tired and lazy already and don't want to get up that early. Hopefully I can motivate!
Some of you already know this, but I'm going to be coming back to the Bay Area for a quick visit at the end of March. I won't have a lot of time - only about 2 weeks - but I hope to see as many of you as I can.
I also want to thank all of you that have sent messages, emails, cards, postcards, care packages, pictures, etc! It has definitely put a smile on my face and helped when I'm feeling down or lonely, so please keep them coming! Huge hugs and thanks to all of you!!
XO
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