Adventures in Victoria Falls!

           As our way to celebrate the end of the semester, seven of us girls traveled the 20 hour bus trip to Victoria Falls in Zambia. Although we were only in Livingstone, Zambia for two full days, we packed in so many adventures and sightseeing excursions that we were always busy and got to experience a lot of Livingstone in just a short time. In our two days there we went white water rafting on the Zambezi River, went on a sunset dinner cruise on a different part of the River, explored Victoria Falls and got insanely soaked by its spray, I got mugged by a baboon at the Falls, and we all took a bike tour around Livingstone and its surrounding villages. It was quite an eventful weekend and I am thrilled we had the chance to visit such a beautiful Seven Wonders of the World.

            A couple days before we left for Victoria Falls, we all realized our student visas were expiring the day before we were supposed to leave for the Falls. That is not good because Namibia could charge us a fee for staying too late in the country and then not let us re-enter the country from Zambia. We quickly went to the Department of Home Affairs to get this fixed (on the day that we were supposed to depart for Vic Falls) and it took so long we almost missed our bus! We were very clearly freaking out as we sprinted from Home Affairs to the bus station. Thankfully it all worked out in the end, but we certainly cut it close!

            Flying to Victoria Falls is insanely expensive so we all decided to take InnerCape, a bus system kind of like the Greyhound in the States. From Windhoek to Vic Falls, it is roughly 20 hours of sitting in a bus. Quite understandably, it felt like forever! On the way to Zambia our bus broke down so we were stuck for about an hour, but thankfully we were on our way pretty quickly. InnerCape is a Christian company so they played many movies with Christian themes. They played a movie called Son of God which showed Jesus' life and, of course, added some Hollywood flares. It was pretty funny seeing how much we all remembered from church and trying to figure out if certain scenes were "Hollywood-ified". On the way back to Windhoek, we learned about "disease mats" where every once in a while we would all shuffle off the bus and walk over a mat doused in some sort of liquid to get rid of whatever diseases we may have on our shoes from Zambia. It was comical to see all us sleep-deprived people trying to figure out what was going on. At least it was a good way to stretch our legs!

            In Zambia, we stayed at Livingstone Backpackers, a hostel right near downtown Livingstone. It was a phenomenal hostel! We met so many wonderful people who told us of their travels around Africa and where they were from. Since a lot of them were from the States, we got to discuss different current events with them and catch up on everything America. When we went to Vic Falls for the day, some of the guys we met came with us. It was very nice to travel with other people, make connections with random people in a foreign country, and see how small this world really is becoming.

Having a movie night with our new friend :)

            On our first full day in Livingstone, we went white water rafting and got to do a sunset dinner cruise on the Zambezi River. I have never gone rafting in my life so I was pretty nervous about it all. When we got the safety briefing, it actually freaked me out even more, but Kalie told me that this stuff hardly ever happens when you raft. To get down to the Batoka Gorge to start rafting, we had to hike down a pretty steep mountain that had us all wondering when it would end. For about half the hike, it was too steep so workers had built a kind of staircase/ladder thing that we had to walk down. So basically we had to walk on sticks for probably twenty minutes. Once we got to the bottom of the Gorge, the rafting began. Rafting is actually super fun! After I was in the boat, all my nervousness went away and we all had loads of fun. The rapids ranged from class two to four. Since it was high season, there was no real worry of getting hit by rocks so the guides let us all jump in the water and float down some of the calmer waters. The water was not cold at all so it felt great to cool off and jump in. The Zambezi does have crocodiles, but since it was so hot they were hiding on the banks and in the water. So, technically, we actually swam with crocs without even knowing it! Toward the end of the rapids, our raft FLIPPED and we all were thrown out and covered by the raft (our guide had been trying to flip us for a while lol). Once we were all out of the raft all the girls started zooming down the rapids, but I wasn't moving. I guess I was stuck in a whirlpool which kept me in one spot. I swam a little bit and then got picked up by another raft. Although I was scared at the beginning of rafting, I loved flipping and swimming down the rapids. That evening we did a sunset dinner cruise and got to see the gorgeous sunset in one direction and the cloud of mist from Vic Falls in the other direction. We finally saw crocodiles and hippos on this cruise which added to our already long list of animals we have seen in Africa. We met many people from all over the world, including some people from Canada who came over to Zambia with Habitat for Humanity to build houses. I had no idea that Habitat did international work so it was great to talk to the team leader about their work and what they have done in the past.

The crazy stair ladder

After surviving our first rapid!

WE FLIPPED!!!

The beautiful sunset on the Zambezi

               The next day we went to Victoria Falls and saw Livingstone through a bike tour. It makes so much sense now that Victoria Falls is a Wonder of the World…it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. We went to the Falls with three of the guys we met at the hostel, John, Gerick, and Dennis. When we first got to the national park we saw sooooo many baboons! They were so cute and the babies were adorable. The other girls made fun of me for calling them cute, but the baboons were just too great. Once we paid and got into the Falls area, we walked on some of the trails to reach the lookout points. When we got to the first point, I was blown away by the Falls and thought that was it. Ha! We had seen just a little snip-it of the actual thing and when we walked a little further we were drenched by the spray of the Falls. The spray and mist from the water ranged from a mist to a torrential downpour and reminded me a lot of Washington. Hearing the water pound down the Falls was incredible and it was even more mind-boggling to see that what we were looking at was only about a tenth of the whole Victoria Falls. I could have stayed and watched these Falls all day long. I can't wait to come back here someday and see them again. We left the Falls to go to the bridge connecting Zambia and Zimbabwe where many people go bungee jumping (don't worry…no one went jumping). We had to go to immigration to get day passes to go on the bridge since it is kind of in No Man's Land between the two countries. Remember how I said baboons were cute and adorable? Yeah not anymore. I forgot that you shouldn't eat food outside because baboons will try and steal it so I took out mine and Kalie's lunch to eat my sandwich. I asked Kalie to hold my sandwich and she said no because there was a baboon coming right at me. She said it so calmly that I thought she was kidding until I saw it behind me. I screamed and kind of run/jumped into the immigration building but the baboon already grabbed my lunch bag. I let it go and the baboon ran off to eat our lunches. So I got mugged by a baboon at Vic Falls! First time for everything? We all laughed so hard and Kalie and I just had trail mix for lunch. Word of advice: do NOT eat anything at Victoria Falls! Baboons WILL take your things! On the bridge we saw the Falls from that angle, looked at the bungee jumping platform (we didn't get to see anyone jump though…), and walked over to the Zim side.

            Once we changed into dry clothes at the hostel, we started our bike tour of Livingstone. The money from the bike tour goes to a local community school in one of the villages. In Zambia, all forms of school (public and private) cost money so if families can't afford it their children don't go to school. This community school was built to allow children to attend school for free. On this tour we rode through many villages on the outskirts of town, through parts of the city, by the Zambezi River, to a local market, and to the school where our money goes. It was a four hour bike ride and we were all so sore after it, but it was so much fun. It was super funny to see us all try walking around after the tour since we were all sore. Biking through the villages was lots of fun because the kids would run after us and yell Mazungu (I'm sure I spelled that wrong), which means White Person. All the children were adorable and it was great seeing so many smiling faces. Seeing village life was very cool too; each village was very different with the way houses were built, the level of trash in the streets, which people were outside and walking around at the time, and the different schools built in the villages. Many of the houses in each village are built based on the income of the people living there so some houses are simply a mud house while others are created with cement and blocks. When we reached the Cowboy Pre and Primary School, there were a couple church services going on so we were able to listen to them sing as we explored the school. There were so many children around who go to the school and wanted to hang out with us. I kind of nerded out at the school and asked our tour guide a ton of questions about it. The bike tour started in 2001 to start raising funds for the school which then opened in 2003. It began as a pre-primary school and has since expanded to fourth grade. The ultimate goal is to go up to seventh grade and possibly open another location. Right now there are about 250 students, grades K-4, and 7 teachers. Class sizes are about 30-40 kids in each class. It is incredible what they are doing at this school and if I don't get a job in the States, I may just end up there ;)

            This trip, although it was quite short, was incredible and I'm so happy everything with our visas worked out so we could go to Zambia, see Victoria Falls, and learn about Livingstone as a city. We arrived back in Windhoek today at 5:15am and now the packing for going home needs to start! There's so much to do with so little time! See you all in T-minus 2 days!

Exploring Cape Town!

            Hello from South Africa! Thanks to Namibia having a long weekend (because of Cassinga Day and Worker's Day), we were lucky enough to travel to Cape Town, South Africa for almost a week. Man, that city is absolutely gorgeous. I can seriously see myself living there for a long time. The landscape, city, mountains, ocean, people…breathtaking. Five of us stayed at our friend Theo's house in Bellville, a suburb just outside of Cape Town. It was great having the freedom to travel around the city with a semi-local and explore everything. While in Cape Town, we went to the largest mall in Southern Africa, hiked Table Mountain, went on a wine and city tour, saw PENGUINS, experienced Cape Town nightlife, and explored downtown and the Waterfront. The city is so big that I guess I'll just have to come back someday and finishing exploring. 

            On Friday, we met up with the nurses at Table Mountain where some of us hiked up the mountain while the others abseiled down the side of it. Alice, Heather, Kerry, Theo, and I hiked up the mountain. That was by far one of the hardest hikes I've done, but the views were absolutely gorgeous at the top. The hike was all uphill (obviously) and had so many rocks in the trail that it was basically rock hopping all the way up. It was supposed to be about 2.5 hours, but we were able to do it in an hour and twenty minutes. No wonder we were tired at the top! About half way up the trail, a man was playing the marimba and it was great to be serenaded the rest of the way. When we reached the top, we could see everything: Cape Town way beneath us, Robben Island in the distance, the mountains surroundings us, and ocean as far as the eye could see. We took the cable car (gondola) down the mountain since the fog was rolling in and then went our separate ways: the nurses went back to their hotel and we went to Theo's house. That night, Alice and I watched She's The Man (I forgot how amazing that movie is!!!!) and did homework and applications with the amazing wifi Theo had while Eslie, Kalie, Carly, Theo, and Gareth went out to explore the nightlife of Cape Town.

At the top of Table Mountain!

            The next day, all nine of us met up at the hotel to do our wine and city tour. Special shoutout to Bryanna for planning and booking so many of our excursions! On this tour, we drove all over Cape Town and surrounding suburbs, learned about the history of South Africa and how it pertained to Namibian independence, saw Boulder Penguins (oh my god they were adorable!!), toured and hiked at Cape Point, went to a nearby beach, and went to two wineries for wine tastings. The day was jam packed with things to do and it was great to see how gorgeous Cape Town and South Africa are. Our driver told us about living in apartheid times and the shifting of power from the Afrikaans to the blacks, his experience with being deployed in Namibia, and the current xenophobia happening in parts of South Africa. It was very interesting to hear a different perspective about apartheid and shifting power, and especially about Namibian independence. Having first learned about independence from a Namibian context, hearing the other side was very eye-opening about the contradictions in stories. One main example was that from a Namibian standpoint, they were at war with South Africa for independence, whereas from this perspective we heard, South Africans were simply protecting Namibia from evil communist powers. But this is only one perspective that we heard about; I talked to another individual who had an entirely different story about the fighting. Anyway, back to the wine tour! At one of our first stops, we went to see the Boulder Penguins, aka Jackass Penguins because they sound like donkeys. They were adorable! I may have found my new favorite animal. They were simply the best; I could have watched them all day. They live in South Africa all year long so they don't migrate anywhere. Some of them were swimming when we got to their area and it was incredible to see them dart around in the water. They are so fast! The ocean views we saw were breathtaking. The water was so blue and had a very distinctive gradient to it as it got shallower and shallower. As we hiked to the top of the lighthouse at Cape Point, we were kind of on a peninsula so we were basically surrounded by water. It made me realize how much I missed the ocean and can't wait to live near it again. After seeing the Cape, we were on our way to the two wineries, Steenberg and Constantia. I had never gone wine tasting before so it was a lot of fun tasting new wines and seeing which types I like. I bought a bottle of Semillon at Steenberg and can't wait to open it back home. Both wineries were gorgeous! The grape vines went on for ages and everything felt very relaxed and peaceful. We all got pretty tipsy from the wine so the drive home was hilarious. We were so talkative about everything, got into political debates, and then all hung out in the nurses' hotel room for a bit. It was great to be able to spend time with everyone, simply hang out, and make hilarious memories in Cape Town.

Such adorable little animals!

The view from Cape Point

Constantia Winery

            On Sunday and Monday, Alice and I took an Uber taxi to the Waterfront in downtown Cape Town. First off, Uber is such a great invention! It was so quick and easy and made getting around Cape Town a total breeze. When we got to the Waterfront, we listened to a Marimba band for a while. They were hilarious! The lead singer went up to us and sang to us and they all seemed to be having so much fun. Alice and I ended up buying two of their CDs and I love listening to it now. I definitely spent WAY too much money in Cape Town, but hey, you're only in Cape Town once, right? haha We spent the whole day downtown exploring the five-star waterfront hotels, nearby malls, and a little bit of downtown. We ended Sunday night with the rest of our 5-person group meeting us at the Waterfront and celebrating Carly's birthday at a nice Portuguese restaurant by the water. On Monday before we left for the airport, Alice and I went back to the waterfront to get breakfast at an artisan food market. It reminded us of Granville Island in Canada and was delicious. We had amazing coffee (the barista knew a ton about coffee), some yogurt parfait things, and yummy crepes.

            We were lucky enough to stay with our friend Theo in Cape Town. It was great to see him again and all catch up about everything. On our first night there, we met up with one of Theo's friends, Gareth, and had chicken schnitzel at his house. We all went to a local bar called Stones and they taught us how to play pool. The boys were super good at pool and taught us some tips. For Carly's birthday, we went into Cape Town to celebrate and experience the night life. I didn't feel like drinking so I was the DD. Let me just say, driving on the left side of the road is WEIRD. But I did it! Thank goodness his car was automatic! This week was a great trip and I was so sad to leave such a beautiful city. I will definitely be returning there someday! We only saw a small part of Cape Town and I can't wait to see the rest. Now that we're back in Windhoek, we are finishing up our last week of classes, getting ready to go to Victoria Falls next week, and then fly home the next. I can't believe our time here is finally coming to an end. I feel like we just got here. Time to make the most of these last couple weeks!

March and April Update

Once again, this will be a long blog post… March and April were very eventful months where President Krise and Patty came to visit us in Namibia, we got to witness the 25th anniversary of Namibian Independence and see the third president be sworn in, went on our second study tour during Easter break, discovered the Franco-Namibian Cultural Center, and had many more crazy adventures!

March

            The first major event that happened in March was attending the 25th anniversary of Namibia's Independence. We got to go to the Independence Stadium and sit with all the dignitaries and diplomats (We met an American in line who had an official invite. She said we were all with her so we got to sit with the important people.) We sat a row in front of the king of Damaraland! What?! The third president, Hage Geingob, was sworn in and they had many different celebrations and speeches to commemorate the occasion.

            Two days after Independence Day, President Krise and Patty came over from PLU to visit us in Namibia and see how the program was doing. It was great to tell them all about Windhoek and show what a great study abroad program this is. We were invited to many dinners and events in honor of the relationship between Namibia and PLU. Hopefully, in the future, more Namibian students can come over to the States and attend PLU. On their last night in Windhoek, we had a fabulous dinner at the restaurant Nice, (Namibian Institute of Culinary Education), where everyone who helped make this program happen was honored and we all celebrated this program and international relationship. Just as quickly as the President and Ms. Krise came, they left for Cape Town and we all packed up our bags for our Easter Break study tour to southern Namibia and the coast.

            For our study tour, we traveled to Sossusvlei, Swakopmund, and Damaraland. On one of our first days, we got to climb up Big Daddy in Sossusvei, one of the biggest sand dunes in the world. It was one of the best experiences of my life! The climb was incredible, but definitely one of the hardest hikes of my life. We kept slipping down the sand, but thankfully, it had rained the day before so the sand was packed down which made it easier. The views from the top of the dune were insane. We could see in all directions and dunes surrounded us for as far as we could see. Although it took us about 45 minutes to hike up the dune, it only took about 5 minutes to RUN down. It felt like we were walking on the moon as we launched ourselves into the sand. The momentum we got while running down made our bodies keep leaning forward and we had to basically fall back to keep us from falling all the way down. When we reached the bottom, we were in Deadvlei, a basin with trees that have been dead for about 400 years. Overall, this hike was such an amazing experience and I can't wait to do it again someday.

At the top of Big Daddy

In Deadvlei

            In Swakopmund, we went sand dune quadding (it was my first time!) and got to explore tons of sand dunes surrounding the area. After quadding, we got to meet the parrots that lived at the quadding headquarters. We all got to hold them and one even kissed me! haha For our next stop, we went to Damaraland and learned about the culture, saw herds of elephants, camped a lot, and experienced even more of Namibia. We hiked and saw so many incredible rock paintings and engravings that were created so many hundreds of years ago. We saw the "White Lady" painting--which actually is a man, but the name of the White Lady already stuck--and many other engravings with lions, ostriches, giraffes, and other animals. We also went on a game drive where we saw a huge herd of elephants! It was incredible seeing so many of them in one little area. On one of our last days in Damaraland, we went to the Damara Living Museum where we were able to witness the traditional lives of the Damara people. The actors talked to us about the chief of the tribes, different medicinal practices, practices for men and women, and how to play a traditional game (kind of like mancola). They also sang and danced for us which was amazing! It looked like they were having so much fun! One practice that women do is make beads made of ostrich shells. Once a woman is able to drill a hole through the ostrich shell bead, she is then eligible to marry. I drilled a hole in the bead so I got to marry one of the Damara guys. So… I got married in Namibia! Sorry mom! ;) This study tour was a lot of fun and taught us many, many things about the Namibian and Damara cultures.

A huge herd of desert elephants

At the Damara Living Museum

April

            April was definitely a month where we got to explore Windhoek more and get to experience all sorts of its culture and hidden gems. Since we only had about two months left (and we knew they would FLY by), we wanted to make sure we made the most of our time here. After we got back to Emona from our second study tour, we had the opportunity to go to an Easter service in Windhoek. It was incredible! We went to InnerCity Lutheran Church which was so full that it was standing room only and they also had to set up chairs in the lobby area. The singing in that service absolutely blew my mind: the congregation sang in four-part harmony just because they wanted to and they did it a cappella because the accompanist didn't show up for church that day (rumor has it he was too hungover or just overslept lol). Hearing over a hundred people sing so joyfully truly made this one of the best Easter celebrations yet. After the service, we went to Jan's house for an Easter brunch with our "Namibian family." These girls, Jan, and Tony have all become my family away from home and I could not be more thankful to have them in my life. We had a couple of the girls' favorite dishes and celebrated throughout the afternoon.

            The next week, Alice, Kerry, and I went to the FNCC--the Franco Namibian Cultural Center where we had a lovely dinner and saw a Namibian dance troupe do a show portraying gay and lesbians in Namibia and how they are treated. The show was set up in three different stories: the first being about a gay man with AIDS being discriminated on by his community and the nurses at the local hospital, the second about corrective rape where a girl was raped and married off because she was lesbian, and the final one being about a man who contracts AIDS while in prison from a rape. In the two beginning stories, both main characters commit suicide because their suffering is too much for them, whereas in the third story, the man finds peace with what happened in prison and his AIDS status and finds his partner who accepts him for who he is. These stories discussed very deep material, but it is a subject that is current in Namibia and needs to be talked about. The concept of LGBT is not fully accepted in Namibia so I was surprised that this dance company would do a performance on the topic. However, this company's performance was incredible and captured the emotions of the characters in the stories very well. The next Friday, all of the girls including Jan went back to the FNCC to watch Freedom Songs, a concert with many different musical artists from all around Namibia. The music ranged from jazz to singer-songwriter to many more. I loved the jazz music and watching the artists perform because you could instantly tell that they were having so much fun with what they were doing.

            So many more things happened during these two months, including solo teaching my first day of school, going to a Foam Party (so crazy!) and meeting some amazing people, teaching at an after-school program in Katatura, and watching a German Carnival parade with tons of drunk Germans, just to name a few! I can't wait to keep exploring this beautiful city, and I am so sad to be going home soon, but I am also excited to see my family and friends back in the States!