Its getting hot in here

So I believe the last time I left off with this blog was about a month ago when I was just about to embark on my first Zamcation. Just to let everyone know, Victoria Falls is a major let down and no one should ever go. Period. And by that I mean it was absolutely incredible and I cant wait to go back in oh, just about 2 weeks (more on that in a second). So it took about 16 hours to get from my site to Vic. Falls. One bus took me from Chipata to Lusaka and the next took me from Lusaka to Livingstone, in the Southern Province of Zambia. I met up with my friend Blair, whos in Central Province, in Lusaka and we were able to watch a phenomenal Zambian production entitled "White Powder" on our bus to Livingstone. Plus they gave us snacks, so all in all it was an enjoyable, yet slow, ride.

Once we got to Livingstone we checked into our hostel, Jolly Boys, which was a really cool place and is where almost all Peace Corps. volunteers stay when in Livingstone (mostly because its abour $8/night) but it had a pool and a cool central sitting area and the best coffee that I've had since being in Zambia.

We crashed pretty hard our first night in Livingstone, because, well, we had both just traveled on Zambian busses for the better part of a day. The next morning though we were up and ready to take in all that Livingstone had to offer. We headed off to the bridge that connects Zimbabwe and Zambia in order to do some bungee jumping, ziplining and rope swinging. Its funny because bungee jumping was always on my list "Ehh I dont think I'm going to do that..." but with a small amount of peer pressure from Blair I was absolutely ready to go. It was pretty amazing experience and I definitely had a long free fall of 111 meters. The rope swing was pretty much the same as bungee jumping except instead of standing up you sat down. I think that I liked that just a little bit more because I had a slightly better idea of what the heck was going on.

After that pretty epic morning we decided to head to Mosi-o-tunya National Park- aka to see Victoria Falls. Even though its dry season now, they were absolutely incredible. Because of the mist that always came off the falls and the sheer altitude at which they dropped there is almost always a rainbow that can be seen at some point on the falls which makes them even more spectacular. We walked around the Zambian side of the Falls and definitely got a good view of all of them. We then heard that you could go to the top of the falls so instead of looking across at them you would be looking down from the top. So we walked around to the other side of the park to the river where the water begins to flow over the top of the falls. For fear of scaring my parents, grandmother, etc I am not going to go into a lot of detail about the end of our day, however a few phrases spring to mind and one, if they were interested might want to google/youtube them (especially the second one)- "coolest thing I have ever done in my life," "Devil's Pool at Victoria Falls" and "hippo".

Also, while we were on our second adventure of the day we met three women who are currently serving as missionaries in Sudan. After talking to them for the afternoon/over dinner I realized that Peace Corps is probably the most cushy experience ever. Ok, not really, but these women are in the bush. They only leave their village once every three months and thats to get more supplies so they can continue staying there. They had some pretty incredible stories about their time in Sudan and I'm so glad that we were able to meet and share our experiences. I still think about them often.

Needless to say after this day, we were again quite exhausted although we did manage to run into our friend Bart, who is in our intake, and his visiting girlfriend Bree, who were also in Livingstone on vaca at the time. It was nice to be able to hang out with them considering that again since they arent in Eastern Province (and Bree is from America!) that we don't really get to spend all the much time together.

The next day we went on safari in Chobe National Park in Botswana. We were able to do a river safari in the morning and a game drive in the afternoon (even after we started off 2 hours late!). Even though safaris arent my favorite thing it was really cool to see elephants (swimming and playing in the water), giraffes, hippos, crocodiles, zebras and water buffalo.

Finally to round out our trip in Livingstone we hung out for uninterrupted hours by a pool (this never happens 1. because pools are few and far between and 2. because people ALWAYS want to interrupt you). That evening we went on a river cruise our last night with some PCVs who ran the Victoria Falls marathon that day it was really fun and again we got to see some hippos and elephants and the sun set on the mighty Zambezi.

All in all it was a really great vacation and definitely re-instilled the travel bug back in me. I really like Livingstone, there is a lot to do and a lot to see, although its not as built up as Lusaka which is nice. My friend Cara, who I studied abroad in Uganda with is coming during the middle of October and she really wants to see Vic Falls as well so I'll be headed back soon enough (although this time I think we're going to go white water rafting!)

But for the time being I am back at my site, pounding away trying to maybe do some work one of these days, just kidding. I've been working with two schools a lot recently to try to improve their gardens although that work is sloooow, mostly because its hot season and its hard to do a lot of manual labor when the temperature is getting up there. Ive also been helping out at my clinic and working with community health workers to come together and form an organization that will focus on IGA's so they will make some income for all the work they do in the community. And I've also been having a lot of meetings (or scheduling a lot of meetings that dont happen) with various groups in the community. Work is there albeit its going slowly, even though I feel like I am super busy all the time. Which is a good thing. Definitely a good thing.