Parentals come and gone and I still can't believe how quickly the two weeks sprinted by. They landed in Lusaka on Monday the 7th and I showed them around the big ol' city of Lusaka for 3 days. In truth, Lusaka isn't exactly the most exciting or invigorating city in the world, but them stopping here was largely about seeing what my life has been like here for the past 7 or 8 months – meeting my friends, my coworkers, my boss, our coaches, taking them to see our curriculum in action, driving around the city, braiing (a South African word for BBQ) with a big crew of our friends, seeing town, going out to eat...it's so much easier to see your growth and change and development when compared to people who haven't seen you in a long chunk of time. Not that I think I've changed all that much, but I saw that my patience is more extensive, my ability to talk to get what I want (protocol is rarely followed, except for silly things when it is strictly followed) is a still that has been honed, my willingness to roll with the punches and be confident in the unknown is all more comfortable than 7 months ago.
Participating in Gender Fishbowl
From Lusaka we flew to Victoria Falls for a night (where we saw the falls in their full-fledged glory – despite raincoats we were completely DRENCHED from the spray) and then drove into Botswana to start our safari adventures!
The serenity and calmness of a safari is unparalleled in most other areas of life. Like fishing, there's the sense that you can't rush anything, and that all will be lost if you try. There is fascination and wonder in tracking or waiting or finding an animal, and tempered awe and amazement when you do and you realize that this wild African animal is 10 feet away from your car. Our second day in Chobe we saw four lions, big cats, lazing in the heat of the afternoon behind a bush. Stretched out like house-cats or tabbies, tails swatting away flies, paws limp-wristed in the air as the rolled over. One by one they nonchalantly stood up and walked past our car, a stone's throw (or a pounce!) away from what could be their lunch if they so desired. They sauntered past, peed, stretched, and continued on their merry way.
Our game drives in Chobe brought with them hippos and crocs, buffalo, elephants, baboons, all kinds of antelope (kudu, impala, puku, etc.), warthogs, giraffe, zebras, eagles, velvet monkeys, guinea fowl, spotted tortoise, alligators and all kinds of crazy birds.
We saw tons and tons of elephants! Elephants bathing, elephants nursing, elephants dusting themselves with mud, elephaints eating...as many as 30 or 40 at a time, newborns as big as a large dog, males as big as a small house! Elephants galore.
Zebras grazing as casually as horses, rotund bellies from the lush Botswanan rainy season, they were fat and happy, letting me stare, completely flabbergasted, at the intricacy and beauty of their stripes. I'd love a bag made out of one of them. Jokingggggggg!
Giraffe, long and lanky, gawky as a teenaged boy, but simultaneously elegant. They seem to run in slow motion. They step out and cross the bumpy dirt road very daintily as though each step had a little kick or flick or bounce to it, then glided forward as gracefully as a ballerina – when you don't know if theyre actually moving parts of their bodies or if they're being pushed on a platform with wheels. They almost look prehistoric – relics of a bygone era, a time when brontosaurus roamed the earth and humans hadn't yet interfered. I loved it all, from the hundreds and hundreds of impala (Lulu-like in color and springiness or bounceability) to the rare lion sightings, and even to the birds (and you know how much I hate birds, but here they're exotic and colorful and non-menacing).
One of the highlights of Chobe (apart from the outstanding animals, of course)? Overhearing my mother in the tent next to me (EXTREMELY luxurious tents, let me tell you) say to my father, “Honey, did you ever think we would be doing this??” Priceless.
We took a 6 person flight (less terrifying than I anticipated) to the Okavango Delta where we stayed at Sandibe River Lodge – African glamour if I've ever seen it. It's the type of place I've only ever seen in pictures and could never imagine staying before I'm a well-established professional in my 40's. In short, it's completely decadent and gorgeous – sprawling beds with canopied mosquito nets, thatched roof cottages, your own sundeck, a communal lounge area and fresh meals like you can't imagine. The whole lodge area is open to nature, the melodic crickets sound like xylophones at work each night. Hippos grunt next to my cottage. I may have heard an elephant bleat (or roar? What do elephants do when they make noise?). But what really blew me away is the beauty of the delta. Sheer, simple, untouched beauty. Palm trees and spreading shallow water, papyrus and water lilies aplenty. Calmness. Peaceful solitude. Even many of the animals roam solo. Serenity.
A LEOPARD! I can't believe was saw a leopard! I was sure it was going to be one of those things you hope and pray for and want that never comes true, and then that becomes the reason why you vow to eventually come back on safari one day. After an unsuccessful morning of attempting to track the leopard, our guides got more info on their radio from a second car that had gone out. As majestic as lions are, the leopard was equally as amazing and potentially even more so, with piercing eyes and a pattern more intricate and detailed than I ever would have imagined. It brought me back to sixth or seventh grade Bar Mitzvah clothes, except this time the fur was REAL and on an ANIMAL, not on teenaged girls too flummoxed with pubescence to know that a leopard is a real animal. It didn't do much apart from lounge and then perch up on a fallen tree, but he managed to be completely mesmerizing nonetheless.
The day after leopard-viewing? Cheetah! And this cat was slightly more exciting, or at least more mobile. I have NO idea how our guides ever spotted it, but it was perched high on a termite mound about a kilometre away. We cautiously drove up, its spots emerged from camouflage and we tracked him for about 30 minutes; spraying his territory, listening to warning calls, curling up beneath a bush...as with the leopard, it was amazing to see how cat-like these massive felines really are – it was like watching Ping but 25 times bigger.
Anyways, more to come Cape Town-wise, but this blogpost is already long enough and I feel my Sunday exhaustion coming on (and perhaps your patience waning), so that will be my next update, I promise. Until then, a few pictures to pique your interest...
