Tuesday, July 29, 2008

greetings from zambia!!!

I am traveling with Emma, Danielle, Johanna, Olivia, Esther, and Tim (only boy to protect us! 1 boy 6 girls… lucky guy)

Day 1 of travel: Flew from Cape Town to Durban. Rented a car in Durban (yes, we weren’t of age, the steering wheel is on the right, and they drive on the wrong side of the road). Being able to navigate the roads of Africa is quite an adventure. After we rented the car, we headed to the orphanage (about an hr out of the city). One of the girls we were traveling with lived and worked there for a year. It was in the middle of nowhere. It got dark out an we got very lost. We ended up in a township after dark… which we were warned as the one thing NOT to do. The roads were terrible and there were people on the side of the road and in bushed waving us down to give them a ride. It was probably one of the scariest moments of my life. If we had hit someone that night, we unanimously said that we would keep driving. I think most of us were almost in tears. If our car had either broken down, we got in a crash, got a flat tire, etc during the time we were lost in the back roads of a township, we would have undoubtedly been robbed and probably killed. We eventually found our way to the orphanage and finally got to sleep.

Day 2: We woke up and went to play and have breakfast with the orphans. We then got on a bus because the orphanage was going to the beach in Durban for the day :o) During the day at the beach, the orphanage bus got stolen. Apparently Durban is a very dangerous city.

Day 3: Woke up very early to fly to Jo’berg then catch a flight to Livingstone, Zambia. We landed at the smallest airport that I have ever seen… there wasn’t even a gate or baggage claim! We are staying at the Zambezi Sun (google it) which is a VERY nice resort and is directly next to Victoria Falls. We can only afford this because we are squeezing 5 people in the room! We spent the day the pool with margaritas.. dodging the baboons that came by trying to steal our food. There is this guy here and his main job is to walk around with a slingshot scaring off the baboons. How awesome is that job?! We walked down to Victoria Falls, which is a short walk from our back door, for the sunset.

Day 4: We went white water rafting down the Zambezi River. Zambia was on one side and Zimbabwe was on the other. It was SO scary! The first rapid we did was a class 5!! We flipped the boat and I got a glimpse of how it feels like to drown! It was a great day… we had a lot of fun and yelled a lot. On the drive home from the bottom of the river, we went through some villages. They were very village-like… not like the townships we experienced in South Africa. These were in the middle of no-where sand and they had one pump for water and one main garden, goats, chickens, etc.

I don’t have a cell phone or internet here (very expensive internet), so I’ll be uncontactable for the next few days.

Tomorrow we are heading to Jo’berg for the night and then to Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar until the 5th when we fly back to Cape Town and fly back to the states on the 6th.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Katie-
It is amazing to follow your adventure! You will always be one of the coolest people I know! Safe journey home!
PK

Anonymous said...

Katie-
What a wild adventure you are having. Spare me the really scary stuff because I am going to have a heart attack! Great White sharks, and people hiding in the bushes along side the road and Class 5 rapids are almost too much for most people to even think about!
Be safe!!
Mom

Anonymous said...

Katie-
Can't wait for you to come home and share your stories and pictures with us.
Teddy