Not Home for the Holidays
Christmas and New Year's have both come and gone. I must admit it didn't feel like that time of year for two reasons. Foremost, I wasn't with friends and family, but secondly it was because there was no snow, or even any sort of coldness to deal with.
For Christmas, seven of us went up to Zambia's only port city, Mpulungu. Mpulungu lies right on Lake Tanganyika which is a pretty beautiful place. We spent four nights there at Nkupi Lodge. For the most part we just hung out in Mpulungu or right down by the lake. Unfortunately there are only a couple of places that have actual sand on their beaches, so most of the sitting on the shore was done on rocks and stones. We set up a sort of 'secret santa' thing with the group of us that went so we exchanged gifts on Christmas day. I gave Ned a stuffed brontasaurus that I got in the market, and from Jeremy I received a clay turtle canldle holder.
On Boxing day we hired a boat to take us to a cove on the opposite side of one of the islands in the lake. Once we got into the boat, we noticed a couple of red buckets inside. I thought nothing of it until we shoved off and the boat started slowly taking on water. As our two tour guides and I paddled away towards the island, a couple of my friends were charged with the task of bailing water from the boat. About 50 feet off shore we saw a little 4 or 5 foot crocodile hanging out in the water which was slightly disheartening due to the fact that a few of us had just gone swimming in that same area a day or two before. Oh well, he was a little guy and I'm sure we could have taken him. Once we got to the beach we just laid around and went swimming for awhile. We tossed a frisbee and just lounged for the most part. For the fourish hours that we were on the beach, the owners of the boat had rowed to a different area of the cove and spent the whole time working on the boat and bailing water out. It puts a real fuzzy feeling in your stomach seeing that.
For New Year's I was hanging out in the village. I cooked myself a big dinner and just watched the sunset off in the distance. I was considering having a few libations to kick off the new year, but ended up being too tired and went to bed by 21:00.
I definately missed being around you all for the holidays but hope that they were full of good memories for all of you.
For Christmas, seven of us went up to Zambia's only port city, Mpulungu. Mpulungu lies right on Lake Tanganyika which is a pretty beautiful place. We spent four nights there at Nkupi Lodge. For the most part we just hung out in Mpulungu or right down by the lake. Unfortunately there are only a couple of places that have actual sand on their beaches, so most of the sitting on the shore was done on rocks and stones. We set up a sort of 'secret santa' thing with the group of us that went so we exchanged gifts on Christmas day. I gave Ned a stuffed brontasaurus that I got in the market, and from Jeremy I received a clay turtle canldle holder.
On Boxing day we hired a boat to take us to a cove on the opposite side of one of the islands in the lake. Once we got into the boat, we noticed a couple of red buckets inside. I thought nothing of it until we shoved off and the boat started slowly taking on water. As our two tour guides and I paddled away towards the island, a couple of my friends were charged with the task of bailing water from the boat. About 50 feet off shore we saw a little 4 or 5 foot crocodile hanging out in the water which was slightly disheartening due to the fact that a few of us had just gone swimming in that same area a day or two before. Oh well, he was a little guy and I'm sure we could have taken him. Once we got to the beach we just laid around and went swimming for awhile. We tossed a frisbee and just lounged for the most part. For the fourish hours that we were on the beach, the owners of the boat had rowed to a different area of the cove and spent the whole time working on the boat and bailing water out. It puts a real fuzzy feeling in your stomach seeing that.
For New Year's I was hanging out in the village. I cooked myself a big dinner and just watched the sunset off in the distance. I was considering having a few libations to kick off the new year, but ended up being too tired and went to bed by 21:00.
I definately missed being around you all for the holidays but hope that they were full of good memories for all of you.
posted by Brett @ 8:43 AM
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