Three Wild and Crazy Weeks

My vacation with my parents is now coming to an end. We've traveled to the far reaches of this great and sizable nation and tomorrow they fly out. They arrived here on the 3rd, so we've had a lot of time together. It's been odd spending more time with my parents than I have in my entire life. Even as a kid, I would go to school and all that and get alone time, but this has been a vacation with no breaks from each other. Don't get me wrong, it's been fantastic having them here, but all good things must come to an end I suppose. Allow me to recount some of our various adventures for you.

Livingstone and Victoria Falls

The day after my folks flew in I was a bastard son and subjected them to the novelty of public transport. We boarded a bus at the public bus terminal and were told it would leave in 30 minutes. I've been here long enough to know that was crap, but went along with it anyways. Over two hours later the bus was boarded by a preacher who preached to us (everyone on the bus) for 20 minutes or so about a whole plethora of topics before praying for our safety. Busses are dangerous here so they always pray for good luck before departing. We broke down before reaching Livingstone and then entire trip took nine hours. My parents took it surprisingly well.

After reaching Livingstone we did the touristy stuff of just going to the Victoria Falls. It was my third trip, so I saved the ooohs and aaaahs. My parents however, were using adjectives such as, marvelous, incredible, and breath-taking. In addition to the falls, we went on a sunset cruise (a.k.a. booze cruise). After a couple hours of pounding gin and tonics (free liquor), our bartender, Freddy, made my folks and I a Freddy's Special. It was quite delicious. I can honestly say this is the first time I've seen my mother completely toasted. Very entertaining. After four nights in the 'Adventure Capital of Africa,' we flew to South Luangwa National Park for four nights of safari.

Lions, Leopards, and Warthogs, Oh My

After four relaxing days of Livingstone, we flew to Mfuwe International Airport near the South Luangwa National Park. We spent two nights at a main camp called Kapani Lodge. This place was incredible. We'd get awoken at 5:30 AM, have a light breakfast, then start a four hour morning game drive just after 6:00. I really saw some incredible things on this safari. Impala, puku, lions with cubs, elephants, cape buffalo, vervet monkeys, baboons, hyenas, bush bucks, water bucks, and many more. It's really weird because these companies have been providing game drives for years, so the animals are used to the Land Cruisers and are never caused harm by them, so you get very close. Our first night there we were literally four or five meters from two juvenile male lions. The first encounter that close is a bit creepy because you are in an open air vehicle that the animals could easily jump onto and eat all of the occupants, but they just lay around like you're not there.

After two nights at the main lodge, we made our way to a bush camp located 30 km inside the park. You sleep in a very nice tent (feels more like a house) and have elephants, hippos, and other animals munching on the grass outside your tent while you sleep. During the day animals just slowly walk through the camp grounds while you enjoy a bloody mary or g & t. It's really very cool. Some highlights were coming upon a pride of 14 lions and 3 cubs just hanging out one night. The cubs were just running around playing/annoying the older lions and seemed like little kittens. One of the lions was just sleeping on its back with its feet in the air. Very cute. Another cool thing we saw was a leopard up in a tree with a killed impala during a morning walking safari. Don't worry, we had an armed guard with us the whole time so we were in no danger. The leopard left pretty quickly, but we returned to the same tree that night and got to hang out and watch the leopard for awhile. The whole experience was really great and I highly recommend you to go on a safari sometime in your life.

Fiesta in the Bush

After the safari, we returned to Lusaka so we could rent a car and I could play chauffeur to my parents for a week. Now, I've spent many a day of my life behind the wheel of a car, but over here, the steering wheel is on the right side, and they use roundabouts a lot. It was quite stressful for my first couple of hours behind the wheel, but I quickly got the hang of driving on the 'wrong side.'

We made our way up to my village because I had arranged a party for my parents by buying 2 goats and 9 chickens. We spent 3 nights in the village and on the last night was the party. Over 75 people attended, we played music and sang and dance. Chief Lushinga Lupikiso came to my party, presented me with a statue, and gave a speech thanking me for my service. It was my last time being with all of my village friends at the same time. I gave a thank you speech and got fairly misty during it as I looked around at all the faces of those who've taken care of me and helped me through the hard times in the village. Returning home will be great, but I'm certainly going to miss some families back in the village. A few of the families have taken me in as one of their own and I feel so comfortable being with them. There's no awkwardness due to our different backgrounds or anything like that, just good conversation and friendship. Well, enough of the mushy crap, on with the adventures.

During the drive back to Lusaka, I hit a small pot hole and my right front ball joint snapped which disconnected the wheel from the car. We skidded to a halt, thank God I got cell service, and then I called the rental company. 12 hours later the mechanics showed up and gave us a mini van to take the remaining 8 hours back to Lusaka. I had to drive from 10:30 last night until after 7 this morning. Needless to say, I'm quite tired, but at least it provided my folks with yet another story for the golf course of office.

All in all the trip was great though.

No More Mail, Please

This isn't a request due to the exhorbitant amount of mail that I've been getting, but rather due to the fact that I've less than a month left in Mporokoso. Anything sent after a week ago or so will probably not get to me in time. From here on out please update me via email of any and all urgent and exciting information.