Final Weeks/Finals Week (part 1)

This part of the semester was really the only part I can call "school"...why? Because I sort of studied. And I took some tests, and I stressed out about school a wee-bit.  My finals were spread over a two week period and those two weeks were sadly my last in Botswana- since that was the case we didn't stay in once place for very long.We spent the better of our evenings out to eat, at clubs or exploring. And honestly I can't really remember the sequence of all of these last few events so I will just recap random stories.

I went to my little kiddo's after school program one more time and took more pictures than were probably necessary but we did it anyways. It was so sad to say bye to all of them because I don't think they quite understood that when we said bye, this time we didn't mean for just the week- this time we meant forever... but I literally spent the whole time that day cuddling with all my little minis.  And it was pretty cool, we got the opportunity to ride on the bus that takes all of the kids home after school which meant we go to go through lots of the more poor neighborhoods of Gabs.  It was interesting because we watched these toddlers get picked up from the bus stop by siblings that couldn't have been more than a few years older than the kids they were picking up but it was so sweet to watch them pick up their little sibs or grab their hand to make sure they got home okay.

A few friends and I went running during a brown out (which means no electricity) and once we finished the run we all were in desperate need of a shower but guess what? No power and no water...so what did we do? Ehehehehe... we broke into the University pool and went skinny dipping. Now usually there is an electric fence that surrounds the pool but again-no power. No power=no electric fence :) So we hopped the fence and went for it! Once we got inside the fence we were all excited and decided there was no turning back so we stripped and jumped in! Didn't even get caught. Boom.

One night for dinner we went to the "rich people" Yacht Club that is right next to this lake where the sunsets were just unreal. I can't say I particularly enjoyed the actual club but the view was nice.

And just for traditions sake, we had to go out dancing just a few times before we all jetted and so we got just about our whole group together and we went dancing at a place called the Sports Bar, which we had actually never been to and was not quite as fun as Zoom but we got a whole bunch of our local friends to come with us which made it entertaining because then we had people to dance with that we knew.  This place is a whole lot smaller than Zoom or Bull-n-Bush but we still got our dance on and actually a few of our local friends had their car with them and got just a little tipsy while we were out so guess who drove home?  Me, driving on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road is confusing but it was strangely fun and it was sort of nice because then we didn't need to worry about calling a cab or anything.  We also went to Zoom one more time because that is where my closest group of friends became close so we figured we needed to finish just the way we started and it worked.  It was one more amazing night of fun and dancing and getting proposed to/ held on to by every guy there but it sort of makes me smile to look back at now because no matter how many people tried to bother us, we found a way to make it a joke and have a good time anyways! Rage Rage Rage.

Played a whole bunch more pick up soccer and ultimate frisbee.  So I played pick up soccer almost every night with a group of local guys out in the pavilion, its a square and to score you have to hit these skinny poles ( I can't remember if I already mentioned this since I did it for like half the semester) which is really fun and the ball is tiny which made it twice as hard- always always fun though.  It was generally me and like 8 guys. But anyways people started getting busy and couldn't play anymore but we still wanted to be outside playing a game so a group of exchange students started playing Ultimate Frisbee for a few hours before the sun set every night and it got pretty intense.  I learned that a frisbee are really hard to throw but lucky for me I am okay at catching the thing so generally that was my job.  I sort of learned to love this game, and plus it is a great work out.

We took a drumming lesson.  It was the most bizarre but cool thing ever.  So a few of us got dropped off at this local rasta guy house.  This guys is in a band and "lives to the rhythm he finds in his music."  Anyways we each got a drum and he made us follow along with him through different beats and pattersn, each of us had to do a free style routine and then we practiced for a while to learn one song that had words with it too.  I always thought I was pretty good at rhythm stuff but when you try to play with a pro-rasta dude AND sing along at the same time, I was surprised at how distracted I kept getting and then I would have to stop because I was off beat and wait until I controlled my laughter and figured out the drumming pattern again.  All in all I would say I am probably about as good as a professional after that hour long lesson.  Another really cool thing about this guy is his attitude, everything is okay and everything is going to be okay as long as people are relaxed and find joy in little things.  He also believed that once you find something that you love and are passionate about, you better share it with the world to make it a better place- that is why he teaches music lessons. Its fun to see all of the small things people are doing to make a difference and make the world a better place, even something tiny- you may never know the impact you could make on someones life.

Getting back to Bots and stuff.

Well after our long adventure that lasted a total of like 10 or 11 days, we had to get back to the University of Botswana because... wait for it... we both had finals in two days.  So we left Elephant Sands on a little tour bus that was kind enough to let us hitch a ride to a more main area of road where we got picked up by...wait for it.... a semi-truck.  Yes, a semi-truck. And it was the most bomb ride ever.  It was a really nice Zambian guy that had started his drive in the DR Congo and was on his way to Johannesburg and was into having some company for part of the way and even though trucks drive slower than other cars by quite a bit, it was really fun!

I sat on his bed in the back and Anna sat in the passenger seat- Anyways I passed out because I was on a bed and woke up a few times to chat and watch out the front windshield.  It took us about 5 or so hours to get from Elephant Sands to Francistown which is the second largest city in Botswana and that is where our nice semi truck driver friend dropped us off.  Then we found the bus station and found a bus that was going to Gabs, but too bad for me, Anna got on the bus and I didn't because I was getting hassled and the bus started to drive away and it was like a freaken movie scene- I started chasing after the bus only to have it screech to a halt 100 yards later, see the doors open and have a very flustered and confused Anna scramble off it to come meet up with me.  Then the bus drove away.  Clearly they didn't want us on there so we hopped on a different bus and about 30 minutes later we were on our way home!  Woot.  Once we got back to the bus station (about 6 hours later) in Gabs it was routine, having cab drivers come up to you and charge you 80 Pula for a ride that should only be 40 Pula just because we are white always gets us in some trouble but then you find one that relents and takes you for the real price.

So we got back to UB in once piece and with all of our stuff and passed out.  Honestly though, I couldn't have asked for more from this trip.  There were so many amazing experiences that you get only once in a life time.  I mean, we went on a local boat in the delta, we horse back rode, we saw Victoria Falls from both sides of the border and I bungee jumped off it, went to some amazing markets, we spent a day in a village with adorable kids, we went on an phenomenal safari, we sat and watched elephants, we hitch hiked in a semi-truck for goodness sake.  It was a goooooooood trip.

Elephant Sands

Our next stop was a small piece of heaven tucked into the middle of the Kalahari Desert.  It is called Elephant Sands and it is exactly what the name states.  It is home to all of the elephants in the land.  What makes this place so cool?  The owners have built their resort right on the edge of a watering hole that the elephants come to every day for fresh water (side note: all of the water in the desert tastes like salt really badly) so they built a fresh water drinking hole for all of these big fellows to come drink from- and they do!  But I will get to that after I describe the interesting experience of actually getting to where we were going.

So, we get a nice man that we found on the side of the road to drive us to the Zimbabwe/Botswana boarder along with two other girls that were going to Maun to shop.  We got to the boarder and got through after waiting in an extremely long and annoying line but its whatever, then we starting walking along this long and seemingly non-ending road when a pick up truck drove past and we flagged them down.  They were a little bit grumpy but they finally agreed to drive us to the hitching spot (yes those exist in Africa, everyone hitch hikes).  We stood there for a long time, it was as if no one was going to stop for us and once this old white couple past us in a big Suburban style car which made me and Anna bummed out and frantically trying to figure out what we would do if we couldn't get anyone else to pick us up. But then... magically, the white couple had seen us on the side of the road and like most parents could not figure out why for the life of us, we were standing in the middle of the hot sun on the side of the road- so they picked us up! Their car was super nice too so we sort of thought we had hit the jackpot and they were going right past where we needed to go so good news, they said they could drop us off right there! About 2 hours into the drive (which was about the 4 hour drive) we hear this BOOM thud thud thud...blown out tire.  Dang it.  So we all pile out and work really hard to get the trashed tire off the car and then we try our very best to get the spare out from under the car but it is stuck pretty good, I am 98% under the car messing with different chains and nobs and sweating kind of a lot when a car of locals pulled up and got it out from under the car and onto the car in about 3 minutes- embarrassing   But thank you.  But then, the driver of our car gave them a wad of cash and I am not sure how I feel about that for two reasons: it didn't take them that long and its really nice to help people without getting something from it, AND secondly, for me it just makes the "rich white man" stereotype more true and why wouldn't they believe it if they get money every time they perform an act of kindness huh?  Anyways I'm not saying they don't deserve a reward because without them we would have been stuck there for a long time but it is a vicious cycle of when and how much is appropriate.

Moving on... we finally got back on the road and to this cute little hotel.  We set up our little tent and went to go sit on the deck and keep our eyes peeled for elephants!  Well, of course I fell asleep waiting but then, there it was! It was only one guy but we were so close to it, you could see the texture in the golden brown eyes, you could see each and every wrinkle defined by the sand and the water and the years of sun that had worn on the old guy.  It was phenomenal. We watched him drink and splash water on himself for about 20 minutes before he turned around and went on his merry way.

Pretty cool huh? Well I thought so, then the owner guy who is about 30 and is a wildlife conservationist  came over and was talking to us about how elephants are strangely human like in their emotions.  My favorite elephant fact: elephants morn the loss of their dead- apparently they bury em' and cry about it.  How lovely is that? But he also told us that he was going out lion tracking tonight if we wanted to join him...wait wha??? YES.  So anyways we spent the rest of the afternoon playing bow and reading and listening to tunes.  Once sunset came, the watering hole became the place to be, elephants were coming in groups of 3-5 and would take turns getting drinks, growling at each other when their turn was up and sloshing water from their trunks into their mouths and all over their bodies.  They have a patriarchal society that was fun to watch because whatever the old guys said, went.  Even the little guys who tried to protest it would get a good side bump or a trunk to the face and they would back off.

My have a few favorite things about sitting there: the first is the immature side of me but elephants have absolutely no problem farting- loudly.  And they stink. So I consider it a proud day to be named Sarah when I know what elephant tooting sounds and smells like- and of course I am a 10 year old boy and lost it every time... Anyways the adult in me was completely intrigued by the sound of the water as it was leaving the trunk and going down the elephants throat... it sounded like a waterfall!  And like I said before, the eyes.  Elephant eyes are one of the few very big wild animals I have been lucky enough to be close enough to for me to be able to really study.

That was it for elephants, after it got dark they all left the watering hole and we went with the owner lion tracking.  This guy had been tracking a set of male lions for like 3 years and was trying to figure out their migration, mating, eating and sleeping patterns to better figure out how to preserve the land and resources for them.  So we hopped in a safari car and I was in charge of a super massive flash light that I had to shine out into the darkness hoping to catch a glimpse of what is called tapetum lucidum  (the reflection of the animals eyes off of the flashlight).  Then we stopped for a while where he thought they might be and while we waited we saw some owls and heard lots of crazy jungle sounds.   Then the guy we were with bolted out of his seat and I got all excited but he goes " I forgot to lock up the dogs and the leopards will come eat them!"  Ha no way right?  Um wrong, yes way, apparently it has happened twice already-this year.  Dang dude.  So we booked it back to camp and he decided he would  just stay in for the rest of the night so we went to bed and froze.  FYI, deserts are cold at night time.   But it was an amazing day... nature was sure out that day :)

Zimbabwe!

And FINALLY I get a second to do a little more of my Africa blogging since it has been a while and I still have about 3 blogs to get down to wrap up my semester abroad adventure.

This one is a continuation of the trip up north, my last blog basically covered when I was in Northern Botswana and Zambia, this one is gonna cover once we got to Zimbabwe which was also just about the coolest thing ever.  So as I may have mentioned.  Victoria Falls is one of the seven natural wonders of the world and it stretches across Zimbabwe and Zambia, the border is literally a bridge (that I just happened to bungee jump off, no big deal).  Below are just a few fun facts about the falls:

Anyways... After we finished up our adventure in Zambia we walked across the border and got ourselves a cab to our hostel for the next night- lucky for us we still had the entire day and since we had been doing so many other things, our time was pretty limited (we had to be back in Bots 3 days later for our final exams) so we got there pretty early and decided it would be best for us to see the falls from both sides and since our backpackers was close walking distance from the falls, we just headed on over and again, had a good 20 minutes that just took our breath away.  Personally I liked this side/view of the falls a lot better then the Zambia side, you could see more of the falls from so many different angles-although we still got soaked to the bone.  It is just about the most bizarre thing to realize how much water sprays back up out of the falls but it is a pretty neat experience. 

Some random Asian tourists asked if they could take a picture with me...awesome.

After we spent about an hour walking the board walk of the waterfall, we stopped at one of the biggest craft markets in Southern Africa to pick up all of the rest of the souvenirs that we wanted to take home. First of all, it was the most colorful and spectacular thing I have ever seen, there were so many fabrics and crafts and smells that I was overwhelmed the second that I got there.  What was even more overwhelming than the array of choices were the people selling everything. I have never been so hassled in my entire life.  White Person=Rich Person in their minds and frankly at this point in my semester I was the complete opposite of rich.  I was sort of running on my last pennies. The trick is to do serious bartering- whatever price they give you, you should automatically cut in half at least.  But it was pretty fun to talk with all of the different people and hear their stories and stuff.   The other thing that was fun about this market is that the sales men liked to make trades (and we knew that) so we came with all of the random stuff we could think of.  I brought bandanas and rubber bands and hair clips and earrings and all sorts of things like that that I could trade for a discount on the stuff I wanted to buy, and I may or may not have accidentally come out of that market with a crap load of random items.

Anyways Anna and I were both pretty tired after that so we went back to our hostel to nap and hang out for a while.  We ate about a foot of sandwich each and played a lot of Bow on the new board I purchased at the market which was a lot of fun.  Also it just happened to be a Saturday night and our hostel apparently was the party/hang out place. Anna decided she wasn't in the mood to hang out and so she went to bed and I stayed up reading in the corner and watching people but then a few local guys came up and talked to me, then they pulled me into the dance party- one of them was names Blessing and we became pretty much best friends for the night.  We stayed up dancing and laughing at all the drunk people till like 1:30 or something like that and then I decided I was gonna knock out because I knew we were going to have to get an early start the next day. So I went to bed after a wonderful and exciting day in ZIMBABWE.

Having the Priesthood in My Home.

This post is a late Fathers Day Post because why? Well since I am back at camp in Montana I have very limited time for being on my computer- hence me not finishing my Africa posts yet, but I most defiantly will because my older sister and mother had a genius idea of my making my adventures into a book- seems like a good plan so yes, I will finish my Arica blogs eventually but, like I said, that is not why I am blogging today.

Bott, this ones for you.

My dad is one heck of a guy.  I have never seen a challenge he couldn't overcome with kindess and patience.  I have never seen a person he could not befriend.  I have never seen more gentle and caring eyes.  He is the first one I want to talk to when things are bad.  He is also the first one I want to talk to when things are really great. Why? Because he knows how to listen, and not just sort of listen... but really listen. Also, I am proud to say my father is a worthy priesthood holder which has been the glue holding my family together for my 21 years and longer still.

Once upon a time there was a little girl that squirmed non-stop, would not sit still and even managed to wiggle her way out of her car seat a few times- her dad nic-named her BUG.  Then she turned three and got pretty sick which was a bummer but no worries because she got better (even though it took some work due to her extra stubborn personality).  Then came elementary school, middle school and high school where she went through phases of wearing tights and dresses everyday, to acting and dressing like a boy, to being an awkward teenager with braces and acne, to breaking curfew every weekend and playing soccer every day. Then she decided to go to the University of Utah for college, working late nights, switch careers every semester and travel pretty much anywhere she possibly could. Now- that is Bug's story at first glance but what people don't see is the influence that her father had on her through all of this.  [Don't mind me switching to first person]...my dad was in the back ground of every little thing that has happened in my life. He was the one that gave me my baby blessing and my name, he was the one that gave me a blessing when I was sick, he is the one that gave me a blessing before every school year, he is the one that was patient when I was stubborn.  He used to take us to gymnastic meets every weekend and buy us Dip-N-Dots, he tried to teach me how to fish, even though I would always feel bad for the fish and have to throw it back (at least he didn't throw me in the water when he taught me how to fish, my mom did), he raised me as a Patriots football fan,  he used to play tickle monster with us and we would get laughing so hard-sorry that I peed on you that once. Your fault. We also used to play lump in the bed- Kristin and I would hide under the covers for hours just to have him roll on top of us and pretend we were lumps in his bed. He was at every concert and every soccer game.  Every swim meet and musical. He was there. He was cheering. And he has always been my #1 fan.

I have always had a pretty special bond with my dad, he can tell when days are crappy, nights are long and I just need someone to talk too.  I used to watch the special bond that he and his mother used to have-and think, I am so lucky to have that relationship with my daddy too.

Everyone that meets that old guy loves him, they would describe him as gentle and kind and REALLY good at telling REALLY bad jokes.  They probably have never seen him get so focused on something that his tongue pokes out and he bites it just a tad.  They have probably never seen the way that he makes is tomato soup. They have probably never seen how good he is at the puzzels in the newspaper. What they probably have seen is the way his face lights up with he sees my mom.  They may also have noticed the way his fingers fit perfectly around a fishing pole.  And perhaps if they are super lucky, they have seen him share his testimony.  My dad has a quiet testimony but it is strong and it is firm and it because of him that I will get to be with my family forever which is something that I will never be able to express my gratitude for.

He has kept the priesthood a central role and example in my home which makes it lovely to be home- because it is always peaceful there. He is going to be just about the best grandpa ever- like I said to my mom, the only thing better then having my mom and dad as parents is knowing that one day my kids will have them as grandparents.

Thanks for everything you do for me Bott.
I love you so much.

p.s. How do you catch a bunny?

...you grab it... ba da chhhhhh.

Zambia: Hanging around in Livingstone

After visiting Victoria Falls we still had a few nights at the backpackers so we decided we would spend it exploring Livingstone.  We actually hit the town on Labor Day so there was a big parade down the center of the streets we got to watch that for a while, then we spent part of the day relaxing and hanging out at the backpackers. In the afternoon we decided we wanted to do a village stay-where you go and spend the night in a hut of a local village and that sounded super intriguing to me so we went to this village who has a tourism "village stay" set up but too bad for us, the lady that ran it died like a year ago and sadly for them, she has not been replaced yet which meant we were allowed to go on a day tour but we couldn't spend the night.  Our guide was a local guy from the village who I ended up getting into a pretty deep conversation about how people in these sort of communities are stuck there because of the lack of educational options.  They have a primary school in their village but there is an exam you have to pass to get to secondary school, which many of the kids don't pass so they don't get to do to secondary school and then they have to bus to their school which many of the kids cannot afford resulting in a very small percentage of the kids in the village actually get the opportunity to go to secondary school and an impossible few get the opportunity to go to college after secondary school.  Most people remain stuck in that community, living as substance farmers with no regular source of income and no way to get further educated or trained.  Then he talked about how all of the good teachers go to private schools and many of the teachers that teach in local primary schools could honestly care less about the education that the children are receiving.  It was a very interesting conversation.  Anyways, about 5 minutes into the tour the entire village of children started to follow us and they were all taking turns holding our hands...Gregory Mortenson, in the book Three Cups of Tea says something about how after walking through the village he ended up with a comets tail following behind him, I love that and that is exactly what happened.  We got to go inside a house, saw and started to understand family compounds, got a tour of the school and met one of the school teachers.  Also I finally got to play soccer with some little local kids which was something I had been wanting to do since I got to Africa.

I met one older girl named Rosemary who was in grade 5 and spoke excellent english, she told me about what she was studying in school, about her life and how she like to play soccer and net ball.  She tried to corn-row my hair but realized that it wouldn't stay very well.  At one point while she was braiding, and I had about 15 different kids crawling around me, I caught sight of a little girl standing next to me who had what looked like burns all the way up one of her arms, and a brace/wrap around her wrist.  I asked Rosemary what happened and it turns out this little 10 year old girl got bit by a cobra and the venom from the snake has pretty much eaten away her skin so they did a skin graft from her thigh to try and help her arm.  So of course I looked at her thigh only to find a pussing and severely infected square where the skin had been grafted.  I thought I might cry because there was absolutely nothing I could do and it did not look good at all.  This community had no education and no health care which are basic necessities of life.

That was a great day though, it was eye opening and wonderful.  Those kids were so kind and loving and gentle.

After we got back from our village tour, we ate dinner and met up with this guy from Holland who was living and working there- he and a few of his friends took us to the river for sunset and it was absolutely gorgeous- the sky was this crazy combination of orange and pink and reflected over the water.  We hung out there for a while until it got dark and we went back to our hostel.  We found a Bow game board to I taught Anna how to play and ended up attracting a couple of Danish backpackers over to see what we were doing.  Then Anna got tired and went to bed and I spent the next three hours hanging out with these super interesting guys from Denmark that were traveling Souther Africa.  Danish is such a strange language and I have a soft spot for it since my dad speaks Danish but they were way into old music- they made me sit and listen to "The Wall" Pink Floyd album for an hour and a half non-stop.  But they were cool and it was fun to meet them.

The next morning we got up early and did a little bit of shopping at a local market- I got tons of really beautiful fabrics that I want to make pillow cases with and we indulged in every type of scone and muffin from a small local market before we headed back to the Victoria Falls bridge to cross the border and head to the Zimbabwe side- easy border, you just walk across the bridge. 

Zambia: Victoria Falls

We made it to our backpackers in Livingstone which is another really adorable tourist town because it is so close to one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World which are these: added onto my bucket list to see all of these before I die.

Anyways so we made it to the Backpackers which was really cool and set up transport and activities at the falls and around the town.  We just sort of wandered around and hung out the first day working on getting our bearings, exploring the town and hanging out at the backpackers reading, eating and talking to other backpackers.  The next day was probably one of the best days of the trip- actually maybe the best day of the entire trip BECAUSE, speaking of bucket lists... I bungee jumped over Victoria Falls! 111meters straight down, head first, 4 second free fall and the coolest experience of my entire career.  So we showed up at the bridge that connects Zambia and Zimbabwe and there is an extreme sporting activity place on the bridge where you can do a 110ft swing, bungee jump and zipline from one country to another so of course, I had to do all three.  First was the bungee jump and I had been sort of preparing myself for it because I knew that if I didn't I would chicken out but I payed my money, got in my harness and stepped out onto the platform where they wrapped towels around my ankles and rope around the towels that they attached to the bungee chord. I just starred at them wondering if they were joking because it did NOT seem secure at all so I told them that my mom would be really sad if I died and they said I wasn't going to.  I stood on the very edge of the bridge with my toes dangling over the end and then they counted.. 5-4-3-2-1-BUNGEE and I jumped out as hard and far as I could.  First thought: I'm gonna die.  Second thought: Man I am falling fast. Third though: I did it! This is so fun!  Fourth thought: Dang this is awesome. I never want to stop bouncing!  After about thought two, I started laughing, not just laughing but this weird giggle thing that occurred until I was on my feet again.  So I fell and bounced back up and fell again and bounced up and down like 5 times before I hung upside down and waited for the guy to come and get me.  Best experience ever.  

How neat is that?  Pretty neat I would say.  When I got back up to the bridge I was on such an adrenaline rush I was bouncing all over the place and talking to all sorts of random strangers.  Then it was my turn to do the big swing and for some reason I was even more nervous for that- mostly because as soon as you got hooked in, the rope pulled you forward really hard but I pulled myself together picked a tree right in front of me and stepped off the platform. The rush of that wind in your face and you loosing your breath for a good three seconds- not being able to catch a breath is the most bizarre and exhilarating thing- this goes for both the bungee and the swing. 

I finished with the zipline from Zambia to Zimbabwe and sadly it was not as cool as the other ones, I think if I had started with it, it would have been way awesome but since I did the swing and bungee first, it was sort of no big deal but doing those three activities was the coolest thing ever!

After I finished the activities, Anna and I decided we should actually go take a peak at Victoria Falls since all we could see from the bridge was mist...  It was spectacular.  I have never seen so much water in my entire life and mind you, it was a clear blue sky day but after walking the path through the falls, we were soaked from head to toe, why? Because there is so much water, it hits the rocks below and mist sprays back up and hits you like its pouring rain- of course I found this highly entertaining and again was dancing and laughing and gawking at the falls. 

before...dry

after...soaked

Great day, beautiful place, extremely fun activities. Winning.