MOSI-OA-TUNYA: The Smoke That Thunders

We arrived in the town of Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe early afternoon on the Friday of spring break. Crossing the border into Zimbabwe was pretty simple, and it means I have a new visa in my passport! This trip sure is helping to fill up the pages in my passport. It was exciting to drive into town and see the gorge in the distance, knowing that I would soon get to see one of the seven natural wonders of the world. We stayed at the Victoria Falls Hotel, which sits right on the gorge with a view of the Victoria Falls Bridge. It’s an old Victorian-style hotel with an amazing view, a courtyard, a couple of restaurants, and lots of charm. We ate lunch at the outdoor restaurant that overlooks the canyon and the bridge. It was such an odd experience. There we were, sitting in a Victorian hotel in the middle of Zimbabwe, with the warm African sun beating down. You could look out over the clouds of mist rising from Victoria Falls. I felt like the falls were taunting me, because I could see the clouds, and almost feel the mist, but I couldn’t see them yet because they were around the bend. Caribbean-style music was playing in the background, and all the prices were in U.S. dollars, so for the first time in over 2 months I didn’t have to do the automatic conversions in my head. (Zimbabwe’s currency is essentially worthless, so everyone uses American money. But buying a trillion dollar bill is a popular souvenir here!) These different sensations: memories of Trinidad, Africa, and the U.S. all mixed together to confuse me.

View from the Victoria Falls hotel

After our meal we set out to try to see Victoria Falls, because I couldn’t take the fact that they were sitting there just out of sight! There was a shortcut from our hotel to Mosi-Oa-Tunya National Park, and a security guard from the hotel walked us to the entrance of the national park. There are lots of tourism police in Victoria Falls because they are concerned about tourists having a bad experience. In Zimbabwe they recognize that much of their income comes from tourism, so they want to make sure tourists feel safe at all times. We got to the entrance to the national park and realized the only way to actually see the falls was to enter, but we didn’t want to pay the entrance fee when we were planning on a guided tour of the national park the next morning. We ended up walking back, taking a detour by the outlook where people can do a gorge swing across the canyon. The views were incredible!

entrance to the national park

Saturday morning we had our guided tour of Victoria Falls. Before entering the park our guide handed us all raincoats, reminding us that we would get soaked on the tour. Let me tell you, the raincoats didn’t help at all! I wore mine because I didn’t especially want to be really wet, but halfway through the walk I was soaked to the skin. We had a guided walk through the national park, stopping at all the overlooks. There’s a big statue of David Livingstone, the first European to view the falls, and the one who named them Victoria Falls after Queen Victoria. Our guide told us that he was in a canoe with some of his guides, and they heard the thundering and saw smoke from the falls. He asked what it was, and his guides could only tell him that it was Mosi-Oa-Tunya (the smoke that thunders). They somehow landed on what is now known as Livingstone Island, an island on the very edge of the falls. We marveled at his good fortune because now, at the end of the rainy season, the water flow is nears its peak and I can’t even fathom how he didn’t get swept over the edge. There’s so much water going over the falls! Victoria Falls isn’t the tallest waterfall in the world, but it is the biggest. It’s over a mile wide, and has the highest water flow. Seeing it in its peak season is so amazing.

One of the times we got lucky and the rain cleared so we could see the falls

Because Victoria Falls is so wide, different sections of the falls are given individual names. We stopped at different outlooks to view these sections of the falls. However, you have to remember that Victoria Falls creates its own clouds of “mist”, which roughly translate into monsoon clouds if you’re within them. There were times we saw the signs for “Horseshoe Falls” or “Main Falls”, and just had to trust that those were actually there, because we were blinded by the rain and couldn’t necessarily see farther than 10 feet in front of us. Half the time I was worried about losing my contacts because of all the water pouring into my face. Local legend has it that anyone who gets wet from Victoria Falls will have good luck for a year. Do you think we got wet enough?

Victoria Falls is really behind us, I promise! This is a good example of those monsoon clouds

Our tour ended with an overlook of Victoria Falls Bridge, where we caught a sight of someone bungee jumping. We then walked back through the rainforest to the park entrance (Victoria Falls creates its own rainforest, where the trees and other plants get water year-round).

Victoria Falls Bridge

After changing into dry clothes we headed off for our “Flight of the Angels”, a 15 minute helicopter ride over Victoria Falls. I’d never been on a helicopter before, so the anticipation was pretty exciting. We took off with great views of the Zambezi River, Zimbabwe, and Zambia (just across the river). The ride was so loud, and I was a little nervous because they left the window right next to me open, and I was worried about dropping my camera out the window, losing it forever to the great Zambezi. Thankfully I didn’t lose it.

our helicopter for the "Flight of the Angels"

As the ride started my anticipation was building and building. Then we turned and I could finally start to see the smoke from Victoria Falls off in the distance. It was pretty exciting. For the next 10 minutes we circled the falls, and it was just incredible. During our walk in the morning it was hard to get a good sense of how BIG Victoria Falls actually is. Well, it’s kind of hard to miss when you see it from the air, and can see how high the mist rises in the air, and can see how wide it is, and how impressive the whole spectacle is. It’s pretty incredible.

first view of the mist off Victoria Falls

look how big it is!

so beautiful!

That night we went on a dinner cruise on the Zambezi, above Victoria Falls. It was only the four of us on our boat, and we had a hard time getting into the river from the jetty. But we finally got it, after pushing hard off some other boats (the current kept pushing our boat into the other ones). We cruised up and down the Zambezi, occasionally going into the Zambian part of the river, while we ate our dinner. We go to watch sunset, and see the stars come out. Our guides kept joking, after getting close enough to see the mist off Victoria Falls, that we didn’t have any parachutes for going over the falls. Tamara of course wanted to try it. The whole time we were eating we heard hippos bellowing, but we didn’t see any.

The next morning we ventured out into town in an attempt to find postcards before Tamara and I had to leave to catch our bus. That’s when we discovered the family of warthogs just outside our hotel!

warthog family!

Tamara and I took a taxi across the Victoria Falls Bridge to the Zambian side, where we caught our Intercape bus in Livingstone (the town on the Zambian side). Our bus ride was pretty uneventful. It was exciting to cross the border back in Namibia, if only because it meant that I had money I could spend again! I had a problem with the ATMs in Victoria Falls, so I couldn’t spend any money in Zimbabwe. But I was able to buy food in Namibia! We had a short food stop in Namibia, and then set off down the Caprivi Strip. Intercape is run by a Christian company, so they have some interesting videos that play during the bus ride, but only after the devotions and televangelism stop. One of the movies we saw was titled, “Belle and the Beast: A Christian Romance.” But they helped pass the time. I ended up being able to sleep for most of the bus ride (and by sleep I mean I dozed, waking up every 30 minutes or so to readjust. Although it was a plush bus, it’s still not that comfortable for sleeping). We got into Windhoek about two hours late (you’ve got to love that African time), which meant we sat on that bus for about 20 hours. That’s even longer than the flight from Washington D.C. to Johannesburg! It was good to get back to Windhoek, and I know everyone was glad to see us back because we were the last people back from spring break.

These last few blogs have been a short, very abridged version of my spring break. It was amazing! Ask me to tell you more stories, and I will be happy to oblige. A HUGE thank you to the Siburg family for inviting me on their trip, and to Tamara, who once again took pictures for me so my camera wouldn’t get ruined (hers is waterproof, mine isn’t).

Chobe National Park

After leaving Maun we took off for Nata, where we spent a night on our way to Chobe National Park. Nata was pretty uneventful. We checked into our hotel in the afternoon, then hung out by the pool until it was time for dinner. It was a little cold, so I didn’t stay in the pool for long. One exciting thing about our room was that it had an outdoor shower! That was fun. The next morning we left for Chobe!

We stayed at a lodge just outside of the park, right on the Chobe River. You could look across the river to see Namibia, which was exciting because at this point I hadn’t been in Namibia for several days, and was starting to miss it a little bit. One of the first things we noticed when we walked into the lodge was the vervet monkeys running around and playing on the railings and in the trees in the courtyard of the hotel. A good reminder to always shut the windows so monkeys don’t get into the room and wreak havoc!

After a buffet lunch (we sure had a lot of buffet meals, I ended up eating way more than I needed to over spring break) and a short time by the pool, it was time for our boat ride on the Chobe River! We got on a boat with 10 other tourists, prepared for our three hour boat ride in Chobe National Park. Our first stop was at an office to declare that we were entering the national park, and we saw our first elephant and hippo of the day! The elephant was walking by the office, and as we were pulling away the hippo surfaced right next to the boat. It was an exciting start to the boat ride.

We probably saw hundreds of elephants during the boat ride. Families running down to the water together, baby elephants wallowing in the mud, elephants eating by themselves, elephants eating with other elephants. Pretty much, we just saw lots of elephants. One thing I saw that I thought was really cool was how you would see families of elephants traveling together, with many different generations living together. If I hadn’t been an elephant fan before, these sightings would have been enough to do it now!

elephant family traveling together

baby elephants playing in the mud

baby elephant!

We also saw families of hippos in the water. These weren’t quite as exciting for me, because it was hard to see more than eyes or ears for the most part. But we did see some hippos partially out of water, and there were large groups of hippos, so that was fun.

Another part of the boat cruise was getting to see the sunset. We stopped over near the Namibian shore for a while, and observed the effects of the rising floods. There are houses and cabins that are partially covered in water already, even though the peak of the flood in this area won’t occur for another couple of months. But sunset was absolutely beautiful. We watched most of it from the boat and, as usual, the sky was incredible (what is it about the African sky that is so indescribable?). The water was really peaceful during this whole time, so it was a great experience. We arrived back at the lodge to some traditional singing and dancing, and watched the rest of the sunset over the river. The colors were magnificent! So many purples, pinks, blues. I loved looking out over the river, watching the rainstorm miles away and being glad it wasn’t over us, admiring the beauty.

sunset over the Chobe River. Note the rainstorm in the distance

In the morning we went for yet another game drive, this time through Chobe National Park. Although you can see much more wildlife in the morning, the morning game drives always leave around 6, which is a little too early to be up on a vacation. Not two minutes away from the hotel we saw our first elephants for the day, feeding along the side of the road. Once we entered the park we started seeing herds of impalas, because apparently you can’t go to a national park in southern Africa without seeing hundreds of impalas. But I love looking at impalas, they don’t get old.

A troop of hundreds of baboons walked past our jeep. There were so many it took over 30 minutes for them to all pass us. We saw baboons with babies, baboons grooming each other, old baboons, young baboons, baboons in trees, baboons in the road, pretty much baboons doing everything. Our guide had told us that in the morning, it’s not likely to see many animals, but it’s the time of the day you are most likely to see any of the cats. During the entire drive, we had our eyes peeled, looking for lions or leopards or cheetahs. We finally saw some lions though! Our guide drove off the road to get closer to them. We got pretty close (not close enough for my little camera to get good photos, though), and go to watch a few lionesses walking through the bush. As we were speeding back towards the road, one guy lost his hat because we were driving so fast. We had to go back and get it, but the guide was in a hurry the entire time. When we got back to the road, he explained that we were not supposed to leave the roads, but he wanted us to be able to see the lions. We were all very appreciative that he thought of us. After the lion sighting, the rest of the game drive didn’t seem as exciting. Afterwards we got back to the hotel, checked out, and headed towards Zimbabwe and Victoria Falls!

part of the troop of baboons walking in the road

lilacbreasted roller, national bird of Botswana

Welcome to Botswana! or, the start of the most epic spring break ever!

I spent my spring break with Tamara and her parents, who were gracious enough to invite me along on their family vacation. We left from Windhoek on Sunday morning, after a day and a half of free time in Windhoek. It was really nice to have a day to hang out, check my email, do laundry, and wander around downtown Windhoek (my new favorite activity. Seriously. Every Saturday I walk around for a couple hours, along with more random wanderings during the week. I find so many random cool stores and restaurants that way! It’s especially nice to buy gelato and leisurely walk around). We drove into Botswana on Sunday and spent a night in Ghanzi, at a lodge on a private game reserve. We went on a game drive that night, and then were treated to a show of traditional Bushman dancing. It was a lovely start to the trip, and the first of many new stamps in my passport!

On Monday we drove into Maun on our way to the Okavango Delta. We walked around a little bit and looked at little shops that sell souvenirs (during which I learned that Tricia, Tamara’s mom, really likes to shop). We ate lunch at a little diner just outside the airport, and it was delicious. Then we headed to the airport to catch our flight into the Okavango Delta! The Okavango Delta is the only inland delta in the world, draining the Okavango River after it receives its annual floods from Angola (the same floodwater that causes northern Namibia to flood every year). The lodge where we stayed in the Okavango is about a 25 minute flight from Maun on a tiny little plan. Including the pilot there were six seats in the plane, but the sixth person would have been a little squished. We were handed cold bottles of water before getting on the plane to serve as our refreshment for the flight. The safety lecture was pretty short, too: buckle your seat belt, make sure the door is locked, first aid kit by your feet, more first aid stuff on the seat by Tamara. Then the pilot shut the windows and we took off!

our plane into the delta!

The flight was really exciting because we were low enough above the ground (only about 1000 feet) that we were able to get a really good view of the Delta. Every direction you looked was a continuation of the Delta, and I saw several elephants during the flight, and an ostrich on the flight back! It was really loud, but it was a fun experience. We were met at the airstrip by a jeep that took us on the 20 minute drive through the bush to camp.

The Okavango Delta from the air

We spent two nights in the Okavango Delta, filled with early mornings, delicious food, and lots of game drives. Every morning breakfast was unfortunately at 6 am in order to try to see animals before it go too hot out. We came back from the morning activity for lunch at 11:30, then a break in the afternoon to take a nap, then tea time with delicious snacks at 3:30 before heading out for the afternoon activity. Dinner was at 8 before heading to bed. We spent a lot of time eating and just relaxing on the porch overlooking the delta. Another plus was that there was always dessert after dinner! This was very exciting because I have felt deprived of my normal desserts all semester, so I was happy. One night the dessert was Amarula crème brulee, and the second night dessert was banafee pie (pie with bananas, toffee, and cream – so amazing!). All of the food was always delicious. One day at lunch we had a version of a burrito, which was a welcome addition because I haven’t had anything even resembling Mexican food since January!

Me and Tamara on a game drive

We started the first afternoon with a game drive through the bush. We saw lots of impalas, a few giraffes, warthogs, vervet monkeys, other antelope, and lots of magnificent trees, many of which had the bark stripped off of them by elephants. The water level was pretty high, especially for so early in the season, and one of their bridges was out, so we had to drive through a river on the game drives. The water literally covered the hood of the jeep, and started pouring into the floor under our feet. The first time through was a little intense, and we were worried we were going to get stuck. But we made it, and then it just felt like a ride at Disneyland! Bumpy ride in a jeep (kind of like the Indiana Jones ride), fording a deep river, seeing animals, what could be better?

fording the river!

The next morning we wanted to do a game walk, but it was raining so we opted for another game drive instead. However, about 2 hours later the rain stopped and it started to warm up a little bit, so we did get out and walk around for a while. We saw an elephant skeleton (like a mini elephant graveyard), lots of termite mounds, numerous species of birds, and some hippos in the water!

beautiful sky

warthogs!

In the afternoon we went on a boat ride through the Okavango Delta. It was so beautiful! The boat went through papyrus and reeds, and we saw so many different birds: owls, storks, lilacbreasted rollers. It was a nice change from the game drive, and we got to stay on the water until sunset, which was picturesque.

Papyrus

boat ride through the delta

Sunset over the Okavango Delta

The stars that night were also amazing. There were about two hours between the time it got dark and moonrise, and because we were in the middle of the Delta there was no other light pollution. I have never seen so many stars! The Milky Way was so bright that it was almost difficult to pick out Orion, because there were so many other stars that stood out more than they normally do.

After dinner we went on a night game drive, hoping to find some bushbabies. Sadly, we did not see a bushbaby, but we did see several hippos walking around feeding, and we finally saw an elephant, which was exciting. It was a fun game drive, but at that point we were all tired and just wanted to go to sleep.

The next morning was our last morning in the Delta, and we got to go on a Makoro ride. Makoros are traditional dugout canoes that are used in the Delta. We took the boat out to Makoro Island, where the Makoros are stored. Then we got to ride in them for a couple hours. There were two to a canoe, so Tamara and I shared one while our guide poled us around from the back. It was so peaceful, gliding through lilypads and reeds in the canoe. We saw some tiny little frogs, beautiful flowers, more birds, some baboons, and we got to try some dates from the date palm. I really enjoyed getting to experience nature without the noise or inconvenience of a motor boat or a jeep.

After a quick lunch, we rode back out to the airstrip with our pilot. When we got to the airstrip, our pilot pointed out the windsock and said some other tourists a few weeks ago had asked if that was how they fed the giraffes. Anyways, we had a pretty uneventful flight back to Maun to start the next leg of our trip!

Etosha National Park

After we said goodbye to our rural homestay families, it was time to head to Etosha National Park! Etosha is amazing. It’s a massive national park with all sorts of wildlife (pretty much all the typical African wildlife). We stayed at the Environmental Education Center, in little cabin-like buildings named after different wildlife. We had a lot of fun in Impala for those couple of days. Our time was filled with a lot of game drives. We saw all sorts of wildlife, and it was so exciting to finally see the animals we’ve traveled halfway around the world to see!

One on of our game drives we found lions! It was really interesting, because there was a group of giraffes who spent almost an hour staring down the sleeping lions. They kept taking turns stepping closer to the lions, just staring at them. Apparently giraffes are really interested in sleeping lions?

Basically, we saw lots of wildlife. Lots of herds of impala, hundreds of giraffes, trips to the water holes to try to find more animals. Because it’s the rainy season there is lots of water in the park, so the animals don’t have to gather at one or two main water holes to get water. The rain made the park beautiful, but we didn’t see as much wildlife as we would have during the rainy season.

I don’t know what else to say. These animals are beautiful. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Welcome to Etosha!

First giraffes of the trip

These are the giraffes lined up, taking turns staring down the lions

Rainbow!

We probably saw thousands of impala

baby zebra!

vultures eating a giraffe carcass

sunset

sunrise

The Day I Met the President and Sat Through an 8 Hour Church Service

On Sunday during my rural homestay, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (ELCIN), one of the two largest Lutheran churches in Namibia, was consecrating two new bishops in Ongwediva, a short drive away from Oniipa. Will’s host father is a pastor in the ELCIN, which is how I originally found out about the service. Claire’s host father is the General Secretary of the ELCIN, so a small group of us ended up going to the service with Claire.

I was told to meet everyone at 6:45 at the guesthouse where our group met every morning. However, my host dad was working at the hospital that night, so I needed to walk to the guesthouse. This didn’t bother me, but it meant I had to get up at 6 because it was a 30 minute walk. I discovered that the sun doesn’t actually come up until 6:45 or so, which meant most of my walk was pretty dark. When I was walking along the train tracks my host dad drove by, having gotten off work early. He was a little confused as to why I was walking by myself in the dark, but ended up giving me a ride, which was really nice. As you can see, sunrise was beautiful that morning. The sky started getting pinker and pinker over the church as I was waiting for everyone else to arrive.

I waited at the guesthouse with Will, Joel, and Claire while we were trying to figure out how to get to the service. We were standing around waiting, and kept seeing bishop after bishop arrive. Many pastors and bishops were staying at the guesthouse, and Claire’s father was helping them figure out rides. Eventually, I rode in the back of a truck with Joel, Will, Hasser (friend of Will’s host family), and the clothes of one of the bishops. It was an entertaining ride, and we couldn’t get over the fact that we were riding in the car with a couple of the Lutheran bishops. We’ve never gotten that opportunity before!

Waiting for the service to start. We were still really excited at this point!

We arrived in Ongwediva and found seats together. Because we were in the fancy cars with all the bishops, we didn’t have to go through the security measures that other people did. We also ran into a few other girls from CGE, who were at the service with their host families. The tent holding the service was so big, and it maybe held half the people who were attending. We were in one of the first rows outside the tent, and hoped that meant we would stay in the shade for the whole service. Boy were we wrong! But more on that later. The service started almost two hours late, typical African time. We sat there, and had fun watching all the pastors and bishops arrive and line up. There were probably at least 100 pastors and bishops. We recognized our religion professor from CGE and another pastor we knew from Windhoek, and we marveled at all the Finnish and German pastors and bishops who were there representing their churches in Europe.

Bishops processing in. The tall one is the Finnish bishop

The service finally started with all the pastors processing into the tent, with the bishops at the end. However, they were all in their seats and we were still waiting for President Pohamba to arrive, because the service couldn’t start without him. Pohamba finally arrived with all his security guards, and the service finally started! It was hard to follow a lot of the service, because it was in so many different languages. There was one point where different bishops read passages from the bible. They always stated which passage they were going to read in English, and I raced to find the passage so I could follow along. This was a necessity, because passages were read in English, Oshiwambo, Finnish, German, Slovak, and other languages I can’t remember. The rest of the service was in a mixture of English and Oshiwambo. I followed along when I could, and watched as much of the service as I could on the TVs they had in the tent, but it was still difficult to know what was going on. We also kept thinking it had to be almost over. That was a mistake. It kept getting hotter as the sun was rising, and by about noon we were out of the shade. Claire’s host dad had told her that the service would probably be from about 8 to 2. We figured that was long, but totally doable. Well, the service didn’t start until almost 10, so by 2 it was nowhere near being over. None of us were really prepared for that long of a service. Claire shared one of her apples from her purse, which was a lifesaver. I ate a small breakfast at 6, then half an apple at around 1, and then didn’t eat another meal until almost 5. I was hungry, and a lot of you know that I can get cranky or grumpy if I don’t eat enough. Plus, it was hot, so we were a little miserable for a while there.

The service itself finally “ended” around 2:30, but there were still speeches from different pastors and church representatives. Representatives from Lutheran churches in Finland and Germany spoke a lot (the Finnish bishop was heavily involved in the service, because of the Finnish ties to the ELCIN). I was excited when the representative from the ELCA spoke. I was glad that someone was there to represent the ELCA, and I was excited that he was there representing me. The service finally came to an end when President Pohamba gave a speech, thankfully in English. However, he spoke for almost 45 minutes! We were not happy, because we didn’t want to sit anymore and wanted something to eat and drink. But, by that time the tree above our seats was able to give us shade again! We literally sat there and watched the sun travel across the sky.

Meeting President Pohamba!

After the service actually ended at around 4:30, they made an announcement about food and drinks. We excitedly got into line, before Hasser waved us over and told us to go find Claire’s host dad. We were a little upset about not being able to get food, until Claire’s dad told us to get in a different line for food. We ended up getting to go to the private reception for all the pastors, bishops, and President Pohamba! The food was delicious, and there were as many cold drinks as we wanted. We kept getting mistaken for Germans or Finns, because most of the whites there were from either Germany or Finland. After a while, we finally figured out where President Pohamba was, and we finally got up the courage to go and introduce ourselves. We ended up getting to chat with the president of Namibia for about 10 minutes! His security guards kept trying to push us away, but he just kept talking to us. We wanted to take a picture with him, but his security guards pushed us away. However, when we started to leave Pohamba got up to take a picture with us! It didn’t turn out very well because we were confused by his security and they wouldn’t let us take more than one picture, but there’s proof that we met him! That made the day more worth it.

Joel and I with Bishop Kameeta

I was also really excited about getting to meet Zephania Kameeta, bishop of the ELCRN (Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia, the other main Lutheran church here). I used some of his writing in my history paper last fall, and have read a lot about his involvement in Namibia’s liberation struggle. He helped draft the 1971 Open Letter, and is a major supporter of the Basic Income Grant. He was really nice, and Joel and I got to talk to him for a little while. Also, he gave me his cell phone number so I can contact him in Windhoek to hopefully interview him later! So, it ended up being a pretty successful day.

Smiles at the end of a happy day!

We finally headed back to Oniipa around 5:30 or 6. Claire, Joel, Will and I rode with Hasser and the bishop’s clothes in the back of the truck again. We were all kind of giddy with excitement because of getting to go to the VIP reception and meeting lots of cool people. It was a long day, but the final reception made it totally worth it.