Christmas in Africa! 2010

So one of the best things about my new job is ….TRAVEL! I finally got the chance to see some more of Zambia and a bit of Botswana. So a group of 5 of us spent 2weeks in Livingstone, Zambia, home of Victoria Falls. It was an amazing trip. It had not so great begins though. I was stuck in Lusaka for a few days by stuck I just mean spent more time there then I planned and got stopped at the Botswana boarder. I was just searched but I was the only one in my group who was searched….ill let you guess why! (Sorry I don’t look Zambia just because I am black!) But that was nothing major and I went on about my day. Strange how that happens to me here, I would’ve never imaged being singled out for my “race” here but that’s another story for another day!
So we started out trip at Chobe National Park. Highly recommend it. I’ve never seen so many elephants and so many different types of animals. W stayed for 2days and 1 night in the park. The first day we did a boat game drive and saw the most amazing birds, hippos, and elephants. We even got to see elephants swimming, that was probably my favorite thing. I learned that hippos can only stay in the water for about 5 mins so every so often you would look in the water and see noses sticking out. We were on the water for a few hours then had an amazing lunch and went back into the park but in a jeep this time. That’s when we saw the lioness. She apparently had just given birth and was alone. The cubs were hiding in a bush (we never saw them). After seeing more elephants and the occasional warthog, we went to our camps site. Tents with beds were set up for us and we had a great meal. It was Christmas Eve so we volunteers came up with our own version of the 12 days of Christmas. It was fun. We even meet some RPCV (returned Peace Corps volunteers) from Namibia which was great! They are still involved with Peace Corps and still living in Africa! So Christmas Day we did our final game drive and it PORED! We got soaked but it was ok because we say more lions, giraffes, every species of antelope /impala, a leopard, and crocodiles. We went back to Livingstone, Zambia and had MEXICAN for Christmas Dinner! That’s a tradition I can live by!
So while in Livingstone, we saw so many things and met tons of new people. We met volunteers from other countries, ran into more volunteers in Zambia, more Americans and great great staff at the hostel. We stayed at Jollyboys Backpackers…NICE and a good price too. They helped us set all our activities for the week. So I went to Victoria Falls twice, went to a local concert, pampered myself, ate lots of Mexican and other good food, spent to much at the market, went to the Livingstone Museum went on a Sunset/Booze Cruise and the best ever…..walked with lions! LITERALLY!
Victoria Falls was of course amazing. It’s beautiful. The water is tricky. The first time I went the water was low for some reason the 2nd time I went I got rained on from the mist of the falls  There’s really not to much I can say about the falls expect for words and pictures don’t do the place justice! It was also nice to go to the Livingstone Museum and learn more about Livingstone, the Tonga people and Victoria Falls. We did the Sunset Cruise for New Year’s Eve and it was a nice way to bring in the New Year and to end our trip. But the highlight of my vacation…LIONS.
So I got to walk with and pet lions. Yep I petted a lion! The lions (Rwanda, Rama and Raja(?)) were 17months old. They were huge. They were very playful and Rwanda was a big baby when is two sisters were beating him up….well they were playing. The program I did the walk with is trying to re-introduce lions into the wild with a 4 phase program. The lions I was with were just on phase 1 still. They are learning how to hut on their own and fend for themselves. It was fun and educational! On this trip I saw 4 of the big five (Rhino, leopard, lion, elephant, and buffalo). We didn’t see any rhino because they are extinct in the area we were in. It’s amazing how beautiful these animals are in their natural habitat. It also amazing how much beauty there is around us and we forget or were to busy to notice it! This was a great Holiday! Wonder what Ill do next year!


A PCV's Christmas Carol:
*When created this as a group on Christmas Eve, its all in good fun*
So the 12 days of Christmas are a little something like this:
1st day- A bot-fly in a bush tree
2nd day- two guinea foul
3rd day- three village chickens
4th day- four stupid goats
5th day- five PCVs
6th day- six juicy mangoes
7th day- seven canceled meetings
8th day- eight Obama packets*
9th day- nine creepy hitches*
10th day- ten lumps of nshima*
11th day- eleven chewing rats
12th day- twelve iwes yelling*

* Obama packets are little sachets of alcohol with President Obama's face on them...its the "winning spirit", hitches are the lifts we get when hitch hiking, NISHMA is the Zambian staple food and no meal is complete without it, "iwe" literally means "you" but its also what the kids are called*