In August, Michelle and I moved all our junk out of my parents’ basement and up to a new apartment in Brooklyn.  I started a graduate program at New York University (for a Master’s in Public Administration).  Michelle is working like crazy and is applying to grad schools herself.  We settled into our cozy home with a real bed, a functioning toilet, and a refrigerator that holds all the cheese we want.  We hung our Congolese mask on the wall, and the oil paintings of the Masai tribespeople.  We got ourselves a Netflix account.  And like that we were off on our next adventure.

While I was in Africa, I thought about the clever things I would say when I got home (“I like my internet fast, my steaks medium rare, and my water ice-cold Brita-filtered”).  I remember the satisfaction of getting that last stamp in my passport, the one that said I was home, the exhilaration of seeing my family and friends again.  And yet…

Every once in a while on the subway in DC and New York, you see a young person with a frame pack and a few days stubble.  They are looking at the subway map, but their focus is inward, like a gymnast right before they take off to do six consecutive back flips.  Straining slightly under the weight of their bag, focused on some mental checklist, they must look pretty unfortunate.  I love seeing these people because they remind me of Africa, and my own mental checklist:

1. Get from last night’s bed to this night’s bed
2. Soak up all you can on the way
3. Don’t get robbed

Those were the days: when a short walk was risky plunge, when sitting down for a meal was cause for celebration, when locating a toilet meant a new chance at life.  I loved these simple things, the single-minded purpose, and the realization that if I could manage nothing else, at least I could survive one more day in this exotic place, and that was something.

So by my own standards, the trip with Michelle was flawless.  We made it from north to south, from Pacific to Atlantic and back again, despite not knowing the route or the means before setting out.  We uncovered unexpected moments on the way: a cow, a waterfall, a mosque at night, a cold morning with seals, a rhinoceros, old friends on new streets.  And we made it back in one piece.  I can’t think of one day I would have asked for a do-over.

I remember vividly the people who were characters in our trip: our Ugandan family, the crazy folks from the overland safari, the strangers that we met only once who helped us nonetheless.  But I also remember fondly the times of quiet and solitude.  And if a Jay-Z song comes on, with promises of streets that’ll make you feel brand new, it only serves to remind me that there will be a new adventure when it comes time to close the chapter on this one.

We hear from our Uganda family occasionally.  We got a surprise phone call from Paul, the eldest son, just before Christmas, when he was home from boarding school.  The piggery continues to grow, and the cow is still doing well.  Chris was running for a local government position.  The craft group is still making baskets.

Finally, we’ve uploaded a bunch of our best pictures (and a couple videos) from the trip.  You can view them here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/116172307309862188712

(There are three albums: Uganda & Rwanda, Kenya/Tanzania/overland trip, and South Africa)

Let me start off with what might be the extreme opposite of London, Botswana’s Okavango Delta.  If you haven’t heard of it, this place has been featured on Planet Earth and the likes for its incredible landscape and diversity of wildlife.  Getting there was half the adventure.  Our 6am, 1 1/2 hour ride in the back of an open air truck at freezing temps led us from main highways into flooded swamp land.  When we could go no further on wheels, we were greeted by local Delta tribesmen who loaded us into their hand crafted mokoros, wooden dug out kayaks (which I thought would surely flood).  These men and women then proceeded to, not row, but pole us through the 2 foot deep channels of the Delta.  2 hours later we arrived at our final destination; an uncharted plot of bush land just around the bend from a pod of huffy and curious hippos. 

It was around dusk that evening, when I heard the angry barking of hippos on our doorstep, that I recalled reading about the astonishing number of people who are killed by ferocious African hippos each year.  Needless to say, I was afraid (and so was our guide) but when we awoke the next morning with all campers accounted for, I knew luck was on our side.  We only spent a few days out in the bush of the Delta but in that time, I got the sense that what we were experiencing was the real, untouched Africa.  A view of Africa I will not soon forget. 

It wasn’t long before we were on the truck again and off to Namibia.  Namibia is a place where the deep blue ocean meets burnt orange desert.  It was here that we hiked sand dunes in the Namib, the oldest desert known to man.  We slept under the stars and kayaked alongside dolphins.  We paddled through a seal colony and splashed and played together - the seals biting our paddles and tapping their noses to our hands.  It was freezing the entire time we were in Namibia and tent camping in the cold led to a few sleepless nights, but things improved once I got my hands on one of those shiny silver emergency blankets. 

Despite the cold, Andy and I loved Namibia and I can honestly say that of all the countries we’d visited up to that point, Namibia is the one I would visit again (2nd only to Uganda, of course).  Namibia proved to be a lovely country with a range of things to see and experience with all your western amenities within reach.

Soon we were off again and reaching our tour’s final destination, Cape Town, South Africa, when our overland truck broke down (hey, atleast it wasn’t in the desert).  It caused a 3 hour delay of game but a few hours of waiting around and playing Scrabble is peanuts in the grand scheme of things and soon we were loaded onto a new truck.  On to Cape Town…

Cape Town is where the party really began.  We were about 5 days into World Cup Mania when we arrived and eager to dig into the electric vibe.  Almost as soon as we arrived at our Bantry Bay Vacation Villa on the water (thanks Mom and Dad!), we were off to the Fan Park downtown to meet up with a some new friends from the truck.  From the Fan Park buzz to the Long St. bars and clubs, we were swamped with things to do and places to see.  We did not experience a single dull moment in CT.  In the one week we spent in this city, we climbed the very steep Table Mountain (and took the cable car down, thank you very much), ferried out to Robben Island, drove down Chapman’s Peak to Cape Point and then drove back up the coast to pay a visit to some Africa “jackass” penguins on Boulders Beach.  It was on the way out to the Cape of Good Hope that we had our only real brush with danger in Africa – when a massive baboon tried to break into our rental car with Andy still inside.  Lekker news – doors were locked and our baboon friend lost interest soon after his first attempt at opening the doors.  We walked the gardens of Kirstenbosch, acted the part of good tourists at the Waterfront, visited the pleasantly eccentric District 6 Museum paying tribute to a vibrant neighborhood destroyed by Apartheid and last but not least, witnessed the Netherlands beat Cameroon and watched in awe as Portugal whipped N. Korea into shape, 7-0.  Whew!

It was also here that we caught up with a couple of my good friends from high school, Marcelo and Sam.  I hadn’t seen Celo in a long time and Sam in 10 years but there we were, reunited in South Africa.  Celo/Sam – It was great to see you both!

The rest of that week is a blur.

I’m out of time at the Internet Cafe (I’ll be happy when we are no longer paying for the use of the internet services by the minute) so the rest of our South African journey I’ll have to document some other time.  More to come!  Stay tuned.

We crossed into Namibia with our ATC overland tour on a lonely dusty road from northern Botswana.  In Etosha National Park, we walked out to a parched salt pan (an inland sea on those rare days when it actually rains) so vast that the horizons disappeared in mirages along with the stray big-horned antelope.  Silence like the moon… but I digress.

Further south the road led us to 4,000 year old rock paintings on the bases of giant prehistoric monoliths, which graciously afforded us our coldest campsite to date.  In the middle of red sand dunes that would make Frank Herbert cry, we piled on the layers for a 100m dash down the 60 degree slope of Dune 54, and when we woke up the next morning there was frost on the tent.  After all it’s winter down here — yes that was the Tropic of Capricorn we just passed — but enough about otherworldly panoramas.

We stumbled out of the desert to find ourselves in the misty spray of the Atlantic clamoring with a barking seal colony in the town of Swakopmund, which proudly declares itslef more German than Germany. Feasting on kudu burgers we watched the opening games of the World Cup, and those patriots out there might be proud to learn that we
found the one store in town that sold red, white, and blue facepaint, and a sportsbar with Springsteen’s “Born in the USA”.

And like that, our camping tour was over — with a round of farewells — leaving us awestruck in the middle of Cape Town, South Africa.  The locals say “God smiled when he created Cape Town,” and I’d have to agree.  The waterfront of San Francisco mashed up with New Orleans French Quarter, set at the foot of the most spectacular urban park in
the world (Table Mountain), not to mention the site of the biggest party anywhere for one month this June and July.  Trust me when I say you don’t even want to hear about the timeshare condo we stayed in courtesy of Michelle’s parents with sunset views over the Atlantic and walking distance to the thundering stadium.  THANK YOU WAYNE AND MARIA!

We dragged ourselves away after a week that felt like an hour, even as we plotted our eventual return to the Mother City.  Somehow, the dream continued.  Wine country, the ostrich capital of the world, baboons clambering on our rental car, sea cliff hikes, and canopy tours.  One day we’re watching acrobatic pantomime at the biggest arts festival in Africa in a podunk college town, the next we’re on the beach at Durban’s massive carnival fanpark.

There’s part of me that won’t buy into all that we’ve done, because then I’ll be forced to accept that soon we’ll be back to earth.  It’s our homestretch: for those keeping track at home, July 26 is our long flight back across the Atlantic.

World cUpdate: By scoring a goal in the last minutes of extra time in the 1-0 win against Algeria, Landon Donovan swept the USA from the brink of elimination to first place in their group and the final 16 (undoubtedly, one of the most thrilling sports watching moments of my life).  USA were eventually eliminated by Ghana, the last African team standing.  As in-person spectators, we cheered our voices out for the boys from Pyonyang as North Korea succumbed to Portugal 7-0 in a steady downpour.  We sat midfield ten rows back to watch Cameroon take on the Netherlabnds, who are playing in Sunday’s final against Spain for the championship.  We’ll be watching on tv, so get the vufuzelas ready.

There is so much to catch you up on but here is a quick update from our project in Uganda.  We thought you’d enjoy it as much as we did!  In Cape Town now and the city is buzzing with excitement.  World Cup Mania is awesome!!!

We’ll post some updates very soon.  And by the way, though not conclusive, our heifer was tentatively named Michelle in honor of you know who.  Ha!  I love it

Enjoy!

Hello Andy and Michelle – how are you?

I am writing to you on behalf of Chris and Dorothy from St Isaac’s
Training Centre. My name is Simon and I am a new volunteer at the
Centre and have been here for two days. I will be here for about one
month.

Firstly, we have good news that St Isaac’s is now fully registered as
a non-government organisation (NGO). Dorothy collected the certificate
in May this year. As we now have the certificate we are ready to
officially launch the organisation to the public. We are now looking
for funds to launch the organisation.

In the school, we have raised the number of children being taught from
72 to 81. This morning we played Bingo and Twister with the kids,
which they thoroughly enjoyed. So thank you for the games.

The livestock on the farm are performing well. We now have thirteen
pigs in the piggery that you helped us to construct and three of the
pigs are pregnant! The cow you helped us to buy was inseminated on 16
June 2010, so we are expecting a birth in 9 months. Also the crops are
doing well and today we cleared a new bed and planted some grass under
the eucalyptus trees.

We have so far sold 79 baskets to our friend Lee through the craft
project, and we are still making more.

Also Chris’ big news this week is that he will be running for district
councilor of Jinja. Chris is running for the National Resistance
Movement (NRM) – the current ruling party. The elections are to be
held in August, and we are hoping for the best.

Greetings from Chris, his family and your other friends here in Uganda.

All the best,
Simon

Later that same day, Andy and I went on an elephant back safari that was out of this world.  We rode Dodgey (what kind of name is that?) who was brought to his Elephant Sanctuary home as an orphan.  He is now a stubborn 8-year-old who kindly took Andy and I through the bush in Zim without complaint.  The next day we threw ourselves across the gorge just beyond the falls across a 450 meter long zip line.   Amazing!

Vic Falls has so much too offer.  We didn’t have a chance to do it all so if ever you plan a trip out there, let me know b/c I will seriously consider joining you!  Next time I visit, I plan to throw myself off of the gorge swing and walk with the lions.

In Botswana now.  Tomorrow morning, we take canoes into the bush and stay in a place called the Okavango Delta for the next few days.  I am really excited to have the chance to visit a place that is said to be very close to what it was 20,000 years ago – no development whatsoever.

Other random things…Did you know that a group of giraffes is known as a tower or a journey of Giraffes?  Did you know that Mongoose wake each other in the morning by marking one other with their anal glands? Ridiculous.  Consider this your leg up for your next round of Pub trivia.  There is so much to take in here!

Soon we’ll be in Namibia crossing sand dunes and watching the sun set over the Atlantic Ocean.  Life is good.

About a week ago, we had a talent show.  Michelle and I teamed up with another couple from Perth, Australia, to perform an interpretive dance to “The Circle of Life” (one guess on whose idea that was).  You’ll be happy to know we were one of the finalists, but were eventually beaten out by the Welsh couple who sang fondly–and in an unintelligible accent–of their love for Finland (don’t ask), and the young lady who recited a personal ad for all the gents in the group (definitely don’t ask).

Our guide, Matt, has also taken the opportunity to share his wealth of knowledge on the trip.  He led a nighttime game walk into a reserve adjacent to our campsite in Lusaka for those willing, deemed the “eighth awesomest thing on the trip”.  We hunted for a look at the nocturnal bushbaby, and were spooked by glowing eyes of zebra and antelope (which look remarkably similar to glowing eyes of buffalo from 50 meters).  We concluded by walking around the campsite, picking up the palm sized spiders, plentiful lizards and toads that lurked around our tents.

We stopped at a local market to purchase outfits for our upcoming sunset river cruise on the Zambezi River.  The catch was that we were secretly purchasing outfits for one of the other passengers on the truck, and the clothing selection was… how do you say… questionable.  Gold, neon, and jumpsuits abounded.  Our driver, Nick, got a brilliant white dress that was fashionable sometime between the 50′s and 70′s.  I bought a large New Zealander a leopard print shirt with shoulder pads and matching silk pants for the equivalent of $3.  Michelle scored with an enviable blue sequined top.  And I ended up wearing Aladdin pants and a mask depicting the head of a popular cartoon television character.  The cruise occurred after three long days of driving from the Malawian border to Livingstone, with an open bar (what some cultures refer to as a “booze cruise”), and stunning views over Victoria Falls.

The next day we crossed the border into Zimbabwe.  Michelle and I rode an elephant on land and a 60 mph zipline through the air above the river gorge (we skipped out on the bungee jump, citing “monetary concerns”).  On three separate nights in three separate restaurants we heard three different local acapella groups sing renditions of “In the Jungle”.

The locals may not be concerned with originality, and Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe are three countries that I never would have come to had it not been for the itinerary of our overland tour, and honestly, I may never visit again.  But the last couple weeks have been some of the most fun, in a way that’s unique and familiar at the same time, and definitely one of the highlights of our whole trip.

For those of you interested in knowing what to expect from me in the coming years, I will be marrying the one I came with to Africa and I will have 3 children (2 daughters and a son).  I’ll also live a long happy life and so will my family (whew!).  He also “predicted”that I was on holiday and traveling North to South (duh).  Alright, so it felt a little hokie but he did actually eat fire so I think it was worth the visit.

After hed finished searching my soul, I had a chance to ask him a few questions about how he came to be the village witch doctor.  The story is that his witch doctor Grandfather passed away but then came to him in a dream and told him that he needed to step up and take on this very important village role.  But first, he had to live in the mountains for five years and live like a crazy man – which he did -  (supposedly without food) and then returned to the village a new man.  The is real people.  I am not making this up.  He’s been the resident Doc for the last 25 years.

After my visit with the witch doctor, I had the opportunity to meet a series of salesman all trying to sell me wood carvings of various animals.  These dudes had the best names I have ever heard.  Ready for this?  Their names were Vin Diesel, Fantastic Steve, Malawi Mike and Sex Machine.  Seriously.  SEX MACHINE.  Ha!  They proceeded to give me my official Malawian name.  Boombastic Michelle.

Andy whittled us a set of wooden spoons earlier in the day so I didn’t end up buying anything from these characters but was tempted none the less.

What a great day…

So you’ll excuse us, I hope, for our singular purpose when we got to Dar.  We had 2 items on our to do list: lunch at the only Subway in East Africa, and a movie date complete with popcorn, AC, and coming attractions.  Check and check.  The bonus was a beach banda overlooking the Indian Ocean sunrise, never mind the sand flies that made breakfast of my toes.  We were the champions!

A couple quick hits from our first few days with the Africa Travel Co.:

• Out of 26 passengers, Michelle and I make up a full half of the American contingent, including our guide Matt, who probably merits a blog post of his own.
• We’ve had more mornings up before the sun than not.  It’s hard to explain the satisfaction of not having to plan, and just knowing you’ve got to get your tent down and your bags on the truck by 5:30.
• Zanzibar’s beaches are just about the prettiest I’ve ever seen, but they really need to do more to hype their image as a Queen fan’s Graceland… we saw the very house where Freddie Mercury was born. AWESOME.
• Passing through 6 countries in the next 5 weeks, so the fun is just beginning.

Zanzibar was incredible!  The beaches are the best I’ve ever seen and we were able to organize a dinner party where a world renowned chef cooked us a seafood curry that I will never forget.  The chef even taught me how to prepare octopus!  So if I ask you to come over for dinner in the next year, get ready for some seafood fun

We’ve joined up with a truck full of young international travelers and things have been easy breezy since we hopped on board.  Traveling on the truck makes crossing borders a lot easier and we worry a lot less about day to day things since transportation and food are mostly taken care of.   It has been nice to make new friends and talk to people about why they decided to drop everything and come to Africa.  If you can believe it, almost all of them quit there comfortable jobs to come here and almost all plan to move to a different country after they leave.   Ha!  I knew we weren’t completely crazy.  There are others who believe in dropping everything and going on adventures as well!

That said, I do miss the independence of traveling on our own and calling the shots as we please.  We have had a few wake up calls before 5am the last couple of days that I could have done without.

Tanzania was fun but nothing compares to Uganda.  Every time I see kids in the street, I am reminded of the simple life we lived in a little village near the source of the Nile not so long ago.   I wonder when I’ll see them again?

We’ve just arrived in Malawi and will have just five days to explore life on the lake.  Tomorrow, I’ll pay a visit to the local witch doctor.  I have no idea what he’ll have to say but if nothing else, I am excited to learn what role he plays in the village and how he found himself in that position.

Off to dinner now and will be camping from now ’til Cape Town.  Enjoying the fresh air and the knowledge that I will be waking up lakeside in the morning.

Our last week in Kenya was truly thrilling, starting with our visit to Lamu Island in the Indian Ocean, an old Swahili trading center that still seems to be stuck in the Middle Ages. There are no automobiles on the island; instead everyone gets around on donkeys. Correction: there are two automobiles on the island, one for the mayor, and one donkey ambulance for the donkey sanctuary. Michelle and I got lost in the maze of tiny alleys that crisscross the town, before suddenly emerging on an empty beach with a lonely castle where we were caught in a 10 minute downpour. We hired a dhow to take us through the islands to do some snorkeling on the coral reefs (actually the dhow captain stalked us into a restaurant where we were eating lunch to make his sales pitch). The residents are almost exclusively Muslim, but we managed to find one of the only bars on the island, a tiki rooftop, where we watched the moonlight reflect off the boats in port. The whole thing was out of a dream.

The six hour return bus trip to Mombasa was mostly over one long dirt road, through the sultry coastal heat. When we returned to Mombasa we got the chance to take our favorite mode of transport so far: the tuk-tuk. It’s a three wheeled contraption, basically a modified motorcycle, that’s been converted to resemble the cars from Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride at Disney World. The shape is the same, the bright colors are the same, the sudden stops and starts, the impossibly sharp swerves to dodge oncoming traffic, it’s like Walt Disney came to Kenya for inspiration. Except of course, Mr. Toad doesn’t have cutout pictures of Osama Bin Laden on his windshield.

But soon we were off again to Tsavo East National Park for our first real safari experience. It’s not too far from the truth to say that this whole volunteering thing was just an excuse to come to Africa and go on safari without the guilt of being a 21st century Hemingway. So finally we’re here, ready to check out some game, and finding that it’s expensive in the extreme. We bit the bullet on a two day safari, the cheapest way to get past the park entrance, and were immediately rewarded by a family of baboons crossing the road. Soon elephants, zebras, and giraffes followed. Our driver, Geoffrey, has impossibly amazing eyesight and spotted a cheetah napping in the shade of a scrub bush, and dik-diks (the tiniest in the gazelle family, no bigger than a house cat) before they darted into the long grass.

The highlight for me was at our campsite in the park. A wild buffalo sauntered by the nearby water hole in the dark, and I immediately got up to get a picture. Suddenly, the big guy turned his head and I realized all that separated us was 20 meters and a two foot wire fence… So we’ve been getting our money’s worth for sure, and tomorrow we head off to see what Ngorongoro Crater has to offer. I’ll be the one with the goofy grin on his face, hair blowing in his eyes from the rooftop opening in the rumbling safari van, humming some familiar songs: “I bless the rains down in Africa!” “It’s the circle of life!” and “What do tigers dream of, when they take a little tiger snooze?”