On that note

Sorry, two baby birds ended their lives with broken necks IN MY LAP while I was sitting in the Gaborone airport. I then got on the plane, headed to Europe where i had a fabulous few days in london (I am now on my way to paris) and this is the first access to internet I've had. Sorry to those who were left wondering if the apocalypse was nigh. I have to go catch a 5am train now. Cheers!

The end is near (as in today)

I am sitting in the Gaborone airport about to get on a plane to Johannesburg and then London. I know it sounds trite but I cannot believe how fast the semester has gone. I only have a moment before boarding so I will list a few things I will miss:
1) Sunshine and warm- I am tan for the first time in a decade and it is kinda amazing
2) Women who you meet giving you a hug and holding your hand while they talk to you
3) Incredibly attractive foreigners who want to talk to you because you are also far fromm home
4) Batsi, aka the Zimbabwean Jesus, who can fix ANYTHING
5) Being regularly proposed to and being offered up to 60 cows for my hand (my ego is going to take a hit in the states)
6) Being able to take off for Zimbabwe for the weekend
7) Sneaking into the school pool at midnight for an illicit swim
8) The cleaning ladies....those characters
9) The yelling professor; what a teddy bear (PS he would have an aneurism reading this)
10) Other Americans, and their ridiculous experiences shared over cheap, legal alcohol. (Oh yeah, and OH MY GOD A DEAD BABY BIRD JUST HIT ME.......AHHHHHH I HAVE TO GO

In Which Absurdity Ensues

So the real reason that I did not want to talk about my trip last night was because when I returned from it an alarming portion of my things had been stolen out of my dorm room and I was too angry to make light of the situation. The situation has since been resolved and I can talk about it now:
I had locked up my computer and souveniers (the things that really matter) in someone's office but I left- locked in my closet in a locked room- some clothing, my dvds and cds as well as miscelaneous toiletries and all of those things that you never know how to pack and end up throwing in at the last second...they were mostly gone but the toiletries and my books had been moved across the hall (WTF??) I was very upset and went to bed angry at the world (and hungry as the refectory had closed and power was out around the city so no restaurants were serving food) In the morning I decided to talk to the cleaning ladies (my primary suspects as the lock was not broken). I found them in a room FULL of stuff from the dorms because it is apparently an unwritten rule that anything the students leave is left for the staff. Long story short I gave them a chance to right an honest mistake but the woman who cleans my room told me she moved my things but took nothing......by the way, during this conversation I realized that she was actually wearing one of my necklaces (LOL). In the end I filed a report with security and four hours later was called back to the office wheere the same woman had a bag with all of my things and was apologizing for her honest mistake. Kudos UB security! I had absolutely no faith in the institution but apparently they get shit done. (PS I am planning to leave the necklace with a note saying "I am really gone now, Merry Christmas!")

As for the Delta: We drove for hours into the Okavango Delta in these giant safari trucks that I dubbed "tourist assualt vehicles" (TAVs from here on)


"In which Sarah almost dies...twice!" That picture of me in pink is actually twelve feet from two lions (OMG) but that was not even remotely dangerous. The scary part was when we were in a boat, observing hippos who were too close for comfort (Hippos in fact kill more humans than any other animal, they are very territorial) When the bull hippo of the group surfaced not three feet from our boat...screaming ensued. Later that day we were on a game drive and the TAV in front of us was right by some awesome elephants with a teeny baby. Unfortunately the mother elephant took exception to their presence (I would too if I had just been pregnant with something that big for 22 months) and started charging them to ward them off. They booked it out of there pretty quick, and the elephant then turned on us. I cannot say I have seen anything scarier than a full-grown elephant running at my vehicle. My dear friend Jenny was screaming while I laughed like a crazy and thought I was going to die. (Don't worry, I didn't)


"Mashed Potato cake" Our friend Aubri had her 21st while we were on safari (miles from any alcohol) so we tried to make her day special. We brought candles but were far away from anything resembling a cake so we had to improvise. I suggested a mud pie but the group decided on a bowl of mashed potatos in which we stuck lit birthday candles. I think Aubri was touched.

Okay, I will have to tell the rest of the stories later, I have a Pocahontas appointment right now. Tommorrow is my last day in Botswana (AHHHHH!) and then I head to London and almost definite culture shock. Until later!

The Final Countdown

I am back from safari, where I mingled breifly with other foreigners who were venturing into the unknown; there were a lot of khaki shorts and straw hats. We had a fantastic time in the Okavango Delta where we intruded on animals' daily lives and were terrorized by them in return (stories to come. We legitimately camped out in "the bush" for three nights (dug a hole for a toilet and everything) where our guides delighted in telling us how we could be eaten by a lion or a hippo if we ventured out of our tents after dark (I still cannot decide if they were serious, decided it was not worth testing)) Fabulous times were had by all, but I am currently exhausted so those stories will have to wait until tomorrow's blogging. Just for a sneak preview though: "In which Sarah almost dies, twice" "In which Sarah makes a documentary" "Mashed-potato birthday cake" and "In which the gang tries Piracy, again"

Finally! I got the pictures to load (it may have taken a small pagan sacrifice) Here is Lesotho:
This is the view from our "hut" at the lodge

A typical house for the area, with rocks on the roof so it won't fly off in the wind (a real possibility, believe me!)

A traditional Basotho saddle

Yours truly, desperately trying to remember girl scout camp- the last place I rode a horse.

The end of the ride, after which my butt hurt for days:

Basotho Ponies & Awkward Americans

I apologize, images will not seem to upload to the internet, foiled again! So for a quick update to those who are feeling neglected by my blogging:
I just finished finals, which were surprisingly difficult and intense (again, that american grade inflation is totally going to get me) but I survived and I think that I can say I learned something (i.e. that being surrounded/ possibly infected by intestinal parasites does not equal applicable knowledge on an exam)But for those of you reading this who are concerned for my GPA (hi mom and dad) I did fine.

We leave for Maun in two days, the ultimate Botswana tourist destination where you can go days viewing elephants and lions without having to encounter a single local outside of the tourism industry. In the meantime I have to pack.....ashes to ashes, overfull suitcase to suitcase in the end. It is surreal; I am putting together a commemorative post for all of the things I will miss in Bots (stay tuned!)

Today is thanksgiving, I thought that I would be really homesick but since it is so incredibly hot and sunny it is really easy to pretend that it is August when there are no holidays to miss. Nevertheless, in an ironic twist all of the americans are going to an indian restaurant to celebrate tonight (don't worry, it took me like 4 days to get that one). I think, also in the american economic spirit, I shall usurp the traditional food in favor of cheap chinese food. We are even going to play "what are you thankful for?" and it has to be something in addition to God, Family, or congressional approval for the healthcare bill.

I will try again later to upload lesotho picture, until then practice patience, I hear it is a virtue. sala sentle!

Typing Fast while Thinking Slowly....Bear With Me

I apologize for having been so remiss in my blogging lately, I have been on another epic adventure. I will only attempt to describe it breifly, however, because a) I am at an internet cafe paying by the minute b) I cannot load the pictures (the best part) untill I am back in Gaborone and c) I have been on a forced march for the past 10 hours by a crazy woman (my friend angene, evidence of her insanity to come in photo form later) and I am so ridiculously tired that I cannot even devise a clever analogy to describe it (we have an overnight busride at 10pm and angene wanted us all to be tired enough to sleep. FYI I have drugs for that which do NOT make my feet hurt). In any case the last five or so days have been really awesome, if involving constant travel.

The trip out:
The second I ended my parasitology final (which I did fine on despite finding gossip girl for free online the night before) Pat and I booked it to the busrank to get onto a combi to Joburg; we then sat on the combi for 3 hours, waiting for all of the seats to fill before it would leave. We got to Joburg 15 minutes before our next bus connection and while Pat went and got food I convinced the bus to wait for us. As I checked in for the two of us, the driver kept demanding "where is your husband? We need to go!"

In which I tried to fake an accent:
We made it to Bloemfontain, where we saw one of the stadiums in which the world cup will be played in 2010 and we managed to find our third friend angene at Naval Hill Backpackers, who had come from Namibia. (Backpackers was nice, cute receptionist, altho there was some serious confusion because the owners were convinced that, since I booked the room under Dupont, they were waiting for three french students)

Local entertainment:
The next day, amid pouring rain and a really sketchy busrank, we managed to make it to our lodge in Malealea where we discovered that it is COLD in Lesotho and we were eventually given jackets by the staff, which I am pretty sure came out of the donations bin and had just not yet been distributed; we must have looked really pathetic (we were). Despite the very wet start, we had a fantastic time in Lesotho, we rode ponies (I discovered that a pony is harder to remain upright on than an elephant, the guide laughed) and we took in epic scenery.

Baboons in the mist & Sarah the attractive Liberian
Defying all odds, we also managed to make it to Durban, South Africa, in one day, 700km and 3 combi rides later (One of which was through a national park that rivalled Utah in my estimation of natural beauty.) We got to Durban, checked into one of the scuzziest backpacker's hostels at which I have ever stayed (there was a 60 yr old fisherman sharing the room with us, more lovely details to come, including the explanation for that title) and managed to sleep anyway.

Death March through the Miami of Africa
Today was the forced march; it included the beach, an indian market (Dad I got you spices), the largest mosque in the southern hemisphere, another 2010 world cup stadium, a glittzy casino, and this internet cafe.

Again, actual stories (not more dull chronologies) and pictures (worth at least 1,853 words each) to come in future posts. The short of it is: mom and dad, I am alive, I had a great time, I probably will be asking you for more money soon and I don't think that hostel had bedbugs. Untill later, keep it real yo!

Blogspot is taunting me/ stone tours guys

I don't know if anyone has gotten to see my recent pics from vic falls (or will be able to read this message) but when I log onto my blog lately I am missing the last three posts; they happen to be epic adventures that should not be missed too! I don't understand the internet so I may sacrifice a small animal to appease the internet Gods just in case.

In other news I just found out that those guys from Zimbabwe got their tour company website up and running. Because it is pretty slick (and I am still convinced that this is a very determined two-man operation) I want to give them a boost. So if you are going to Zimbabwe (please take me with you) check out this link:
http://www.stonetoursadventures.com/
and this unflattering picture of sarah after a 6 hour busride to the Zimbabwe border:


In yet other news I nearly dove across a desk today to do the world a favor and end the life of a petty bureaucrat. I have two exams scheduled at the same time and apparently one cannot just arrange to take the test early with a professor. Rather, at UB, one must report to the academic office by a certain date and make arrangements to take a different test in isolation under the watchful eye of yet another bureaucrat. I did not talk to them by a certain date so instead they yelled at me, told me that it was not their problem but mine, and that despite the fact I had already agreed to take the 2-hour test 2 hours early so that it would be impossible to share answers with other students I still had to take a separate test that the lecturer would have to submit for approval to the department. She then proceeded to keep lecturing me about not talking to her on time and told me to have the prof call her. I went to the prof's office and asked her to call he academic exam office (where she asked me the number and when I did not know then asked me to walk for 20 min back across campus to that office to ask for their number. At which point I looked at her, asked her if she had a directory, she said yes, and I looked up the number). When I gave her the woman's name and number she said, "Ugh! That woman is terrible! I don't want to talk to her. Forget it, take the test and we'll just slip it in with everyone else's afterwards." So many emotions ran through me at that moment after I had just spent 2 hours trying to sort out the mess that was solved by one woman bypassing the system on a whim. I settled on basic gratitude... you know, a little intra-departmental insubordination is all I ask of the world. The point is, don't EVER have a simple, legitimate problem involving the academic administration at UB. It won't be solved and you will spend hours in line in un-airconditioned hallways only to be yelled at by a woman who doesn't even put down the phone to do it. (no I am not resentful)

Finally, I just want to say I am still happy in Botswana; the offices do not detract from the sun, the people, and the awesome fact that I am in southern africa. So just avoid anyone behind a desk with a peeling nameplate and life will be sweet. Until later, peace out yo

Pirates of the Zambezi

The first night that we were in Vic Falls we signed up for a "sunset cruise on the Zambezi with animal viewing, drinks, and snacks" (read: booze cruise)There were only nine of us on the boat and we spent two hours exploring the zambezi where we saw crocodiles and hippos. (our guides later apologized that we saw so few animals and we were like "what?") Beautiful sunset and good company.

When we first arrived at the dock we were suddenly mobbed by traditional dancers (They literally jumped out of the bushes) who kidnapped a member of the group, decked her out in a headdress and preformed Ndebele dances for us all, and tried to sell us CDs. I later figured out that the 10-12 sunset cruises all stagger their departures so that these guys can perform for all of them. I tipped them for decent music and a good business model.


Our guide/pilot insisted that this boat was ours for the duration of the cruise and that we could go at any pace and stop to see anything we wanted. I said great, that I always wanted to try my hand at piracy and asked him to strike a course for the coast. He stared at me and my friends jumped in and insisted I was kidding (liars). Later I toned it down a little and asked if maybe we could just forcefully board another cruise ship and he again stared and then started talking about the eating habits of hippos. By the way, I think that there is an alarmingly strong correlation between the number of drinks sarah has had on a river and the frequency of pirate jokes she makes. (there were a couple of ARGGHHHs in there, oops)


Again, we saw a lot of hippos, which rocked, but my pictures all involve blurs in the distance and I refuse to be one of those people who have to swear that there is something in the picture. Just watch animal planet and you'll get the idea

A lot of the Zambezi reminded me of the bayous: humid and buggy but beautiful. I highly recommend everything in Vic Falls. I have to actually return to classes now so the crazier and miscelaneous stories will have to come later. So as always, details to come!

To the Alps!!!!

All of my friends decided to go bungee jumping off of the bridge over victoria falls. This may surprise you but I DID NOT HAVE ANY INTENTION OF JUMPING OFF OF A 400 FOOT BRIDGE WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE??!! So I had to find a way to amuse myself that day so I would not feel left out. I was perusing a billboard full of tourist activities and it turned out that for the same cost as 60 seconds of heart-stopping terror one could ride an actual elephant through the bush for an hour. OMG I was on that in a flash. I figured that elephant riding was only going to get more expensive and illegal as time goes on so I took advantage of it while I could.
It was a very well-designed system where one of the other guides took your camera and would act as photographer the whole time, hence the awesome pics.


For the life of him, my guide could not figure out why I kept dramatically pointing and ordering "To the Alps!!!"


Yes, I got to feed the elephants. Most of them would delicately pick up the cookies with the "fingers" on the ends of their trunks but my elephant lost a fight to a lion as a baby (read: tried to steal food out of its cage) and hence is missing about six inches off of the end of its trunk. Instead, it just vacuums up anything in your hand- weirdest feeling ever

Dr. Livingstone, I presume; Zimbabwe Part II (Victoria Falls)

(yes, this is a statue of Dr. livingstone and yes, upon seeing it I did say "oh! Dr. Livingstone, I presume!" and all of my friends yelled at me)

After a 12 hour-ish busride (with seats this time!) we arrived in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe (where the border agents are significantly less scary and suspicious). When we arrived at the hostel, a van was leaving and someone popped their head out the window and yelled "Sarah!" I jumped about a mile and turned around to discover my friend Chelsey from Gonzaga who was coincidentally sharing a room at the hostel with us. Smallest world ever! (She has been studying in Capetown, which I vaguely knew but nearly had a heart attack hearing my name yelled out in Zimbabwe)
In any case Victoria Falls ROCKED!!! And once again I have to gush about Zimbabwe. As pictures speak a thousand words and I can only upload 5 at a time, I will post stories from my weekend in three, 5,000 word segments. Here is number one (which is number three chronologically)

Vic Falls itself; one of those natural wonders one keeps hearing about





Coolest thing ever, before you can even see the falls you are getting wet from the spray (very humid, by the way) bottom line: Wonderful times had by all

Lessons from Abroad (Cultural and Otherwise)

The thing about being abroad is that there are moments of intense excitement; like that time that I visited the world's wealthiest diamond mine and tride to steal mining equipment, or that time that we were "casually interogated" at the border by what I am pretty sure was an undercover government agent fishing for reporters and international investigators, or even that time I got into a knife-fight with a polar bear (Have you ever played that game "two truths and a lie?". But there are also periods of intense boredom where you are sitting in your room, missing your friends and family while trying to feel close to them by updating your blog. This may surprise my acquaintances but I am not very good at doing nothing when I have no paints, books, kitchen, etc. Unfortunately, people stare at me enough without me digging through public rubbish in order to find materials for a grand sculpture that I will ditch in a public place (what I did in SLC the last time I was this bored, come to think of it in hopkins too). In any case I suppose it is good because at least I will come back, which is what I think was my mom's real intention when she mailed me "part of my paintset" with only one color (If anyone has seen the stalin piece you know how I feel about that)

In less complaining news I had what I assume was a cultural moment the other day when I was buying milk at the student convenience store and the cashier said to me "but you are getting fat!" I stared at her and thought, "a) I disagree b)Why does me buying milk elicit this opinion when the only other things you sell are pop and french fries? c) I don't really want that opinion from you either way and d)Who are you?." I related the story to my friends who, apparently convinced that I was insecure, insisted that I was quite skinny. My Motswana friend then jumped in, outraged, and said "No she is not! Sarah, you have a good body!" It was at that point that we all figured out that "skinny" in southern africa does not mean nearly the same thing as it does in the US. Either way, after some older women in my politics class also discussed how I look, while I stood there and could hear them, I decided that people here are inexplicably concerned with my figure.

As promised, I managed to finally load the picture of the traditional healer. Pretty cool guy although he keeps "dangerous medicines" in a coca cola can (I wonder if there is any connection with the spiritual healing church?)

Also, this is a combi (public transport around the city) with a bumper sticker on its side that, yes, says titanic. Needless to say, I chose to wait for the next one.

Woefully short of sugar

As it turns out, the Batswana do not celebrate Halloween so it has been a very tame October 31st for me and my fellow Americans. Altho some international students tried to organize a toga party (which is made twice as awesome because all of our sheets are stamped with "PROPERTY OF UB")but I abstained because 1) I think I stand out enough among the locals without inexplicably dressing up in bedsheets on an october night and 2) because I went out the night before and woke up with a case of food poisoning at 3am (cold chinese takeout food, poor choice) Food poisoning when hungover....shudder (probably on top ten list of miserable life experiences) As I spent the day delicately sipping 2 liters of "oral rehydration fluid" (read: nastiness in a bottle)I decided to go to bed.The only thing I really missed was the candy. There is woefully little chocolate in Gaborone, partially because it is so sunny and hot that it is impossible to keep it in a solid, edible form and I am seriously missing the snickers concept.
On the bright side of things, we did get to meet a traditional spiritual healer/ aka witch doctor who told us how the ancestors instruct him in how to heal people. He was mostly an herbalist who treated headaches etc but he also sold medicines that would help someone get a better job or increase their social standing. I was thrilled to hear that he frequently refered patients to the hospital for injuries and complex diseases but also alarmed because he believes in treating early-stage HIV/AIDs with laxatives. (I will post a pic of the guy another time because the internet is demon-infested right now and needs to be exorcised). I liked talking to the guy and I figure that if I carry through with my desire to work in medicine in third world countries I will come into contact with such traditional figures a lot and it is good to try to understand them now. If you want to purchase a curse, by the way, send me a check and I can see what he'll do.
After the healer we went to the game reserve and our advisor, Batsi/ Black Jesus (as he is frequently called) served us a lunch guaranteed to treat the homesickness borne of a missed holiday. We ate mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, steamed veggies and doritos (all of the things that are hard to find in Botswana) and did Americans proud by how many carbs were consumed. All the while we were observed by a large group of monkeys who I was convinced were plotting our destruction in order to steal the lunch. I tried to bring one home but his brethren resented the kidnapping so I backed off. Good times were generally had by all. I hope everyone at home had a happy halloween, and that they got miserably sick from too much candy so that I don't feel totally bummed for missing it. I'll again try to post the picture of the traditional doctor after seeking a healing from him for the demons from this laptop but do not hold your breath. Until then, peace out!

PS Ouch!: My politics prof (the angry one) was ranting about team allocations for FIFA in the UK (who is suddenly 3 countries and gets multiple teams while all of Africa gets 6) he said, and I quote, "The US doesn't split itself into its 53 states!" We looked at him quizzically and he responded, "Oh, sorry, is it 54 now with Iraq?" ZING! Want some ice with that BURN!? We didn't ask him what the other 3 states were for fear he'd have an answer. (altho later that week on the teacher evaluation form I explained that, "I was afraid to ask questions because he might kill me...with his mind powers" I wonder if they will be able to guess who's eval it is?)

Sorry Al Gore

I just had the most interesting taxi ride since coming to Botswana, it even beat the one where the driver asked me if I like Botswana men. This particular driver for some reason decided to quiz us on history (because one of us was from Europe was hsi explanation...?) He asked us "What happened in 1945?" I just stared, not really knowing where to start, and he pointed at us americans and then the japanese girl and said "you dropped a bomb on her country! See! you don't know anything about history! A Motswana has to tell you" Bring up a sore subject why don't you..... He then asked us who invented the internet and when we answered al gore he said "No! the Nigerians!" and proceeded to tell us that Japanese 10 year olds had laptops in 1945 and that is why the US is so behind Japan. Wow; way to go nigerians I guess, first to invent the internet and the email scam.

In a similar history lesson, after telling my friend about the book "A thousand Splendid Suns" that I had just finished which describes life for women under the taliban, my friend told me "but those are just stories! The taliban did not do any of that, the US government just tells those stories after 9/11. Sheesh! look at some independent news sources once in a while." My head did not explode, altho it came close, and I think what eventually came out was no no no no no no no no no....... The conversation did not progress because another student said "Tali who?" and I just put my head down. I still really don't know how to deal with that; this friend is really smart in science classes but apparently does not believe that the taliban made women wear burkhas and forbade them to work. I'm going to go cry now. (By the way, not a reflection on Botswana, her family is from a different, more politically touchy culture) Uh , yeah, sorry, not a funny post.

(PS Beth and hubby, I don't know how to respond otherwise but I wanted to let you know I appreciated your response a lot and it was really sweet! I wish I could show you zimbabwe too!)

Cucumber and Peanutbutter sandwhich

I have reached an interesting point in my dietary experience here in Botswana. As it is impossible to buy food on campus around 3pm on a weekend and as I ran out of groceries I just ate a peanutbutter and cucumber sandwhich. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and it actually was for the most part. I kinda liked it (Altho that could be the sun getting to me)

Speaking of the sun, it is bright, hot, and omnipresent here. Today, however, I discovered that the pool near my dorm is free and really cold. I went there with friends and then got stared at for sunbathing in a bikini. Believe it or not it was not the bikini that did it, not surprisingly (altho it had never occured to me) people do not sunbathe in southern africa as there is no point. Unfortunately the pool did not allow pizza and margueritas to be delivered to the premises so I eventually did leave.

In other news, I had a professor tell the class that half of us failed the test, and the other half that did not fail only got 50% because she felt bad for us. I just sat there and stared, thinking that I never thought I would so desperately want a curve in a class. Turns out I did not fail but I did get a lesson about American grade inflation.

As promised, here are a few more zimbabwe pictures.
First here is a shot of the decorative stonework in the great enclosure. The chevron pattern represents fertility.

Here is a shot of the tower inside the great enclosure that Europeans tore apart, convinced that there was gold inside, only to discover that it was a solid tower meant to represent male fertility (very freudian society)

Here is the group inside the holy worship chamber. I don't know what we were laughing at but I am sure it was inane.

Here is another inexplicable HIV/Safety campaign that we encountered at the border. I don't know how you get AIDs driving but it doesn't sound safe

This is me sitting on the floor of the bus, where I remained for 8 hours. Yes, I am wearing plastic pineapples on my ears. I bought them from a man on the bus for 75cents (best purchase ever)


Alright, I have to go finish an essay critically analyzing Bots' parliamentary system, which is awkward, by the way, when one is a foreign student writing to a native teacher. Until later, sala sentle!

Uhhhhh.... Hey Mom, remember when I said I would NOT visit Zimbabwe?

Zimbabwe pretty much rocked! I don't know if any of you remember (or were listening) but last year I would not stop talking about the cholera outbreak in zimbabwe- one of the most developed countries in sub-saharan africa. I was furious about the politics in Zimbabwe last december and went on a rant around hopkins about politically-caused plagues (to be fair I also bombed an o-chem test that day and might have been channeling rage). When I found out that zimbabwe also had some HUGE ancient ruins that rivalled Machu Pichu and were only beat by the great pyramids in African pre-colonial structures, I was sold. Cholera and ancient civilizations? I'm there!

For my concerend family: No worries, the cholera outbreak was limited to the capitol, where I did not visit, and is now over; plus I only used bottled water. Furthermore, politics have settled a lot and as the country is pretty desperate to revive its once-thriving tourism industry and the official currency is the US dollar right now, as long as one says NOTHING about politics while in the country you are treated VERY well. In fact, everybody on the bus was so friendly and concerned about us that they spent several hours drilling us in safety tips (all mostly common sense) and arranged for a taxi to pick us up and find us a bus to our final destination.

Some thoughts about Zimbabwe: Zim was fascinating for several reasons, the population is maybe ten-times that of Botswana and it is readily apparent when you are driving around that the development is significantly higher than mozambique or even botswana. Zimbabweans are very proud of their country (rightly so, it is beautiful) and the Zim dollar was at one point equal in strength to the USD. Last year the country fell apart thanks to a certain political jerk (understatement, but I want to be allowed back into the country) and inflation reached over 3000%. They gave up on the currency when a coke cost 3 trillion Zim Dollars and a ton of Zimbabweans fled into Bots. The frustration of the populace is tangible and when you talk about the country with a zimbabwean they want to tell you how beautiful it is and they all say, "just the politics, in a few years it will settle..."

Because of the Zim situation, it is in fact impossible to plan a trip to the country because the hotels or businesses listed online or in guidebooks either have different phone numbers or no longer exist. So, on the advice of a local we just headed to Zim and assumed we would be able to find something once we got there (grammy ann and papa max, slow down....breathe..... I am alive). After a 13 hour bus ride from Gaborone across the border to bulawayo- during which we did not in fact have seats and I sat on the floor for 80% of it- we managed to get on a bus to Masvingo (read: the zimbabweans on the bus found out we didn't have concrete plans, flipped out, and the driver found us a taxi to get us a meal and take us directly to the correct bus).

We finally arrived in Masvingo (after the bus broke down and we attempted to hitchhike 40km but found another bus instead) and could not find somewhere to stay untill these random guys on the street said they would drive us to an inexpensive lodge outside of town for $10 USD. Uh...yeah, sketchy. Turned out that one of these guys just graduated with a degree in marketing right before the economy collapsed and they were desperately trying to start a small tourism business that catered to small groups of foreigners just like us. They actually had a van with seatbelts and the name of their company printed on the side (most legit thing I have seen in southern africa by the way... seatbelts!)and they do not usually pick up people off the street but they were at the grocery store and saw a golden opportunity as we walked by. We bargained with them and in the end agreed that they would drive us to and from the hotel, Great Zimbabwe monument and to the botswana border the next day for $30 USD each. I am pretty sure that they outrageously undercharged us with the hope that we would bring them more business. As they were awesome and convenient, here is my plug for struggling entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe: "Stone Tours and Adventures" (stonetours@yahoo.com) if you are going to Zimbabwe, give them a call because they pretty much salvaged our trip and were awesome.

The reason I am gushing about these guys is because they took us to this hotel where we had really nice double rooms surrounded by tropical trees and flowers overlooking a lake with super polite staff and room service....for $15 USD a night. (I calculated that I could stay there for less than rent in a crummy apartment in Spokane) I was served a huge continental breakfast (for $5) by uniformed staff on a verandah with this view:
Yeah, forget Mozambique, I'm moving to Zimbabwe.

The next day we went to the Great Zimbabwe Monument (the entire reason for the trip that I "organized" and dragged along five of my friends). These ruins are only beat by the great wall of china and the eqyptian pyramids. They are the remains of the capitol city of a sprawling empire that stretched from tanzania to south africa and namibia to mopzambique. They think that 25000 people lived in the city at one point, including the king and his 200 wives. No mortar was used to build the place and the walls stretch to about 32 feet at their highest and 18 feet at their widest. It actually beat Machu Pichu as my favorite ruins!

This picture is of the hill complex where the king stayed. The walls incorporate these huge boulders resulting in this sprawling complex that from a distance looks like nothing. Above me is the balcony where the king could stand and see everything in the city- and yell for his favorite wife.

This is a view of the great enclosure where the queen lived. The smaller buildings in front of it are the homes of the 199 other wives.

This is a shot of an opening in the wall for drainage just so you can appreciate what 18 feet thick walls look like

The great enclosure: this is a very narrow entrance for defense purposes leading to the initiation chamber where the royal heirs would be taught the ways of adults; a chamber that appropriately includes a lot of freudian symbolism.

More photos of the great Zim to come including astrological observatory, steven the quirky guide, the tree that "helped" the king with his 200 wives, and a discussion of good-natured/ scary corruption in Zimbabwe
Bottom line: Zimbabwe is so AWESOME!!! Buy a plane ticket, come visit me, and we will go to Zimbabwe

The Shocking, the Predictable, and the Shockingly predictable; Part II

I decided it was time for a second installment of misc stories.
First the shocking: Apparently the Independent Electoral Commission in Botswana, in charge of overseeing the national elections that are taking place this Friday, used the same misguided advertising firm as the stop aids campaign and is also represented by a slightly creepy, over-sized rabbit that is overseeing a cartoon ballot box..... yeah, that is inspiring confidence in the democratic process.
Also, on a more inappropriate note, the english major in our group who is irritatingly (and occasionally naively) positive about life saw a salon called "head job" and said "I wonder if they do manicures?"

Predictable: We recently read in a Botswana guidebook that a village outside of Gabs called Molepolole (awesome name) has beautiful flowering aloe trees this time of year. We had nothing to do on a saturday so we took a 1.5 hr busride out to the village to see the trees. Turns out that Molepolole is a sizeable town (50-60,000 people I'd guess- very pretty area actually) and showing up at the bus stop vaguely inquiring about trees gets you nowhere but laughed at (to be fair, the locals would point at the nearest trees when we asked). Oops. We ended up wandering around molepolole and walking towards general greenery in the distance (note we also did not know what aloe trees looked like) We did, however, find a really sketchy bar (see picture) and the forest from Dr. Suess' "the Lorax" (coincidentally we think these might be aloe trees) Good times were had by all despite our incompetence.





Shockingly Predictable: The Botswana Socialist society was selling T-shirts n Friday for outrageously cheap prices and several of us quickly headed over to the booth to stock up on commie-wear. Unfortunately the shirts were all odd and inconvenient shapes and sizes and those sizes they did have were all completely mislabeled- awesomely appropriate (especially as most of the shirts were either olive green or drab brown). A series of socialism jokes ensued from our econ-major friend such as: "do we need ration coupons to buy these?" "Oh, I think we need to wait in line first." I bought one, it has a black fist and "power to socialism" on it and it is awesome. We also agreed to only refer to each other as comrade while wearing the shirts. If I end up on a black list and am no longer welcome in the states, however, you'll know why.

By the way, sorry it took so long to post this blog, the internet has been out for 4 days (shockingly predictable). I ended up battling a polar bear with my pocket knife in order to get to IT to complain about it and eventually the network was back online.

Blatantly Stolen Photos

Turns out that I am not a great photographer when it comes to "capturing the moment" (I get distracted by funny signs, colors, shiny objects, and forget the big picture) Luckily another girl in our group, Hayley, is a great photographer, so I stole her pics off facebook and posted a few here: (This first one is actually mine) This is the sunrise over the Indian Ocean, for which we woke up at 4:30am A Dog on the beach decided it was my friend...despite my calm explanation to it that I did not like canines. The awesome person next to me is Mark with the worst farmer's tan ever; to be fair he actually did work on a farm in Ireland this summer. No explanation needed This is "the gang" back in Maputo; we are being watched over by the intersection of commies again. I did, in my opinion, capture the big picture through a short video Not gonna lie, wish I was in Tofo rather than classes at UB right now.....