Our journey by the numbers

We're in the airport here in Siem Reap, Cambodia, about to board a plane and begin the final leg of our long journey home. After a daylong stopover in Seoul, Korea, we'll arrive in Seattle on Dec. 15th-- first time on American soil since we left for Swaziland back in June 2008. Are we excited? yes, very. Are we a little nervous? yep. Tired? uh huh.

Anyway, it hasn't been easy to update this blog since leaving Ethiopia, and I'm not prepared to attempt any narrative summary of travels-past at this late stage, so I'll not try. After all, we'll soon be seeing everyone in person. So instead, here's a numerical summary; a by-the-numbers look at our trip from Swaziland to this airport in Cambodia... we had some time on our hands while riding a bus yesterday and started counting things.

# of days on the road: 130

# of countries: 12 (including Korea; not including Bahrain 'cause we never left the airport)

# of different motels/guesthouses/hostels: 47

# of different campsites: 11

# of train rides: 6

# of boat rides: 19

# of (large) bus rides: 26

# of motorcycle rides: 2

# of taxi rides (we always try to avoid): 18

# of bicycle-rental days: 5

# of plane rides: 7 (including the 2 we're about to take)

# of packages mailed back to the USA: 8

# of times we got sick (combined): 6

# of sunglasses lost/broken: 5

# of islands visited: 16

# of bribes paid: 0

# of books read: 12 (6 each)

# of Hollywood movies viewed (in theater): 3

Gigabytes of photos taken: about 20

# of bottled-waters purchased (we always try to avoid): 1

# of transports shared with vomiting passengers: 5

# of times the vomiting passenger was one of us: 1

See you all very soon!!

heading to Cairo

It's our last day in Ethiopia-- been here nearly a month now-- and we are looking forward to Egypt. First stop: Cairo.

Exploring Ethiopia has been very challenging and rewarding. We stuck to what's commonly called the "northern circuit," visiting the towns of Bahir Dar, Gonder, Debark/Simien Mountains, Axum, Lalibela, and of course Addis Ababa. We did it using all public transport, and with mixed success. Sometimes trying to get a public bus or minibus proved really hard, other times it was easy.

Getting harrassed as a foreigner has been as commonplace as anywhere we've ever travelled (it's on the level of India), and that is a pretty big annoyance. But we've also met some great people and forgec genuine friendships. In fact, later today we'll visit the home of our new friends here in Addis, meet their kids, have a meal, etc.

More on Ethiopia later-- just wante to let you all know that we're headed on to Egypt now. New language, new foods, new sites and sounds and adventures...

Visa Talk: Current info on East African Country Visas

A word about the Sudan visa situation for us lucky Americans...

There's a lot of conflicting info circulating online about what's required and what things cost.  This is what we've learned firsthand (and it's been backed up by some other US passport holders in the past few days).  First of all, there is currently no cost difference between the transit visa and the single-entry tourist visa. I know-- that makes no sense.  But the Embassy made it clear, that is their current policy.  Secondly, the cost is USD$200 per visa.  I know-- outrageous; no comparison anywhere else in Africa that I'm aware of.  We've elected NOT to pay this fee, and are instead spending the money on a flight from Ethiopia straight to Cairo, foregoing Sudan altogether.  Which is a bummer, because we badly wanted to travel through Sudan... but not THAT bad.  But if you're planning on getting one here in Addis, here's what the Sudan Embassy (here in Addis) told us on Sept. 24th.  you'll need:

- 1 passport photo (but bring 2)

- copy of visa from your country of onward travel (if headed north, then they want to see your Egypt visa as evidence that you intend to move on)

-a photocopy of your passport (make it a nice color copy- don't give them any excuse)

- $200, US currency only

Notice that a "letter of introduction" was not mentioned to us, though it may come in handy while transiting through Sudan. I don't know. And also note that you will be expected to "register" once in Sudan proper, which involves a fee as well.  So if/when you get your visa, the fun is not over.

And a quick note about acquiring Egyptian visas here in Addis: there is a 15 day processing wait, and apparently no way around it for Americans. UK citizens, Aussies, and plenty of other Western country nationals can get this time down to just a few days, but there is nothing that the helpful Embassy staff can do for us Americans-- we simply must wait. Also, the Egypt visa fee at their Addis Embassy is the same low price you'll find at the airport: US$20.

Lastly, here's what we've experienced regarding Kenya and Tanzania visas for Americans.  Tanzania is crazy. each border post seems to give a different price and policy.  Most Americans are currently paying US$100 per visa at the borders-- a multiple entry extended stay document. In this scenario the border officials will insist that the US$50 single-entry visa is no longer available to Americans (because the US has made it especially hard for Tanzanians to enter into the US!).  At the airport, Americans have recently been paying US$100 as well, but we've heard a few sporadic reports of US$50 at the airport as well.  at Tanzanian Embassies abroad, the US$50 single-entry visa seems to be the standard (this is definitely true for the Maputo embassy).  What WE did at the Tanzanian border was this: we insisted on a US$30 transit Visa, which gave us 14 days.  But be warned: in Zanzibar they'll likely spot this and explain to you that, if you're visiting Zanz, you're not really "in transit."  At that point, simply play dumb and insist that you "upgrade" your transit visa to the regular single-entry visa for an additional US$20.  This way, you've avoided the US$100 nonsense.

In Kenya, the visa situation for Americans is also variable, depending upon which border post you happen to be crossing.  We crossed the Southern border, between Tanga and Mombasa (on the coast), and were charged US$50 for a single-entry 3-month visa. BUT, Americans that crossed in from Uganda have been paying US$25 for the same visa-- and an american that flew into Nairobi paid just US$10 at the airport for it (though her receipt said $25).  So there is no consistency at all.

As for Ethiopia... oh boy. where to begin? actually, right now, for Americans, it's quite simple: the ONLY visas they're issuing to us, whether transit or otherwise, is at the airport. Period. No overlanders are being granted visas at the border crossings or neighboring embassies.  So currently the only way to get an Ethiopian visa is to fly into Addis. And once you're there, it's very simple: US$20, takes a few minutes in a small office adjoining the Customs gate.

Pictures!

finally- a few pics from our travels. We're currently in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), and will leave the city tomorrow for some extensive traveling in the north of the country.  We're looking forward to leaving Addis: smog, traffic, sidewalk chaos, and not much in the way of sights to see.  Though we did enjoy the Ethiopian National Museum, and we are loving the cafe culture-- coffee is amazing, pastries are delicious, and food in general is really great.  Oh, and the cost is cheap: coffee for like 25 cents and a fancy lunch for 2-3 bucks. Beers: about 75 cents.  

For the first time since June 2008, we're in the Northern Hemisphere. 

A cuddly 500-pound kitty we saw along the roadside in Kenya's Maasai Mara National Park.

downtown Mombasa waterfront from the Old Town District's Fort Jesus.

Stone Town, Zanzibar: beautiful doors & alleyways, fascinating people, great street food.

Pangane, a tiny fishing village in N. Mozambique. stayed a few days, could've stayed a few weeks.

The view from our dhow, island-hopping through Mozambique's Quirimbas Archipelago.

Tim atop a giant termite mound on the island of Ibo, Mozambique.

Jamie and Jason checking the trusty Moz guidebook on Ilha de Mozambique.

Hi from Nairobi

We're in the big city of Nairobi and enjoying the cosmopolitan feel of things. It's been a while since walking down a big, urban sidewalk.

Since last posting, we've spent time in Zanzibar, an island off the coast of Tanzania. It's a fiercely autonomous section of Tanzania, and its cultural influence is more rooted in the Middle East than the interior of Africa. It's 99% Muslim, and we were there for the big festival that marks the end of Ramadan-- Eid al Fitr. That was great: lots of good food and families dressed up and enjoying the cool night air.

Zanzibar is a totally unique place, blending Arab, Indian, and Swahili cultures. In fact, it's the birthplace of the Swahili language. Fascinating history to this island, and overall it's one of the highlights of our trip so far.

After spending 5 days there, we took an overnight ferry north to the neighboring island of Pemba, but we didn't get off the boat until it landed back on the mainland in Tanga. From there, it was back on buses (2 nice ones in a row-- unheard of thus far in our journeys) to Mombasa and then west to Nairobi. Mombasa was interesting but mostly charmless (except its Old Town area), and Nairobi is, thankfully, not living up to its big bad reputation for crime (nickname: Nairobbery). Maybe things here have improved recently... we're having a good time and are enjoying the lack of attention we get as westerners wandering the streets. Crowds are friendly, mostly uninterested in us, and even helpful when we need assistance, but there are still plenty of touts trying to sell us safari packages. And we bought one.

So tomorrow we head out on a 3-day safari trip to the famous Maasai Mara National Park. It would be sort of a tourist crime not to visit this place while in Kenya, and we're good, law-abiding tourists. Once we return from the safari we'll spend one more day in Nairobi and then fly to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). Apparently, the only way to obtain an Ethiopian tourist visa right now is through the airport. Overlanders are having lots of trouble getting them from the Embassy, and no luck at all getting them at the borders. no idea why. so we'll fly to avoid the hassle (and overland through Northern Kenya is said to be really tough-- glad to miss it).

Leaving Mombasa for Nairobi marked the end of our Swahili Coast travels. No more Bahr al-Zanj (that's what the ancient Arab traders called this section of the Indian Ocean). From now on we'll stick to the interior regions. And it's been an amazing portion of our trip, traveling through island chains and fishing villages, sailing on dhows, strolling along plenty of empty beaches and swimming in vivid blue waters... truly unforgettable. For us, the highlight of that section was traveling with our good friends, Jason and Erica. 4 is a good number in which to travel. Together we endured some pretty wild transport adventures and saw some unparalleled beauty-- land and people-- and we'll never forget it. Personal highlights include: Maputo, 1 (and only 1) decent surf session in Tofu, Ilha de Mozambique, playing music with new friends in Quilemane, sailing through the Quirimbas Archipelago and the mainland fishing village of Pangane, a long and wild day of crossing the Moz/Tanzanian border, street food in Dar es Salaam, and wandering through Zanzibar's surreal maze of alleys in Stone Town.

So on to the next section of this voyage home: Nairobi north to Cairo, spending most of our time in Northern Ethiopia. From Cairo we'll hang a right.

We'll be home soon, but not too soon.

We're In Dar Es Salaam

After a great month in Mozambique, we've made it to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania's biggest city. Just offshore is the island of Zanzibar, and we'll be ferrying over there in a few days. We've been on public transport the whole time-- which has included boats, motorcycles, trucks, minibuses and big buses... it's been quite an adventure.

Mozambique was amazing. We spent most of our time along the coast, visiting fishing villages and cities on the mainland and venturing out to islands just offshore. I caught a few waves in Tofu, then we met up with our friends, Jason and Erika, in Vilankulos-- which is not really much of a town. But the Bazaruto Archipelago just offshore is beautiful, so we spent a day boating around. Then we all went north to the city of Biera, Quilemane, Pemba... and after Pemba we found ourselves in the far north of Moz-- a very remote place. The most impressive thing in the north was the Quirimbas Archipelago, a string of over 2 dozen white sand isles surrounded by azure waters and coral reefs. It took some effort to get ourselves out there, but once we did, it was paradise. We spent a few days on the main island of Ibo, and then another 3 days island-hopping on a dhow (traditional sailboat), snorkeling and camping on uninhabited islands.

Back on the mainland in Pangane (maybe the most beautiful setting for a fishing village I've ever seen), we hit the road once again, aiming for a remote coastal border crossing point into Tanzania. The roads from this point onward were... interesting. From endless washboard dirt roads to deep-sand ruts winding through forests, this section of the trip was pretty hard on our butts. We spent some quality time in the backs of pickups and got filthy. The border crossing was difficult. I dodged a bribe attempt on the Moz side and dealt with a difficult border post agent on the Tanz side (suddenly the $50 visas were $100... we ended up paying $30 for a transit visa, giving us 14 days to get out of Tanzania). All this was followed the next day by a long and bumpy bus ride into Dar. We'll be staying put for a few days before moving on, mainly just to catch our breath and nurse our wounds.

wish we could post some pics now, but maybe next time.

first stop: Maputo

We kicked off our post-service travel in Mozambique, just across the border of Swaziland, in Maputo. Our gracious hosts were Kim and Peter, who both teach at the international school and live in a great downtown neighborhood. We found Maputo's grid layout easy to navigate and spent a couple of days walking around and finishing a few errands.

Maputo is a vibrant city. We noticed renovation projects and new construction sites every few blocks. The mix of architectural styles juxtaposed on Maputo's streets is an interesting window into Mozambique's history. Portugese tiled roofs and iron-fenced balconies, round corners and embellishments of art deco, the cement block buildings of the soviet era--all together on the same street. We had a good time admiring them all.

Maputo has a cafe and siesta culture. Nearly all businesses close from 12-2pm and some even until 3pm for siesta hours and many people take this time to sit at the sidewalk cafes and have a shot of expresso and watch the world go by.

Maputo also has a variety of markets, each with a maze of stalls and vendors selling fresh or frozen seafood, tropical fruits and vegetables, handicrafts, curios, and spices. I (Jamie girl) need to brush up my bargaining skills again. Current edibles in abundance right now include tomatoes, oranges, tangerines (naranjites), roasted corn cobs, and a rainbow of other fruits and veggies.

We've planned our stay (unintentionally) during a very pleasant weather period in Mozambique--dry, breezy, and mild, with the temperatures during the day hovering around 70-80 F. It feels so good to step outside and feel the warmth of the sun on our skin and a light wind on our faces. We woke up this morning to a cloudy sky, but it had burned off by 8am.

We plan to visit the promenade and the beach today before leaving Maputo tomorrow very early (4:30am) to head northward to Inhambane and Tofo, where Jamie boy hopes to do some surfing if the conditions allow it.

Mozambique's modern history is really interesting, especially from about 1962 onwards. The symbols on its flag say it all-- does any other national flag feature an AK-47? Maputo displays those turbulent chapters in its architecture and street names (many of them Communist icons like Mao, Lenin, Marx, etc). For further info on the main players of this country's independence from Portugal, Soviet/Marxist experiments (which proved thoroughly disastrous), and current one-party Democratic/free-market system, check out the following topics: Frelimo, Samora Machel, Renamo, and Joaquim Chissano for starters.

2-1/2 hours in 2-1/2 minutes

Recently, many of you joined us in helping our local Christian church repair some severe storm damage their building incurred about 5 years ago. This was a completely unofficial effort on our part—not a Peace Corps thing, and last week we finished up our part of it. Those involved should have just received an email detailing what you helped do, but for everyone else I’ll summarize: (USD)$1255 was raised and, as a result, The church now has the building supplies needed to repair their roof (beams and corrugated sheets and screws and nails) and to rebuild the damaged sections of their concrete-brick walls. It’s not enough money to build a brand new church building, but it should be enough to make the existing one structurally sound.

Since we’re leaving next week, we won’t be around to see the final result of this effort. But with the materials now in-hand, their repair work can begin.

Anyway, I made a little video from some footage I took at one of the Sunday services (which are held in the damaged building, as you’ll see) so now you can all have a glimpse of this congregation in action.

Final Garden Project Update

Well, our work on the community garden’s water system has finished, and I just turned in the final reports and paperwork to the Peace Corps office (it was a PC Partnership Project). So I thought I’d give you all a little summary report as well—after all, you helped fund it.

First of all, some numbers for you. I surveyed garden members recently, asking them about their homesteads, their garden usage and how this dry season compares to last year’s dry season—which was prior to our project. And as you’d expect, having a reliable source of water in the garden has changed things for the better. Nearly everyone I talked with reported having a better food harvest and planting more seedlings this dry season. And right now, about 80% of the garden’s land has been cleared and/or plowed, compared to about 35% utilization last year. Garden membership has already doubled (from 10 active homesteads to 20, and from about 25 active gardeners to over 50), and it continues to grow. What's most encouraging is, all this growth is happening during the dry season.

And here are some water system specs:

• 1 concrete streamside reservoir
• 730 meters of new 110mm underground piping (and about 1km of total underground piping)
• 1 big steel filter placed over the beginning of our pipeline
• 5 shut-off valves located at various spots along the pipeline
• 32 standpipes and self-locking garden spigot heads (20 of them brand new)
• 4 big concrete water tanks inside the garden
• 3 pipeline flush-out locations
• 1 new maintenance wing of the Garden Committee
• 1 new water system maintenance manual (in siSwati)
• 1 big bag of spare parts, tools and repair accessories for the Garden Committee

Now for some pictures of the new water system’s main components...

Here’s one of the standpipes and garden spigots. There are 32 of them in the garden (16 on 2 different pipe rows), and we replaced 20 of them.

Here’s the water reservoir. It’s where our pipeline begins.

Here’s the main flush-out pipe and valve. This streambed is the low-point of our pipeline, so it's the best place to drain (and clean out) the system.

Here’s one of the garden water tanks. We built 4 of these in selected spots in the garden. Together they hold about 3700 gallons of water in reserve, especially useful when the pipeline needs to be shut off for maintenance or repairs.

Here is one of two lower flush-out spots. We installed these removable caps onto the end of the 2 rows of piping in the garden. Now they can flush out any debris or build-up from the spigot lines, which should considerably extend the life of the system.

Here’s the cover of our garden water system maintenance manual. It’s a 20-page guide to the system components, routine maintenance schedules, and replacement parts. And it’s in siSwati, thanks to the translation assistance of a few local friends. I distributed it to all the Garden Committee members as well as their 4 maintenance assistants/experts.

Much of our recent work on this project has been aimed at enhancing the long-term sustainability of this water system. And in this case, sustainability really hinges upon maintenance: will the garden members continue to maintain their water system, will they make future repairs properly and protect its components from vandals and cows… all of this remains to be seen. We’ve equipped them with all the tools and skills we could think of for them to do these things, and now it’s time for us to let go and step away. After being an active part of that garden for almost 2 years now, letting go isn’t an easy thing to do.

But when you’re done, you’re done. And we’re satisfied with the fruits of this labor, satisfied that it provides a good opportunity for these local gardeners to bring more food into their kitchens and to earn some income selling their surplus crop (right now in the garden, the going rate for a head of cabbage is E5, or about 65 cents). So we thank all of you who contributed to this project. You really did help improve the daily lives of people in Zombodze, and we hope this little report makes that truth a bit more tangible to you.

Primary School Library Grand Opening

The other week, Ngwane Central Primary School held a Grand Opening ceremony for its brand new (and first ever) library. In all, the project has been a great success, bridging old book donations with new ones from 3 different sources: Darien Book Aid, Books for Africa (which many of you personally donated through via the Peace Corps Partnership Program), and from the teachers and Penpal students in Cottonwood Arizona. In all, there are now over 2000 books on the shelves. A new Library Committee has been formed, a card catalogue has been created, books have been color-coded and organized by subjects and the lending can begin.

Thank you to all who contributed to this project. It's been a lot of fun for us, and really rewarding for everyone involved (hopefully you too).

Here's a very short video about the Grand Opening day...

And here are a few pics of the book check-in process, which we helped the kids do over a 2 or 3 week period.

This was early on, when the shelves were still mostly bare. In all, more than 30 kids helped us and a handful of teachers in the book check-in process. Many of them had never before known how to identify an author, publisher, or even title. So this was quite a crash-course for them.

Here's the book check-in assembly line. 5 stations, all in a long row... Henry Ford would be so proud.

We received enough dictionaries to keep one in every single classroom, plus have a few left in the library. this made the English teachers very, very happy.

We received lots of beginner/young kids' books as well as young-adult books. a good mix.

our Zombodze church needs help

Over the past 20 months we've established a relationship with a small Christian church in our Swaziland chiefdom of Zombodze, and they have a pressing need that we thought perhaps some of you might want to consider as a charity/outreach opportunity. So if you and/or your church group are interested in helping to fund the construction of a new church building for this congregation, now is the time to contact us and donate.

This is an unofficial fundraising effort. No Peace Corps program affiliations, just us two trying to help our adopted church. Anyway, $5,600 (USD) is what's needed to make this happen-- $5,600 builds a church structure here!-- and we're inviting you to be part of it.

Here are the basics: some years back a storm severely damaged the church's one and only structure, collapsing half of their one-room concrete block building. There are about 60 church members, and they're quite poor-- can't raise enough money to fix the damage. They still meet there every Sunday, holding service under what remains of the roof, yet the building is just not safe. It suffered major structural damage (I inspected it), and all but the concrete slab needs to

be completely replaced.

So I had the pastor make a listing of the building materials needed to build a new structure (same size/dimensions as the existing one), and we've now received competitive price quotes from two local hardware stores for the purchase of that material.

The cost of materials comes to about US$4,300 at the current exchange rate, and the cost of labor is about US$1,300. So for about $5,600 USD we could build this congregation a brand new church building.

Here's how it'll work. No cash will be given directly to the church leaders; instead, we'll collect donations personally and then purchase the building materials ourselves (in conjunction with the pastor, of course) which will be delivered to the building site. Contact us for more info.

We're leaving Swaziland in August, so we need to set a tight fundraising timeline on this project: please contact us no later than July 15th. That's about 2 weeks away. Any donation amount is gratefully accepted-- and please consider asking your church group to participate.

Thanks! email us: cooktimothy@hotmail.com and we'll tell you how to donate.

What happens after Swaziland?

We’re now in the final 12 weeks of our Peace Corps service here in Swaziland, so I think it’s high-time to brief everyone on the details surrounding our departure. If you don’t feel like reading the below stuff and just want it in a nutshell, here it is: Our Peace Corps service ends on August 7^th, after which we’ll be traveling for a while through Africa, India, and SE Asia before coming home.

First of all, our official “Close of Service” date is August 7^th. Some people in our group are leaving earlier while others are extending their service or are otherwise staying here in Swaziland for longer than that… but we’re outta here after the first week of August. This date is certain.

And we won’t exactly be coming straight back to the U.S. We’ll be taking a more… circuitous… route back home. Without getting into too much detail, we feel it’s important to give you all back home a sense of what we’re endeavoring to do. Maybe you have travel plans that intersect with ours— maybe you’ll even want to make some. Or maybe you’re just wondering when we’re planning to get home. Either way, I hope the following info helps. But since these plans will likely change a bit, we’re not yet ready to give an exact date of return to the US.

After leaving Swaziland we’ll go to Mozambique and travel northward through that country with our friends (also married PCVs serving here in Swaziland) up into Tanzania. Could take as long as 3 weeks in Moz.

Then we plan to go to Zanzibar, an island off the Tanzanian coast. Once back on the mainland we’ll travel northward through Tanzania and Kenya, and then we’ll pause in Ethiopia to spend some time that country. Maybe 2 or 3 weeks in Ethiopia. Then we’ll continue north through Sudan (or perhaps fly over it entirely) and spend a little time in Egypt. This might be sometime in late September.

From Egypt we plan to head east into Jordan (and perhaps even Israel), and fly from Amman (Jordan) to New Delhi, India. This might be in October. We’d like to spend a number of weeks in both the north and south of India. Then we’ll fly east from India to Thailand, which will be a launching point for travels in Southeast Asia—especially Cambodia and Thailand, but also hopefully Vietnam, Indonesia and/or Malaysia. This would all be around December.

Now, what we do after Southeast Asia has not yet been planned. We’d like to be back in the States for Christmas… but we’d also like find an opportunity to travel eastward across the Pacific. So we just don’t know yet. But as always, it’ll depend upon at least 4 powerful and interrelated forces of travel: money, opportunities for further travel, things pressing back home, and the potent force called “what we feel like doing.”

We’ve been given the very unique opportunity of being able to start a trip already halfway around the world, and we really want to make the most of it. So often in life, one either has plenty of time and no money, or plenty of money and no time. It makes big trips really hard to plan. But we have been given the rare gift of having, for a brief window in time, both time and money, and for those of us who love traveling that’s just not an opportunity to pass up. So while we dearly miss all our friends and family back in the States, we’re going to make a few stops before coming home. Hope you’ll understand.

We do not currently have a day or week in mind for an eventual homecoming, but as soon as we do we’ll let everyone know. Until then, let me share what we’re currently thinking. We’d love to be home for Christmas 2010. That said, we’re not prepared to set that as a “deadline” on our travels. At least, that’s our current mindset.

What we are fairly certain of is this: given our chosen path of travel, we plan on making our US landfall in Seattle. And after an initial round of long-awaited reunions in the NW, we’ll travel east to the Quad Cities for the same. From there, our next destination will depend on job/employment developments.

Of course, we’ll keep you posted as all these plans take further shape. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers and support during this rather unique transition. And if you have any travel plans coinciding with ours, or if you want to make some, please do get in touch with us! We’d love to meet up, and we’re flexible.

Animals!

What I’ll most remember about April 2010 is all the wildlife we encountered. We visited South Africa’s Kruger National Park, and in 3 days saw more wild animals than all the rest of our time in Africa combined. We also paid a brief visit to Botswana’s Chobe National Park and spent time canoeing and camping in the Okavango Delta (also in Botswana), both areas teeming with animals. I’ve never been much of a wildlife tourist, but seeing so many unique wild animals in their natural environment has been pretty cool. So… what did we see? Here’s a run-down of the highlights.

Lions: various glimpses, from a male sitting in the grass at night in Kruger to an adolescent lounging on a dead tree in Chobe. I tend to mistake lions for rocks when looking for them in grassy fields, even with the help of binoculars. So the only lions I’ve seen had to be pointed out to me (repeatedly) by others. Who knows how many I’ve missed—certainly more than I’ve managed to see. Guess I wouldn’t survive for very long in the African wilds… and I’d be exhausted, running away from all those rocks.

Crocodile: our best sighting had to be Sunset Lake in Kruger—by far the most frightening lake I’ve ever laid eyes on. Ask Mandy or Alisha about it. They’ll back me up on this.

Hippopotamus: All over Kruger (including the scary lake noted above). But perhaps our most memorable encounter with these massive and temperamental beasts was in the Okavango Delta, where we bobbed in a Mokoro (traditional dugout canoe) and watched them go about their hippo-business from an unnervingly close distance. Their grunts and snorts are startling. And one night, while camping on one of the Delta’s islands, a troupe of them stomped right past our tent.

Elephants: too many to count. From close range encounters to distant sightings and road crossings, it’s always fun to watch them. My favorite sighting was probably in the Okavango Delta, where on the first day out we glided silently around a tall patch of grass to see what all the splashing was about: 2 adult elephants wading through the shallow waters, eating and drinking and enjoying themselves.

Wildebeest: they’re common in numbers, but not in appearances. Strange looking things—like a mash-up of buffalo and antelope and cow.

Giraffe: talk about strange looking… giraffes are really plentiful in Kruger, and we had plenty of up-close encounters with them. In fact, at one point, spotting a giraffe wasn’t even grounds for our stopping the car. The babies are especially cute—we always stopped for the babies.

Zebra: throngs of ‘em. They like to hang out with impala and giraffe and warthogs, and they’re quite social. And after careful inspection, I am confident in saying that they’re clearly white with black stripes, not black with white stripes.

Impala: the most plentiful of all animals listed here. Big packs of them. Best encounter with them was in Chobe, where two males were locked in a very long fight (a mating/dominance thing) while other males stood around and watched the action.

Rhinoceros: in Kruger we came upon three white rhino and watched from a distance of 10-20 meters as they munched on grass. Jeez they’re big. I wouldn’t have gotten out of our rental car for anything. It felt like Jurassic Park. Swaziland has lost its wild population of rhinos to poaching. In fact, in just 4 years (between 1988 and 1992) Swaziland lost 80% of its remaining rhinos to poachers. Anyway, if you’ve ever felt self-conscious about having beady little eyes and a disproportionately large nose, take heart and think of the poor rhino: they’ve got it much, much worse than you, proportionally speaking, and plus, they’ve got poachers to worry about. There’s no one hunting you for your big nose, is there? So cheer up.

Wild dogs: Perhaps my favorite wildlife encounter of all. Our first day in Kruger, at sunset, a big pack of them came trotting down the shoulder of the road we were on. They weren’t in a hurry, and neither were we. It was an exceedingly rare close-up look at this endangered animal. Then, the very next night along the same road, it happened again! Here they came, 20 strong, along the roadside. We could not believe our good fortune. Probably the same pack, out on their hunting rounds. They’re among the most skilled and efficient hunters in all of Africa, averaging one kill per day. They’re also among the rarest predators in Kruger (and apparently the whole continent). Anyway, they’re big dogs—not like a scrawny dingo or coyote—and their muzzles are thicker than a pit-bull’s… it was another “stay in the car” moment.

Kudu: of all the varieties of antelope in Southern Africa (and there are a lot), the kudu is my personal favorite. The males are enormous (think horse), their antlers are really long and spiraled, and they have great markings on their fur.

Warthogs: these ornery guys are everywhere. So common, in fact, I almost didn’t mention them here (sorry Mandy)… but I really like them. I like the way they trot around with their tail sprouted into the air and their monstrous head held high and proud. They’re face is exceedingly ugly, but what great posture. Once in Botswana we saw a family of them hanging out in the parking lot of the bus station. Commuters, I guess.

Water Buffalo: the males are big and scary. They always seemed to give me the evil eye-- and what have I ever done to them? They seem to relish standing in the middle of roadways, daring vehicles to get too close. Their strange, flat horns sit atop their heads like “little George Washington wigs,” as my wife puts it. Funny looking, and yet they don’t seem to have much of a sense of humor. They too offered a few “stay in the car” moments for me.

Hyena: just a peek at 3 of them, lying together on top of a big rock near the road just before sunset in Kruger. Great camouflage. Still, in the ancient blood-feud between lions and hyenas, I side with the lions. Sorry hyenas, but you just seem a bit too… villainous.

Baboons: absolute pests. The only reason I include them here is because in the Okavango Delta they’re actually living “wild” lives (as opposed to living off of human trash and roadkill), and once we even saw a baboon swimming from one little island to another. Swimming baboons? Crazy. Also, once in Chobe a one-armed baboon endeared himself to me. I was enjoying a cold beer on a shady patio and he came scampering down from the trees to ask for a sip. Poor little one-armed baboon, climbing around with all his two-armed peers, just trying to get by in this hard-luck world…

Vervet monkeys: also a bit too plentiful in human-rich areas, but not quite the pests that baboons are. They have a little black stripe across their forehead. Looks like a mono-brow. Hard not to smile when watching them.

Jackal: We only saw one, foraging along the edge of the Chobe River at sunrise while silhouetted storks kept their cautious eyes on him. Looks like a cross between a fox and a dog.

Birds: we’ve learned to identify lots of birds, either by sight or by song. Favorites include the fish eagle (which looks a lot like a bald eagle), the lilac-breasted roller (beautiful—and the national bird of Botswana, we’re told), the hornbill, different kinds of kingfishers and weavers, the corrie bustard (the funniest bird name), ostrich, honey-finder, the “go away” bird (cool Mohawk), various storks, jacana… that’s enough, I guess. In Botswana we hitched a ride with a couple from San Diego who had thus far identified 199 different bird species in their month of travel. Pretty impressive. They were anxious to get to 200 and debated whether or not to count a chicken that had crossed the road in front of us. They decided against counting it because, “it wasn’t in their book I concurred, and so, much to the chagrin of chickens everywhere, the San Diegans’ count remained at 199.

And of course there are all the lizards and snakes and frogs of all sizes, the crazy spiders and creepy-crawlies encountered in various campground showers, the bizarre assortment of flying insects (I especially liked all the colorful varieties of dragonfly in the Okavango) and the bats that feast on them (one whizzed so close to my head that I heard its wings whistle past my ear), the little biting ants and the beetles… my favorite of these is the dung beetle, which I finally saw up close in Botswana’s Tsodilo Hills (the Kalahari); such an industrious, mild-mannered little guy, not afraid to get his hands dirty.

Two big cats top our list of animals we’ve yet to see but really want to: leopard and cheetah. I don’t think we’ll go out of our way to see them, but with plenty of travel plans left on the African continent, I’m sure we’ll have opportunities.

Third big fun thing: Victoria Falls and Botswana

Right after the COS conference (see "Seconf big fun thing") we set out for another few weeks of traveling. We hopped a plane from J-burg and landed in Livingstone, which is the Zambian side of Victoria Falls. April is when Vic Falls is flowing at its maximum capacity, and this year is an exceptionally “full” year. You’d think that’d be a good thing for sightseers like us, but in fact it’s actually too much water. The mist cloud rising up from the base of the falls is so enormous (over 1000 feet into the sky at times) that much of the falls is shrouded behind it. So most of the time we walked around in giant curtains of water, getting peeks of the actual falls here and there while the earth rumbled beneath our feet. Pretty exhilarating—certainly the largest, most imposing waterfall I’ll ever witness—but not much to take pictures of, and not that much to do in the way of activities. Rafting? Out of the question, as the river below was a raging torrent. Walking out on the rocks and islands above the falls? No way, as one slip would kill you.

So we cut our time in Vic Falls short by a day and went down to Botswana’s Chobe National Park, which is full of elephants and lions and pasty tourists packed into overpriced safari jeep tours. It was a beautiful place, but the freedom of movement within this park is very limited. If you don’t have your own reliable 4WD you need to sign up for a “game drive” or a “river cruise.” So we signed up and spent some time gawking at the wildlife and talking to other Westerners… and you know what? It was fun. I’m not too proud to admit it. Plus, it’s not everyday that you see warthogs roaming the grocery store parking lot or warthogs hanging around the town’s central bus station. And it’s not often that you watch the sunset from the banks of the fabled Chobe River.

Then it was on to some real adventure traveling. For the next week or so, our route took us through parts of Namibia and Botswana where there are no (or very few) public transportation options. So (and this is the adventure part) we did what the locals do: we hitch-hiked. It sounds crazy, but out there it’s quite common and safe and relatively easy to do, and it worked out well for us. We got lifts from long-haul truckers and locals and international tourists, from preachers and atheists and surly government officials… and every ride was its own little adventure. At one point we were in a tiny village looking for a ride to an exceedingly remote place in the northwest Kalahari called Tsodilo Hills, and we found a white South African ex-pat preacher cleaning out his church in preparation for a visiting group. So we spent a few hours helping him clean and in exchange he gassed up his land-cruiser and drove us out to the Hills—a drive that included 40km of really rough dirt road. All through the Kalahari and around the Okavango Delta area we rode on ferries, in backs of pickups, in cabs of semi trucks, and even in the leather seats of a fancy new Hummer.

But the highlight of Botswana was the Mokoro (canoe) trip we took in the Okavango Delta: 3 days and 2 nights of quiet gliding through some amazing stretches of flooded land in its northwest corner (around the village of Seronga). The Delta is an environmental treasure, and we’re thankful to have seen it.

After the Delta we made our way south and east across Botswana, stopping in the Kalahari town of Ghanzi (where I spent my birthday), and that’s where our hitching ceased: public transport was once again a viable option. The next few days were spent either waiting for kombis and busses or else riding inside them, traveling through the Botswana border town of Lobatse, then on to J-burg and then finally back to good ol’ Swaziland.

So, all 3 big fun things combined, that’s what we’ve been up to this past 5 weeks or so. In general, we found the people of Botswana to be exceedingly friendly and helpful and warm-hearted (much more so than some other Southern African areas). In fact, we found that we had to really adjust our “trust with caution and keep your guard up” attitude while in Botswana, because it just wasn’t appropriate there. No one hassled us (not even little kids asking for candy!), and no one was dishonest toward us. It was kind of amazing. We actually felt safer there than here in Swaziland. And though we spent very little time in Zambia (and only in the very touristy area of Livingstone/Vic Falls), we found the locals there to be kind and friendly and genuinely helpful. Not your typical jaded tourist town. I wish we had more time to travel all around Zambia. Like Botswana, it’s peaceful and stable and friendly, and yet its lush, river-rich landscape is very different from the semi-arid Kalahari terrain.

Anyone coming to Southern Africa that wants a unique and diverse travel experience would do well to look at routes through Zambia, Botswana and Namibia.

Anyway, it’s nice to be back in Zombodze, nice to be staying put for 12 straight weeks. Just enough time for us to finalize our ongoing projects and bid this latest home of ours a proper farewell. I’ll be posting pics, videos and accounts of these latest travels as soon as I can.

Second big fun thing: Peace Corps Group 6 COS Conference

We attended a Peace Corps- Swaziland “Close of Service” (COS) Conference, which probably doesn’t sound like fun—but trust us, it was. Any time our group of PCVs gets together, fun abounds. All of us Group 6ers stayed 4 days/3 nights at a nice place in Swaziland’s Ezulwini Valley while the PC staff briefed us on all the things we’ll need to do when completing our service. And we held an impromptu talent show on the last night, which was pretty fun. I was sort of cajoled into being the show’s emcee, which meant that I got to help orchestrate things a bit. Among the show’s highlights was Jamie-girl getting her hair cut live onstage by 2 other PCVs (thus displaying their hair-cutting talent). She went from long hair to short hair over the course of the evening—and the end result looks great. Anyway the show was full of antics and hilarity… just the way we like it.

One of the PC staffers here has said that each group of PC volunteers coming into the country is different, and that our group is different “in a very pleasant way.” And I couldn’t agree more. From the very start, it seems like this group has been charmed. We’ve been blessed with an unusually warm and loving group dynamic—it’s uncanny, and for a group of 30 somewhat random strangers thrown together and sent to another country… it’s downright miraculous. So it’s not going to be easy to see us all go our separate ways, even in this hyper-connected age of Facebook and emails and skype, etc. We’re a pretty tight-knit group, having shared some amazing experiences over the past few years, and though many of us will keep in touch after Swaziland, it’s still kind of sad to be ending this chapter of our collective friendship. We’ve made some lifelong friends here, and that COS conference was our last “official” group get-together (yes, an unofficial one is planned for later this month). So it was fun just to all be together again and enjoy each other.

Also, the in-country PC staff has been so good to us—supportive and helpful way beyond the call of duty. We really appreciate everything they’ve done for us and we’re going to miss them too!

First big fun thing: Mandy and Alisha visited

It’s been a while since posting to this blog, I know. But we’ve been busy—with fun things, mostly. April was especially eventful, with no less than 3 big fun things filling our weeks.

First big fun thing: Mandy and Alisha visited. We were visited by two friends from the US, Mandy and Alisha, and we had a great time traveling with them through Mozambique, South Africa, and also here in Swaziland. Mandy has already posted a photo album featuring the Swaziland portion of that trip, and it contains lots of great photos of our host community and country at large—click here to view it. Mandy is a talented photographer and it’s been really rewarding for us to see our everyday surroundings through her lens. Thanks Mand!

Our time in Mozambique was especially nice. We stayed with Kim and Peter (Kim’s an ex-Peace Corps Vol and friends with Mandy and Jamie) and traveled with them north to a great little coastal lagoon for a night of camping. I’ll have to relate in another entry how I lost my favorite Cape Town shirt in the lagoon; by far, the best way I’ve ever lost my shirt. Anyway, the fresh fish was great, the cashew nuts were plentiful, the Maputo markets were brimming with interesting counters and characters, the local beers were pretty good, and Kim and Peter were really great and kind. I heart Moz. In fact, We’ll be returning there after our PC service with another PCV couple for some serious weeks of traveling: all the way up the length of the country and into Tanzania.

And then there was South Africa’s Kruger National Park. Wow. Wildlife galore. It was pretty incredible. I’m sure Mandy will soon post a photo album of our days there, and when she does I’ll provide a link to it. Until then, see the entry titled “Animals!” for a run-down of some of the wildlife we encountered while there. And if you ever happen to be in Southern Africa, for God sakes spend a few days in Kruger. You’ll not regret it. Don’t let all the touristy safari crap dissuade you, because you don’t have to do that stuff to explore the park on your own. It’s huge and accessible.

next was the second big fun thing...

Friends Visiting in April!

In less than a month two good friends from the US are coming to Southern Africa, and we’re pretty excited about it. We’ll all head first to Mozambique (where we’ll visit another American friend living in Maputo), then we’ll spend some time here in Swaziland, and then we’ll spend some time in South Africa’s famous Kruger National Park—lions and giraffes and hippos and other awesome safari fare.

This is gonna be fun.

Their April visit kicks off an exciting month for us. We’ll be going to a weeklong “Close of Service” Conference with all our fellow Group 6 PCVs, and after that we’ll set off for another 12 days of regional traveling: Victoria Falls (Zambia side), then Botswana’s Okavango Delta and Kalahari Desert.

The Peace Corps may be tough, but it certainly comes with benefits.

Stepping Away

The local high school faculty and student body are excited about having another College Fair, and this year it will be held during the school’s first term (instead of the final term). This year, however, planning it and hosting it is entirely up to the school itself; all we’ll do is help revise the invitation letters. It’s not that we’re lazy. It’s just that, if we were training wheels, it would be time to remove us.

At this stage of our service, it’s all about stepping away and letting our counterparts do these things without “outside” assistance. So the less we need to be involved, the more successful we’ll feel! We’re also “stepping away” from an upcoming Youth Day event that builds upon last year’s efforts to increase the capacity of a local youth organization. We’re involved, but again, the less we do this time around, the more successful we’ll feel. Our local counterparts have (hopefully) learned how to plan and organize these kinds of events, and now it’s time to apply their new skills.

I want to briefly talk about this notion of stepping away, because, with just about 5 months left in our service, we’re thinking a lot about what we’ll leave behind; what’s likely to prove sustainable and what isn’t.

After two years of living and working here, we can say with great conviction that the only worthwhile kind of development efforts are those which seek to curb the pattern of aid-dependence. And this applies even to events like the ones mentioned above. Our working model of sustainable development seeks to build a community that does not need to rely on outsiders like us to (in this example) host successful community events. No matter what the project, building self-reliance is the underlying goal.

The crippling impact of aid-dependence, we have found, extends to all areas of outside assistance. Any form of “no strings attached” handout, which does not require any accountability or effort or commensurate obligation on the part of the beneficiary, has the potential to worsen aid-dependence. For an interesting and controversial treatment of the topic, we recommend the recent book by Dambisa Moyo called DEAD AID (2009). Clearly, there are productive and nonproductive ways of offering assistance to underdeveloped countries… problem is, the nonproductive approaches are usually the easiest and quickest—and they yield great photo-ops, too.

BUT… there is a tendency for people to use this aid-dependence difficulty to absolve themselves of charitable obligation. The rationale goes, since these do-gooder organizations only end up making things worse, there’s no reason to donate or otherwise get involved with them. But that’s misguided, and here’s a couple reasons why.

First of all, not all do-gooder organizations are equal. A genuine concern about aid-dependence should not discourage a person’s natural and healthy charitable inclinations, but rather compel them to be more selective about which aid organizations they support. We like using the website Charity Navigator to research organizations both large and small. Personally, we tend to favor projects or causes that seek to develop local capacity (both individual and/or organizational capacity); that equip the local population to better address its own needs and wants. That could be skills training or strengthening infrastructure, increasing general knowledge about issues being faced, etc.

Second of all, there are, regrettably, plenty of circumstances in which direct handouts are entirely appropriate. We’ve seen plenty of them first-hand. An aging grandmother caring for 6 orphaned grandkids, for example, whose mud-hut is collapsing and whose meager pension hardly satisfies her own hunger much less her grandkids… it would be immoral to deny her a bag of rice based on some lofty principal of reducing aid-dependence. If she doesn’t get that rice from the Red Cross (for example), someone could literally die. She IS dependent on food aid, and thank God there’s an organization out there willing to support her. So frankly, I have no patience for the old “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” argument in these kinds of dire circumstances. There really IS a place for this kind of extreme intervention, and organizations providing it rely on donor (and governmental) support. But when this extreme intervention is applied across the board to ALL cases of need, whether extreme or moderate, that’s where the aid-dependence problems arise.

Anyway, as we begin our process of stepping away from our development and aid projects, we’ve learned a lot about the various levels of need and the various approaches employed to address them. We’ve been involved with projects we deem successful and ones we deem unsuccessful. We’ve seen the benefits and limitations of charity and of self-reliance, and we believe that any society, whether struggling or prospering, requires the strength of both forces to function.

In fact, we’ve learned that the most desirable kind of human charity is that which seeks self-reliance for others, while the best kind of self-reliance is that which seeks charity for others.