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...