Botswana to Zambia!

This week has just been crazy. I landed in South Africa Thursday of last week, and fast forward one week later I am sitting in Livingstone, Zambia.. a stone throw away from Victoria falls. Before I talk about the amazing and majestic victoria falls I'll quickly recap this weeks happenings for those who are actually reading my blog (i'm impressed). I know theres at least one!

So on Friday, I was in Johannesburg and I took a tour of Sowetto... the largest ghetto in the world comprising of about 5 million people. No joke. It is here that 2 nobel laureate winners of the peace prize had homes less than one block away. For history buffs: Nelson Mandela and ArchBishop Desmond Tutu. I took a tour of their small houses and walked around in awe as I got a glimpse of all their real memoriabilia they had donated to their homes which is now a musuem. Sowetto was the town where the uprising against apartheid brought south africa in the world wide attention. I went to a particular museum which was very powerful which gave me a quick glimpse of life under apartheid.

Friday night: I partied in Johannesburg what else! Me, Marko (a german fellow I met and became great friends with) and a dutch dude decided to hit the town to check out the night life. We ended up going to Melville the centerpiece for nightlife with great restaurants and bars. Something to suit everyone's tastes. We had a blast, although I must mention that I felt bad for recommending the Blue Cheese Hamburger to Marko for when he got his plate it smelt like stinky feet. It smelt so much so that the couple sitting next to us had to move to the other side of the restaurant to avoid Santa's dirty feet (that's the term they used!). So we talked about life in our respective countries. Marko is actually a DJ and gave me the whole spheel on the music he plays at his club. Turns out we have very similar tastes when it comes to music! The dutch dude was very quiet almost strange in a way, but I don't discriminate.. everyone is different in their own way. That's what makes meeting people fun.

From the restaurant which by the way i ordered just a plate of fries as I wasn't hungry, we headed off to a club called cool runnnings which had a live heavy metal band. Not usually my cup of tea i decided to give it a shot as it was packed with young south african party goers. We headbanged (haha yea right) the night away and many drinks were had as i can't recall how many. Marko and I were just having a blast but maybe around 1 am we realized dutch dude wasn't with us. Feeling bad, I decided to search for him onlyl to find him upstairs standing all by himself with no beers in hand. After the bands were gone, Marko decided he wanted to try to hit on girls which also isn't my cup of tea but what the hell... and we ended up just randomly sitting in a table with 4 goregeous gals. So i tried to get a sense of their views on the world and man, I just couldn't believe how ignornant they were. They still believed you could get AIDs by just touching someone and that you HAD TO SHOWER if u came in contact with someone with aids. In addition they had strange sterotypes about black people and about indian people which I paid particular attention to. It was pretty apparent right off the bat that 3 of the girls found me attractive as they asked me a whole slew of questions about my love life and if i wanted to hook up (which also isn't my cup of tea).. but i was more interested in their perceptions of the indian population as they too suffered under apartheid. One guy was quick to point out that he thought all indians worked at MCdonald's and 7-11. One by one i dispelled all their myths and I think they were just in awe at how much knowledge and logical i sounded that they were impressed. Finally the night rounded around 3 and after the girls knew they weren't going to get a piece of the american guy who's indian from the US... they departed. We ended up sitting with a group of guys and I talked a bit about how they felt about South Africa. Things are still ambivilanet and racism sill occurs.. but supringly ppl are open to discussion. I met a guy from Lithiuania a traveler who works on health insurance issues a whole bunch of ppl from Iceland. Marko was doing his best and trying his hardest to hook up with this gal from Iceland and from all accounts he had succeeded. Dutch guy, damnit! I lost him again.. Poor thing I saw him standing all alone not talking at all. Maybe he was tiried who knows. 4 am we exchanged facebook accounts with the guys and gals and decided it was time to go. I was to depart to botswana the very next day!

Saturday:

I hopped on a Intercape bus from Park station in Johannesburg to Gaborone, Botswana. It was an interesting journey on a double decker bus. I sat on the top and it was nice to see the landscape change from modern city to wilderness. I also met an indian girl who sat behind me and we talked a great deal. She was nice.



From Gaborone after I setted in for a few days, I headed to Kasane the gateway to Chobe national park. After a pause in Francistown I hopped on a minibus to Kasane. The minibus was an interesting experience and believe me I have been on many bus journeys throughout the world. on this bus, random sketch vendors were selling anything imaginable from fried chicken from "the hungry lion" to perfumes, to wallets, to candy, to so called "bottled water" haha yea right, to mangos. I sat on the bus and just wondered about a lot of things. 30 percent of botswana has AIDS. I looked around the bus and thought about how every 1 in 3 persons was HIV positive. A staggering number!

Kasane was okay. I fell sick. A bad case of travelers diarrhea and it basically trained me out. I didn't want to eat and all i felt like doing was sleeping. I got freaked out at first as the first night i had chills and a mild fever which made me think of malaria (fever in a malaria endemic area is MALARIA until proven otherwise) but alas things subsized and i think it was just traveler's diarrhea. I am taking prophylaxis for malaria called Mefloquine which makes u feel shitty itself. So kasane was spent just sleeping as I was in no shape to go on a safari to Chobe. Instead i decided to head to Zambia..... livingstone to see Victoria falls.

A taxi ride to the border where I cleared customs and immigration then a short walk to the Zambezi River i was at the intersection of 4 different countries. To my west amongst the trees lay Namibia. Straight ahead north was Zambia, To my east was Zimbabawe and were I was standing was Botswana. How amazing to just look at 4 different countries. Only way to get to Zambia is to hop on a ferrry ride as there is no bride. U can imagine how much of a pain in the ass it must be for cargo carriers in big trucks as they are transported by boat ONE AT A TIME. sometimes these trucks wait 3 or 4 days just to even cross. A bridge is in the plans maybe will be completed in 2010.

I finally crossed over to Zambia and staying at the ZigZag Lodge in livingston.. A cutesy place. I felt shitty all day yesterday upon arrival and I did nothing but sleep. Today I headed to Victoria falls. and OH MY GOSH. the most amazing natural wonder I have ever seen. Niagra falls eh? haha nothing in comparison. Vic falls is like 5 times the size maybe even more. It was just amazing and I totally got soaked as i Opted not to wear a rain jacket. It's just more fun that way!! So what's the plan now... Bungeeeee!!!!!!!! U just gotta bungee from the 3rd highest bungee bridge in the world. I've seen it on TV and its something not to be missed. I may go whitewater rafting in the Zambezi river as the currents are bad ass as it's rainy season here. Other than that, things are chill. I feel MUCH BETTER now and it's amazing how much your attitude on life and traveling in general changes when you feel at least well and not sick from having to feel the constant stomach gurgling.

quick summary

It's been a while since I posted something. Things have been pretty crazy but in a good way! I'm now sitting in a town in the northeastern corner of Botswana called Francistown. I'm enroute to Kasane the gateway to Chobe National Park and hope to cross the border into Zambia in Livingston near Victoria falls in a few days. I guess I should recap all the happenings over the week.
I'll try my best to do so this week.

Finally in Johannesburg

A 28 hour transatlantic journey has finally brought me to the African subcontinent. I am staying in Dunkfeld a nice area in the city of Johannesburg. I'm totally stoked as I really like the vibe of the city thus far. I reached yesterday around 10:00 am however after waiting for my luggage for nearly 2 hours in the baggage claim I finally made it out. It was a long and tiring journey and when I got back to my hotel room I basically just passed out--that's after I cleared my crappy living situation. At first, they had assigned me a room at the back of this huge ass mansion right behind a cluster of houses and facing a white stone wall lined with barber fence. My room was slightly larger than a closet and reeked of a stale dusky smell. Now i'm staying in a huge as dorm with 18 beds.. which supringly isn't bad as it takes me back to my college days. So i slept from like 3 in the afternoon till 8 until i decided i needed to wake up otherwise i wouldn't sleep for the night. So meandering around trying to find stuff to do, I ran into a German fellow who spent like 3 months in nambia working in a farm. From what he tells me, he's a DJ in germany trying to "find himself" now, an interesting guy. We went out in the town and sat at a nice bar/restaurant talking about life. Germans are pretty funny ppl in that they'll do anything to make sure they're english is up to par! I realized i didn't eat so i ordered a nice chicken burger which surpingly was great and omg so cheap about 4 dollars. Seriously, food and beverages are relatively inexpensive here. I also had one of the local beers Castile which was great. A light and smooth taste. Oh by the way, happy valentines day to everyone. I just realized it as there were lot of couples at the restaurant. What else.....

Today I have a tour at Sowetto in 20 minutes. It's the largest ghetto in the world and will meander off to the Nelson Mandela museum. It'll be very interesting and give me a glimpse of the horrors of the past, the pathologies of power as paul farmer would say it, and the wounds yet to heal of the future.

I had a great breakfast at a local cafe with awesome coffee and a raison cinammon crouissant. hightly recommended!

Everyone is really friendly so far and i'm having a blast. I'm not sure when i'll head out of johannesburg but it may be tomm or the day after. The plan is to go to Gaborone, Botswana. We'll see what happens. I kinda go with where the wind takes me.

The journey around the world round 2

One week away, I once again put on the demeanor of nomad-backpack in all and set to to explore new territories. It's been a crazy year so far and thus far my journey as spanned from the Mayan ruins of Tikal, guatemala to the ancient Inca ruins of Macchu Picchu all the way to the frigid temperatures of Rochester Minnesota and the magnificient Mayo Clinic. Encounters with ex-presidents have occured and social gatherings have taken place with family and friends however alas it's time to see the world once again and contribute to better society. I begin my Journey next Tuesday departing from Charlotte, North Carolina to JFK connecting to Frankfurt, Germany. I have a 12 hour lay over in Germany so I figure what the hell--i'll see Frankfurt for a day. From there i'm off to the notoriously dangerous Johannesburg in South Africa. This is where my journey into the African subcontient begins. I plan to back for about 2 weeks starting in South Africa reaching Botswana on my way to Tanzania where I will work as a healthcare worker in a rural clinic. i'm totally excited as I plan to make many stops along the way including many safaris and the grand Victoria falls. We'll see what happens and I promise to keep blogging as usual. I've been incredibly slack this past month--especiallly with interviews for residency going on.