Some Quick Updates

So, in order to speed things along and bring you all up-to-date, here's a few quick updates: I have a new and adorable little puppy. His name is Fiesty, and that's because it doesn't take much to get him worked up. He's tiny, but he thinks he's much bigger, and he loves to play tug of war. I also had a great pizza party in the nearby city of Balti a few weeks ago. Delicious pizza, a fun game of poker, an amazing cake, and great company! Who could ask for anything more? Here were some of the pizza party attendees: L to R: Ben, Jess, Patrick, Jerry, and Jen. Another week or so later, I headed into Balti to visit Nic and Bridgett, and a few other volunteers. We ended up having a hair cutting party. Don't worry, I still have most of my hair, although this picture looks like Nic chopped it all. He was just posing for the camera. :) Bridgett did do a nice layering job though. Thanks Bridgett! And Nic made some great food! Thanks Nic! :)

Back in Moldova!

So, I know it's taken me FOREVER to update my blog on the Zimbabwe trip. And as a result, some of my more recent adventures have not been shared with you. So, let me give a synopsis of one that happened not too long ago: Andrea's goodbye party. Andrea, the one on the right in this first picture, has been a good friend, and fellow volunteer in my group. She and I were in the same training village together at the beginning. She's hillarious and fun, and the life of every get-together with her sarcastic humor. Well, she has decided that a year in Moldova was just right. She accomplished everything she wanted to accomplish, and chose to head back to the States. But before she did, we had one last bash for her. A group of us headed out to Ungheni, Andrea's regional city and home, and had a great time together. We even had some sporting events of sorts, in which Craig and Nych got first place. It was a great way to send her off, and although we'll all miss Andrea around here, I'm very excited for what's in store for her in the States. L to R: Sarah, me, Carrie (the judges of the sporting events) Front row L to R: Sarah, me, Dan O Back row L to R: Nych, Rok, Craig, Adam, Carrie, Jess, Alexis, Andrea

Our Journey Begins

I remember the night before Jess and I left, and the look on Jess' face pretty much says it all. After months of planning, the trip was finally about to happen, and we had no idea what to expect. Jess and I stayed at a good friend of her's (Britton's) in Chisinau, the night before, because we had to head out very early the next day for the beginning of our long trip to Zimbabwe. We were both re-packing everything, trying to bring as little as possible, but also enough for every contingency. Hard to do when you don't know what to expect. The journey to Zimbabwe took four flights, and several many hour layovers in a variety of airports. We started from Chisinau, travelled to Istanbul, from there to Nairobi, from there to Johannesburg, and from there to Zimbabwe. By the time we actually got to Zimbabwe, we were so tired and ready for a bed, that we would have taken anything! But even at that point of desperation, we were so pleasantly surprised, when the man who met us at the airport, drove us to his amazing bed and breakfast! It was such a quaint and beautiful place, that we regretted we were only there for the night. There were gardens surrounding all the huts, and the food was delicious. But the next day, right on schedule, we headed out on a several hour bus ride from Harare Zimbabwe (the capital), to meet Ros, our volunteer coordinator from Operation Impact, in Bulawayo. Ros turned out to be a very cool person about our age, and I think we all connected pretty quickly. She knew we'd be a handful after she told us, "I was afraid you ladies were going to be "girly girls"", and I responded, "No, we're really laid back, but seriously, we're not going to break any nails on this trip, are we?" She looked at me with a somewhat disbelieving look of horror, and didn't start breathing again till I smiled and said, "I'm just kidding! I don't even have any nails!" She may have regretted that we weren't a bit "girlier" when she discovered after spending a few days with us, that she would actually have to force us to take showers every day! It's just that when you've lived in Moldova for so long, and only shower every three or four days (or longer), your idea of hygiene changes somewhat. hehehe...... Well, she asked for it! :) Ros took us to the house of the Cunninghams. The Cunninghams founded Family Impact, which is the Christian branch of Operation Impact. They are a wonderful, and very hospitable couple that welcomed us into their beautiful home, and made us feel like part of the family. We were able to rest up a few days at the Cunninghams before heading to Miambo Lodge where our real volunteer work would begin. While we were in Bulawayo, we got to meet some of Ros' friends, and enjoyed some great games of volleyball and ultimate frisbee and enjoy the company of wonderful people all at the same time. Here is a picture of us in the Cunninghams backyard: Me, Jess, Mrs. Cunningham, Mr. Cunningham, and Ros.

Volunteering Begins

When we arrived at Miambo Lodge, we met some great people, and were put to work pretty quickly. Not only was the staff amazing, but the work was also pretty fun! We met Sarah, a volunteer from England, who warmed up to us after a few days. We scared her pretty bad at first with our loud and overwhelming American-ness. :) She was great, and we had a lot of fun getting to know her. Jerry and Kailos, our guides, taught us so much, and took us on a lot of great adventures. Miambo is next to a national park, so we also got to do some volunteer work in the national park. I'll go into more detail a bit later. Here, Sarah, me and Jess are learning from Jerry, that some trees are not only good for making rope, but also for eating!! Who would have thought? We sometimes went for game count drives where we would head out in the safari truck and go into the local bush or the nearby national park and keep a count of all the animals we saw. Other game counts consisted of us heading to one local watering hole in the national park, and along with a packed lunch, keeping track for a day, of how many animals came and visited the watering hole. On some of these game counts, we would be ambushed by huge but very rapid storms that would sweep through the area, dump tons of rain, and wind on us, and then disappear just as quickly!! It was always exciting, and helped to cool things down, as the sun that close to the equator has a specific and harsh bite to it.

Something we did quite often as volunteers were snare sweeps. A snare is an animal trap made out of metal. The poachers, go into the bush, find two trees close together, and set up a circle of wire between the trees. Then they place shrubbery on either side of the trees to block any way around the snare. The animals (usually water buffalo, or some type of antelope) don't often see the snare because it is hidden with tree vines and branches. So, they walk right into it. When they pull on it, it tightens around their neck like a noose. Usually, they panick when they realize they're caught in something, and they pull and try to run. This only tightens the snare, and if the poacher doesn't come along quickly to put the animal out of its misery, the snare will slowly strangle the animal as it tries to free itself. So, what we would do, is line up, a few feet apart from each other, and walk through the bush in a straight line, looking for snares. If we found one, we would cut it down, and donate the wires to an organization that made jewelry out of them. The money made from selling the jewelry is then used to fund other conservation projects, and to hire locals to make the jewelry, thus finding honest employment in place of poaching. In these pictures, we came across a snare that had caught a water buffalo. Kailos estimated it had been out there for about two weeks, and as you can see, because the poacher did not find it, the animal died after an angonizing tussle with the snare. The buffalo ran several times around the tree in panick, and the snare wire ended up cutting all the way to its bone. Poor thing. The saddest part is that all of this was in vain, as not even the meat was taken by poachers. In this picture, Jess is pointing to a snare that is hidden between two trees. Why the frown you ask? Well, she just barely missed the snare on her snare sweep. It's so hard to see them. You can see how camelflouged they are. As we did our snare sweeps, we would often stop to learn about local plant life, and various animal and poacher tracking techniques. Kailos and Jerry, our faithful guides and volunteer coordinators at Miambo, were an invaluable and inexhaustible wealth of information on local bush life, and everything having to do with it.

Victoria Falls Fun!

Jess and I headed to Victoria Falls to 1) PICK UP BECKY!!!, and 2) to see Victoria Falls. Sarah, a volunteer from England, and an awesome person we really enjoyed getting to know at Miambo, also came with us to Victoria Falls. After picking Becky up from the airport (it was so great to see her after over a year), we had some great adventures together in Victoria Falls. We all went on a white water rafting trip in the Zambezi River. I think I was in the water more than i was in the raft, but it was still a lot of fun, all except for the life-flashing-before-my-eyes part in the Big Momma Rapid, and the crocodiles in the water when we were lazily floating next to our raft, cruising down the river in a calm spot. I've never seen people haul us into a raft so quickly!! Then, we went on a sunset cruise, where we saw local water wildlife, and we even got to sample battered crocodile tail (tastes like chicken! Doesn't everything?) We stayed at a sister lodge of Miambo's, and met a great group of volunteers there that were working with a lion rehabilitation project. Basically, they got to spend all day with lion cubs, teaching them how to hunt, feeding them, and cleaning up after them. Eventually, the lions get released back into the wild again. Lots of great people, and lots of fun!! P.S. - Did I mention we picked up BECKY?!?!?!

This was my favorite experience in Victoria Falls: BUNGEE JUMPING off the victoria Falls Bridge!! So scary, so much fun, and such an adrenaline rush!! I love the look on Becky's face as the guy is telling her, he'll push her after he counts backwards, from five to one. It's one thing to be standing on the bridge looking down, with a guardrail in front of you. It's a whole other thing when you're standing on the edge of the bridge, on a jumping platform, and you realize you're about ready to free fall over THREE HUNDRED feet at the count of five!! Did I already say this was my favorite Victoria Falls adventure? Too bad it was such a short one.

Of course, you'll notice, I picked a picture for myself where it looks like I haven't a care in the world. But if I'm going to be totally honest, my heart was beating much faster than it normally does. Look at the view behind me!! Amazing right?

New Year's Eve, we went to a Victoria Falls party, at a local boat club. Jess later told me that in her head, she envisioned the party being a very authentic, African experience where local native Zimbabweans would be singing traditional songs, and dancing traditional dances around a huge bonfire. Sounded great to me, and much more to my liking. In reality, the party consisted of a LOT of foreign turists all looking for somewhere to party for New Years. I guess it was fun, but parties have never really been my thing. It gave me a great chance to catch up on life with Becky though. That was the hilight of the party for me!! :) One of our final days in Victoria Falls, we sucked it up (I only sucked it up after much persuasion from Jess and Becky that I would regret it for the rest of the my life if I didn't), payed the $20 (that's US Dollars!!! Coming from Zimbabwe OR Moldova, that's a LOT of money!!!!! That's where the "sucking it up" part came in) entrance fee for Americans, and went into the Victoria Falls National Park. It was very beautiful, and ALSO VERY WET!!!!! Zimbabwe has yet to worry about things like law suits from falling turists who get too close to the edge, and so, their only real safety barriers were little signs like the one we're all standing behind (or beyond, should I say) that say "Don't go beyond this point. It's slippery when wet". It was hard to get a really accurate picture of how awe-inspiring these Falls are for several reasons: 1) they are somewhat spread out, and so a camera lens can't take the entirety in in one shot, and 2) they are so powerful that they throw up quite a cloud of eternal mist. You can see the mist from the Falls from miles away!! But, take my word for it: They are amazing! Me and David Livingston, who was the first Westerner to discover Victoria Falls. Yea, we're on a first name basis, Dave and I.

While we were volunteering at Miambo Lodge, we had the priviledge of meeting and visiting with a nearby homestead family. Homesteads are family plots of land that have gardens, livestock, and a number of small huts, some used for storage of grain, some used as sleeping quarters, a kitchen, etc... Most people that live on homesteads are poorer subsistence farmers and their extended families. The family that we visited, allowed us to walk around their homestead, and ask them questions. They are very poor by our standards, but are happy that they have land, some food, and each other. The girl in the middle, Primrose, wove the baskets and hats. She sells them when she can. This is an outside view of the homestead. The nearest water for this family is over a 2 kilometer walk away! Every day, the ladies carry buckets 2 kilometers to the well, and then carry full buckets home, empty them in a barrel, and start the journey again. They said they make trips back and forth to the well all day long. So, one day, we piled them all in the truck and drove them to the well. We helped them pump the water, and it's a lot of work! It takes a good five minutes of pumping before the water even starts to flow. We had a lot of fun fun with them though. They had wonderful senses of humor and we all did a lot of laughing!

Zimbabwean Wildlife

We had the chance to see so many amazing animals while in zimbabwe. I have thrown in just a few of the many wildlife pictures that we took. So, sit back, and enjoy the safari! There were monkeys and baboons everywhere! Sometimes, it's hard to tell which is which. For example: what are these? monkeys or baboons? :) There were quite a few warthogs, and boy are they ugly!!! Every time I saw one, I kept wanting to burst into songs from the Lion King. I couldn't help it! "When I was a young warthog!" "When he was young warthog!" "I found my aroma lacked a certain appeal. I could clear the Savannah after every meal. And oh the shame!!" "he was ashamed" "Thought of changing my name!" "What's in a name?" "And I got downhearted every time that I_" "Pumba! Not in front of the kids!" Giraffes are oddly graceful animals. They have almost an ethereal quality about them. I think it's because they are so huge, that they always look like they're moving in slow motion. They were Jess' favorite animal. She said it was because they were both tall, skinny, and freckled. hehehe... Oh look! Another monkey!