The END of AFRICA

I finished work at PATA on December 14. It was very sad to leave as I have learned more than I ever thought from my co-workers, boss, and PATA clinics. It has been a huge part of my life over the past 6.5 months and I am sad to let it go.

We had our work Christmas party on Thursday at my boss Daniella’s house. Her house is gorgeous. Daniella cooked burgers for us and we lounged in her pool enjoying the heat of the day with the back of Table Mountain overshadowing us. It was not the typical Christmas party that I am used to. I did get a present from everyone – a framed photo of the delegates atop Table Mountain holding our thank you sign!

For my last weekend I went on a hike to the Crystal Pools.  We hike through Steenbras River Gorge just off of Gordon’s Bay on the southern coast. The hike is not too hard and takes about 45 minutes to reach the third pool – which is the one we stayed at. It was very hot out though and we were all dripping in sweat anyway. Only 50 people are allowed to hike to the pools each day as they want to preserve the nature as best as possible. We had our permits though and were allowed to go on this hike.

The pools are full of fresh water and are back hidden in the mountains – a very secluded and untouched part of nature. There is a small waterfall on one side where you can drink the water if you want. Also there are very high cliffs on the side – for cliff jumping as the pool goes very deep. The jump is 30 meters high though and I was not willing to risk my life this time as what if I hit sharp rocks in the pool that I didn’t know about.  You can be very happy about that mom. We spent several hours just lounging about and enjoying the beauty before the hike back.

Monday was a public holiday, the day of Goodwill. Ashley, my new roommate, and I spent the day walking. We walked from our apartment all the way around Signal Hill to Sea Point and continued on past Clifton to Camps Bay. It was a very long walk in the heat of the day, but the views were spectacular of the coast. We ate lunch at Caprice where I promptly drank two glasses of water in under five minutes to rehydrate myself.

I have been busy doing the last of my Christmas shopping at Greenmarket Square and St. George’s Mall. I also have been doing a last bit of sightseeing. My bus to work drove past the Castle of Good Hope every day, yet I had never been inside. I finally walked there with my only purpose to enter the castle. The outside is ancient and impressive, but the inside was quite boring. Clearly I wasn’t missing out much by never going in until now, but at least I have seen it.

I leave tomorrow night to fly home to Nebraska and the USA!!

As this is the end of my African adventure living in the Mother City, I want to share with everyone that my next adventure is going back to school! I am starting my Masters at Boston University School of Public Health this January and I could not be more excited.  I am leaving a Cape Town summer for a Boston winter, but I think it will be completely worth it. I only hope that someday I can show SOMEONE around Cape Town as I am quite an expert at it now. 

PATA 2012 Southern Africa and Nigeria Regional Forum

The first week of December was the Regional Forum that I have spent six months planning!

All of the PATA staff (the five of us) moved into the hotel a day early to do set up for the conference. The Protea Fire and Ice Hotel in Cape Town was amazing and very helpful for everything we needed done.

Delegates started arriving late morning on Monday all the way up until close to dinner time. We had 77 delegates from 20 treatment teams arrive. It was supposed to be 79, but two Angolans did not come without telling us they had changed their minds (thus we lost money on them since it was paid for – how rude).  The countries represented were South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Angola, and Nigeria. We also welcomed around 40 individuals who were donors, speakers, or PATA steering committee members. Angolan and Mozambique delegates speak Portuguese which meant we had translators on hand for everything.

I had the task of getting the correct lanyard/nametag to each guest, distributing conference bags, explaining the program, masterclass signup sheets, and providing 200 condoms to each clinic team for them to take home. Thankfully Echati helped me because otherwise it would have been too much to handle, especially when the 40 people arrived at the same time off the flight from Jo’burg.

That evening was the opening dinner which featured a choir of HIV-positive individuals singing African songs. I was the only one who did not know the lyrics as all of the delegates were singing along. I was told one of the songs was the South African National Anthem.  Also Premier Helen Zille of the Western Cape Government made an opening speech praising PATA and the work we are doing. After many more speeches we had a buffet dinner.

The conference starting the next day with Day 1: Engagement in the cascade of care. Each day had plenary sessions with guest speakers sharing knowledge on the day theme. Then came two workshops, first in professional groups (so all the nurses worked together) then in clinic teams (so it was one of each profession from the home clinic). These help them create their goals for the following year and to address major issues at the clinic with resolutions to enact to make a change. The afternoons feature a sharing session from the workshop, speakers’ corner presentations from different delegates, and optional masterclasses to learn on varying topics that aren’t the three day themes.  Day 2 focused on Managing co-infection and Day 3 was Disclosure. In the conference room we had headsets to wear for simultaneous translation of the Portuguese to English and vice versa. Whenever a Portuguese delegate wanted to talk we had to all put on our headsets – it felt very UN.

Throughout all of this I helped with everything needed to make the days we worked so hard to coordinate run smoothly. I assisted in the workshop rooms, distributed documents and stickers, changed signs, and interacted with many clinic team members. It was very rewarding to hear them call my name and ask me for help as a member of PATA.

For dinners we spent one night at the waterfront, with the delegates wandering wherever they wanted. Then next was build-a-burger where we spiced our own meat to cook and had competitions for the best burger. This night was so much fun as while the burgers we created were cooking an impromptu dance party broke out. Everyone was singing and dancing (once again I did not know the words). They bonded with each other and called teams into the center to dance. Even PATA got a turn in the middle!  Unfortunately my burger did not win any prizes.

The last night was our closing ceremony and dinner. We took everyone in the cable car up Table Mountain for the speeches and reflection. Then we had dinner at the Gold restaurant in town that serves 13 courses all of different African variety so you taste dishes from many countries. This dinner ran very late and the delegates were falling asleep at the table. The staff plays traditional music and dances for you – which woke quite a few people up as they beat the drums and moved about.

On the day of departure we got up to see off the delegates at check out. The only problem was they had 6:00 flights so a 4:30 in the morning pick up time. It was very early and I was very tired. Once everyone was gone we got to go home, instead of work and I immediately fell asleep exhausted.

The forum overall was absolutely incredible to be a part of. I learned so much and met very influential and interesting people in the HIV/AIDS field as well as in Public Health. Every delegate learned who I was and what I was doing and loved me for it. They were all so great to meet. PATA 2013 East Africa Regional Forum is most likely being held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and I have every intention of going!

Interesting things from the forum:

·         Dr. Andrew Kiboneka from Botswana has lived in Omaha, Nebraska and studied at Creighton University. He asked where I was from and I told him Nebraska (most people have no clue where that is), but he goes “Omaha. I have been to California and New York as well, but I liked Nebraska best.” Made my morning!

·         A good portion of delegates had never left their home country before.

·         We gave gift vouchers worth R100 to the waterfront for dinner. They came as cards that you can use anywhere you want. Some delegates did not know how to use it and wanted their R100 not some card.

·         The delegates come to learn. They did not slack off from the conference nor stay up late partying/drinking. Come morning everyone was ready to go.

·         It is hard work keeping Africans on time. We had to start threatening things in order to get people there. We said the bus for Table Mountain left at a certain time and if you weren’t ready we would leave you behind and you could find your own way – several delegates had to pay for taxis to the mountain.

·         I learned I kind of like red bull – Nadine our savior of a Conference coordinator for the hotel gave PATA staff red bull when we looked like we had no energy left. It definitely helped.

·         Tea breaks happen late morning and early afternoon every day. Now without them back in my apartment and at work I get hungry for snacks then, but no longer get any.

·         Dr. Shaffiq Essajee flew from our conference to Geneva to be involved in a World Health Organization meeting on pediatric HIV guidelines (SO COOL)

November in Cape Town

I apologize for being so far behind on my blog. Thus I am condensing my experiences in November into this one delightful post.

Immediately after my return from my trip I fell ill.  I attempted to go to work one day, but left half way through because I felt so bad. Finally that night Leila drove me (and Caroline to accompany me) to the Mediclinic.  I discovered I had a horrible infection, probably from the Zambezi River, and was prescribed antibiotics (thankfully no Malaria, not to mention I am STILL on the antimalarial pills as you have to take them for an entire month after you leave the possible infection area). We went to the pharmacy (not at the same location) to get my medicine, but the pharmacy didn’t have it. They promised to get it for me for the next day so I had to continue to suffer without medication. The next day I went in, not looking the best, and they had only managed to get five of the 10 pills I needed. They promised to get the rest by the weekend, when I would come to pick them up.  When I went in again, they had not gotten the medicine and sold me a different version of it. This was my first complaint lodged about my medical care in Africa.

My next complaint I discovered when looking at my medical bill. I paid it the night in the Emergency Room. Somehow I paid over $20 more than my bill was worth. My payment receipt was that much more than my actual medical bill. Why in the world would that happen? I have been attempting to get my money back for two weeks now and am not happy with them. T.I.A. This is Africa.

After my horrible week of illness (during which my father was convinced I might have a rare African disease), I was/still am perfectly healthy.  Thus I returned to work in the middle of complete chaos. Our forum at that point was less than a month away (now it is next week!).  For the past three weeks work has consumed my life. We work 8-5 and the entire time we are managing a massive list of tasks that must be accomplished before our forum can happen. Thankfully we have almost achieved this feat.

Currently we are in the final stages of preparations, which includes Angola still not receiving their VISAs to South Africa and maybe not going to attend, me waiting to collect tons of documents and programs that are at the printers, and every other little thing that is going wrong or hasn’t been completed.  I have loved these past few weeks of work since I have been exceptionally busy and completely trusted by my boss and fellow employees to accomplish everything assigned to me.  I am legitimately excited for the PATA 2012 Southern Africa and Nigeria Regional Forum, not to mention I get to live at the hotel for the entire week along with all our PATA staff and conference delegates and speakers.

This is a picture of our staff at one of the clinics we support. Starting from the left: Glynis, Me, Anthea (temp. employee), Echati (new intern), Clinic staff member, Daniella (my boss), Fiona, and Heleen. We had the children paint these trees for us to take to the forum!

The weather has been unbelievable, with hardly a rainy day or cloudy sky*. On the weekends we lay by the pool on the rooftop enjoying the view of Table Mountain. We go to the beach at Camps Bay and lounge in the soft sand by the freezing Atlantic Ocean.  We walk the promenade at Sea Point before a nice dinner at the Waterfront during sunset.  

*Now that I wrote that about the weather, we have had two days of such intense wind I almost get blown over. I wear my sunglasses at all times outdoor just to protect my eyes from the blowing dust.

For Thanksgiving we had a friendsgiving with 12 people. I made mom’s garlic mashed potatoes and I think they turned out quite well!  The girls mostly made the main food, while all of the guys bought desert to bring (which I am not complaining about as lots of it was from Charley’s Bakery).  We had a wonderful time, and I even got to voice chat with the family at home! Beth was the best sister ever when she forced my nephews to tell me they love me before they were allowed to play any computer games!  The only downside was I worked all day instead of having a holiday.

Now since it is the end of the month, lots of my friends are heading back home after their two-three month stays in Cape Town. We had a goodbye braai/pizza party on the rooftop to say farewell to everyone who will be leaving. 

I have officially lived in South Africa for the past six months! I am down to my last few weeks and plan on enjoying every minute of my time left here. <3 

Chobe National Park, Botswana

In the morning we easily packed up and departed from Zimbabwe for Botswana.  It was only about an hour drive once we crossed the border to get to our campsite near Chobe National Park.  

For our game drive, we climbed into a safari vehicle and headed into the park. Comparatively Kruger was more flat than Botswana. The hills were not very big but the landscape had more folds to it. The Chobe River is on the edge of the park and forms the border between Botswana and Namibia. There is an island in the middle of the river that was highly contested as to whose country owned it. Finally a ruling was made by the World Court that the land belonged to Botswana. This was determined because the river is shallower on the Botswana side and deeper on the Namibia side. Thus it is meant to be a part of Botswana.

Our guide was not nearly as intelligent as Lloyd in Kruger.  He did find us plenty of animals including four of the Big 5, but his knowledge about the animals and the plants was not up to scratch.

Animal Sightings:

·         Giraffe: Eating dinner

·         Baboons: Monkeying around. They had cute little babies! The baboons were strolling along the river’s edge.

·         Birds.

Big 5:

·         Elephants: Botswana is known for having the highest concentration of elephants in Africa. Chobe has 50,000 elephants alone.  Strolling in the river, climbing the small hills, roaming the beach, etc.  Apparently they always come out in the afternoon at this time.  Of course there were baby elephants frolicking around, acting just so cute.

·         Buffalo: The buffalo were mainly across the river lounging on one of the islands. They were all together and not up to much activity.

·         Leopard: I finally got to see a leopard! This completed my task to see all of the Big 5 on my trip to Africa!!!  The leopard was lying alone underneath a tree near the sand and river. It barely moved. So many safari vehicles were near it trying to get a closer look. Our guide drove us over one of the sand dunes and we thought we were going to completely tip over directly in front of the leopard. The vehicle was at such a high angle we were holding on to not slide right out the side (a railing is there, but not very secure nor like the ones at Kruger). Thankfully we managed to stay right side up and drive forward onto more level ground. But the view of the leopard was amazing.

·         Lion: We went off-roading (which you are not supposed to do in the park) to drive around this bush in the dunes and get close to two female lions and three little cubs! The cubs were so precious. They were sitting together and looking around before playing and then hiding in the giant bush. It was absolutely adorable and I love baby lion cubs! The two females were lying around and watching us carefully. They see the vehicle as something they can’t attack but if one of us were to get out or stick a body part out they would come for it as they are wild.  Dan preceded to accidently DROP his camera right in front of them. The guide said we would have to just leave it there, but another safari vehicle came around the corner. The vehicle pulled between us and the lions to block their view of us and the guide quickly opened his door and grabbed it.  Later we came upon a male lion sitting far back from the road. There was no room to get closer as the trees and general wood debris was in the way. The lion had a huge main.

·         Rhino: There are no rhinos in Chobe National Park. At least I got to see them in Kruger.

In the morning we went on a river safari on the Chobe in a small boat to see more of the animals. Unfortunately the elephants were not out and about as it was too early for them to be at the watering hole.

Animal Sightings:

·         Crocodiles: There were tons of these on the land, sliding into the water, and swimming. I would not ever go swimming here in the Chobe River.

·         Hippopotamuses: These were also all over the place. They were standing on land or swimming in the water. At one point we got so close to one that it turned around and was chasing our boat as we shot away through the water. We also were moving fast at one point and we hit something under the surface and thankfully just shot forward with a loud clunk noise; I was convinced we hit a hippo while he claimed it must have been a large piece of wood.

·         Waterbuck: The waterbuck were eating grass on the side of the river.

·         Buffalo: They were doing the same thing as the afternoon before.

·         Elephants: Same.

·         Birds: Different birds were flying around and sitting near the river’s edge. The best part was actually watching a group of birdwatchers on the boat watching the birds. They had huge lens on their cameras that were all in camouflage colors and sticking out far past their faces.

After the safari we headed out to drive all day until we would reach Palapye that evening to camp.  While driving south, we had to go through several disease control check points. We passed through them on the way north, but there are no restrictions on driving up Botswana. Driving down however, there is the threat of spreading Foot and Mouth Disease. To prevent this at each check point we must all climb out of the car and take every pair of shoe we brought with us. Thankfully I only brought my sneakers and my sandals. Then you step on this wet cloth that is sitting in a puddle to completely coat the bottom of your shoes in the liquid.  Then you put your other shoes down and rinse them off too. Next you walk to the other side as the driver gets back in the car and drives it down into a ditch containing tons of the fluid so that the entire tire gets coated as you drive through. I am not sure how effective this is, especially because some of us left shoes in our bags and they don’t check them.

We stopped in Francistown to drop Dan off where we had picked him up at the start of the week. We didn’t arrive in Palapye until late at night. Early in the morning we started the rest of the journey to return us to South Africa. We made it through the border crossing and reached the Tropic of Capricorn. The sign was knocked over and on the ground; we got out and picked it back up so we could take a picture.  After a few more hours’ drive, we dropped off the Australian couple, and then Caroline and I were picked up by Beyers. We spent the last night at his house. We were so tired that we fell asleep on the couch. It was very nice to have a real mattress to sleep on again. Bright and early the next day we caught a flight home to Cape Town! 

Victoria Falls Zimbabwe/Zambia

Caroline and I had a late start – pick up was at 6:45 am, the most we had slept in for days. The night before I got stung on the hand by some vicious insect but thankfully the swelling went down and I was perfectly fine in the morning.  We were the last picked up by David who would be our driver for the next week. In the car already were our two friends from Cape Town, Shevaun and Liz. We also had Australian couple, Maggie and Wayne, who would not be camping with us and a girl from the Midwest, Bre, who has been living and working at an eco-hotel in Mozambique for several months.

Today would mark a very long day of driving, over 14 hours in the car with arrival at our campsite after 8pm. The drive started off extra slow as we got stuck behind a wide load vehicle transporting machinery to the next town. Finally after around five hours we reached the Botswana border at Grobler’s Bridge. Here we were stamped out and then drove across the Limpopo River to reach the Botswana entry post, Martin’s Drift. Botswana does not require any money to get a VISA which was very much appreciated.

From here we drove a long time to reach Francistown. We picked up a 19 year old male from the UK, Dan, who was spending time couch surfing in Botswana and South Africa. This completed our group for the upcoming week.  While driving, animals slowly meandered across the roads. David had to be very alert so as not to hit the cows, sheep, baboons, and other animals that stopped in our way. Someone had hit a poor goat and shattered its back legs, leaving it struggling in the middle of the road which was really sad to see.

Shortly after 8pm we finally made it to Elephant Sands, our camping grounds.  It was pitch dark, but thankfully a delicious dinner was waiting for us. Elephant Sands is a bush lodge located very far away from the nearest town. They create a watering hole for elephants by pumping water for them to drink. If they didn’t do this, the elephants would invade neighboring villages and destroy homes, killing people while looking for water.  The watering hole is very close to the lodge restaurant, and during our meal they were drinking less than 20 meters from us. We all sat by the fire pit watching them and their babies in the dark.

I officially pitched my first tent ever in the dark on the sandy dirt here in Botswana. Kruger had permanent tents erected and I have never been officially camping before so this was a learning experience. Caroline knew what she was doing and after struggling for a long time to get them up, David told us a very simple way to do them. No worries, by the end of the week I became a tent constructing pro. We had mats to put down as a mattress so we didn’t sleep on the hard ground.

In the morning there were elephant tracks less than five meters from our tents. The elephants are so close and just wander around in the night through our camping territory. I am glad they don’t decide to crush the tents. After packing up our tents we hit the road to head to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe the town literally a five minute walk from the falls. We easily passed through passport control out of Botswana, but the line was very long in Zimbabwe. It turns out Japanese, Chinese, and maybe other Asian tourists get into Zimbabwe free of charge. Zimbabwe currency is no longer of any value nor in circulation; they mainly use US dollars (which is what you get at an ATM). You can also use the South African Rand or even Botswana Pula. As a USA citizen my VISA was $45 for a double entry (single is only $30). As a Canadian, Shevaun had to pay $75 for a single entry and double entry wasn’t an option, resulting in here needing to purchase another $75 VISA once we came back from Zambia. I don’t know what the Canadians did to Zimbabwe, but I was very glad to be American.

Immediately upon arrival at our Victoria Falls Rest Camp, we set up our tents and prepared to depart on our sunset river cruise (which is really a sunset booze cruise).  It lasts about three hours. A vehicle picked us up and took us to the jetty on the upper Zambezi River before the falls. After the falls the lower Zambezi is full of rapids while above the falls it is smooth and calm.  A musical group in traditional clothes greeted us with music, and Caroline and I joined in on the dancing.

During the cruise we floated back and forth looking at the Zambia side and the Zimbabwe side. We saw hippos and crocodiles in the water. The bar was unlimited so we had a proper initiation into the area; I even had a Zambezi beer, a local brand.  The sun set was spectacular over the trees. The cruise went much faster than I wanted it to, as it was very enjoyable just floating on the water.

It is very hot at Victoria Falls and the mosquitoes come out with a vengeance at dusk. In our tents Caroline and I hung up mosquito nets, wore bug spray, and kept all the mesh closed, but we still were bit many times by these pests (her more than me thankfully). Also, it was so hot you couldn’t even stay covered up in a sleeping bag to help keep the bugs off. With barely any clothes on you were sweating and mildly uncomfortable.

It is summer and the water is at the low level at the falls. This means that the river is much lower than in April and that the falls are not complete. In April Victoria Falls is the largest waterfall in the world (not the highest). This is because its dimensions, length and height of a continuous sheet of water, extend so far across that it is the largest sheet of falling water in the world.  At this point the mist is so powerful from the falls that it can be seen miles away and you can barely see the falls from the ground because of it. It is also the reason the falls are nicknamed ‘The Smoke that Thunders.”  However, since it is low season parts of the river bed on the upper Zambezi and the waterfall are completely dry. The Zambia side has no running water over the falls whatsoever.  In Zimbabwe we have running water but can approach the falls and see everything that is happening because the mist is much lighter. Low season is the best time for white water rafting and to visit Devil’s Pool, which is just what we did.

The first full day at Victoria Falls, we went white water rafting on the lower Zambezi River. This section of the lower Zambezi is known as one of the best places to white water raft in the world because it has so many high grade rapids. The six of us in our tour, not the Australian couple, singed up to go together for a full day trip. Each raft holds six people and the guide so it was absolutely perfect! Since it is low season, we start at rapid 1 and go through rapid 19 (in the high season you start at 11 and go to 24.  We started rafting right at the base of the falls, literally within view of them which was spectacular.  The only unfortunate thing was we had to hike down into the canyon at the base of the falls before we could raft. Carrying all of our equipment (a very buoyant life jacket, paddle, and helmet) we began the 20 minute trek down. We were advised to wear our helmets because naughty baboons have been known to throw rocks off the top of the gorge we were climbing down.

At the bottom we met our guide Satellite (they all have river names) who would be stuck with us for the day. The other guide, Titanic, was taking out the other raft booked through the same white water rafting company, Shearwater Adventures.  There were also several men who would be in kayaks going down with the two rafts. These guys are there for our safety – to help fetch us from the water if we fly out of the raft, and to photograph us at the major rapids so we have memories of our crazy excursion. One of these guys had on a D.A.R.E shirt, as in the drug abuse resistance education class I had to take in 5^th grade. Where did he get this?

In the raft we practiced following Satellite’s orders for paddling so we could turn, reverse, duck, etc. At each rapid he would instruct us how to take on the rapid and what to do if you were thrown out of the raft. The Zambezi does have crocodiles in it, which would definitely eat us, as well as rocks you could be slammed into. The most important things was to go feet in front down the rapids and river so you could push yourself off of rocks if they are in your path (instead of using your head).  The other advice would be which side of the river to swim towards, or stay in the center, so you don’t interact with the crocodiles. If thrown underwater in the current, you must count to 10 in your head slowly before freaking out; if you actually reach 10 count again because you counted too fast. This advice was because the life jackets are very buoyant and you need to stay still so that they naturally bring you up to the surface instead of trying to find your own way and swimming down. They even have a head rest/pillow so you can float on your back with your head elevated out of the water. 

Finally we were ready to go. The first rapid was the Boiling Pot. We went through it and realized that as a team we were not up to scratch just yet. Dan who was leading my side in front of me was not the best paddler, and we kept hitting paddles as he changed his rhythm. Behind me Liz had only self-preservation instincts, and would duck inside the raft at every rapid, even the ones we had to paddle through or risk being sucked into whirlpools or being tossed out. Needless to say my side of the raft was struggling a lot.

I can't remember which rapid this is:

But we survived.

We regrouped and got ready for the next rapid. They were not spaced evenly so sometimes we had lots of time to paddle, which was hard, in between each white water area. Other times we hit four in a row with no breather in between.

The rapids:

1.       The Boiling Pot

2.       The Bridge

3.       Rapid #3

4.       Morning Glory (Grade 5)

5.       Stairway to Heaven (Grade 5) - a huge vertical drop of 8 meters. I saw the raft in front of us go into the rapid.  It just vanished into thin air as it fell down.

6.       Devil’s Toilet Bowl

7.       Guliver’s Travels (Grade 5) – Longest rapid of the day

8.       Midnight Diner (Grade 5)

9.       Commercial Suicide (Grade 6) – we got out of the raft and walked around this one. A level 6 is for very very very experienced individuals only, otherwise you will likely die. One of our guides rode the raft down and he tumbled out and was thrown around quite a bit before reaching the end.

We are the white raft with red people floating out towards the bottom of Commercial Suicide. Thanks Maggie and Wayne for the awesome picture from the helicopter.

10.   Gnashing Jaws of Death

11.   Overland Truck Eater (Grade 5) – I believe this is the rapid with the massive whirlpool in the middle that you must paddle hard around or get sucked in. We almost didn’t make it as Satellite was yelling at us to paddle faster repeatedly as we towed the line next to the whirlpool.

12.   Three Ugly Sisters – 3 rapids in very close succession to each other with each getting a little harder than the prior one

13.   The Mother – Even worse to go through then the sisters. We lost three members of our team in this rapid, and three of us, including me, and the guide stayed in the raft.

14.   Surprise Surprise

15.   The Washing Machine

16.   The Terminator

17.   Judgement Day

18.   Oblivion (Grade 5) – This rapid is known for flipping 99% of the rafts that attempt to go through it. First you hit one big wave and dip in, then a second, and on the third one the wave pushes the raft entirely over. There was a brief moment when I thought we could recover and save it, but as the pictures show there was no hope and we all tumbled into the river. I was not under for very long, but the current was very strong and whips you around in all directions, pulling my paddle from my hand. I managed to grab it back and drift through the rapid to one of the kayakers. He pulled me towards the raft to climb back in. The third wave is responsible for more raft flips than any other in the world.

That's me on the top part, in the second position.

19.   The Last Straw – On this rapid you have a choice of going hard (and possibly falling out) or taking it easy. We chose to go hard. The raft hit the rapids and we went up. Only three of us fell in – Dan who completely wiped out, Caroline who was pushed out as Dan fell, and me who got kicked full on in the head by a falling Dan and flew out of the raft. Thankfully we were wearing the helmets so it didn’t hurt, but just shoved me out of the raft into the rapid.

During some of the breaks we made friends with the guides. I was given two river names, one meaning owl and one meaning female buffalo. The Australian couple went on a helicopter tour of the falls and managed to take pictures of us in our raft from the air! After finishing the last rapid we had to hike up for 30 minutes to reach the top where a late lunch was served. By the time we got up there, my shoes were dry (as I went rafting in my sneakers).

Back at the hotel we laid by the pool for several hours until dinner time. We were too tired to do anything else, but crawl into our tents and sleep.

On our second full day in Victoria Falls, we went to the National Park. The park had nice paths with viewpoints every so often that get you close to the edge and the falls. The falls are in a huge gorge that is cut out of the Earth. They are very wide at the top, but then condense into a narrow river and flow away. Zambia is on one side of the river and Zimbabwe on the other. Zimbabwe has the larger part of the falls since the river starts near the other edge. Thus we can stand directly opposite most of the falls at the same height.  The falls are broken into individual names at various sections, where the water falls more condensed. However, since the water was low several of the spots were dry with only one main gushing part still flowing.

After viewing them for a while and seeing the first rapid we attempted the day before, Caroline and I left the park to walk to Zambia. After you get cleared for exiting the country, there is a long walk in an area nicknamed no-man’s land. The bridge itself is in this territory.  Across the other side we eventually reached the Zambia entry port and got our day VISAs.  From here we could enter the National Park on the Zambia side, for more money of course. Zambia uses the Kwacha as a currency, but they took our USD as well.

The National park on this side is much smaller with not as good of views. The falls were all dry, but you could look down the gorge and see the spray in Zimbabwe. We met up with a guide who would take us to Devil’s Pool. Devil’s Pool is a natural infinity pool at the top of the Falls.  We walked across the dry river bed where the falls gush in high season. The guide led us around the area showing us awesome view points for different parts of the falls.

Devil’s Pool is connected to the part of the falls that are currently flowing. There is a natural rock wall just under the surface of the water that prevents anything (or anyone) from being pushed over the falls. To get to the pool, you leave Livingstone Island (which is not an island in the low season) by swimming in the river a bit upstream of the edge.  The guide takes you on a path with weak currents; there are ropes closer to the edge for you to grab if you start being pulled by the current. After the short swim you are on a small rocky island next to the rapid falls.

The guide teaches you how to jump in, not too far that you go over nor too short that you land on all the rocks under the surface. Then he jumps first so he can stand at the edge and stop you from hitting the wall or falling over.  I went first. It was so fun leaping into the pool, and the current was not as strong as you would think. I climbed up and sat on the ledge (it is about 3 feet wide so I wasn’t that close to falling in). Caroline went next, followed by the two South Korean girls in our tour group. The four of us sat on the wall while the camera guide took our pictures.  The water has the little fish in it that are used in pedicures. They kept biting my feet and other body parts; the only issue was they are not nearly as small as the one’s I have used in a fish pedicure in Vietnam. They were quite big and painful when they bit you.

The guide led me over to the falls in the pool and let me sit with my shoulders under the current of the falls. They were very powerful.  We climbed out and a different group with our friends got to jump in. At this point we noticed that the Australian couple happened to be in the park across the falls from us taking our picture from that side. What were the odds that this would happen at the same time?

Caroline and I proceeded to walk all the way back from Devil’s Pool in Zambia to our camp site in Zimbabwe. For dinner our group went out to Mama Africa where we listened to the same music group as before perform once again.

In the morning it was time to head for Chobe National Park in Botswana!