Tourist Life

At the end of June I had the incredible privilege of picking my parents and two family friends up from the airport for a two week adventure around southern Africa. It had been 10 months since the last time I had seen my parents, and I was thrilled beyond belief to be able to spend so much time with them. Family is something that has always been important to me, but this experience has shown me that my relationships are my top priority and my family is everything to me. I’m grateful to be here and I do not regret leaving for two years, but I miss my family all of the time, so it was extra special to have my parents here to share my experience with. 

At the Airport!

This is a bit of a lengthy post but I promise to get pictures in it to make it fun! I am also more than willing to give anyone any more information about the places we went, just let me know! 

I first brought them back to my village for the weekend. The five of us spent two days exploring my village and introducing them to the people in my life here. Our first stop was my school. It was great to show my parents where I work every day and to tell them more about what I do. Everyone we talked to were so gracious and excited to meet my parents. Time after time, people told my parents “She is our daughter.” At first I didn’t really think about the statement. But then people continued to claim themselves as my mother, in front of my own mother. My dad would make a joke about me or would ask about my work, and they would continue to talk about how I was their daughter. And I realized that they were giving the biggest compliment of all: they were making sure my parents knew that I am cherished, I am taken care of, I am protected, I am loved. They wanted my parents to know that they did not have to worry. I would be looked after. I was overwhelmed with love from having so many parents in one room. 

After some amusing interactions with students where they taught my parents some of the handshakes, we made it back to my house for a night of card games and talking. Saturday morning I woke everyone up with an early Fathers Day breakfast so we could make our way on a hike through the village. We headed over to Mannyelanong Game Reserve (Mannyelalong means ‘where vultures defecate’ in Setswana) on foot (about a 60-90 minute walk across my village) in order to give them a better understanding of village life, and so we could try to see some Cape Vultures. Luckily my dad is becoming a great photographer and we got some awesome shots of the nests high up on the cliff ledges. 

Dad, the Photographer, getting great shots of the vultures.

Saturday evening we through a Braai (BBQ/Cook out, etc) on my compound. A few of my PCV friends came, as well as some of my host siblings from my training village, and a few friends from the village. Everyone brought dishes to share, and I asked the Americans to bring traditional BBQ dishes. We made deviled eggs that were a HUGE hit, as well as pasta salad and my parents famous jalapeño cheese squares which my dad passed around until they were finished in approximately 10 minutes. There was tons of delicious food and my talented host siblings grilled for us. The Kgosi (Chief) of the village even stopped by with his wife for a bit! We had the driveway for a dance floor, one of the braai stands as a fire pit, and speakers pumping music into the clear night sky. My host dad taught me the Cape Town Quickstep, and the majority of the night was spent exchanging American and Bots dance moves with friends. If you know me, you know this is my favorite kind of night. So many people I love from so many different parts of my life coming together for one celebration with food, booze, and dancing. And, of course, I was the last one on the dance floor.

My Village Host Dad and My Dad

My Host Sibs from Training

Sunday morning we hauled our partied out butts out of bed for an early drive to the airport. Our first stop: Savute Under Canvas in Chobe National Park. We flew to Kasane and then took a TINY 8 seater plane to the Savute airstrip.

Tiny Plane!

Our fantastic guide Sam met us with a jeep at the airstrip and we made our way to camp. We stayed in big Chalets with toilets and “bucket showers”.

My Chalet 

The whole camp is torn down and moved every 6 days so it is never a permanent structure, per national regulations. We were also warned that animals came through the camp ground at night, evidenced by the large elephant foot prints and dung outside my tent door! One day around lunch time I was in my chalet when an couple of elephants came walking through camp. It was incredible to see them so close! During our two day three night stay we took several game drives and saw an astounding amount of animals including 1 month old lion cubs, the Marsh Pride of lions, two honey badgers, a juvenile leopard, zebra, giraffe, wildebeest, impala, and many many incredible birds.

6 Month Old Lion Cubs with Mom

Our guide was absolutely phenomenal and set a high standard for the rest of the trip. He was extremely knowledgeable and kind. We spent our evenings at dinner and around a fire with the wonderful camp staff that kept us well fed and laughing. I had a great time exchanging bits of Setswana with the staff and probably fooled my parents into thinking I can actually speak it! This was by far the highlight of my trip.

After a few days we flew on another tiny plane to Camp Moremi in the Okavango Delta. The delta is an incredible site to see from the air and if you haven’t yet, I recommend googling it to see it’s full expanse.

Camp Moremi was a permanent structure made up of many small cabins. The staff there was charming and accommodating and we had many more guests to share meals with. Here we took several more game drives and even took a sunset cruise in the delta where we went looking (and found!) hippos!My personal highlights for Camp Moremi included hippos, wild dogs, warthogs, baboons, and elephants crossing the water right in front of us.

Cape Buffalo

Wild Dogs!

Mom and I on our Boat Cruise

Because of the nature of the location, it is a bit more difficult to see animals there, but the guides are all on a radio system, and if they see something cool they will call the other guides to let them know, so often it feels like a chase to get to the spot before whatever is cool (like lions hunting an impala) is over.

Three Lions After a Failed Hunt

Impala 

  We had a lovely time at Camp Moremi and I once again loved meeting and talking to the staff. They took incredible care of us and were so personable. Within a few hours of arriving at camp, all of the staff knew my name, knew that I could speak some setswana, and knew that I was gluten free. It was amazing. Another highlight of our trip: While we were at Camp Moremi we FINALLY had (very limited) access to the outside world and we found out (a couple days late) that the CLEVELAND CAVILERS HAD WON THE NBA CHAMPIONSHIP GAME! We celebrated (of course!) with a couple bottles of champagne, and by proudly telling everyone we met for the rest of the two weeks that we are from Cleveland.

Dad and Pam Enjoying the View

After a lovely swim

Our next stop (another tiny plane!) was Chobe Game Lodge in Chobe National Park. This was much more of a resort type place as it had a permanent structure and was all connected with many rooms. We finally had wifi access to look up all of the Cavs news we could and to read about the parade. I love Cleveland.

A View from the Air!

Warthogs at our Lodge

Dad Jokes

We once again took many game drives, and were able to take two boat cruises on the Chobe River which has Bots on one side and Namibia on the other. We saw tons of hippos, and OODLES of baby elephants.

Boat Life

At one point on our boat cruise we sat and watched the animals come down to the river to drink and bathe. It was amazing to witness how all the animals coexist.

We saw another honey badger (these things are crazy rare y’all) and I laughed every time we saw a group of guinea fowl, which are my underdog favorite now. On our last day we watched a massive male lion walk right past our car, and we even saw a hippo out of the water! 

King James?

A Rare Sighting! A Hippo Out of the Water!

Thorough out our safari’s we had a lot of delicious food, and I loved having everyone try all of the traditional dishes. We also were often serenaded (Batswana are incredible talented vocally) and even had a marimba show one night. It was beyond words to be able to be that close to the animals and to share the experience with my parents. I was proud to be able to give additional context based on my local knowledge and delighted to be able to bridge the gap between my two homes. I am so thankful.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our vacation!