Wednesday, March 30, 2011

The Movalli's do Africa

So I this is the first chance I’ve really had to sit down and write an update…and there is quite a bit to update so I apologize in advance for the length of this post.
At the beginning of February my mom and sister came to visit me! It was a total blast. I took some public taxis to Joburg so I could meet them at the airport when they arrived. Good news being that I survived the Joburg taxi rank all by myself! This for those of you who don’t know, is a pretty significant feat because that particular rank is quite intimidating. I stayed our backpackers for a night by myself and went to grab them at the airport the next morning. Almost immediately after we got to the backpackers we set off on our adventure for the day: the Joburg Lion Park. We got a tour of the park in a van and saw lots of animals (zebras, springbok, etc) and then drove through the lion sanctuary. The lions are really cool; there were two kinds, regular lions and white lions. Then we saw some cheetahs and other cats. After the driving tour we got to go and touch a bunch of lion cubs. They are sooo cute and soft. Then we went to feed the giraffes. You stand on this raised platform and the giraffes just come up and eat the food right out of your hand. It was really fun, but also kind of gross. Giraffes have super long, black tongues that can seriously wrap around your whole hand…if you don’t believe me just check out my facebook picture (Jess caught my complete surprise at the nasty tongues!). It was a great way to spend our one day in Joburg.
The next day we flew to Livingston, Zambia. The weather was AMAZING…which for my family who came from the snow covered US was a treat. The backpackers we stayed at was really cool, great pool, cool cushions all over the place to sit on, good food, etc. We went on an elephant safari on our first full day. It was amazing! We each got to pick an elephant to ride (with a handler who chatted fun facts to you) and ride around the park on an elephant. We saw cool birds and got to walk/ride through the Zambezi River. At the end we got to sit on our elephants’ leg and feed them! My elephant was hilarious because he’s apparently an eating machine. Throughout the safari he would veer off and grab a tree to eat. After the feeding was over they fed us humans some breakfast and showed us the video of our ride. It was such a fun day. That night we went on a sunset booze cruise on the Zambezi. It was gorgeous and we even saw a crocodile. The next day we decided to be adventurous, mom less “decided” and was more “forced.” We went zip lining over this huge gorge. Jess and I opted to go “Superman,” where the harness was behind you so you flew like Superman. Mom chose option number two, where you are essentially sitting and can hold the rope. It was EXCELLENT. Also scary. You legit run and jump off a cliff. They even let us go twice each…mom of course thought once was more than enough for her lol. Then we got dropped off at Victoria Falls. If you ever have the chance, go to Vic Falls…its incredible. We decided to walk down to the bottom of the falls first, called the Boiling Pot. The walk down is crazy. There were baboons that would walk right in front of you…ask Jess how close if you get the chance (she had a not so great experience with one lol). The walk is totally worth it. The view from the bottom is insane! The walk back up is less fun. Then we walked over to the top side of the falls. That time of year has SO much water that once you get anywhere near them you’re soaking wet. We ran into some crazy Zambian twins who took like 100 photos of me and Jess who were absolutely drenched. We opted to rent ponchos. We got soaked but the view is more than worth it. So beautiful! After leaving the Falls we spent some time in the market outside getting some souvenirs. I even bartered my hair elastic to help Jess get a drum or something. The rest of our time in Zambia was pretty relaxing. Chilling out by the pool, checking out the local craft market, reading books and magazines. Then it was time to leave.
We rented a car in Joburg so we could drive to Lesotho. At the airport we were lucky enough to run into my friend Rocio, who was going to miss meeting the fam to go to her sister’s wedding in America. It was one of those crazy chance meetings that never happen in real life lol. We stopped over in Clarens, SA before heading to Lesotho. It’s a cute little town with lots of B&Bs. Then we set off for the mountains of Lesotho. It was a crazy drive; the weeks of endless rain wreaked havoc on the roads. We all took turns driving, with mom being the maniac who punctured the tire. But we managed to get a guy to help us change the flat and we made it safe and sound to Mokhotlong. It was nice to get to show my new home to my family and for them to experience the kind of life I live here…bucket baths, pee buckets, sheep everywhere. We spent a relaxing few days in Mokhotlong before heading down to Maseru. In Maseru I got to introduce the fam to the Peace Corps Office, and a bunch of my friends (who were awesome enough to come in for the day to meet them!). We all went out to lunch at a local Chinese food place where mom and Jess got to see first hand some of the cultural differences that exist between Americans and Basotho. The next day we set off early to go to the tiny Bloemfontein Airport. It was sad to say goodbye to my family. It had been almost two years since I had seen them and we had a really fun time together. But I think they had a good vacation and it was a nice break from the usual for me.
Things have been fairly slow since the family left. It took me a few days to readjust back to my life here. But things are just about back to normal now lol. The weather is starting to get cooler, the kids are back in school…everything’s moving forward. I only have about 3.5 months left so everything is moving really fast. The future is exciting and terrifying all at once. Not having a job or place to live is scary. But I’ll be taking the Foreign Service Test in June and am starting the job search. Two years goes by pretty fast…4 months goes by even faster. I’m looking forward to getting stuff done in my last few months and spending time with the friends I’ve made here.
Its funny, I was thinking about “life” on my walk to town today…you tend to contemplate weird stuff while you walk around here, what else are you going to do? I’ve been looking back at my two years here a lot lately. The thing I’ve noticed is that with Peace Corps you might not have the big obvious “successes” that you have in other types of jobs. I don’t necessarily have things to “show” for what I’ve done here. That used to make me uncomfortable. I think it’s culturally ingrained in us that successes need to be tangible in some way…you do your job well you get a promotion/raise, assignments get done and you move on to the next, and the next after that, there’s a structure and a system to doing everything. My life here is nothing like that. Many of the “accomplishments” I’ve made here you can’t even really quantify and its difficult to put them into words. I’ve lately been redefining what I think of as “success.” I've had some great break throughs...awesome workshops that I designed and facilitated, getting my organization to do condom demos at HIV events. But many of my successes are less related to structured “work” than to more abstract random events…like getting a four year old to call you by your name and not “white person,” or walking through a school campus and giving high-fives to little kids, even having people come to your house to hang out with you. I don’t know what effect I’ve had on people, or if anyone is any better off because of the work that I’ve done here, but I like to think that I’ve made some kind of a difference, if nothing else than that all the kids in this town know what a high-five is.

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