Catching Up: Part One

I've been sitting in front of this "new blog" page for a good ten minutes now. I write a sentence, I delete it. Another one, backspace. Where do I start? Since I am a bit behind on blogging, I think I will share a couple journal entries I've written in the past two weeks.

Feb 7, 2010

Our last three days have been packed with adventure--white water rafting, driving through Uganda, two days of safaris. Ruco drove us to central Uganda where we spent last night at the Red Chili safari camp ground. Driving in, we saw antelopes, heartabeasts, elephants, and giraffes. A family of baboons surrounded our vehicle. A turtle the size of Molli (my golden retriever back home) crossed our path slowly, like turtles do. We spotted a leopard lounging in a far-off tree. We ate dinner at the camp, while a friendly warthog strolled around our table, and eventually made his way into the garbage. Today we watched a family of hippos chillin' in the Nile.

Noteworthy moments in the last three days: riding on the roof of the Suburban with Gus through the game park; cruising through Kampala on bodas (motor scooter taxis); riding a bus through the country, surrounded by fruit trees...papaya, coconut, jackfruit, bananas, mangos; getting a manicure and pedicure with Kristi in Kampala (and getting to know my old friend again!); hanging out with the children Kristi and Ruco are supporting; meeting their grandmother and watching her snuggle up to Mike (she was the tiniest little woman, and just LOVED Mike. She kept saying, "Ohhhh! This is a tall one!" She was practically half his size. She gave him a big hug and put her head on his chest and laughed with so much joy. The more she laughed, the more Mike laughed, and the more Kristi and Ruco and I laughed, and pretty soon their little house was so full of laughter, you'd think we were all going to float away!!) We're headed next to Kristi and Ruco's home in Moroto in the Karamojo region (northwest Uganda). It will take us eight hours to get there, so we will stay halfway with some of their friends in Lira.

Feb 9, 2010

Mike and I are driving from Jo-Burg to Swaziland. The vast pastures make me feel like we're driving through France. The sun is setting, and the scene looks like it's been colored with classic crayons-green and yellow-green, brown, and blue. Hope we make it before dark.

Feb 12, 2010

We've been in Swaziland two full days. Another epic phase of this trip!! Yesterday, we made our way to Jay and Hillary's homestead, arriving just in time for a traditional Swazi lunch-maize meal, cabbage, beets, chicken stew...it was delicious! Best moment of the day: Walking up to meet the two "go-go's" or grandmothers. They sat on bamboo mats, legs stretched before them, whacking their chickens on the head if they got to close, every muscle in their faces smiling! We exchanged greetings in Swazi, just like Jay and Hillary taught us: "Sani-bo-nani!" "Yeh-bo!"

Highlights from our days in Swaziland: watching Hillary and Jay make pizza from scratch, talking about books, laughing at the papaya that looked like a squid, shelling and eating endless lichis, meeting Jay and Hillary's neighbors (on the other homesteads), watching the chickens scramble in the trees. This afternoon, Mike killed a chicken, and we cooked it for supper!

Feb 14, 2010

Valentine's Day. We're driving through Maputo, listening to DeVotchKa and other mixed music. The Indian Ocean is out my right window. We've spent two days in Maputo, Mozambique. Hillary and Jay are on vacation now, too, so this has been a vacation from our vacation...it's be great!

Highlights: watching the mini-crabs scampering across the sand and water, eating seafood and drinking caprihinis while talking about future purposes and dreams and ideas, walking through the fresh fish market and watching the mussels spit, buying a coconut from a roadside stand and drinking the milk through a straw, staring at that wrinkly Sharpe dog every time I walk in and out of the hostel...and Mike calling it Senor McWrinkles, playing cards with Jay and Hillary till midnight, singing School House Rocks with Hillary...in the middle of our card game (Hey, afterall, 3 IS a magic number, right?)

Alright, Friends, I know this is a whirlwind of an update, but it's been a whirlwind of a trip. It's almost noon in Cape Town and Mike and I are going to climb Table Mountain this afternoon. More to come as soon as I can!!

Thanks for reading! =) Big hugs for all!!!

An Avalanche of Jordan Pictures

It's our last night staying in Kampala, almost 11pm. Our taxi driver will pick us up at 3am to take us to the airport. Gus, Mike, and I are on the same flight to Johannesburg. From there, Gus will head to Capetown, and Mike and I will drive about four hours (we think) across the border to Swaziland. We will meet his friends Jay and Hillary on a patch of grass, on the right side of the road, just past border patrol. I have so much to say about Uganda, but first, here are some pictures from last week in Jordan.

4000 Years in 4 Days

What a sweet time we had with Kari and Andrew in Jordan! Our first night was fully familiar...We played Ultimate Frisbee with some of Kari and Andrew's friends, indulged in Papa John's pizza for dinner, and closed the night with The Three Amigos. The next morning, we caught a bus to southern Jordan, past the ancient city of Petra (to be sure, everythnig in Jordan is ancient!) and camped at a bedouin camp in Wadi Rum. (A bedouin is traditionally a nomadic or semi-nomadic people group that lives in the desert.) Camping in the middle of the desert was definitely a highlight! Abu Hashim, the bedouin who seemed to be a main organizer, invited us into the "sitting tent," where we watched the fire dance, drank endless cups of hot, sweet tea, and ate a meal the bedouins had prepared. For hours, we talked and listened. They passed around a small drum. Mike played. Andrew played. Abu Hashim played the oud and sang traditional songs in Arabic. Around 10pm, we walked outside to find the clouds uncovering an almost full moon. The desert lit up with a mysterious blue haze. I could see my shadow like it was noon. The desert was silent in a way I may only hear ten times in my life. The breeze was slow enough enough that it moved not even the sand, but I could still hear it whispering in my ears. We decided to play frisbee.

For this month of intense traveling, Mike and I carried-on a backpack each. For me, that meant...One pair of pants. Three t-shirts. No make-up. No laptop. However, we did manage to pack a rainbow light-up frisbee!...the necessities. The four of us played frisbee with our two new bedouin friends past midnight.

Glow-in-the-dark frisbee. In the desert. With bedouins. By moonlight. At midnight....where do you go in life from there?!

We started early the next morning. Abu Hashim gave us a full tour of the desert--where Lawrence of Arabia had lived, a couple naturally-formed bridges, a cavern, some ancient engravings in the stone, mountain-like sand dunes. The desert was our playground that morning. We climbed and hiked and played till early afternoon, and then it was time to head back to Amman.

We spent our remaining day and a half exploring Amman. We ate the best hummus and falafel of our lives. We met the guy who sells Kari and Andrew their veggies. We toured the Citadel ruins with its thousands of years of history. Andrew and Kari's love of the rich history and culture was contagious, to say the least! Conversation was really good and non-stop.

Unfortunately, the morning Mike and were leaving for Africa, I woke up around 5am with a wretched case of food poisoning. Talk about an anti-climactic farewell to an epic four days in Jordan. To be sure, it took nothing away from our time here, but it did make the transit to Africa a little rough-going.

We arrived in Uganda at 3am this morning. We'll meet up with Kristi and Ruco tonight, and Gus joins us tomorrow. We have an eventful week-end ahead of us. Weather permitting--rafting down the Nile on Friday and a safari week-end. Hope I see a monkey!

Internet is pretty scarce and slow here, so it may be a while before I can post again. Also, I'm having trouble uploading pictures, so I'll add the ones from Jordan in a later post. We'll be in Uganda for about a week...Be in touch as soon as I can! Thanks for reading! :)