December 19 , 2004

Things are going great. Leah and I got back to 'civilization' (Lusaka, Zambia) around December 7th. We had a spectacular time in Nsumbu National Park.

Inaddition to our field work with the animals, we spent a few days teaching ecology in a local village (about 1.5 hours away by horrible dirt roads) while we were there. What a heart warming experience. I felt like the pied piper, walking down the main dirt road in the village with 50 kids running behind us smiling and laughing. The kids were so eager to interact with us and learn.

Some of the locals challenged us to a game of futbol just before we left Nsumbu. The Nsumbu team was made up of a bunch of young, fit and fast men. Probably 25 years of age and under. Our team was a crew of 18 to 43 year olds, men and women. We took to the dirt field in our sandals, boots or barefeet. Expecting to go to slaughter. Amazingly, we only lost 0-1! Which for us was a victory. The whole town turned out for the game. They cheered. They booed. They laughed at us when we made mistakes. We played, as men with bamboo canes kept kids off of the field. I sustained a couple of injuries in the process...2 sprained toes and a nasty bruise on my left hip after an ill advised slide tackle on the packed dirt field. I did't want that 'kid'
to turn the corner on me out of the backfield with the ball! In any event, the crowd found it quite entertaining, and I barely tackled the ball away.

The trip from our camp in Nsumbu National Park in Zambia to Lusaka was long but without problems. We were 6 hours on a plank boat as we crossed Lake Tanganyika from Chilanga to Mpulungu. The captain stopped to put more fuel in the boat during the journey and Leah lept off of the side of the boat to cool off. We were some distance from shore, so no worry about crocs and hippos. The boat 'surfed' some pretty large waves into Mpulungu during the last hour of our journey. Perhaps 3 or 4 foot? I was a bit concerned, but Leah took it completely in stride.

The next day, our bus ride from Mpulungu south to Lusaka was 14 hours. The biggest worry on the bus ride was...will there be a bathroom stop? We were on the bus for hours dehydrating ourselves. Who wants to drink water if you only have 2 bathroom stops in 14 hours? How do I know the bathroom stop will coincide with my need? The bus did pull next to street vendors quite often and we had chances to buy all kinds of food through the bus window: One stop was selling potatos, anther tomatos, another still mushrooms. Sometimes we were offered drinks (which we refused), candy, newspapers, kasava root, bananas, peanuts, chicken. Our first meal in Lusaka was pizza. 14 of us consumed 10 pizzas in 20 minutes. We were a bit starved for something other than camp food. It was a taste sensation.

Our bus ride from Lusaka on to Livingstone, Zambia on the third day was a short 6 hours in much wider seats. Pure luxury as far as we were concerned. We stayed a few days in Livingstone playing the tourist. It took some adjusting. We had to watch out for cars and pick pockets instead of Puku, Elephants and Spiders. It's quite a strange transition.

The food in Livingstone was a nice change. I had the best mango smoothies ever at Zig-Zags in Livingstone. They were so good that I ordered 2 every time I ate there. We stayed at a backpackers call Jolly Boys and enjoyed a real bed instead of an air mattress, and better food (mango smoothies from Zig-Zags instead of water from Lake Tanganyika, chicken burgers instead of bean burgers).

Leah and I paddled all day on the Zambezi River above Victoria Falls in an inflatable canoe with kayak paddles. The river was stunningly beautiful with an amazing amount of bird life and wild life. We did have to maneuver around hippos and crocodiles. We gave them a wide berth. I think we saw 10 crocs and 100 hippo in a single day on the water. Our Zambian guide (Dominque) had keen eyes and spotted every animal way before we did, and he kept us quite safe. The river was fairly gentle, but we did have to paddle through some small rapids. We successfully stayed upright all day!

We have decided to stay in Lusaka, Zambia through the New Year to You find us in Lusaka, Zambia. We decided for sure to take care of a baby elephant named Sierra. She is 4 weeks old and cuter than you can imagine. Leah is assigned to helping the zoo keepers with her. Someone has to be with Sierra 24 hours a day. I have been doing fun stuff like cleaning up animal enclosures and watering holes. We are having a blast! And learning to be very adaptable.

So it's Christmas in Lusaka.

We are best reached by e-mail at this point. We would love to here from you!
cjh1ck2_africa@earthlink.net (Cindy)
griffsplace@earthlink.net (Leah)

Bye for now,
Cindy