Romantic Zambia: Girrafes and Hippos and Waterfalls Oh My!

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So, despite my attempts to try and enlighten people about the side of Africa that isn’t typically heard or seen, there are some things here that are heard about that are pretty damn amazing.

Definitely one of the most spiritually profound and energy uplifting experiences I’ve ever had was standing directly in front of the 1700m long, over100m high, beautifully magnificent Victoria falls. Just standing there you can feel as if the power of the 33 million cubic meters of water per second slamming down on the rocks below is slamming into your very bones. You just stand there with your arms wide open, a huge smile on your face, getting absolutely soaked to the skin by all the whirling mist. Everywhere you look you see rainbows and in some areas you can even see a full 360 degree circular rainbow (try and conceive where the pot of gold is hiding in that one). I’ve heard that if you come back during the time of the month when there is a full moon, they open up the place at night to allow you to experience the once in a lifetime event of seeing a lunar rainbow, definitely a reason for me to come back again in the future. Hint for future visitors. Digital Cameras + Victoria Falls = Sending camera home to be replaced by new one, hopefully still on warranty.

In terms of wildlife, Zambia isn’t exactly the “The Lion King in Real Life” experience I maybe partially dreamed it would be before I came. Actually, due to massive poaching and destruction of natural habitat, most of the wild animals in Zambia have been relegated to game parks and reserves. Some of these areas are fairly open while others are in gated parks that you can only enter by paying at least $100 USD fees to get into. Funny though, one of the most creative ways I’ve heard about getting developed countries to eliminate the debt owed to them by Zambia is to take a bunch of the elephant’s hostage. Then, make an international television announcement during daytime TV saying that if the countries don’t eliminate all the debt owed to them, the kidnappers (or is it elephantnappers) are going to take a shotgun and kill one elephant per hour until all the foreign debt is gone. The person figured that by the huge public outcry by people wanting to save to poor cute elephants, there would be enough pressure put on the governments to actually force them to cancel the debt………. I’m not going to endorse whether I personally think it would work or not…..but at least it’s creative.

As a child when I thought of Africa, I remember fantasizing of chasing cheetahs through rural fields as I sprinted beside them in bare feet, greeting elephants out my window as I woke up in the mornings, and scolding hippopotamuses for splashing me as I swam in the rivers. Unfortunately, I haven’t had any of these exact experiences……yet. But I have had a few interesting encounters that are worth sharing.

One experience was during a weekend trip to the beautiful town of Siavonga on Lake Kariba. I was with two of my friends, John and Mike and together, the three of us decided we wanted to see a hippopotamus. We found a local with a canoe and after some strategic haggling we were allowed to take the canoe out on the lake with a guide to find ourselves a hippopotamus. After paddling for a short time our guide led us into a swampy bay after which a quick series of events took place within about a minutes time.

1. Our guide mentions that a hippopotamus often frequents this bay
2. Mike all of a sudden decides to share a quick fact he knew, about how Hippopotamus’s kill more people then any other animal in the world, but only when they are in the water or wanting to get into the water
3. Our guide says “oh, there he is” pointing to a set of eyes and the small top end of it’s snout, hovering maybe just above the water maybe 10 meters away
4. Me getting really really excited because I’m seeing a hippo
5. The eyes of the hippo suddenly disappearing underneath the water
6. Me wondering where the hippo went and then recalling point 2
7. Me getting really really scared, luckily so did the rest of my boat mates
8. All of us paddling like mad to try and dock our canoe against the shore and then scrambling out of the boat onto the dry land
9. The hippo resurfacing at the exact same spot he went down, except I think this time he had a little smirk on his face

Another such experience occurred when, as I tend to usually do, I got myself lost while walking just south of Livingstone through the Zambian bush. There were a bunch of baboons and monkeys running around and I started watching and mimicking their actions. See, monkeys and baboons are really cool for a while. But after watching one of them pick at another ones crotch area for half an hour they kind of lose their attractive appeal. Anyways, I decided to try and get away from the primates and just wonder through the bush and get lost in my thoughts. I proved to be quite successful at this as probably an hour or so passed while I daydreamed away until I was truly lost in Zambia, mentally and physically. Suddenly, I heard this noise in the bushes around me and I turned my head to see what it was. Staring straight in the eyes, not less then 5 meters away from me stood a young teenaged looking giraffe. We both stood paralyzed for what seemed like 5 minutes, playing a game of “see who blinks first”. This giraffe was so good at the game that I started to think it was a statue, placed out in the bushes to get excitable foreigners like me to think he has actually run into a real life giraffe. But then, the giraffe had a moment of weakness and his tail gave a tiny little wag. I waved and I pointed to him saying "HA, I KNEW IT, YOU ARE REAL!" I was so proud of myself that I had won the staring match that for a second I forget that there was an actual giraffe standing less then the distance of … away from me. I froze again and searched the database in my head about whether or not I knew if giraffes were dangerous. The search came up blank (as many of my mental searches I seem to do, oddly enough) and so I decided to formally introduce myself. Actually, more then introducing myself, I started sharing some of my thoughts with him. See, I had a lot on my mind that day and I really didn’t have anyone to express it to. Since the giraffe seemed quite attentive to me, I figured he was as good as anyone to backstop a couple ideas off of. I talked about me wandering through the bushes, about some of the issues I had of doing development work, I even talked of some of some of you back home who I knew wish they could have been there to say a few words of their own to the giraffe. So, I hung out with my giraffe friend for some time as we walked through the bushes together (for some reason he liked having space as he always had his back turned to me and whenever I took a step towards him he would take a few quick ones away from me, but I didn’t mind his shyness). After a little while, the giraffe even brought me to meet two of his friends, another giraffe and an Impala (kind of like an African deer). Well, did we ever have a party. But, as all good parties do, this one had to end as I needed to get to the Crocodile pond for feeding time. So, I bid further ado to my newfound friends, telling them to stop by Choma if they ever got a chance, they gave me a very warm goodbye (I do believe reading somewhere that a tail wag and a head bob was giraffe for “see you again soon good friend”) and that was that.

So, those are some of the more romantic African experiences I’ve had. I’ve also been able to sneak inside a game park to see elephants and been to a crocodile farm to watch them get their weekly feeding, but both of those experiences were in pretty controlled areas so they didn’t have the wow factor of the other two stories. I’m sorry that I don’t have any more or better pictures to share because my laptop was stolen, especially of Victoria falls, but if I get any new ones I’ll be sure to share them with you all.

=^)

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Photos

Victoria Falls!
My friends Elizabeth and Robbie were just as amazed as I at the spectacular falls

Ohhh Yeah, that's the spot!
I wish I was having this much fun

Ain't he cute!
And he doesn't blink either

I guess I'll show you elephants as well
Babar?