Preparing for the Trip of a Lifetime

Hey everyone! Sorry I have not been doing a great job keeping up with this blog. I cannot tell you how busy and stressed I have been this past week in preparation for my spring break! I have had to buy all sorts of things, such as malaria pills, a head torch, and little items to trade in Zimbabwe. For those of you that don't know what my trip includes, I'm going to provide a little preview. My friends and I are taking a 10-day camping trip to Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. We will be taking a bus with a chef that cooks all of our meals and staying at campsites for most of the nights, but camping in the legitimate wild for two. 


The itinerary is as follows:

• Day 1: Catch early flight to Johannesburg and catch overland bus to drive to campsite in Botswana
• Day 2: Travel to Maun, Botswana and enter the Okavango Delta (the world's largest inland delta which will be the most natural setting for seeing wild animals)
• Day 3/4: Spend two and a half days in the delta doing game walks and riding in canoes. Here we will have no amenities so we will be showering in the river, going to the bathroom in the woods, and sleeping in the middle of no where, hopefully not too close to a lion's den.
• Day 5: Leave the delta in the afternoon for Planet Baobab, a campsite with a baobab tree as the centerpiece (don't recognize the name, just picture the Tree of Life from Lion King).
• Day 6: Travel to Chobe National Park, which has the highest concentration of elephants in the entire world (over 120,000), as well as a god number of buffalo and hippos. That night we will take a sunset cruise through the river of elephants. 
• Day 7: Travel to Zambia and Victoria Falls, which are the largest waterfalls in the whole world and are considered one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. 
• Day 8/9: We will have two days to do whatever we want near the falls. I am planning on doing the adventure package, which in includes 4 activities, each of which you could do twice. These activities are abseiling (repelling down the side of the falls), a zipline across the falls, a rope swing across the falls, and the flying fox (which is a lot like the zipline, but your body is facing the ground like you are in a Superman position). I am also planning on taking the optional opportunity to venture into Zimbabwe and go into the Victoria Falls National Park, where there is supposed to be a breathtaking view of 2/3 of the falls. Also in Zim, we will be going to the Livingstone Market where you can buy/trade all sorts of things, including pens, hair-ties (thanks Mrs. Young for those ridiculous pens with all of the hearts, I'm hoping they get me far), and more. The last event that I am planning to do is the lion walk, where I will walk with a lion for about an hour. There are so many different things to do at the falls, so we'll see what happens. I am honestly just excited to get there and see the falls, let alone go flying in the air across them!
• Day 10: Travel back to Cape Town and get dropped off at our flats.

So those are my plans for the next 10 days.  I wish I could take you all with me, but considering I have to pack all of my belongings in one small duffle, I hate to say that the chances are slim. Much to my mother's dismay, I will be out of commission as far as communication goes because I will neither have wifi or cell phone service. When I return I hope to catch you all up on my travels, as well as some of the things I have been doing with my internship and in/around Cape Town! For those of you with facebook, you could check out the Amandla EduFootball and see a ton of pictures, a few of which I am in. Other than that, I miss you all and look forward to hearing from a lot of you!


P.S. Shout out to Mike and Jan for allowing me to do this and making it financially available to me! I can't thank you enough! Love you both and no worries, I'll stay safe!

Amandla EduFootball

Hey Everyone! 


This is just a link to the organization that I am interning with for the semester. If you are interested, this site explains the history and mission of the organization, as well as anything else you might want to know about what we do here in Cape Town. I am currently interning 3 days per week, as well as any special events that are scheduled. We just had our season opener this past Saturday. The program was able to rent out the professional soccer stadium in Athlon, Cape Town. It turned out to be a great event with hundreds of kids from varying township teams coming out to learn about the leagues, practice their fair play rules, and play some soccer of course! Although it was a long, tiring day, I had a wonderful time getting to finally see the interactions our staff has with the children and how amazing this program really and truly is. You will hear more from me as the semester continues, but if you would like to not only see what I am getting involved in, but would also like to be informed about a tremendous program that is doing phenomenal things for the children of South Africa, please take a look! The link is given below:


http://www.edufootball.org/home/ 


Thanks!!!

Safari Pictures

The giraffe as she came closer to us

The mother rhino and her baby

One of the male lions

When the female lioness start to growl at the truck

A view from the water of the hippos

The ostrich enjoying some of our pool water

Riding the quad in style

Me as the elephants came closer to our quads

When we got to pet the elephants (you can see the hand on the trunk before he ran away)

In The Jungle, The Mighty Jungle...

For those of you who have seen The Lion King, Madagascar, or any other fictitious movies that have given you an image of Africa as a wide open space with animals roaming around as they please, I would just like to clarify that this illustration is not an accurate representation of the Africa that I have been living in for the past month and a half. Residing in a fairly Westernized city, I do not have the privilege of seeing lions, zebras, giraffes, and elephants as I walk to school everyday. I have seen the occasional baboon or zebra on my way around town, but it would be misleading for me to say that I am walking around in nothing but a loincloth with Tarzan and Jane. However, this weekend my program took the group us to a place that was a bit more closely related to the land ruled by Simba and Mufasa in my favorite Disney classic. We had the pleasure of spending the weekend at the Aquila Game Reserve, where we were given the chance to see many of Africa’s most popular animals up close and personal.

When we arrived at Aquila, we were given our assigned roommates and allowed time to get ourselves situated in our private chalets. This lodge was unlike anywhere I had ever stayed, with its hut-like appeal and each room having an outdoor shower. To be honest, our room was quite romantic as the stone fireplace and dim lighting would have provided a perfect setting for a honeymoon couple. Too bad I was with my friend Courtney and not some handsome South African man (much to my mother’s disappointment, I am sure). After everyone was settled in, we loaded the trucks in preparation for the evening game drive across the reserve. Before we took off, our driver took time to discuss the dos and don’ts of the safari and told us that when around the animals we had to be sure to keep all body parts inside the vehicle and keep our voices down, especially around the hungry lions. How about that for an introduction?

The first animals that we spotted were the springbok, a small deer-like animal that is abundant in South Africa. On any other day I feel as though I would find these animals intriguing, however I had little interest in seeing these cute little creatures. I wanted the big guys. This was just a warm-up. Soon after the springbok, as our warm-up continued, we stopped by the wilder beasts who, much to their misfortune, might possibly be the ugliest animals I have ever seen. Of course, they might be thinking the same thing about me, so I guess I shouldn’t judge.

Just as I began to lose hope that we would see anything truly amazing (because the driver also made sure to tell us that no animal sighting is guaranteed), I heard someone across the truck gasp. When we all looked to see what had provoked this sudden shortage of breath, our jaws all joined hers below the bus, dropping as low as the tires. Walking behind the wilder beasts in the distance was a tall, beautiful giraffe. Now I have seen giraffes at the zoo before, but something about seeing this creature out on its own, just sauntering around in the grass, added a whole new element. We shrieked in excitement at our first spotting of an animal high on our lists of things to see, and crossed our fingers that she would come close enough for us to really marvel at her beauty. Luckily, our wishes were granted as the young female giraffe came within 5 feet of our vehicle. It reminded me of a model walking down the catwalk as her long legs strolled by all of the flashing cameras with such poise. The giraffe didn’t stay for long, perhaps she and her long legs and long lashes had more important people to impress, but we were able to see her for just long enough to get catch some jaw-dropping pictures.

After we left the giraffe, we moved on to the elephants. These guys were amazing and walked right on by our truck, but I will save my elephant stories for a later time in this post. On our way to see the next member of Africa’s Big 5 we passed by a number of zebras grazing in the grass close by. The zebras were gorgeous with their vibrant stripes of black and white. I know that I have a few zebra-print lovers following this post and let me tell you, seeing them in person makes the pattern that much more beautiful. However, the zebra could barely compare to the animals that were next to cross our path. As we approached a big, bare patch of land, we could spot a number of large grey creatures, but could not yet determine what exactly they were. Once we got closer, we recognized the shapes as those belonging to the ever so intriguing rhino. Right before our eyes were a large handful of full-growns accompanied by one baby rhino. The baby ran around our truck and skipped between all of the adult rhinos. To be honest, these creatures were pretty darn ugly, but it was so incredible to see them up close and personal. I had always seen pictures of their long, threatening horns, but to have them right in front of you, able to attack at any time was truly something else.

Once we were able to part ways with the baby rhino that seemed to find a place in many passengers’ hearts, we proceeded to the area in which the lions lived. Talk about entering the lion’s den…we were all a bit hesitant as the driver reiterated the precautions that we were to take. Upon entering the area, we were bombarded with female lionesses, which are ironically considered the more dangerous of the two sexes of this species. They literally came right up to our truck and let out a few growls. The men soon followed their counterparts and before we knew it, we had a good 6 or 7 lions walking within a few feet of our vehicle. The male lions were truly a sight to see with their beautiful manes catching the eyes of each and every tourist. Because the passengers in our truck were particularly well-behaved, the lions acknowledged us but did not take interest in having us for dinner. The other truck did not prove to be as lucky.

Once the lions passed by our truck, we saw them move on to the next group of tourists and for quite a while it seemed as though some of us would be without a roommate for the night. Before their truck could get a good position away from the lions, they were surrounded by numerous angry lionesses who looked as though they would be providing a show that had not been a part of the printed itinerary. When the truck tried to slowly pull away, the group of lions followed close by snarling at our frightened friends. Our truck found great entertainment out of this situation as we started voting our classmates “off the island” and betting who would be first to be eaten. We concluded that if our companions happened to be eaten, we would sell the video to National Geographic for a large sum and split it among the passengers of our truck. While this appears to be a selfish act, we justified it by the fact that this would be a way for our friends to be remembered and help teach a lesson to future safari goers. In the end, they were able to make it out alive and unscathed, although not as a result of our help as we fled the scene to move on to the next stage of the safari.

After stopping briefly to watch the hippos leave the water and cross right in front of our vehicle, we completed the safari and returned to the lodge of an all-you-can-eat buffet and a late-night swim. We surrounded ourselves around a fire pit and I listened as a group of my slightly more talented friends sang a number of songs until we were finally ready for sleep.

The next morning, I got up to take set off for a quad safari around the same park as the night before. I was able to sign up for this activity despite the fact that there were only 5 quads, because I did so in a timely fashion. We were first introduced to the quads and given a chance to ride around the parking lot to practice driving the unfamiliar vehicles. I knew that I had to step up my game because I was grouped with one other girl and three boys (who everyone calls “the bros”). The boys were clearly very experienced in quad riding as they were cruising around from the minute our guide let us loose. We were taken on a safari through the same park, but on a different route than that of the previous night. We got to see most of the same animals and ride around at a pretty high speed, ripping through the dirt path and the sand. This type of safari was totally my element as we were in control of where we went and it was such an adventure. The highlight of this weekend by far came when we reached the elephants. Like the night before, they came right up to our vehicles. For a couple minutes, we even got off our quads to pet the elephants. It was so cool to be able to stand right up against them and touch their rough, wrinkly skin. You don’t realize how gigantic they really are until your standing on foot alongside one. We were able to snag a few pictures up really close, but when we tried to snap a shot of us petting them, they got a bit frantic and walked away.

After getting to see the elephants, we were taken to a bare spot in the middle of the park where we stopped for a few snacks and some sparkling wine. We just sat on our quads and marveled at our surroundings as we saw a giraffe walking by, a good 30 feet away. Upon returning to the lodge, we were once again treated with an all-you-can-eat buffet and a leisurely swim before we had to board the bus to go home. This weekend ranks high in the number of great things that I have done in South Africa and I cannot wait for more like it to come along.

"God Bless America"

Ask anyone who knows me, whether it be from only a couple of casual conversations or it be someone who has known me since I was a little kid, they know that soccer is a huge part of my life. The game of soccer has been one of a limited amount of constants for me throughout my years growing up. As a child, I went to countless games of my fathers where I could learn how the game is played… and how not to talk to your teammates. I started playing at a very young age and for many years was coached by the best, the hardest, and the most invested coach I have ever had, in my father. Although we did not always see eye to eye, my father challenged me to grow both as a player and as a person each time I stepped foot on the field.

Coming to South Africa, I knew that I was getting a chance to live in the place where the most recent world cup was held, just last year. Through my various posts I have mentioned my hopes that this trip would enable me to grow as a person, but I have been reluctant to discuss my plans regarding soccer. This disinclination came as a result of my inability to set expectations or visualize what the world of soccer, especially for women, would be like in this country. Of course I knew that it was an extremely popular sport, however I was also aware that in many countries around the world, the world of sports among the female gender was nowhere near the level at which Americans have reached. My only plans up to this point were to find a way to continue playing so that I could keep a familiar touch with the ball and hopefully maintain some sort of fitness level, which for me shouldn’t be too hard since I never really set the bar that high in this category anyway.

With these goals in mind, I signed up for the University of Cape Town Women’s Soccer team and found out the date of trials. Upon our arrival to the field, I was quite nervous, as I had absolutely no clue what to expect. Unfortunately, it did not take very long for those fears to subside. Just by looking around, seeing women of all different shapes and sizes, wearing various forms of equipment (and I use that term loosely), I could tell that this experience would not challenge me in the way that I had feared. I won’t get into the details of the first week of trials because it is honestly hard to discuss without reiterating the stereotype of a pompous American, but I will say that the more we played, the more my appreciation for what our country provides for women grew.

After the first week was finished, we were told the initial cuts and the tentative “first team” was formed. It was not a surprise that the squad consisted of an abundance of American girls, who would most likely take the starting spot in almost every position. To be honest, it had been quite an ego boost for the group of us (not that I need any of that), as our mediocrity in the States is considered to be of the highest level in this country. This idea of the American “superstars” was only solidified in our team’s first preseason scrimmage against a professional South African team. Once again, I will refrain from giving too much detail of the game because it seems inevitable that my discussion will be largely focused on my American teammates. However, I will say that we won the game 5-3 and all of our goals were scored by an American player, while all of the goals against us came about when the bulk of the Americans has relocated to the sidelines (take what you want from those statistics). Regardless of the score and the level of talent (or lack thereof), I have been enjoying the chance to get back on the field with a completely new group of people. I have actually been able to take the field on the same side of three of my NESCAC conference opponents, which has allowed me to get the opportunity to become familiar with, and maybe even friends with, those that I will be facing next fall. I am looking forward to using this experience to improve on the areas in which I need to work on, my right foot and my tendency to get frustrated (which will undoubtedly be tested), being the main focuses. I have resorted to doing many of the drills completely right-footed (come see if you don’t believe it, Dad) and have tried to turn my irritation into self-motivation throughout the course of a practice or game. Through all of this, there has been one thought that remains constant, and that is, “God Bless America,” for allowing me the opportunities that are as omnipresent as one would think.