Victoria Falls, Chobe National Park, Johannesburg!

Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do. -- Pele

Hello everyone!  

Yes I am back from vacation!  Can you believe it?  This has been the longest vacay ever!  Not a bad thing but I was itching to get back to Dar and make some progress on my paper and in my work at WGNRR.  So far I've been back for 2 days and settling back in, but reminiscing on the fun and excitement I had during my leisurely holiday break.

Well where we left off was my mom and I had just left Cape Town to continue our adventure into Zimbabwe and Bostwana.  We had a few weeks in Cape Town and it was definitely time to go.  Also as the city is facing the biggest water crisis ever, they could use a few less people--the city is set to run out of water in a few months and the taps will close down.  Yikes!  After getting up very early and heading to the airport we arrived in Victoria Falls Zimbabwe and mom and I were shuttled away to our fancy hotel, The Kingdom.  I was dead tired but we had a special cruise on the Zambezi river planned out (an obvious can't miss) and we quickly got settled and hopped back into the shuttle to go down to the water.  The cruise was lovely.  It wasn't anything fancy just a big pontoon style boat and wonderful hospitality and all you can drink ;).  The boat's captain knew the best places to stop to see animals and the glorious sunset.  It was definitely one of my favorite outings on the tour.It reminded me a bit of Tablerock lake actually, strangely enough, same shoreline and water, except there were deadly crocs and hippos, no swimming in there! 

Mom making the sign for "Z"? Zambezi, Zimbabwean beer

Cruising down the Zambezi

Mom enjoying the sights

Another cruise boat

The Lion King themed cruise boat, ha!

Hippo sighting!!

Also croc sighting!  Can you see him? He's up on the bank nonchalantly chilling

The grand finale, the boat cruised right next to the sunset on the horizon and stopped to watch the sunset, it was a perfect evening!  Definitely a must see :)

Happiness is a sunset on the water

Mom enjoying

<3

The next day was another action packed adventure--the legendary Victoria Falls!  Really really amazing, completely different than Niagara Falls in New York, more narrow and more falls in general.  We had a guided tour and got to see all the vantage points of the Falls on the Zimbabwean side (as opposed to the Zambian side.  Each vantage point was unique and beautiful!  Mist and rainbows aplenty.

One of the first stops

  

A statue of Livingstone who was quite important in being a benevolent British explorer, (i.e. he was against the slave trade)  He helped in building a bridge across the falls

First rainbow sighting

Breathtaking!

Epic majesty of Vic Falls

Double falls!

Having fun!

Beautiful trees

After the breathtaking view of the falls we went out to taste some good food and beer in the city of Victoria Falls.  It is a small place that is nice, clean and safe because of the big tourist attraction obviously. We even found a craft beer spot to get our local brew on.  However, walking around we met some interesting characters, people wanting to sell you bowls, small animal figures, everything! I taught mom how to bargain, I think we did pretty good.

Tasting some local craft beer in Vic Falls

A big tourist attraction, you could dive into a croc tank in a cage!  No thanks!!

After doing some shopping we went to this place called "The Boma" - the place of eating it was a semi cheezy tourist place, a big all you can eat buffet, with a drum show and even a traditional fortune teller.  We did some drumming and ate a lot of random meats, you even had the option of eating worms, we did not do that!

Boma dancers, dragging tourists in to dance with them

Mom getting her face painted at the Boma.

Face painted and wearing traditional dress!  Along with all the other tourists! Ha.

The Boma did not disappoint foodwise, a whole rack of lamb.

The next day we got to go on another river cruise!  This time in Chobe National Park one hour across the border into Botswana.  We passed immigration and hopped on a boat to see some animals.

Ready for our water safari

Elephant sighting!!! He was a lone teen elephant we were told

Mudding himself to keep cool

Elephant family!!! So amazing

Viewing Namibia from the water 

We saw mainly elephants, a few crocs and the tops of the heads of some hippos in the water.  After we were finished viewing animals on water we went back to land and hopped into a safari vehicle to see what we could see driving around.  It was epic to say the least. 

Ready for safari!  Check my safari socks ;)

Stereotypical tourists? Yes. ;)

Entering Chobe National Park

The view, also the dead trees are frequently seen as elephants tear off the bark and then many trees die, when they fall other animals like birds use them for all kinds of things.

Hungry Giraffe

Can you peep the lion sleeping under the tree?

Zebra!

Water buffalo

Black Sable

Sable grazing--very rare to see!

We left our Safari adventure very satisfied, didn't see any rhinos but that was because there aren't any in the park, poachers hunted them for a long time and cut off their horns, so the government took the last remaining rhinos (there were 6) to protected space to breed them, so the population is coming back now.  I hope to see them on my next safari.  It was time to say goodbye to Zimbabwe and Botswana and get back to South Africa for mom's flight and my adventure in Joburg.

Interesting traditional gods/dolls in the hotel lobby!

Goodbye Zimbabwe!

I booked a room in a hostel called Curiocity and was a bit apprehensive about it. It was somewhat of an "urban hostel" so it was deep in the city of Joburg-- not the nicest or safest place.  Also while I was staying in Cape Town I met some travelers who had gotten mugged walking around the neighborhood of that hostel so I was a tad worried.  But everything turned out ok!  Yes, Joburg is definitely a seedy spot, there is a lot of poverty and urban decay but it was charming in a "concrete jungle" kind of way and I enjoyed learning about the history of the area a lot.  The hostel was located in an area called Maboneng which means "place of light" and it was an urban neighborhood that was really up and coming, lots of new businesses and funky/hipster spots to hang out (but important to know how far you could go without running into trouble).  We arrived in Johannesburg and mom's flight was canceled due to snow in New York.  So she stayed a few extra days and we went on a walking tour of the city arranged by the hostel.

The oldeest building in Maboeneng area called "Cosmopolitan"

On the walking tour

Some nice street art/murals

Maboneng urban garden and a mural of the dutch guy who first came to South Africa

We came to learn how one young developer really took the lead on revitalizing the neighborhood quite a bit.  It was the same as the other areas of the city but he came in, invested money in the area and keeping it sustainable and did his best not to kick out those who were living there.  Inspiring!

Repurposed train cargo containers as an apartment complex.  Hip! 

Refurbished buildings

Beautiful mural art was all around Maboneng

An example of a hijacked building in Joburg, there were a lot of them, originally vacant buildings that were then taken over by street squatters, note the disarray, not sure if this building has power, it definitely doesn't have water access

The developer built vending stalls for street vendors instead of kicking them out of where they would sell there wares and make a living

Street art during the walking tour

The walking tour also took us up to the top of the tallest building in Africa for a bird's eye view of Joburg.  It was originally an industrial city when gold was discovered there, it experienced rapid development due to mining and then after the fall of apartheid began to decline and decay, with many people and businesses leaving, there's parts that are experiencing revitalization now but there's still a lot of work to do!

View from the tallest commercial building in Africa

An iconic Joburg tower.  I'm not sure what it is but its important ;)

My mom was able to get a flight back to the USA the next day after so I was on my own in Joburg for the next few days.  Luckily hostels are always nice places to meet people.  I went on a few day trips with other hostel people and it worked out well.  The next stop was Constitution Hill, the site of the highest Constitutional Court in South Africa, the site was an old prison and it was one of the prisons (there were 3 total) where Mandela was at one time detained.  We had a really great tour guide who walked us through each different area and told us really awful stories of what used to happen there :(

The prison yard where they used to make prisoners line up and dance for the guards

Solitary confinement cells--eerie

Statue of Ghandi, who spent considerable time in Joburg as well as in the detention center (not at the same time as Mandela though)

Constitutional Court--highest in the whole country, remembering their past moving forward with their future!

Like I said, I did quite a bit of historical/cultural exploration during my time in Joburg, so next on my list was taking the hostel's arranged tour of the Soweto Township.  The largest township in South Africa I believe, and when I say township, its a place where all the Africans were moved out and away from the city during apartheid.  There are many in South Africa, like the place I went to in Cape Town with the sheep heads ;). Anyway it was an eye opening experience.  We got taken around to the shanty towns walking right through the trash that was covering the ground in the town, little kids ran around with no shoes looking to hold our hands and have us carry them.  A look into their life, made me feel pretty dang grateful.

Walking thru the township

We also made a pit stop in the to the memorial for those who lost their lives due to violence in the apartheid era--quite a few young school kids were killed during the school uprisings against being taught in the Afrikaans language of the Dutch settlers, apartheid/segregation is nasty, nuff said.

Super sad

The big soccer stadium and view of Joburg on the way back from Soweto

The next day I found a fellow hostel mate who had a car and also wanted to visit the Cradle of Humankind with me--a site about an hour outside of Johannesburg where the earliest known bones/fossils of prehuman ancestors were found.  Thankfully he let me tag along and we got to go at about 80 percent less cost as compared to what the hostel was trying to charge us.  Mainly because the transport was already sorted.  Anyway it was a great trip!

The Cradle of Humankind is a UNESCO World Heritage site

Prehistoric, prehuman bones, I forgot how old, but they would throw their bodies down a pit perhaps like a burial, proof of somewhat rational thought before humans.

The museum also had a big exhibit as to where the human race was going from here, how climate change has become an issue due to our day to day practices and how we need to take action before its too late.  

Probably...

But the views from the cradle of humankind were lovely, can you imagine prehuman ancestors wandering around these hills?

I was there!

After a few more days chilling around the hostel it was time to go, I was getting antsy anyways, there is still a lot to get done during my time here and I'm ready to get back to work!

A last good night and goodbye to Joburg from the rooftop!

And that was it!  I finished strong on my 6 week vacation, boy was I ready to return back to a stable "home" to call my own after that long adventure, sleeping in my own room without a bunch of people snoring and waking me up is really nice too.

I arrived back in Tanzania smoothly, my bajaje driver Simon picked me up and greeted me with a hug.  He was really happy to see me, and it was nice to be welcomed back to a friend, he took me to my new Airbnb residence which I had arranged before I left.  It is perfect!  Just a few blocks away from where I was originally staying at the Delina apartment (you can see it from the street) so still walkable to work and in the same general area.  I'm living in a more "local" space in a house rented out by an aspiring entrepreneur, Rogers, who is a cool guy working to get some local businesses up and running.  So the house actually serves a few different functions.  There is a laundry business complete with ironing room etc., and a "coworking" office space where people can come to do business.  There's a kitchen and a gym and always people coming and going which is really, really nice as I'm alone and could use some people to talk to.  

My cozy princess castle, hehe

A collection/display of my newest curios!

The nice outside area of the house, good for hanging out when it gets hot!

The gym, surprisingly inside a tent!!!

I've already worked out at the gym and met a few local guys who are friends of Rogers, we talked a lot about American politics and hip hop. 

 It is truly amazing how much the world knows about our politics, history, and culture, and probably how little we know about theirs. While working out in the gym, I had some explaining to do about Donald Trump and his recent comments about African countries being "shitholes".  It is truly embarrassing, I'm just grateful that people are willing to listen and not just immediately write Americans off as all being like that.  Anyway the word I've heard a lot over here is that its "disappointing" what's happening to America,  many international folks will freely admit that their countries look up to the USA.  That is why its so shameful to discuss our President's actions and policies.  I have met many amazing, resilient, intelligent people during my time in Africa, these countries aren't shitholes, they are rising to their full potential, and the world should elect leaders who support this development, not hinder it, ok I'm done discussing politics now!

Anyway I'm so happy to be back and begin a new adventure here in Dar.  I'm living in a new place, with new people yet I'm familiar at least with the basics of how to get where I need to go and what I need to accomplish.  I have my dad and my aunt coming next month and a friend from Brandeis coming to visit in March, also perhaps planning a trip to Uganda for Easter to visit one schoolmate from Brandeis.  I've had 2 job interviews (and one later today actually) so I hope my progress on the career front will give me some good news in the coming months.  Also always trying to learn new Swahili words and work on my dang paper on top of day to day work at the office.  Right now we have been hired by a Dutch media network to help them expand dissemination of sexual and reproductive health info to French speaking African countries.  So that is keeping me busy.  Time to do some expert juggling I think.  Nevertheless grateful for all the excitement!  And happy to put in some hard work to reach my goals! 

Back at work in the office and ready for a great last few months!

Thats all for now! Until next time