Walk by Grace

And… We’re Back.

walkbygrace — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:59:23 +0000

Greetings and salutations!

Please excuse my incredibly long absence from the blogging universe. I returned in October and started traveling. I spent a week in Arkansas visiting friends in both Little Rock and Siloam Springs. It was great to see everyone and hang out in Arkansas… Some small part of me actually misses it (just not enough to move back). I walked the Big Dam Bridge a few times, went to the mall for the first time since my return, and hung out in coffee shops.

After Arkansas, I took off for Houston to visit with my grandparents. It was quite fun! We shopped – a lot. I got new clothes . We also made a purse together… I’m not a fantastic seamstress, but I actually did fairly well for a “first attempt”. I learned a few new recipes (including how to cook a full chicken – too cool). Finally, we – the whole family – celebrated Thanksgiving together. I love Thanksgiving… mostly because my family spends time together, but added to that is my birthday floats around the holiday.

Finally, I went to Birmingham to visit another group of friends. It was a blast! We ran around the campus one of them works on for the weekend. I also managed to stay up all night (only once) and created a super cute knitted headband for my friend… her roommate is also a knitter, so we’re great friends now. You just can’t meet other knitters and not become friends. The headband turned out wonderfully. I also played Settlers of Catan for the first time. Fascinating game, may have too much strategy involved for me, but fun none the less. We also played a lot of nertz, card games are right up my alley.

I stayed home for about a week in between each trip. It is nice to be home for the moment and I’ve taken up knitting again. I just finished a headband and am working on fingerless gloves. We’ll see what happens next… there is always another adventure to be had!

Greetings From the Home Front!

walkbygrace — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:55:32 +0000

I’ve recently returned home. I’ve spent the last few days recovering from jet lag and hanging out with family members. It has been nice to have no real obligations for a few days… I should start traveling soon, though. I have a trip to Arkansas planned (once I get dates it will be official) and to Houston in mid November (just before Thanksgiving) to visit with my grandparents. I’m excited. For the moment, however, I have a list of things I need to do… the most important is to start clearing all my things out of the house. Ick. This requires a TON of sorting and cleaning and boxes and much, much more. I’m not overwhelmingly enthusiastic about this, but such is life.

Camping Trip, Day Four – Guma Camp

walkbygrace — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:09:57 +0000

On the last day, we woke up – early as usual – and started to break down the camp since we would be heading home. Once my tent had been broken down, I grabbed one of the kids and went to cook breakfast (they had a kitchen we could use!!). It was simple – just scrambled eggs and toast. We ate and drank tea just before heading out on another hike. Our guide arrived and we followed him around the Camp. The Camp is located on a lagoon on the outskirts of the Delta, so there are many hippos and crocodiles, which the kids were fascinated by. I think the guide attempted to talk about other things, but the kids were quite hung up on the fact that a hippo can kill three people at one time while a crocodile can only kill one. The questions centered around hippos for most of the walk, which lasted maybe a half hour.

The guide walked back with us discussing with the teacher and one of the students the possibility of an incredibly short fishing trip. They finally settled on how to go about getting it arranged as we arrived at camp. The teacher headed off to sort out the details while the driver and I began to sort out packing details (the 4X4 had arrived). A few of the boys darted off to go fishing and the rest of the students helped to pack the truck and return some few dishes to the Camp. The boys returned, everyone jumped (literally) into the 4X4 and we left for home.

On our way home, we stopped in a village just south of the Camp for food and petrol. While the students and the teacher waited on the food (and the students to choose drinks), the driver and I went to a nearby filling station for petrol. We waited for a moment while the attendant filled the bus… or tried. They had begun fueling and four Pula later ran out of diesel! Since there were no other filling stations, we had to wait for the diesel to arrive. Lunch had been bought and the students were content to goof off and play through the wait outside the restaurant. About an hour later, we learned that the diesel had arrived. We got the students back into the bus, went to the filling station, received petrol, and left. We stopped somewhere along the way to eat lunch – rice and chicken – and arrived in town around 5:00. We dropped students off at various locations along the way: a filling station, a few different lodges, and the junction. We pulled onto the property at half 5…

We were finally home!

Camping Trip, Day Three – Mohembo Ferry

walkbygrace — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:07:40 +0000

Back into the bus! We woke up, ate, and piled into the bus in order to go to our next destination: Guma Camp. We had plenty of time to get there, so there was not rush. We decided to take lunch in Etsha and then go to the Mohembo Ferry.

Lunch was a simple affair. We dashed into a local grocery store and bought fizzies (Cokes/soda), fresh chips (French fries), and chicken or fish. The kids got chicken, I shared fish with one of the other adults. [If you do not like anything to do with animal bones and eating, please stop reading now and continue to the next section.] One of the men offered me some of the fish, and I decided it would be nice, so I said yes. He handed me half the fish. I started eating before I really looked at it… When I did, I realized that it was looking back at me! I had literally gotten half the fish – head and all. Strangely enough, after all of the stories I’ve heard from people who will not eat these things, I was not disgusted and ate the whole thing. I even started to pull pieces from around the head. Truth be told, I always thought I would panic and run away, but here I sat with everyone else, chowing down meat off the bone… Maybe I’ve been here too long?

Along the way we stopped at Krokovango, a crocodile farm. At the beginning it was really interesting to see the crocodiles and the kids loved the entire thing. I stopped listen when the guide began talking about how they slaughter the crocodiles and sell the skins and meat to different countries in Africa. It was slightly tragic… they did have some massive crocodiles, though. One was 5.7 meters long! There was another that was incredibly large as well, but the first one… ouch!

Our next stop was Mohembo Ferry. The Mohembo Ferry crosses one of the rivers in the Okavango Delta. We arrived and the teacher went to ask about pricing. I waited in the bus with the children. He returned about the same time the ferry returned. Everyone piled out of the bus and formed a line to wait. The ferry, despite it’s looks is quite a sturdy affair. It has just enough space in the center for four small cars or two buses and the outer edge is raised for people to stand on. Our group took up most of one side! The kids had a great time riding the ferry across the river and back. We putted along looking at the “wildlife” – cows, donkeys, etc – and arrived at the other side where most people got off. The ferry refilled and started back. On the second trip, we saw a group of people fishing with baskets. They take large, woven, cone shaped baskets that allow water to flow through and trap the fish in those. It was quite interesting! A few minutes later, we saw a group heading to the river carrying their baskets to go fishing as well. We then exited the ferry and climbed back into the bush to go to the Camp.

Getting to Guma was another dirt track adventure. We turned off the tar road onto the dirt track and headed into the village. Once in the village, we stopped, unloaded, reloaded, and hopped into a 4X4. The road into the camp is incredibly deep so our bus wouldn’t manage to go without getting stuck. We trundled down the bumpy dirt track in the 4X4 with all the students chattering about how cool it was to be in a 4X4. Suddenly, we stopped just outside the village. The truck seemed to be having some sort of mechanical problems. The Camp driver and the two men I was working with hopped out and attempted to fix the vehicle. When the kids started getting a little bit rowdy, someone suggested that we pray. So pray we did. One of their teachers like to lead them in “popcorn” prayers where one student prays and then taps the next student, if that student doesn’t want to pray they tap the next person and so on. We prayed over the truck and thanked God for the trip. I closed and the students started to get antsy again. Eventually, they all left the truck to go to the toilet – mostly they wanted to get out of the truck because they didn’t come back. Thankfully, the truck started a few minutes later – albeit not without casualties (one of the boys slugged one of the girls with a stick). Back into the truck we all went. There were no more problems all the way to the Camp. We arrived, unloaded, set up camp, and the kids ran around playing. The Camp catered dinner for us, which was really nice because it isn’t easy to cook over an open fire. Sadly for the kids, we had to go to sleep around 9:00 that evening. There were a variety of different guests staying at the Camp and the guide from the group next to us came to politely ask if we could begin to quiet down as his clients would like to sleep. We tucked all of the kids into their tents and they quieted down fairly quickly (I think they were getting tired).

Adventures in Traveling: Botswana

walkbygrace — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:49:27 +0000

My adventure coming home start in a very interesting and very African manner. I had booked a 10:00AM flight out of town to Johannesburg. I arrived somewhere between 9:00 and 9:30 for check-in. After waiting in line, collecting a ticket, and going through the security passage I sat and waited for my flight to board. 10:00 came and went and there was no sign of boarding… around 10:30 or so we were allowed to board and everyone happily chose seats and prepared for take off. Or so we thought. A few minutes of sitting on the plane in the stifling heat was enough for most of us, but we waited patiently. After probably ten minutes, the pilot said over the intercom: There is a warning light on that we are trying to fix. Not entirely reassuring… A while later one of the flight attendants spoke saying: We are experience a slight technical problem, the pilot and technician are trying to fix it.

Eventually, they told us to all disembark and wait news inside (happy day! It was by far cooler inside!). We waited… and waited… and waited. I mostly sat and fixed some of my hair – the braids have decided to undo themselves. Finally, someone from the airline came and explained that the plane had been grounded for mechanical reasons and they were finding another plane. I am convinced that this airline has planes lined up somewhere just waiting to be called in for an emergency! Once they had located another plane, they explained to everyone that the flight would now be leaving at 1:00PM and sent everyone out to buy lunch.

We eventually boarded around 1:20PM or so and were in the air by 2:00PM. Generally speaking, things in Botswana aren’t like this. Granted, I do tend to expect the worst because you never know when these things may happen and plan accordingly. At the airport this means carrying any sort of entertainment and food stuff available. I had enough food to feed an army and there was a wireless hotspot! I was set . I sat and chatted with my mom for a majority of the wait. It was actually quite lovely.