Vacation

As most of you know, Stephen's brother David came to visit us for 3 weeks in June. We had a great time together! We spent the first week just hanging out in our village. We got to give David a taste of the "real" bush life, which included a lot of relaxing, walking around, reading books, guitar playing, and soccer. We spent one day at our friend's farm and had a few traditional meals. On his last night in the village we had a little "party" with the kids just dancing and singing together. Everyone was glad that David came to visit and we really enjoyed having him there with us.

After our time in the village, we travelled down to Livingstone for a little vacationing. The first day there we went white water rafting on the Zambezi River. The whole experience was quite...treacherous. Even getting down the gorge to the river was a dangerous endeavor. We had to climb down this rather steep hill on these "steps" made of pieces of wood nailed together. It was rickety and broken in many places and our legs were definately shaking by the time we got to the bottom. The rafting itself was a blast! Scary...but a blast! We were doing great through the first few rapids until we hit "The Mother" (which was really the name of the rapid) and that's when we lost it and flipped upside down. We were all okay and after a few minutes we were back in the raft, a little water-logged and exhausted. From then on it was...well not quite smooth sailing but we managed to hang on and enjoy the ride.

The next day we began our trip to Botswana to go on a two day safari in Chobe National Park. The safari was awesome! It started with a boat cruise where we saw many hippos, crocs, various birds (we thought of you Linds), and animals grazing on the shore. We set up camp inside of the park and then began our game drives. The drives were great! Chobe is so beautiful and is filled with animals. We saw so many types of antelope like impala, kudu, puku, and even a black sable. We also saw buffalo, warthogs, baboons, zebra, giraffe, and elephants. There were so many elephants and many would come right next to the truck! Then on the way back to camp we saw a small group of lionesses. What a great day! It was just so relaxing to ride around and enjoy God's creation.
Day two of the safari was filled with more beautiful sights and amazing animals. That day we also found a leopard kill which had been drug into a tree and when we went back we saw a leopard and two leopard cubs! so cool! That night we went to sleep to the sound of animals grazing in the woods around our campsite. Finally on the last morning as we were heading out of the park, we saw two male lions just relaxing in the grass. After watching them for a bit we went on and came across another group of lions eating a kudu carcass! It was a bit gross but really neat. All in all the experience was so wonderful! We saw beautiful animals, enjoyed amazing scenery, ate good food, and had a good time relaxing together.

We spent the day after the safari at the Victoria Falls which was also amazing. The Falls are one of the 7 natural wonders of the world and they are beautiful. The whole park around the Falls was great and we spent the whole day hiking around, looking at the Falls, shopping, and trying to fight off the monkeys. The place is crawling with baboons and David got a really close look at one when it came after his disposable camera. Luckily he got the camera back with only minor teeth marks.

Oh yeah, also while in Livingstone we went to a crocodile farm. They have a bunch of huge crocs, many which are in there because they had eaten humans. Our "guide" was very helpful in telling us all about the fierce crocodiles who are very aggressive. He also asked if we wanted to see them growl and then proceeded to enter the cage and poke the crocs with a stick! It was hilarious and so bizarre! It was definately a highlight of the trip, especially for the boys.

Overall we had a great vacation and were so glad that David got to experience our life in Zambia. We have a lot of good pictures and a ton of funny memories. Since then we've just been hanging out in the village. There wasn't a lot going on these past weeks however we do have a few new up and coming things. One is Spanish! We are now taking Spanish lessons with the Catholic priest in Kasempa. He's from Spain and so he's teaching us two times a week. We, especially Stephen, are very excited about this. Also we are going to start doing some work with the ARV program at the mission hospital. We spoke with the man in charge of that department and he'd like us to help with trainings, visitations in the villages, and sensitizations. This should be a really great area for us to work in and it sounds like they have a lot for us to do. In addition to that we are in the process of planning an HIV/AIDS awareness day in Kasempa along with some other Peace Corps volunteers. We are going to get a testing unit there, have some activities and sensitizations, and we're trying to get a major Zambian entertainer to come and give a concert. Please be praying that it all comes together and that it can really help in reducing stigma and promoting behavior change.

Well I've written a lot for this blog but I really want to say thank you to you all. Living overseas and doing development work can have it's ups and downs. We really appreciate your support and encouragment. It means a lot to know that we have friends and family who care about us and are praying for us. Thank you! We love you and are missing you!

Love
Stephen and Heather