100 days

     According to the United States Internal Revenue Office I have been out of the U.S. for 243 days. In 100 days at this exact moment in the day I will be on a flight to Ethiopia, then Frankfurt, and finally Washington, D.C.

     I have no idea what I'll be doing after that, but I only have 100 days left in Rwanda. Part of me wasn't sure I would make it this far, but I have. So here's to the last 100 days.

Why Be Less When You Can B-More?

"Her heart was filled with laughter when she saw those city lights.

She said the prettiest place on earth is Baltimore at night." 

~Streets of Baltimore

     I don't exactly know how to feel today. I am 7,200 miles from home. And today I found one of the guys who works in ICT looking up Baltimore on Wikipedia. It surprised me. Even more so than waking up at 3:15 am this morning and seeing that a state of emergency had been declared and the National Guard deployed to Baltimore City. What is going on in my hometown? My Nursing School closed campus early yesterday. A curfew for all is going into effect tonight. Cars were smashed, a CVS looted and burned, restaurant windows smashed, people attending a baseball game at our beloved Camden Yards were asked to remain inside the stadium after the game ended because of public safety concerns. Something tells me that my father is going to stay out of the office this week. For the first time ever, I don't like the idea of him walking a mile along the waterfront from where he parks his car to his downtown office.
     The majority of those who read this are located in the U.S. so unless you live under a rock, you know what I'm referring to. For those of you who do not know, a black youth died last week in police custody. My understanding is that he most likely (the medical examiner autopsy results have not been released as far as I know) suffered from a back injury while in custody, was transferred to one of the best hospitals on the East Coast but slipped into a coma and died a week later. I am almost certain I know the unit he was taken to at R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center. I can picture it vividly in my mind because I trained there in my final semester of nursing school. One of my fellow classmates probably still works there.
     Violence, drugs, and murder are nothing new to Baltimore. I mean, we have a neighborhood that is nicknamed Bodymore and routinely makes the most dangerous neighborhoods or most dangerous cities in the US lists. But this weird, quirky city is home. I grew up in Baltimore County, which is very different than inner city Baltimore. I am a privileged, white woman. So yes, I have had a multitude of opportunities that others haven't and so maybe I don't even have a right to say anything about the situation. I am not going to sit here and even remotely pretend that I have any clue what the protesters and rioters are feeling. I simply cannot identify with a black male in inner city Baltimore no matter what I try.
     However (an maybe this is naïve of me to say), my parents raised me to treat others as I would like to be treated, to give back to the community, and always remember there are those less fortunate that I in this world, and not just half a world away in Africa, but 30 miles down a very familiar interstate. Thanks to my parents as well as Catholic Schooling it was a requirement for me to complete a certain amount of community service in order to receive my high school diploma. I volunteered at Camp Umoja, a camp for inner city children run by my ever enthusiastic cross country coach at my high school. It was my first stab at teaching, which I never thought I'd be using now (and it was hard). My one sister had a tendency to lock her keys in our trusty Saturn, the inner city children she taught more than once broke into the car for her to retrieve them. She usually was with the children under 10 years old. I can't imagine what their life was that at younger than 10 they could break into a car.
     It's very strange to be so far away and only getting snippets of news and Facebook posts. I have complete faith that some of the news outlets aren't showing the thousands who peacefully protested thus skewing the world's view of Baltimore. I am embarrassed that a Rwandan colleague was so intrigued by this news that he was researching the city I call home. I just have no idea what to feel about the situation. I wish that people could just calm down and be rational sometimes (easier said than done, I know). It worries me to see how the world is changing, but particularly America and our politics. Over 4,000 innocent people have lost their lives in Nepal and yet my Facebook feed, news trending, and news media alerts are about Baltimore and I just received one about the Tony Award nominations.
     I don't know who would ever want to become a police officer in the United States today. I am not about to say that every police officer out there is noble and perfect, because they are human just like you and me, and no one is perfect. However, it's not just the military that make sacrifices, but police officers too. Anyone who makes the decision to put on a uniform to serve others deserves acknowledgment of the daily sacrifice they and their families make.
     It saddens me that this will go down in Baltimore's history forever and that when I mention I am from Baltimore this will be the first thing people will associate with it for awhile.

"I love you Baltimore. Every day's like an open door, every night is a fantasy, every sound's like a symphony. And I promise Baltimore that some day when I take to the floor the world's gonna wake up and see Baltimore and me."

 ~Hairspray

Off the Grid, Part 3: Blyde & Johannesburg, South Africa & Home

Blyde, South Africa

     After a failed attempt to get the wing mirrors fixed we continued our journey west from Kruger National Park to Blyde, South Africa. Blyde is breathtakingly beautiful. It is one of the largest canyons in the world and known to be one of the greenest. We headed into the canyon and as thunder was rumbling in one direction and the sun shining in the other, we pulled into our destination. We were going to spend the next two nights with Scott's friends Ronel and Deon. They work and live at Blyde Adventure Camp, which is located on a citrus farm right on the Blyde River. It was just mid-afternoon and after our greeting by the three dogs of the house we headed down to the river for a dip before Ronel and Deon finished work.

     Scott warned me before getting in to make sure I didn't see any hippos in the water. Then he informed me not to go any lower than the pool of rushing water we were in because there could be crocodiles. Great, not only had I camped with wild animals but apparently now I was about to go swimming with two of the most dangerous ones. Hippos account for more deaths in Africa than any other animal. Surprising since they only eat grass.

     Anyway, guessing that Scott wasn't pulling my leg as he tossed rocks into the deeper section, I carefully chose my entry point into the river ensuring that I could see the bottom for quite a distance. It was great and refreshing after spending the night in the bush. I gathered my Kindle and sprawled out in the sun and Scott furnished the beers while we lounged. 

     We wandered back up to the house just before five where we were greeted by Deon. I wanted to shower, to Scott's surprise, I'd just been in a river, why on earth would I need to shower? Ronel and Deon have this fantastic outdoor shower. I'm such a sucker for outdoor showers. I just absolutely love them. I tossed my towel over the top of the shower head and relaxed. Now, the interesting thing about this shower is that it's located in full view of the house with no curtains. So the boys were sitting the yard out of sight and I heard Ronel come home and join them. Five minutes later I was done and I went to grab my towel. And that's where a glitch happened. The piping for this shower is encased in a tree (easiest explanation) and my towel snagged on it at the very top at a distance that I couldn't reach. I jumped trying to get it off. That didn't work. I was butt naked at Scott's friends house, one whom I hadn't even met yet, and I was stuck. I was about 3 seconds from calling out for help when I somehow finally got the towel down. It's a good thing... I don't think Scott would have ever let me live that down if I had needed his help.

     The plan was to go over to Geraldine and Shaene's house for dinner, neighbors "just around the block, 20 minutes." I had to smile at Ronel's definition of just around the block. Neighbors back home absolutely means someone who lives a few miles away across back country roads, but we never apply that term, that's for city folk. It just made me smile. When we arrived at their farm, we were greeted by about 8 dogs. I honestly lost count. Shaene was cooking dinner and the ladies and I opened some wine and hung outside with some of the children as the men occupied themselves in the kitchen. It was a nice change of stereotypes if I do say so myself. Dinner was delicious, the children were hilarious, and it was all in all a great time. South Africans are so warm and welcoming, it reminded me a lot of being back in Ireland.

     The next day I got to sleep in... that was until Scott let all three dogs in and they all three decided to get into bed with me and wrestle. That put an end to that. We had a super lazy Friday. Reading, napping, cooking. When Scott ran out to Toyota to see if he could get the mirrors replaced, I wandered through the grapefruit trees back down to the river and wisely tossed a few rocks in before taking a dip. I lost track of time and ran into Scott and Ronel and all the dogs on my way back to the house.

Marmite was my little buddy!

We decided to go out for dinner that night because it was just easier on everyone. Ronel decided that it was going to be fancy hat night. Scott was a little less enthused with this plan, but was a good sport in the end (arg!). Shaene, Geraldine, and all the girls met us out... it was a little difficult to get the baby away from Scott, who ever so calmly stated that he did not have children as Kathleen was wriggling out of his grip and about to flop on the ground. Geraldine lent a hand after stating, "You don't say?"

Fancy hat night!

Scott and Kathleen

Marmite enjoying my lap while
 I enjoyed my morning tea.

Part of the set

     Saturday morning, after a cup of tea or two, we went for a hike to the waterfalls. Scott and I rode in the back of the pickup truck on our way to the trailhead. The colors of the canyon were absolutely stunning in the morning light. The hike was fairly easy to start because the woods where we were had been the set of an Australian version of Survivor. The trail was nicely made and Shaene showed us part of the set. When we reached the first pool and waterfall I thought that was it. Nope. I was very wrong. We kept climbing up and around the first waterfall to the second, then the third, fourth, and finally stopped at the fifth pool and waterfall. I should mention that I was doing the climbing around the waterfalls barefoot as it was much easier than in my shoes, and also I was feeling extremely hardcore that day. By the time we reached our final destination I was hot and ready for a swim. Scott dove in with me quickly behind him. Upon surfacing something along the lines of, "Holy [expletive] it's [expletive] freezing!" Came flying out of my mouth. I don't think I have ever swam in colder water before.

The bottom half of the 5th and final waterfall

I hopped out pretty immediately, but the cold didn't keep Scott and I from swimming over to the actual fall later. It was absolutely gorgeous despite the freezing temperatures. 

The waterfall was too tall to capture it all in one shot.

 

By the time we got back to the group I was fairly numb. My body is not use to such cold anymore (my father can attest to this as I sat on the couch next to the fire in a room heated to roughly 75˚ F in not one but two layers of down over the New Year). We eventually headed back down partially due to hunger, partially because Scott and I still had a five hour drive back to Johannesburg that afternoon. 

Looking down the first waterfall

Before leaving the group drove me up to the dam so I could see the reservoir and dam and just how green the canyon really is. I may or may not have ridden standing up in the back of the pickup truck for this portion of the trip.

Scott, Ronel, Shaene

Largest green canyon in the world

Nine days together and we're still smiling!

I promise it was relatively safe Mom!

     After lunch, Scott and I hit the road. We were headed back to Johannesburg for my last night. I was interested in seeing the city, though hours later I discovered that it is really sprawling suburbs. The drive was easy, beautiful and as we got closer to the city the landscape once again started to remind me of the Midwest United States. That is until we passed four rhinos on a farm. We grabbed take away sushi (I was going to get my sushi fix to last me the next four months) before heading back to Scott's bachelor pad apartment. His neighbor came over for a drink  while we ate and before long we crashed. I'm fairly certain I was asleep before 8 pm.

     Sunday was an easy day. I fixed breakfast early and packed all of my things before we headed out to run errands. As this trip was a test run for Scott's big road trip starting this week (from Joburg to Nairobi and back) he had a few things he wanted to buy. He took me to the biggest mall I had ever been to in my entire life. I swear the place was 4 times the size of Mall of America (and lacking in roller coasters). Overwhelming to say the least. We got what Scott needed, including a gift certificate for a baby shower, which was highly amusing as I could see how uncomfortable Scott was in that store, debated about a movie (I sure as heck wasn't sitting through Fast and the Furious 7) and finally decided to just go back to Scott's place, have a glass of wine in the garden and then head to the airport for my flight.
     I was sad the moment I walked into the airport. I hate that feeling that vacation is over and it had been a fabulous vacation. We took off ten minutes early, I had plenty of time in Nairobi, and even arrived in Kigali 2 hours ahead of schedule as they changed our flight plan. My bags even came out within 15 minutes of passing through passport control. I was shocked. I arrived home at 3:15 am Monday morning, passed out on the couch as Emily and Jim were booted from their home because HEPK (His Excellency Paul Kagame) was staying at his Butare home down the street and Em was in my bed. I was up at 6:15, showered, dressed, and was back at work by 7:30 am.
     Scott will be stopping in Rwanda on this massive road trip of his, so while this was the end of our Southern Africa adventure, there will be an East Africa adventure soon.

Scott's street in Johannesburg

 Lessons Learned:
1) Never underestimate the importance of vacation.
2) Never underestimate the importance of long lost friends.
3) Never underestimate the beauty of this world.

Off the Grid, Part 2: Kruger National Park, South Africa

     So both of the side mirrors (or wing mirrors in South Africa) were stolen during our one night in Maputo. Whoops. It was all my fault. I had booked our place in Maputo and all Scott had asked for was off street parking. I could have sworn that the place had said off street parking. I was obviously wrong. But it happened and there was nothing we could do about it, so off we went to cross back into South Africa. It didn't take us too long, I hopped out and walked up to the border and was still in line to get our passports stamped when Scott pulled in with the car. With some slight confusion we made it across the border and back into South Africa, where we were greeted by amazing roads and grocery stores. We stocked up on supplies for the next few nights and we were back on the road.

Last Mozambique sunrise

Speeding towards the border

     Our next destination of the trip was Kruger National Park. South Africa has the big five game animals, unlike Rwanda, and I was really hoping to see a bunch of animals. I think Scott was a little nervous about how excited I might get over animals. And he had reason to be. Within 50 meters of the entrance gate we came across two giraffes and an elephant. I think I made him stop for about 15 minutes. In Rwanda it is very rare to see the elephants, but in Kruger... not so much. It's an enormous park, approximately 450 miles in length and we saw upwards of 100 elephants in our two days there.

Welcome to Kruger!

Hadn't been in the park for 5 minutes before we came across these guys!

Hello Mr. Giraffe and Mr. Bird!

     The plan was to stay at the Skukuza camp our first night, which meant that we had a little over 100 km to meander through the park observing the animals. Scott decided to take a road that followed the Sabie River, which provided plenty of sightings (and plenty rolling of eyes at me). Before we had even hit the river I saw my first ever rhino in the wild. We couldn't tell if it was a white rhino or black rhino at the time, but it was pretty cool. I was later informed by Barry that in fact it was a white rhino. It was much bigger than I thought it would be. He had clearly just taken a little mud bath and was enjoy some shade underneath a tree.

Rhino!

As we hit the river the animals just multiplied. I saw so much. And thankfully, Scott had bought not one, but two Kruger National Park info books. Both equipped with a checklist of animals, one even with reference photos of them all. You can imagine how Scott felt as I more than happily embarrassed the heck out of him by ticking everything we saw. He has no idea that as a child my sisters and I use to count every deer we saw on our camping excursions with our father. I would keep tally to report back to our mother first thing when we got home. In reality though, the picture list was quite useful in identifying the less common birds we saw.

Zebra & Impala (yes that is something in the middle of
the road, a young zebra was having some fun) 

Wildebeest

Baboons

Croc!

And I was so excited to see my first (but not the last) herd of elephants. They crossed the road just in front of us. There were about 15 of them ranging in all ages. They went down to the river to play and we were able to continue watching them from a bridge. Below is a video clip (you can't hear Scott laughing at my amazement... probably because I just kept repeating the same things) of them. But I'm fascinated with elephants and how their trunks work. I just think they're so cool.

Another guy later on our drive

And yet another elephant crossing!

     Eventually, once I'd gotten my elephant fix we arrived and checked in at the camp. We were staying in one of their tents so there wasn't much set up for us to do. We each had a glass of wine on our "porch," read a little, and watched a group of warthogs (that are so ugly they're cute) run through camp, before heading over to the restaurant for dinner. While we could have cooked ourselves, we decided that it would be one less meal to worry about so we splurged on steaks. Red meat is in no shortage in South Africa and it is so incredibly good and cooked perfectly. I was in constant food heaven on this trip.

Camp first night in Kruger

They kneel on their front legs to eat, probably because
their necks don't bend very well, but I'm no expert.

Our tent was right on the edge of the camp and just as I finished getting ready for bed, Scott popped his head in the tent and asked if I wanted to see a hyena. I clarified that this animal was outside the camp (i.e.- behind a big fence) and not just outside our tent. Sure enough, there was a hyena scavenging along the camp fence looking for any food scraps people may have tossed over it. It was very dark though so it was hard to study him.
     Fortunately, Scott is an early riser and we were up and on the road before 6:30 am. And I was very lucky in what we saw first thing...

Two spotted hyenas were still out and about, checking out something down at the river, though we weren't sure what. If you look closely the one on the left has blood on its front right paw. They were maybe 10 meters from our car. We didn't stay long to observe them, partially because we had cars behind us and also we had a schedule. We were meeting a park guide at 2 pm and we had about 5 hours of driving to get there. However, we had a few moments of luck and got to see some pretty nifty things along the way.

We decided to back up and give these guys room to cross the road

      We stopped for breakfast at a rest stop and Scott pulled out his skottle to cook some breakfast. We decided on egg sandwhiches. I somehow picked the worst table in the spot but we made it work. Why was it the worst table you ask? Well, as you know by reading this blog of mine, we have monkeys run all over the hospital in Rwanda. They are funny to watch and while I know they're wild, they're probably somewhat domesticated. They never approach you unless you're offering them food (which I never do) and they're just nice. They make the children laugh in pediatrics and they're fun to have around. Well in South Africa... they're wild. Truly wild. So me picking the table that was somehow the closest to them but still a distance away I thought would be fine. Nope. It almost resulted in out bread being stolen and did result in Scott doing some shouting, yelling, general waving of arms, and finally tossing some rocks their way. Needless to say, we ate pretty quickly and cleaned up and got back on the road.
     We saw three rhino on the move as we continued our drive and then some ostriches just hanging out. I had no idea how vicious those birds can be. Scott told me that people use them as "guards" because they won't eat meat like a dog would (people are known to poison dogs here) and they've been known to scalp people. After that I decided that there is a reason they survive in the wild and to not underestimate the ostrich. We were now driving through an area of the park called Satara, known for lions. I really wanted to see a lion. I've never seen one in the wild and Rwanda is still working on a deal with Kenya to purchase some. I kept my eyes peeled. We happened upon a waterhole and pulled over to get shots of this little guy...

Terrapin decided to hitch a ride!

There were a lot of game hanging around, impalas, zebras, waterbuck... then they all took off. "Well something made them run." We didn't see it at first, but then there she was...

On the prowl.

 We thought she was hunting as she seemingly was stalking something, first one direction, then the other before she finally decided to just plop herself down. She didn't even drink any water, but no other game was headed towards the watering hole anymore. We watched her for awhile before needing to move. We hadn't gone far before we saw a second lioness headed towards the watering hole. I was amazed at how well they blended in with the grass. I'm certain we drove by more and simply didn't spot them.

     We finally reached our destination and just as our park guide, David, arrived. We were headed out on the Malopeni Eco Drive, one of Scott's favorite things to do in the park. Essentially, we were going to drive down some more 4WD terrain and camp in the bush and hope that a lion wouldn't find us to be a tasty midnight snack.

They weren't joking about 4WD

 So off we went on some serious 4WD roads into the bush. We saw several giraffes but not much else on our drive to camp. It took us almost another three hours of driving to reach our camp right on the river. We didn't have much daylight left, so while David watched, Scott and I had the tent and sleeping pads and bags all set up, a fire going, drinks flowing, and dinner started within the hour. He made a comment that it was probably the fastest he'd ever seen a camp go up in all the years he's been doing this. I couldn't help but laugh (then again perhaps it was the red wine) as Scott and I met in college in the Outing Club, also known as hiking/camping/climbing/watersports club. Between the two of us, we've probably done it all.

Camp our second night in Kruger

     For dinner Scott made me guess one of the meats I was eating and while I wasn't correct as far as the animal, I was correct on the organ bits I was nibbling on. My description of, "It looks like liver wrapped in fat" was incredibly accurate of skilpadtjie. It was pretty good though extremely rich. Thankfully, he was smart enough to also buy me a steak and braai that for me along with some veggies.

     We stayed up remarkably late for us, as in 10 pm, enjoying wine and talking with David. The stars were unbelievable and just like in Akagera, I was able to see the Milky Way. We could hear the hippos coming out of the water and grazing on grass, but then all of a sudden we heard a lot of hooves. David jumped up from his car and flipped the lights on of his truck. "Buffalo!" he said. If we weren't careful in letting them know where we were, they could have easily run through our camp and trampled us. That made me feel safe. Even safer, was his answer to my question, "Why are they running?" "Lion." Fabulous. I was seriously camping with lions. And while Scott passed out easily in the tent, I laid there listening to the different sounds for what felt like hours before finally drifting off.
     In the morning David asked me if I'd heard the lions. Glad that I wasn't certain what I was listening to otherwise I probably never would have fallen asleep. We got dressed and walked down to the river with David and his rifle. We saw a bunch of hippos getting in and out of the water and a lot of tracks in the sand. Overnight a turtle had clearly come out of the water and headed straight for our camp. We could see where the buffalo had run and a few antelope were on their way down to the water for a drink. I'm sure there was a crocodile or two out there as well, but I couldn't spot them. We headed back to camp where Scott fixed breakfast, I got freaked out at a lizard in the bathroom, and David filled us in on more details of life in the bush.

David pointing out a hippo and their calf
about 30 m from camp 

     We headed back to the gate and after spotting more warthogs and elephants arrived about 11 am. We had to debate our next move. Either we could drive through the park back the way we had come the day before and exit from one gate before heading onto Part 3 of our adventure, or we could exit the park at the gate where we were sitting and start Part 3 immediately. I wasn't going to lie, I was a little animaled out and while I would have loved to see a male lion, we could drive (and by "we" I mean Scott) for hours and not spot another one. I was exhausted, I'm sure he was exhausted, and there was the promise of a swim in a refreshing river at our Part 3 destination...

     Decision made. We drove out of Kruger after 2 nights of awesomeness ready to tackle Part 3 of our adventure!

Read Scott's renditions of our adventure here!

Lessons Learned:
1) Never underestimate an animal, wild or domesticated.
2) It's good to get out of your comfort zone, whether that's an experience, trying a new food, or shouting at monkeys.
3) Liver is surprisingly delicious!