THE CIRCLE OF LIFE

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOVE YOU!!!!

Well, I don’t even know where to start now…Yesterday we drove to Livingstone, Zambia. Upon arriving, I checked into a nice hotel and then was off to lunch—Olga’s: The Italian Corner. Yes, legit Italian food in Africa. It was quite good and how much I consumed is shameful. Okay, I had a taste of bruschetta and a couple of other appetizers followed by a whole pizza and a scoop of gelato. So good. After that we quickly popped into a few shops before meeting up with the rest of the group at the hotel. Then headed to a super nice hotel---The Royal Livingstone—where we had tea and endless desserts. They do this thing called “High Tea” during certain hours of the day where you order a tea and then go to a room of desserts. It is like a buffet. They serve the tea in fancy china. We ate outside facing the Zambeze River. The mist of the Falls could be seen in the distance. It was beautiful! The night would not have been complete without the many monkeys that seemed to come out of nowhere and wreak havoc on the patio. Yes, things were broken and sugar was stolen. Hilarious! We then left in shifts for Victoria Falls! We are going again tomorrow to see them during the day, but we went last night for the lunar rainbow and—surprise—a lunar eclipse! Now, the lunar rainbow comes from the light of the moon shining through the mist of the falls. Very awesome. Speaking of awesome, the sound of the falls was more than awesome. I remember my first peek at them in the dark—my stomach turned in awe. “God made that”, one of our group stated. I agreed in silence.  I opted not to get wet last night because it was COLD. Instead, I sat at the top of the falls with Bweave, her daughter, her best friend, and a few others in our group. We watched the rainbow change here and there and waited for the lunar eclipse. Well, a lot of us were freezing, so we left before the eclipse and caught bits and pieces of it at the hotel. I felt pretty sick after eating so much, so I went to bed pretty soon after. This morning, we were up early for a nice—and SUGAR FREE (for me)—breakfast before leaving for the safari in Botswana around 7:30. I’ll spare the details of crossing over into another country and back, but it was interesting. We did so by boat. So, we rode on these awesome safari trucks to this beautiful place called the Chobe Marina Lodge in Chobe. We loaded onto a boat and went on the water part of the safari until lunch. We returned to the Lodge for a great lunch before getting back on the awesome safari trucks and driving to Chobe National Park.  We saw a lot of animals—giraffe, antelope, various winged creatures, lizards, crocs, elephant, hippo, baboons, warthogs, mongoose, and probably other things I have pictures of but cant remember. I do know that we saw no cats or zebra L I was a little bummed about that, but “The Circle of Life” was blaring in my mind and kept me focused! Haha. We finished up and returned the way we came—just with less energy. When we got back, I went to Olga’s for dinner and had pumpkin ravioli for the first time—I loved it! I have since returned, showered, and am planning on getting up with a few of the girls to go shop a bit in the morning. Later tomorrow we will go back to the Falls and then get on a boat to see the sunset on the Zambeze J And that is my life since leaving Namwianga/Kalomo. We go back on Saturday, and I look forward to seeing the kids again before headed to the states. Let me hear from you all! Love you!

Anna J