Vic Falls

My friend, Debbie, is leaving tomorrow. Le Sob! I can't believe nearly an entire month has flown by. We have had so much fun together--don't make it stop. And! I haven't even had time to blog all the adventures yet. Our mini-vacation at the beginning of her visit is still being documented. I hope it isn't boring you too much but this is how I'll know it really happened 6 months from now when we're really and truly pining for each other. Wait! I just realized I'll be able to see her in 6 months. I'll tell you why soon.--I hope.

And now, on to the adventures!

Vic Falls. That is what the cool people in the know call Victoria Falls. They were named that by David Livingstone when he 'discovered' them in 1855. The natives of course had known them for years and called them by the name of Mosi oa Tunya (The Smoke that Thunders). This is because the Zambezi River rushes into the gorge with such force at high water season that the water sprays back up into the air, turns into a cloud-like mist (which can be seen from miles away above the treetops) and then falls like a monsoon rain. It's amazing!

Debbie and I looked at them first from one side of the gorge and then walked around to the top of the falls. 

Here you can see the mist obscuring the view of the other side of the gorge.

The deceptively peaceful river before it reaches the waterfall's edge.

Debbie looks down at the edge of the waterfall and wonders how many have attempted to go over. 

Interesting fact: When the water level is low--at the end of dry season--you can walk across the top of the falls.

We had decided to view Victoria Falls au natural without any rain gear. We knew we'd get wet but thought it would make the adventure more authentic.

As we headed down the path we met a young lady who strongly suggested we head back and rent the ponchos and Crocs. She said even with that protection we would end up wet.

We're glad we took her suggestion. The outfits were goofy with the rental people first putting a garbage bag over us and then a poncho but it made the experience more fun.

I'm claustrophobic and the thought of being encased in 2 layers of plastic including a hood that obscured my view made me a little crazy. I said my prayers as they dressed me and then opted to leave the hood down and take my chances.

This is the first viewing point. So far so good.

This is the second. Already we were in monsoon-like conditions with 'rain' pouring down on us.

I risked this one last photo with my camera in a ziploc bag and then decided to put it away for safekeeping.

We were so grateful for the Crocs as we crossed a narrow bridge that was a solid rush of water. 

We inched across carefully and just stood in awe at the majesty of God's creation. If you'd like to see more photos of the waterfalls google it and you'll agree that God did good! We said that this type of experience really helps you to appreciate the word awesome in connection with the holiness of God.

We finally made it safely out a bit wet but so so happy.

A little extra treat as we left the park was watching this huge baboon attack jump on a teenage girl, walking right in front of us, so he could steal her bag of potato chips. An interesting mini-adventure to round out our day. I bought a little wooden baboon for Debbie's desk to commemorate the experience.

Fab Friday Foto XXI

This where I was on Monday and Tuesday. Jealous much? You should be! Ha ha!
Victoria Falls is amazing (it used to be on the list of the Seven Wonders of the World) and even though this is the third time I've seen it it never gets old. Also, because the water levels change it is a different experience every time. 

I will be writing much more about my whole trip to Livingstone and all the fun that Debbie and I had together. This is just a little sneak peek. I will also be putting selected photos up on my download site. Stay tuned for that.

Sun 'n' Slide

While in Lusaka we wanted to make sure the kids had a chance to have a lot of fun. Munda Wanga has a pool and a slide so we made plans to swim after seeing the animals.

Funny thing though, the kids (aside from Troy) didn't bring their swim suits. They said, "Mom, many times when you say we're going to swim in a nice pool with a slide it ends up being a pond pool with a baby slide."

Hmmm, I think that says really nice things about my optimism. Don't you?

Actually, this was all new since the time we used to visit as a family. Their old pool was tiny and we often got stared at while we swam as I mentioned in this post.

Think they'll listen to me now?

When we got to the pool the slide wasn't working and we were told it only gets turned on on the weekends. Tom set off to talk to management and they agreed to turn it on for us. We were so proud of Tom for persevering and making the fun happen. It helped that Tom was able to bond with the owner over wildlife preservation and the story of the jackals.




This was Troy's first ever time on a 'real' water slide. I was really impressed with how he just climbed right up that high staircase and literally dove right in. No hesitation or squeamishness at the top.

He had a good example in his big brother--always ready to dive into new experiences head first.



Tom captured this photo. I love it!



Not having swimsuits didn't stop us from having fun. Tom shared his suit with one of the boys and then the rest swam in their clothes. This is one advantage to living in Africa. Little things like this are more relaxed.



Here is T.J in all his long-haired wildness.



They made slide chains and trains and went down over and over again. There were only four other people using the pool that day so we basically had the run of the slide. Such a treat!


We finally convinced Tom to slide down in his pants. It was a warm day and things were sure to dry. Unfortunately, the photographer (not me, thank goodness) didn't get a shot of him on the slide and then the water turned off just after that one slide.

It was such a fun day and full of memories. I believe next time we head to this pool everyone will be wearing swimsuits.

Until next time, may God bless and keep you on your own personal adventures.

Love!

Amy

Munda Wanga

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And now, back to the news:

One of the places I was most looking forward to visiting on our trip was Munda Wanga. We used to visit this park all the time when we lived in Lusaka (the capital city) because it was fairly close to our home and was reasonably affordable. For about $2 per person we could go and spend the day in beautiful botanical gardens or wander through the smallish zoo. The little restaurant served cheap snacks and it was a really relaxing way to spend a day.

Since our visits there the zoo has grown quite a bit with a bunch of new animals added. I've had the opportunity to visit it a couple times since we moved--taking visitors there--but Tom and the kids hadn't been there since 2004.

All photos for this post were taken by Tom as I wrestled the baby's stroller over the gravelly roads. Plus, he's just better at it.

We saw the usual animals like these impala which were nice but they're everywhere.


The warthogs were nice (in a very ugly way) and so very African. Sing it with me now: "Hakuna Matata--What a wonderful phrase!"


I can't see zebras anymore without thinking of Madagascar. They look comical and cartoony now.

These African Wild Dogs were favorites for Tom and Jasmine. Tom said they're different and not one of the usual suspects in a zoo or wildlife park. Jasmine liked the noise they make.


I love the mongooses and they were favorites for T.J as well.

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is a famous story about a mongoose. I will send an Zambian greeting card to the first person who can tell me who wrote this story.

The monkeys were favorites with all our kids but Timmy really enjoyed this baboon. Here he is pictured with T.J but earlier he had shaken Timmy's hand. It got a bit scary when he refused to let go and then bared his teeth. Monkeys are very strong.

There was a big colony of vervet monkeys also. There are a bunch of new ones that are in the process of being reintroduced to the wild after causing problems at the Zambian State House. One monkey even urinated on the president's head during a press conference causing great embarrassment.
Since we have our own vervet monkey we know exactly how mischievous they can be.



Speaking of mischievous, when my teenage son saw how close this ostrich was to the fence he talked about how fun it would be to wrap his hands around the neck.

I've seen these lions on many occasions (including feeding days where the lions come charging over the hill to leap onto meat placed near the fence) but it never hit me until this particular day how very very large they are. They are huge!! It's easy to think of lions as just big cats but they are definitely wild animals.
Interesting fact here: they can't keep more than one male in a pride or they will fight all the time so they castrated one of the males which caused his mane to fall out. How sad is that?

And now for a very interesting story:

Around this time last year some people brought a box to our gate with little cubs of some sort. They looked like baby foxes or wild dogs. We didn't know what they were. We fed them milk and kept them in our shower room but knew that they were not the sort of animals we could add to our menagerie.

On one of our shopping trips to the main city--Mansa-- 3 hours away, Tom dropped the little cubs (now identified as jackals) off to the Zambian Wildlife Association (ZAWA). They were very excited since almost no one rescues animals in this part of Zambia. They encouraged Tom to file paperwork to become a wildlife officer.

ZAWA's Mansa branch later told us how happy they were that we dropped off the jackals since that meant they had something to write in their 'activity report' for that quarter. When Tom paid a visit to ZAWA's headquarters in Chilenge they said, "Oh, you're the jackal guy". Tom is working with ZAWA to establish a type of reptile habitat up here for people to view. (More about this another time).

Anyway, on our trip to Munda Wanga we saw that they had jackals and wondered, "Could they be ours???" Sure enough, they were! Look at toward the bottom of this page to see more about them.

It was so exciting to see how our small rescue efforts in this area of Zambia are making a difference.