Livingstone

So I am one week away from coming home. What a whirlwind it has been! Today is my first full day off since arriving and already it has been quite eventful. We flew into Livingstone yesterday after a very full week. Thursday we went back to Chazanga and Bwafwano and spent some time with the children. We did skits, singing, skipping and taught them cats cradle. The time flew by! As we left, a group of boys ran alongside and escorted us out of Chazanga. There were multiple points where they were faster than the car. It is a memory I will not soon forget.

Livingstone in many ways is like a different world. It is very touristy which has its ups and downs. It is certainly more expensive but there is a sense of pride evidenced on Main Street in the lack of garbage and the care of the buildings. This is the first time since I have arrived in Africa that I have not been overwhelmed by garbage everywhere.

A classmate of mine, Jasmin, and I are on our own today and we woke early to do a walking safari. It was amazing! The rhinos were only 10-15 feet away, if that, and we spent over half an hour just watching them. The giraffes were my favorite! Such beautiful creatures. We saw four grazing on the acacia trees, one of which was a baby. It is almost surreal, standing so close to these animals in their natural habitat.

We then went to the Royal Livingstone to watch the sunset and have supper. It was stunningly beautiful and quite the experience. When we went to have supper, the staff almost didn't let us in, because I don't think we fit the part! I think the backpack was a deterrent!

We had a young man named Gary who came to pick us up and he arrived before we were finished so we invited him to pull up a chair and enjoy dessert with us. As we chatted he spoke of how his father died in 1989 when he was five and how as an only child he felt responsible to care for his mother. Gary was clearly highly motivated and such a hard worker. It has not been easy for him as he related an all too familiar story of violence and alcohol abuse in his childhood. But despite the challenges, he spoke of integrity and honesty and the dream of one day having his own family to love and a business to run.

Then he stopped, and said that this was the first time he had been invited to share a meal with white people. I was so shocked! It is difficult to relate to the deeply entrenched barriers of color that exist in other parts of the world. He also expressed surprise that Jasmin and I travel together because of the differences in the colors of our skin. I learned so much that night in conversation with Gary. It was almost ironic that there the three of us sat, all different colors, sharing a meal at a place that almost rejected us because of our clothes and a backpack. Many of the deepest, most meaningful things that I have learned over the past month have occurred in informal conversations such as these.

Well there is so much I could continue to write, but I know you didn't sign up to read a novel, so I will save it for another time. Five days to go! Until next time....

Danielle