Monday
We started the day with legit
coffee. Not the instant stuff.
We immediately fell in love and were
thankful we didn’t realize how good coffee was before we drank instant junk.
[coffee!!]
………………………………………………………………..
Today we white water rafted. Half the day.
We started out with an informational
session describing what to do if you fell out.
When you fell out.
The entire time I’m trying to listen to
this guy, but behind him there’s a picture of a raft that’s mid- capsize. How am I supposed to pay attention to you if
there’s 6 people on the verge of death behind your head?
He described a “short swimmer” as someone
who falls out but is still holding onto the boat.
If I could manage to hold on to the boat,
I probably wouldn’t have fallen out.
Thanks though.
A “long swimmer” has let go of the boat
and is at least a few feet away. If the
name describes how much swimming I have to do, I may be in trouble. How long do I have to swim for before you pull
me back in??
There are 3 ways to rescue a long
swimmer. There’s your paddle, which you’re
supposed to hold on to, but honestly, if I can’t manage to hold onto the boat,
there’s about no chance I can hold the paddle.
There’s also a throw rope. Which
they aim at your head.
The last thing I need after being thrown
from a boat is a rope bag hitting me in the head.
The third way is a kayaker that is really
experienced that floats near the 2 boats to help direct you where to swim if
you fall out. Clearly, they are prepared
for us to fall out.
We hike down into the gorge of Victoria Falls. On either side of us is black volcanic rock
that has fallen from the top.
Comforting.
We were also instructed not to swim to
the side if we fell out. They told us
the sides are rocky, but later they said that that’s where the crocodiles hang
out.
“But don’t worry, we fed them yesterday.”
I just hoped he was joking.
Then we put on life jackets and helmets.
Wow,
I was just starting to feel like all the safety measures were just a
precaution. Guess not.
………………………………………………………….
We
climbed our way down straight up fallen rock into the canyon of the falls. We meet our other boat-mates: Helen and Mark from London. Helen is a young dentist and on our trek down
the rocks we talked about our lives and why we were here and she said she would
love to do something like that.
She
got our email address so we could set her up with the clinic we worked with.
She
also does research with endocarditis and I think she should continue that
research because we could use some great outpatient options for treatment. She will, but she plans on taking a sabbatical
to do volunteer work, and they could surely use it in rural Zambia.
When
we finally reach the bottom, we hop in our raft and practice paddling straight
into the “Boiling pot.” Which is a class
2 rapid. Pretty tame.
We
hit the second rapid, which was a choice
of a class 3, 4, or 5. Our captain tells
us if we do well on the class 3, he’ll let us pick what to do next time,
knowing there are at least 3 more class 5 rapids coming up.
They
don’t let you raft class 5s in America. Well, not that many class 5s.
The
other captain gave their boat the choice.
We
went through first, and came out waterlogged, but just fine.
The
other boat capsized.
And
lost all of the 7 rowers.
It
was chaos. We paddled back to them and
grabbed 3 girls and pulled them into our boat.
We met the 3 girls earlier, all studying abroad in Namibia. And from America. Very nice girls.
But
one of them had on a vacant face, like we picked up her body from the rapids
but her soul was still lost. Frances
described it as a “Bamby” look of complete shock and utter terror.
On
only the 2nd rapid. This
might be a long morning.
Thankfully,
after returning the lost crew and oars to their boat, everyone was fine. We continued down the rest of the rapids
(except rapid #9, called commercial suicide) without incident.
………………………………………………………………………………
We
were told rapid #9 is a “class 6 rapid.”
I’m pretty sure class 6 doesn’t exist in America, but the drop here was
so large that they had to give it its own category. They moved all our boats on shore with us,
but allowed 2 “really experienced” kayakers to go down it.
People
here kayak off 10 feet of straight rock into the water. They can probably handle anything.
And
they did. Although I think they were a
bit whiter on the other side of the rapid.
I was mildly thrilled to get out of the
boat because we trekked on the Zimbabwe side of the river. I got to visit another country today without
paying for a Visa!!
Frances was just worried about being
thrown in prison here, because the prisons sound horrendous and we don’t think
we would last 20 minutes in one.
I wanted to do something cool in Zimbabwe
like eat lunch or skip rocks. But all we
did was carry our paddles. I signed “I
love Ryan” to Frances just before we got back in our raft because I wanted to
at least say I did something cool in Zimbabwe.
So Ryan, I love you, and I said it in a completely
different country, in a completely different language, so somehow it should
mean more. Or something. I’m not sure I can love you any more than I
already do, but I felt like I had to step it up a notch since I’ll be gone for
so long.
…………………………………………………………………
After 10 rapids, 3 of which were class 5,
we jumped in for a quick swim. Then we
hit the mid point for lunch. Frances and
I were the only 2 doing the half day trip.
(we only had 2 days here and we heard the second half didn’t have any
more category 5 rapids but had a lot of paddling, and we already worked our
arms hard enough!)
At lunch Frances and I had to climb out
of the gorge. Which is much easier said
than done.
I WISH we had pictures. Of the whole day, but especially the
climb. Imagine a mountain that is at a
60 degree incline. Then put a ladder on
it and climb the ladder.
But make the ladder out of sticks and
make people bear crawl up it because otherwise they might fall down.
Then tell them they can’t have water
until they reach the top. We hiked it in
40 minutes, and we probably only made it so fast because we were desperate for
water and lunch.
I downed a whole bottle of water and then
an ice cold coke from a glass bottle.
Seriously, Coca Cola doesn’t have to
advertise her, it’s so refreshing drinking a cold coke after climbing 40
minutes out of a canyon, that I would drink it any time.
………………………………………………………………..
We finally made it to lunch. It’s a burger and coleslaw and a salad. Fabulous.
I pray before every meal, and after I finished, as I had a scoop of
lettuce heading towards my mouth, Frances asks:
“Did
you remember to thank God for helping us stay in the boat?”
No, but I suppose I can addend my prayer.
And I’m pretty sure God heard me.
[post-rafting]
…………………………………………………………..
We watched our kyack trip during
lunch. It was fabulous, but I wasn’t so
sure about paying someone $35 for a video I might only watch 2 or 3 times.
Because let’s be honest, watching us
crash into water and get drenched is pretty funny. Especially when you get to see our
faces. And watching the other boat
capsize is hilarious.
But 10 rapids and 25 minutes later you’d
just be bored and wishing you had been with me to raft the Zambezi river.
Then at least you could watch yourself
disappear under a wall of white water only to reappear with a boat half full of
water and a dazed look on your face.
So you can thank me for not buying a
copy.
…………………………………………………………
We got dressed and ready for our sunset
cruise. We’ve heard great things about
the cruise and we’re expecting a lot out of the sunset. We think they’re fabulous and we feel like we
should enjoy it even more from the water.
We did.
We also saw hippos and a whole herd of
elephants!!
[elephants!]
…………………………………………………………….
The sunset was beautiful (as always). I
took about a thousand pictures, but I uploaded my favorite 2 just for you!!
[Sunset]
………………………………………………………….
I forgot to talk about how I saw Zebra
and monkeys at the Falls.
Zebras.
Just like I took a safari. But without
paying 1,000,000 K for it (about 200 USD)
[Zebras!]
I also forgot to talk about how they have
a picture of their new president, Sata, everywhere. It’s a law that every business has a picture
of him up. No joke, it’s
everywhere. People think it’s so funny
that the law isn’t the same in America.
I can’t tell you the last time I saw Obama’s face in a restaurant or
resort or shopping mall. But I can tell
you I last saw his face on a baby’s onesie at our clinic.
…………………………………………………………………..
Tomorrow we take a bus to the capital,
Lusaka and stay the night. We take a
plane to Johannesburg on Wednesday morning.
I catch a flight in Johannesburg 7 hours later for the capital of
Tanzania, Dar Es Salom, overnight. Then
I connect to Mwanza, Tanzania and arrive at 8 am Thursday morning, and travel
with Julia to the orphanage and pray I don’t collapse right away. I’ll have 2 full days of traveling.
I probably won’t post a blog until
then.
Please pray for safe travels and good
rest in-between! Thank you!!
Praying!
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