In 11 days, I'll be leaving on another "one in a lifetime opportunity" trip. I believe this is at least the third one of those. This time, I'm going to AFRICA! On the itinerary is Malawi, Zambia, Ethiopia, and hopefully Mozambique and South Africa. I'm 27, and I have a goal to go to 30 countries by thirty. I have 5 more to go, and I just might make that goal this summer!
Why Africa you may ask? Well, I was hoping to do my Master's internship in Africa, but that didn't work out. I've been studying International Development and Non-profit management for 2 years. I didn't feel it would be right to do all that studying and reading, but never experience the true places. I'm also really lucky to have a friend, Brittni who is doing Peace Corps in Malawi. I'll be visiting her and traveling around for 5 weeks.
So far the major plans are to go on safari in Zambia, go to Lake Malawi for Britt's birthday, and to spend 2 weeks in her village "Tomali" which is in the bush. Here are some of her "warnings"... May sound scary to you, but I'm STOKED!
Prepare to live by candle light or headlamp after 6pm
Prepare to go to bed around 10 pm and wake up between 5am-6am usually by kids or roosters.
Prepare for a lot of strange noises at night which make it hard to sleep
Prepare to sleep under a net everywhere
Prepare to cook on wood fire and charcoal stoves in my back courtyard. To make a damn fire in the morning just to get a cup of coffee.
Prepare for lots of bugs and spiders and dirt and dust and sand. My house, despite spraying for bugs and cleaning it all the damn time is always gross and dirty! ugghh! cement floors and lime plastered walls can't stay clean!
Prepare for walking out to draw water from the bore hole with me, and carrying 20 L buckets back to my house on your head.
Prepare for bucket baths out in my back courtyard "bafa"
Prepare to eat local chicken, guinea fowl, and maybe even goat. In fact, prepare for a lot of these animals coexisting with you while you're here (I do my best to try to keep them out of my yard and house, but they're sneaky)
Prepare for a LOT of poverty, sick kids and people, inappropriate poor drunkards, and begging, begging, begging. Sally Struthers type shit x100! In fact, prepare to be really annoyed by people calling you mzungu ("whitey") all day every day everywhere!
Prepare for hitch hiking, crammed mini buses and other insanely unsafe public transportation situations while we're traveling :)
Prepare for bicycle taxi's
Prepare for a lot of reggae music and Sean Kingston
Prepare for sugar cane and nsima and fanta and mandasi
Why Africa you may ask? Well, I was hoping to do my Master's internship in Africa, but that didn't work out. I've been studying International Development and Non-profit management for 2 years. I didn't feel it would be right to do all that studying and reading, but never experience the true places. I'm also really lucky to have a friend, Brittni who is doing Peace Corps in Malawi. I'll be visiting her and traveling around for 5 weeks.
So far the major plans are to go on safari in Zambia, go to Lake Malawi for Britt's birthday, and to spend 2 weeks in her village "Tomali" which is in the bush. Here are some of her "warnings"... May sound scary to you, but I'm STOKED!
Prepare to live by candle light or headlamp after 6pm
Prepare to go to bed around 10 pm and wake up between 5am-6am usually by kids or roosters.
Prepare for a lot of strange noises at night which make it hard to sleep
Prepare to sleep under a net everywhere
Prepare to cook on wood fire and charcoal stoves in my back courtyard. To make a damn fire in the morning just to get a cup of coffee.
Prepare for lots of bugs and spiders and dirt and dust and sand. My house, despite spraying for bugs and cleaning it all the damn time is always gross and dirty! ugghh! cement floors and lime plastered walls can't stay clean!
Prepare for walking out to draw water from the bore hole with me, and carrying 20 L buckets back to my house on your head.
Prepare for bucket baths out in my back courtyard "bafa"
Prepare to eat local chicken, guinea fowl, and maybe even goat. In fact, prepare for a lot of these animals coexisting with you while you're here (I do my best to try to keep them out of my yard and house, but they're sneaky)
Prepare for a LOT of poverty, sick kids and people, inappropriate poor drunkards, and begging, begging, begging. Sally Struthers type shit x100! In fact, prepare to be really annoyed by people calling you mzungu ("whitey") all day every day everywhere!
Prepare for hitch hiking, crammed mini buses and other insanely unsafe public transportation situations while we're traveling :)
Prepare for bicycle taxi's
Prepare for a lot of reggae music and Sean Kingston
Prepare for sugar cane and nsima and fanta and mandasi
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