So I have left Zambia. I would not rank Zambia up as my favorite and things are somewhat expensive, but I did enjoy myself. In Livingstone, I took a sunset booze cruise down the Zambezi where I saw hippos and a big crocodile. I visited Victoria Falls. It is the dry season, so the Falls are not as raging as they sometimes are. But it was fun to be able to walk around on the rocks and look over the edge of the Falls (not possible during the wet season). Looking across to the Zimbabwe side, you can see Zimbabweans queuing up to leave the country. I have seen refugee camps set up in every country. One of the guys from the hostel wanted me to go kayaking under Vic Falls, but that didn't sound like the best idea ever -- even in the dry season. So I opted to go whitewater rafting down the Mighty Zambezi (I still have great bruises and a lump on my head to show for it).
The weekend was spent at Mombova Fishing Lodge. I had met these guys at a Halloween Party and turns out one of the guys named Richard owns a bush lodge in Kazangula. He and his parents moved from a farm in Zimbabwe and built it all themselves. His dad died of Malaria while building it an his mom has moved to Australia, so now he owns it with a guy named Gary. He invited me to come stay there for free and hang out and go fishing. The lodge was really rustic but nice. I got my own chalet right next to the Zambezi River where you could hear the hippos. Gary and Richard gave me the heads up to yell really loud if a hippo or elephant wandered into my open air chalet. They took me out on their boats (tried to teach me to drive the boat) and taught me to fish. I only caught a small tiger fish and a squeaker, so we threw them back. When it got hot, we would just hang out on the sand dunes, play in the water (trying to avoid hippos), and dig in the river bed for snails to use as bait. Had a BBQ (brai) each night around the fire. Very relaxing and fun (although very guy-like Crocodile Dundee-ish fun, as everyone was a fisher or hunter and had lived in the bush for long periods of time).
Richard was heading to Lusaka Sunday night to charter a flight to Luangwa Valley. One of his clients got her car stuck when there had been some rains, so he was going to go hire some cattle to try to pull it out. We took the night bus to Lusaka, which SURPRISE SURPRISE...left late. So that put us into the bus station at 4:30 AM. It was actually good that it left late because there was a "traffic jam" on the highway from Kazangula to Livingstone caused by a herd of elephants trying to cross the road. They ran into a fence, so turned back and just stood in the middle of the road. We were the first car, so I got some good photos (everyone else seemed way less enthused than me and they tried to get me to get out of the car since "once the smell a human, they will move along"). No hostels were open for me when we got in to Lusaka, so thankfully, Richard stayed with me at the bus stop. Around 7:00 AM, we headed to his friend's cement factory. Hung out there for a bit and then they drove us to the Soweta Market to this awesome butcher that had the best biltong ever. You get to pick yours and then they shave it fresh. It was down a back alley, so I never would have found it myself. Then we went to the dump to look for a part for one of the cement factory tractors. Sorted through this huge John Deere graveyard pile of parts and found what we were looking for. Richard invited me along so I could see the South Luangwa park, which I wanted to do. Unfortunately, I had to get a visa for Tanzania in Lusaka and missed the flight by an hour or so. Lusaka is pretty boring and the hostel I stayed at had was having a water issue (and after a night bus, a cement factory, and playing at the dump, I REALLY needed a shower). So I decided to not spend much time there and went to buy a bus ticket for the 6:30 AM bus.
I got in to Lilongwe, Malawi late last night. I should have arrived in the afternoon, but the day was full of a seedy bus company trying to shove two full bus loads of people on to one bus. Everyone complained and made them bring another bus. Then they tried to charge me 20,000 extra to take my backpack with me. Nobody else was charged, even the woman with 8 comforter sets that she brought with her as luggage. I had to argue with them for half an hour, and they finally relented when I said I was going to head to the ticket office and ask for a refund to book with someone else. Apparently, they were just going to pocket the money. Bus left two and and a half hours late so we got to Chipata late. All money exchange places were closed, so had to try before crossing the border. Ended up getting scammed and had my money stolen instead. Walked across to the Malawi border. Then got scammed for the last of my money by a cab driver to get to the minibus area in Mchinji. Others on the minibus saw it and were angry. I told them not to worry about it, but one of them flagged down a police officer who wanted me to get out of the bus and tell him what happened. Since he had no uniform or anything, I refused to go with him (and leave my luggage on the bus). Finally, after yet another difficult travel day, I am hanging out in Lilongwe.
Not much to do here in Lilongwe, but I was not ready to bus around again this morning, so I am going to relax here for the day and then take the bus to Mzuzu early tomorrow to try to catch a minibus to Nkata Bay where I will relax for a week or so before moving on.
I think I need a break from all this moving around. I need to unpack my bag and do laundry the proper way (instead of in the shower or sink). I dread my travel days and I think I need to take a break as all the scams and hassles that seem to occur mainly on the travel days.
My new cell phone for Malawi is +265 05 417 288....I think. I will have it until I head into Arusha, whenever that may be. Apparently you all had daylight savings time (sorry for the early call, Mom!!!) so now I am 10 hours ahead of you.
Hope all is well with you. I love receiving your emails, but the internet is expensive and slow so I don't have time to respond to most. Sorry! And uploading pictures is sure to take forever and cost a fortune, so you will have to wait for me to get home. Also, still haven't sent out postcards yet. I haven't seen many places to buy them yet. But I will keep looking!
Love,
Betsy
The sunset on the bus out of town was the most spectacular sunset I have ever seen, and I was glad to be moving on. Unfortunately the bus broke down a bit before 8 AM Monday morning in the Caprivi Strip. They said the mechanic would take 2 hours to get there, so we all waited by the side of the highway in the hot desert sun, miles and miles from any town. Nobody had food or water left, since we were on our way to the next stop for supplies (I had had a bit but gave most of it out to others). Stood there for six hours when the mechanic showed up... with no tools. But hey, he said "we pray". I am sure THAT will put the wheel back on the bus! People were beginning to get angry and fight with the driver. So seven of us convinced a nice Cel-Tel man to give us a ride to try to get to the border before it closed. I felt terrible because we left a bunch of people behind, including this couple and their infant baby who I had been holding who was crying all day in the sun. 
Today I treated myself to a sunset dinner/booze cruise and got to see lots of hippos and a crocodile. Tomorrow I am going to Victoria Falls from the Zambia side and may try my luck getting in on the Zimbabwe side since there is not much water from that side. Friday I booked a white water rafting trip down the Zambezi River and then heading to Lusaka on Saturday.
Since I last wrote in Gaborone, I took the sleeper train to Francistown and then caught a public bus to Maun. Everyone laughed at me on the bus as I saw my first wildlife (an ostrich) standing by the side of the road and called it my budget safari. They then were kind enough to point out every donkey, horse, cow and goat for me and then laugh (there are a bagazillion of those wandering the "highway"). Stayed right outside the town of Maun in Matlepang (or something like that) at this awesome river lodge called Okavango River Lodge. I signed up for the dorms, but since they weren't full, they let me stay in my own chalet for the same price. Super friendly people that run it and work there. 
I took a makoro boat day tour which is a little dugout canoe with two people and a poler. Neil, from the hotel, took us by motorboat out past the buffalo fence and we hopped into the dugout canoe to explore the Okavango Delta. Saw several elephants and herds of zebra, but no hippos (Neil later said that you really don't want to see hippos in a makoro). Ended up hanging out at the lodge way longer than I thought, as Maun was so relaxing and fun. 
The bar has a great view of the river and had lots of locals who stopped by and it was a great place to learn tips and more about where to stay in other countries. They also offered up free or discounted spare seats on whatever they were doing (safaris if I wanted to ride along and help set up, scenic plane flights and such). Unfortunately, none of them worked with my "schedule". Watched South Africa win the World Cup Rugby game which led to many Springbok shots and lots of partying. Met a German entomologist who was doing research on the tse-tse fly nearby and ended up helping him and a few of his friends at the University of Botswana research lab down the road from the lodge. 
Took a three day camping tour of Sossusvlei, Namibia the next day. It was amazing. If you have ever seen the movie "The Cell", it is those red sand dunes in the middle of the desert that you can hike on the ridges of. Also filmed there is that shot of the kid playing with his sailboat amongst dead trees in white sand surrounded by red sand and blue sky. Early in the morning, you climb the dunes to watch the colors of the sand change to every hue of red you can imagine. It was also a full moon. so the camping was great. Saw springboks, oryx, MEERKATS!!! and the glowing eyes of jackals invading our camp.
And now just chilling out back in Windhoek and trying not to head back to Maun instead of volunteering :). Met some guys who are in law school here from Ethiopia and we were chatting about food (big surprise there) and they promised to bring me homemade lunch today! So I am off to get ready to grub. Oh, and almost forgot... saw the Tropic of Capricorn on the way out to Sossevlei. Far less celebrated than the Equator in Ecuador.
It has only been a few weeks, but it feels like it has been months. Long plane flight into Cape Town. All my luggage made it, which was a total bonus. The hostel was really nice. Signed up to go great white shark cage diving the next morning, as they said the weather was going to be getting bad and they may not be going back out for several days. Headed to Gansbaai to meet up with the boat. It was pretty amazing! I didn't get as much cage time as I wanted since the weather started getting too bad to stay out, but even sitting on the boat deck and watching them come up and chomp around is pretty good. I didn't get many pictures, but hope to have a few good ones.
Back to Cape Town, I checked out the District Six museum and Robben Island to see Nelson Mandela's cell. Also went to Stellenbosch Gardens, the World of Birds where I made me a few little squirrel monkey friends in their monkey jungle and went on an impromptu Township tour. Cape Town is pretty, but I really actually hated it. It is sterile and touristy and something about it doesn't feel right (above the obvious racial issues and massive disparity of wealth).
So I took off and headed to Durban. It is a relatively cool city. Lots of yummy Indian food to be had. There is this thing called Bunny Chow, which is a hollowed out loaf of bread full of curry and it is delicious! I had heard there were whale sharks swimming around between Durban and Mapatu, Mozambique. But the weather sucked, so I didn't get to do any diving. I did get to go to the aquarium, which was pretty nice. Also met a very nice man in the hostel who helped me out and gave me the contact info for him and his wife, should anything happen along the way. They live in Johannesburg, so I would just have to fly back there. They also invited me on their Christmas holiday in Mossel Bay with the family, in case I get lonely. Good to have a back up plan. Oh, the only bad thing that happened in Durban was the first night, I had no hotel and got talked into going to this bed and breakfast. Turned out to just be this woman's house and I was the only guest. Although she was really, really sweet, it was way far from the city, the price was not what was agreed upon, and she left me stuck in her house with no phone to call a cab or anything for several hours when she went to pray. At least a colorful lizard hung out with me in her backyard while I waited. 
Yesterday, I caught the bus to Botswana through Gaborone. The bus ride was very beautiful... flat land spotted with trees and occasional mountains. Saw several rainbows and then at night, you could see strikes of lightening, a bagazillion miles away. Last night kind of sucked, as it was another late bus. By the time we all walked across the border, I found myself without a hotel. Oh, and no money since they use Pulas and I forgot to change my Rands at the border. Strange taxi driver who took me to some sketch ATM, which didn't work with the card I had in my pocket. My credit card was buried in my bag and I didn't want to pull it out. He kept insisting that it should work and wanted me to "give him the card to try for me". Uh, whole bag of NO. I just told him that if the cab ride was 30 pulas, I would give him 60 rand instead to just get me to a hotel. He agreed and took me to some random place that wasn't on my list, so I insisted he take me to one on my list. After about 40 minutes of all of this, I get to where I want to be and check in. When we go to get my backpack out of the taxi, we realize he has locked his keys (and my bag) in the car. So we then get to hang out and wait another half hour for his brother to bring the spare keys. Oh, good times. TIA (This Is Africa).