The Longest Vacation I Ever Loved.

Happy New Year everyone!

Okay so I am currently “on holiday” as we say here … and it has been one hell of a holiday. By the time I arrive back in sweet Shoshong it will have been over three weeks of nonstop partying, hitch-hiking, and camping. Best. Vacation. Ever.

So it all started back in December when some PCVs threw a pool party for us new Guinea volunteers, Jake came back to Shoshong with me for a few days and we climbed my beautiful hills. Jake was barefoot. Still no baboons, still no ancestors. We did, however, set my “kitchen” (a room consisting of both couches and a stove) on fire. We were experimenting with rice, I added water to hot oil and BAM a flame shoots up (next to my giant gas tank) and starts crawling across my celing. Jake and I stood and watched, and laughed hysterically when it calmed down. All I could think was “Peace Corps forgot to give us the fire extinguishers.”

My water in my village ran out (and its not like Guinea- there are NO wells, so when there’s no water, there’s no water) so Jake and I packed up and headed out to his place to get ready for Christmas. Sacha came and we baked and cooked and danced and partied ‘til the 26th, and when we decided we had maxed out on “gluttony” and “sloth” we packed up and moved out to visit our 4th link, Ashely who lives at a UNESCO World Heritage site (aka the BUSH), to indulge on the other 5 deadly sins. We left Jake’s site at 5:00am after Christmas and after a hellacious day of travel, arrived an hour away from Ashley’s site at about 10:00pm. Utterly exhausted, we started looking for her counterpart who was going to drive us to Tsodilo Hills. All of a sudden this scrawny 6 foot black dude with dreads and thick glasses calls out in his cartoon character voice: “dude, you guys ready to party? We’re gonna drink at the bar, go to the military camp, then hit up a barbeque before we head home.” So we piled in his car with our backpacks, tents, sleeping bags, and groceries and wind up at various parties and bars (when all I wanted to do was collapse from exhaustion. But Batsawna party … so when in Rome…). We eventually made it to Ashely’s concrete hole in the wall at about 3am and surprised her by jumping in bed. She thought we’d been a lost cause, and no one could call her because she lives in the BUSH and has no cell phone.

So, then we camped out in Tsodillo Hills for a few nights. I perfected my campfire making abilities, we climbed the highest point in Botswana, saw some of the world’s oldest Rock Paintings and then realized that we were stranded, and had no way of getting out of her site to head to our New Year’s Party. Stranded miles away from a main road, I decided that I was going to charm my way into some fancy tourists’ car if my life depended on it. I ran until I found some tourists from Sweeden, quickly made friends, and begged for a lift. They were about to say there was no room and I say “we’re Peace Corps. We can fit inside any car, no matter how much room or how much luggage. I’m going to get my friends, we’ll leave in 5 minutes.” The Sweedes ended up being a blast and gave us a GREAT lift for free, and dropped us at the border of Botswana and Namibia. The 4 of us now had to find a way to get someone to let us hitch hike across the river on the ferry and into even more bush. A few hours later we found a pickup truck and climbed in back. With 8 other people. So it was PACKED- we were piled high with all of our luggage, plus theirs and settled in for a long, bumpy, dirt-road ride. And did I mention, it was POURING?! So we were in the back of an open pickup truck for hours in the rain. We were cold, bruised and muddy by the time we arrived to a village where another pickup truck was waiting to take us to our New Years Party Hotspot. It is (literally) at the end of the world and after traveling through grass (not even a dirt road- people tie toilet paper to trees so they can find their way back) we arrived at this backpacker’s joint that’s being built. So New Years consisted of partying in the bush with hippos, under a full moon, with about 20 other people in the middle of nowhere. It was fantastic. However, we woke up on the first to realize that ALL THE OTHER volunteers had left. Seriously. We looked around and decided we were shipwrecked. Stranded. Ashely at this point goes “we’ll never make any friends” and honestly, the Guinea PCVs are definitely the outsiders. But to be stranded in the bush? Dissed. Luckily the girl who’s building the backpackers and her cousins were around another day, so they gave us a lift to a “nearby” village the following day and we hitched back up the far side of Okavango Delta, over the ferry, and back down to a tourist destination named Maun. (That sounds simple- it took 2 days.)

So now Maun is where all you fancy white tourists go to spend big bucks, and us Peace Corps Volunteers just look hungry and helpless. But we did indulge and took a CRAZY flight over the Okavango Delta (world’s largest inland delta!) to see elephants, zebras, hippos, giraffes and such. Our pilot asked us if we wanted to have some fun (duh!) so we soon found ourselves zipping really low along the ground and doing some acrobatic stunts. SO FUN! We also took a hollowed out tree trunk (traditional mokoro) trip through the delta and we felt like Pocahontas floating through the reeds. It was incredible. We stayed at a great backpackers place and made friends with management who took us out on 1am boat trips to continue after-hours partying. Maun could probably be described as the “Sin City” of Botswana. Like Vegas. Beautiful, but could be troublesome if you don’t watch yourself. (No worries, I watch myself. Obviously.)

So after a few nights in Maun we headed back to Jake’s again because there’s this Peace Corps meeting in a nearby town coming up. Still with Sacha and Jake. Jake and I are about to celebrate our 3 weeks of being joined at the hip anniversary, but these kids are GREAT to travel with. STILL not sick of each other, still not sick of camping: I’m super impressed.

PS- I just ate my first worm. Delicacy? Sike. I screamed.

So Christmas and New Years has been a blast over here. I miss all of you guys (and the apparent blizzard back home!) Love you and hope you all had great holidays over there!! 2010!!!