It's November already??

The month of October passed by so quickly! We spent the last several days around Livingstone. It was a nice break and a chance for us to do some fun African things!

Friday I went with 11 others to a bridge over the Zambezi River on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe and had an absolutely incredible "Big Air" experience!! I went bungee jumping, swung on the gorge swing, and ziplined across the gorge! The gorge swing was the scariest; once you're hooked up, you basically just step off a platform face forward and swing ~400 feet down into the gorge! Bungee jumping was also so intense, and was my favorite thing! You stand at the edge of the platform and a man calls "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Bungee!" before pushing you off to dive into the gorge! And before you realize you're at the bottom, you start moving back up toward the bridge! Each time, once you've slowed down, a guy rapels down and brings you back up to the bridge. Ziplining was the last thing we did, and was fun, but after the first two activities seemed almost boring!

Saturday we crossed the border into Botswana and went on safari in Chobe! It was AMAZING! We first took a boat safari on the Chobe River (flows into the Zambezi) and saw hippos, crocodiles, impala, antelope, cape buffalo, water bucks, sable, kudu... and finally, toward the end, dozens of elephants started walking down to the river! We went right up to the edge and were within feet of lots of them as they bathed and drank. It was so much fun! After lunch, we went on a driving safari. We saw lots more of the same animals - including the elephants - up close! We also saw several giraffe; they were so beautiful! We were hoping to see lions, but didn't... however, we go on safari again at Masai Mara in Kenya in 2 weeks.

Sunday we went to church in Livingstone and ate lunch there before driving the 3 hours back to Namwianga. I ate Subway in Africa-- not the same, of course, but surprisingly similar!

Last night we had an interesting experience just after arriving home; Patrick, a man from a neighboring village, brought a black mamba he had just killed! He had been walking through the village and heard a commotion in a tree; birds were attacking a snake that was in the tree. He took a slingshot and killed the snake, which turned out to be an 8 foot long black mamba! Black mambas are EXTREMELY poisonous, and probably my greatest fear in Africa! The Africans fondly refer to it as the "look at your house and die" snake, because once it bites you, you only have time to look back at your house before dying! That is obviously an exaggeration, but their bites can certainly be fatal. Luckily this was the first one we have seen or heard about since coming to Zambia!

We have two more weeks here at Namwianga; unfortunately, much of that time will be spent finishing up our projects for our classes and taking tests/finals. We will also be hanging out with our Zambian friends and our haven babies as much as possible! And we're looking forward to our two week tour of Kenya and Uganda before returning home November 28.