It was Easter break, the long weekend before finals start and I was finally going to have an opportunity to see Victoria Falls, one of the seven wonders of the world. The trip began with a packed bus (including a woman sitting next to me with her chicken sitting on the floor between her feet) from Gabs to Francistown. We stayed the night in Francistown with a local friend's brother and then the plan was to catch another bus to Kasane in the morning. That night in Francistown was the worst start to a trip. Before we had gone to bed we realized that there were big spiders on the ceiling and a ton a tiny baby spiders throughout the web. I kept feeling something on me throughout the night but it took me a little while to realize that I wasn't dreaming and there actually were things crawling on me. I would brush my arm and could feel six or seven little things in my hand, what I had thought were those spiders. I would brush my leg, another ten, and the worst was on the back of my neck on my hair line, I would scrape six or seven off at a time. I didn't want to turn the light on and see, I wanted to just pretend like nothing was happening and try to get any sleep that I could. After being pretty unsuccessful at that, I woke up and saw my body, and my blanket covered in hundreds and hundreds of tiny ants. I was brushing them off, taking off my clothes and they were underneath my clothes even. There were four of us all sleeping on one big bed, and I was the only one with ants. I think it was because I was up against the wall/window. Then we noticed they were not only on me but all in our bags. I had a bag with food and a bag without, and there were hundreds in each. With little time to make it to the station to catch our bus, we quickly rinsed off packaged food, and shook out our bags over the bath tub, and washed about a thousand ants down the drain. Eww.
We eventually made it to Kasane (in Northern Bots) and then crossed the Zimbabwean border. I was so excited to be in this county. Even with the political and economic issues in Zim, it seemed so interesting to me, especially because that is where my very best friend here, Fungai, is from. We made it to Victoria Falls and stayed at Shoestrings backpackers, recommended to us by everyone else who had already gone to Vic Falls. We began to plan for the four days that we would be there, wanting to do a lot but not spend too much money that we didn't have. That Thursday night we realized that Shoestrings was a good choice! I felt like I was living at a club, which would not be good long term, but for four days of fun, it was great! I watched traditional Zimbabwean dancing, then did a lot of dancing on my own. But we didn't stay up too late that night because we new what we were in for the next morning.
We woke up and headed off towards the actual falls, specifically to the bridge that connected Zimbabwe and Zambia (so technically, I also visited Zambia on this trip!). We had already paid for the package so there was no going back: Zip line over the falls, bungee jump off the bridge, and then Swing off the bridge. The zip line came first, and it was a nice and easy way to start things off and to see the beautiful falls. Then came the bungee.. I was so nervous. I watched about fifteen people go before I went, including my other three friends that I was traveling with. I sat on an overhang on the bridge, with two cameras in my face, and a guy wrapping up my ankles and connecting them to the bungee. My friends told me to make sure I jumped out far and put my arms out because it made for better pictures. A guy helped me waddle to the edge, told me to look at the horizon and to jump as far out as I could when he said “bungee”. Then before I could even think about what was happening.. “Three, Two, One, BUNGEE!”. He pushed me off and I jumped as far out as I could. For the next couple of minutes it was nothing but adrenaline, fear, dizziness, and pure ecstasy as the bungee flipped me up and down, and spun me around.
I felt so relieved after, but still nervous. I still had to do the swing. Which sounds so easy and boring, right? Its just a swing. No. Everyone who I had been talking to that had done both, said the swing was more scary than the bungee. This time I didnt want to wait to go, as soon as I could get on a harness, I put my name on the list and waited. Again, I was pushed out to the edge, this time with nothing on my feet, just ropes connected to my harness. They told me to hold onto one rope, and dont touch the other. Again, seconds later.. “Three, Two, One, SWING!”. I jumped off the edge, this time feet first instead of head first for a straight free fall, farther than the bungee. Once I felt like I was just a few feet away from the water (although it was more like a few yards away), instead of going back up like the bungee, I swung out towards the rocks and continued swinging back and forth. As I started to slow down and the fear was gone, I was able to enjoy my absolutely beautiful surroundings and be proud that I, a girl who used to have a fear of heights and doesn't even go on big roller coasters, jumped off the highest bridge in the world and completed the third highest bungee jump in the world.
The next day we went into the actual falls. I don't have many good pictures because I didn't want my camera to get wet. We got soaked. Didn't even bother to buy the ponchos that everyone was selling, just enjoyed every minute of the breathtaking falls.
On Sunday, Jenn and I met up with two friends we had met at Shoestrings who wanted to take us to “the location” where all the locals lived. The “short” 45 minute walk in the crazy heat was not amazing, but it was so great to how people lived. Matthew, one friend lived in a cement block house that was only partially constructed with some walls, and not many ceilings. He lived in a small bedroom with a mattress on the floor, a tin roof, and a T.V. even though they had not had electricity for several weeks. We then went on to see another friends place, Pardon. Similar, except he had an actual roof and he shared a real kitchen with others.. although, he too had not had electricity in awhile. Pardon was a 33 year old Rastafarian man who had a little table at Shoestrings of Rastafarian things he made and sold, as well as was the entertainer. He did drumming, played guitar, did fire spinning performances, and was an amazing break dancer. Oh, the people you'll meet at a backpackers. :)
The rest of my time in Zim included a lot of dancing, listening to live reggae, meeting new people, shopping and bartering for crafts, eating some good food, getting an outdoor manicure-pedicure and hour long sweetish deep tissue massage all for only $35, getting hit on by the bartender and a lot of other people, riding elephants on Easter morning, holding baby crocodiles, not sleeping too much (cause that wastes time!) and just enjoying the experience.
I decided I will go back to Zimbabwe some day. I never got to see the capitol where Fungai is from, which I really wanted to do. So somewhere in my 5 year plan is teaching at Harare International School for a year or two, and of course making another visit to Victoria Falls.
