Getting to Zambia and Other Ramblings

                 Pictured:  The beauty of things I have been able to see on this journey.

The Amazing Race Through Botswana

After spending the weekend with my friends from MSU, I made a mad dash up to the Zambia border.  Well actually, it wasn't a mad dash but a slow paced trip over three days to the Zambia border.  I took the overnight train from Gaborone to Francistown.  Outside of hiking and safari there is not much to do in Botswana.   Francistown is a small city that didn't have much for a traveler coming through to see or explore.  I found the local mall and saw a movie.  Not much choice in movie selection so I settled on Adam Sandler's Bedtime Stories.  I will admit, it was an enjoyable movie and if you have kids it should be one to get on DVD.

From Francistown, I took a bus to Kasane which is on the border between Botswana and Zambia.   I spent the night in a small bed and breakfast.   The highlight for me was my morning run.  I ran through the town to the edge of the jungle.  I had to maneuver my way around baboons and warthogs.  I called it quits after I ran by ten elephants at the edge of the bush.  Nothing is more alarming then seeing that and thinking to yourself there is no way to run these guys.  I slowly came to a stop and walked backwards keeping my eye on them as I made my retreat.  Run Away!

After my run, I took a taxi to the border and after going through immigration walked across the border.  There is something to be said about walking the border between two countries.  I find some great joy in walking in the area that is considered no-man's land between the countries.   After getting to the Zambia side, I found a local taxi with three other passengers and made my way to the tourist town of Livingstone.

RIP- My Apple Macbook

Oh, sweet Macbook, where have you gone?  I dropped my computer in early January and it no longer reads the hard drive.  You can not imagine the pain it is to find someone in Botswana or Zambia that understands Macs to have a look at it.  The cost to get a new hard drive is not in the budget so I have begun to utilize the internet cafes in the cities that I am in.  Unfortunately, the connection is so slow that I can no longer upload video or use skype.  It took me fours hours the other day to upload my pictures to my Flickr account from Mt. Kilimanjaro.  The only good thing that has resulted in my lack of a computer is that I am reading more.  I have a few more good books to recommend so keep an eye on future blog posts.

Oh! The Horror! The Horror!

I lost over 140 pictures the other day.  In my struggles to upload my pictures from Botswana and Zambia including some incredible pictures of Victoria Falls, I made the mistake of moving my pictures off of my camera onto an internet cafe computer.  I thought I had just copied them on the computer but I must have hit the move button by accident.  The power went off so they shut down the cafe.  It wasn't until the next day when I was on a train that I realized my mistake.  So if anyone is headed to Lusaka, Zambia, I need you to stop at the internet cafe and pull my pictures off of one of their computers!  I was more upset with myself because of this than I was when I got pick pocketed in Spain last summer! 

Botswana- Catching Up with MSU Friends

Pictured: A Team from the MSU Department of Criminal Justice:-Ed McGarrell, Louie Rivers III, Meredith Gore, Carole Gibbs.

There is a saying that states it is not about the destination but rather it is about the journey itself.  Over the past 15 months, I have really have come to understood the meaning behind those wise words.  I have been traveling to see the amazing sites of the world but what I have found that it is the experiences that happen along the way and the people that I meet that have been the truly inspiring part of my trip.  My next stop after South Africa was to see the incredible natural wonder of Victoria Falls in Zambia. 

I had received an e-mail from my friend, Carole Gibbs, letting me know that she and a few of her colleagues from MSU's Criminal Justice Department would be in South Africa and Botswana during the same time I was in the region.  As I looked at the map, I decided that I would travel overland to get to Zambia through Botswana so I could catch up with them.  The journey itself was an incredible experience as I took buses, trains and vans to cross the country.

My first stop was to spend a quick weekend with my friend and her colleagues in the capital city of Gaberone.  They were working with a local institution to see if some of MSU's curriculum could be integrated with the training they provided in wildlife management and enforcement.  As you can imagine, wildlife tourism is an incredible economic tool for many African countries.  As countries try to protect the natural reserves and the animals they house, the concept of enforcement becomes a major component of wildlife preservation.  Poaching is a substantial problem and many countries don'y have the resources to adequately deal with the issue.  As the continent begins to look at multi jurisdiction Peace Parks, the concept of joint enforcement will be a useful tool in combating poaching.  MSU could be in a unique place to provide its expertise in training and curriculum development for this emerging need.  It was good to be around some Spartans and get the inside scoop on what was happening with the University and the new developments in the city of East Lansing.