Follow Me Around the World

Today we ventured off nice and early from the hostel for our fairly long drive to Botswana.  We stopped in the morning to pick up some supplies and I wanted to change all of my Namibian dollars to rand or some other currency that would be accepted in the remaining countries I would visit.  When I went to the bank I took out 500 Namib dollars and then wanted to change it back Hannah and Harriet had beaten me to the punch and changed all of their Namib dollars and the bank had run out of rand.  Now I was on a mission to get creative and try to change my newly acquired 500 Namib dollars which would be virtually useless out of Namibia.  Hannah and Harriet had already gone to the second bank to try and change the rest of their money, so I had to look elsewhere.  I got creative and went to the Supermarket where I alot of tourists come through and often use rand.  So I asked a manager if she could chnage 500 namib dollars in to rand.  After some talking back and forth she handed me 400 rand and the rest in Namib dollars.  This was perfect since I still needed to buy some water and supplies.  For 3 days we would be in remote parts of Botswana away from society, cell phones, and everyone.  The Okavango Delta is one of the highlights of the trip where we chill out and enjoy the nature arround us.  I have already decided to save my money for Victoria falls and all the great activities they offer.

After I exchanged money the way it is done best in Africa, on the black market, I bought 10 bottles of 1.5 litre bottles of water, chips and two six packs of Savanna Dry my favorite.  We will need a lot of water since in the Delta will not have access to anything.  There I will have an opportunity to take some more bush BM’s and use my no rinse shampoo and soap, or just bath in the Delta and water around us.

We arrived at the Border a little before lunch time and both the departure from Namibia and the arrival in Botswana went very smooth and that is too much stamps in the passport.  Botswana is my 38th country!  Zimbabwe will be 39th, and depending on what I do and how I go home Zambia or Qatar or both will be 40 or 41.  Right now I am thinking about trying to refund my Safari to Kruger National Park in South Africa, try to refund my extra ticket back home and just use my original ticket home and get home 3 days earlier than I would have for the extra rest and work.  Since I am now going to California to visit Sarah I need to take care of some things back home before school, namely post graduate job applications and sending out resumes and getting transcripts and whatnot from UMass and probably Cooley.  I really hope that most jobs won’t require transcripts from Cooley.  I did so poorly there for my one year, that I would much rather have the transcript from UMass and Touro together as they would both be very nice to look at.  Both have high GPAs and rankings.

We arrived in Tautona Lodge in Ghanzi just after sunset so Rob and I quickly got the tent up, I did some unpacking of the truck as it was my turn to do so with Frank, the teacher from Germany and then I ran in to the shower.  When I shower I want to be first, so its hot and delightful.  My goodluck of taking warm showers continues and the streak has now reached 4 consecutive warm showers.  After my shower, I got dressed, took out my sleeping bag and pillow and stuck it in the tent, which I have to myself since Rob stays with Carolina in her tent with Alex and then went to the campfire.  We all sat along the campfire waiting for this tribal dance.  The dance was interesting but clearly geared at tourists and furthermore you could see them passing around a “peace pipe” to help them with the dancing.  I guess that is why the lead guy was in such a trance.  I took some good photos in the dark.  I have learned how to use this camera and it is a great camera.  I will buy canon’s the rest of my life.  They are amazing pieces of machinery, durable and work well, knock on wood.

I made it an early night since I would have the chance to sleep in a bit.  Since I wasn’t doing the game drive, I could wake up as late as 830am.  Oh we also lost an hour in Botswana as they turn the clocks up one hour.

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