Into the wild

Just a quick supply stop in Maun, Botswana. Tomorrow at 7, we head onto mokoros (dugout canoes) and into the Delta for two nights of camping in the middle of nowhere. This is where you wake up to lion tracks outside your tent, and need to be sure the pool is free from crocs and hippos before you take a dip. No coke, wine, or potato chips to be found.

So far, my tour has been awesome. I'm sure it comes as no surprise to anyone, but I really love being part of a group. It's a warm sense of togetherness and collective endeavoring, even when we're just sitting on the truck in the morning dozing off after waking up at 5:30. Like all the G.A.P tours I've been on, the people are awesome. The 12 other people come from Canada (of course), France, Sweden, and South Africa/Malawi/England. One other American, but she's very chill and a good hearts player, so I've forgiven her for interrupting my foreign immersion. There are nurses, students, bankers, and those just traveling. One Swedish woman is chock full of stories from a lifetime of globetrotting, including a set of hysterical stories about taking Greyhound around the States for six months in 1980. She and her friend spent only 5 nights in a hotel the whole time, as random Swedes and college boys kept taking her in for weeks at a time.

Riding in the truck yesterday, I had the urge to spend some time living abroad. Not the usual thing that seems appealing to me. But the combination of getting comfortable down here in Southern Africa, glimpsing Emily and Justin's life here, and getting reminded of how giant the world is, and yet how concrete and accessible when you're wandering the streets of Maun, crowded with busses, produce hawkers, and donkeys eating old newspapers.