I just had a really nice week of relaxation/seeing sweet stuff in Botswana. Last saturday we took an overnight train to Francistown and continued in the morning of about a 6-hour drive up to Kasane, where we set up camp for the week at a campground. It's not really as rustic as being in the bush, but that's still to come...we're going to be staying where we can't even use our own tents because we could be mauled by lions and such things if we stayed in such a small tent. Don't worry, though, they're taking care of us. The first night we had a really strong downpour, which was a great test of my tent's water-resisting ability, and it passed. The ground is so dry it took a while for the water to soak in so my tent was sitting in a good 1-2 in. of water but remained dry. REI pulled through for me.

On monday we went on a boat cruise on the Chobe River into Chobe Naqtional Park, which was really neat. we saw elephants (which, by the way are way over-populated and causing big problems here because they eat so much; estimates are a population of about 150,000 in an area with a carrying capacity of more like 50-80,000), crocodiles, many birds, water monitors, impala, kudu...and hippos, 2 of which tried to attack our boat. it was slightly frightening.

Tuesday was incredible. we crossed the border to Zambia and went to victoria falls. It was so beautiful. If you ever get the chance, go. seriously. It's just immense amounts of water flowing down, and the force fo the water landing causes so much vapor to rise up, which forms really low clouds, resulting in perpetualy downpour ontop of you. I've never known waterfalls could be quite that amazing to experience.

Wednesday we took a game drive into Chobe Nat'l park, and saw much of the same things which was again really cool. It's neat to be on the academic side, really learning about the wildlife and not just seeing it. tourists are missing out.

Thursday was a little bit of real classes. honestly, though, am I really getting credit for this semester? I don't see how it's possible, but it's true. even though I'm having an amazing time and getting to do everything I would love to do even if I didn't get credit for it. Not a bad deal.

Yesterday we drove down to maun, where we're camping in thru tomorrow afternoon, at which point we will head to our next homestay in the village of sherobe. Im excited for this one. It's much less modern, and they probalby won't speak english, which will definitely challeng my setswana skills but it will be good for me. they also have their own language, so setswana isn't even their first language. Hopefully we'll be able to communicate well enough. It's going to be aweek of eye-opening experiences though with a much simpler way of life. I'm really excited. I also just finished reading the Irresistible Revolution for those of you who know it, so i think this will be a good follow-up experience to really help me examine myself. I'll let you know how it goes..