The Purpose of a Blog

Looking back on the past two weeks, I have come to understand the purpose of keeping a blog. In the techno-savvy world in which we live, a blog is a great way to keep family, friends, and the occasional internet predator, informed of my whereabouts and adventures. With that said, I apologize for the delay in my blogging activity.

As of this morning, I have begun the European leg of my trip. Instead of paying for food in lion's teeth and mosquito repellent, I now must buy food in the absurdly expensive euro. Despite such cultural setbacks, I am finding Greece quite enjoyable.

I will now attempt to summarize the past two weeks in Africa...

When I last wrote, I was in a rather nice town in the center of Namibia. The town, Swapkamound, is on the outskirts of the Namib desert. Splat and I were able to ride quads/4 wheelers/ATVs through the sand dunes of the desert. It was an awesome experience, and one that I would definitely do again.

Once we left the Namib desert we headed north to Etosha national park. It is the Africa's largest national park at almost 24,000 square km. It was this trip through Etosha that helped me compose "My top 10 reasons for Lasik eye surgery." These are as follows:

10. I could not see the giraffe
9. I could not see the oryx
8. I could not see the aardwolf
7. I could not see the kudu
6. I could not see the zebra
5. I could not see the blue wildebeest
4. I could not see the damara dik-dik
3. I could not see the warthogs
2. I could not see the European bee-eater
1. I could not see the lion

Although the prescription of my eyeglasses may help those people with good eyesight to see the moon from earth, I have had a hard time spotting some of the more mystical pieces of Africa.

After the national park, we crossed the border into Botswana. Our first night in Botswana was spent at a campground where local bushmen danced traditional dances for us. I was so inspired by the singing and dancing that I joined in. I will try to paint a picture of this experience in words, but I am sure I will not be able to do it justice. It is me and three men (who are wearing nothing but fig leafs over their crotches) dancing around a small fire. They have these shells wrapped around their legs which make shaker noises each time their feet hit the ground. The whole time I am trying to keep pace with them, and I am guessing that the guy behind me felt bad for me because no matter how hard I stomped my legs they were not making any noise, so to compensate he hands me a huge ostrich feather. All of a sudden this 60 year old bushwomen hops into our circle dance. Either she was so overwhelmed by the music or the fact that a white guy like me has such rhythm, she begins to shake uncontrollably. The three guys start taking the hot ambers and the ash from the fire and start rubbing it on her. I have no idea what is going on at this point, and believed that I was taking part in exorcism, so I start to fan the woman as hard as I can with the ostrich feather. By the time the dance was over, the lady was covered in soot and I had soiled myself. It was an awesome experience.

After Botswana we headed to Zimbabwe. Sarah and I threw ourselves off a three hundred foot bridge, which was a rush. We then drove 16 hours straight from Zimbabwe to South Africa. That is the much much abridged version of my time in Africa, and I am sure once the pictures get developed or uploaded, I can fill in the numerous pieces of the story that are missing.

Hope everyone is doing well. I miss and love you all, and will keep this blog thing going strong.