Mark your calendars!

Mary Jo and I will be presenting "Two Teachers in Africa" on Tuesday, the 26th of October from 7-8 p.m. We will be using the multi-purpose room at Maple Hills.
We have many more pictures and stories to share. We hope to see you there.
Let me know if you need directions. Karen

Africa Trip Presentation

Hello Everyone,
We have tentatively chosen October 26th for our Africa presentation. Our presentation will take place in our Multi Purpose room at Maple Hills Elementary from 7:00 to 8:00p.m. If you need directions please let me know. We can't wait to share more photos and stories about our wonderful trip experience! See you then!

Aug. 10th We Are Home

Hello Everyone,
We've updated the pages made while we were in Zambia. We made it home after an extra long plane ride. We had a wonderful trip and hope you enjoyed coming along through this blog. We plan on having an eveing event at our school to share more pictures and stories. We'll let you know when the time comes. Karen & Mary Jo

Aug 6th Chobe National Park - Botswana

Today we got up early to go to Botswana to visit Chobe National Park. We went through customs and immigration at a river crossing. We started our visit at Chobe Safai Lodge which lays along the banks of the Chobe river. The river meets four countries, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia. The view from the river boat were amazing. The animals were everywhere. There was a wide variety of birds living along the river including the fish eagle. We saw everything, elephants, buffalo, banded mongoose, crocodiles, baboons and a lot of hippos. After lunch on land, we were driven through part of the park. Our game driver focused on areas close to the rivers edge. We saw a lot of the same animals mentioned above as well as several giraffe and two lions! We were hoping that we would find lions at Chobe as they were the only cat we hadn't seen. You could spend several hours at this park and not see everything there is to see! It was an amazing day!

Aug 5th Elephants, Village and Schools

Hello,
This morning we got up early to drive to an elephant center. The elephants at the center were rescued from Zimbabwe. We were given a little history of how each elephant came to the center and how the babies came to be. We picked Danny, the biggest elephant for our elephant backed safari. Our elephant driver took us on a ride for about an hour. It was an excellent ride! After the ride we were able to spend time with the baby and feed our elephant. Later we stopped at the Simoonga village. We met with a community leader who gave us a history of the traditional village. A local man walked us through the village. We saw homes, gardens, and families. Each family has a plot for their home, kitchen, bathroom, boys house, and any animals they might have. The village has two wells and use a barter system for trading farm animals, vegetables or services. We met a young boy named Robert. He asked us a lot of questions about who we were and where we were from. We were able to visit the school and see the library. We had not planned on this school visit. It was an experience we shall never forget. On our way back to the Tongabezi lodge we stopped at the private school set up by the owners of Tongabezi. The students were getting ready for a national drum and dance competition. They were the national winners last year. We got to see classrooms and talk to teachers. The classes were very small (25 students) compared to the other schools we visited. The school takes in local, rural underprivileged children. The students did an awesome job!

8/4 Update Victoria Falls and Huge Fall!

Hi All,
This morning we had a lovely breakfast by the river. Our guide drove us to Victoria Falls. We walked along a trail on the dry side of the falls. We then rented raincoats for 1 dollar and walked along the we side. It was beautiful. We were supprised by the lack of railing to keep on from falling over the edge! It was quite wet and slippery! After looking at the falls we stopped at the arts and crafts market. If you want to feel pressure to buy something you really need to go this outdoor market! Our guide finally rescued us! We saw quite a few baboons along the way. After our trip to the falls we went to the Victoria Falls Gorge. We can't believe that we did it! We decided to take a big leap! I think the pictures really tell the story! After we were released at the bottom we had to hike out back to the top. That is a lot of steps!

First Evening in Zambia!

Hello All,
Here is an update on our first night in Zambia. We were taken on an evening river cruise. Along the way we saw some great animal sightings and a very sad elephant. We hadn't gone very far along the Zambezi river when we saw an elephant on the Zimbabwe side came down to the river. It was pretty event that the animal had been injured. It still had a snare wrapped around the back left leg. It was so sad. We watched it quite a while. Our river guide Chrispin told us that poaching is a very real problem. The elephant was in a Zimbabwe game reserve. Hopefully someone will come to it's rescue! We saw a troop of baboons gathered along the river. One baboon was sitting at the top of a palm tree throwing fruit down to those below. Of course the baboon in the tree took a bite out of the fruit first. We also saw some beautiful green birds living in holes along the river banks. We stopped at a sandy spit and watched the sun set. It was a very beautiful night!

Last night drive and we have arrived in Zambia!

We had a great time last night at Zulu Nyala. Our ranger Kyle took us on a night drive. We saw a female leopard they thought might be pregnant. We also saw a rare African wild pig, and a female hippo laying in the grass with her new baby! The baby hippo was so cute! We stopped and turned off the car lights to watch the stars. The night sky was amazing, Kyle showed us different constellations. We had a great time at Zulu Nyala and could have stayed longer! We left early in the morning for Zambia. After changing planes in Johannesburg we landed in Zambia in the early afternoon. We were met at the airport by the Tongabezi staff and driven to Toganbezi, which is not far from the city of Livingstone. We were met by singing, cool wash clothes and a welcoming drink. Tongabezi is beautiful! We have a cottage along the Zambi river. The views are unbelievable! We can't wait to start our adventures from here!

Today is our last day at Zulu Nyala!

Hello,
This morning we went out on a game drive. We saw the mother rhino with her baby again. Our guide had us walking through the bush to get a more personal look at the rhino and her baby. We had to follow the following rules, stay quiet, stay behind the guide (no gaps, no lagging) make it appear as though we were one big object. We were not to step on any sticks.. or make any noise. We went down a hill and into this valley walking along.. and all of the sudden there they were! We went off to the left it was quite nerve racking hiding behind a bush! I think this was especially scary after our close encounter in the jeep last night Later we watched a mother giraffe and her one month old baby! We went down to the dam (water hole) and saw several zebra, two crocodiles and several baby Egyptian geese. We also saw several other birds. We will be going on an afternoon game drive later and after dinner we will go on a night drive. We will be leaving early and take a plane from Richard's Bay to Johannesburg and then on to Livingstone, Zambia! We are not sure of the computer access in Zambia. If you don't hear from us in a couple of days, asume the technology hasn't caught up in that part of the world.. We have had a great time here and recommend it to everyone! The weather, people, animals, etc have been exceptional! TTFN

Face Off With a Rhino!

Today was a long day.. we went to Hluhluwe Umfolozi game reserve.. Our guide Kyle took us at 80km an hour in an open type of jeep on the freeway with no seatbelt for Mrs. Haberman! that takes 9 passengers. We went over 160 miles in a 1 million acre park. We saw giraffe, zebra, a yellow billed hornbill, buffalo, lion kill and powerful smell, spotted hyena, blue wildebeest, vulture convention at the river and baboons! It felt like it was 100 degrees in the sun. We saw a lot of beautiful rolling hills, some jungle and a sandy river bed. Last but not least on our way out of the park, the gate guard a large male rhino in our road. We stopped for a while to see what would happen. When Kyle our guide inched forward, the rhino challenged us! We ended up backing up, yelling, etc.. and finally the rhino moved out of the way! Tomorrow were more animals!

iSimangalios Wetland Park

Hello Everyone,
Today we went to St. Lucia for an exciting boat ride. While we rode the boat down an esturary we saw so many animals including, hippos, crocodiles, eagles, king fishers, goliath herons, egrets, scared ibis, too many to list here! The town of St. Lucia is in the middle of a 1 million acre national park. Residents can awake to hippos in their pool or eating their lawn. The park is home to many leopards, elephants, buffalo, and others. After our boat ride we drove through the park looking at the changing landscape. At times we seemed to be in thick jungle. We also saw vervet monkeys, bushbuck, baboons, and red duiker. Here in Africa the sun is so bright! It seems so close to us. We saw a beautiful sunset and then watched the stars come out. From here you can see the plant Venus and the Milkyway. Amazing isn't it!