While Silvette grew up in the Queen Ann area of Seattle, a number of years ago her parents and siblings one by one immigrated to Santa Barbara, California. Even our daughter, Andrea, went down to Santa Barbara for college. Our family is the only one left here in the Seattle area. Because of that, we have made quite a few trips to Santa Barbara over the years and have become fairly familiar with the area. This year Silvette’s sister invited…
Final Days Down to South Africa and the Cape of Good Hope
Every journey has to have an ending. This long journey would end in South Africa. However, there was still a lot to see and do before that moment. First we had to get through our final camping experience. We woke up early the next morning, as we did most mornings, as we wanted to get into the Namib NaukLuft National Park as soon as the gate opened. It was still dark when we woke up, and the night sky was…
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A Busy Watering Hole and Sand Dunes in Namibia
After our camping adventure in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, we had a couple of nights of down time before we were back in the tents. One of those nights we were in the country where some locals gave us a presentation about how life used to be when they were able to live off of the land. Now the government won’t allow them to live that way anymore. So their culture doesn’t get lost and forgotten, they do these presentations to…
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Safari by Jeep, Canoe, and Foot in Botswana, Africa
After our boat safari the previous night, it was easy to get up early the next morning as I was going on my first official land safari. We would be in the safari jeeps that you see if you google “safari”. I bundled up as the morning would be cold, got my binoculars and camera, and headed to the truck. After I got in the truck, I was promptly handed a blanket. This was a necessity as the sun was…
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Victoria Falls, Baboons and Sunset With Elephants
It was time to say goodbye to Madagascar and the tour group and head across the Mozambique Channel to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe to start the next leg of my journey. Unfortunately, getting to Zimbabwe isn’t as direct as I had hoped. First stop, the Antanarvario airport, which is about 30 minutes from the hotel. Fortunately we were leaving at night, so we wouldn’t have to deal with the chaos of people and traffic. Unfortunately we would have to deal with…
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Sharing a Beach Adventure in Lomé, Togo
As I mentioned in my previous post, I didn’t do much sight seeing in Lomé, Togo as I spent most of my time teaching. However, on the final Saturday I did have an opportunity to go out and see some of the sights. The fun part was that I didn’t go alone. I shared that experience with a high school student from Togo. Many organizations try to help children around the world. One of the ways they do this is…
Teaching Leaders in the African Country of Togo
I retired from teaching over five years ago. However, teaching is still in my blood. Since retiring I have twice gone to the African country of Malawi to teach in the pastoral training program there. At the end of August this year I went to another African country to teach, Togo. When I told people I was going to Togo, they would typically look a little confused. I would have to explain to them that Togo is in West Africa.…
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Encountering the Indri Lemur in Madagascar’s Rainforest
Our trip through Madagascar continued the next day as we left for Antsirabe. It was another long day on the road. Luckily we stopped in a little town for lunch where we were provided with singing and dancing by the locals. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of opportunities for work outside of Antananarivo, so I assume this was probably considered a good job, especially when they can receive tips from foreigners. After our lunch (I had noodles and…
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Lemurs and other Unique Creatures in Madagascar
Our journey inland began early the next morning. We loaded into our little bus and set out for a long journey. When I say long, it’s not long because of the distance, but because driving in Madagascar is an adventure of its own. The roads are not taken care of, and you spend a lot of the time slowing down to avoid potholes. One can also be stuck in village traffic along the road. For these long drive days (6-10…
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Andrea Begins An Amazing African Adventure in Madagascar
Madagascar wasn’t a place that had been on my bucket list, but I sometimes like to take the country less traveled, less traveled and far. Madagascar is so far away that getting there was an adventure in itself. As you can imagine, there are no direct flights to Madagascar. I first had to fly to Istanbul where I had a 12 hour layover. Then I took a flight to Madagascar via Mauritius. Fortunately I was able to do a free…
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