New friends, whitewater rafting and a good soaking

Makadini Everyone,

It's raining outside so once again it's time to update my Trip Journal. I made it to Vic Falls after my 5 hour layover in Jo'burg. I'm glad that I didn't leave the airport in that city, since I just keep hearing bad things about it. The newspapers there have nothing but horrible news in them about people getting robbed, raped, killed, etc. Just last week a group of backpackers were held up and forced to strip to their underwear and robbed, and then the assailants gang-raped a couple of 18 year-old girls. No wonder everyone wants to get out of there. So if there's anyone reading this who's considering a trip to South Africa, then I can assure you that the rest of the country really is quite safe - but avoid Jo'burg like the plague. (If you only need to transit there then don't worry - there's no crime in the airport)

On a more pleasant note, Vic Falls was beautiful. I only met one other American while I was there, and the Zims were exceptionally friendly to me as an American since they don't get many American tourists there. In fact, they don't get many tourists at all anymore in Zimbabwe since the political upheaval erupted last year. Let's just say that Vic Falls is extremely anti-Mugabe. If you don't know anything about President Robert Mugabe or the political crisis in Zimbabwe then you'll have to go look it up somewhere else on the web, because I just ain't got the time to explain it to you now.

When I say that they were friendly, I mean that they were really friendly. The only other countries where I've been so warmly welcomed as an American are Vietnam and Mauritius. I met a group of young Zims in the bar at my hotel who were anxious to hear all about my job and my trip. One of them, Edmund, was obsessed with Latino woman and more than anything wants to shag one before he dies. He said, and this is a direct quote, 'If I could just shag a Puerto Rican girl once, then they could put a bullet in my head and I would die a happy man.' He was ecstatic to hear that Jennifer Lopez had broken up with Puff Daddy and was now single again.

Another one of them, Emmanuel, was a pilot and offered to take me for a ride in his plane the next day. Unfortunately my schedule was tight and as cool as it sounded I just couldn't commit to it. As it turned out it was completely overcast and I didn't miss a thing, and apparently the turbulence was also pretty bad.

Emmanuel has cousins in Northridge, CA and is looking forward to visiting them and/or moving to the US. The political upheaval has damaged the economy here well beyond the tourism sector, and many young Zims are anxious to go work abroad. A couple of Dutch women tried to persuade him that the American dream isn't all that it's cracked up to be, and that the Dutch dream of mooching off of the welfare state is much better. Emmanuel insisted that such a lifestyle was for lazy people and that he wanted to work for his money.

The Dutch women were middle-aged but very cool, and were thoroughly impressed with my limited Dutch and the fact that I knew Amsterdam pretty well (I even knew the street where they worked and could almost pronounce it correctly). They both work at a cafe in Amsterdam's Jordaan district and insisted that I come visit them when I'm there in March.

One thing that intimidated Emmanuel about the US was the nature American women. His cousins have told him about how independent American women are compared to African women, and how they expect men to share responsibilities such as cooking and cleaning. The other Zim guys freaked out when he mentioned this, but I also pointed at that American women are also willing and/or insistent on splitting expenses. This really impressed them.

The falls themselves are as spectacular as I had imagined, but unfortunately I got more rain than rainbow when I was there. In fact I got completely drenched. The spray from the falls is enough to soak you when the sky is clear, and when it's raining then you're just being pelted with water from above and below. Luckily I opted for a camera bag with a weatherproof liner (thanks to my sister for that one :)

A word of advice to anyone visiting Vic Falls - it costs $20 to go see them from the Zimbabwean side, and only $10 to go across the bridge to see them in Zambia where the view is supposedly better. So save your money and get that extra passport stamp and walk the 700 meters to Zambia.

The next day I went whitewater rafting on the Zambezi River, which is supposedly the best in the world. I've only been rafting twice (Maine and Colorado) and haven't gone in about 10 years, so I'm not really in a position to judge just how good they are, but I can't imagine it being better anywhere else. You hear stories about crocodiles and hippos in the river, but it's all hype and it's perfectly safe.

I had a flight that afternoon (with Doreen and Meep - the Dutch women) and had arranged to go from rafting straight to the airport. Amazingly I was able to dry off during the 900 meter ascent out of the gorge, only to be soaked again when I was riding in the back of the pickup truck to the airport and it started pouring. Luckily my bags were in the front seat and stayed dry.

Speaking of staying dry, it sounds like it stopped raining so I'm going to head back outside. I'm in Harare right now and will try to get that entry done in the next couple of days.

Tiehemboyenda,

Matt