Back to the Real World

We arrived in Lusaka yesterday morning after a 7-hour bus ride from Livingstone. Our ride picked us up at the hotel around 4:45 am yesterday morning and took us to the bus station. The bus was packed. We were the only white people (muzungus) on the bus. We stopped twice for restroom breaks which cost K500 (500 kwacha = approx. 25 cents).
My villa in the Mulungushi Village is much better than last year. My roommates are great. One is a fashion designer from NYC; the other is a farm boy from Ft. Worth.

Today, we attended church in the village with a 20-person Zambia choir and Zambian preacher. It lasted more than 2 hours. After church, the bus took us to the local market for lunch and shopping. Every Sunday the local craftsmen come to sell their goods. Our meals the last three days have been eggs, french fries, carrots, green beans and white rice. The PB&J starts tomorrow. I'm at a small cafe that sells Internet access for K9,000 (approx. $2.50/hr.). I wish Starbucks would get in on that action. We shared a table with a nice Aussie attending Cornell University graduate school in upstate New York. He's over here for two months researching conservation and environmental protection policies. He sleeps in a tent each night so it makes our living quarters sound like the Four Seasons.
This afternoon we meet our Zambian interpreter who we'll be paired one-on-one with for the remainder of the week. It was good to see some familiar faces back at camp. There are about three people who attended week 8 with me last week. Two are current UT students.

Yesterday, on the way to the village, I saw a local guy wearing a homemade Barack Obama t-shirt. My window was open so I yelled, "I like your t-shirt." Without missing a beat, he yelled back, "Change we can believe in." How awesome is that!  

This is the last time I'll have Internet access for the remainder of the trip in Africa.  The next post will likely be in South Africa on the way back home if I have enough time between flights.

Here are some photos taken over the past 4 days since my last blog post. 

Hungry, Hungry Hippos

Today we took a 7-hour kayak trip down the Zambezi River. Our tour guide met us at the hotel lobby around 7:30 am and drove us 20 miles upriver from Victoria Falls. It was just me, Betty and Dawn on the trip. The Zambezi borders Zambia (west) and Zimbabwe (east). As we got into our kayaks, Bernard (our guide) said we could possibly encounter wildlife along the river. “Worst case, we’ll encounter hippopotamus.” Well, we did.

Betty and I were in the rear canoe and followed closely behind Bernard. About one mile down river, we came across a herd of 12 hippos right in the middle of the river. We paddled along the Zimbabwe side of the bank about 20 yards from the herd. All of a sudden, they started howling (that’s what I’m calling it) and opening their mouths. They call this “mock charging.” There wasn’t much mocking about it. They started moving toward our kayak. I can honestly say, I’ve never felt the fear I felt that moment. My knees and ankles went numb. Betty started crying. After we got passed the herd, we encountered a lone hippo about two miles down river. Bernard said lone hippos are unpredictable so we went ashore on the Zimbabwe side and walked along the banks of the river with the baboons and impalas. From that point on, Betty rode with Bernard, leaving Dawn and I to fend for ourselves. I stayed in the back to steer. We stopped for lunch and had a great conversation with our guide. He’s from Zimbabwe and had been a kidnapped four times in Zimbabwe before fleeing with his wife and two kids for Zambia. He escorted Hillary Clinton to Victoria Falls while Bill Clinton was in office and later escorted Madeline Albright while she was still Secretary of State. We could have stayed there for hours talking to him. At 3:30 pm we went ashore and the trip was complete. We drove through the Mosi-Oa-Tonya National Park and saw zebra, giraffe, elephants, baboons and wart hogs. On the African Queen cruise the night before we saw Zambia’s only rhinoceros which also lives in the Mosi-Oa-Tonya (“the smoke that thunders”) reserve. Less than a year ago, the second one was killed by poachers. Merchants in the Far East use the rhino horns as aphrodisiacs. The ground up dust goes for $25,000 a kilogram!

We are back at the hotel now to clean up. We are eating at the hotel tonight, and will probably watch a rented iTunes movie in my room. My roommate is a 21-year-old student at the University of Arkansas studying finance.

Tomorrow we go on a safari in Botswana. We did this last year and it’s one of the highlights of the trip. I’ll enjoy it from the safe confines of the boat and Jeep. Now it’s off to my hotel room to put on a clean pair of underwear. I'm only half kidding.

South Africa

It's 9:30 am (2:30 am CT) on Tuesday morning, and I'm waiting for my South African Airways flight to Lusaka. I'm eating some ostrich bilatong which I'm told is like beef jerkey. The jury is still out on that.

We drop our bags off with Susan Greer (wife of the guy who runs Camp Life) who's meeting us at the airport to take most of our bags back to the Mugundushi Village. We'll stay at the airport and hop a short flight to Livingstone for a few days of rest at Victoria Falls. So far, the trip has been fairly smooth. Again, Heathrow proved to be a challenging connection. We had a 12-hour layover yesterday so Betty, Dawn and I visited downtown London. We took the train to the River Thames and walked around for about 7 hours. We listened to the bells at Big Ben. "Look, kids. Big Ben...Parliament!" Then we walked around Chelsea hoping to see A-Rod walking out of Madonna's apartment. I'm not sure she even lives in Chelsea, but Betty thought it would make a good story.

The train had mechanical issues on the way back to Heathrow so we had to take two connecting buses between Terminal 4 and the new Terminal 5. I walked right on to my plane with little time to spare. I was drenched in a nervous sweat, but it all worked out. The 11-hour flight to Johannesburg was smooth. I watched "All the Presidents Men" which killed a good 3 hours. The rest was spent sleeping.

We met most of our Week 8 campers at DFW. It's a good mix of young adults, married couples, families and college students. One girl just graduated high school and decided to raise the money and go by herself.

I'll update more if there's Internet availability.

All Aboard

Tomorrow, Betty, Dawn and I leave for Zambia.  This afternoon, Karin, Mark, Suzanne, Luke, Betty and Dawn came over for a "weighing party" where I weighed my bags to make sure everything would fit on British Airways' planes.  Everything came in just under 51 lbs.  As of Saturday evening, I'm loaded down with three checked bags weighing (47, 50 and 26 lbs.) plus a carry-on with my computer, iPod, books and emergency clothes in case the checked luggage gets lost.  Karin has graciously agreed to drive us up to DFW in her sister's SUV/mini-van.  We're making a pit stop in Belton for breakfast at the Taqueria Mexicana courtesy of my parents.  Pat and Maggie are joining us too.  It'll be nice to see everyone before we leave.  Then it's back on the road for DFW.  I'll try to send photos and post updates as Internet connectivity allows.  Thanks to everyone who had anything to do with this trip.  Whether it was your monetary support, clothing donations or prayers, it was all greatly appreciated.

Here are a few photos I've been meaning to post.  
Photo 1: Karin and me at the Fourth of July
Photo 2: Betty and Dawn at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium

New Look

My blog has a new look courtesy of Suzanne. She designed the previous layout, too.  I told her I wanted the blog to look more "summerish."  Instead of just making it green, she went a step further and used a manipulated a photo their grass in their own yard.  Pretty creative.  Thanks Suz!

iPhone 3G: The San Francisco Treat -- Part 2

Last week, Mark and I took a “brothers-only” trip to San Francisco. I believe an earlier blog post stated incorrectly that our last trip together was in 1996. I stand corrected. Our last trip was to San Diego for the 2000 Holiday Bowl.

Let’s not kid ourselves. This trip had iPhone 3G written all over it. True, I was out there for business, but when we learned on June 9 that the next iPhone would be released during our San Francisco stay, work seemed to fade into the background. Here’s a blow-by-blow account of what went down in our quest for the iPhone 3G. I’m convinced the Microsoft gods were conspiring against us the moment we left Cedar Park.

Tuesday
3:30 pm – Leave Cedar Park to catch 6:30 pm Jet Blue flight
6:30 pm – Jet Blue flight departs Austin
7:30 pm – After circling Austin five times, we land back in Austin. Reason: Faulty landing gear door sensor.
11:30 pm – Flight is grounded for the evening.
11:31 pm – Book back-up Southwest Airlines flight for next morning.

Wednesday
12:30 am – We spend the night at the Holiday Inn Town Lake. We thought it’d be fun to play like tourists to Austin. Bad idea. This place is/was a dump.
1:00 am – Go to bed expecting new Jet Blue flight in the morning.
6:00 am -- Jet Blue flight is cancelled. Natives become restless.
8:30 am – Southwest gets us to San Francisco. God Bless Herb Kelleher.

Thursday
8:00 am – David goes to work. Mark tours Stanford and rides train up and down the Penninsula. Scouts out three Apple retail stores. After much discussion, Palo Alto is agreed upon as the best chance for a phone.
5:00 pm – Brothers James catch the Cal Train into San Francisco. Walk around Union Square, the Embarcadero and near AT&T Park.
10:00 pm – Back at hotel for one final iPhone sync.

Friday
5:30 am -- Two coffees and two Odwalla bars. No time for the restaurant. There’s phones to be had!
6:45 am – Arrive at Palo Alto Apple store a few blocks from Stanford. Already 200th in line. Make some nerd friends and get lots of great free goodies. Best gift: iPhone screen polisher.
10:00 am – Get to counter only to be told we can’t buy an iPhone 3G at the Apple Store. Both our accounts are on corporate plans and therefore locked. Only AT&T can access our accounts. We fight back the tears and push on.
10:30 am – Mountain View AT&T store is sold out. Try to find three more AT&T stores with no luck.
11:30 am – Head to Palo Alto AT&T store. Wait in parking lot for 2 ½ hours. Survive on free water and Dum-Dum suckers. We later find out this is the highest-grossing AT&T store in the US.
12 pm – I get the last iPhone 3G at the AT&T store.
12:30 pm – Head back to Apple store. Mark marches to front of line and tell security guard our “situation.” The Apple rep remembers us and takes Mark to the next available Apple rep. He says, “You’ve waited in line long enough.”
12:45 pm – Mark has an iPhone 3G. The trip is officially a success.
1:15 pm – We celebrate with a sushi lunch and a Red Mango dessert.
2:30 pm – High on Apple, we drive to Apple’s corporate headquarters in Cupertino. We ask to go to the restroom inside the corporate offices so we can get a glimpse inside Steve Jobs’ inner sanctum.
2:45 pm – Relive the day over Starbuck’s coffee.

Saturday
Spend the day walking around the University of California – Berkely campus and driving down Highway 1 (Pacific Coast Highway). Dip our feet in the freezing Pacific Ocean.

San Francisco to Austin via Midland -- Part 2

Due to the Jet Blue fiasco on Tuesday, we extended our stay in San Francisco one day and headed back to Austin on Sunday. Forty-five minutes before we landed in Austin, the Southwest pilot announced that we were making an emergency landing in Midland due to fuel smells in the main cabin. Mark and I were seated in rows 3 and 4 so we hadn’t noticed any foul stench.

Once off the plane, we realized the airline fuel had sickened 6 passengers enough that one was taken to the hospital. Once we walked into the Midland terminal we could see a firetruck and police car that had escorted across the tarmac. After a three-hour layover in Midland (and it felt like every bit of 3 hours) we were back in Austin. Another brothers-only trip in the books. iPhone or no iPhone. On-time flight or not. The great company and memories were all worth it.