Africa, The Continent That Started It All.

September 2023/September 2024

You know that feeling you get when someone you love sweeps you off your feet in their arms? That sense that nothing in the world matters, you’re where you belong? This is “my” Zambia. When I think of Zambia all that comes to mind is that safe warm feeling of being home. Needless to say... this place holds a VERY heavy place in my heart, so this could turn into a whole book if I wanted it to be! I’m playing a bit of catch up on this blog to share my stories since my journey started in Zambia in 2023, I also ended my 2024 journey in Zambia. I'm going to share some of my experiences from both trips in this one post and hope I don't miss anything!

My journey to Livingstone started when I found a company called African Impact. This organization is in several countries across Africa including Zambia, South Africa, Kenya, Zanzibar, Zimbabwe,

and Mozambique. Offering some of the same projects as Zambia, but also more community medical, and conservation projects. Livingstone, Zambia offers teaching programs, as well as home-based care. My favorite part about this organization is that it’s long term and sustainable. I was so surprised this year when I got to see some familiar faces in a few of my classes! While in Livingstone I work on the Girl Impact program. This is a program that helps to promote girls to continue their education, but also to help the boys and girls both learn a little more about things that can happen in life and ways to approach them with more knowledge. Some of the topics we recently worked with the kids on was gender-based violence, domestic abuse, self-confidence, role models, and the responsibilities we have with all of our basic human rights and what those rights are. These are ALL subjects that I have come to respect on a different level and believe that in America these are very unfortunate things to think about but, they happen. Our kids deserve to better themselves on the understanding of these topics as well as how to help each other in these situations. Waking up to these beautiful smiling faces, and little laughs is probably one of my favorite things. The kids that I’ve been fortunate to cross paths with in my life I am so grateful for. They’ve taught me so much! You can go thinking about the good you're going to be doing and always hear from everyone how great it is to go volunteer, but you never realize how much the people teach you rather once you're there. Staying in Zambia might sound a little over whelming especially when the idea we’ve all been taught about Africa is not the best one… (I promise I haven't seen a random lion walking down the civilian streets. Maybe some elephants and baboons, but no lions.) The volunteer house is located right in town at a hostel called “Victoria Falls Backpackers”. Here we all get to enjoy wonderful meals Monday-Friday cooked by the ladies in the kitchen, enjoy drinks from the famous bartender Boxer, drinking games, and of course a pool to cool off from that African heat (it gets HOT my friends!) Making friends in Zambia from all over the world as a volunteer is like something indescribable. Working, sleeping, and adventuring with new friend’s you become like family very quickly. Soon after arriving to Zambia, it's easy to settle in.

I was excited to meet new family and get hugs from my Zambian family. I was welcomed at the airport from one of the drivers Uncle Benny and I couldn't run fast enough to give him a hug. In Zambia you're going to hear a lot of reference to "Auntie" and "Uncle" before long you start to wonder, how are these people all related!? In parts of Africa, you will hear this, out of respect for elders you reference them as "Auntie" or "Uncle." In Zambia volunteering you can expect to have nights out doing karaoke at Vicks, and the loads of activities in the local area or Zimbabwe, and Botswana there’s so much to do! Livingstone is located near the border of Botswana, and also Zimbabwe so it makes it easy to explore other countries as well!

I’m going to take it back to 2023 on my first visit. I stayed for just a short 10 days my first visit. I made friends from Belgium, England, a few other Americans, Mexico, Dubai, Italy (you can see people from all over join the crew!) Getting to experience daily life with everyone from different places you get so many different ways of thinking and also knowledge from them as much as the local people of Zambia. It's really all around a huge cultural experience. I got one weekend where I could enjoy free time and explore. Four volunteers and I decided to spend our weekend in Chobe National Park in Botswana doing a water, and game drive. We camped under the stars of the African bush, and when I say stars, I can’t even describe how many stars lit up the night sky! We started our day driving to the border of Botswana where we had to visit passport control. A fun fact about Botswana is at the border you have to wipe your shoes off in some water to help preserve soil residues from each country (I still don't fully understand, but I did what I was told to do) from there we went on to meet our new friends that joined the tour with us and loaded onto the boat. TIME FOR ELEPHANTS little did I know, I’ve officially seen enough elephants for the rest of my lifetime after Chobe. If elephants are your favorite animal, then Chobe national park is your place with one of the largest elephant populations in Africa! After a nice boat trip

Filled with elephants, hippos and crocs we enjoyed a delicious lunch before we got into our open jeep and headed out to the bush! During the game drive the only thought crossing my mind was “this is the real-life Lion King... there’s no way I'm living this right now) An African safari is something I think everyone should experience at least once in their life! To truly witness with your eyes the circle of life as the sun sets is one of the most humbling experiences. While on the game drive you see so many different types of wildlife. From baboons, kudu, impala, lions, giraffe and if you're lucky leopards. It's amazing to me how unbothered the lions are by people in the jeeps. I came to realize we aren't considered a predator to them on the game since they are protected in the park. Chobe national park to me is pretty incredible because there's no fencing surrounding it. The animals are there because they want to be and have freedom to live in their natural habitat. After exploring the park for a few hours, we took a lunch/bathroom break. I was the last one to use the restroom and told everyone there was no need to wait, so everyone went back to the truck to eat their snacks. PSA: make sure the doors aren't broken before being left

alone. To my surprise I was locked in. After frantically thinking what to do, thankfully I noticed an open window for someone to come and help me get out of the bathroom. After the 40 hours it took me to travel, I couldn't believe that it was going to end being stranded in a bathroom stall in the middle of the African bush! Once the crisis was over, we explored a bit of the park watched the animals cross the water as the sun set, and the lions lurking near to get dinner before bed. more then made way to our campsite. I noticed when the lions were hunting the males weren't near anything. They were all just sleeping. All the females were out doing the hunting which is normal in the packs. The females are typically the ones doing the hunting. You go girls! After watching the sun set across the African plain's orange, red, and yellow stretched across the sky. The fever trees and baobab trees became dark in the distance and there we took our ride to camp. We had a delicious dinner of chicken, vegetables, salad, and some nice fruit for dessert. We all enjoyed a beautiful campfire with glasses of wine. Sitting under the stars sharing stories with friends I still just kept thinking to myself IM IN AFRICA! It still wasn't settling into my brain. Everyone soon went to bed, and we slept in

probably one of the most comfortable tents I've ever been in. During the early hours of the morning, I woke to an interesting sound. I went back to sleep not worrying much about it. Come to find out the lions had crossed through camp to head back down to the river. We left camp and took a final drive to explore on our way out of the park. We found our lion friends soon after the drive started. Young males playing in the distance, and members of the pack keeping an eye out to soon join in all the fun. Hearing the roars, and seeing these large animals play foolishly is a memory I'll never forget.

Unfortunately, with time short I didn't have a lot of time to explore much my first year visiting Zambia. I was there for 10 days in 2023, and in 2024 I decided to stay for a full two weeks so that I could have two weekends to enjoy some extra free time. I'm not sure what would be enough time for me in Zambia, but even two weeks flew by and felt WAY too short. After leaving Chobe in 2023, I made a quick trip to Mosi-oa-Tunya also known as Victoria Falls. Mosi-oa-Tunya is from the Lozi language meaning "The thundering smoke." When the falls are full and at their greatest the mist from the

falls can reach up and over 1,300 ft! Victoria falls is the world's largest falling sheet of water with a width of 5,604 ft. Victoria falls surpasses Niagra falls by being an entire mile wider! During my second year back to Zambia I took things a bit further and decided to white water rafting in the gorge of Victoria Falls down the Zambezi River. TALK ABOUT A WILD RIDE! I've never taken on white water rafting like the Zambezi. After 21 rapids, one near death flip of the boat I saw yellow flash before my eyes, and we all went flying! After having a few lost passengers

occasionally during the trip, we conquered the Zambezi River with the help of the Nyami Nyami (the symbol of the snake is painted through the gorge. This is known as the Zambezi River god important to the people of the Tonga tribe. He is believed to protect people and give them sustenance during difficult times.) This symbol is also found on necklaces and worn as good luck. No time for relaxation. Just when you think you finally

defeated the hard part of the day everyone forgot to mention that we had to hike up the falls afterwards. After hours down the river we then had to do a direct mile and a half hike back up to the top. Switch back after switch back, I don't think I've ever been more excited to see one of those jeeps in my life. We all climbed in and enjoyed the ride through some of the villages back to Victoria Falls. There we enjoyed some delicious burgers, and we were able to take showers and freshen up before our end to the evening. What we all waited for, the booze cruise.

We got settled onto the boat drinks in hand and started our way down the river. The river cruise is a great way to see a lot of the local wildlife without having to pay the extra money travelling to Botswana. You might not see all the animals you hope for, but there's a pretty good chance you will see hippos, elephants, and crocs. You enjoy a delicious braai which is basically just a BBQ. The meal typically consists of potatoes, grilled chicken and sausage, a vegetable, and garlic bread. They have a lot of different options for alcoholic beverages and as the Zambians say, "the more you drink, the more animals you will see!" The sun sets over the river, and I'm reminded once again just how precious life is, and how much I STILL love African sunsets.

After one week completed in Zambia couldn't believe how fast time was speeding by. It started to get hot my second week. If you're not used to living in heat this can be a big change. Even living somewhere where my states temperature reaches the same as Zambia it gets warm. It's a dry heat which I will say is much more bearable, but it's a great time to enjoy the pool in between classes and in the evening when you get back home from project. During my time I experienced something that I was aware of happening at times in Africa but never firsthand. Load shedding was a part of my journey this year. Load shedding is when there are daily power cuts to help preserve energy in areas. The time that the power is on depends on the population size and usage in each city. In Livingstone we had four hours of power a day and a solar generator that helped to assist with the Wi-Fi and other small things when the electricity was turned off. People are used to these things so many businesses, and local people have generators and to be honest I wouldn't have really known the difference. Life went on as usual for everyone in the community with a few adjustments in daily life that just became normal very quickly. We were all grateful for our four hours because some of the bigger cities only had two hours a day. The reason for the load shedding in that area is based on Victoria Falls. The falls provide power to Zambia and their neighboring countries Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. All of these countries were experiencing the power cuts because of the dry climate, and low water levels of the falls. This isn't a permanent life change; a little rain and cooler temps fix the problems! This week was filled with games at home, drinks by the pool, daily classes, and of course a trip to Vicks for karaoke on Thursday evening. The weekend approached and some of us went to one of the local resorts nearby Avani to enjoy the pool, have a delicious breakfast buffet and enjoy a change of scenery. A day pass at Avani is $8 and it's a really great day to relax and catch up on a good book. If you're lucky you will even get some great company with some of the wildlife, they have on their large piece of property.

Time in Zambia went by too quickly. Feelings of being at home start to take over and you forget where "home" actually is. My departure day came too quickly. Before I knew it, I was packing my bags and getting ready to say my goodbyes. I've learned that looking forward to things over the course of time, before you know it those things you look forward to for so long are there and gone in a blink of an eye. Saying "see you soon" to family is always hard when you aren't sure when that next time will be. After tears flowed that Monday morning, and hugs were of plenty I was in the van with Uncle Benny heading to the airport. What felt like just yesterday someone with love scooping me up in their arms welcoming me home, was now a sad see you later. One heartfelt door closed for the year and onto the next one I went.

This post is in remembrance to my Aunt Susan. I travel with a photo of her in my journal to remember why I'm here doing everything that I am. Without a promise I made to a very special person I probably wouldn't have made this leap of faith at the time I did. Without a promise, I might not have found Zambia, and I can't imagine what my life would be like today. I am the person I'm becoming because at one moment life felt very unfair, but now life feels like I'm living in what I thought once would only be a dream.

Volunteer in Africa | Projects & Charity Work - African Impact