Dumela-ra (Hello!-Setswana)

There is dirt permantly encrusted under my fingernails. I can't tell whether the line on my feet is from a tan or if it's just dirt ( i suspect it's dirt), i fear looking at the mirror, my feet will never be clean again and i've worn the same clothes for 4 days. This is the traveling school my friends. i choose communication over laundry and homework be thankful! I'll start up at the salt pan, we drove out to this salt pan which is the size of switserland. It was truely one of the most amazing experience3s of my life, it was just this great vast nothingness. Just some crunchy white sand. we slept under the stars (pillows!sheets!!!!) and sat off by ourselves. I don't know how, but somehow i found myself in the nothingness. We had countless hours to just sit, and be, in the utter stillness and silence. As the stars twinkled above and the sun faded over the horizen. Our tour guides sand long into the night, their voices harmonizing with the ease of practice and skill as the foreign beat wove above our heads. The flames flickered in the night as we performed the few songs we had prepared (amazing grace, lean on me). It was truely amazing. We then headed over and saw a baobab tree that was 4,500 years old. Crazy! And then we headed off to see the meerkats, because of our chobe chuckfest ( as we've come to calling it) we had to push back our schedule a day so we couldn't sleep with the meerkats but nonetheless they scampered around our feet and stood on the hill as we crouched down in the spiky grass. They are the same meerkats that are filmed on Animal Planet's Meerkat Manor, so they are completley used to humans. Yesterday we arrived from a night out on the Okavangu Delta. We sat in macoro ( local version of a canoe) and relxed as locals pushed us along with long poles. We saw some zebras and elephants along the way, it was very relaxing! The perfect way to destress about our pile of homework waiting for us backl at camp. That night we purseuded the locals to sing for us, and they told stories and jokes long into the night. Early in the morning we awoke to sounds of elephants crashing through the brush nearby and baboons wailing. good morning africa. we headed back to camp for a half day of relaxation before dinner. Dinner was paid for by the hotel ( our campsite is attached to a hotel) and you have no idea how good it was to sit down at a nice table, and be back in my element. ah bliss! we had gone from glass plates to tupperware in one night, haha. We also had dessert an apple crumble, when you haven't had anything even remotely sweet in two weeks apple crumble is like cloud nine my friends. ok well i have only a couple minutes left but i won't be on for about another 2 weeks until i'm in Namibia, so until then i miss you all!

oh and PS, for all of my bozeman pals, my mom is sending my package on tuesday so if you want to send something drop it off at my condo just on the front step. so please send something!

miss you all! until next time :)

~allegra

Internet? Two days in a row, i'm speechless

Actually the only reason i have this internet time is very sad. our whole group is sick. the water we drank out of the tap was bad, so last night there were 14 girls puking in the bathrooms and sleeping on the floors, i had already gone through ther whole sickness thing the day before. So we cancelled our travel day, and here i am on the computer yet again. it seems like all of my posts have been pretty spotty, and its hard to remember what i've said to whom. so sorry about that. we spent the first two days (after the longest plane ride in history) on a houseboat getting aquianted, and then moved to a cmall campsite in Sinazongwe. There we got to watch a group of local woman dance, and even got to join in! We got a small tour of the village (apparently the first one ever) and then had a travel day to livingstone zambia. it was super weird to see people, because we had been in our little TTS bubble for some time, there we got town time to buy icecream and look around the local market. along with trying to call ( 2 $ a minute, by the way) our parents. we saw victoria falls and battled with some frindly baboons who liked to steal things from out of our hands. we stayed at a super nice campground and learned tons of new words in tonga, oh wait! we also visited a school in sinazongwe and got to talk about where we were from.
it was so amazing, and the kids were so much fun.
ah! out of time. love you all and miss you, i'll update in a couple of weeks or so.

hello from botswana!!

hello hello, wow lots has happened since i last updated. the other day we helped buikld a school and had to mix our own cement, giving me an appreciation for cement mixers! it was so great to see this room from start to finish though. truely incredible the kids were awesome too ( yes you read right) they can't pronounce my name for the life of them but it's funny none the less. we are in botswana and we went on safari yesterday! the highlight was seeing four lions! we got within 15 feet of one, crazy. and crazy amazing pictures too! clean has become a relative term, and my feet will never be clean again. tomorrow we are headed to planet baobab where we will get to spend the night with meerkats, we ll have to see how that goes.... we went to an afican drumming class, and learned how to drum. after planet boabab we will head to the okavangu delta and canoe for a couple of days, yay!! school is stressfull, but nothing we cant' handle. i recieved the academic award at our last ceremony! woop woop! amazing things going on here, but i'm almost out of time so i'll leave you all with i miss you! africa is amazing, and words cannot do it justice. pictures cannot capture the beauty either. ok i have like 2 minutes!

bye!!

Hello from Zambia!

I have officially breached the black hole of communication. yay! i'll try to make tthis long but i'm paying for this, a concept that is new to me. There is not a lense big enough for africa, nor words to describe what i have seen. I've seen kids younger than I carrying siblings or daughters on their backs. I've seen people with no shoes aappreciate every little thing they have in life. Africa is amazing, we have been to a school where we taught them head shoulders knees and toes. And in return learned it back in their native language of Tonga, there are over 72 official languages of zambia alone. Our cook ( by the way the food is AMAZING, no not better than my mopms of course) speaks "only" fourteen as I am humbled by my fluency of only one. We saw Victoria Falls today, where the Zambezi plunges over a cliff. They call it the smoke that thunders. Classes have started and they shouldn't even be considered classes, they are so cool and fun. Schoolwork is hard and there is no slacking off but it's the kind where you feel incredible after completing the mountain (literqally) of homework in front of you. The girls are amazing, and it's so great to get to know them. I miss home alot but i'm looking forward to some care packages! I've been jonsing for some cheeseit's oreos snickers m&m's crystal light to flavor my water.... wow lots. but i' good on the peanut butter front qwe have tons of it. In our first two days we say elephants, kudu,impala,crocidiles,hippos and many other animals.On monday we are helping to build a local school and maybe volunteer at an orphanage. I miss you all and look forward to hearing from you soon.

bye!