Traveling Cat

Gotta love my boy Brett who’s “ready to throw his nuts on the line!” He’s traveled through 45 countries, and I think we did about 7 of those countries together! He’s lived in New Zealand as an outdoor adventure tour guide, is doing real estate now in Panama, has been a dive instructor in Mexico and Fiji, has lived in the US, etc. He’s got a law degree and a zoology degree, and he’s trying to get a gig doing nature documentaries. If anyone has any leads, do let me/him know!

Fiji dive footage…

Photos from Africa… (proud to say I actually took a few of these shots of Brett!)

Brett’s video resume…

Nature documentary… where breeding time is the “highlight of the social calendar!”

Susie and I began our travels together a year ago today on Jan 26th! I had just finished a 14km marathon through the slums of Nairobi, and flew straight from rural Kenya into modern South Africa. I got in line at customs behind tons of other travelers and couldn’t have been more tired or ecstatic to see Susie on the other side of the guards! Unlike me, she wasn’t coughing, and didn’t appear to have black lungs/TB! Instead, she was looking bright and cheery and bearing gifts, a camera, and a new backpack! Such a fantastic day and such a fantastic start to a wonderful journey together across Africa and back into Seattle life. We found our home with the Nuns, then immediately went to coffee to “plan” the trip. And by planning, I mean catching up and giggling and babbling and talking slowly!

Susie was always better on the road about sending meaningful group updates… so I shouldn’t have been surprised to get this fantastic recap in my email this week. Made me laugh out loud, feel all warm and gooey inside, and even get a little teary eyed. Mostly it made me remember… endless stories… endless adventures… so so so many good times. A girl couldn’t ask for a better travel partner or a better friend to return home to. So much of my love goes out to Susie for making 2007 a remarkable year! Here’s her recap and here are a few of my pics. Enjoy!

Our time in Zanzibar couldn’t have been more surreal, bizarre, or full of Snickers bars!

Cat dear,

Welcome to the one year anniversary of our reunion in Johannesburg. Or so I think – need to review the ol’ journal, but I’m nearly certain it was today. Can you believe that?

What a wild, crazy year it has been. Recap:

-Traveling. Holy shit – elephants in Addo, hilarity at Cape Town pride, meeting Brett in Windhoek, skydiving, sand boarding, basking in the rains of the Zambezi churning over Vic Falls, water slides in Lusaka, 10-hour pickup truck rides, the quiet, broken beauty if Ila, too many “samoosas,” Wimby beach parties, breaking beds in Nampula, the most amazing recuperation mission of all time in Nkhata Bay, welcoming ourselves to East Africa with “why are you so stupid? you stupid, stupid girls!” haggling our way onto the “cheapest” boat out to Zanzibar, planning our Kenya double-date from afar, Susie goes bananas trying to upload photos 5 at a time, strange walks with a strange ex-heroin addict in Jambiani, finding sweet relief from the heat in Lushoto, catching a glimpse of Kilimanjaro on the bus ride to Nairobi, reunions with Brett, discovering sometimes I felt like a plumpkin, the cheapest, most delicious steak ever in Kampala, near-fist-fights getting ourselves around Uganda, trekking with gorillas, rafting the Nile, reunions in Malava, navigating the streets of Mombasa, and the sweet life out on Lamu. Cat, we had one hell of a time.
-The return. Parties, navigating life being “back,” reunions with friends, dinner parties, saying hello to the mountains again.
-Dating. Dear lord. Susie is a disaster, and Cat discovers her knack at rocking the dating world like no one else. You really should get paid for this.
-Going back to our old jobs. Riiiiiight. Still working on that, and who knows, maybe we’ll work together?
-Staring a business. With Cat to thank, of course. Making it happen in Seattle.
-Fibroids. Screw ‘em. And say goodbye to them and hello to life with your body back. Hot as hell, Cat.
-Navigating the new challenges of living in what feels like the same city, but sure is different. Friends here and gone, the SLUT, new restaurants, new music. So much to keep exploring, which is what makes Seattle rock.

Just wanted to say, Cat, it has been such a wonderful, complicated, and exciting year, and I can’t be more thankful to have spent so much of it with you. It is one year after what was the start of a pretty amazing journey, and I look forward to seeing what the next year has in store for us.

Love you, Cat. You’re pretty damed cool.

Big hugs,
S

Standard look for our travel days

World’s worst matatu minibus in Mozambique
(can’t seem to remember if this pic was from before or after the puking?)

Susie & Cat – couldn’t be happier to squeeze us plus a driver onto the back of a tiny motorbike in Kampala

Photo of a Herero family from my visit to Namibia in March 2007

Upon return to the States, people kept asking what was my favorite place, what was the “best” thing we saw or did. I’d be really hard pressed to pick a favorite from so many terrific memories, but Namibia probably wins my award for “most surprising.” In Namibia, we first met Brett (and decided to keep him around for the whole next month), I went hiking on sand dunes, went sky diving, sand boarding, visited schools and small villages, went hiking at rocky cliff formations, slept under the stars, took a boat ride over the river to illegally visit Angola, and had a fantastic time throughout.

Before I started the trip planning, I’ll admit I don’t think I could’ve told someone where Namibia was on a map. But I began to read the history and culture of each county to potentially visit and quickly decided Namibia was a “must see.” It has the oldest desert in the world with famous sand dunes, and also a coast line on the Atlantic dotted with ship wrecks. It’s home to famous national wildlife parks like Etosha, and is home to the famous San/bushmen people (a la “Gods Must Be Crazy”). Like most African countries, it’s also home to trauma and hardships. Germany colonized Namibia in the 19th century then British South Africa occupied the colony during World War I. The Namib people fought for independence in 1966 (around the same time as most independence celebrations around the continent), but independence wasn’t granted till very recently in 1990. The country is young and still has a very German feel with food and drink, German and Afrikaans are still spoken, you can still use South African rand interchangeably with Namibian money, and many of the back packers and tourists we met in Namibia were from Germany. This weekend something historic happened: a family from Germany visited Namibia to formally apologize for the war crimes committed by their ancestors 100 years ago. Here’s the story from the BBC:

German family’s Namibia apology
The descendants of a German officer responsible for mass killings in 1904 in Namibia have met the representatives of the Herero people to seek pardon.

Descendants of Lothar von Trotha, who ordered the killing of Herero people, expressed deep shame over their ancestor’s actions and apologised. Tens of thousands were killed or died of starvation when the general tried to crush an uprising over land ownership. The German government has declined Herero demands for an apology.

The chiefs of six Herero royal houses met representatives of the von Trotha family in the central Namibian town of Omaruru. “We, the von Trotha family, are deeply ashamed of the terrible events that took place 100 years ago. Human rights were grossly abused that time,” Wolf-Thilo von Trotha said as he addressed the gathering. “We say sorry, since we bear the name of General Lothar von Trotha. We however do not only want to look back, but also look to the future.”

This is the first time anyone has publicly apologised for the 1904 killings, the BBC’s Frauke Jensen in Namibia says.

The von Trotha representatives travelled to Omaruru at the invitation of Herero Supreme Chief Alfons Maharero, the grandson of Samuel Maharero, who led the uprising in 1904. Chief Maherero used the occasion to draw attention to the unresolved demand for reparations from the German government. “We demand a dialogue with the present German government to obtain restorative justice,” he said.

Another member of the von Trotha family, Ulrich von Trotha, emphasised that his family was on a private visit. “Our family cannot become involved in the demand for reparations from a government,” he told AFP news agency.

Although the German government has previously expressed “regret” at the killings, it has stopped short of an apology. Our correspondent says the German government feels that an apology might bring new demands for reparations, and says its obligations to Namibia are fulfilled by its current role as Namibia’s main aid donor.

Story from BBC NEWS; Published: 2007/10/07 23:07:34 GMT

We’ve met tons of absolutely fun, entertaining, amazing people on the road. My trip is more than half over, but in Malawi I decided I wanted to start getting their snapshots so I have a better chance of remembering all of them. Here are a brief selection of mugs of some of the great people we’ve been privileged to meet… enjoy!

Nomad trip from Namibia to Zimbabwe

Pemba, Mozambique

Nkata Bay, Malawi

Should it be so difficult to find plain/salted potato chips in countries in southern Africa?

I should’ve posted these a few weeks ago with the rest, but I didn’t quite get around to it. So here are even more Namibia photos for your pleasure…

Swako is a tiny, German town on the coast of Namibia that somehow attracts loads of tourists. (German towns make sense as Namibia is a former German colony). We stayed at the Dunes Lodge, a block from the coast and the jetty. Not too much happening in Swako, but they do offer lots of adventure sports. I’m not sure what possessed me to go sand boarding or sky diving, but both were impulse decisions that ended up much fun. The sand boarding ended with me crashing spectacularly on my last ride of the day, doing something to crack or bruise the heck out of my tailbone. While it’s still quite painful, it’s not as bad as it was. As Sammy and the Colonel say: “If you’re not crashing, you’re not learning.” Adventure sports so far: two thumbs up!

The National Parks: I’ve never seen any parks that even come close to being as amazing as Namibia’s national parks, not in the US, in South Africa, Kenya, or anywhere. Every site we’ve been to so far in Namibia has boasted swimming pools, bars, hot showers, and small shops. Some have even had fancy restaurants, lookout towers, internet, and watering holes for the animals were you can watch the wildlife from the safety of your fenced in enclosure. And we’re not staying at fancy lodges… all of these amenities come standard even for campers like us who are setting up our own tents, sleeping in sleeping bags, and cooking over portable gas stoves. Impressive! I hadn’t even expected to come to Namibia except to ideally see the dunes, and now I totally want to recommend it to everyone! I think it’d be a great place for family vacations too… never mind the whole transport issue getting here from the US.

Etosha National Park: We did many game drives and saw lots of wildlife! It was a lovely time, even if it couldn’t compete with the Masai Mara. We still saw lions, giraffe, zebra, elephants, rhinos, impala, springbok, gemsbok/oryx, hyena, jackals, vultures, hawks, wildebeest, hartebeest, and more.

The Nomad Tour: We opted to join an overland tour for two weeks to get us through the inaccessible parts of Namibia and Botswana. I wasn’t sure I wanted to join a tour, but it ended up being super fun. I was a bit scared to get on a truck loaded with a bunch of drunk 19 year olds, but ended up with a great group of people from all over. Happily, none were 19 but were instead all much closer to my age. Sandra from France was the youngest at 25, and Mike from Canada the oldest at 43. Susie was 26 and Brett from New Zealand was 28. The rest of us were all in our 30s… Ralf, Mario, and Katja from Germany, Anders from Denmark, Terese from Australia, and Dawne and Darryl from Brooklyn. Everyone was very friendly and there was lots of joking, easy laughter, and late night chats at the bars along the route. We’ve passed a few other safari tours at the national parks and each time everyone on our truck exclaims relief that we’ve got such a cool group. No old folks, no families. Just a group of 12 diverse, fun strangers who all get along impressively well. Our guides/drivers/cooks Mac, Puleng, and Muza were all quite lovely as well. Mac loves his stories, Puleng has a sharp wit, and Muza makes me french toast on request which is always impressive!

West Africa Idol: The TV in Swakopmund was showing hours and hours of awful West Africa Idol auditions. It’s just as bad as American Idol, and the judges (two Africans and one African America) are pretty harsh and ridiculous. Needless to say it provided our group great entertainment for an evening and joke fodder for weeks. Theme song of our trip: R Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly.”

“I Believe I Can Fly”

I used to think that I could not go on
And life was nothing but an awful song
But now I know the meaning of true love
I’m leaning on the everlasting arms

If I can see it, then I can do it
If I just believe it, there’s nothing to it

[1]
I believe I can fly
I believe I can touch the sky
I think about it every night and day
Spread my wings and fly away
I believe I can soar
I see me running through that open door
I believe I can fly
I believe I can fly
I believe I can fly

See I was on the verge of breaking down
Sometimes silence can seem so loud
There are miracles in life I must achieve
But first I know it starts inside of me, oh

If I can see it, then I can do it
If I just believe it, there’s nothing to it

[Repeat 1]

Hey, cuz I believe in me, oh

If I can see it, then I can be it
If I just believe it, there’s nothing to it

[Repeat 1]

Hey, if I just spread my wings
I can fly
I can fly
I can fly, hey
If I just spread my wings
I can fly
Fly-eye-eye