Photo post of DOOM
21 Jun 2009 12:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kangeikoI'm back! Did you miss me?
Zambia was mind-blowing. We worked SO hard, and did SO much work, and there was still so much wonderful stuff in between! I have pictures. :) Heavily edited, as I took 510 pictures/vids when I was out there.
Let's start with the wildlife. I saw almost every type of animal you can think of when out there. I didn't get a picture of them all (I notably missed snapping a pic of the ostrich we spotted), but managed most. I haven't included pictures of all of them (such as the antelopes, the blue wildebeest, the buffalo, the birds, the crocodiles), but can do so if people are interested. The three that we didn't spot - cheetahs, leopards and rhinos - are enough to make me want to go back and have another go...
First up are the lions, who were so fierce and so beautiful. That's a female and a young male.
Then the giraffes, who obligingly gamboled in front of our vehicle. What I don't have a picture of is the almost-car crash they caused, when they ran in front of our car in the middle of the night and caused an emergency stop.
Then there are the hippos, with a 3 week old baby... safely on the other bank of the river, I'd like to stress!
I also had an elephant-back safari. The handler was called Kennedy, and he was excellent, such a wealth of knowledge and so gentle with the elephant. She was a young female (28 years old) and called Liwa.
Liwa had recently had a baby, Nandi. Nandi is 2 years old.
Vervet monkeys, photographed while riding Liwa.
We got to feed the elephants afterwards. This is Liwa having a snack.
Nandi wanted a snack as well. You had to be very careful with her, as she thought we were all baby elephants and anted to play.. by nudging, and pushing, and jumping on you (all 300kg of her!)... She also had the tiniest tusks imaginable, just poking out like baby teeth.
As Nandi is still just a baby, Liwa and I had to stand still in the middle of the safari and let her nurse when she got hungry. Aww, poor baby.
Riding high on Liwa's back, and looking up to see a huge spider's web (or spiders' webs, rather) stretching between two stands of trees. The spiders were so large they showed up on the photograph without enlargement.
And on to Victoria Falls! Let's face it, it's spectacular. The visibility was excellent, and the Falls was framed by rainbows all around. Apparently during a full moon there are moonlight rainbows visible (so that's a plan for next year's trip, I think...).
The Falls itself. Or, rather, a tiny portion of it. I have a million pictures along our walk around (and something through) the Falls. The volume of water is very high at this time of year, and the wet weather gear we rented didn't count for much, we got soaked. I was a little worried about my bag & camera, but they survived relatively unscathed. I have some fantastic footage of the falls in action. What really struck me was the NOISE of it all, you can barely hear yourself think.
That, and the fact that there were NO RAILINGS on most of the walkways. Just wet, mossy, slimey cobblestones, and a sheer drop below...
Myself and a colleague, mostly dried off in the sun. The area around the Falls is rainforest, dur to the constant humidity. Step out of it, though, and even in the middle of winter the sun will dry you off in minutes.
Later on, we took a Zambezi sunset cruise. And, predictably:
Of course, in true cruise stule, we needed to have:
It wasn't all play, though! I'll spare you the photos from the plenary sessions and stretagy scripting workshops, but I will include some photos from the partner visits I made in Kitwe, on the DRC border. This was a young man from Chipata, who is displaying the duck eggs he has gathered. What I noticed about Zambia is just how much water there is everywhere - you can grow practically anything effortlessly. And this young man was really taking advantage of that, building a duck pond, fish pond, planting several different types of crops, etc. We stayed to give him some advice on building materials for his house, abd to look at some wild geese he was working on taming.
In another village, we visited quite a few households affected by HIV/AIDS. All of these children are classed as OVCs: orphans, or vulnerable children. The problem with meeting them all is immediately apparent: I was there in the middle of the day, on a Wednesday. The nearby school had all children still in class. While primary education is still in principle free in Zambia, in practice, school fees are required and uniforms and books as well. In many cases, when parents are caring for 7+ children, education is simply too expensive. In the case of these kids, where there is a guardian or caregiver (such a relative or volunteer) rather than a living parent, keeping them fed and healthy is the main priority. The sanitation in the compoud is very poor, and as a result cholera and other water-borne diseases run rife. Thankfully, almost all of the children I met seemed to be relatively healthy, at this point anyway.
A final look at the Zambian sun. Both sunrises and sunsets were spectacular there, and even when I was workign I made it a point to watch both.
*
Getting back had been interesting. I am suddenly on holiday, and somewhat at a loose end. Today I had a wonderful day pootling about town with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wingsmith, shopping and eating at the Wolseley, and wandering down Jermyn street, and, oh yes, running into David Boreanaz. You'll notice the slightly shocked look on my face. He was really very lovely indeed.
Thankfully, a little later there was an amazing cheese shop, so my sense of reality returned, intact.
*
Things for next week: I shall be working on my Multiverse fic, and meeting up with lots of people I haven't seen in ages, and reading all the books I bought, and mostly enjoying the sunshine. If you're in London and fancy meeting up, drop me a note. I am currently footloose and fancy-free.
Zambia was mind-blowing. We worked SO hard, and did SO much work, and there was still so much wonderful stuff in between! I have pictures. :) Heavily edited, as I took 510 pictures/vids when I was out there.
Let's start with the wildlife. I saw almost every type of animal you can think of when out there. I didn't get a picture of them all (I notably missed snapping a pic of the ostrich we spotted), but managed most. I haven't included pictures of all of them (such as the antelopes, the blue wildebeest, the buffalo, the birds, the crocodiles), but can do so if people are interested. The three that we didn't spot - cheetahs, leopards and rhinos - are enough to make me want to go back and have another go...
First up are the lions, who were so fierce and so beautiful. That's a female and a young male.
Then the giraffes, who obligingly gamboled in front of our vehicle. What I don't have a picture of is the almost-car crash they caused, when they ran in front of our car in the middle of the night and caused an emergency stop.
Then there are the hippos, with a 3 week old baby... safely on the other bank of the river, I'd like to stress!
I also had an elephant-back safari. The handler was called Kennedy, and he was excellent, such a wealth of knowledge and so gentle with the elephant. She was a young female (28 years old) and called Liwa.
Liwa had recently had a baby, Nandi. Nandi is 2 years old.
Vervet monkeys, photographed while riding Liwa.
We got to feed the elephants afterwards. This is Liwa having a snack.
Nandi wanted a snack as well. You had to be very careful with her, as she thought we were all baby elephants and anted to play.. by nudging, and pushing, and jumping on you (all 300kg of her!)... She also had the tiniest tusks imaginable, just poking out like baby teeth.
As Nandi is still just a baby, Liwa and I had to stand still in the middle of the safari and let her nurse when she got hungry. Aww, poor baby.
Riding high on Liwa's back, and looking up to see a huge spider's web (or spiders' webs, rather) stretching between two stands of trees. The spiders were so large they showed up on the photograph without enlargement.
And on to Victoria Falls! Let's face it, it's spectacular. The visibility was excellent, and the Falls was framed by rainbows all around. Apparently during a full moon there are moonlight rainbows visible (so that's a plan for next year's trip, I think...).
The Falls itself. Or, rather, a tiny portion of it. I have a million pictures along our walk around (and something through) the Falls. The volume of water is very high at this time of year, and the wet weather gear we rented didn't count for much, we got soaked. I was a little worried about my bag & camera, but they survived relatively unscathed. I have some fantastic footage of the falls in action. What really struck me was the NOISE of it all, you can barely hear yourself think.
That, and the fact that there were NO RAILINGS on most of the walkways. Just wet, mossy, slimey cobblestones, and a sheer drop below...
Myself and a colleague, mostly dried off in the sun. The area around the Falls is rainforest, dur to the constant humidity. Step out of it, though, and even in the middle of winter the sun will dry you off in minutes.
Later on, we took a Zambezi sunset cruise. And, predictably:
Of course, in true cruise stule, we needed to have:
It wasn't all play, though! I'll spare you the photos from the plenary sessions and stretagy scripting workshops, but I will include some photos from the partner visits I made in Kitwe, on the DRC border. This was a young man from Chipata, who is displaying the duck eggs he has gathered. What I noticed about Zambia is just how much water there is everywhere - you can grow practically anything effortlessly. And this young man was really taking advantage of that, building a duck pond, fish pond, planting several different types of crops, etc. We stayed to give him some advice on building materials for his house, abd to look at some wild geese he was working on taming.
In another village, we visited quite a few households affected by HIV/AIDS. All of these children are classed as OVCs: orphans, or vulnerable children. The problem with meeting them all is immediately apparent: I was there in the middle of the day, on a Wednesday. The nearby school had all children still in class. While primary education is still in principle free in Zambia, in practice, school fees are required and uniforms and books as well. In many cases, when parents are caring for 7+ children, education is simply too expensive. In the case of these kids, where there is a guardian or caregiver (such a relative or volunteer) rather than a living parent, keeping them fed and healthy is the main priority. The sanitation in the compoud is very poor, and as a result cholera and other water-borne diseases run rife. Thankfully, almost all of the children I met seemed to be relatively healthy, at this point anyway.
A final look at the Zambian sun. Both sunrises and sunsets were spectacular there, and even when I was workign I made it a point to watch both.
*
Getting back had been interesting. I am suddenly on holiday, and somewhat at a loose end. Today I had a wonderful day pootling about town with
wingsmith, shopping and eating at the Wolseley, and wandering down Jermyn street, and, oh yes, running into David Boreanaz. You'll notice the slightly shocked look on my face. He was really very lovely indeed.Thankfully, a little later there was an amazing cheese shop, so my sense of reality returned, intact.
*
Things for next week: I shall be working on my Multiverse fic, and meeting up with lots of people I haven't seen in ages, and reading all the books I bought, and mostly enjoying the sunshine. If you're in London and fancy meeting up, drop me a note. I am currently footloose and fancy-free.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-06-21 02:34 am (UTC)And dude! You ran into David Boreanaz! I'm glad he was nice.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-22 11:16 pm (UTC)You ran into David Boreanaz! I'm glad he was nice.
Oh, he was lovely. He was in London doing some TV shows and interviews and decided to do a bit of shopping. I told him I was really enjoying Bones. :)
no subject
Date: 2009-06-21 04:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-22 11:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-21 09:42 am (UTC)Also: unexpected David Boreanaz! Yay!
no subject
Date: 2009-06-22 11:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-21 11:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-22 11:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-21 10:56 pm (UTC)let's meet up next week!
edit: omg *smacks skimming self* david boreanaz! haha! I so totally never run into cool people in London *sigh*
no subject
Date: 2009-06-22 11:21 pm (UTC)edit: omg *smacks skimming self* david boreanaz! haha! I so totally never run into cool people in London *sigh*
Hee, I totally did a double-take... I think my brain assumed it was looking at a tv or something, it took a while for it to register as 'in the flesh', as it were...
let's meet up next week!
This week is v. busy, but next week would be super awesome!