July 2-3 updated!!

July 2-3, 2016 

The trip was long!  My flight left JFK at 11:15 AM on Saturday, and landed in Johannesburg at 8:20AM on Sunday morning. 

Waiting to board the plane!

There is a 6 hour time difference.  I wasn’t able to sleep much on the plane- it wasn’t very comfortable.  I had a very short layover in Johannesburg, during which I had to find my next gate, get my passport stamped and then go back through security.  I was getting a little worried as we approached J-burg because there were announcements on the plane about collecting and rechecking our baggage.  There was no way I would have time to do that!  Luckily I stopped at an information desk when I got off the plane and had them look at my ticket to see if this was the case for me and thankfully it was not!  I’m glad I asked because one of our roommates, who arrived a few days after me did NOT ask and she tried to collect her baggage, then realized that she didn’t need to and ended up missing her flight.  She had to stay in a hotel overnight in J-burg, and then buy another plane ticket to Bulawayo!  I would have freaked, cried, and probably tried to turn around and go home.  And I’m sure my mom would have felt the same way!

When I arrived at my gate, I was quite surprised to see a bus outside of it, not a plane.  We boarded the bus and drove to what felt like the other side of the airport to board a much smaller plane for a short flight to Bulawayo. 

Our plane from Joburg to Bulawayo!!

The Bulawayo airport was very, very tiny.  The Visas are handwritten and they only looked at my passport when I went through customs, apparently I looked harmless because there were other people that had bags looked at and it took them a bit longer to get through.

Welcome to Bulawayo!!!

There were ebola warnings in the airport.

It’s cool here!  Apparently they are in the middle of a cold spell…but their cold spell is in the 60’s.  Nicole, one of the owners of Chipangali, met me at the airport.  I was pretty happy about that, as I had no idea what to expect when I got off the plane.  Apparently, the volunteers are pretty easy for them to spot because they tend to walk off the plane looking scared, lost, and tired from traveling (most people had been traveling for close to, or more than, 24 hours.)  There were 8 other people getting picked up to go to the orphanage.  The steering wheels are on the wrong side of the cars, they drive on the wrong side of the road, and at one point we were driving on a four lane road and I THINK two lanes were for each direction, but there were only white dotted lines in between each lane so I’m not really sure how you know where you are supposed to drive (Even though we didn’t go out often, this was something that I did NOT get used to before I left!  I spent a lot of time cringing and thinking we were about to get in a head on crash)!!  On the way to the orphanage we stopped at the “market” to pick up any snacks that we wanted.  There are very few American brand names here.   

There were many, what I think were houses, that looked not finished along the sides of the road.  Many, if not all, of the houses, especially in town and on the edges, were surrounded by walls, with razor wire and/or electric on the top.  I wish I was able to get more pictures of these things, but it was hard to take pictures while driving, and you have to be careful about what you take pictures of so you aren’t confused with a journalist.  The landscape is pretty flat, and looks barren- with lots of scrub grasses and occasionally trees.  The soil is red and looks like clay.  

 

When we arrived, we were shown to our cabins.  I am sharing a cabin with three other girls- they are from England, Sweden, and Madrid.  One is leaving on Monday (July 4), and there are two more volunteers getting picked up from airport.  Some of the other people here are from the UK, Israel, and several from the US.  I believe there are about 14 volunteers total here right now.  We have one of the two “new” cabins so we have a toilet and shower in our cabin. 

Otherwise, there is a bathhouse for everyone else to use.   We went on a very short tour of some of the orphanage and then had some time to get settled before dinner.  All of the volunteers eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner together.  After dinner, we built a small bonfire and got to know each other.  Monday’s are our day off.

When you wake up in the middle of the night here- aside from the possibility of being tangled up in your mosquito netting, the noises are so very different from NJ.  First off, you can hear the lions talking back and forth.  It is a very neat sound.   And there are bird and insect noises all night.   It has also been cool enough during the day that they are more active and talkative. 

These mounts, and others located around the orphanage, were donated by a taxidermist that went out of business.

There are many portraits of the animals and other scenes painted around Chipangali, having been done several years ago by two artistic volunteers.  I think it’s very cool they were able to leave their mark!