When baboons attack

So I am extremely late posting this, but since I have been back "home" it's actually been nonstop travel.  Anyway, I'm finally playing catch up and will try my best to continue blogging!

Saying goodbye to my hugging buddy

Last day reading with Emmanuel

saying bye to my sweet baby Aggie

No tears shed here - we'll see each other again

Stanley (Shuga/Sugar) the little stud

Leaving New Day was obviously hard.  Having the team there that last week, however, made it a lot easier.  It made me just the right amount of "homesick" to keep me from turning into a puddle of tears when it was time to leave New Day.  I was also very excited to go to Victoria Falls with the team and, of course, the safari in Botswana.  For those who don't already know, I LOVE animals and have always wanted to go on a safari in Africa.  I am glad to say I got to check that one off my bucket list.  

Little did I know, I would be having an animal encounter ahead of time at Victoria Falls our first day in Livingstone.  We were told that if you went down this one trail to the whirlpools at the bottom of the falls you would see baboons.  We were also told that you shouldn't carry snacks because the baboons would take them from you.  Well, I didn’t have “snacks” per say, I did have a plastic Coke bottle, thinking surely that was fine - WRONG.  Halfway down the steep, rocky incline a large baboon crossed paths with us, stood on his hind legs, and reached for my coke.  Instinctively, I pushed him away with my leg, putting him back on all fours.  Needless to say he was not happy and snarled at us so Cindy, Katherine, and I quickly turned around to head back up the hill.  Of course, it was steep and rocky so Katherine slipped falling on top of Cindy, leaving her with a BIG bruise on her back.  As she was on the ground, the baboon came up and hissed right in her face.  We hurried back up the hill with him following us the whole way.

  

Victoria Falls 

Even in the ponchos we still got soaking wet

I had already toured the falls before the incident; so after I was ready to go.  Others in the group were still shopping in the market though so I went and sat on the bus with Jamee, Miranda, and Andrew.  I was sitting next to all of my shopping bags with the window open because it was HOT.  All of a sudden, another large baboon jumped up in the window and grabbed my bags.  I yelled, shocking the others on the bus, and grabbed my bags literally having a tug-of-war with the baboon.  It managed to grab the Ark I had bought for my mom and ran off with it.  Fortunately, one of the market workers hit it with a slingshot and it dropped it.  Yes, that’s a real thing.  All of the workers carry slingshots to hit the baboons with if they get too aggressive or take something.  I got my ark back, broken but fixable, and a story with it.  Everyone on the bus during that fiasco couldn’t stop laughing the rest of the day.  
I HATE BABOONS.

Baboons along the trail

EVIL

Dinner in Livingstone! Kailyn and I split this and obviously couldn't finish; it was HUGE.
On the right in crocodile ribs and croc bites.  We also tried fried caterpillar, not bad. 

The next day was the safari.  We crossed the river on a barge with cars and commuters to get to Botswana.  We were picked up in an open safari trucks and went to have tea and sandwiches.  We began with a boat tour on the river, seeing hippos in the water and many other animals on the land, and then we did a truck tour.

I don't normally take selfies, but when elephants are in the picture...

Mal's 3rd safari so needless to say she was not as excited as me 

Honestly, the pictures speak for themselves so I am just going to post those.  I will say, to our disappointment, we did not see any crocodiles or big cats.  A bummer, but that just means I will have to go on another safari (God willing)!

Many more photos on my facebook page.

The whole Earth is full of His glory!

(Isaiah 6:3)