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Hi all!

Happy New Year to all of you! I hope this New Year finds you all doing well.

I returned from my travels early in the morning yesterday. What a great, great time!

To back track…myself and a fellow volunteer started out by heading north to Tsumeb on Dec 11^th where we met up with another volunteer. The north is so much greener than it is here in the south! It was great to see the contrast. I still haven’t been all the way to the top of the country, which I hear is even more different…hopefully later this year. We hung out in Tsumeb a few days then met up with another volunteer and her friend who was visiting from the states. She had rented a car so we were able to go to Etosha, the huge game park up north (you must have a car because the animals roam free except for the campgrounds which are fenced off to the animals). We saw just about everything except Elephants and Water Buffalo. I was really hoping to see Elephants but they are in the northern part of the park this time of year. We saw a Rhino late at night at a watering hole next to our campsite…amazing! The best was the pride of lions! There were about 16 total including the cubs. They were literally a few yards from the road and were busy eating a Gemsbok that they had just killed (we probably missed the kill by about 20 minutes. I’ll include a pic of a Gemsbok too..huge animal with straight, long horns. One of the Lion’s was badly cut on her leg so there must have been quite a struggle).

We then went to Swakopmund which is on the coast. It reminded me of a coastal town in California in that it is very touristy and felt as though we were no longer in Namibia. We enjoyed our time there too…eating great food and sitting on the coast.

After Christmas a group of 8 of us headed down to Cape Town. What an amazing city! If you ever have a chance to go to S. Africa (never say never…I didn’t think I’d ever be in Africa and now its home for a while! J ), I suggest going to Cape Town. We hiked up Table Mountain which is much like Squaw Peak in hiking in that it is stepping the whole way. The views of the city and surrounding landscape from the top are incredible. I believe its 1 km to the top. The waterfront is also lovely…lots of shopping and food and very tourist friendly. We spent a lot of time on Long St., which is where the backpacker’s places are. There are tons of great places to eat and fun shopping in that area. Spent a day at Camp’s Beach enjoying the coast again. Overall a wonderful trip! New Year’s was super fun too! We all got dressed up and went out for Ethiopian food (super yummy) and then hung out down on Long St. with hundreds of other people. What a birthday to remember! Myself and another PC volunteer both have New Year’s Eve birthdays so we made the most of it!

Back to work next week. I’m hoping that by mid January I’m at the craft center about 3 days a week and doing a secondary project the other two days…maybe working with teens at a secondary school close by or some other group in town. I’m ready to mix things up a bit and get to know more of Keetmanshoop!

Okay…I’ll add some pictures of the animals at Etosha, Swakop, and of course Cape Town. Enjoy!

Happy New Year to all of you! I wish you the best for 2012.

I tried to upload some pictures but kept getting an error message....sorry. If you'd like to see some pics of the animals and Cape Town, send me an email. Thanks!