Fall Break is near!

Many of my friends back home are returning to school from spring break tomorrow. Down here in the SoHem, the weather is already cooling down for fall! I expect a few more hot days (30 or above), but today is a perfect 28 and tomorrow 22 and rain. We're hoping to get to the beach next weekend, so I hope it stays warm.

My fall break will take me on what promises to be an incredible African safari experience. Early on the morning of Saturday, 4 April, I will fly to Johannesburg and board an overland truck to Botswana. I will take in the rustic beauty of the Kalahari Desert -- for a LONG drive across the Tropic of Capricorn. After a few days of driving, we will reach the mystic Okavango River Delta -- an oasis of greenery and elephants deep in the Botswana desert. We will paddle down the Okavango on canoe and watch the animal tracks and noises. After two nights of camping, which overlaps the first night of Pesach, we will set out for Victoria Falls, a natural wonder of the world. After crossing into Zambia, we will have two days to explore the Falls, which will swell to full capacity (that's the plan, at least!) as the Zambezi River drains the interior of the continent after the rainy season. The water pours down Victoria in its mad rush to the balmy Indian Ocean at Mozambique.

Returning to Cape Town on Monday, 13 April, we will fly from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, to Cape Town via Johannesburg OR Tambo. The brief time spent in Zimbabwe will be very safe -- the Victoria Falls area of Zimbabwe remains tourist-friendly and free of cholera. I will collect anti-malaria prophylaxis and begin taking them before my departure. And I will send my best to Bob Mugabe.

I will try to formulate a way to mark Passover during the trip. I brought a Haggadah from the states. If anyone has ideas or creative suggestions about celebrating Passover in a Botswana river delta, I'm all ears! Hopefully I will not wander the wilderness of the Kalahari Desert for 40 years.

Many of my friends from Ida Cooper's program are joining me, and I could not be more excited. We are printing out lyrics to popular songs, so we can sing them together at night -- and remember more than just the chorus.