Exploritas program #15583

The following is an excerpt from an email to EXPLORE from Exploritas participant Anita Balch:

My trip to South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia had been a dream for over 15 years.  On my 68^th birthday, I headed to South Africa from Hawaii with my good friend Ellie Katz.  It was a highly organized, efficiently run trip by EXPLORE and Exploritas which would normally be hard on a “free spirit” like myself but I still managed to get my moments of unsupervision so that I could connect in a real way with the local people.  Although all of the animals were exotic and breathtaking and the sunset over a pond with silhouetted giraffes was awesome, for me the highlights of the trip were connecting with local people like the lodge manager, Neeltjie, at Grassland Bushmen Lodge.  Singing Christian songs and being taught Botswana songs by the kitchen help, reaching out and “touching” on a personal note, getting up at 3 a.m. and finding the lodge locked up at Motsentsela Tree Lodge and talking with the guard who shared his life story.  How he left his home in Zambia, went by bus knowing no one, finding a job and then the real challenge of finding a place to live.  Seeing our guide Sue Slogrove with a cook who had known Sue since she was a small child helped to make it another “reach out and touch” moment.  But probably for me the highlight was the very warm and personable young man who took extra time to teach me proper greetings with the proper voice inflections at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge.  Every time we saw each other, it was like we were seeing family.  I found the African people respectful, kind, thoughtful, and sincere.  Of course, kissing CoCo the elephant’s trunk (after riding the elephant with Ruth Shaw from Atlanta, Georgia) rates right up there close to the top.  I did the Gorge Swing while staying at Thorntree Lodge in Livingstone.  I thought it was going to be like the “zip line” and I got there (with the kind help of Thorntree lodge manager) and it was stepping off a platform, free falling what seemed like a million miles and then being jerked to a standstill until you thought your teeth would fall out (AND THEY ARE MINE) and then climbing out of the Gorge….  The only thing harder would have been chickening out so yes, I did it, I am glad to have done it, and I am alive to tell it.  Thank you, EXPLORE for making it a trip to remember always.  Aloha, Anita