Namibia...Africa's Colorado

I have always said that Colorado would be perfect if only we had the ocean. Well, Namibia has the ocean and so much of what Colorado has to offer, so pretty much I am ready to stay! Now I just need to convince all the people I love that they should move out here too!

This past week I have been to Pikes Peak, Garden of the Gods, and the Dunes, except that they were called The Brandberg, The Spitzcoff, and Soussvlei. I guess you can't really find 2000 year old rock paintings of giraffe at the Peak, but there were similarities! Brandberg is this beautiful mountain, the tallest in Namibia, and J and I ran all over that place searching for rock paintings left by these nomadic hunters that used to live on the mountain. Next we were off to the Spitzcoff, or Spitzer, or just Spitz, depending on how much we wanted to butcher up the name of that place. The Spitz is this amazing red rock that juts out of the landscape. It is known as The Matterhorn of Africa. I guess the Swiss felt a connection there too. We camped inside the rocks, scared to death of being eaten by one of the leopards that roam the place at night. Telling ghost stories and being incredibly exhausted after rock climbing and splashing in mountain ponds made us a little on edge that night. It was by far, the coolest night of camping I have experienced. Our last day in the Namib Desert was at Soussvlei, these amazing sand dunes that go on forever. We got there just as the sun was rising and casting everything in beautiful hues. We ran down dunes like little kids and didn't want to leave then the time came! It was a sweet journey home though as we passed ostrich and gazelles on our way back to Swakopmund.




This morning we got up and went sand boarding---so SICK! Sick in a good way. In a, wow, my ribs will never be the same after I caught so much air going over that jump way. In a, "are you sure it's safe to go down a sand dune on a piece of waxed plywood at 80km an hour?" way. Sick in the best sense of the word.



Julie and I are heading out tomorrow, back on the bus to Zambia, which at this point really does feel like home! This trip has been so amazing. Julie has become an even closer friend, and even though we have only known each other these 2 years of Peace Corps, the memories we have together are just so special. God has truly blessed me with great friends here and at home!

Pray for a safe journey for us back to Zambia. You can read Julie's account of our journey on her blog-link to the left of this post. I'll post photos of the trip on Snapfish...let me know if you need an invite to view them. Miss you all.

Happy Easter!

There are so many days that I truly feel overwhelmed by the amount of Grace that God has bestowed upon me. Easter is such an amazing time to reflect on the extent of God's love and power, grace and mercy. That Christ has risen and overcome death is just beyond anything I can truly comprehend. Julie and I were talking this morning about what it would have been like to be one of the disciples that watched Christ be crucified on Friday and then to see Him walking amongst us just a few days later. How raw would be the pain of witnessing His death. I can remember clearly what I was doing on Friday...how much more if I had seen a crucifixion, and then to have the Dead among the living-wow!

We woke up early this morning and took a long walk on the beach after reading through some Scriptures. We grabbed our daily coffee and headed back to our hotel. We put on our "Easter outfits" and headed to the pier for a great seafood lunch. We shared the Easter traditions we had growing up and wished we had Easter baskets but were glad we had each other.

Wherever you are, whatever your traditions, I hope this day was a day to remember that God gives LIFE. He brought Christ back from the dead, and no matter how far from truly living we may be, He can bring us life to the full.

I Heart Coffee I Don't Have 2 Make

Julie and I have made it a tradition to get cappuccinos at this little coffee shop called "Out of Africa" at least twice a day. We gladly forfeit "real" food for a frothy cappuccino. We don't just look extremely cool, we are really this cool in real life!

Sunset on the Atlantic

For the first part of this story you can insert "I hate my life" after every sentence. Julie and I met in Lusaka to take the bus to Livingstone on Tuesday. Eight hours later we arrive in Livingstone, go to the hostel, where they tell us we no longer have a room and we go to bed hungry. Things seem better the next morning when our bus to Nambia actually leaves 2 minutes early. That is until we are pulling out of Livinstone and they tell us "We have toilets on the bus...however they are not working. The air conditioning can be adjusted above your head...however it is not working." Regardless, I am with a fun friend and we are heading towards the ocean, how bad can this be? Hope is futile when you are traveling on the continent! We get through immigration and into Nambia. Then they come over that God forsaken loudspeaker again to tell us that there is a problem with the bus and we need to exit. We leave all of our food and things on the bus and get out at the Shell Station. This is at 4pm at night. It is not until 1am the next morning, when we are freezing and starving that we get back on this bus. We then promptly fall asleep until the next morning when the bus breaks down again. This time it is not the radiator, but just a general "lack of air" in the bus. Whatever that means. Julie and I were done with the bus at that point and decided to get all our bags and flag down a vehicle.

This is the part of the story where you can insert "I love my life" after every sentence. This nice family picks us up and offers us cold drinks and drives us to the turnoff for Skwakopmund. We get out, wait 10 minutes until this young cute guy picks us up in a luxury Volvo and drops us off at the door to our hotel. Our first night we were clean, eating amazing pizza, drinking cold German beer and feeling like we had stepped into the Truman Show. Swakopmund is AMAZING! It's right on the ocean, has great cafes, a rich German feel and is so clean and organized. Organized to the point of getting assigned seating in the movie theatre---this is not Africa! And after that traveling, I am ok with that! We are having such an awesome time, and watched the sunset on the Atlantic Ocean last night. I am pretty sure I could see America!

We are here in Swakopmund for the next few days and then head out in our rental car to the desert and Damaraland. Sandboarding, petrified forests,and sunrises from the Dunes are in my future. I love my life.

I hope all of you have an amazing Easter! He is Risen, and for that I am most thankful of all. Blessings!

YouTube & Picasaweb

Check out "Africa Cribs" on Youtube for a glimpse of my home in Chifusa! We fully recognize that we are dorks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqgF-ATfUDw

Then, if you want to see more of the trip with Erin and Brittany, check out Erin's photos at Picasa Web. Just follow this link...
http://picasaweb.google.com/stroup.paul/AfricaTrip

Villagio, Botswana, Etc

For those of you still reading this blog...my creativity is starting to fade. I don't think you are supposed to have "Etc" in the title of anything, but alas it has arrived. I left Brit and Erin at the airport this morning, drank a cappuccino, bought a dress, and now I'm consoling myself with the world wide web. There are worse things I could have been doing and probably less expensive things but I'm trying to keep from crying- I am going to miss those girls!

Their trip out here was so much fun. They should be posting a blog for all of you to read, but we didn't have a time to sit and type it out while they were here...one day soon you'll hear from their perspective all about our adventures. A quick recap of the highlights-a week in my village, filled with lots of laughter, great talks, and eating smores every night. They were such an encouragement and brought me great perspective on a lot of the work I am doing in the village. We all worked together at the clinic, played Valentine's Day Bingo at Girls' Club, made sock puppets with Club Mweka, and enjoyed time with my close friends in the village. After 7 days we were all ready for ice cold drinks and headed back to Choma to catch the bus down to Livingstone. The next day we were down in Botswana on a "luxury safari". It was amazing. It was my third safari since being in Africa, but it was by far the most exciting as far as animal encounters. We were seriously just about nearly trampled multiple times by elephants. They do not call it "Elephant Valley" because there are a lot of zebras. In fact we did not see one zebra. But it was still fun. Lions were in full mating force and the baboons were quite friendly with one another as well. After two days of interrupting animal love making we headed back across the border to Zambia. We got to enjoy getting soaked at Victoria Falls as the water level is at its fullest.

A super long day of travel yesterday and we arrived back in Lusaka. The girls definitely got to experience the joys of traveling in the developing world. After giving ourselves pedicures and applying our nightly dose of DEET we went to sleep. Our last night together in Africa. And now they are somewhere in the sky and I am here in Lusaka alone. I know, poor poor Caitlin Annie.

I have less than 6 months left in Zambia and everything is feeling very bitter sweet! I still have quite a few projects/workshops I want to get done before leaving for the States in August. Some friends are making plans to come visit me and Julie and I are heading to Namibia for Easter, so time will seriously fly! Continue to pray for my physical, emotional, and spiritual safety while here. Once I am back on American soil I will share ALL the details of how your prayers have kept me safe, until then, I want my mom to sleep at night.

There will be tons of photos and video from the girls' trip to Zambia and I will try and put a link on here once they have uploaded things back in the States. I have to put a disclaimer on here in regards to a certain disgusting section of video which showcases my armpit hair. I have not turned into "that girl". You know the one that quits her corporate job and goes to Africa and grows out her armpit hair to show her independence and carefree spirit. That is not it at all! I am growing it out until a certain cousin of mine whose name I won't mention, gets her booty out here. If she fails to arrive in Zambia prior to my departure and I have lived with the filth known as my armpit hair in vain then she will have some major consequences. You know who you are cousin.

Alright, just remembering the fun of these last few weeks and thinking ahead to the great things in store I am feeling refreshed. And I think I need to treat myself to a Coke Light. Stay well!