The Chobe National Park, Botswana is one of the premier parks in Southern Africa. Dry season, although not picturesque, affords incredible opportunities to see wildlife who flock to the Zambezi river to drink and cool off. Today’s expedition brought us close to nearly 250 elephants along the water’s edge; among them new-borns and adolescents.
Another flag in the sand so I can say “I was here”. Oh, and yes, that is a 360ft drop 18 inches to my right.
In dry season, the flow volume over Victoria Falls recedes significantly, revealing pools of water carved out in the basalt river bottom. In some cases, these pools are cut at the extreme edge of the falls, allowing swimmers to peer over the 300 ft + precipice to the gorge below [note: not for the faint of heart]. Here Codie launches off a 15 ft ledge into “Devil’s Pool” which I caught in a time-lapse shot.
Here’s a few clips from Wikipedia on the falls: Victoria falls is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. David Livingstone, the Scottish explorer, is believed to have been the first European to view the Victoria Falls. While it is neither the highest nor the widest waterfall in the world, it is claimed to be the largest. This claim is based on a width of 1,708 metres (5,600 ft)and height of 108 meters (360 ft), forming the largest sheet of falling water in the world. The recent geological history of Victoria Falls can be seen in the form of the gorges below the falls. The basalt plateau over which the Upper Zambezi flows has many large cracks filled with weaker sandstone.Over at least 100,000 years, the falls have been receding upstream through the Batoka Gorges, eroding the sandstone-filled cracks to form the gorges. The falls have already started cutting back the next major gorge, at the dip in one side of the “Devil’s Cataract” (also known as “Leaping Waters”) section of the falls.
Debriefing at the Zambezi Sun resort in Livingstone, Zambia – named after the famous explorer and missionary who was the first European to see Victoria Falls, now named among the top Natural Wonders of the World. Resort hotels are not the usual fair of my frequent visits to the Continent, however, when taking visitors unused to the rigors imposed by culture and rough living, they provide a necessary respite and allow us to debrief amid hot showers and familiar food.
There are simple things we take for granted, and things we are taught from a young age that we never even think about. Here, community members have been taught basic things about hygiene and how diseases are transmitted – ideas we consider common sense, but in terms of the global majority, actually aren’t all that common. In a place where families expect to lose at least one or two children to sickness, these people for the first time understand how to keep themselves healthy. This elderly gentleman is repeating back a portion of the lesson on disease transmission. When he finished, there was applause.
Sorry, I can’t help it. These kids are awesome. This little girl was laughing at me from across the drill site and then laughing at my friend who was goofing off beside her. Believe it on not, for as young as she is, she was carrying around her baby brother on her back earlier in the day. Responsibility comes at a young age in this part of the world and children are expected to play key roles in daily life. Earlier today we carried water in 5-gallon jerry cans from a river half a mile away; the same place where this community goes in the dry season when their hand-dug wells run dry. It was exhausting. Putting my own daughter in this girl’s shoes, carrying containers of water several hours a day from river to home, with no way to purify it before drinking, helps me realize the real miracle this well represents in the eyes of this little girl.
The statistics vary, but most seem to agree that women and children in Africa walk somewhere between 2 and 5 miles a day to get water – a task that can take up to 70% of the day. Though words can be used to describe a 5 gallon jerry can weighing 40lbs there’s nothing quite like trying to carry one yourself – an activity we often use to help first-time visitors to the continent gain perspective on exactly how impacting a well can be in a community. We drew quite a crowd as we carried jerry cans through this village in Zambia and one local woman asked why we were carrying water. When told it was so we could better understand the challenges of living without running water her laughing response was “but they are only carrying one bucket?!”
There are a thousand smiles that could be photographed in a single community. Today there were even more. A new well is being drilled.
© 2008 Barak Bruerd. All Rights Reserved.
