Recent Life from the Camera's POV

Gotta have a Wawa... oh, wait	Just chillin' with a big, BIG croc @ Chobe
Water monitor @ Chobe	Malakite Kingfisher @ Chobe
Some freehand nail art... it's a lot harder than it looks!	My favorite shot from this trip to Chobe
Sam 'shooting' the croc	New earrings from Ireland - I love having international friends :)
The view of Francistown from Nyangagbwe Hill	Can you spot the roller?
Chicken feet on sale!	A beautiful evening for a walk
Feeling a bit African today	Homeade pretzels in progress
All finished - some look better than others ;)	Delicious with a jalapeno cheese sauce
Some signs of Francistown
The Shoes Doctor	Sunday in the village
Another road trip to Gabs... starting the day with a sunrise	...and ending the next day with a beautiful sunset
An inquisitive buddy on the way to Tantebane	This winter's favorite -  Butternut Soup

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Leopard Video

This video is from February of this year, but I'm just now getting it uploaded. :) While in Kruger Park in South Africa, we spotted a leopard up in the tree with his fresh impala kill. An amazing siting - I could have sat there all day and watched that magnificent creature!

NEWS

The official word is in, although incomplete. My final appeal to immigration has been denied, so I will be going home within a foreseeable time. Not sure yet how much time I will get on my final waiver, or if I will even get a final waiver, so I could be leaving anytime between next Sunday and 3 months from now. I'm kind of hoping for the 3 months so that I have some time to say my goodbyes. :)

I've been waiting for so long for an answer, that it's kind of strange finally having one. It comes with greatly mixed feelings. I'd thought through both scenarios previously, and was honestly excited about either one - visa granted and being able to stay here for a couple more years, or visa denied and going home to PA. When the word came that it had been denied, I was honestly surprised at the sadness I was feeling.

I'm relieved that I finally know. FINALLY. This has been over two years in process and I'm glad that the trips to immigration and waiting in queue is soon behind me.

I'm very, very sad to be leaving my Africa. It has a way of reaching down and planting roots in your heart. It's more than just the place - it's the people. It's the culture I've come to know, the language I'm struggling with learning, the customs I'm just becoming accustomed to. The people I love and who love me. The land, the animals, the scent, the whole experience of Africa. It makes me so very, very sad to think I'm leaving it behind.

I'm sad to be leaving my parents. I know that may be a strange thing for a 27 year-old daughter to be saying, but it really is true. We came here together on this great adventure and we've grown together so much. Closing this chapter of life is heartbreaking.

As hard as it is, as much as it may break my heart, I wouldn't trade the last two years for anything. God has grown me and shaped me through all of this... I can't even imagine myself without this time in Africa.

Even through the hardness, there is excitement.

I'm going home! Home to Pennsylvania and things that I miss. People there that I love and who love me that I've hardly seen in the last two years. My beautiful PA where there are four distinct seasons and SNOW! There's excitement at spending a proper winter in the US and not in the sweltering Botswana heat. There's gladness at the thought of being back in my home church and involved there again. My heart misses it so.

There's anticipation at the next step in life - so many things to be decided and thought out as far as job, housing, etc. Many, many things.

I'm so thankful that God has it all in control, and I am very glad that now I know. Just one more trip to Gabs to find out how much time I have to work with and then I can start taking some steps toward home. God knew about this all along and has been preparing me for it. So thankful that He's had it all worked out since the beginning - I'm enjoying just being along for the ride. :)

Elephant Crossing

By the middle of the dry season in Botswana, the elephants are having a hard time finding grass to eat on the mainland. The bachelor elephants begin crossing the Chobe River to the middle islands to find lush sweet grass - they can do this because they are big enough that the crocodiles won't bother them. The mother elephants have to be a little more desperate to make the crossing, as they have their babies to think about, a much more vulnerable target to the hungry crocs. It's a brave matriarch that decides to take her herd of mothers and babies across the river, and they have a very special way of doing it, as you will see in this video. The mothers extend their tails and the babies their trunks... as you can see, the babies get completely submerged in this crossing, so they have to stick close to the mothers, who know just the best path for a good foothold. This particular herd that we watched crossed safely with no casualties. Sorry for the 'waves'... we were in a boat :)