Taking a Leap of Faith

Is exactly what I did this past weekend. I spent the day in Livingstone after meeting a volunteer friend from Tanzania in Lusaka. We decided to conquer our fears and go gorge jumping, abseiling, rapp jumping and zip lining across the gorge near Victoria Falls. It was amazing and quite frightening. We spent the entire day risking our lives for many thrills I'll never forget. I have to say that the gorge swing was one of the more scarier things I've done. I think its more terrifying than skydiving. Basically you stand on the edge of the cliff in a harness attached to a long rope on the other end of the gorge. You hold the rope close to you chest, arms tucked in and take one long step off the edge of the cliff. Once you take that leap of faith you free fall for 3.5 seconds for about 54 meters until the rope catches and you swing back and forth across the gorge. It was fantastic. I have the best photos of David and I and I'll be posting them shortly. Since that wasn't enough action for David he decided to jump off the Victoria Falls bridge bungee jumping style. I had enough for one day so I just watched.

We also went and walked around the falls. This was a great time to see Victoria Falls, the water was so intense that just viewing them we got soaked. Not just soaked in a fine mist, I'm talking about a pounding rain storm. It was unbelievable. It was so beautiful. Definitely one of the seven wonders of the world.

Well I'm back in action in Chipata and will be moving villages this Friday. So in a sense I'll be taking another leap of faith....hoping my community will welcome me with open arms. Many changes taking place here but I feel very fortunate to be able to do all these things even though its so hard to say good-bye to many of my friends in my old village. I'm hoping to spend the first week getting to know people and checking out my new area and then dive right in to my work.

Its been great to have David come visit and experience a bit of Zambia. Its always fun to show people what its like to live here. It was a good break to get a way for a bit and we also spent some time with my friend Caitlyn. Fun times had by all.

Well please continue to stay in touch with me, I love to hear about whats going on at home and in Chicago. Take care.