Embracing the bizarre!!!!!!

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One of Janet's rule is "embrace the bizarre" and oh! Did we embrace it today!!!!!!!!!

It all started at 5:45 am when we took a safari truck over to Chobe's national park.

A couple of feet after the entrance we saw a lion and the tour guide turned off the car... 15 mins went by and we wanted to move but OH SURPRISE!!!! Our truck would not start!!! The battery died!!!

He tried to start it 3 times... Nothing

Then he got out and looked at the battery, gave it a couple of hits and... Nothing

Then he got help from another truck... Nothing

Finally the other truck pushed him backwards and magically it started again... Now he had to be very cautious not to let the car turn off again...

We saw so many giraffes... About 6 crossed the street right in front of our truck!

Elephants!!!! Everybody loves elephants!!!

A very dangerous bathroom break... I would not go and find a bush in the middle of a wild safari... But I did get a picture with the view (behind me is Chobe river... Where our boat tour was yesterday!)

Oh uh! Truck problems again! This time we got stuck and then the car turned off... Double trouble!

Here's a breakdown of what happened next:

the CBA plan of Africa:

First: PLAN C: make all the tourists push the truck out of the sand... FAIL

(I believe this should have been the last resource since we r not allowed to get off and there are wild and very scary animals all around!!)

(Our plan A was to hitch hike back to the hotel!)

Second: PLAN B: call for help and check the engine... FAIL

PLAN B.2: Try to get the tire out of the sand by putting sticks under the tire... FAIL

Third: PLAN A: Squeeze all the tourist in the 9 seater truck that had been parked for 45 mins trying to help the tour guide get the safari truck unstuck!

Jajajajaja it was quite an adventure! It all seemed to be working backwards!!!!

The funny part was that for all of us it was very obvious that the safari company should have sent immediately a car to transport all of us back to our accommodation. But no, it didn't work that way. When a helping truck came by they decided that the best idea was to have us all standing around in the middle of the jungle while they play mechanic with the truck.

It is not allowed to get off the car and it is obviously very dangerous! But we were a very brave group of people and decided to embrace the bizarre! Get out, help out and enjoy!!!!

Out of boredom Linda invented to play ball.. So we had to improvise and this is what we came up with:

ELEPHANT TURD BALL GAME:

Rules: Team sport only played in Africa since a semi fresh supply of elephant turd is needed!

The turd ball should be marshmallow shape so it rolls nicely and can be balanced on top of shoe to do tricks!

Players need a specific skill: to understand consistency of ball so it does not break and players must learn how to hit with the right amount of force so that the turd goes far but does not break!

Players will get points deducted if ball breaks!!!

Goals will be score by making the turd ball go between two beaobob trees.. And not acacia trees!

As you can see this is work in progress but we had a heck of a good time kicking elephant turd balls around!!! Jajaja hopefully I will get some pictures from those who were not playing our new awesome game!!!!

Linda and I playing

Elephant dung balancing

After running out of properly shaped turds we had to focus on getting back to the hotel since we were already late for Janet!

A couple of people from the tour actually asked the guide to take us back in the little truck and he said no because he was going to fix it. After an hour and a half we had enough... Something had to be done! We were already very late for our departure to zambia and we had no time to waste. People were being too nice, I had to step up and give that man two options (very PCIT of me) in a very serious tone I said "we are an hour and a half late, enough is enough, we have to go! You have to options: one you fit all of us in that little truck or you make two trips and drops us off" I think I must have said it in a not very friendly tone that he looked at me and said "ok, you can all get on the truck!" Jajajajaja why didn't he do that in the first place?!?! ...TIA!!!!! This Is Africa!!!!

We drove less than half a mile and look who we found....

I am so glad she wasn't hungry for human meat because she could have had at least 18 of us 1/2 mile down the road!!!!

We returned to our accommodation and when we saw Janet we all screamed "AYOBA" (means happiness) and we all had a big smile on our faces!

The morning kind of tested all of us but it was BEAUTIFUL how we all remained calm; we adjusted to the situation and we made the best of it. I personally thought that we had an AMAZING morning!!! It was pretty unbelievable to get stuck in the middle of Chobe and then to wait in the middle of nowhere surrounded by animals. My favorite part was the elephant turd game and the drive back in the overpacked truck. I really appreciated Terry's jokes when we saw other trucks, he would say stuff like "we are in the cattle class" or "need a ride? We still got some space" or "we are staying at the Hilton" and my favorite "people passing us will say: 'the only other time I saw a bus like that was in India!'" Jajajajaja the best thing to do when life is throwing some challenges at you is to embrace them and have fun!!!!

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Andrea

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