It’s day 4 of safari and we’ve just returned home from the trip. Obama is now President of the U.S. (we heard from NUMEROUS people as we headed home… they absolutely LOVE him here!) which we watched on YouTube since we don’t have a TV here. Today we lucked out with some Land Cruisers which were sent to come pick us up since the bus was still broken. They were SO comfortable and we had air conditioning for the first time in a month! When we got to the village we were stuck at before, we all made our meanest faces at the villagers. The crazy part was, when we went through the ENTIRE village came out to the road “in case” we got stuck. They knew all along what they were doing. We coasted through in our 4-wheel drive vehicles.

Yesterday a group of tourists showed up at the park to spend the night. We tried to get them to give us a ride to Lilongwe (since that’s where they were heading), but we were unsuccessful. There was a German couple who said they were not fond of young Americans, so that fell through. It would have been a lot cheaper for World Camp, but oh well. My bill for the stay at the park ended up being about $200, which is amazing for a 3-night safari vacation. I think the total trip was $372, which included $50 entry to Zambia, $25 park entry fee, 3 nights in a chalet, 2 safari trips, 5 meals, several drinks, and souvenirs from the Tribal Textures shop. Not terrible!

Meals here were really good: eggs and toast with tea for breakfast on day two, lunch was swiss cheese and tomato on homemade wheat bread with fries, dinner was a pasta buffet with salad and bread. Day three breakfast was a cheese and tomato omelet with tea and dinner was french onion soup with a greek salad. We spent a lot of time by the pool playing pool volleyball, listening to various iPods, and playing “Never have I ever” with the coordinators. Oh, and drinking lots and lots of Mosis!

Last night was really fun because a group of us went over to the pool bar and played “asshole” and “kings” (card games). It was hilarious seeing some of the coordinators drunk, although drama in the group popped up for the first time, too. Safaris this week were awesome. We went Monday night with a guide named Sly and ended up seeing elephants, impala, antelope, hippos, wild dogs (apparently VERY rare), zebras, rabbits, an owl, a hyena, various birds, and a lion eating a giraffe (nasty!). We pulled RIGHT up next to the lions and it was so scary being that close! Those lions could have eaten us. It was really neat to go in the evening because we got to see the day animals and then the night animals using a spotlight. We were in an open top car, so it was definitely a thrill!

Tuesday morning we went on a morning safari with a guide named Billy. Only ten of us went because it had rained all night and the others thought they wouldn’t see anything. They were wrong! When it rains, all the animals come out on the road because the grass is so mushy. We saw zebras, impala, elephants, giraffes, busch buck, water buffalo, hyenas, monkeys, hippos, birds, two different packs of lions, and warthogs. I was worried about the rain, but it turned out to be so fun.

The place was also really neat. We had a chalet for six girls which had a bathroom and mosquito nets, and there are only screens for windows so you can hear EVERYTHING at night. It’s scary to hear the hippos grazing right outside! This morning the elephants were grazing right outside, so we got to watch them walk around while we ate our breakfast. I’m just glad the trip home was uneventful!!

Day one of camp four tomorrow!