Let's Go to Africa

When I was little, I used to attend the Good News Bible Club hosted by Martha Ruff. The group met at different places over the years, but one of my favorite places where it was held was the Abernathy home. They have lots of skins and mounts from their safaris in Africa, and I loved to study the various animals as a kid. I didn't know at the time that I would have the opportunity to see the exotics in person more than 20 years later.

A&M Polo Reunion - June 2011 (L to R: Me, Jenna, Rachel and Bekki)

Nearly two years ago, one of my best friends, Bekki, dropped the bombshell that she and her husband, Alan, were moving to Africa for Alan's work. As soon as she finished vet school in May 2010, they made their home in Pemba, Mozambique, on the east coast of Africa.

I already had two other sets of friends living in Zambia, so when Bekki and Alan moved, I decided it was time to plan a vacation. Since all of us knew each other from playing polo at Texas A&M, it was going to be like a mini-reunion. Another friend from polo and horse showing, Lesli, decided she wanted to join us as well, so the planning began.

You'd think with today's technology, getting to Africa would be easy. But that would require the technology to actually work in Africa, and half the time it doesn't. Even after months of planning and preparation, I still couldn't get the last leg of my flight booked for Mozambique until three weeks before I left. In fact, our friends in Mozambique had to book the flight because the airlines' Web site wouldn't let us book it online from the U.S. Then there was the issue with the visas. Due to lack of time, we didn't have any visas ahead of time for the countries we'd be visiting. Our African friends reassured us that it wouldn't be a problem, and if it was, you just fix it the African way -- aka pay them off. Note to self: bring more cash.You'd think that would have given me a heads up of what was to come...but it didn't.

Ready or not, I packed my bags, had my last meal in the U.S. at Lupe Tortillas (thanks, Michael!) and set off on August 14 for Africa. The plan was to arrive in Johannesburg and spend the night there before catching a flight the next day to Pemba. After spending a few days in Pemba, the four of us would leave for Zambia, stopping over in Malawi on the way. Once in Zambia, we would unite with our other friends and travel to Victoria Falls and other places to finish up our African vacation.

Since returning home, I've gotten lots of requests for stories and photos, so I'm going to use this blog to recap our adventures. At the end of the day, it might just be my mom who reads this...ha ha. That's ok. Also, for any colleagues who see this, I'm already putting the disclaimer out there that all the posts will be too long even though I know better.