My parents just came to Zambia for ten days. I dropped them off at the airport this morning much to my dismay. We had a great time. It felt really good to have them here and now they have an idea of what my life is like, not just living through phone calls and this virtual glimpse. They now know the ins and outs of Lusaka, the long road to Livingstone, the wildlife of South Luangwa and all my people on this side of the globe.


It's no joke getting to Zambia: Boston to London; London to Lusaka. When they got here, they were plum tuckered out. We took it easy to start off. I made them Nshima for dinner. I showed them my local hangouts. On Wednesday I went off to soccer practice. The P-Unit said they might stop by. No one showed up to play though so I went home only to find that I had lost my parents. I ran back to the pitch but they werent there. I had a moment of panic only possible in the cellular age. Then I remembered that people had been meeting up for centuries without phones in there pocket and I found them back at home.

After mom and dad got their bearings, we took a flight to Eastern Province. South Luangwa National Park is one of the premier game parks on the continent. This was my first time on safari, but I might retire from the game early, because our time there was truly remarkable. We stayed at Mfuwe Lodge, which is actually inside the park(during mango season the elephants walk through reception to get to their favorite tree). When we got there, we learned we were the only guests. This would never happen during the dry season, but because we are in the beginning of the wet season, things slow down. I didn't mind at all however because they decided to give me my own chalet. We had booked a family chalet but I couldnt say no to my own little house with a porcelain tub overlooking a hippo-filled lagoon.

We were waited on hand and foot as we ate our first meal. The food was amazing, artichoke quiche, homemade bread, pork tenderloin and pesto covered tomatoes was just our first lunch. Little did I know that they would be feeding us like this five times a day. We got there on Thursday morning and left Sunday afternoon and our schedule went something like this: wakeup at 5:45 for muffins and coffee; go out in an open land rover from 7:00-10:30; have a huge brunch at 11:00, relax by the pool or nap until 4:00; teatime with sandwiches and cakes; go out again into the park from 4:30-8;30 stopping at sundown for gin and tonics then carrying on in the dark searching for predators; eat a larger supper at 9:00 and go to bed. By the second day we were all about a relaxed as I've been ever. While the lodge and the staff were incredible the actual safari was the real show.

Our guide Funnuel knew pretty much everything. Just driving past the gate of the park to the lodge we saw zebra, baboons, impala and elephants. From then on we observed all sorts of crazy behavior from giraffes, hippos, antelope, hyenas, warthogs, water buffalo, eagles, cuckoos and so forth. Here's a little snapshot of what we saw:

I love this picture because I actually put my camera up to my binoculars and double my zoom power which I didn't really know was possible. We saw a lot of different groups of elephants including the cutest one year old little guy. I must say, seeing animals in their natural habitat is so beautiful. A zoo does no justice to nature. Even though most are aclimated to jeeps roaming by, all of the animals are pretty much chilling, eating grass, yelling, "can I live?"


Did you know a group of zebras is called a dazzle. Thats pretty much the coolest thing I've ever heard (besides the name of the central part of a termite mound which is called a brood chamber). This shot is so dope. The zebras take dust bathes to clean off and I caught this guy mid roll. This was actually one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. The zebras line up and one by one take a roll in the dirt, get up and then the next zebra goes down. It was mad organized. Plus, to get flies off them, zebras shiver, which makes their stripes do this optical illusion dance. Beautiful. My question to you: is a zebra black with white stripes or white with black stripes. Chew on that.

So you see all the normal creatures from baboon to elephant but the real McCoy are the cats. It's everyone's desire to see big cats when they go on safari and after our first day we came away empty handed. But our luck changed on the second night. We were riding around in the dark with spotter who has a bigass flashlight who flicks it around looking for the green reflection of cat eye's. I was getting bored. In fact I started to fall asleep. We had to head back to camp soon, but suddenly there was a whisper: "leopard". And there, crouching low to the ground was a big female, eyeing a pair of impala 40 yards away. The impala suddenly leaped away and the cat turned its attention to our Land Rover. It slinked passed it, about five yards away. My heart was pounding even though Funnuel said that it sees the vehicle as one big animal.


The leopard was devastatingly beautiful. I was sated. I'd seen a cat. However, the next morning we spotted a leopard chilling out in a tree. When it noticed us, it got down, pulling with it a dead baby zebra! No joke. Shit was crazy. Then, as we drove along a dirt path nearby, Funnuel stopped the vehicle. There lying in the grass were two bigass lions.


He pulled off the road closer to them, I mean really close. We were about five feet from these guys. Mom was grabbing on to dad. We were all hushed. This pair was resting in the morning sun. Now I'm convinced that these lions were gay. To start with, their nickname around the park was Mfuwe Pride. Secondly, while I didn't get a shot of it, these boys were totally spooning each other. On a seperate note, they were also exhibitionists because they were like this, exposed and loving it:


Other notable events included gang warfare between rival baboons clans, and the black cuckoo, whose call, according to Funnuel, translates to "beat my mom, beat my mom" in English. Overall, I say they whole safari trip was one of the coolest things I've done.