ele encounters while power-walking

I’ve only been in Kasane for a day and I’ve already had one of those surreal “this can’t really be my life right now” moments. It started off pretty inauspiciously—a group of ladies goes power walking on the main road around sunset and one of them (a friend of a friend of a friend of mine—seriously) invited me along. We had gotten about half a mile out of the main part of town when the subject of wildlife in the area came up. Not surprising, given that this is the safari launching center of Botswana. My new friend Jane mentioned that in Kasane, elephants outnumber people by four to one. Four to one! She asked if we had elephants in the States and I said only in zoos, and that while I’d seen elephants in zoos and from the comfort of the car in Botswana’s national parks, I’d never encountered one on foot. Famous last words. Literally as the end of my sentence was still hanging in the air, an elephant suddenly emerged out of the bush and stomped onto the main road. Right in front of us!! Thankfully it didn’t really seem to notice us, or if it did it couldn’t be bothered with us, but still I have to say that my heart started racing at a much faster pace than the power-walking had induced. And as much as I had been hoping to get a nice long exercise session, I was glad when the two ladies I was with promptly turned around and announced that we wouldn’t be going any farther. Instead, we walked back to town, the Chobe river sparkling under the sunset on the right, and cars whizzing by on the left. Kasane really is quite indescribable. Where else in the world do warthogs go marching in a line through downtown, passing internet cafes, a big chain grocery store, and the hospital? Hopefully I can post some pictures that will do justice to this funny bush town.
OH, and I’ve been invited to go to the BDF (Botswana National Defense Force) to do aerobics tomorrow afternoon too. What this could possibly entail (military boot camp I’m thinking??) I have no idea. I’m intrigued…and I’m sure I’ll have something to write about it after, if I survive it that is!