After recovering from their trek, students have spent the past few days with the Himba tribe in their service oriented aspect of the trip. The students worked with a local school and did a fantastic job. They were interactive, engaged, and worked hard. They are currently traveling to Etosha National Park to observe the local wildlife in their national habitat.

After recovering from their trek, the students spent the next day at a cheetah camp. They had a cheetah stroll around their camp throughout the night. The students have loved the trip to date and are currently off the Himba tribe near Angola for their service aspect of the trip.

Trek

The group has just finished the trek portion of the hike. The first words that came out of Fluharty's mouth when describing the hike were, "The hardest hike we have ever done." The first day of the trek consisted of six hours of hand over hand, jumping from bolder to bolder while hiking over the rocky mountain. The hike was beautiful and hot, and minus a few cuts and scraps, a great success. Willy described how well the group came together through the hike and were there to support each other. One of the highlights of the trek was during one of the nights while they were sleeping under the stars, a leopard came into camp to check things out.

The group is currently relaxing by the poolside and recovering from their trek. The next couple of days will consist of going to their service project portion of the trip, and finally the safari. We should be able to get pictures in the next few days once they have internet access again.

Poverty and Seals

After sand surfing the dunes in the yesterday morning, the seniors ventured off to three local tribes to learn the tribal customs. Despite participating in tribal traditions and eating worms with the Harare Tribe, students learned what real poverty looks like within these tribes.

This morning, students visited the Cape Cross Seal Colony where the stench of the seals could be smelt well before they arrived. They are currently driving to base camp before their trek begins, and will unfortunately be out of cell service for the next few days.

Sand Boarding

I have just received an update from Willy!!! Last night, after arriving at Swakopmund and being able to watch the sunset over the sand dunes, they woke up this morning to sand board in the Namib desert. The kids loved experiencing this new activity. Right now, they are currently traveling back into town to join a local tribe where they are going to learn about tribal food and customs. One of the things they have been discussing is the role of the Germans in the area due to the very German food and architecture around the town. All of the kids are happy, healthy, and safe.

They will be spending much of tomorrow traveling to base camp just prior to the start of their hike. But they will spend some time in the Cape Cross Seal Colony first.

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