The Big White Man visits "The Middle of Nowhere"

Busy times in Zambia!
Dad just left after a whirlwind two-week visit. His catchphrases for the trip were middle-of-nowhere, wild and extreme. I think I dragged him around the country enough for him to get a good taste of what life is like in Zambia. It’s nice that now someone at home can truly appreciate what Zambia is like.

Dad flew into Lusaka and I met him at the airport with a friend who also had someone visiting. I think his initial impressions that night were of the cockroaches all over the place at the guesthouse and the awkward mechanics of mosquito nets. It constantly amused me what he got worked up about—usually things that I wouldn’t have anticipated him getting worked up about like the security walls around every private building in Lusaka, the lack of sidewalks, how people walk everywhere and the uncontrolled nature of livestock management in Zambia.

We jumped in feet first by hitch-hiking to Victoria Falls—my primary mode of transport—so dad could observe that its not dangerous, its actually faster, more safe and more fun, than public transport. We got two excellent hitches one with a Zambian journalist and another with a man who works for COMESA (Common Market for East and Southern Africa?). I always meet fascinating people when hitching. It’s a great way to meet interesting people and even do a bit of networking. The last 50K to Livingstone is a bit of a nightmare. The road is torn up because they are repairing it. Dad enjoyed that bit of the ride and by enjoyed I mean I think he was a bit terrified. However, that is typical Zambia. Crappy roads.

Our guesthouse in Livingstone was quite the upgrade from our Lusaka accommodations. Victoria Falls was stunning and we spent nearly a whole day walking and hiking around. Because it’s just after rainy season, the water volume of the Falls was very high. There was a dense mist rising from the bottom so from certain angles we weren’t even able to view the Falls. I walked across the bridge directly in front of the Falls and got soaked. We capped off the day with a sunset booze cruise on the mighty Zambezi River. It was Dad, me and a bunch of drunken kids. Fun times.

Dad wasn’t up for bungee jumping off the bridge, so we did a day trip to Chobe National Park in Botswana the next day which was really cool. And now I’ve been to Botswana. In the AM, after going through the border post, we did a boat safari on the Chobe River. We saw loads of hippos, elephants, crocs, cool birds, giraffes, baboons, and impalas. In the afternoon we did a game drive through the park for a different perspective.

Took the “business class” bus back to Lusaka. Unfortunately, a lot of the time was eaten up with transport from one place to the other over the course of the trip but that’s just how things are in the developing world, I suppose. Especially in a country that doesn’t invest much in infrastructure. The next day was another bus trip, not-so-business-class, since its not a well-traveled tourist route, to Petauke, my home district! Buses to Eastern province are somewhat terrifying because the road goes through some mountainous terrain, there is no shoulder, pedestrians (and livestock and baboons) are all over the road, and the drivers go way too fast. The good thing about taking public transport all over Zambia however, is the perspective and experience of what Zambia is like. While some tourists fly all over the place, taking transport gives you a feel for the country. We got a taxi out to my village after picking up some veggies and supplies in town. Yet another wild experience for Dad. The dirt road out to my site, while infinitely better than a year ago when I arrived, still sucks. We arrived just before dusk, so we had enough time to greet the neighbors, get some water and start cooking dinner.

The next day was really busy. We went on a village tour, met headman Chitindi, lots of Amais and Ambuyas (Ladies and Grannies), saw the grinding mill where maize is turned to meal to make nshima, and took every person’s photo in the village. Dad practiced some local language phrases and executed them with mixed results. Everyone was super-excited to met him. Especially all the drunk men for some reason. I’ve never really seen so many drunk men in my village but they came out of the woodwork to meet the big White man, Catherine’s father. One aspect of Zambian culture I enjoy is that visitors are given gifts! As a result, I now have a lifetime supply of groundnuts, a pumpkin and lots of sweet potatoes. Yum.

In the afternoon we went to Grace’s field, which is gigantic! Then we cycled 6K to the government school so Dad could meet my work counterparts. Not many people were around because in the week I’d been away from site, the teachers in my district went on strike. The strike was over the Rural Hardship Allowance, which they were not receiving. This is compensation teachers get for being placed in rural settings—it amounts to about $40 a month. Dad met Mr. Banda my main counterpart and we did a tour of the school. He gave us bananas and let us use his super tire pump.

We managed to get an extra bike for dad to ride so we planned to bike out of the village on Tuesday morning. Usually I would leave around 6:30 to bike to the boma. Because of all the visitors that dropped in and our tour of the community school in the village we didn’t get on the road until 9:30. It was hot. Two and half hours later we rolled into Petauke boma and Dad drank 4 orange Fantas. Needless to say, the 30K uphill bike ride is a bit rough the first time you do it. It’s a great way to exit the village though. I think the most significant “take-home” messages Dad got from the village experience were that I do everything on the ground, (“Don’t you want a freaking table to get this stuff up off the ground??!”) and the intense bike ride. Oh and the pit latrine toilet of course. Stay tuned for forthcoming photos because I’m pretty sure he photographed every toilet in this country. It will be an excellent slideshow presentation.

At this point in the trip, Dad decided he was through with Zambian style transport. Upon arriving in Chipata, our lay-over on the way to South Luangwa National Park, we booked flights from Chipata to Mfuwe. No more buses, bicycles, shared taxis or minibuses. Showed Dad around Chipata a bit, he met a bunch of other volunteers that were around. We flew to Mfuwe in the smallest plane I’ve ever been in from the smallest airport I’ve ever been in. It was so cool to see Zambia from the air. Luckily, the flight was 20 minutes long, because my tendency towards motion sickness did not like the tiny plane.

South Luangwa National Park is one of the best game parks in Africa and it did not let us down. The camp we stayed at was called Flatdogs and it was a really cool place. Our “room” was actually a tent overlooking the Luangwa river. Hippos and elephants roamed freely all over the camp, especially in the early AM hours. At night we had to walk with a guide. We did 4 game drives and one was half walking safari. We saw a lot of the same animals as before, including all of the “Big 5” except the rhino. We saw three different leopards, which is very rare. Our last day we saw lions, which was incredible. We had a couple exciting encounters with lions. During the morning drive we found lions just as we were about to leave the park. We had been driving around for over half an hour trying to find them in a place they had been seen earlier. When we found them, our guide almost immediately realized we had a puncture in the tire. So we drove a short distance away to change the tire. As we were getting out, one of the lions bolted towards a few nearby giraffes not 40 feet from us. It was amazing to see the lion go after the giraffe but we quickly realized it wasn’t safe to be outside the vehicle. We hopped back in and drove further away.

Later on the evening drive, we went looking for the lions again. We had a great guide who managed to position us so well that we watched an entire lion hunt of impala and at one point there were lions stalking on either side of us. They missed the impala then went for a hippo. It was so exciting! The hippo also got away but we drove right up to the pride that sat looking hungry and pissed off. They were so large and powerful and so close to our car that it was actually a bit scary. Our imaginations were thinking about some worst-case-scenarios.

We headed back to Lusaka via plane and stayed at a campground that also had various African animals. However, Dad was much more excited about the Jack Russells roaming around.

The day before Dad left was my birthday which was perfect. It was a great trip and I can’t wait to hear what everyone at homes thinks about the experiences he relays. Pictures to come soon I’m sure.

Love,
Caitlin