Zounds! It's Zambia!

So for those of you playing with us at home please add a country to the checklist……Zambia!

That’s right Zambia! Home of the lovely and incomparable Victoria Falls!

And for a few days, home to me and Aunt Becky! Yay! So now a recap of the events leading up to it and the actual trip itself.
So May was a busy busy month.  My group had our Mid Service Training (MST) from the 15^th-17^th and Aunt Becky’s plane was slated to arrive around noon on the 17^th . However, prior to all this there was a Peace Corps prom/fund raiser for Gender and Development Camp being held at Clarissa’s site in North Nkhotakota district on the 12^th.  Cool! I thought I would have enough time to go to prom, get home and have a day or so to pack and clean the house before leaving for two weeks. 

So here is the plan, and you are thinking, “dang that is a sweet plan.”

WRONG

The prom/fund raiser was a ton of fun but I think May was a busy month for a lot of people because tun out was kinda low.  Lame Peace Corps, lame.  Anyway, I digress, morning of the 13^th Christian and Jay are talking about going to Lilongwe, I just thought they wanted an early start because they live so far away. But since we are all headed in the same direction we all start going south together  about 5 minutes into walking down the road it is conveyed to me that we are expected to actually be in Dedza for training on the 14^th, not the 15^th a fact that switches my squirrely little brain into overdrive.

Instead of having an extra day to feel confident that I wouldn’t be bringing my Aunt home to a mess, I had exactly 5 hours to wrap everything up, bring in everything outside, and finish packing.  GAH!!

 did help myself a little bit, instead of leaving everything to do until later I did most of the packing for Zambia before I left, to finish all that up I simply had to rearrange things from my overnight bag to the backpack.  However when I went to Clarissa’s site I had to camp…and it rained.  At the time it wasn’t a big deal, remember I still thought I had time to dry a tent and sleeping bag.  Nope. I ended up spreading it all out over my bedroom floor, anything to prevent it from mildewing while I was gone and said a silent prayer that the mice wouldn’t move in and decide to use it for nesting material while I was gone.  And I did take 10 minutes to wash dirty dishes, so kudos for that.

So after a snatch n’ grab at my house I strolled outside and found myself once again wandering down the road, living out of a bag. My neighbors were all shocked, “didn’t she just get back?” but it was all cool when I explained I would be back in a week with family.  Family is big here. 

I got to the boma at about 3pm and started on a mini bus south at about  4pm.  Prior to this my rule had always been that 1pm was my cutoff time.  Anytime past `one and I don’t start travel to or from Lilongwe.  Yeah, so much for that rule.  I rolled into Lilongwe at about 7 at night.  On the bright side because it was night the mini bus driver pretty much dropped us where we needed to go.  I was about 5 seconds from getting into a taxi to go to the lodge when I spotted other PCVs, this was mostly thanks to the fact that the only person in a million miles, and two decades, who still has a mullet is one of our volunteers.  That’s right I recognized his hair. 

Anyway the next day we all got to Dedza for a few days of training, we’ll skip that, I think I rightly assume you don’t care about what we do at training.

The 17^th in Lilongwe I found none other than Aunt Becky at Kiboko Hotel! Yay! We had dinner at Bombay Palace. Holy cow that was good food. I had heard other PCVs talk about how good it was but wow, that was amazing Indian food.

The 18^th we kinda just ran around LLW getting stuff done, rental car sorted out, snack food bought, paying for safari, etc. but we also took a few hours to go to the Lilongwe Wildlife Sanctuary and that was cool. Lots of monkeys, a leopard, we missed the lion though, and a big snake!

The 19^th- We left early with Land and Lake Safari along with three other girls on holiday.  The border crossing was not as bad as I thought it would be. Getting into Zambia was a snap and now I have some new stamps to show for it! We passed through the town of Chipata not long after and wow, that town made Lilongwe look like not much.  Little depressing Malawi. We arrived at Thornicroft Lodge that evening. Cool place! Nice beds in the tents and we watched the Puku (small antelope) running around on the banks of the Zambezi river.

The 20^th- Morning drive in South Luangwa Natl Park (SL) saw…..animals. Seriously, lots of animals. The ones that stand out are the Thornicroft giraffe, impala, puku, elephants, hippo and probably a waterbuck or two.  Back to camp for lunch, yummy yummy lunch and then back out at 3pm for a night drive where we saw LIONS sweet! The lions would be popping up all the following day. Also seen were civets, porcupine and a few white tailed mongoose.

21^st- purely to save on space this will be shortened, more of the same animals new ones include Lilian’s Lovebirds, Leopard and  drumroll please……..African Wild Dogs! Wooh! That was amazing and completely lost on the other tourists. Gggrrrrrrr. Everyone and I do mean EVERYONE else in the truck was from northern Europe and all talking in their talk, very loudly.  I almost killed me the EU in Zambia.  Luckily, none of them understood the Chichewa the guides were saying. Speaking an obscure language is awesome.

The next couple days were driving, lots of driving, driving to Lusaka where they have Subway and KFC!!! AGH!!! And then to Victoria Falls.  The falls were amazing! There is a reason it is call the Smoke the Thunders.  We got all decked out in ponchos and started wandering around on the bridges, a very wet walk.  Then we milled around the curios market.  Those guys kill me.

“madam! It is nothing to look! Sunset price! Good Price!”

“Yeah I bet.”

I settled on a little box shaped like Africa, some earrings, and a hair clip.  The guy wanted 85 dollars for it!! Do the tourists really pay that?! So I laughed at him.

“Ah, madam, I need a little money for transportation.”

First off buddo, $85 would get you to Lusaka maybe 100 times and you probably live like 20 minuets away by a mini bus that cant cost more than 3 bucks.  Also, I see you have a bike.

Long story short, it was $15, probably not even worth that much.  Start bargaining at 1/3 their asking price and never ever ever ever pay more than half. 

The next day we got up bright an early and, oh Idon’t know, rode around on Elephants for an hour! Booh-Ya! It was so cool. The biggest elephant there was named Bob.  Don’t know if that is a correlation or a causation but someone should look into that.

That afternoon we went for a leisurely stroll in the bush……with Lions! What! I know! Yup, I totally petted one.  So all you people back home who were worried about Aunt Becky don’t. She was totally cool, although she almost chickened out and didn’t go on the walk.  We talked her into it. And have the pictures to prove it.

The next morning it was time to rise and shine……in a @&%$#!( HELICOPTER!!!!!! 8am at three thousand feet! I know how high we were because I sat up front, that’s right, the front seat! Wooh! That was amazing, Aunt Becky can really pick activities! I should travel by helicopter everywhere, it was amazing! We circled the falls for about 15 min and then spent time cruising through the canyon below the falls.  Wow! You know how when you see a National Geographic movie on the Imax screen there is always some really cool shot taken from a helicopter and you can feel your stomach moving as the picture moves? I felt just like that and then I realized, “Oh wait! This is real!” mwahahah! I have video to prove it.  Granted mine is not going to even be found on the cutting room floor of that National Geographic movie but still, there are videos.

After that we piled in the car and drove back to Lusaka. Lemme tell ya, after a helicopter ride a 6 hour trip in a Toyota corolla is really depressing.  Oh well we still made good time. 
The place we stayed at out of Lusaka was pretty nice and they had a game at the bar, basically Chinese checkers against yourself.  The point is to get one marble in the middle and all the others cleared off.  I got down to one marble, granted it wasn’t in the middle but they said they had never seen anyone do that before. I beat myself at marbles. Just thought you should know.

The 26^th we crossed the border and made it back to LLW by about 6 in the evening and finished getting the rental car

27^th, bright and early we hit the road for Nkhotakota but we went through Kasungu, I’m glad Aunt Becky got to see so much of the country but logistically that was really a not so awesome move. Oh well. We got to Nkhotakota, and had breakfast at Sitima Inn, really good breakfast too, stuffed French toast. Then to Mbewa village! Everyone was excited to see Aunt Becky! It’s funny, I go other places in Malawi and they all assume I don’t speak Chichewa but in my village they expect all white people to speak it.  Lots of translating very badly and answering of questions. ( And here I am going to apologize for the state of my house in those pictures, again, I was rushed. ) Then we went to my neighbor, Agnes’ house and she had a chicken going in the pot for lunch.  The chicken in question had been eating eggs so we made lunch out of her and ladies and gentlemen, Aunt Becky ate that lunch with her fingers.  Cause we ain’t got no silver ware for Nsima! After lunch we sat for some of the dances that the Eco-tourism club does for tourists that was fun too and they were all super excited to meet Aunt Becky. Then we went to meet Henery and his wife Margaret for a few minutes and then it was time to go again!

We spent the night at Nkhotakota Pottery on the lake shore because a trip here is not a trip if you don’t see the lake! The next day we got to the airport, had lunch and Aunt Becky jumped on a plane for a nice long flight home.  
I would like to say thank you to Aunt Becky for coming all the way out here just to see me and Africa! I loved every minute of it and everyone here wants to know when you are coming back! Love you!!!

After getting back to LLW I resumed the life of a PCV, basically where lunch is a gamble at the Silver Spoon in the market. Will this be the time I get sick? Who knows!

Getting home again was nice even if it took three days to clean the house and do laundry. Thank you to mom for giving Aunt Becky so much awesome stuff to bring over and thank you Aunt Becky for bringing it!

I love you all and miss you even more! Mom and Dad see you soon!