Thankfully, I forgot about this blog over the past month or so. I say thankfully without any hint of sarcasm, for I am entirely glad there were more appealing thoughts in my head than sitting at a computer typing up what I am doing! Plus its honesty very difficult to know where to start when I sit to journal every day, never mind compiling the ‘best bits’ here from many days. I have always had little respect for travel writing because I have seen copious bad examples of it. Yet now I find myself sympathizing with their frustration as I find myself unable to document most of my Zambian experiences. For instance, how do I convey the paradoxical excitement and pure terror or being flung around the real African bush this afternoon for a couple of hours on a clapped out tractor! Alas, at least for my own memory, I have the bruises and scratches to prove it. That’s something. Anyway, it is somewhat frustrating to a person of many words to be only quietly recollecting myself the bizarre to the sublime memories of my time here. I have definitely learnt that you must only travel for you and not for the purpose of being able to recount adventures to others – they don’t sound all that mighty/funny/weird outside your own head! It’s a subtle difference in purpose, but a one that is important to get right if you are to be satisfied with your journey…
…which brings me neatly onto a great quote I found whilst reading a book from the library here. It purports to be a nonchalant pocket book on travel but in fact it’s a small piece of genius, written expertly by Alain De Botton (‘The Art of Travel’). Well worth a read to anyone who is even vaguely interested in travel. I very much agree with his quote that ‘Journey is the midwife of thought’, and somehow through the busyness and constant change here, I have found the head space on this ’journey’ to think about many things, and for that I am almost more grateful than for the amazing things I have physically experienced here. It was completely unexpected and beautiful to be in such deep thought in such an incredible place.
I am a hypocrite fair and square because I am now going to tell you what a wonderful time I have had, and a few details of events that have unfolded… but only for the purpose of filling you in briefly because the world is big and I am far away. I remain blown away by the sheer brilliance of Zambian English. It really makes your day when you hear a ‘good one’ (a ‘good one’ being equal to an atrocious use of the English language), and I have heard some good ones recently. When asking the size of the pizza at the Zambezi Sun Hotel in Livingstone, as we intended to share, the answer was ‘Ah, Madame it is not quite big’, to which I responded ‘you mean small?’ and he enthusiastically nodded. Brilliance. On a different note, a prospective husband (prospective only from his point of view I might add) forthrightly told me at a bar in Livingstone that he ‘wouldn’t mind webcaming with me’. It was his opening line…I was stumped by that one! The celebrity nature of male attention here was firstly quite ego boosting, but very quickly turned into a very frustrating beast. I will be very happy to return to a land where men are usually too scared to approach unknown women!
I was very blessed to have visited the capital no less than 3 times during the last 2 months. This is quite an achievement given the fact it’s a 5 hour trip on a very boring a long road. I am also surprised to say that I managed to go to the cinema (in the middle of Africa…) each time I went. Two bad eggs’ (Marley & Me, Dragonball Evolution) and one very good egg (Soul Men). One of the times I frequented Lusaka
I was on my way to Livingstone, taking a little holiday to Victoria Falls and Botswana. I can very happily report it was the most incredible trip and although about 800km away from Ndola(where I am living and working) it was more than worth the treacherous Zambian bus trek. To be fair, it was only treacherous in the sense that I was almost deafened for a total of 11.5 hours by appalling African music. No quiet coach journeys in this country. The Akon playing everywhere in Ndolais sweet music to my ears now!
Livingstone is amazing, and staying at Jolly Boys was completely fantastic. A really good example of a hostel, with clean and spacious rooms, a brilliant outside cushion relaxing pit place (doesn’t sound relaxing, but trust me), a lovely pool and a great bar area. Mainly it was the people who made the trip, and I certainly met a good number of brilliant people. A definite plus to traveling on your own! Victoria Fallsis indescribable… literally. Huge, awe-inspiring, beautiful and thunderous all in one. It was no doubt aided by the fact that I flew over the Falls in a microlite (hell yes I did) first thing in the morning, and saw the magnitude of the whole shabang. You can’t tell me you don’t believe in God when you fly the Falls… try it! I also went to Botswanafor the day (cha-ching another passport stamp) to a game park called Chobe, where we had a morning game drive and afternoon boat drive through the park. I saw a lot of different animals and birds, but my favorite was definitely the elephants – they are fascinating to watch! We got a bit close for my liking; they are very intimidating especially when they trumpet! All in all, the most amazing week of my life so far.
Anyway, coming back via another trip in Lusaka(capital), I returned to Ndola last week and have been settling back into life here volunteering again. Unfortunately, several species of insect and spider decided to celebrate my return by coming out of hiding. I have seen more in the last week than in the previous 7 weeks! My favorite was a lovely locust/praying mantis style thing that joined our table at lunch today, minding his own business. Gross. But I suppose that can’t beat the nest of spitting cobra’s we have at the minute – 2 found in the swimming pool and one found in the office about 5 ft away from me right now. Don’t I live on the edge!!
So I am returning home in 10 days time back to good old blighty and like everyone in my position for time immemorial, I have mixed feelings about it. But I can look forward to further travels this year, thanks to Accenture deferring my start date until January 2010 (and paying me a retainer for the privilege). I am looking forward to getting back and planning more adventures! In the mean time, I will enjoy my last week a bit a here. I’ll write again upon my return.
Love to the other hemisphere x
p.s. This hemisphere is very exciting – the stars are in weird positions and the water goes down the plug hole the other way! Strange but true!
