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Published: December 11th 2008
Awoke early and packed away my tent and helped with the breakfast as it was my cooking day. I felt much better than the day before and it was sunny. Someone put "It's a Beautiful Day" on their IPod and it really was. I slept for a while and read a while (finishing Bill Bryson's Down Under). We went through Lusaka soon after leaving, a curious mix of rural and city, with men in business suits and also some peasents. Ladies everywhere with cargo on their heads - even a chikcen surveying the world from a different persepective!
The city was odd - big casinos juxtaposed with extreme poverty - people begging by the gates. The traffic was manic and not helped by pedestrians wandering across 3 lanes of traffic. Soon though we were back into the country with the thatched villages and wide eyed children staring at the truck. Life appears peaceful here - women washing or walking with bundles on their heads, men labouring in the fields or relaxing on the front door steps. Often the most activity is the flurry of goats running away from the truck, even 2 piglets squealing out of the way, fast pink sausages with tails bouncing.
We stopped for lunch near a village and poeple materialised from the bush, and before we'd even disembarked about forty people, women and children, had gathered to observe. Some of the group played ball with them but as it was my cooking duty, I prepared lunch. We then ate, as the group got closer and closer, giggling behind their fingers, eyes wide. It must have been like the circus coming to town. Apparently they like to view what we eat - these pale aliens with their pretensions and absurd ways of doing things,
I've never had such an audience observe me taking lunch before. I made sure to finish what I took - I couldnt bear to throw away food with these people watching.
One, an English teacher, came to ask for food, but Michelle said, fairly, that we couldn't feed everyone. It was heart-breaking though. Soon we were driving on, but my lunch rested uneasily in my sotmach and on my mind.
At length after another afternoon of sleeping, reading (The Last Templar) and gazing at the villages and villagers, we arrived at Mama Rula's camp. After putting up the tent I headed for the showers. What blis! Clean showers , with a cubicle for changing! Hot water! An enclosed roof no insects or insect graveyard! A place to hang one's towel and put one's clothes! What untold luxury! I started off with a hot shower and then turned it colder and colder. I reached my Zen in that shower - it was truly awesome! One realised that one's a traveller when a good shower makes one so happy!
Afterwards in my blissed out state, we cooked an Indonesian curry, with onions, peppersm potatoes, corgettes, butternut squash and chicken. It was delicious, spicy and flavoursome. Donna added tumeric to the rice, making it a delicate yellow - now I know how!
I had a drink in the bar and a chat with Michelle, who mentioned volunteering for the VSO, which I might look into on return to England. Something inside me has been touched by the experience of seeing poeple tilling the fields with hand tools, building bricks in kilns, and little children running barefoot, but also the poverty, but also the smiles, the welcoming, the inquisitiveness, the AIDS problem and the hunger. How can I close my eyes and ignore Africa?
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Mum and dad
non-member comment
Mama Rula's camp
Hello darling, Mama Rula's camp sounds just great after a long day on the road. You seem to have experienced much in the way of body and soul. We are enjoying reading what you have written, and are looking forward to some more photos. Love to you darling, Mum and Dad XX