Blogs from Livingstone, Zambia, Africa - page 25

i decided to voluntarily risk my life yesterday - and raft one of the biggest/baddest rivers in the world - the zambezi. okay, maybe it's not the baddest, but class 5 rapids classify as pretty scary for me. and when the guide (with 13 years experience on the river) warns you not to fall out on a certain rapid, you tend to listen and take him seriously. everyone in the house at mambo decided to raft yesterday, a few had gone the week before and loved it so much they were back for more punishment. so saturday was my potential date with death, and the two hours of sleep i had the night before upped the potential, nor did it inspire a lot of confidence to find a few of the guides drinking at the local ... read more

Hi everyone! so, survived our first week of teaching... My (Chris) class of 10 year olds are crazy - they get excited over a pen (especially if its 'clicky') and when we got stickers out all hell broke loose - they ended up eating them to get more?!! my class are cool tho and they cheer when i get off the bus in the morning!!! there are a few of kids who stand out more than the others - steven,trever,and charlie aka pitbull cause he thinks he is dead hard!!! i go back again tomoz so i hope the teacher is there - she only showed up once last week!!!!! I (Laura) am teaching the oldest class (bout 14-22) and they are all really nice - much more well behaved than chris's! Theyve got exams coming ... read more

October 2005 The journey to Lusaka was a long drawn out affair - flights on the overnight Kenya Airways flight via Nairobi (or as most people seem to refer to it as "Nairoberry"). It seemed safe enough in Jomo Kenyatta Airport mind, even if it was best described as basic. There was a long hot wait in the airport, before another few hours on to Lusaka. As we were on a section of an overland trip, it's all pot luck what you'll get in your group - still best to make friends rather than enemies, when you are going to be spending the next 17 days together. The border formalities in Lusaka were fairly straightforward, although in fairness this was down to the experienced hand of the guide who obviously knew the processes, procedures and how ... read more

So to get along in Africa you have to have a really open mind and just go with the flow - my time in Europe was very beneficial for me in that nothing here bothers me - the bus that you're in just got stuck in the sand and you're 60 km out in the bush, no worries. Supposed to take blood pressure and don't know how, it's okay. Someone asking you to marry them, not today. Brave, one of the Zambians that I work with actually commented on that - I went with him and 17 others in a combi (which is really a stripped minivan, so it was a bit tight) out to a village to do community HIV education. Drive out 60 km, half of it over very bumpy/sandy ground, debate over the ... read more

Our flight from Dar, Tanzania, took us to Johannesburg again. We overnighted this time at Shoestrings Hostel which was great. Cheap, clean and the owner was really helpful, and it was close to the airport which is great for a quick overnight. The next day we flew to Livingstone, Zambia - the Zambian side of Victoria Falls. And there our real troubles began. We found out when we got off the airplane and were waiting in line at immigration that although the story is that Australian's don't need Visas, you actually need to have your accommodation prebooked so that you appear on a manifest. No name on manifest, no free visa. So although we had prebooked our accommodation that morning from Johannesburg, we didn't appear on the manifest because it is prepared 24 hours in advance. ... read more