Advertisement
Published: November 19th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Mulibwanji!? (How are you, in Nyanja)
We are not the best at keeping this blog updated, but we hope you have patience with us and we will try to give faster news during these last few weeks of our amazing trip!
We have now reached the Africa part of our travels, and are currently in Zambia. To be more specific we are in a small place called Livingstone, only a few kilometres from the Victoria Falls. Before making the long travel here from South America we enjoyed two weeks in Brazil, spending most of our time in Rio. We love this city and so many things about it: the people, the food, the night life, the beaches, and all the activities you could choose from. Since the weather was a bit unstable for about a week we tried to make use of the sunny days and go to the beach, do sightseeing in the city centre and surroundings, and during the cloudy and rainy days just hang out with our new friends, go to the cinema, and enjoy the Rio nightlife. We paid a few nightly visits to samba schools, favela parties, cool bars, and the fun street parties
of Lapa. Our Swedish friend Johan who now lives in Rio was an excellent guide during all of this! 😊
We could have spent a lot more time in this city, but we thought that we should try to make it somewhere else in the country as well so for a few days we visited an island south of Rio called "Ilha Grande". This was a cool island on where no cars were allowed. So to get to the beaches of the other side of the island one had to hike for about 2-3 hours... This of course meaning that we didn't choose to go to those beaches. 5 hours walking for a beach, are they crazy? 😉 We did however manage to get a room at a hostel that seemed to be from a post card at first appearance; right by the sea, backpackers in hammocks reading books, a bar right on the little terrace. Though what we didn't know was that some local pets came free of charge with the room. We thought we were starting to be cool with seeing cockroaches now and then, and not freaking out every time. But after a smaller invasion, where
our Australian roommate killed 6-7 big ones, we were not as cool any longer. We also learnt that cockroaches can fly (a knowledge I think we were a lot happier without)! We did however enjoy our stay at the island and had some relaxing days at the beach.
After a stop-over in a South Africa - that is already preparing full speed for the coming World Cup - we landed in Zambia. We were greeted by a lot of warmth, not only since it is over 30 degrees every day (sometimes around 40) but also by the friendly people. Our first night we were given both a lift from the airport (from a woman working there, don't worry mums) and our first taste of the local beer Mosi. We spend a few days in the capital of the country; Lusaka, which feels more like a big village than a capital with over 3 million in population. We were a bit jetlagged so spent the first days just wandering around trying to get used to being on a new continent, going to markets, the cinema, and trying the Zambian nightlife. One of our highlights was when we found a little
Swedish school that sold freshly baked cinnamon buns! Very yummie! 😊
We then travelled on to the south of the country to a place called Livingstone. This is an famous spot for adventures and there are a wide variety of activities you can do whilst here; bungy jumping, sky diving, rafting, safaries, lion encounters. Unfortunately this is all very expensive so we have so far only paid a visit to the Victoria Falls, which however was very cool! Since the water is so low we were able to walk where the river usually flows, pretty cool!
In Lusaka we became friends with Obert who was working with volunteers in Livingstone. He introduced us to Liwomadi Community School where we now work as teachers. We have one group each and teach them in all subjects; maths, english, literacy, science, P.E. (sports) and creative activity. Many of these kids are orphans and can't afford to go to the government schools. First lesson starts at 08:00 and we usually finish between 12:30 - 13:00. If the kids don't get lunch (which consists of cooked maize, only) we let them go home earlier. Every night we spend about 1-2 hours to prepare
lessons for the next day as well.
We have gotten quite attached to the kids and we try to teach them as much as possible for the short time we are here. We found out that there are students who are 17 that can't write and hardly read!!!!! One of the things we have tought them is about HIV/AIDS. We handed out condoms and gosh what a reaction, they almost fighted over them 😊 They all love to sing and dance so we contributed with a Swedish song and made an African version of it. "Bjornen sover" became "Sleepy lion, sleepy lion under mango tree...". At first the kids caught the "lion" (Jenny) in the middle instead of running away! So the second time we put one of the kids in the middle, which worked out a lot better.
Our friend Obert is going to help us extend our visas which means that we will stay 1 week longer in Zambia and teach the kids next week as well. We are very exited. Obert has also hooked us up with free accomodation in a private lodge. We almost died the first night but now we have got a
working fan, a mosquito net and showering in the bathtub isn't sooo bad after all. (We have to fill a 0,5 L bottle and pour over ourselves, many times)
After one weeks work and 40 degrees Celcius every day it feels wonderful when the weekends are here. The rain earlier today lowered the temperature with about 10 degrees 😊 For tomorrow the plan is to go to Zimbabwe for the day and spot some wild animals.
Hope you all at home and around the world have a great weekend!! Next time you get a travelblog-email we are probably in Tanzania! Take care til then!
# Lots of Love #
Advertisement
Tot: 0.061s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 57; dbt: 0.0308s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
johan
non-member comment
saknar mina gringas!
hej babes, vilken skön stämning det verkar va där borta... jag kan tänka mig att man blir fäst! jag ska se om det går nån bananbåt över till afrika innan det blir sverige igen... rio börjar rulla med kommande nyår och karneval... ut på golvet! kramar johan