Return to St Francis

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My apologies for not updating for so long. First, I was away for nearly two weeks, travelling on the Lower Zambezi for five days, then up to Livingstone/ Victoria Falls for another few days. Then this week has been really busy; taking care of the accomodation for the new medical students who are arriving from Ireland tomorrow, as well as going shopping with one of the cooks to buy ingredients for some different recipes I am trying to teach him. He made me laugh by asking me if I had come to Africa to see the black people, and was surprised when I told him that there are black people in England- but then he also told me that he has only travelled out of this district once, let alone out of the country, and most of the volunteers who come here are muzungus, so I guess that he wouldn't really be aware.
Victoria Falls is amazing- I would urge everyone to see it if they have the chance- but you should try and get there on Zambian public transport rather than flying in! From Lusaka, it took us nearly twelve hours to get to Livingstone, the first five hours waiting for our bus to leave, during which time the two girls I was with started trying to sell tickets in order to fill the bus up so we could leave. When that failed to work, eventually we got off and caught another bus, paying double but it was worth it to get to Livingstone at a reasonable hour.
I don't quite know when I last saw something so amazing as the falls- probably when I visited Niagara, but here is a lot less touristy. It's one of those places that you almost can't quite take in, and photos certainly don't do it justice. It's also probably the only place in Zambia that is raining at the moment- so we all managed to get soaking wet, even with a good raincoat on! Fortunately, the sun dried us off before we headed off to have morning tea at a posh hotel- but not so posh that they can keep the wildlife out of the grounds, as we discovered when some of our breakfast was stolen by a monkey! Livingstone is a really pleasant little town, with an interesting museum, but very westernised with the kind of restaurants and cafes it had there. The curio market is fun, but it won't be easy to leave without buying anything as the sellers are fairly agressive!
As for the Lower Zambezi trip, that was a little more mixed. I really enjoyed camping in the beautiful scenery along the river, and the two days spent canoeing was great fun, and a lovely way to see the beauty of the river. The food was delicious, too, after mess food, although it was slow in being served. But our guide was a little crazy; on our third night of camping he got drunk & took the safari truck out into the park at night after we'd gone to bed, ran over a rare animal called a pangolin, crashed it into a log, managed to get stuck & woke up all the guests of a very expensive safari lodge in the park, including the manager who had to help him move the truck. So, the next day we went on a game drive in a damaged truck, which of course broke down twice. The first time, it got stuck in a sand bed & we had to spend about two hours trying to push it out whilst it was being towed uphill. Then it broke down again a few metres away, whilst we had to wait for some mechanics to fix it. I managed to scratch my retina by getting sand in my eye whilst pushing the truck, which was very painful for the next couple of days! The worst thing was that we just missed out on seeing a lioness when the truck broke down.
So in many ways, that part of the trip was a big disapointment, although I am still glad I went. Now it's a return to normality- or this kind of normality- and to the real reason I came here.

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