Blogs from Zambia, Africa - page 82

All it took was three months in Africa to transform me into an outlaw. It all started during my first week in Zambia. I had made getting my Work Permit, which allows me to stay and work in Zambia for up to two years, my number one priority. EWB volunteers have a long history of pain and suffering at the hands of Zambia’s Immigration Office. I was determined to get this out of the way right at the get-go. There’s no way I’m getting deported to Zimbabwe (as one other volunteer did last year.) That week went just about as I had expected. I made a total of seven visits to the Immigration Office that week. Why? I filled out the wrong application form. They ran out of the correct application form (and took two days ... read more

GENTLEMEN The sign on the door announced. Not that there was sign of any gentlemanly behaviour hitherto in the small toilet. On the contrary - the urine sprayed walls indicated of a squalid border police force. A squalid border police force that - led by their smirky police chief - had done a descent job delaying our entry by three hours. Accompanying us in our frustration was a Namibian truck driver, though delayed for a full 24 hours he was too seasoned to show any sign of frustration. In fact, he was so seasoned that he didn’t show any facial expressions at all. The elements of the Namibian desert had shaped his face like a limestone statue to resemble a furrowed, tawny hawk. He was the first white African we’d met. His truck cabin’s panoramic windshield ... read more

(Photos to come soon!) After such a close encounter with the King of the Jungle, Karen and I decided to keep the adrenaline pumping and started the day by doing our washing and banking and buying bus tickets for the trip to Lusaka. OK, so not the most exciting of mornings but this stuff still needs to be taken care of, even when you are traveling in exotic places like Africa. We had more interesting things planned for the afternoon though, and after lunch we were picked up from our hostel by Safari Par Excellence and taken on the short drive out of town to Mosi-Oa-Tunya National Park. Within this National Park we went to a private Game lodge for an 'Elephant Encounter'. This was to involve an hour of riding and feeding African elephants. That's ... read more

After making it back onto our bus after the Ngepi Camp we were much more relaxed and looking forward to experiencing Zambia. We knew that we were now about to enter the Africa we had been waiting for and we were right. During the 12 hour, sweltering hot bus ride we saw the landscape, temperature and way of life change before our very eyes. Nothing but small villages with mud huts for hours on end. No more stores to buy food, no more electricity and no more running water in the general way of life. I trusted that would be different for us once we reached the backpackers. As we arrived in Livingstone the scene became one like that out of an African movie you would see. Much less westernized and much more chaotic. As we ... read more

After one night in Johannesburg we flew into Livingstone. We were picked up at the airport and taken back to the Zambezi Sun which was to be our home for the next 3 days. We looked around the room briefly threw down our stuff and decided to get a look at the falls. It was just a 5 minute walk from our hotel and although it's the dry season we still thought they were awesome. By the time we got back to our room it was trashed. Apparently one of the housekeepers had left the balcony unlocked and the baboons decided to break-in and snatch our fresh fruit platter as well as root through the rest of our stuff to see if we were hiding any more food. They tore open one of our bags and ... read more