I'm taking my allotted days at the provincial house up in the Northern provincial capitol of Kasama this weekend. I hitched for the first time myself on Friday. It's 210k from Mpika to Kasama and I got lucky only waiting about half an hour for a lift. The car that picked me was really nice but unfortunately dropped me in the middle of nowhere about 117k from Kasama on the way up- something came up with their work and the driver and passenger had to return to Mpika immediately. Luckily a semi truck was passing just as I was getting out of the first car and it picked me up. I must admit I am not entirely comfortable hitching yet- but it's getting easier. I just really don't like the way a lot of drivers will try to bleed you dry with a lift. Most of the time, these folks driving weren't planning on picking anybody up that day so it's just extra money in their pocket. Why not just take me for free? I'm a volunteer with little money and patience for your incessant questions about why I'm not married, why I don't marry a Zambian, and why I'm not Christian... Geesh. Both lifts I recieved pestered me non stop about those things--- sometimes they just don't get it.
Anyways- being at the house has been really nice. It's good to have electricity, running water, access to a refridgerator, oven, and free internet! Plus it's a lot of fun to hang out with other volunteers hanging out at the house as well. The only problem is we all tend to overindulge in food and usually end up feeling a bit ill ;o) not always bad though. Plus I've brought back a lot of books I picked up here at the library and read at site. It's tough trying to pick out new books to bring back with me! Did some grocery shopping and have a way too big bag to bring back with me. Luckily a PC cruiser is heading to Lusaka tomorrow (the newest intake of Health and Fish Farming Volunteers is swearing in next week-I'll no longer be a newbie!)so I'll get a lift. I'm going to stop at a friend's site on the way back to Mpika and spend the day with her which I'm excited about.
Getting back to the village- I'll be working on camp GLOW business and starting a pen pal program with some schools in the US and the ones in my catchment area.
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Hi. My name is Nate Bloss, and im a pcv in Namibia. Im about to finish my two years; myself and 3 friends are planning on doing some traveling. We were wondering if you could help us answer a few questions about Zambia. Right now we plan to go up through the caprivi strip and spend a few days in livingstone around december 14th. After this we need to make our way to lake malawi by december 23rd. I have 4 questions:
ReplyDeleteWhat can we do in Zambia, particularily in the south?
Are there any nice cheap places to stay on the route from livingstone to malawi?
We may end up just sticking around livingstone for a while and going to malawi at the last minute. How long will it take to get from livingstone to the malawi border if we want to do it as fast as possible?
Can we free hike in Zambia?
Thanks,
Nate