A Trek Through Zambia

three weeks ago, i took advantage of our school's mid-term break to journey to zambia to meet up with a great SCU friend, emily george, who came up from namibia where she is teaching with a program called world teach. Our destination? The one and only victoria falls, one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

On a wednesday morning i gathered up my huge backpack crammed with stuff for the week, and got on a coaster to mbeya town. There i would be catching the train that runs between dar es salaam and kapiri mposhi, a junction town about three hours out of lusaka, zambia's capital. I was told to report at 12 noon for the train which is scheduled to depart around 1:30, so i arrived around 10 am because i had yet to be given my bed or cabin number. Problem is, this train is notoriously late, and sure enough i was promptly told that the train would arrive sometime between 2 and 4 in the morning! Fortunately, the train station is right next to the place where we had the girls conference and fellow PCV anita teaches, so i passed most of the time waiting for the horribly delayed train, part of which was caused by a workers' strike, and as i learned later a 10 hour mid-trip repair job.

Hoping (against hope) the train would arrive around 2, i made my way back to the station just after midnight thinking i could snooze a little on the waiting room floor. Well, not only was the waiting room closed, but a platform employee informed me that the train wouldn't be arriving until 6:30 am. Not wanting to disturb anita again, i was in a bit of a pickle, until the employee kindly showed me to the employee locker room (for you “Rudy” fans picture the employee locker room Rudy sleeps in, only smaller), and essentially told me to make myself at home. I was surprised to see three women, two with babies, on the floor and benches conversing and laughing as only tanzanians can do. They were vendors waiting to sell their goods the next day when the train finally rolled into the station. After some chit-chatting where i utilized my favorite joke by telling the women that i pray in the Church of Satan (tanzanians love to ask you your religion and have a good laugh when i reply with that), i tried to get a few hours of shut-eye on a not altogether uncomfortable bench. Around 6 i woke up and got ready to board the train. Problem was it didn't arrive til after 7:30 and then we sat for another 3 hours before departing, bringing the total delay to a nice, convenient, and exhilarating 20 hours.

But when the train finally did get moving it really was enjoyable and brought back great memories of trains through europe. It didn't move at break neck speeds, but the sound of the wheels on the tracks, the familiar jolts, and the space of a sleeper cabin to fully lie down unhindered, were soothing and a much needed break from the cramped chaos of a bus. As the train wound its way south, i tried to take in as much of the scenery: the hills and tall green trees of tanzania quickly gave way to a stark, dry flatness, spotted with short savannah-like trees and tall yellow grass—a gorgeous landscape despite the desolation. And at the end of the day i was treated to a gorgeous, textbook blood-orange sunset.

Early the next morning i arrived in kapiri mposhi, but my journey was far from over. I first had to cram myself into a 3 hour mini-bus ride to lusaka, and then get on a bus to livingstone, the closest town in zambia to the falls, in the very south of the country next to zimbabwe. My travel delays were not over though, because on the bus from lusaka, we got in a minor collision pulling back onto the highway after a routine traffic stop due to a miscommunication of who was going to pass first. So, a 6 hour bus ride quickly became 8 hours, and my sanity quickly eroded. But, finally, i arrived in livingstone at the hostel after 10 at night a ripe 60 hours after showing up in mbeya to depart!

The next morning i happily found emily and met her friends mattie, jen, and adam who she had a rented a car and drove up with from namibia. We took it easy for most of the day taking the opportunity to catch up and stroll through livingstone and a craft market. livingstone is a quaint town, with a modern street grid, and western buildings, but because it is right next to the falls, it is obviously very touristy, and it felt odd to be solicited for business as a tourist after being so used to just living and working here. But that evening we had some fun by going on a sunset booze cruise on the zambezi river. The air was warm, the breeze was pleasant off the water, the sun put on a magnificent show, and the booze (though not the choicest!) flowed freely, and we all had a great time—much needed after my travels—in the company of about 10 super fun PCVs from zambia who were in town, some nice italians from milan who humored us despite our poor italian, a lone hippopatamus in the river, and a host of other party-goers.

Sunday we again relaxed in livingstone and at the hostel, but we treated ourselves to a lovely italian dinner complete with bruschetta, pesto linguine, and oven-baked pizza. Bellissimo! The only thing it was missing was the bottle of vintage red wine!

We didn't get to victoria falls until monday morning, but it was well worth the wait. I don't think that i can do them justice, but they really were breath-taking. The park on the zambian side of the falls affords views of the eastern end of the roughly 2 kilometer wide falls, so though it's not possible to see all the falls, what we did see was awesome. Because it's dry season, there was less water, and so the falls didn't thunder or mist as much they do earlier in the year, but each small section of falling water made for a picturesque cascade over sheer dark cliffs of basalt rock. That day also happened to be adrenaline day as the rest of the crew took part in some of the extreme activities that are present there. They did a gorge swing (which is a 50 m free fall before swinging), and the world's third highest bungee jump at 111 m! But since i wanted to do the zambezi white-water rafting the next day, i had to settle for taking pictures and being nervous for them.

The others spent their money on that other stuff, but i spent it on the world famous, and pretty large rapids of the zambezi river. In rafting there is a scale to measure the enormity and danger of rapids, class 1 being the tamest and class 6 being the most extreme (aka insane). In the full day of rafting that i did we went through several class 4 rapids and a couple class 5 (which is the highest that an amateur would be guided though). Every time we approached a major rapid there was always the thrill and rush of knowing that the river could very easily flip your boat or toss you into the water. And indeed on one rapid our boat flipped, and on a couple more i fell out because the rapids caught me by surprise. You learn really quickly to respect the power of the water and what it can do. The other highlight was just floating through the beautiful batoka gorge that the zambezi carves out below the falls. High cliffs of rock and small dessicated trees ran down to the water side where the river cut amazing sharp, cube and box-like shapes of black basalt rock. The beauty of it all reminded me a lot of a narrower version of the columbia river gorge back home in the great state of washington.

Wednesday was another chill day of hanging out with emily and the others and enjoying each others' company. by far the best part of my trip was just being able to spend time with emily. many of you know that i miss you all like crazy and especially family and friends from college, so it was really nice to see and hang out with her. so when thursday morning rolled around and her and her crew got in their trucks to head back to namibia and i got on a bus to head north, it was tough to say good-bye and to be honest, i had no desire to return to tanzania. but i think that is the anxiety anyone feels when they prepare to depart from an enjoyable and memorable visit with friends or family, and as the buses i rode (i avoided the hassle of train delays and bused overnight back to the border) put more miles behind me i began to recognize the blessing of having spent time with emily, and of having gotten the chance to relax and refresh myself for the last quarter of this school year...