Week 11- 17/04/2011: ‘The sweetest things in life are free’ (Personal development)

(Sorry it’s a long one this week- it’s been another good one! How I can write over a thousand words for a blog so quickly yet a thousand words of a dissertation drag on for so long, I just don’t know!)

The view over the falls

Over the past week, with the knowledge that our next and, low and behold, final, two weeks in Livingstone are going to be kept busy with visitors, we have been pretty stingy on the money spending front. This has mostly been in an effort to save money for the many activities we know that my parents and younger brother, then later Paddy and Callum (fellow Stran students studying in South Africa who are coming up to us for about 10 days next week) are going to want to do. It turns out surviving on very little money is very doable and also agreeable here.

Of course, the orphanage we go to is one place that is definitely free (forgetting the 20p we spend on the bus of course…) for us to be kept amused. This week, we enjoyed more clapping games with the young girls- my favourite of which is probably “I yam a, I yam a deeesco danceeeeeerrrrr”, just because it has English words in it. We covered the kids in stickers we had left over from teaching, which they asked to wear as earrings, nose rings and… chin rings. There’s a young boy Allan there who is about 3 years old and doesn’t speak any English. He didn’t immediately warm to us at the start but has since grown to be one of our favourites (not that we have any…) with his 1970’s multi-coloured flares and cheeky grin. On Thursday, Amy and I sat in fits of giggles (which have become far too common) watching as Allan found a little grasshopper which he proceeded to throw up and down like a ball over and over, making the poor bug too dizzy to fly away.

The hospital, though not cost-free, was graced by our presence for a third time this week too. Again, Amy’s fault, not mine- her knee is still acting up. When we finally got to see a doctor, he looked at her knee for a while before writing a long prescription and leaving it at that. He seemed shocked and semi-patronised when we asked him what the problem was and what the tablets were for, as though these weren’t perfectly normal questions to ask a doctor! When Amy also inquired about her sunburn he sent us out the door with the advice that the cure was to go back to Ireland, not exactly the most helpful!

In an effort to get some free cultural and physical exercise on Friday we thought we’d go for a bit of an exploration out of town. We just started following our feet and one golf club, a donkey-cart chase, a church choir, 6 apples and 4 very muddy feet later, we found ourselves back in town with a refreshing Sprite in hand. It just goes to show that there is always excitement out there; you just have to go and look for it! Though, wanders at home are generally a little bit different!

Two of the men making rope which they
 sell to fund their meals

On Friday, we paid a visit to an old people’s home here. Having passed by it every other day for the last 11 weeks, both of us were ready to see what was behind those walls. Having been advised to bring some basic foods with us, we walked through the gates with sugar, oil and bread in hand, to be completely, but admittedly temporarily, shocked by what we saw. It was like the feeling we got the first time we went to the orphanage all over again. One of the two workers there even described the ‘patients’ as like orphans on the other end of the scale, a portrayal of these abandoned people which we thought to be pretty apt.

In the Old people's home

I had gone there with my only impression of nursing homes being like the cushy indoor ones at home with people playing the piano, making clay pigeons, knitting and having nurses on call. This one was not exactly like that. There were six people sleeping on smelly mattresses in an overcrowded bare concrete room. There were people sprawled out in concave concrete compounds looking neither dead nor alive and most seemed in a world of their own. It was interesting to talk to some of them, though most were deaf or dumb, and just generally see what their living conditions are like. Yet again I was impressed by the upbeat attitude of the African soul. I guess people aren’t as generous towards the isolated elderly as they are to the cute little orphans though.

Another treat we managed to land ourselves with was a free flight over the Falls this morning. It turns out that when you’re friendly to people, they’re very responsive back to you. Who would have thought!? As we sat on the little 14-seater plane feeling some serious G-force and seeing the beautiful ‘Mosi-O-Tunya’ from above, there was a certain air of satisfaction knowing that everyone else was paying $50 to be there.

The lift we got back to town was also a free adventure in itself. Having already evaded one police check with 7 of us crammed into a car, we thought our luck was up when we passed through another check point. The driver instructed us to simply ‘smile and wave’ as we went by, which surprisingly enough, worked. We all literally cheesy-grin smiled and nonchalantly waved as we passed the confused officers and made it home fine-free.

Today, my mum, dad and youngest brother arrived for a four day visit. Amy and I stood in the airport holding a homemade welcome sign while I got far too excited about seeing them. It’s not the first time I’ve been away from home, and I haven’t actually been homesick at all, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t ecstatic to see them!

Amy finally got to see a Zebra!

We had an amazing day with them. I think the text my mum sent my other brother saying “judging by the appetites these two have, it seems they haven’t eaten in 11 weeks”, sums up how we enjoyed our five-star cake-cladded lunch with them.

We came across some Zebras (for free obviously) today too which tried to kick Amy. That was funny. We also went for a walk down to the Falls (for free) and saw another Lunar rainbow (for free). Apparently they actually happen every month…. oops!



Family!



It was so lovely to see some of my family today, and even though Andrew (my brother) and I are already squabbling again as he sits here trying to distract me from writing this, I know I’m really going to enjoy the time with them and then, immediately after, Paddy and Callum next week! You can call me sappy (and I know you will) but the sweetest things in life definitely are free, especially the company of good friends and family.

Week 10: 10/04/2011 ‘The Circle of Life’ (cultural development)



One of the six lions we were fortunate enough to see in Chobe



The first movie I can remember seeing in the cinema (during which, I believe my Grandmother had to take me out mid-way because I was crying) was The Lion King. It painted this picture of Africa being a wild continent where lions, monkeys, warthogs and hyenas roam free on vast open grasslands.

Until our trip to Chobe National Park in Botswana this week, I had been the one feeling a bit like the animal being scrutinised here, so it made for a refreshing role reversal! Of course there are times where I find myself squawking at Zambians too. Like when the ten-seater mini-bus, crammed with maybe twenty people, which Amy and I were in on Tuesday was pulled over by traffic police and they merely checked the tax and waved us on, ignoring the lack of seatbelts and excess of occupants.

Or, when Patrick Kayawe came to visit us on Wednesday, having come to expect that he wouldn’t be on time. When we received a call from him 2 hours after we were supposed to meet, saying he was at the police station where they were seizing his car because his insurance was a day overdue, he remained completely calm and controlled, assuring us that it was going to be fine. He would simply walk to us. Just another time I found myself laughing in bemusement at the differences between African attitudes to the often pessimistic outlooks of people at home.



One of many giraffes we saw, we even watched
as a two ran away from three lions



 I had to go into school a few times this week to carry out my final interviews and questionnaires for my dissertation, and on Monday when I went in, the kids were all outside for break time. The young grade 1 and 2 children spotted me the second I walked through the gates and all scampered towards me, proceeding to grab onto me, literally pulling me to the ground. As children pulled at my hair and hands, I couldn’t help but feel like they thought of muzungus (white people) as some sort of exotic different species. Even at the orphanage on Tuesday, some of the little ones stood poking at Amy’s sunburnt skin for ages, seriously concentrating on it as it changed back from red to white.

The 2 days and one night Safari in Chobe was absolutely incredible and we really got to see an alternative, more inherent side of African life! With the only stalking I’ve ever done involving Facebook, it was quite the change to trail a lion on the hunt, watch warthogs tremble as a leopard jumped out of the bush at them and peer over hundreds of buffalo as they journeyed towards a borehole.

Impala and hippos by the river

I feel like if I were to try and go into detail about the river safari and game drives I would be accused of some serious exaggeration. It’s hard to believe that wild lions were within a meter of us; that we saw numerous hippos, baboons, elephants, giraffes, antelope, monitor Lizards and crocs (over thirty different types of animals in total and dozens of beautiful birds); and that we (and by ‘we’ I mean everybody but Amy who slept soundly beside me) woke up in the middle of the night to hear a herd of elephants stomping through the campsite.



The campsite we stayed in was literally right in the middle of the unfenced wildernesses and the night-time sky was phenomenal. I have never before seen so many stars and milky ways! So much so that Amy had to ask someone what all the white fuzzy stuff was, to which they, of course, replied “stars”. We even got to wish upon a few shooting ones.

two of the dozens of elephants we saw

When we were all sitting around the campfire, roasting marshmallows in the dark, we heard a rustling in the bushes. When we went to shine torches in that direction, we were met by various pairs of elephant’s eyes mere meters away. When I was holding the torch over Amy as she went to the toilet in the sheltered hole, I heard more noises so flicked the torch to my right for a minute to be met by the stare of an elephant there! Let’s just say it was quite a sleepless night listening to all the elephants! The lion roars didn’t help too much either!

During the week, the highlight of our detection work was figuring out what we were going to do for dinner when Amy dropped all our eggs in the market. So, looking for prints in the sand, driving towards vultures that were circling an area and listening for a roar or a rumble in the bushes was quite the experience! Our guide, Leonard, had the most impeccable senses and was able to drive through the dips and dents while still spotting members of the ‘Big Five’ from a distance for us to encounter.

Us with our guide Leonard
by our safari truck

The excursion was more than we could have hoped for. Never before have I been able to sing Cartoon tunes (The Lion King; the Rescuers; Bambi; the Jungle Book- they all came up) in front of real life Simbas, Rafikis, Pumbas and Zazus.

Week 9: 03/04/2011 ‘Jolly boy and girls' (personal development)

The daily cooking spot in Jollyboys' kitchen

This week, while it has flown in, has been a bit of a strange one because looking back it doesn’t seem like we’ve done a huge amount other than socialise and work. I guess it’s only because there have been no lions, elephants or viewings of one of the 7 wonders of the world. Though hopefully, next week we’ll get a bit more of that! Because we’re trying to get our dissertations written, it means we have to spend a fair bit of time in Jollyboys (our hostel-come-home) getting frustrated with the lack of books and the high-priced internet.

There’s never a day that goes by where we don’t leave the place a fair few times, whether for the orphanage, the tailor’s or elsewhere. The tailor’s has become like a second home to us as every time we go to pick up clothes that we were told would be ready weeks ago, they’re either still in pieces or sized to fit a Barbie doll. Other than that though, we’ve spent the majority of the week in Jollyboys (working ever so hard of course). Over the last few weeks we made a really close group of friends who have become like family (with ‘mummy Jules’, ‘baby Bobby’ and ‘cool older brother Joey’) because we spend so much time together- morning to night. Whether sunbaking ourselves, hanging by the pool, having a braai together, reading, dissertation writing, listening to live Rasta music, preparing for some Zambian dancing or cooking up a storm in the kitchen- we’ve had some fun times here. Also, buying food together at the markets to cook in the self-catering kitchen works out at about £1 each which is fairly respectable!

Eating our braai with our make-shift family

After the riots a few weeks ago, we were trembling until we got back to Jollyboys and it was back to normality. It’s amazing being able to be the only mzungu for a distance when you step a little outside town but have a bit of Western normality when you get back to Jollyboys. Even just little things like being able to sing along to Spice Girls and talk about furbys and tamagochis make things just that little bit more homely! Though, little things do knock you back to African life, like the other night when I was sitting outside and felt a thick splash, which I realised when I looked down was a bat poo on me!

Our bedroom/hut from the outside

Time here also gets totally disorientating and we never know what day it is. Needless to say that on Friday when the activities board read “due to mechanical failure, the Falls has been turned off till noon”, we were a little confused. Our friend Steph assured us that it was fine though because we weren’t going to the Falls that day anyway… she didn’t really get the whole ‘April fools’ thing.

In addition to still loving some old-school 90’s music and hearing Rhianna everywhere we go, Zambian music is really growing on us. We recognise most songs now but just sort of mumble along to the tune until an English word appears in the song which we scream out at the top of our lungs, whether we’re in the markets or a bar. The nightlife here is also hilarious. Seeing rows of solitary Zambian men and Women lined up in front of mirrors, dancing away to themselves makes for a good giggle every time.

Enjoying Zambian nightlife

On Saturday night, a bunch of us also went out to a Mexican bar for dinner which was a delicious change to our usual cooked veg. Being out and about in Livingstone quite a bit, we have also found out that not only do lots of the kids from our class sell foods at the markets after school but one of the teacher’s from our school moonlights as an alcohol-seller on the streets!

On Sunday, we took a visit to the Livingstone museum to get some culture in. It is literally right beside us but we’ve been avoiding going because it’s indoors, away from the beautiful sunshine. It’s so close that on the Jollyboys’ minibus, the address is written, “Jollyboys Backpackers, 34 Kanyanta Road, behind the museum”.  It was interesting to read some of Dr. Livingstone’s original letters (which were pretty illegible), find out some more about Zambian tribes and view various artefacts from Zambia.

Looking at David Livingstone's original letters in the museum

In the museum, there was some information on Zambian animals and when Amy saw a fake ‘sweet potato moth’ she gagged slightly, and was confused when I didn’t have the same reaction. She thought that sweet potatoes (which we have been eating plenty of) were just like eggs for sweet potato moths. Almost as bad as when she asked me where pasta grew last week. One thing that was pretty entertaining in the museum was the list of traditional ‘don’ts’ for a pregnant woman in Zambia which included “do not shed tears”, “do not walk backwards”, “do not stand with hands on hips” and my personal favourite, “do not tie knots”.

Next week could potentially see a safari trip in Botswana if we get enough research done and words written for our dissertations, so there’s still plenty more fun times ahead!