(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!)
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| 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!
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| 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.
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