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| 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!
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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