More Zambia

After our stay in the Zamian village,  Fr. Gabriel and Br. Ruben made their way back to Malawi and we headed for Victoria Falls.  We were lucky enough to stay at Simonetta and Enrico's house and even get a ride from them to the bus staion at 3:30 am.   They came to Zambia as Comboni volunteers from Italy.  They met while volunteering, got married, had a few kids, and are now living in Chipata.  We met them through a mutual friend in Balaka.  An amazing thing about their three boys, other then an endless supply of energy, is that at the ages of 8 to 11, they are able speak Italian, English, or Chinyanja at any given moment.  They occasionally made a mistake and started speaking to me in Italian and then immediately switched gears to English.  When around Zambian kids they didn't have any trouble speaking Chinyanja.  Simonetta said that they have even corrected her English.

 

We took the bus from Chipata to Lusaka which was surprisingly nice.  It was as good as any Charter bus I had been on at home.  It had personal cushioned reclining seats, air condintioning, reading light, and tv sets.  The trip included the feature "Fun with Dick and Jane" starring Jim Carrey which I had never even heard of as it came out since I've been here.  The quality was terrible and it was obiously a bootleg copy, but there it was.  We even got to watch most of it right up until the fatal scratch on the disk just as movie started to get slightly entertaining.  The failed disk wasn't a problem as the next features were the best that Nigeria has to offer so I was able to sleep pretty well.  At the Lusaka bus depot, we waited a few hours for the bus to Livingstone to depart, giving us to grab something to eat at a restaurant and check out the loca market.

 

In Livingstone, we found a backpacker lodge with space available.  Not being much of a world travel, I was unfamiliar with backpacker accomodations.  Based on the lodge we chose, they seem to be designed to give travelers the opportunity to go Africa without the terrible discomforts of being in Africa at a price students and discount travelers can afford.  As long as you are okay with sleeping in a dorm full of strangers, it was very acccomodating and even assisted guests in having a "real" African experience complete with Bungee jumping, motorized river rafting, and vaccuum sealed trips to game parks.  Nothing against the backpackers, but the whole scene was just very surreal.

 

The lodge offered free rides out to Victoria falls so we jumped in the mini-bus with the rest of the "rugged adventurers" and were on our way.  After paying the ten dollar park fee at the gate, we walked down a nice concrete pathway and saw one of the seven natural wonders of the world.  It's big.  I realize that any attempt to discribe it will always be an understatement so I'm just going to stick with "big".

 

We had just about enough of the backpacker scene so the next day we took a bus to a small town on the way to Lusaka and stayed a night there.  Passing through Lusaka, we stayed at another backpacker lodge even though we were looking for something more local.  Everyone just sort of pushes young foreign looking people in the same direction so we didn't fight it.  We had time to get a cheeseburger and ice cream, catch a movie, eat Subway and consider bowling (not enough time) at the local mall.  By the way, has anyone seen "UltraViolet"?  It's not that good, but we hadn't heard of any of the movies playing.  Its poster had a pretty lady with a sword in hand so we gave it a shot.