Zebrafish

June 30

Zambia

It took a couple of hours for the coach to finally leave Lusaka after picking up most of the congregation from a local church. The front of the coach then sang African Christian hymns for about 2 hours along the bush road through the highlands to the Luangwa river bridge.   

child in village on banks of luanga

children on banks of luanga

Here we went on a 4 day canoe catarmaran trip upriver with John, Tom and Gaz from Aberdeen Uni. Walking part of the way through remote villages and low-river maize fields that are raided at night by hungry hippos. Throughout the day we saw crocs ahead in the water and passed hippos popping up for air.

upriver of luanga confluence

smoking fish

gorge camp

We bought live chickens in the villages and the second night Tom successfully slit one their throat for dinner. The rest of us couldn't quite bring ourselves to do it, yet, you should probably do it at least once if you eat chicken. That night we slept on a sand bank by the river and ate Nsima a kind of thick Maize porridge with our featherless food. Our guides took it in turn to keep the fire going and watch out for hippos and hyenas.

night camp

village shop

During the second and third day we left behind the villages and went further up the gorge passing several rapids until we could go no further without dismantaling the cat. We then did some scrambling up a nearby hillside and descended down a steep dry riverbed. We spent the entire return journey just chilling out on deck and soaking up the sunrays.

I then gave the mountain bike a 2nd outing by cycling 3 days onto the village of Katete. This proved to be quite a physical challenge, the first day I covered 65km through some serious hilly country, many of the local villages knew no English and would shout out Bwino Bwanji, meaning How are you as I passed. That night I stayed at the large but empty motel in Kocholoa with both electricity and water turned off because so few pass through these days.

I had 110km the 2nd day to a campsite in Petuake, it took me virtually all day to do and I'd had my fill of bananas and biscuits by the end of it. There were more villages on this stretch and the hills were less steep. Through each village a near riot would break out with the kids, once one spotted me they would shout to their mates and soon I'd have ten kids running by the side of me uphill.

In the rural areas everyone cycles on the opposite side of the road so you can see the occaisional truck coming and dodge off onto the sand on the side. Bikes are really common here and a lot of time I'd have someone either riding quietly behind me, by the side and talking to me or simply proving that they can ride faster than me. At the end of the day it was getting a bit much and I found myself digging for a bit more energy to accelerate everytime I saw a kid running toward me with a big smile.

takondane school

With exhaustion, sunburn, several broken spokes and a soft rear tyre I waited for a lift on from Sinda for the last 35km to Katete where I stayed at the
Tikondane community project
guesthouse. This is a guesthouse and free community education project set up by an Australian lady. There are many schools in the area but this one if for people that cannot afford education. They offer the oppurtunity for you to have a go at teaching on a short term volunteer basis and so I was able to sit in on a maths and science lesson.

The regular teacher seemed quite impressed with this and after telling me the lesson was about subraction, he subracted himself and left me there to take the lesson with no preparation at all. Although I ended up really enjoying it, the kids are really enthusiatic and keen to volunteer working out the problems I set on the blackboard. Amusingly they all answer questions in unison, and talk with their regular teacher with the catchphrase "So it is" to show they are paying attention.

For the science lesson the teacher asked me to divide the board into 2 columns, one for things that float and another for things that sink, then he left me again. I was left to improvise a lesson that took me into trying the explain density and displacement to blank faces and then talking about canoes, rafts and fishing based on my knowledge of the river learnt at Luangwa. At the end they all sang me a thank you song before I could hide away in embarrasment.

Malawi