Happy Independence Day! Today was a travel day. We spent the whole day in the bus– it took us 8 hours to get from Livingston to Lousaka. So, for my blog, I decided to write about things you see on the road in Zambia that you don’t see in Washington DC.
In Zambia you can find…
-open roads (mostly)
-lots of vegetation
– people in masses packed into one car
– street vendors that sell things through your window
– driving on the left (wrong) side of the road
– people staring at the big bus of Americans driving by them
– lots of billboards, including ads about HIV/AIDs and domestic abuse
– Toyotas (there seems to be no other brand of car)
– less traffic lights
-signs that say “beware of flying stones”
-speed limits in kilometers
-handpainted street signs
-colorful buildings
The most prominent on the list to me is the staring. It is consistent almost everywhere we go, not only on the road but also at places like the Malambu School and Saintete, the school in Choma that we donated World Bicycle Relief bicycles to. Sometimes it is hard to differentiate between stares of curiosity and stares of disdain. At the Malambu School, the older kids would fall back and watch us as we did activities and played games with the younger children. At Saintete, at least 100 pairs of eyes watched us as we got out of our jeeps and dismounted bicycles. There was also lots of nudging, laughing and pointing when the girls put on their chitenges to help blend in. I guess it had the opposite effect. Although the staring makes one uncomfortable and self conscious at times, you can’t really blame the Zambians. We are foreigners; the way we dress, the color of our hair, our accents and sometimes our skin color is alien to this country and I cannot deny that if I was in their position I would watch intently as well. Even Jeremy with his fake Zambian accent cannot fool the natives into thinking we fit in here. For the most part I expect the staring to continue throughout the course of the trip, and to not let it bother me. A smile or a wave is usually reciprocated and just that small gesture reminds us that we are not so different after all.
After our grueling bus ride, we finally made it back to Jul’s Guesthouse. Liz, Sam, Nadja, Maya, KP, Anna, Bryon, Jessie, Jeremy and I played “volleysoccer”, and to our surprise we looked up to see red white and blue fireworks. We all gathered around and sang the national anthem.
Tomorrow we are going back to Africa Directions to re-paint the walls, and then Chikumbuso for the first time. I’m sure it will be a great day and I’m really excited to see the kids at Africa Directions again.
(Noni Ghani)