Stranger in a Strange Land

Welcome. I am Katy, your guest blogger for the day. It's Friday and I got back from Zambia this past Sunday. Here's where I tell you about my trip. 

Day 1 -- Monday, Setpember 10 -- Chicago, IL USA 

My flight was delayed due to high winds. I tried to give up my seat in exchange for a free flight voucher + $500 (!!), but they couldn't guarantee me I'd make it to Zambia by my original time. So much for getting a free flight out of this gig. 

Day 2 -- Tuesday, September 11 -- London, England

I spent the day in London following a Red Eye flight from Chicago (thanks, Bill, for the ride to O'Hare!). Took the Heathrow Express from Heathrow to Paddington Station for the extorted price of 37 lbs, or about $75!! Welcome to London. From Paddington Station, I walked to and through Hyde Park. I've seen London proper, so I figured strolling through my current 'hood's namesake in atypically crisp, clear English weather was a worthwhile way to spend my layover. It was. I had packed several peanut butter and honey sandwiches, apples, chips, and chocolate in Chicago and enjoyed the last of my stash on a grassy embankment along with numerous other Londoners and tourists enjoying the huge park (think Central Park), pond, and water fowl. 

I made my way back to the Heathrow Express at Paddington via the Lancaster Gate station, all the while marveling at my surprising ability to navigate the London Underground subway system. 

Day 3 -- Wednesday, September 12, 2007 

A.M. -- Johannesburg, South Africa

My flight from London to Jo'burg was comprised of about 2 hours sleep and 10 hours utter annoyance and frustration with the passenger next to me and British Airways. The passenger next to me for being generally unpleasant, and smelly, drunk, and loud in particular. British Airways for exacerbating my passenger's smelly, drunk, and loud state by honoring his repeated requests for more free liquor--red wine and scotch, to be precisely. Also, for making their seats inconceivably small. 

If you're ever looking for cool safari-ish clothes, Jo'burg airport is your one-stop shop. Probably not worth the 20+ hours it takes to get there, but worth noting all the same. I had a layover here, also, but decided to stay put. Mainly I read, wrote, and marveled at the fact that, accounting for the 7-hour time difference, I was now on my third day of travels and still hours away from Zambia. 

P.M. -- Lusaka, Zambia 

I arrived in Lusaka after the most harrowing landing I've ever experienced. It was about 30 minutes of turbulence and my body cycled through states of anxiety and nausea, which I could have done without. We did receive a full lunch on the 3-hour flight, which I thought was really unusual but nice. Thanks, South African Airways! 

After shuffling through the VISA line, I was elated to find that Christi's duffle bag, aka my luggage, made it from Chicago to Lusaka! I grabbed my bag and found Christi, in all her shaved-headed glory, waiting for me as promised. Very exciting. A Peace Corps guy drove us to our lodgings, also courtesy of PC (woohoo), where I met a smattering of volunteers. All were friendly and pretty dirty. I felt right at home. At that point I also met Julie. And then I felt awful because I realized I had lost Julie's prized digital camera en route to Zambia. I was charged with two main tasks over the past few days: get myself to Zambia and get Julie's camera to Zambia. I had failed the latter. I called my mom and asked her to get ahold of the airlines because I guessed I'd probably let the camera fall out of my carry-on bag (which I'd deliberately kept at my feet through each flight to ensure that the camera wouldn't be *stolen*) on one of the planes. Thanks, Mom. Sorry, Julie. 

Christi and I took a "taxi" (guy who will drive you in some other guy's '86 Toyota for money) to the hip strip mall in Lusaka and had dinner at an Italian place! Mmmmm, bread and oil. Lots of catching up ensued . . . 

Day 4 -- en route to Livingstone, Zambia

After a restless night's sleep, I was introduced to the Zambia bus system at the crack of dawn. Julie, Christi, and I took a taxi to the bus station where we were bombarded by offers from "Ama guys" (guys who generally harass tourists) to get on *their* bus company's charter. I let Christi do the talking and just tried to ignore everyone. The buses are just like any charter bus in the US, except maybe dirtier. It'd be impossible to keep a bus clean in the Zambian dust, though. 

We arrived in Livingstone, the adventure capital of southern Africa, and got a bite to eat. I got soft-serve ice cream after an exchange with the cashier that went like this: 

Me: Hi! I'd like the black cherry ice cream in a cone, and a bottled water. 

Her: Large or small bottled water? 

Me: Large, thanks. 

Her: Okay. That's 10,000 kwacha (or some such number). 

Me: Okay. 

Her: (Taking my money.) Oh, and we don't have black cherry. 

Me: (Staring at the sign that lists black cherry among numerous other flavors of ice cream for sale.) Okay, that's fine. What do you have?

Her: (Handing me my change.) Vanilla. 

Me: Sounds great. 

The vanilla ice cream tasted great as we walked to our room at the Fawlty Towers guest house. Insert British sitcom reference here. The place was great: a bed, shared shower, kitchen facilities, and a little pool for $10 a night! By the time we settled in, it was pretty late so we mainly just chilled out by the little pool with some beer. 

Day 5 -- Zambezi River, Zambia / Zimbabwe 

Do you ever think that a life-threatening experience will bring your life into perspective, align your goals, and inspire you to do great things? Because it won't. Unless you consider an unwavering focus on preserving your life to be perspective, a proper goal, or a great thing. If you'd like to find out for yourself, try rafting the Zambezi river in mid-September. 

Rafting the Zambezi was, without a doubt, the most terrifying, exhilerating, and gut-wrenching experience of my life. Our boat capsized twice and I fell out once on my own. I did find that my mind instantly understood that my body was best off just going with the flow (literally) of the whitewater, even though that meant not breathing for uncomfortable lengths of time. Fortunately, the guides were quick to spot their floaters and the guides in kayaks were lifesavers.  See Julie's blog for another take and some photos. While this was certainly terrifying, it was also amazing. I'd do it again in a heartbeat and I can say, if you like whitewater rafting, the Mighty Zambezi is worth the trip. 

This is all I'm posting for now. I will update more soon!