Powerless

We are now traveling through the Western Province. We started off in Senanga and will go on to Sesheke, Shangombo, Nangweshi and finally Sioma. The west of Zambia is sandy and dry. Although we will be driving along the Zambezi River the whole time, we will have no electricity and no running water for the majority of this leg of the trip. We will quickly pass over a bridge and briefly into Namibia, so that should be cool to get to go to a third country in Africa, but we will be on extremely rough roads and we have already have had some car troubles within our convoy.

Yesterday we visited Victoria Falls and it was spectacular! This is just the end of a very wet rainy season and so the falls were gushing with water. We got absolutely soaked all the way down to our underclothes. There is such a huge amount of water pouring over the falls that we could see the mist rising from the bottom of the falls when we were 5 km (3 miles) away from the falls! Very impressive stuff!

I am on my fourth week of straight travel now and spending yesterday at the falls has been a great break from all of it. We were able to stretch our legs as we walked around the falls and we had a great laugh doing so. In fact, there was so much water and we were getting so wet, it made it hard to take photos and videos without ruining the photographic equipment. To visit Victoria Falls, the Zambians paid 5,000 K to get in ($1) and I paid 95,000 K ($25). We also went to another set of smaller falls today on our way to Sesheke and this time it was free entry for the Zambians and I had to pay 25,000 K. Being a Muzungu can be expensive!

When we arrived in Sesheke all the girls went to have their hair done. The falls took a toll on our hair and our clothing and so it was an opportune time for the girls to go straight to a salon upon our arrival. Zambians like to look good and Zambian women spend a lot of money doing their hair. Sometimes they wear wigs which have straight hair “like a Muzungu” as they described it to me. Other times they get weaves where they weave hair extensions into the natural hair. I spent 1.5 hours waiting for the girls to pretty themselves for our dinner, and by the time we went to eat, I was famished.

In the west you have a choice of nshima, nshima or nshima. That can be accompanied by chicken or fish. So I ordered sea bream and nshima and the fish was amazing. Nshima is ground maize (corn) that is boiled and stirred into something resembling a very, very thick mashed potato – so thick in fact that you eat it with your hands. You do so by pulling off a bit of the nshima, rolling it in your hand (or “playing with it” as the Zambians like to say) and then you take the ball you have rolled up in your palm and you scoop up some sauce or some green vegetable (called “rape”) with it. Contrary to its name, the rape is actually delicious and between that and the fish, I was very satiated at the end of the meal, washing it all down with an ice cold Zambian beer.