Lusaka visa trip

Our day started at about 3:30, since the bus leaves Mambwe at 5am sharp. We got up, got ourselves ready and had breakfast and started walking to the junction with our bags for the 5 days we would be away for. It felt odd leaving our house for 5 days as since we arrived from Lusaka we hadn’t left our house at the school for one night. As we were walking, one of the teachers drove past and gave us a lift to the junction where the bus collects us; he was on the way to Chipata. We were 15 minutes early so had to wait for a while.

It was pitch black when we left the house and we saw the sun rise from the road which was nice although we don’t get the best views since we are in a valley. There were a group of pigs by the road making noise while we waited and as the sun began to rise we heard all of the chickens in the area start crowing! The bus arrived and thankfully stopped for us to get on. Unlike last time there was plenty of space in the bus for our bags as, being near the start of the quiet end of the route, the bus hadn’t yet filled up. Then all we had to do was wait for 10 hours until we were in Lusaka.

I had made muffins and a sausage sandwich to use up things in our fridge which was nice to have for our lunch. Later in the journey, we got our free snack from the bus which, disappointingly, wasn’t crisps it was malt biscuits. The journey was pretty uneventful. On the way in the girls from Petauke, who were on a different bus, spotted us at one of the stops. When we got off the bus we got a taxi with them to the hostel. The other two girls were already at the hostel as they got an earlier bus. It was nice to see them all again after such a long time. Andrew and I had a lot of tasks to do in Lusaka so we went out to do them as soon as we had arrived as it was getting late.

We were tasked by the school to get a drum kit for the music department as the previous volunteer had raised some money to get a keyboard and overshot so they wanted to use the extra money. We went to the Levy mall and were driven by the lovely Patrick who drove us most places we went in Lusaka after that first trip. When we got to the music shop sadly the drum kit was out of the budget by quite a lot so we couldn’t get it. We decided we’d come back later to buy some other instruments instead. I went to get some more credit for my phone in the shop then we went to look at the barbers we had seen on the internet. We had seen a very professional website with pictures of hairstyles that were similar to home so we went to have a look.

It turns out the fancy website was a bit of a façade and it seemed like a standard Zambian barber when we got there although we were reassured they knew how to cut our hair but we weren’t convinced. We went to look for an Indian spice shop we had seen online to get some spices we couldn’t see in the supermarket. It was a small shop and it looked like it was in someone’s house but it wasn’t actually. We got garam masala, turmeric and cumin. On the way back we saw another barbers this one looked more organised so I went to this to get my hair cut.

It was a rather tense haircut as the guy cutting my hair seemed rather unfamiliar with using the clippers which I would have expected him to be fine with as Zambian haircuts are usually short and I would think the clippers are the main tool they use. He also had a habit of looking at my face in the mirror and not what he was doing while he cut my hair when he concentrated on what I was saying. I tried to keep my sentences short and simple after I realised he did that. It was also tense as he seemed to be cutting with the scissors at slightly different lengths when he did the top.

In the end it didn’t turn out that bad. I have had better haircuts but it wasn’t bad. Here is a photo of my haircut.

Later that evening we went to a curry house and I had sweet lassie and butter chicken with an onion type starter. It was a very nice meal after having had quite basic meals for the month. It made some of us feel a little queasy though as such a large amount of rich food after quite a plain diet was a lot. We walked the short distance home to the hostel feeling very full! When we got back we stayed up for a while chatting before finally going to bed.

In the hostel, I met a French man who, after retiring had decided to do a round the world trip visiting conservation reserves and volunteering at them. It was quite interesting to chat to him in French as I’d not spoken to anyone in French for a while.

For breakfast, we had the food made at the hostel. I had a continental breakfast as I didn’t fancy a full English at the time. Thinking about it now though makes me want one a lot! It was only K30 for toast cereal and a cup of coffee. That being a total of under £2 which was nice since we’d been spending a lot on taxis since we got there. Kelly came to pick us up to take us to the immigration office at 10.

We drove there and went inside. We had to take off our bags and sign in before proceeding to the collection desk. We waited in the queue before being told we must go and get a file number before we could collect the permanent visa. We were then told that they weren’t ready which meant that our whole trip would have to be repeated in a month’s time. We got our temporary visas extended and then went back to the hostel where Kelly told us about the braii (BBQ) that she was putting on for us that evening which was exciting too.

We then went to Manda hill mall again to do our shopping. We got lots of tinned items since they keep well and can be used in an emergency we got chopped tomatoes, kidney beans and baked beans again. The important items we got this time were chocolate, cheese, a new kitchen knife and a sleeping bag for me for holidays when camping to save money. We also got a lot of spices from the shop as we hadn’t had a chance to buy them in Chipata last time. We got a lot, over 15 different types as we want to be able to make the food as varied as possible. By the time we had finished Andrew’s flipflop had fallen apart. He’d bought it from Chipata for about £2 so it was sort of expected. We bought some new ones and then left the mall. We went back to the hostel again to drop off the food. My bag now weighed significantly more than it did when I arrived in Zambia!

We then had to nip to the bus station to get the tickets to Petauke (where two of the volunteers live) for the Jonda bus the next day.

We went to Kelly’s house for the Braii next. Her house was amazing it was very large and had a lot of land. She had a swimming pool, a trampoline and a table tennis table! It was a big difference to any of the homes we had been to before in Zambia! We met her husband and one of her two children which was interesting to talk to them. We had some amazing food she had lots of meat including steak and chicken. There was a pasta salad mashed potatoes and a crab dip with vegetables which was very nice. After a short time there we had to go back as she had to put her kids to bed and get ready for the next day. We went home with full stomachs once again.

At the hostel we chatted until late again and then went to bed ready to get up at about 5 the next day. One notable thing about the hostel was that it had hot water for showering which might seem silly since its so hot. I was sceptical but after having one but it felt very nice! As we can have cool showers at home. Which is more than the girls have as they only have a bath.

More to come on the rest of the, trip in Petauke.