At breakfast we celebrated another birthday; today the party was for Tom.
At 10:30 AM we were collected for a tour of Victoria Falls from the Zambian side. Our tour guide was a young Zambian man named Haafwuma, which he instructed us to pronounce as Ha-Hoo-Ma. He is a member of the Tonga tribe, located nearby. As we drove to the falls, he pointed out an interesting fact that we were traveling on the Great North Road, which stretches from Capetown in the south to Cairo in the north. We enjoyed learning quite a bit about the area and country from him while we were on our ride. The information he shared included:
- Livingstone was founded in 1905 and has about 350,000 residents. It is the second largest city in Zambia.
- Zambia was formerly known as North Rhodesia. Its name changed in 1960.
- There have been six presidents of Zambia (he told us all of their names), and a presidential election is scheduled for August.
- For the first 27 years, the president did not allow any other political parties. The presidential ballots consisted of his name and the image of a frog. Then, fearing he would lose to a frog, the ballot changed to a choice of "yes" or "no." "Yes" meant retain the current president; "No" meant that no change in president was desired. Kind of like, "Heads I win, tails you lose."
- The money is called kwacha if paper or ngwee if coins. "Kwacha ngwee" translates to bright morning.
- The food that everyone eats is ground maize, served with any kind of relish.
- There are 73 tribes; 74 if you count white people.
- The main industries are mining (lots of copper, number two producer behind Chile), agriculture, and tourism. Agriculture has been improving. When Zimbabwe seized all of their white persons' farms, Zambia invited these farming experts into their country.
- The country's flag features the national bird, the fish eagle.
Whoa, that was a lot to learn!
At the falls, the views were again spectacular! We viewed the rapidly flowing water at the top of the falls and then, of course, the falls. In many viewing locations, the mist was so thick that you could barely see the falls, but there was still plenty to admire. We were provided ponchos today, but still got pretty wet, especially as we crossed the slippery metal footbridge.
And a few videos:
Haafwuma provided us a briefing about the explorer Livingstone. He was the European discoverer of the falls in 1855 and named them for his queen. He had camped on Livingstone Island at the top of the falls when he discovered the falls. Later on his journeys, he contracted malaria and died from it. He had been accompanied on his African travels by his porters, Sussi and Chuma. After his death, the porters opened up his body, extracted his heart and buried it under a baobab tree in northern Zambia. This is a place you visit today. To ease in transit, they then dried his body in order to get it back to England. Livingstone was an unpopular man to some of the white people in southern Africa who were slave traders. He had actively opposed their immoral activity. As a result, these slave traders stole his body and buried it themselves in Africa. Sushi and Chuma, out of loyalty, dug up the remains. They then made the decision to chop his body into smaller parts, so that they could fit the body discreetly into a suitcase. They then were able to continue their mission undetected. They were successful in getting his body back to England, and Livingstone was buried in Westminster Abbey. The lesson from the story is this, though: when you come to Africa, you will leave your heart.
After the tour of the Zambian side of the falls, we (Jackie, Becky, Andrea, Rob and Roy) stopped at a local souvenir marketplace to do some shopping. There were nice carved animals and other items, but the bargaining soon became unsettling. We did buy some nice souvenirs and small gifts, though.
Back at the camp, lunch was again delicious: bream from the Zambezi River. Then we had an afternoon break that didn't seem anywhere near long enough.
At 3:30 PM, Jacky, Becky, Rob, and Roy were the only takers for what was described as a "village tour." A young man named Mabvuto began by providing information about the school in the village, which is supported by A&K. He then showed us his home and other dwellings in the village, as well as discussing the ravages of HIV (1 in 3 are infected in Zambia, 1 in 4 in this particular village). The experience was sad and unsettling. The dwellings were mostly mud huts with no doors or windows. To us, this seemed like terrible poverty. Mabvuto shared his email address with me, and we gave him $20 to show our appreciation for his time. In addition to supporting the school (which receives NO government support), A&K also supports a bicycle repair shop in the village. Later than day, when discussing this experience with Poniso. He told us that we shouldn't feel to bad about this. He explained that the children in the village (who had seemed happy to us) have opportunities in life. They are not condemned to this lifestyle.
As soon as we made it back to camp, we set out on a Zambezi River boat cruise. Our fellow travelers had already departed on a separate boat. While the Chobe River had been smooth and slow moving, the Zambezi River is fast moving (heading towards the falls). It is very wide, and there are many islands in the river. In some places it appears that the waves in the river are actually moving upstream. This is likely because of variation in the river depth which can create a variety of currents It is very scenic.
Dinner tonight featured a mini-buffet of local foods. The local staple food is ground maize, which can be augmented by any number of items. I chose two types of sautéed greens which were quite tasty. Everyone was encouraged to try to deep fried caterpillars, but not everyone did. I think I was the only person who actually thought they weren't so bad. I ate three -- they were chewy and mostly tasted of salt. At the end of the dinner, each person was asked to name their two or three favorite memories. When it was my turn, I listed three: (1) The lioness carrying the cub in her mouth that we had seen at Sandibe, (2) The elephants by the water that we had been so close to on the Chobe River, and (3) The amazing bird life, which I had not expected. Then I added a fourth: our amazing accommodations. This got a round of applause from everyone.
We turned in right after dinner. Fortunately, Rob and I were already packed for tomorrow's travel.
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