Nkhata Bay was nice, but not what I was looking for. I really just wanted a peaceful place to relax, but it was quite the party village. The dorms were loud, people were drinking until four in the morning and then up again at eight to drink. Not that I am against it, but it wasn't what I needed at the time. Oh, and I was awoken every morning by a room full of CHICKENS (the door didn't close and the chickens and baby chicks seemed to like wandering around in all of our stuff). Met up with a woman who I had met in Livingstone who was traveling to Tanzania. We tried to make a plan to head out together.
I started not feeling well sometime Saturday. Not great by Sunday, but made the decision to try to get to Dar es Saalam in Tanzania (better medical clinics and I would have two travel partners to help me). Typical travel day across the border which included a hike from the hostel to the minibuses, a minibus from Nkhata Bay to Mzuzu. Another minibus from Mzuzu to Karonga, where I was squashed between two seats for three hours or so. Then a taxi from Karonga to Songwe, the Malawi border where we walked across, changed our money, and then walked through Kyela on the Tanzania side. Paid some kids 50,000 shillings (50 cents) to let us ride on the backs of their bikes uphill with our backpacks to the daladala stands. Caught a daladala to Tukuyu and then took another daladala to Mbeya. With a high fever, this was a huge accomplishment for me.
Found out the train from Mbeya to Dar did not leave for several days. It is strange... everyone tells you to take the train, but absolutely NO ONE knows when it runs. I must have asked 40 people, and each and every one of them had a different answer. It is kind of frustrating that no one will actually tell you when they don't know the answer to something. They will just make something up and tell you. But every single child in every single village that we passed seemed to know when the train comes, as they were all sitting there waiting to wave to everyone. So cute!
I enjoyed relaxing in Mbeya, waiting for the train. It was much cooler and after our horrible $2 a night hotel, we got a nice hotel room. I found a great food stand that made yummy grilled bananas served with salt and a spicy tomato salsa. Far less people speak English in Tanzania. I have learned early not to ask any yes or no questions because the answer will ALWAYS be yes. I guess what they really mean is "Yes, I do not understand a word you are saying". So instead of asking things like "Does the train run today?" I have to ask "What day does the train run"? to make sure they understand the question. I did see my first chameleon just sunning himself on a great big poinsettia bush on one of my many trips to the train station.
Finally, the train showed up and I got on board. Well worth the wait! The train chugs along through little villages. I also had a chance to practice my Swahili on the train with several people. They all were pretty entertained, and we all had fun. In fact, I may go meet the family of one the guys today or tomorrow. Oh, and I learned how to use a squatty potty on a moving, jerking train... no small feat! The train goes through several game parks so I saw all kinds of animals: antelopes, warthogs, baboons, monkeys, wildebeest and GIRAFFES! Unfortunately the train was moving too fast and I was too spastic to get any good pictures.Now I am in Dar, trying to get better. The clinics here, while better than the villages, are kind of suspect. But I have been up and around today. I met a guy last night who has done much of the same route I have and he knows of a place to get good food tonight. I NEVER thought I would say this but....I DO NOT WANT ANY MORE FRIED FOOD!!! Chicken and chips is the staple. Or fried fish and chips. Or fried dough balls.
The plan is that I will stick around here until I am 100% sure I am better before heading to Zanzibar for some spice tours, monkey jungles, diving and beach relaxation. I have a bus ticket from Dar to Arusha for my November 30th start date for my volunteer work.
My new phone number is: +255 078 281 3894. It will be the same until January 7th when I will head to Kenya. Just in case you have had problems getting through, each village/town has a cell tower but some are the company I use and some aren't. So if I am outside of the very small signal area on a travel day, you will get a weird message and I have no voice mail. If you text me, I can call you back when I get back inside the calling area.
If I don't talk to you beforehand, Happy Thanksgiving! Eat some turkey and mashed potatoes for me (as I will probably get more goat or fried something, or the maize mush stuff known as pap or nshima).
Love,
Betsy
So I have left Zambia. I would not rank Zambia up as my favorite and things are somewhat expensive, but I did enjoy myself. In Livingstone, I took a sunset booze cruise down the Zambezi where I saw hippos and a big crocodile. I visited Victoria Falls. It is the dry season, so the Falls are not as raging as they sometimes are. But it was fun to be able to walk around on the rocks and look over the edge of the Falls (not possible during the wet season). Looking across to the Zimbabwe side, you can see Zimbabweans queuing up to leave the country. I have seen refugee camps set up in every country. One of the guys from the hostel wanted me to go kayaking under Vic Falls, but that didn't sound like the best idea ever -- even in the dry season. So I opted to go whitewater rafting down the Mighty Zambezi (I still have great bruises and a lump on my head to show for it).
The weekend was spent at Mombova Fishing Lodge. I had met these guys at a Halloween Party and turns out one of the guys named Richard owns a bush lodge in Kazangula. He and his parents moved from a farm in Zimbabwe and built it all themselves. His dad died of Malaria while building it an his mom has moved to Australia, so now he owns it with a guy named Gary. He invited me to come stay there for free and hang out and go fishing. The lodge was really rustic but nice. I got my own chalet right next to the Zambezi River where you could hear the hippos. Gary and Richard gave me the heads up to yell really loud if a hippo or elephant wandered into my open air chalet. They took me out on their boats (tried to teach me to drive the boat) and taught me to fish. I only caught a small tiger fish and a squeaker, so we threw them back. When it got hot, we would just hang out on the sand dunes, play in the water (trying to avoid hippos), and dig in the river bed for snails to use as bait. Had a BBQ (brai) each night around the fire. Very relaxing and fun (although very guy-like Crocodile Dundee-ish fun, as everyone was a fisher or hunter and had lived in the bush for long periods of time).
Richard was heading to Lusaka Sunday night to charter a flight to Luangwa Valley. One of his clients got her car stuck when there had been some rains, so he was going to go hire some cattle to try to pull it out. We took the night bus to Lusaka, which SURPRISE SURPRISE...left late. So that put us into the bus station at 4:30 AM. It was actually good that it left late because there was a "traffic jam" on the highway from Kazangula to Livingstone caused by a herd of elephants trying to cross the road. They ran into a fence, so turned back and just stood in the middle of the road. We were the first car, so I got some good photos (everyone else seemed way less enthused than me and they tried to get me to get out of the car since "once the smell a human, they will move along").