'Twas the season to be jolly...

The traffic lights in the centre of town haven’t worked since mid-November so there was little hope for bright lights in the shape of the latest Disney flick this Christmas. Luckily, Shoprite sells red and green crepe paper so we got to work on some homemade decorations – making paper snowmen and Santa in his winter togs when it’s approaching 35degrees outside did seem a little strange, but I suppose twenty-four years of chilly Christmases can’t be forgotten that easily. Anyway, the local Shoprite had been playing ‘I’m dreaming of a White Christmas’ since early November!


We decided to stay in Chipata for Christmas and see how the locals celebrate. Unfortunately, it seems there is little Christmas tradition practiced in Chipata outside of going to Church – each time I asked someone what they had planned they replied that they had little money spare to spend on lavish celebrations. However, I did definitely notice a growth in the number of semi-live chickens slung over people’s shoulders and fully grown goats strapped to the back of bicycles, on their way to the Christmas dinner table no doubt.


Christmas day turned out to be surprisingly ordinary. We had a couple of other volunteers staying with us. David cracked open his first bottle of beer at 9:30am and got stuck into a Lord of the Rings board game. Dennis turned up with a bottle of brandy in tow. We managed to rustle up a feast of nut roast, roast potatoes, mashed butternut squash (experiment gone wrong – don’t try it), honey roasted veggies, roast chicken, the sickliest chocolate cake ever and mince meat strudel (we could only find puff pastry) complete with Christmas crackers, paper hats and bad jokes. We played cards on the veranda for a while, ate more cake, Henry and Dave had a ‘discussion’ about politics.


A couple of days after Christmas Izzi, a VSO working in Namibia and her friend Joost came to pick us up on their way to Livingstone. They were on the return leg of a mammoth trip across South-central Africa from Windhoek in Namibia, through Zambia to Lake Malawi. Check out Izzi’s blog at www.isabelleinnamibia.wordpress.com.


Despite my rubbish attempts at avoiding potholes we made it to Lusaka safely. We hadn’t been west out of Chipata since arriving back in October and the landscape has completely changed. A few weeks of rain and the brown has turned to green, the dry river is now full and the skeleton twigs are now fully grown trees, beautiful.


When I arrived in Lusaka almost three months ago it seemed small, uninspiring, a little dirty and under-developed in comparison to Harare (no matter how much I try not to, I often find myself comparing Zambia to Zimbabwe). However, after living in Chipata, Lusaka really felt like the BIG bright city. We headed straight for the cinema to see the new (is it still ‘new’?) James Bond movie, which was pretty good. If anyone took a shine to the baddie with the weepy eye check out ‘Open Hearts’ a Danish film Henry and I stumbled across a few weeks ago. Rubbish title but quite thought provoking!


Besides going an hour in the wrong direction, which is almost impossible in Zambia where most major roads run straight out of the capital and have very few turn offs, we arrived in Livingstone a few nights before New Year’s Eve.


Zambia’s Southern Province appears more developed than the Eastern. Most of the towns we drove through were smaller than Chipata but had real concrete pavements and tarmac roads. I’m guessing the reason is that most of the towns benefited from the (now barely used) railway that runs down from Lusaka to Livingstone.

Livingstone was great fun, we met up with another ten or so volunteers who’d travelled from all across Southern Africa. Despite his lack of appetite for adrenaline sports Henry convinced himself to jump 53m into a gorge attached only to me and a giant swing and surprised himself by actually enjoying it.


Livingstone is Zambia’s gateway to Victoria Falls. From the Zambian side you can stand on top of the falls just at the edge before the water begins to fall. We also clambered down to the ‘boiling point’ which is where all the rafting begins just at the foot of the falls. Wearing only flipflops, we weren’t really prepared for scrambling over rocks but made it to the bottom no problems. Just as we turned to climb back up we got a fright as a metre in front of us stood a massive daddy baboon. Thankfully, by the time we’d finished panicking and scrabbling about for a stone to throw he’d disappeared. Henry only decided to tell me when we’d made it safely to the top that baboons are known to attack females and that the giant worm I’d seen on the walk down was actually a small snake….shudder!!!


On New Year’s Eve we saw a family of hippos and a crocodile from the safety of a sunset cruise and spent the rest of the evening becoming quite merry on the waterfront. And now after two days of coach journeys Zambian style (a 6hr journey took 11hours!) we're back in Chipata.