A Vacation in Zambia

Yesterday I got back from my 1 week vacation in Livingstone, Zambia, the home of Victoria Falls. There is a regular bus going from Namibia to Livingstone, but we missed it so we had to hitchhike. The first leg of the trip, from Rundu to the Zambian border was fine. When we got to the border we had to leave our ride and walk across from Namibia to the Zambian customs office-- a 500m gap claimed by neither country. I guess there aren't too many tourists that walk across, most drive with their rented Land Rovers with A/C so Zambians immediately flocked around us, eager to exchange their inflation-prone Kwacha for the more reliable Namibian Dollar. I didn't exchange any money, I had forgotten to look up the exchange rate before I left and was afraid of being ripped off. We left the customs office just in time to catch a Zambian bus to Livingstone, but not until 1) A taxi driver offered to take the 5 of us to Livingstone, a 2 hour drive, for $100 (the bus ride itself cost less than $10) and 2) The ticket agent demanded a bribe.

If you ever go to Livingstone I heartily recommend the hostel we stayed at: Jollyboys Hostel. The clean beds are $6 a night, the swimming pool is chilly but refreshing, and the gates are always open at night. I don't get paid very much in the Peace Corps, about $230 a month, but I also can't spend any money living at Kahenge except to buy food, so I was able to fund the entire trip on Peace Corps savings. In total I got chased by hippos while canoing down the Zambezi, went bungee jumping off the 360 foot bridge spanning the Victoria Falls gorge, had a full-day safari at Chobe National Park in Botswana, and spent a day white-water rafting on class V rapids on the Zambezi (the next class up, class VI is defined as impossible to cross with a raft!)

I've added a few pictures of Chobe and Victoria Falls and the Zambezi. My camera was broken a few months ago by falling into a pile of sand, so I can't take credit for them. They were taken by my good friend Alex Pompe who also went on the trip. Finally, apologies for the poor image quality: the Internet here is unbearably slow. About the pictures from Chobe: most of the pictures were taken from 10 feet away! In the afternoon we took a boat cruise and so were able to get really, really close. Before I went to any game parks in Africa I thought that seeing game would be a relatively rare thing: a few giraffes in a day, maybe a herd of springbok, or an elephant or lion on a lucky day. No. When you enter these game parks you will see animals everywhere. In Chobe at any point you could look around and, literally, could see more than one herd of Elephants. Hippos are constantly snorting and raising their heads above the water. We saw at least 3 crocodiles that were 15 feet long. It was a fantastic vacation, and I would be happy to answer any questions if you are planning one in the future. For now I have one weekend left until returning to school.

Summer in Namibia has begun to rear its vicious head. Since Namibia is in the Southern Hemisphere the seasons are reversed: coldest from May to July, and the hot rainy season from October to February. Each day has begun to feel a little hotter from the previous one and I am beginning to find excuses not to walk outside during the "scorcher" 11am-2pm. With the gathering of summer comes the final term of the school year. So far each term has had a distinct feel. The first term: confusing and chaotic, the second term everyone begins to hit their stride. Unfortunately, the third term is the worst. In the first week of October (one month into the term) the 10th and 12th graders take their national exams to determine if, respectively, they can go onto 11th and 12th grade or graduate high school. The test is obviously very important, but once the 10th and 12th graders take the test the rest of the school effectively shuts down.

This is probably one of the most baffling and frustrating things that I face as a teacher. I want to teach. I am perfectly willing to teach any student as much as they would want, but after a certain point the school is far too chaotic to get anything done. I can understand students not wanting to learn, but I have also seen teachers sitting outside or in the staffroom when they know they have classes. On Fridays, especially after break, it is pretty much impossible to get any serious learning done. Learners will be shouting, running around outside, 80% of the classrooms vacant of teachers. I have had learners hide in the classroom metal cabinet in order to avoid coming to the laboratory. And all of this has been before the 3rd term, when supposedly school is in full session. I cannot imagine what it will be like when there is a semi-legitimate excuse to stop school.









Cheers!
Ben