17th October - Journey to Chipata!

I began my journey to Chipata with my new employers on a scorching sunny Saturday morning. The temperature guage had already hit 30 degress by 9am and I finally boarded the bus at 10am, after lots of pushing and shoving with the locals. (I really need to master the act of causing a stampede to get on a bus!) The bus was packed, with no room to breathe, let alone room to sit comfortably. Luckily my new boss Mr Shawa had kindly reserved us a seating area and I finally managed to fight my way to it. That seat was to be my home for the next 6 hours as we meandered along the Great East Road taking in the African landscape as we headed across Zambia to the Eastern Province. We crossed the Luangwa River (home to some very hungry crocodiles) and a scorching sun. We travelled onwards through some lovely rural villages and towns, Nymba, Chongwe, and finally we made our first bathroom stop at a town called Petauke. As some locals emptied the coach, there was the usual stampede at the bus with people eagerly watching over their possessions in fear of local opportunists wanting to make a quick buck with our worldly goods. Whilst Mr Shawa took watch over my belongings I used the opportunity to visit the ladies, to relieve myself from the copious amounts of bottled water I was swigging on the hot bus in fear of dehydration. However to my horror this experience was a like a typical scene from your worst nightmare (dirty broken toilets with no doors, no running water and certainly no toilet paper) I then had to pay a random bloke outside for the priviledge.
Back on the bus, I nearly vomitted. The smell of locally bought dried river fish that some passengers had bought was nearly enough to push me over the edge. All I wanted was a quick hot shower, some scented candles and my bed. Instead, it was 35 degrees, with 5 more hours of travelling squashed up on a sweaty bus. The nausea managed to subside when I glimpsed a herd of springbok looking animals running towards the mountains and I soon forgot about the discomfort and instead took in the amazing landscape through the window. We travelled alongside mud hut villages, churches, schools, markets and mobile phone shops until we reached Katete, home to Elke from the Tikodane Community Centre who I had met a couple of years ago whilst I was working at Whitewater. My boss Mr Shawa pointed out that he knows her too and I soon realised that everybody knows everybody in this country!
Sunset came at 6pm as we approached our final destination (my new home town of Chipata). It was so lovely to see the colourfully painted buildings of the mosque, Barclays Bank (yay, something familiar from home!), some cute Zambian shops and cafes. It was nearly dark, so unfortunately I couldn’t see much – all I knew was that I was glad to have finally made it to Chipata. I was fortunate to have a big welcome committee. Mr Zulu, Vice Chair of Dzithandizeni, Mr Banda (my boss’s husband), a company driver, and Maria (another VSO volunteer) all came to meet me from the bus. It was a bit overwhelming but at the same time it was great to be welcomed by lots of friendly faces.