So the day came for us to leave the Western Province and head back to Lusaka, leaving the volunteering phase of the trip and the start of the holiday. Due to sore heads (and a hangover on my part) we got up later than we were planning and only had a few minutes to say goodbye to the nshima covered kids. Molly arrived in the minibus to bring us to the bus station, we said goodbye to Rita (the orphanage manager) and jumped on the bus. We arrived for the bus at about 9.45 even though we were due to board at 9.30 (Zambian time is rubbing off on us) and guess what the bus hadn’t even arrived. So we paid for our luggage (he asked for 80000 but I haggled him down to 40000). Me and Áine headed off to get some money, food and water for the journey. It was a bit sad to be walking up through Kaoma town for the last time (we have discovered all the short cut alleys by now). Eventually the bus arrived and around 11 we set off for Lusaka. The bus journey was long and boring, we’d seen the scenery before and we just wanted to get to Lusaka. Getting off and buying biscuits at the checkpoints in Kafue helped break up the journey (everyone gets off and the bus drives through the checkpoint and we all get back on I’ve no idea why). Passing through Kafue National Park I say a Hippo grazing it was cool to see one in the wild. The whole journey there were women breastfeeding everywhere who never bothered to close their tops even when the kids were finished, at times it was hard to know where to look. One of the kids was cool though when I’d look at her and smile she would smile back with the biggest smile I’ve ever seen. After 5 and half hours we eventually saw the towers of Lusaka appearing although it took over 45 minutes to reach the bus station due to traffic. It was cool though as we saw lots of the city. Its a manic place with people and stalls everywhere. Once we arrived I had to be rude to one or two taxi drivers to prevent them grabbing our bags and taking them to their taxi. It was mayhem trying to get our bags out of the bus (the everyone pile in system was employed). After we got our bags me and Áine went to get Livingston tickets. Loads of guys came up to us trying to guess where we were going and then offering us tickets. We knew where we were going so we ignored them all. After we’d secured tickets it was time for a taxi and once again we had guys fighting with each other over who would take us. One guy grabbed our bags and started to walk but he refused to tell us how much it was but eventually everything worked out. Me and Áine hopped in one (after Áine had refused to pay 15c for a banana cause she taught they were ripping her off) and Jamie and Dan hopped into the poshest taxi with the poshest driver I’ve ever seen. The drive to the hostel was interesting to say the least (I felt like I was in a game of Grand Theft Auto, without the guns). The road to the hostel was closed so we took a detour through what looked like someones back yard. Next up was a traffic jam (not for us) where our driver drove at breakneck speed down the mud path beside the road. After that was another traffic jam of about 50 cars, but there was no traffic coming in the other direction so our driver (kamikaze pilot) took off down the wrong side of the at a crazy speed if someone was coming the other way there was trouble. At the top of the road he just cut out in front of the person that was on the right side, he then turned to me and said “this is Zambian driving now” (yeah and this is Irish shitting themselves). When we finally got to the hostel and hopped out of the rollercoaster we were shown to our room. We had booked a 6 bed dorm out so we would have a room to ourselves. It turned out to be a wooden hack out the back with no lock on the door. Today for the first time it had been overcast and quite cold here and this room had no glass in the windows just fly nets and there were holes in all the wall, a cold night was in store. Dan was still feeling ill so Michelle Hennessey, an Irish person who is starting a 2 year contract with the Alan Kerins project in Kaoma this week and me and Jamie had met with before our departure, decided to take him to the clinic (she’s Alan Kerins representative here and we’re here with Alan Kerins projects so she felt responsible for us). We waited at the hostel for her Dan and Marie Kennedy (who we went to dinner with the first time we were here) to return so we could go to Rhapsody’s to have a beautiful steak. While we were waiting we were starving so we had a bowl of amazing chicken strips and browsed the internet. After a while they returned (and Dan doesn’t have Malaria fortunately) and we set off for Rhapsody’s. Marie had kindly offered to look after some of the suitcases that we didn’t need in Livingston so we loaded them into her car. At Rhapsody’s I once again ordered the Mr and Mrs Smith steak and once again it was unbelievably good. This time I let the waiter pour on the brandy and set it alight. A large flame burned for a few minutes. During dinner we tried to pass as much information about the work we’d done in Kaoma. We were due to meet her in Kaoma but she had been delayed buying furniture for the house she will live in in Kaoma. An engineer is due to join here at the end of July and set up a permanent Alan Kerins Projects Office in Kaoma. After dinner I had death by chocolate for desert it was amazing. Once we had eaten as much as we could eat they dropped us home and we said our goodbyes. I then sat up writing my blog before hopping into bed in all my cloths and using sellotape to tape up the holes in my mossy net. So next up is Livingston whoo hoo.
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