Zambia and the roller-coaster ride it is

I have to say that I’ve never been a big fan of the roller-coaster. When visiting theme parks, the show, etc. I’ve never been one of those people who rush for a ride on the rollercoaster, mostly because I don’t really like the whizzing around, up and down. So I have to say that it will be nice to eventually get off the rollercoaster that is being a volunteer in Zambia. However until then, I continue to ride the ups and downs, with this entry being a bit of a summary of my ride over the last few months.

To work first.

This has undoubtedly taken me on the down, down part of the rollercoaster ride. In a post prior to our big Southern Africa trip I mentioned that I had worked with the team to put together a plan of things that needed (urgently) to get done. I even went to the effort of enlarging it and printing it in colour so that it was a visible daily reminder! However as anticipated little got done in my absence. In fact, I wouldn’t be exaggerating when I say NOTHING got done the entire time I was away. So much for organisational plans!

So, my return to work was frustrating. Donor funded projects had been left wayside and my first 6 weeks back were spent trying to get things back on track (more for the donors than my organisation). I have dealt with complete selfishness as work that was supposed to be done on behalf of our beneficiaries just didn’t get done, so the beneficiaries just miss out (and the donors get the blame!). I’ve also dealt with foreign donors who fly in to Zambia, spend maybe 4 or 5 days here, spend 2-3 hours with my colleagues and then tell them how wonderful they are and to keep up the good work. They completely undo all of the hard work of me and my Japanese colleague, reinforcing bad behaviours based on their 5 minute observations! Argh, aid! It feels so completely dysfunctional sometimes!

Partner's Forum Meeting for a Sports Advocacy project being
run by my organisation

Public Forum on Sport's grounds in Livingstone

I also became aware that through a partnership with a USAID funded organisation, my colleagues had been completing training and being put up in 5 star hotels in Lusaka. Why I don’t expect that they need to “slum it”, I find this to go completely against the objectives of aid money, when you think about how much it is costing to put up approximately 30 people per training for usually 5 days, food, transport refunds and daily allowances! How much impact could the same amount of money have in a poor community in Zambia as opposed to putting up middle income “aid workers”, who I might add, in the case of my organisation, have done absolutely nothing with the training they have received. Completely crazy and I doubt that US taxpayers would be especially pleased about this. 

Workshop with our Board Members to define their roles and
responsibilities

One win that I appear to have is in setting up a partnership between my organisation and the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA). The ZDA offer some great services to Small and Medium Enterprises and have agreed to run Business Management training for free for some of our Self Help Group women. The training will be only very basic, teaching them simple business concepts such as costing inputs, calculating profit, etc. Simple, but concepts that I’ve discovered many of our SHG women don’t understand and as a result are making losses on their Income Generating Activities. ZDA also provide links to microfinance and larger businesses who may be interested in sourcing their products from the women.

Discussion with some of our SHG women to better understand what
 they need to improve their economic security

Another up on the work front is that it is looking extremely likely that Mike and I will be relocating to Lusaka. Mike has been working hard to gain support for a stakeholders system he has built on behalf of the National AIDS Council in Zambia, and has managed to obtain funds for its implementation. A huge win and very much deserved! So it seems we will both have new jobs, as Mike goes to work on his system implementation and I find a new organisation to work with in Lusaka. More to come on this……

Away from work

A little bit more up on that roller-coaster ride, although feeling the effect of living in a small town with not much to do and a struggle through the hot, hot, hot October heat.

We have managed to keep ourselves relatively occupied, with yet another trip to Chobe NP a month or so ago, a trip to Siavonga (on Lake Kariba) to visit other VSO volunteers, braai’s and dinners with friends and Mike also gave white water rafting a go. We have also started the monumental task of researching our east Africa road trip. So much to read about and plan, but at least it is fun, even if it still seems like forever until we go!

On the road back from Siavonga: This is a very common sight 

Siavonga was lovely, very pretty and it was great to catch up with Joibelle and Vinod, fellow VSOs who were in the same intake as Mike and I. There’s not a lot to do there, but that didn’t matter too much as it was roasting! I thought Livingstone got hot, but it has nothing on Siavonga. I’ve decided that I’m glad I didn’t get placed there! Anyway, we checked out the Dam, which was quite low on water, had a bit of a look around town and spent a bit of time at the various lodges eating and drinking. It was a bit strange being in the lodges who charge crazy prices and then to look out and see the rest of the town on a hill side and their shanty little houses. The divide between the haves and have nots pretty much stares you in the face. Nonetheless, definitely a place worth visiting.

The Kariba Dam: Low on water

Looking out at beautiful Lake Kariba

Lake Kariba in town

It seems there are many uses for the lake, including clothes washing!

Roadside village

Lodge in Siavionga: Hard to see, but the hill behind it
houses many  of the people in Siavonga

The hill of houses

More houses......

Chobe NP, which never disappoints, brought us wild dogs this time. Amazing and super exciting as they were one animal on my list that I can now tick off. A bonus too was seeing a smallish elephant chase the dogs away. Who would have thought that wild dogs in a pack could be so timid?

Wild dog: How cute is he?

Wild dog being chased away by a "huge" elephant :-)

Wild Dog

We also had our dog Rambo castrated, an interesting and slightly discomforting procedure to be taking place when handled by a Zambian veterinarian, but it seems to have gone well (from our point of view anyway, not so sure about Rambo’s). I don’t think that Rambo particularly appreciated the blue bucket on his head either, but it did work in preventing him from biting at his stiches.

My doggy "Rambo" with his bucket head. At least he doesn't look
too unhappy

Lots of braai’s and dinners with friends! Looking forward to the coming Christmas weekend as we spend a “German” Christmas with our friends Marion and George and their son Leonard on the 24^th, and then an afternoon of yummy Christmas food on the 25^th with our friends Brett and Claire at their beautiful lodge on the Zambezi River.

And to all of my wonderful family and friends at home, wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe and happy start to 2012. xx  

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in 2012!!!

Botswana & Namibia Road Trip: The Okavango Delta, Botswana

The Okavango Delta was one of the destinations I had most been looking forward to and I’m pleased to say it didn’t disappoint.

After Mike navigated through a sandy and bumpy road into the park, we finally arrived at Mankwe Lodge. Again Mike and I had planned to camp while mum and Reegena were booked into one of their tented camps. However after a quick look at the camp sites which were approximately 3kms from the lodge, completely isolated and offering cold bucket showers, Mike and I quickly reviewed our accommodation options and with a pretty good deal on price from the manager there, went for the tented camps as well. A great decision and a real treat!

The following day we set off on our tour guided day safari. Unfortunately we didn’t have much success with our animal viewing that day (you know a guide is getting desperate when he gets excited over an impala), but were still fortunate enough to see giraffe, zebra, hippo and a lot of game. Regardless of animals, the surrounds were just as beautiful as I had expected, so I didn’t feel let down.

Better luck with animals the next day when we did a self- drive tour through Moremi Game Reserve, South Gate. Before we had even entered the park we had elephants just stroll on by behind us along the road. It’s so amazing how close you are able to get to them!

In the park our success continued with my long awaited leopard and a cheetah, as the key highlights.

My long awaited leopard!

Need a better camera: A cheetah in the distance

Heading towards 3rd gate: This water was ok, but we had
to stop on the next lot of water; too deep!

Our group: Reegena, Mum, Me and Mike

We felt so lucky with our animal spotting and I guess in many ways our luck did continue as we arrived for a stopover in Maun, ready for a long trip to Namibia the next day, only to have our radiator blow after we had arrived in town. Go Ruth!! She managed to hold on all the way to Maun, without stranding us in the park.

So the next day we (or mostly Mike) made a mad scramble around Maun to find someone reliable to fix it.

Our newly, reconditioned radiator

Back on the road that afternoon, with a newly reconditioned radiator and only a minor inconvenience to our plans, we headed off towards the Namibian border. Our goal was Ghanzi, which we made in plenty of time before sunset, but not without a second run in with the Botswana Police. This time it is was for speeding, 83km in a 60km zone, as we came into a roadside village. These police were much nicer than the ones we had encountered at the “Animal Control” post, but did still issue us with a fine. However, out of this incident came one of the stories of the trip for me, as Mike (who for some reason forgot to mention this story in his own blog), not only negotiated the price down, but then asked if they give “volunteer discounts”. Turns out the Botswana Police do, and Mike as a result got 100 Pula back. Classic!!

The rest of our stay in Botswana was without incident, another “Animal Control” post, but this time we had nothing for them!

The road towards Namibia: Too many cows crossing!

Unfortunately I am going to end this post on a sober note, as it seems the rumour we kept hearing throughout our Botswana leg may be true. Next year Botswana Tourism is planning to raise the prices of its park entry fees, by a LOT. Standard park fees that we paid during our trip are 120 Pula pp per day, plus 50 for private vehicles. Next year the cost is likely to be raised to 700 pula pp per day, nearly a 600% increase, or approximately 100 Australian dollars per person per day.

This change in fees seems to be an attempt by Botswana Tourism to virtually eliminate self- drive throughout its parks, forcing tourists to take guided tours and also giving preference to “high-end” tourism. While this has been their strategy for some time, I wonder if they have given enough thought to the flow on effects on their economy, given the money that self- drive tourists provide to local businesses such as fuel stations, supermarkets, craft markets, auto repair, etc. It seems a shame to kill such a large part of its tourism industry forcing tourists into skipping Botswana for other parks and countries, all to make a quick buck and meanwhile denying the majority of people (those of us who aren’t rich), the opportunity to experience these incredible parks!

Botswana & Namibia Road Trip: Chobe National Park and Planet Baobab, Botswana

Truthfully my holidays started a bit before our September 9^th departure across the border in to Botswana. Mum and her friend Reegena arrived in Livingstone with a week to check out the town prior to the start of road trip.

So, as a result Mike and I got to do a couple of the remaining tourist activities that we hadn’t yet done such as “Walking with the lions” and the Zambezi Sunset Cruise and others that we had done before such as sundowner drinks at the Royal Livingstone Hotel and Sunday lunch at Taita Falcon Lodge. 

Mum with the lions

The lions: Unfortunately these ones are bred in captivity

Enjoying sundowners on the Lady Livingstone Cruise

Sunset on the Zambezi River

Finally, the 9^th of September arrived and we set off on our Botswana and Namibia trip, with Mum and Reegena joining us for the Botswana part.

First stop was just over the border in Botswana, to Kasane. After a quick “lunch stop” at the border post where we had to scoff down our home packed lunch before being allowed to cross the border (damn that foot and mouth disease!), we made a return visit to Chobe National Park.

"Scoffing" down our packed lunch at the Botswana border

I won’t spend much time writing about Chobe as this was our 5^th visit. But I will say that Chobe never disappoints and hopefully the photos speak for themselves!

Monkey Tree

Impala taken it easy

Mum and me: Check out what's behind us!

After a couple of awesome days in Kasane, we set off south, heading towards Nata onroute to Planet Baobab, west of Nata.

The road south to Nata was interesting; under construction, the diversion road was narrow, slow and dangerous with large trucks coming from the opposite direction and taking up much of the road.

The road on the way to Nata: Over turned car

The road to Nata: Narrow roads

On this road we also had our first negative encounter with the Botswana Police. Set up on this stretch of road was an “Animal Control” post, at which we were forced to give up our earlier purchased rump steaks (vacuum packed), salad ingredients and apples. Apparently there are different zones in Botswana and you cannot bring such goods from one area to the other. I had a couple of issue with this as:

1. Botswana Tourism fails to disclose this to tourists, so many people run into this issue after making large purchases at local supermarkets in known tourist towns, and
2. The post was for animal products only. There was no mention of vegetable products, only the police telling us that they had to take our vegetables due to issues with fruit flies. I’m not sure if they were telling the truth or not, however no where on the post signage was there mention of vegetable products, only animal. Also interesting and a little suspicious to me, was how selective they were with the vegetable products. Things like lettuce they let us keep.

I did get a little fired up during this encounter, probably a result of my built up frustration at Zambia. But as expected I/ we didn’t win and I have little doubt in my mind that they all had a lovely dinner much later J. Local hoteliers also later confirmed that the vegetable products should have been ours to keep!

From “animal control” we continued onwards to Planet Baobab, a bush camp surrounded by giant Baobab trees.

Planet Baobab

I loved this camp and the Baobab trees that surrounded it. They are truly amazing. Most of the trees are believed to be between 2,000 and 4,000 years old and are just beautiful, especially at sunset and sunrise.

The camp itself was also lovely with cute bush huts, which mum and Reegena were lucky to stay in (Mike and I camped) and a large inviting pool to chill in while gazing up at the Baobab Trees.

The pool at Planet Baobab and me in it!

One of the many huge Baobab trees

Sunset at Planet Baobab

Mike taking a picture of a giant Baobab tree

To give you some idea of the scale :-)

Unfortunately we had planned only one night there; a second night would have been great and also given us the opportunity to check out the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans, which we were sad to pass by along the highway. Nonetheless, we continued on to the next exciting phase of our Botswana leg, the Okavango Delta!

Road on the way to the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans