On The Road again

We left Kashawe at 7:00 am in our safari vehicles.  It was 45 minutes of dusty travel to the gate where we transferred to the 20 passenger bus which was our normal mode of transportation outside of the parks or camps.  I can’t say that I am sad to see this camp in the rear view mirror.  Like everywhere we have been, the people are beautiful and forthcoming, very welcoming.  The camp is beautiful, the setting unique, the accommodations and food are first class.  But the terrain is a tough one to ride through and the animals are few and far between.  

On the way to Victoria Falls we first stopped at St. Mary’s Catholic School.  The seventh grade children greeted us with sweet songs about being welcome and feeling at home.  The school was on their long break but these kids were working on extra classes to prepare for their national exam.  Every student passes on to the high school whether they pass the exam or not.  At the end of the four years there is another exam but the kids only go on to the next two years if they pass.  The Assistant Principal assured us that St. Mary’s students do quite well and are able to complete all the levels of education but most cannot afford to go to college because it would be about $1,000 per term.  

The uniformed boys and girls were very well behaved and the school of over 800 children has three 7^th grade classrooms.  There can be as many as 55 students per teacher.  Some teachers have been to teacher training and some have not but they will still have students.  I spent time talking with More Blessing and Madeline, both very sweet and enthusiastic to show me their work books displaying beautiful printing and good grades.  We checked out the map so they could see where I lived and where others in our group are from.  More Blessing wants to be a dentist and Madeline a nurse but I fear neither will reach their goal despite beautiful temperaments and excellent work and ambition.

Our next stop was at the village market.  We crowded into the narrow (about ten feet wide) shop.  There was a counter topped by a heavy steel wire fence.  Behind the counter was a lovely lady who was not the owner but an employee. Behind her were shelves not overstocked with rice, corn meal, juice concentrate, sugar, flour, dried fish, soaps, beauty supplies, and personal products.  We each chipped in to pool our money to take the best advantage of our purchasing power to gather staples and a few treats like lollipops for the village children. 

We went to a homestead.  Each village is made up of a series of homesteads and each homestead has several buildings inside a fence and also a garden which might be shared by several families.  We gathered in the kitchen and discovered a great deal about the Headman and his responsibilities to maintain order and civility in the village.  The women and girls do the home and garden work and the men and boys do the farming and tend the cattle.  Two ladies demonstrated grinding millet with a sort of oversized mortar and pestle (two long poles) with them both working in a smooth rhythm. 

We checked out a girls’ bedroom as each room is in a separate building.  The Headman and his wife have a stone cottage that looks modern but is just one larger room. All of the buildings are made of poles and a cement made from termite mounds.  The men put up the poles and roofs and the ladies apply and smooth the inner and outer walls with their hands…no tools. They do have a solar panel and the well-spoken young men who translated and presented village life for us charge their cell phones there.  One hopes to be an electrical engineer.  Even in the villages Zimbabwe has a broad and high standard of education.  Children run as much as 9 or 10 K to school each day, arriving in time to begin class at 7:30.

Gifts were presented to the village as a whole and will be distributed by the headman.  Although OAT visits the same few homesteads every week the goods are shared.  There was a crowd in the kitchen when we began and they represented many of the homesteads.  They do this regularly so were at ease introducing themselves and even the youngest children needed no prompting.

Back on the bus we ate our packed snacks on the way to Victoria Falls.  The drive did not take but about two more hours.  Then we went through the complicated immigration format again.  Transferring bags and driving over the border connecting Historic Victoria Falls Bridge.  Our first glimpse of the falls was only a taste of what was to come.

We drove directly to the Sprayview Hotel where we were greeted with iced juice and had enough time to for Vitalis to check us all in and to have a few minutes in our rooms.  We were back on the bus for the short drive to the Falls Park where we had a delicious luncheon of either chicken or fish with the best iced cream dessert at the Rainforest Café. The Vervet Monkeys kept us entertained as the challenged the wait staff by stealing the tablecloths and large chunks of bread.

Now the time came to view the piece de resistance…Victoria Falls.  The Falls is 1.7 K wide and over a thousand feet high.  It is higher and wider than Niagara but actually has less volume of water flow over it.  Now that it is the dry season it was quite beautiful and quite easy to view.  In the rainy season the spray obscures the majesty of the non-continuous cataracts.  On the Zambian side visitors ride in small boats next to the main part of the falls in ponds that do not contribute to the falling waters.  Very breathtaking to see people arriving at Livingston Island on these small craft and then climb quite close to the edge before sitting quietly in the heavy spray. 

We had allowed two hours to walk from the viewing point one above the Zambezi and to tuck off toward the Falls at all sixteen overlooks.  We met Vitalis at the end of the tarred path after watching the Bungee Jumpers off the bridge and the zip liners beneath it.  On the return bus ride to the hotel we checked out the layout of the town and of the key sites to visit the next day.  This allowed us about an hour and a half before we met for dinner at the hotel restaurant in the open air beside the pool.  During this pleasant break, we gathered poolside.  Phil and Bonnie swam and we just enjoyed the opportunity to be a bit more social than on our busy camp days.

After leisurely after dinner chats and e-mail checks – yes, we are back to civilization – we retired too our comfortable rooms, took hot showers in bright light – camp showers were pretty dimly lit – and rested up from the long day of travel and prepared for a free day on Saturday.