Well, if we fly first class for the rest of the year, we can say that we had our World Race travel experience.
2015/09/24 Thursday
We got up at 0445 to finish packing. At 0530 we had some breakfast. At 0600 we loaded up and headed to the bus station. We caught the 0700 bus out of Mzuzu.
We arrived in Lilongwe around 1300. The bus dropped us at some shopping center, instead of the bus station (don’t ask me why). Of course, as soon as we disembarked, there were half a dozen cabbies vying for our fare; they even went so far as to start loading our bags into their cars. We were able to get them to bid each other down a little, but we definitely got the “Mzungu” (white person) price.
So we loaded the seven of us and all of our gear into two small sedans. Think Toyota Corolla. Peyton ended up holding her pack in her lap because there was not space in the trunk. But she did so without complaint.
Then we spent a couple of days in Lilongwe with the squad. It always is great to have everyone together, so we enjoyed our time before we got back on the road
2015/09/27 Sunday
We got up at 0430 to pack since we were told to be ready at 0500. (That means they probably expected the bus at 0530 or 0600.) The bus was running a little bit late, so I took the opportunity to check if our contact had sent me any new info regarding reaching our ministry location, and he informed me that he would meet us in Lusaka and travel with us, but he wanted to know when we would arrive – information that I did not have. So I responded and told him where we would be staying the night, and asked when and where we should meet him. I did not hear back by the time the bus arrived around 0915. We loaded up and rolled out around 0945.
Around 1130, we reached the Malawi border. We unloaded while the officers took our passports inside. Shortly after noon they took our passports and the bus (along with my lunch) over to the Zambian border, but the Malawi side was a better place for us to wait, so we stayed put. Around 1345 we were told to head to the Zambian side. Around 1430, we were told that we had to switch buses, so we proceeded to move all of our things from one bus to another. 55 people. We did it. It was great. We finally pulled out around 1500.
On our first bus, somehow Justin and I ended up with an empty seat between us, so we were relatively comfortable. On our new bus I found myself next to a Zambian couple who both had broad shoulders, so the gentleman and I shared shoulder sweat for the rest of the journey. But he was a nice enough guy, and I was on the aisle, so I can’t complain too much.
We stopped a little after 1900 for bathroom and food, and when we loaded up I overheard my seat buddy say that we had 5 hours remaining. About that time Esther leaned across the aisle and informed me that we were 60% of the way. All we could do was laugh.
At some point during the evening, as we bounced our way toward Lusaka, someone’s jar of peanut butter fell from the overhead storage, so being the thoughtful teammate that I am, I tried to catch it. With the side of my head. It didn’t work.
2015/09/28
We finally pulled into our hostel in Lusaka around 0010. We tried to get internet to check if our contact had given us any additional information, but no one was able to connect to the Wi-Fi, so around 0130 we decided to get some rest and hit it again in the morning.
We got up around 0545 to try to figure out when and where to meet our contact. At first we had the same problem as the night before. Then, at 0600, the power went down because of load sharing. But I did have my contact’s phone number from a previous email, so I tried to give him a call. It failed. I thought maybe that was due to the Malawi SIM card in my phone, so I asked reception to use their phone. Same result. So a group of us headed out a few minutes after 0700 in search of Internet and local Zambian SIM cards.
We were directed to a shopping mall to find Wi-Fi. This mall would have been nice by American standards, so it was pretty glorious to a group of people who had just spent a month in the second poorest country in Africa. We discovered a cafe that offered free Wi-Fi if you bought something, so we sat down and ordered breakfast (one of the highlights of my weekend).
When I got my emails to load, I saw that I had a couple of emails from our contact. As it turns out, our bus left at 0600, so we would have to wait for the afternoon bus. I sent him a response apologizing for the trouble and explaining the situation. I also asked when and where we should meet him in order to catch the afternoon bus. I didn’t receive a response by the time we had to leave around 0930.
From there we went to a phone shop to secure local SIM cards (the logistics team handled that while I waited). We finished up and returned to the hostel around 1015. Upon our arrival, I discovered that our contact had found the rest of my team at the hostel (thank goodness). So we loaded up and headed to the mall to get lunch and food for the journey. While the rest of the team started lunch, Peyton and I went across the street with our contact to purchase bus tickets (we wanted to be sure that we had seats on this one). At the bus station, there are a ton of runners trying to secure fares for their company; they make a commission off of the fares they bring in. Two white people attracts a lot of attention anyway, so we became very popular. We rode in the bed of the pickup, so there were several runners who jumped up on the rear bumper to try to convince us that we should ride their bus. We played the ignorant tourist card and directed all inquiries to our contact. Fortunately, we were able to secure our tickets and headed back to regroup with the team.
We got back to the mall around 1215 and the driver said he’d pick us up in 30 minutes, so we headed in to get food for the trip. Around 1300, the driver picked us up and took us to the bus station where we loaded our things, and the bus rolled out around 1400. My seat was on the aisle next with one of our squad leaders who was spending the first week with us, and our contact. But the bus was not full, so I moved to an empty pair of seats in the back and took a nap. An hour or two down the road, we stopped to take on more passengers, so I returned to my original seat. When we pulled out again, Deb had a pair of seats to herself, so she allowed me to join her since the two of us next to each other was better that the three men squeezed together. Other than the bus speakers blaring some unknown American Christian artist, the remainder of the journey was fairly uneventful.
2015/09/29 Tuesday
We arrived in Kasama shortly before 0300. We loaded our things into a couple of taxis and headed to our new accommodations. On the way, the taxi carrying Deb, Justin, Ralph, and me passed a gas station, made a comment about gas, and pulled over to turn around and return to the gas station. Except that he ran out of gas on the side of the road. At this point, it was hilarious. While he ran back to the station with his gas can, we waived down another taxi and switched our stuff over. The first cabbie came running back and yelling; he wasn’t happy.
We reached our final destination around 0315 – everyone in one piece and with all of our belongings – praise be to God.
