I’ve been realizing that a lot of you don’t get to hear much about what my day to day life has looked like since coming on this trip, so I thought it would be cool to share what a typical day looks like for me and my team while on the race.
This is “A Day in the Life” during one of our travel days. My team was going to a different city to meet with a new contact in Siavonga, Zambia. Hope you enjoy!
6am
Wake up to a mosquito buzzing in my ear, in a twin bed with Rachel. Both sweating and covered in mosquito bites.
As I turn to get off the bed, I’m stuck to the plastic mattress cover.
6:07am
Go to wash my face.
Pull my sarong off the barred window where I left it to dry.
Ask a friend to come help me.
We go to the sink together.
I reach into a giant barrel of water, grab a small bucket full, and go over to the sink.
Scrape the film of dead bugs off of the top of the water.
Have a friend pour it into my hands while I wash.
6:21am
Hear Kelsey turn off “the fan app” on her iPhone as she wakes up
Begin packing.
6:34am
Finish packing everything into my backpack
6:42am
Proceed to the kitchen to eat some breakfast
Wave off hundreds of flies.
Find cereal and milk.
There are no bowls or utensils.
Back to my backpack.
Get out my spork and pocket knife
Back to the kitchen.
Find an empty plastic bottle and cut it in half to use as a bowl.
Go get my nalgene to rinse it out with clean water.
Pour out some cereal and use my milk from the fridge.
6:50am
Time to go!
Grab our packs. Head out the door.
Walk through the blazing heat towards the bus station.
Rachel drags her rolling suitcase through the red African dirt.
7am
Make it to the main road and squeeze into a van to get to the bus station hoping we will get there on time.
7:10am
We make it to the bus station, make a pile of our things, and sit around while we wait.
7:30am
We board the bus, expecting a 4 hour trip.
In the rush of the workers getting us into the bus, we begin questioning if we are on the right bus.
Off we go!
8:15am
The AC on the bus breaks.
Some people begin opening the windows.
Rachel is feeling sick from the hot air.
I go ask the bus driver if he can turn the fans back on.
He says “it is finished.” Meaning, “we tried but it’s broken”.
Return to my seat.
9:30am
Two carrots tumble out of the overhead and hit Katherine before falling to the floor.
10am
The man next to me argues with the bus driver about why the fans aren’t working. He asks that the top window be opened.
The bus driver refuses.
The man is upset.
11am
I pull out a bag of leftover spinach salad and bottle of balsamic.
Nowhere to pour the dressing.
Get out a bell pepper bought at the market, tear it open, and use it as a dressing cup.
Dip spinach in and enjoy 🙂
11:15am
A large metal piece that covers the lights running along the overhead of the seats, falls off and loudly crashes to the ground.
Kelsey rotates her entire body to see what happened. She can’t move her neck. Sore from bungee jumping.
1:20pm
Still no idea if and when we are getting off this bus.
We go to make sandwiches.
“Anyone have a knife?”
“No…”
“You could use a carrot”
Rachel begins spreading peanut butter on pieces of bread with a carrot and passing them out.
Jelly isn’t worth the effort.
Serena eats the carrot covered in PB.
I get out a carrot too. I go to peel it with my pocket knife first.
“You had a knife!?
We all laugh.
“Sorry! I didn’t even think about it!”
1:40pm
The bus stops in Kafue.
“Oh this is us!”
We throw our things together and get off. There is nothing around. No bathrooms.
Tons of taxi drivers approach us and try to grab our bags.
I’m still holding a bag with wilted spinach, a bell pepper shell, and carrot peelings.
“Sorry for littering! :/”
I drop it and run.
1:45pm
We get all of our things and us loaded onto a small van while trying to negotiate price from there to Siavonga.
Supposedly another hour drive.
We negotiate a price based on us going “straight there”.
1:48pm
As we come into a construction zone, Emily asks to use a bathroom.
It’s an emergency.
I ask the driver if we can stop.
He says after “this place” we can stop.
1:55pm
I ask Emily if she is still holding up okay.
She says she doesn’t have to go anymore, and has “taken care of it”.
2:00pm
We stop so our driver can pick up 4 more people.
2:04pm
We stop so our driver can pick up a bag of tomatoes.
2:21pm
We stop for our driver to drop off his produce at his house.
He sends a boy we assume is his son running into the bush to take the tomatoes home.
We think were finally on our way.
2:25pm
We pull over.
The point man gets out of the van and runs into the bush toward the boy.
They talk. He points.
2:35pm
Man comes back to the van and we start going again.
2:45pm
We slow as we come into a town where the driver wants to say hello to all the other drivers he knows.
And get a drink.
3:00pm
We stop on the side of the road, where the driver tells us we are waiting for more people for at least 20 minutes before more people come to fill his bus.
He continues to reassure us we are in fact going “straight there.”
We argue with him, but realize he is our only way there.
We realize “straight there” is not the same as “non stop” here.
We buy some frozen cold water bottles while we wait
3:35pm
We leave, van full.
I put my ice cold water bottle on the necks of the people in front of me to cool them off.
The Zambian woman looks angry at first turn around.
I smile.
She laughs loudly.
Proceed to “water bottle cool down” each Zambian in the van.
4:15pm
We stop as the driver wants to get a water, and say hello to people he knows.
We snack on all we have left: raisins and a bag of crushed cereal.
5pm
We stop as the driver takes in another load of people, including two large sacks of potatoes and a vat of large dried fish.
The smell is terrible, and the space is limited. Actually at this point, it doesn’t exist!
Katherine is showered by charcoal as they load bags of it onto the roof.
6pm
Get dropped off on a street corner in the middle of nowhere.
An unmarked mini van meets us and starts loading our stuff.
He says he’s from the orphanage and is there to take us there.
It seems a bit sketchy, we get in anyway.
6:30pm
We arrive at the orphanage where the director wants to have a meeting in the outdoor cabana.
We drop our things inside the small girls dorm, where they have Cleared 7 of their own beds for us to stay on, and proceed out to the cabana.
6:50pm
Two girls help me set up my tent outside.
7pm
After meeting, we ask to go to the market to get food. It is now dark.
They assure us there is a kitchen to cook in.
We ask about where a bus station is so we can buy tickets for our departure two days later.
Our host walks us all around the town.
7:30pm
We stand in the middle of the road.
Bus station does not exist.
7:40pm
Still standing in the middle of the street.
Host responds to our questions with a smile and nod.
7:41pm
She walks us to a park to show us a tree.
We are even more confused.
She asks if we want to go to the bank.
7:43pm
Confusion. Hunger.
We ask if there’s a place we can get dinner.
7:45pm
She takes us to a place she calls a “good restaurant”. Her friend owns it.
Meghan and Katherine split off to go get food from the market.
Shopping in total darkness, they get 2 loafs of moldy bread, apples, oranges, and water.
Back at the restaurant, the rest of us walk into a dark alley way.
7:50pm
We sit at a plastic table outside.
7:51pm
We are moved inside.
7:52pm
It’s HOT.
7:53pm
We move back outside.
8pm
Kelsey and Rachel want a soda.
I go inside to get the glass bottles of fanta out of the fridge for them.
I grab the wrong side of the door, thinking I’m grabbing the handle.
The metal cap holder pops off.
Bottle caps everywhere.
8:10pm
The server comes out, asking what we want.
“Well what do you have?” We ask.
Chicken, beef, or beans with rice.
“Okay, ummm chicken for all of us.”
8:20pm
She returns to the table.
“There is only 2 chicken left.”
We say well take the last two and have two orders of beans and rice too.
8:27pm
Meghan and Katherine return for dinner.
8:35pm
She brings out two plates of chicken and Nshima, and two plates of beans and Nshima.
We ask where the rice is.
“Don’t have.”
We go to share Katherine’s chicken. It’s the neck and rib cage of the chicken.
No meat.
14 hands, 4 plates of Nshima.
8:50pm
We pay for the food, ask to buy 10 eggs, and leave.
8:51pm
She bags up 7 eggs.
9:20pm
Toothbrushes stored in the mosquito nets above our beds.
9:30pm
We discover that wool blankets are extremely unnecessary to have on each bed. Thank you UNICEF.
It’s HOT.
The girls help me drag a mattress out into my tent.
Somehow, it fits.
9:45pm
Emily and I go into the bathroom to wash our faces.
No running water or light.
We take turns holding a head lamp while the other washes her face with a murky bucket of water.
10pm
I head outside and fall asleep to the sound of two pigs sniffing and snorting around my tent.
