On the road
Well I'm in Kapiri all of the sudden. I wasn't planning it. I was just going to hitch a ride to Mkushi and suddenly a really sweet ride that I couldn't refuse came by. An old man driving a camery from Dar Es Salaam to Livingstong. Alright it wasn't that sweet. But I've been itching to get on the road and go on a trip lately. Reading Kerouac really doesn't help. By the way, On The Road is my life. Zambia is the beatest place this side of Denver in the 40s. So I decided on the spot to come to Kapiri to use sweet internet, eat the heck out of a shwarma and hitch back home with Jen who is coming up from Lusaka. Of course I texted Lusaka and let them know I'm out of district 'cause like a real beatnick I love following the rules. The old man who gave me a ride was wearing a shirt that said "To get into Heaven you have to have the HELL beaten out of you" in all earnestness. He reminds me a preacher in Georgia I spent a week with who had a penchant for humourous and slightly relgious baseball caps. They should hang out.
Since I can't jump in the car and drive up the coast for a weekend, I came to Kapiri. Cimo cine. I need to wait around till April which is the next time I can really put some miles between me and my village. Jen and I are heading up to Lake Tanganyika the second largest freshwater lake in the world where we are going to pretend we are tourists and do culturally inapproperiate things like wear bathing suits and complain about bad service. I can't wait.
But until then my schedule is a little tight. I rush around all day from one appointment to another getting sunburnt and dehydrated. I was looking at white people at a gas station in Kapriri today. It's what we villagers do, it's fun! And I couldn't believe they were in a gas station in Kapriri, first off. Then I couldn't believe how sunburned and sweaty they were and how tiny their man shorts were. And they were driving. I don't want to think how horrible I look when I pull up on a bike to some poor farmers house after biking 20k. Then again I'm sure that's what they think white people look like all the time, and in Zambia it's true.
My women's group is finally back on track and things are going swimmingly. We are going to start to keep bees and I have a local expert coming to teach the women how to do it. He's very local- he's actually married to one of my women. Pretty cool. He's already working on his speech for monday. I'm going to have my own hive too. It'll be fun. I'll have gallons of honey and bees around at all times. This happens at my house anyway. A few days ago I left some fruit out and it attracted a cloud of African bees. Yea the ones that come over and terrorize you Americans. I got bit- they are pretty aggressive. I'm excited.
A few things that happened and are difficult to fit into a narrative:
-I saw monkeys. Just swinging around in trees on the great north road.
-While I was biking a guy biking past me threw his fist in the air and screamed "IKEA!" Anyone know swedish?
-I biked 70km on bush roads, carrying a lot of groceries and no water visiting farmers. It was one long day. That's 45 miles folks. "But Laura you used to bike a century like it was nothing" Well everything in Africa is harder and I think that bike ride was one of my toughest. For one 90% of it was off roading and you can't stop for a snickers like you can in say Iowa.
- I found out that ukusuma means to be nice and it means to bite. The only difference in the words is the tones which are imperceptiable to me. So when people have been asking me if my dog bites for the past 6 months I've been saying "Yes he bites very much" with a huge smile on my face. Hilarious.
-Winston caught a chicken. He's been chasing them for months but he managed to come around the corner with a pretty good sized chicken entirely in his mouth. I almost had a heart attack- because of course it wasn't my chicken. The chicken was ok- just got a ride is all.
-I've also come around to the idea that going to the bathroom, sleeping and cooking in the same building is pretty gross. When I get home I am promptly putting on lots of weight and building an insaka.
Since I can't jump in the car and drive up the coast for a weekend, I came to Kapiri. Cimo cine. I need to wait around till April which is the next time I can really put some miles between me and my village. Jen and I are heading up to Lake Tanganyika the second largest freshwater lake in the world where we are going to pretend we are tourists and do culturally inapproperiate things like wear bathing suits and complain about bad service. I can't wait.
But until then my schedule is a little tight. I rush around all day from one appointment to another getting sunburnt and dehydrated. I was looking at white people at a gas station in Kapriri today. It's what we villagers do, it's fun! And I couldn't believe they were in a gas station in Kapriri, first off. Then I couldn't believe how sunburned and sweaty they were and how tiny their man shorts were. And they were driving. I don't want to think how horrible I look when I pull up on a bike to some poor farmers house after biking 20k. Then again I'm sure that's what they think white people look like all the time, and in Zambia it's true.
My women's group is finally back on track and things are going swimmingly. We are going to start to keep bees and I have a local expert coming to teach the women how to do it. He's very local- he's actually married to one of my women. Pretty cool. He's already working on his speech for monday. I'm going to have my own hive too. It'll be fun. I'll have gallons of honey and bees around at all times. This happens at my house anyway. A few days ago I left some fruit out and it attracted a cloud of African bees. Yea the ones that come over and terrorize you Americans. I got bit- they are pretty aggressive. I'm excited.
A few things that happened and are difficult to fit into a narrative:
-I saw monkeys. Just swinging around in trees on the great north road.
-While I was biking a guy biking past me threw his fist in the air and screamed "IKEA!" Anyone know swedish?
-I biked 70km on bush roads, carrying a lot of groceries and no water visiting farmers. It was one long day. That's 45 miles folks. "But Laura you used to bike a century like it was nothing" Well everything in Africa is harder and I think that bike ride was one of my toughest. For one 90% of it was off roading and you can't stop for a snickers like you can in say Iowa.
- I found out that ukusuma means to be nice and it means to bite. The only difference in the words is the tones which are imperceptiable to me. So when people have been asking me if my dog bites for the past 6 months I've been saying "Yes he bites very much" with a huge smile on my face. Hilarious.
-Winston caught a chicken. He's been chasing them for months but he managed to come around the corner with a pretty good sized chicken entirely in his mouth. I almost had a heart attack- because of course it wasn't my chicken. The chicken was ok- just got a ride is all.
-I've also come around to the idea that going to the bathroom, sleeping and cooking in the same building is pretty gross. When I get home I am promptly putting on lots of weight and building an insaka.
posted by Laura in Zed @ 12:19 PM
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