Bye bye Zambia!

Today we are leaving Zambia and heading to Malawi. So far we've had a great time. Right now we are on our truck bus thing and we have finally reached a stretch of road that is paved. The roads here can be absolutely horrible - at times we'd be going about 10km/h and people and stuff would be flying all over the place.

But, after all, TIA - This is Africa - and nothing is seemingly out of the ordinary. TIA is a commonly used term on our truck bus. I have heard it used in many circumstances, but mainly it is used as a suck-it-up response to when bitches bitch.

"waa I broke a fingernail"
"that shower was cold"
"I want a vegetarian meal"
"too many bumps"
"I need the front seat"
Etc

TIA bitches.

We have been learning more about the people we are traveling with. The Vikings drink scotch at breakfast, the Swiss family all have high IQs and the daughter is spicy, the Americans truly are annoying (I've nicknamed one Fiona), and the Dutch guy rocks (his nickname is little-spoon).

Our list of animals that we've seen has grown significantly! We went on a game drive in South Luangwa National Park and saw tons of stuff. The park covers 9050 square kilometers and contains the Luangwa river which is home to approximately 40 hippopotamuses per kilometer! We camped on the river and frequently saw hippos and crocodiles approach the camp. We also camped with the monkeys, who would have been a pest if it wasn't for their novelty. The monkeys made many attempts at stealing things from our camp. On our drive through the park we saw: elephants, giraffes, hippos, zebras, lions, hyenas, a white tailed mongouse, an owl, a bush baby, marmots, a lizard and more. Our guide was able to spot a squirrel in the dark from 100 feet away so needless to say, we saw all kinds of stuff.

Yesterday afternoon we visited a local village to see how they live. As the truck pulled in, kids came running to greet us from all directions. There were so many kids surrounding the truck that it was difficult to get out. We were treated to a tour of the village. We saw the kitchen, which was simply a patch of dirt with a small fire burning and piles of pots all around. No building whatsoever. We saw the toilets, the garden, and then the brewery. They make their own "beer" and we learned how and then got to taste it. First, they put maize tops, sugar, and water into jugs and let them sit in the sun for about 3 days. The now fermented concoction gets transferred into a pot and boiled. The lid catches the vapours and then they travel down a tube which passes through an old tire filled with water to cool the liquid. This process is repeated many times. They told us that the first few batches are normally around 100 percent and then they get weaker. The final drinkable product is a combination of all the different batches. We each got to try some - it was unbelievably strong! We also saw their water well. This town is lucky because a well was donated to them. The well supplies 17 villages with water and each families pays 1USD a month to use it. The village we were in had about 85 families living there. That is a lot of people using one well! Periodically the well is maintained (shocked with chlorine) by a professional to make sure the water remains clean and healthy. The kids were all very curious and interested in everything we did - I taught a few kids to pound it and then I had to pound every kids fist before getting back on the truck. They loved getting their pictures taken and then looking at it on the camera. They always laughed at themselves.

Today we had a pee stop just across the border in Malawi and kids came running from everywhere and were asking for pens. Luckily we are smart and we knew this was going to happen so we had just bought pens at the store for this reason. I tossed a couple pens out the window and then watched the dog-pile and fight ensue. So I will have to learn from that and do things differently next time.

It is just about noon, we've been up for 8 hours driving and I still haven't seen the Vikings' scotch. Gotta go inquire!