Notes from Zambia

Due to busy schedules, late nights, and lack of power this blog is long over due.

Two weekends ago (during one of the many power outtage in Lusaka) Debby and I traveled to Livingstone in the southern province of Zambia. After a long and bumpy bus ride, we arrived in the Livingstone. I was glad I had listened to my instincts and taken a motion sickness pill prior to boarding the bus-there were pot holes big enough on the dirt road to swallow a Honda Civic. Since we would only be there for 1 full day, we packed all the adventure we could fit into our Saturday.

We started out the early morning with a white water rafting trip down the Zambezi river. For those of you who are familiar with rafting, this was a level 5! Our 1man, 5 woman raft was the only one to make it through all of the first 10 rapids without flipping, or sending a (wo)man overboard-WooHoo. During the calm times, our rafting guide let us get out and swim in the river along side the boat--while they said they were joking about the crocodiles in the river, I was still on the lookout, and positive I saw a pair of eyeballs sitting just at water level. The rafting trip was exciting, extremely fun, and very tiring. But the worst part about it--was the climb out of the gorge after the trip. The only way out for those of us who did a 1/2 day trip was to scale the rocks and make shift ladder up the side of the steep embankment. And of course, I hadn't worn proper foot attire, so I did the mega climb barefoot. I kept challening the energy and strength of the african boys who were running up past me on the twigs bolted together as a ladder, carrying big metal frames barefoot as well. However, it was great fun, and I'm so glad we did it.

Our rafting gear. I'm assuming this is labeled as such just in case we get lost in the river, they'll knowwhere to return us.

After our rafting trip we caught a taxi to Victoria Falls and the intercountry bridge. But along the way we spotted a wild elephant along the roadside having a snack.

Before heading to see the falls upclose and personal, we had to make one detour...the jump of doom! Debby's scary bungee jump. The bridge spans the Zambezi river at 111 meters high between Zambia and Zimbabwe-so we did technically cross into another african country! No passport stamp though. After Debby's bungee jump, we went to see one of the seven wonders of the world! And a truely spectacular site it was. Just amazing!

On the master's project homefront, we had a good week last week of a full focus group. The interviews and focus groups have been conducted in Nynaja-the local language, so I've taken a back seat and let Alisad our interpreter take the lead. The great thing about Alisad, is that not only does he speak the three most popular languages in Zambia, but he's conducted focus groups before so he knows what he's doing. He has made all the difference in the world for our project as he knows the culture of the people so well and can really make them feel comfortable. And! today we met with our transcriptionists and will soon have interviews to review! The hardest part about the trascribing is that finding good typists is hard to come by. But we met with them and Ifeel confident it will all work out just fine.