The second half of September was full of traveling. Travel to some workshops and travel to vacation. Traveling is one of the worst things about Zambia. As PCV we are not allowed to drive we have to either hitch, take a mini bus or take a bus when we are moving long distances.

I know hitching is what serial killers do in the USA but in Zambia it’s more like Uber than anything else. Mini buses, to me, are one of the worst ways to travel in Zambia. They basically are a big van with multiple rows of sets and they stuff as many people as possible into them. I’ve been in some that had 20+ people in it. They stop every time they see a person on the side of the road and sometimes don’t leave a stop until they are filled (which can take forever). Regular buses are a close second, and I often times refuse to ride in them. They are really unsafe (google Zambian bus accidents) and they are very uncomfortable and always so hot. Most Zambians don’t wear deodorant because it’s basically a luxury item here (if you afford to send your kids to school you’re not buying deodorant). So the buses often times have this sweet, sticky, body odor smell to them.

Because there is only a couple paved roads in the country it took me two days of full travel to get to the trainings. The first one was over bee keeping. The second one was about orange flesh sweet potatoes and orange maize. These orange plants have a higher amount of vitamin A in them. It was a super interesting workshop because vitamin A is one of the leading deficiency in Zambia. It leads to eye problems, lower immune system and extras causes death. At the end of the training my counterpart and I were given seeds of the sweet potatoes. We are hoping to grow them and slowly give out more seeds that will be produced.

I will say that my travel to my vacation was well worth it. Every quarter we get four Cultural Days to spend exploring different parts of Zambia. We get to choose when in the quarter we want to use them and we’re we want to go. Unfortunately we don’t get any money for these days so everywhere PCV go we have to do it on a very slim budget.

A friend and I chose to use our days at South Luangwa national park. We stayed at a lodge that is right next to the park and got to see some amazing animals. We spent four days there and had one full day of safari into the park.

The lodge itself was located along a river, which had a ton of hippos in it. Hippos are so hug! They also had this really cool outdoor bathroom/shower set up that was under this big tree. There were monkeys that ran around the grass area of the lodge all day long. Elephants walked through the lodge grounds every day we were there. On the first day even a herd of giraffes walked through.

Because it was dry season the water level in the river was really low and the bush was dried up so it was really easy to see all the animals.

The safari was really a life time experience. I hope I never forget the feeling of seeing all those animals at once. Complete joy. It was really breathtaking. During the drives we got to see: elephant, giraffes, zebras, lions, a leopard, hyenas, hippos, squirrels, vultures, water buffalo, money’s, deer, warthogs, and more I can’t think of. We got to see some cool birds too, weaver birds and their woven hanging nest, tiny colorful bee eaters, eagles, and one of the most beautiful birds I’ve ever seen (only second to the macaws) a velvet breasted roller.

There were so many animals during the safari and majority of the time you were getting multiple animals in one shot. Hippos next to zebras, giraffes and elephants next to each other. There were so many elephants at one point I go “ohh it’s just another elephant”. The last hour and a half of the safari was at night. That is when we got to see the leopard. It was amazing the way it walked and it seemed pretty big. The leopard, like all the other animals didn’t even seem to care that we were there.

I feel so lucky to have seen all the animals I did and really hope I get to go on a couple more safaris when I’m in Africa. I will say my new favorite animal is a giraffe. They are truest magical.