Bob goes to Africa

[Grateful Diver]

This month I did something I’ve never done before … I traveled to Africa. It’s the first time since learning to scuba dive I took a vacation that didn’t involve scuba diving. Instead I traveled to the land-locked nation of Zambia to visit Cheng … who’s a Peace Corps volunteer there, teaching farmers how to raise fish in ponds.

Zambia is a nation slightly larger than the state of Texas, with roughly 13.5 million people. Its neighbors, clockwise from the north, are Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe , Botswana, Namibia, and Angola. It’s most famous landmark … Victoria Falls … is one of the 7 wonders of the world.

Cheng and I met in the nation’s capital of Lusaka … a city roughly the size of Philadelphia situated about 500 miles south of the village where she lives. We were graciously welcomed into the home of Dr. Larry Marum, who is in charge of the Center for Disease Control in that country. From there we took side trips, traveling either by bus or small plane, to Chobe National Park in Botswana, Victoria Falls along the southeastern border with Zimbabwe, South Luangwa National Park in the eastern-central part of the country, and up to Cheng’s village in the northwestern province of Luapula.

Business

Our first excursion was a four-day trip that took us to Chobe and Victoria Falls. These two places are about 2 hours by ground transport from each other, and about an 8-hour bus ride from Lusaka. The trip began at the bus depot in Lusaka with a small lesson in Zambian culture.

When we arrived at the bus depot, my first impression was “My God, how do buses move in and out of this place? Every square foot of the area was packed with people who were very aggressively selling something … including “services” you didn’t want to buy. As our taxi approached the depot we were mobbed on all sides by young men who were eager to sell us “escort” to our bus. They were literally hanging onto the car, reaching through the windows … hands in our face … each trying to convince us that they were the only ones on the planet who could get us onto the bus we were taking. Others in the mob were equally vigorously trying to sell us everything from fruit, watches, cheap trinkets, and Airtel cards for our cell phones. It was the definition of pandemonium, and a bit worrisome until I recognized the studied nonchalance on Cheng’s face and figured out that the only possible thing to do was pretend they weren’t there. Don’t make eye contact, she whispered. We managed somehow to exit the taxi and make our way through that seething mob to our bus. Along the way I realized that the mob was centered around me … the only white person in the bus depot … and that these people weren’t seeing anything other than a tourist who they assumed had money to buy things.

Boarding the bus, we made our way to our seats only to find one of them already occupied (seats are assigned on your ticket). Before we could say anything, the person behind us started shouting in the local language, and the man hurriedly got up and moved. The young man then demanded money for “helping” us remove this person from our seat. Not knowing what to do, I deferred to Cheng, who told him she didn’t give money to beggars, and that if he wanted to learn how to work for a living she’d be happy to teach him. He got real upset and started shouting in our face. After a moment of this I appealed to the bus driver for help. He looked at me nonchalantly and said “business”, and proceeded to ignore us. A couple minutes later, another man sitting across from us got up, grabbed the young beggar by the shoulders, and tossed him physically off the bus. At that point I was able to notice that street vendors were walking up and down the aisles selling things while the bus was loading. This was very strange. But at last the doors closed and the bus started … very slowly … making its way through the mob of humanity that completely encircled it.

As the bus finally departed the depot, another man stood up, opened a Bible, and started preaching … with all the passion and fervor of a southern evangelist. Walking up and down the aisle, you could feel spittle landing on your skin as he praised Jesus and implored his captive audience to give their hearts to the Lord. After about 20 minutes of this, I quietly asked Cheng how long this was going to last … she said he might do this all the way to Liivingstone … eight hours away. But, after another 10 minutes or so, he wrapped it up, walked up and down the aisle taking donations, and then the bus stopped and he got off … seemingly in the middle of nowhere. On subsequent trips I came to realize this is normal … as the bus driver so aptly put it … business.

When the bus arrived in Livingstone we were greeted by another throng of young men seeking to take us to our lodging, roughly a mile away. One young man picked up our bag, slung it over his shoulder, and started walking … “this way, I know the way”. We gave him 20,000 kwatcha … about $4 … for his efforts.

[Grateful Diver]

The next morning we departed from Livingstone for Chobe, an 11,000 square kilometer national park just south of the border in Botswana. The hour-long van ride took us to the banks of the lower Zambezi river, where we boarded a small boat that ferries passengers to the other side. At one point in the middle of the river the driver stopped the boat and informed us that we were now at the intersection of four nations … Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia. Upon landing on the other bank, we boarded a Land Rover for the 15-minute ride into a small town situated at the entrance to the park. A few minutes worth of paperwork and we then climbed into another boat that would take us downriver on a three-hour river safari. This was one of the best parts of the entire trip, giving us the ability to see animals from the vantage of the water … and there were many animals to see, starting with a four-foot long monitor lizard that swam right past the boat …



This crocodile was at least 15 feet long …



The park is home to more than 120,000 elephants … many of which come down to the river banks to drink and cool off …



Herds of cape buffalo also share the banks with many species of birds …



Following the river tour we went back to the guide camp for lunch … a local dish called nshima which is like a thick grits that you eat with your fingers, taking a bit and shaping into a “spoon” that you use to scoop up vegetables and bits of meat. After lunch we boarded a roofless 10-passenger Land Rover for an afternoon tour of the park

The park is enormous … and animals are varied and bountiful. In addition to the plentiful sightings of elephants and cape buffalo, perhaps the most plentiful animal in the park were impalas ... a graceful species of antelope about the size of a small deer. These creatures were everywhere in herds both small and large … and watching running along the river I could understand why Chevy named a car after this animal ...



Impalas are often seen in the company of warthogs … the guide explained to us that it’s because the warthogs are more sensitive to the presence of predators such as lions and leopards, and serve as an “early warning system” for the other animals.



Here’s a lovely face smiling for the camera …



Kudu were perhaps the second most plentiful antelope species in the park … and the largest. These are basically elk-sized animals … this one is an adult male with the classic spiral antlers.



The highlight of our day was watching a pride of lions stalking a herd of cape buffalo. This was a group of six … three females apparently teaching their nearly grown cubs how to hunt. Among the adolescents were two males and a female. Here’s one of the young males …



After about an hour of slowly working their way into position, they were ready to make a dinner selection … the quality of the shot isn’t great, due to the fact that it was starting to get dark and they had moved well beyond the zoom range of my 250 mm lens by then … but you get the idea ...



Since we were required to be in camp before dark, we had to leave before they made the kill … and cape buffalo are very dangerous animals, even for a pride of lions, so the kill involved wearing the animal down before closing in.

Just prior to arriving at camp, we got were lucky enough to spot a leopard sitting near the road. This little lady was very pregnant …



That evening we camped in tents inside the park. As we were arriving in camp the rains started … and in Africa it rains like they really mean it. Sitting under a canopy for dinner was like finding ourselves perched beneath a waterfall with an umbrella. Dinner was very enjoyable, and I was relaxed and having a good time despite the heaving rains. But then I made a rather disconcerting discovery … the latrine had no roof!

It was time to break out the sense of adventure.

After dinner came the “safety briefing”. We were told that anytime we entered or exited our tent, we should zip it immediately and fully … it seems that cobras find tents to be as comfortable as humans do, and we wanted to keep them outside. We were also told that if we needed to go to the latrine in the middle of the night, always listen first … and if we heard lions, don’t go outside. The guides said that as long as we stayed in the tent, the lions wouldn’t bother us. Sure enough I awoke at 3 AM and outside I could clearly hear lions … with their low-pitched moans and purrs, and … well … I stayed in the tent and it still bothered me. But at daybreak I heard the welcome sounds of our guides up and about, preparing breakfast. Today we would do a long tour … just Cheng and I and our guide … before heading back across the Zambezi River to Zambia and the more comfortable accommodations of Livingstone.

This day our guide took us to a different part of the park, where the land was drier than we’d seen the previous day. We stopped at a man-made watering hole that’s popular with the elephants.



At one point we were completely surrounded by a herd of perhaps 50 or 60 of these massive creatures. At times, they came quite close … peering into our vehicle, but always walking warily around us.



This part of the park also had more giraffes and zebras than we’d seen the previous day …





We finished our tour in mid-afternoon and headed back to the border, where we crossed the river by boat and found a van waiting to take us back to Livingstone, and the welcome comforts of a shower and bed.

[Grateful Diver]

Early the following morning we headed off to Victoria Falls, a mere 15-20 minute taxi ride from the place we were staying. This time of year is the end of the dry season, and the falls is at its lowest level. While the views aren’t as spectacular as during their high water season (April through June), the low water levels gave us an opportunity to get pictures from vantage points that would be too wet with mist for picture taking later in the season.



During the high water season, there would be no rocks showing on the right side of that picture … water would be flowing from the broad delta of the upper Zambezi river over the entire width of the escarpment, and making its way through the steep channel on the left side, flowing down to form the boundary between Zambia and Zimbabwe … the latter country being shown in the background of the photo above. During those periods, the area where we’re standing would be completely covered in mist from the intense volume of water, and a picture from this place wouldn’t be possible.

It took us about three hours to walk all the trails, to all the vantage points, that we could reach on the Zambian side of the falls. We ran into a couple of women we’d spent some time with in Chobe, and had lunch with them and their friends at a nearby restaurant. During lunch, the sun came out, and we decided to walk the trails again seeking rainbows. And we found some ...



One trail led down to the lower level of the falls … to a place called the Boiling Pot. It was a lovely (though hot and humid) walk through a jungle setting, and along the way we saw many baboons … who do not show the wariness of humans that we experienced the previous two days in Chobe.



By midafternoon we were ready to head back to Livingstone and the comforts of a cold shower and a hot meal. We found a nice Italian restaurant in town where I sampled the local beer and amused Cheng by catching flies in the bottle.

The next day we caught the bus back to Lusaka, where Cheng had made prior arrangements to cook dinner for ourselves, the doctor, and a few friends we’d invited over before we had left.

[Grateful Diver]

South Luangwa is one of several national parks in Zambia … and it is roughly the size of the state of Rhode Island. It’s roughly a one hour flight from Lusaka, and a 30-minute van ride from the airport to the park gate. We were staying just outside the park at a place called Flatdogs Camp … which, oddly, does not allow camping …



Flatdog is another name for crocodiles, and we were situated alongside the Chobe River, where there were plenty of them. Our lodging was a beautiful chalet … outright luxurious for a “camp”.



Because of our proximity to the park and the river, we were not allowed to wander the grounds after dark without a guide … the crocs, hippos and elephants came up into the camp at night to graze on the grass and trees, and the guides were there to make sure we kept a safe distance from the animals and didn’t end up being some crocodile’s dinner ...



During the daytime hours, the camp was quite lovely … and there were baboons and velvet monkeys running around.



Although many of the animals in this park were similar to what we’d seen at Chobe, there were several that were different species … and although South Luangwa lacked the large herds we’d seen at Chobe, it made up for it in variety, particularly among the birds. This place had some of the most lovely and exotic birds I’ve ever seen.









The Chobe River was also jam packed with hippos … rafts of 20-30 or more in families … with males fighting for dominance of the raft …



… or just lazily waking up from a nap …



Hippos weren’t the only animals fighting for mating rights … we also saw a pair of elephants going at it …



… and some young male impalas …



But the stars of the show here were the babies … everyone seemed to have them …







The zebras and giraffes here were both smaller and more vividly marked than their cousins down south at Chobe ...





After two days of experiencing the park, we flew back to Lusaka, where Cheng once again cooked dinner at the doctor’s home for a large group of friends. Then we were off to her village in the north … a 12-hour bus ride.

[Grateful Diver]

Luapula is the northwestern province of Zambia, bordering the Republic of Congo. The centerpiece of the province is Lake Bangweulu … a large (24 square kilometers) but very shallow lake that has for centuries provided subsistence fishing for the locals. But recently the lake has been getting fished out, and farmers have struggled to feed their families. Hence Cheng’s program for teaching them how to raise fish in ponds. The area is primarily wetlands, providing a ready source of water to feed the ponds.

Cheng’s village is about 3 kilometers from the tiny town of Samfya … where we arrived at 3 AM. Her friends Mark and Carmen, local missionaries who live on the shore of the lake, picked us up at the bus depot and brought us to their home for a couple hours sleep before we hired a taxi to take us around. After a breakfast with them and their daughters Nala (age 9) and Lily (age 5-3/4), we left to visit the lake and then to the village where she lives.

As we arrived at Cheng’s village, an old woman who was working in her garden put down her hoe to watch us drive in. When she realized it was Cheng in the car, she graced us with a broad smile and clapped her hands in greeting … a warm welcome home.



Cheng gave me a tour of her house, and then showed me some of her fish ponds. Along the way we met villagers, and I gave the kids some balls and balloons to play with.





Finally, it was time to head off to the provincial capital of Mansa … a few kilometers away … where we would meet with some provincial officials for lunch and catch the bus back to Lusaka … another 12-hour ride. This final tour was about 1,000 miles in 36 hours … 24 hours of which were spent on the bus. But it was good, after all the tourist stuff, to see where she lives and works. I’m not sure I could do it … I too much enjoy the creature comforts of electricity and plumbing. She, on the other hand, seems to love what she does, and the people she’s helping.

Arriving back in the capital city I had just one day remaining before catching the plane back to London, and then Seattle. We spent that day walking around Lusaka, and meeting another friend, Father Clement from the local Catholic seminary, for lunch. One final dinner with our friends from the Peace Corps and the CDC and it was time to pack and prepare for an early departure to the airport.

On the way home, I overnighted in London … and arrived home on Sunday, November 25 with a serious case of jetlag. It’s taken me three or four days to recover. But overall, it was an enjoyable, eventful trip.

Overall I took over 1,800 photos on this trip. I’ve mercifully pared it down to 72 that I felt were worth sharing. Besides the ones in this report, if you’d like to see the rest you can view them on my Photobucket page at

http://s106.photobucket.com/albums/m257 ... =slideshow

[Linedog]

Wow sounds like an awesome trip. Great photos as always.

[deep diver]

Fantastic pictures! Sounds like a great trip with lots of wildlife.
Our trip to Thailand the jungles were so thick, couldn't get good pictures of the birds and monkeys. I'm envious.

[LCF]

Oh, Bob, there are some stunning photographs in that set! I love the giraffe one, and the impala babies . . . There is something very special about Africa. It sounds silly, but I wonder if there is some buried racial memory of being from there, because the moment our plane let us off in Maun, I had a sense of coming home.

We had the same rush of people offering things you don't want in Egypt, and in the Ivory Coast. Where the unemployment rate sits around 70%, people are desperate, and although the sellers annoy me at best, and scare me a bit at worst, you have to admit people who are at least up on their feet and trying to hustle. I spent a lot of time, after our Ivory Coast trip, thinking about how one would try to solve the problems of sub-Saharan Africa, and I gave up -- until you guarantee a rule of law, nothing else can happen. And then you have to try to change a culture which is mixed subsistence and dependence on aid, and that's hard.

Anyway, beautifully written report, lovely photographs, and I'm glad you got a much-needed vacation.

[spatman]

Wow, Bob! Terrific report and photos! I'm glad you had a great trip and got to spend some time with Cheng.

[RoxnDox]

What a great trip experience! Glad you got to go see Cheng's current world, and I'm really glad you shared it with us... Wonderful photos!

Jim

[Penopolypants]

What a fantastic trip, and amazing photos! Cheng looks like she's doing well, too!

[Tom Nic]

Thank you for telling the story... Well done and much appreciated.

I would love to hear more about Cheng's life and work there! Much respect to her for her servant's heart!

[Grateful Diver]

You can follow Cheng's work in Zambia on her blog ...

http://chengatzambia.blogspot.com/

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Tom Nic]

You can follow Cheng's work in Zambia on her blog ...

http://chengatzambia.blogspot.com/

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Thank you Bob!

[Mortuus]

That is SO COOL!!!! I havent read much of the actual post yet, so for now I just skimmed through the pics. They looked too incredible! My eyes were instantly averted away from the story and drawn to those spectacular photos. I will be sure to read the actual story later today when I find time. Thanks for the report! Those pictures really solidify my burning need to go to Africa one day. Not that the need had waned or anything...

[Dusty2]

Awesome pix Bob! Way better than Nat geo. Great narration also! Almost like being there.

[fishb0y]

Thanks for the pics... I have always wanted to visit Africa (#3 on my bucket list).

[Gdog]

Wow....very cool, great pics and trip recap. See you tonight at Cap.Divers!

[Joshua Smith]

Bob- what an amazing trip! I'm jealous. It's actually really cool to see a trip report about a non diving trip for a change of pace. I was pleased to see you're at least as good at land photography as you are underwater, too. My wife adored the baby elephant shot.

[Octoloco]

Wow, another wonderfully written report and fabulous photos to go with. Glad you got to spend some time with Cheng and see her current world and the work she's doing there! Looks like you guys had a great time..
Loved Cheng's response to the guy on bus about teaching him how to work!!

[ArcticDiver]

Very nice trip report.

It would be interesting to hear how Cheng became a Peace Corp Volunteer there.

[airsix]

Bob, thank you very much for this thread!

[Grateful Diver]

Very nice trip report.

It would be interesting to hear how Cheng became a Peace Corp Volunteer there.

When Cheng turned 62 in March 2010 she decided to retire and join the Peace Corps. Initially they were planning to send her to the Philippines, to do aquaculture work there. But at the last minute they asked her to go to Africa instead. She didn't know a thing about Africa, and was taken completely by surprise, but said OK. When she found out they wanted her to go to Zambia we did some research on where it was and what it was like, and she got pretty excited to go. She left three days later, first for two weeks in Atlanta for orientation and paperwork, and then on to Africa.

She was assigned to a village in Luapula province where her job was to teach fish pond farming ... her "district" was a few dozen villages within about 20 km of the regional capitol of Mansa. She lived in one of those villages, in a hut similar to the one shown above, and bicycled around to the other villages as people wanted her to teach them how to create the ponds, grow the crops to feed the fish, and raise the livestock to produce "fertilizer" for the crops. She worked with the Zambian Dept. of Fisheries and a group from Finland known as PLARD to help provide the villages with the requisite breeding stock to get their fish farms going. In all, she helped create a total of 38 ponds in that area. Her work was successful enough to earn a visit from the Prime Minister of Finland, who praised the villages for their success. Besides the fish pond farming, she did workshops on beekeeping and on AIDS prevention.

In July 2011, her expected 27-month tenure was cut short by a car accident that came way too close to killing her. Several of you already know the story ... she was in a bush taxi that overturned off the road when the driver fell asleep and, although she was pinned in the car her left leg got basically turned into hamburger when it flew through the windshield and got scraped along the ground while the car was still moving. She was airlifted to South Africa, where she spent five weeks in the hospital before they shipped her back to the states for treatment and recovery. Eight and a half months later, she was medically cleared to return to service if she wanted to, and in May of this past year she returned to Zambia to continue the work she had started.

Upon her return, she was assigned to a different village ... about 3 km from the town of Samfya ... 40 km or so from her previous village ... and along the shore of Lake Bangwaulu. That's where the home shown in the picture above is located.

In July, I think as a statement that her leg is functioning OK again, she summited Mt. Kilimanjaro. Unfortunately, she's still favoring that leg, and as a result did some damage to her right knee that's probably going to need surgery.

Since her return, she's helped farmers in four villages get 10 new ponds up and running, and reconstruct several older ponds from a previous effort that had failed. All of those ponds are now producing enough fish to not only feed their respective villages, but some excess fish to sell. A week before I went over, her village was visited by the US Ambassador, who recognized the success of her program in an area that had previously been considered a failure. He found out what a lot of us already know ... when Cheng decides something needs doing, it gets done.

Her current term will be up in May, 2013 ... unless she decides to stay in Zambia. She sure seems to like it there ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[spatman]

Thanks for the update, Bob. I'm really glad to hear that Cheng is doing well and enjoys her work.

[BDub]

Great report, Bob. Thanks for posting!