Zambia

My trip back to the Dark Continent originated in Pristina, capital of Kosovo, where I was working as an EOD team leader. My first stop was Zurich, where I spent the night, and what a change it was to be back in civilization again.

It was a long flight to Zambia, around seven and a half hours. We had a stop in Nairobi, Kenya. It was a typical “banana republic” airport. I spent a few hours waiting on my flight to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. Two things stand out while I was waiting for my flight. The first was the smells, I had forgotten the smells. For someone who has never been to the Continent, it can be a shocking experience. The second thing was that before we boarded we had to walk out on the tarmac to the airplane, where they had lined up all the baggage outside. We then had to pick ours out and they would load it onboard. After doing that, we were then allowed to board the plane. Very strange but considering that this was one month after the September 11attacks it should have made sense to me.

The arrival in Lusaka was too good to be true. I was the first one out of the plane, my bags came out almost immediately, but then I hit passport control and my luck ran out. Seems like the company I worked for didn’t send any paperwork like they said they would, so passport control had no idea I was coming. Passport control didn’t want to issue me a visa, until they had something in writing from the company. They said I should go out and find my boss, whom I have never seen before. I found Joe George outside and he squared it away with them. When I went back in, they didn’t want to issue the visa for 60 days so I got one for 30. Having done all that, I picked up my bags and proceeded out, well, not until I cleared the huge black woman that was hell bent on checking my entire luggage. She did and I left.

My first impression of the place was good. The roads were extremely clean, even by western standards.  The people were very friendly and the temperature was hot. It was different from Ethiopia, were everything was green and lush. Here it seemed like it was flat, dry and arid.  I knew I was going to enjoy at least that side of the project.

Zambia is a great place to live, it is cheap, there is plenty to do and the people are nice. Even though the ex-pat community is big, everyone seemed to know everyone. I found out the two best places to meet people were the Marine House, on Fridays; and the British High Commission club on Saturdays. On Sundays there are polo matches, horse show jumping and horse rides. If one is not “tied” in with that group, there are other things to do such as safaris and game drives in the numerous private game farms.

From the North Luangwa Park in the north east, to the many farms located on the Zambezi River, to the Victoria Falls in the west, Zambia has everything Africa has to offer. For me it was everything I thought Africa was supposed to be, hot with plenty of savannahs and wild game.