The Mighty Zambezi

Sunset
Monkey at Zambezi Sun
Zimbabwe dancers
Victor and his cousin at art club
Human pyramid during sports day

August 25, 2009

Last week a man came into the clinic with a 6-inch machete wound to the skull. He had been attacked by a group of men at his night security job. I’m not sure when the attack happened but the wound had stopped bleeding by the time he came in. Apparently when you are attacked and the wound is not immediately life threatening, you must first go to the police station and pay to file a report. Then you must go to the clinic to confirm that the wounds match up with the report. Only after that can you go to the hospital to get the wound sutured. Seems a little backwards but that’s how they do it.

Last Wednesday night a group of Zimbabwe dancers came to the house to perform. I liked that they were authentic and came straight from one of the villages just over the border. A big part of their performance is getting the audience involved, so me and the other volunteers danced with them for the final three songs.

On Friday the whole group went out to Nakatindi for a sports day designed to promote the work of African Impact and other organizations. The morning included the singing of the Zambian national anthem, speeches, drummers and local dancers. African Impact had a station set up in one of the huts so people could ask questions and find out more about what we do. The rest of the day was spent playing sports. There was soccer, netball (sort of like basketball with no dribbling or backboards) and volleyball. I helped out with volleyball and got to play quite a bit. That night we went out for dinner and a movie. We watched The Hangover and then went out to eat at Olga’s in celebration of Marjolien’s birthday.

On Saturday ten other volunteers and I went white water rafting. I was on Team Girl and our guide was named Steve. The Zambezi is a grade 6 river although it only has one grade 6 rapid that we weren’t allowed to go through (rapid 9 known as Commercial Suicide). On rapid 5 (grade 5), known as the Stairway to Heaven, two people in our boat fell out. On rapid 7 (grade 5), known as Gulliver’s Travels, we flipped the boat. Two people were injured and three of them decided to stop after a half day of rafting. For the afternoon we joined the boy’s boat. We flipped the raft again on rapid 13 (grade 4), known as The Mother. We made it through the rest of the 25 rapids without incident.

Rafting was a lot of fun but I have to admit I have never been so scared in my life. The beach where the rafting finished was our campsite for the night. The rest of the group had driven out and met us there. We had popcorn, crocodile and steak for dinner before calling it a night and sleeping under the stars. The next morning we climbed back up the hill and headed back to the house.

The rest of Sunday was spent relaxing at Zambezi Sun. That night my stomach started to hurt so I went to bed early. Unfortunately I was up for the rest of the night with stomach cramps and diarrhea. The next morning I found out two others were also sick. I think it was from either some water we drank after camping or swallowing water when we went rafting. We stayed home from projects and spent the morning and afternoon watching movies and The Office (British version). I went to take a nap at 4:30 and woke up 6 hours later.