Day 13 Zambia - Village of Musokotwane

There weren’t many people at breakfast this morning so we had to order off the menu instead of the serve-serve buffet. This is a process that takes much, much longer.

We were picked up in a van with a driver, our guide, Victor, and his assistant, Innocent. What an unusual name! We headed to a local market, much bigger than the ones I saw yesterday. Many people were just starting to set things up and I was fascinated by everything.

Again, I wanted to take photos I shouldn’t, so I did so surreptitiously. Victor said it would be OK to photograph the goods but that the people feel we are going to go back home and make money off of their photos. Not the case here!

Victor purchased various types of vegetables from different vendors and we walked through quite a bit of the market. He also purchased a live chicken which was trussed up and put in the back of the van. Yikes! I know, I know. I just hate the thought of killing a live chicken. Cèst la vie! 

Along with the vegetables, we also bought soap, salt, and charcoal. I spied a fabric booth on the way back to the vehicle and found a beautiful fringed rectangle which I shall use as a tablecloth.

The village we went to was 30 kilometers north of town, then a further 7 kilometers on gravel. And what gravel it was. The driver slowed down to 5 k to bypass huge potholes in the road. We arrived at the village of Musokotwane shortly after 10 AM and were introduced to the host family.

Shortly after that, we went on a walking tour of some of the homes in the village. Each time we stopped, one of us presented the woman of the house with a long bar of soap (about 6 bars of soap altogether) as well as a bag of salt.

Each of the village homes have a cell phone for communication and we saw solar panels on some of the roof tops. I photographed some of the families and the children. They were tickled pink to see their photo on the back of my camera. I loved the experience and I was in my element.

When we got back to the host family, groceries were unloaded and the lunch preparation began. Veggies were chopped and the cooking started. Charcoal was used in their tiny stoves and once the food began to cook, it smelled fantastic!

Also happening in the yard was the building of an addition on one of the houses. Bricks had been made and had dried in the sun for 3 weeks. Two young men were building a wall using the bricks, and the mortar was made with the same material dug from a hole in the ground. They added quite a bit of water and stirred a great deal to make the mortar.

Some of the group helped with the cooking but we ended up leaving most of the job to the more than capable women while Victor talked to us about customs, and the history of the Zambian people. We could hear banging happening just outside the wall of the home and went to investigate. A young man was making the holes of a cooking stove by pounding a punch and making the small square holes for the stove to get air for burning.

Finally the meal was ready and one of the women dished it up for us. We were offered our choice of plates and when we sat down to eat, we weren’t sure what to do as there was no cutlery in sight. Victor showed us how to make the pap into balls with our hands, then use it to scoop up the various vegetables. I remember Abdellah eating that way in the Moroccan home we visited, while the rest of us asked for a fork.

The pap was quite good with all the various vegetables, much better than I recall it being on previous occasions. I found the chicken to be quite tough and it got stuck in my teeth. I didn’t eat much of it. I hope my leftovers went to good use.

After lunch, we went for a walk, a long, hot, dusty walk to the village’s dam. We met cattle who were on their way to have a drink. It was probably 33C and I was really feeling the heat. We were all hoping to tour the nearby medical clinic and see inside, but it was closed for the lunch hour. Around 2PM we got into the van and headed back into Livingstone. The air conditioning was a welcome relief from the unrelenting heat.

We had about an hour’s rest at our hotel and I had a quick shower to wash off the mountains of dirt on my feet and legs. At 4:10, we walked over to the hotel next door and went aboard the Lady Livingstone for a sunset cruise. It was the last hurrah for the whole group as the New Zealanders were leaving the tour tomorrow.

The boat wasn’t very full and we had a beautiful view from the top floor. Along the way, we saw impala, crocodiles and hippos along the bank. The sunset was truly beautiful.

The night wasn’t over yet. When we returned, we had a participatory drumming session with a fellow by the name of Boyd.

We each got a drum and he showed us various drumming patterns. It was great fun and we sounded pretty darned good I thought!

We have one more full, exciting day in Livingstone. It’s 9:30 PM and I am exhausted, again!