Thursday, October 30, were the Zambian elections. President Mwanawasa, elected in 2006 for a five-year term, died in August and the constitution dictates that elections must then be held within ninety days. There were two main candidates: Rupiah Banda of the MMD (Movement for Multiparty Democracy) which was Mwanawasa’s party and Micheal Sata of PF (Patriotic Front). Lusaka is a Sata stronghold and during the week preceding the elections, cars and trucks drove through town with his banners on the side, blasting music. Some of them were trailing motor boats with people inside carrying oars. I think it was supposed to be some reference to Noah’s Ark, but it didn’t quite work. Many of the expats were concerned that there would be rioting following elections if the results weren’t announced quickly and if Sata didn’t win (Many people chose not to go to work on Friday). It was announced on Sunday that Rupiah Banda won the election by around 30,000 votes I think, and everything was peaceful as we had been assured by the Zambians it would be. This president will fill the remainder of the term so there will still be elections in 2011.
On Tuesday, Election Day in the States, I left for Choma and Livingstone with Monde, one of the supervisors at ZAMBART, and Phalesh, who leads the household interventions. This trip was super helpful because I was able to learn a lot more about the project and specifically Zamstar (Zambia and South Africa TB and AIDS Reduction), the study on which I’ll be working. So before I get ahead of myself, I’ll explain Zamstar in more detail. The purpose is to reduce TB transmission and infection. The prevalence is currently estimated around 1% in Zambia but is as high as 50-70% in people with HIV. So a big part of the study is urging people to get tested for HIV. If they are found HIV positive but don’t have TB, then they’re put on isoniazid preventive therapy so they won’t get TB. The study compares interventions in 24 communities – 16 in Zambia and 8 in South Africa. They’re broken into 4 groups of 6 communities. Since we use pre-existing Ministry of Health clinics at the various sites, all the communities receive support for their current government TB and HIV activities. One group serves as the control, another receives household interventions (where counselors visit homes with a TB patient and speak to all the family members about HIV and TB, urging them to join the study and get tested), a third groups receives community interventions (dramas in schools and marketplaces, lessons to schoolchildren, and easily accessible sputum deposit sites) and the last group gets both household and community interventions. I got to visit some households with the counselors, some of which were very far away. Luckily, we had a car, but the patients may have to walk great distances in some areas to get to the clinic and same with the counselors if a car is not available. I also got to see a drama in the marketplace which was really interesting. The band of actors came out and started playing drums to get everyone’s attention and then started talking about TB, its symptoms and where to get tested. Once they started talking, lots of people surrounded them in the market. Sadly, I didn’t understand exactly what they were saying because they were speaking in a local language, Nyanja, but it was still fun to watch.
We stayed two nights in Choma in a semi-dodgy lodge. It was clean though and had three satellite channels, one being CNN, so I was able to keep up with the elections. I was ecstatic! I even called the States and texted everyone I knew in Lusaka (a very short list). And I’m so happy Indiana went blue! Everyone here kept asking me if I voted, and after I told them that I did, they asked if I voted for Obama. Frankly, I think I would be scared to say otherwise! But everyone here is very happy about the news as well.
After Choma, we made our way to Livingstone, home of Victoria Falls. It’s about 200 km from Choma, which shouldn’t take more than two hours, in theory, but the road is one of the worst I have ever seen. Potholes galore! We basically had to drive 20-30 km/hr the whole way, unless the stretch of dirt road on the shoulder was long enough and wide enough so we could get up to 40 or 50 km/hr. There were some strange sights on the road as well. For a while, we were driving behind a maintenance truck. I, for one, would like to know what they were maintaining! On this road, rules did not matter. We drove where the road was least bumpy, and if that was on the right side of the road, then we switched over, as did everyone else. At one point, a truck almost swerved into us trying to avoid a giant pothole. Ironically, it had “Steering Toward Perfection” stamped on its front bumper. After about an hour of these ridiculous potholes, we saw some workers tearing up the tarmac, so I think the plan is to redo the entire road. This was also the point at which they finally decided to warn us about the road’s condition with signs stating “Slow Down. Deep Potholes Ahead.” (though I must admit that I was concerned about this late warning and expected craters).
On Friday, Monde and Phalesh left Livingstone early since it’s a seven-hour drive back to Lusaka. I decided to hang around since I hadn’t seen the falls yet. Well, I still haven’t seen the falls. It’s the dry season, so there’s just a trickle. It looks there’s a leak in the face of this enormous cliff. I could see down a bit to the Zimbabwe side where there appeared to be mist from the falls, but the Zambia side was quite dry. During the rainy season, around March and April, you can see the mist from the falls more than 30 or 40 km away. If you go into the park, you’re immediately wet from the spray. In the local language, the Falls are called Mosi-Oa-Tunya, which means the smoke that thunders.
The nice thing about being in the park during the dry season is that it’s not super crowded. I took the trail down to the Boiling Pot which is where the water from the falls enters the Zambezi River. There was a lot of climbing over rocks and wading through water. I can’t imagine how hard it would be to make it during the rainy season! I had a guide who led me down there and pointed out where you would normally see the waterfall and how high the water can get during the rainy season. Then I walked along the lip of the falls, where there would generally be water, but is now completely dry. I wanted to see how close I could get to Zimbabwe. Unfortunately, once you get near an area called Livingstone Island (not so much an island this time of year), where you’re supposed to pay to enter, the area is restricted, so I didn’t get close enough to feel the mist. Anyway, at that point, it became very windy and I could smell rain in the air. I started booking it back to the main trail, but the area is very rocky so it was incredibly slippery. I finally made it though, completely soaked, and wandered into the Zambezi Sun (a nice hotel next to the Falls) for lunch. I was slightly embarrassed being completely drenched, which everyone I passed along the way felt the need to point out. After lunch, I walked down to the Royal Livingstone, a super posh five-star hotel and had some tea to warm up. One thing I forgot to mention is that there are these crazy monkeys running around the park and at these hotels. There are men stationed at the hotels who look like guards, but I think their real job is monkey-chaser. Anyway, I was sitting on the terrace enjoying the view of the river with my nice cup of tea and this monkey makes a dash toward me, jumps on my table and steals my sugar packets! Two seconds later the guard shooed it away, but it definitely caught me by surprise. Then, I took a shuttle back to main entrance to the falls and along the way, there were giraffes and zebras!! I got out of the van to take a picture and the driver said we could go closer to the zebras, so I was standing just a few feet from one! Then another one started to walk toward us at which point I was ready to hop back into the van, remembering how Barbara (one of the women who works at CIDRZ) had been kicked by a zebra when she was at the Zambezi Sun. Luckily, I avoided a kick and headed back to my hotel for the day.
The next day, Saturday, was probably one of the best days I’ve ever had! I went white-water rafting on the Zambezi! Whoohoo! That’s what the guide, Boyd, was always shouting “The Zambezi! Whoohoo!” I was picked up from my lodge at around 7:30 in the morning and didn’t get back until 6 in the evening. I was in a boat with a middle-aged German couple, an American boy, Sam, from Vermont but currently working in Botswana, a Dutch boy, Janno, working in Lusaka at WFP, and an Australian boy, also Sam, who was just traveling around Africa doing crazy things I think. Anyway, these boys were masochists and insisted we flip at some point. In the morning, we left off from the Boiling Pot, so I had to make that same hike down as the day before. We all managed to stay in the boat over the first class 5 rapid, and at times when the water was still and we had time to kill, we jumped in the river and swam. Actually, some of us were pushed into the water. Even the guys on kayaks who were supposed to pull us out of the water if we got in trouble would float by and dunk our heads while we were swimming. The first time I fell out of the boat was on the 8th rapid, another class 5. I think they were trying to flip the boat but it didn’t go over all the way. The water washed over my side of the boat and when we straightened out, everyone on my side had fallen out! It was a bit disorienting. We had to walk around the ninth rapid since it was a class 6 which essentially equals death. Then we had lunch on some rocks. The rest of the day was pretty easy. We swam a lot more and floated down the river. But since we still hadn’t flipped, we chose the 18th rapid to do it. At least we were prepared. Boyd was the first one to jump off the boat. A couple of us got stuck under it when it flipped, but there was enough room to breathe so I could get my bearings and come out the other side. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be! Apparently now is the time to raft the Zambezi since the water is low. It’s more exciting and you get to do all the rapids (they don’t do the first ten during high water). For the second to last rapid (the 24th), we were even allowed to float on our backs down the river since it was just a class 1!
I took the bus back to Lusaka on Sunday. Even though it was seven hours, it wasn’t too bad. It was just a bit nerve-racking because of all the potholes and because the woman sitting next to me was rather large (let’s just say it was cozy). The driver, I thought, did a good job. He didn’t drive crazy fast and was good about slowing down in areas where more people were walking along the streets. The road cuts through grazing land, I think, because we always had to watch out for suicidal cattle that would cross the road without warning. The driver was watching out for them though. He seemed to care less however for the welfare of grazing goats. There was a group of them in the middle of the road and he honked at them so they’d move, but the poor things didn’t know which way to run. Then, I heard a very unpleasant thud and I’m pretty certain we ran over a baby goat!
On that sad note, I think this is the end to my crazy adventures for now. At least, I don’t have any planned. I’ll keep you posted on my work though, which will be taking off shortly and is sure to be a different kind of adventure.
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