Livingstone

So, my travel plans from my last post were, shall we say, wishful thinking. The bus i had a ticket for did not have space for me. After a lot of arguing with the ticket seller, he gave me enough money to stay in Mbeya another night. The next morning he put me on a coaster to the border and i had to lug my bags much farther than I wanted to. THIS IS WHY I DIDN'T WANT TO CHANGE BUSES AT THE BORDER. Then I found the office for that same company who had to get me someone onward transportation, as their sister office never returned the money I'd paid. I got to hang around the border all afternoon until the bus to Lusaka was ready to leave.

Some time around midnight, and still far from Lusaka, someone pulled the kanga off my head and told me they were checking IDs. Except, I noticed no one else was getting rousted for the ID check, just me. I asked the guy next to me to hand me my bag and muttered something like, "I guess you're only checking white peoples' IDs tonight." (I should add, no one here speaks Swahili, which makes me embarrass myself, and a lot more people speak English, so my habit of saying what I really think to myself in English will potentially get me in trouble.) The guy who woke me asked if I was Peace Corps, I forgot that I'm not anymore and said yes, and he changed his mind about the ID, just when I had managed to lay my hand on my passport. THEN WHY DID YOU WAKE ME UP?! Like its not hard enough to sleep on a crowded bus.

We pulled into Lusaka at 5 am and I found a bus leaving for Livingstone at 6:30, not bad. Got to Livingstone by 1pm, went to the backpackers lodge and had my first real meal and shower in a few days. Forget the falls, with the setup here, I may never leave the hostel.