Road to Itezhi-Tezhi

One adjective to describe traveling in Africa: Adventure. No matter where we go and how we travel, it’s always an adventure to get to our next destination or activity.

We chose to take a flight from Livingstone back to Lusaka on Monday afternoon, in an effort to preserve the 6-7 hours the bus took us to Livingstone. Although it wasn’t the most economical option, we’re sure glad we did this, given the journey from Lusaka to Itezi-Tezhi was a solid 7 hour trip with 4+ of those hours on a “road” (if you could call it that) that would be equivalent to the bumps, ditches and pot-holes found during an off-roading experience. It was honestly like nothing we’d ever experienced. The situation wasn’t made any easier given that we had to be 4 to the back seat as we needed to drive Naomi, a 16-year old 9th grader back to Ngoma as well. Luhana drove this crazy drive, Charles, the executive director sat in the front seat and we were in the back seat with both Naomi and Marian. Needless to say it was a bit cramped, especially with all of our baggage (including fuel for the trip). We left at around 5 pm from Chilanga right outside of Lusaka and didn’t arrive at the Musungwa Safari Lodge (in Kafue National Park), which was where the workshop for the girls is being held until after midnight. During the first part of the trip, we straddled the center divide until the lights of on-coming traffic were close enough for Luhana to move left to our designated part of the road. Although Luhana always veered left in time, it was quite an experience being sandwiched against the right side of the passenger window in the backseat , literally feeling the narrowness of the road and sheer size of the trucks that passed us on our drive. However, it was nothing in comparison to the crazy 4 last hours of our drive, which left each of us with sore butts from being thrown in every direction imaginable. We’ve included a map of Zambia and outlined our journey below. Note the last part of our journey was only ~100 km but took 4 hours due to the conditions of the road.

Although it was one of the less comfortable travel experiences we’ve encountered, we were able to engage with Luhana to clarify quite a bit of our itinerary / scheduling for our time in both Ngoma and Masasabi. Also, we had some very interesting conversations with both Charles and Luhana around Zambian daily life (technology access, taxes, providing for one’s family etc), Zambia’s relationship with its neighboring countries (Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe) and Zambia’s struggle to preserve and maintain its unique cultural traditions while participating in a modern and ever-evolving global community. It was truly a fascinating conversation to be a part of and we felt lucky to have the opportunity to ask any and all questions.