The Long Way Home, Teaching and Exercise

African nights

Zack and I are safely back in Katibunga after a very long trip from Livingstone. The trip to visit the Victoria Falls was phenomenal; a great escape that revitalized our spirits. While in Livingstone we met a number of people from around the world which made the experience even better. Rachel, who is from Indiana but currently lives in South Africa, invited Zack and I down to Johannesburg. We would love to go, but are unsure as of now if we will be able to make it work. We will just have to play it ear. Ricardo, who is from Ecuador but currently lives in Madrid, was another stellar dude who we met while in Livingstone. Rachel and Ricardo along with Ben, the Australian, and Joseph, the Brit, were all great people to meet. They made the long trip worth it.

While we are on the topic of traveling I might as well explain to you the trip back to Katibunga from Livingstone. The two days it took to travel back will not hinder the wonderful time I had in Livingstone, but it was a tough two days to say the least.

So…last Friday, the 4^th of September, Zack and I bought tickets for the 5:30AM bus back to Lusaka. At the time it was a smart idea. However, after hanging out with our friends one last time and hitting the town the 5:30AM decision quickly took a turn for the worse. Now, we will take the fault for this mistake, but the rest (as you will see) was out of our hands. So, we went to bed quite late and slept through our alarms. I woke at 6:30AM and ran to Zack and woke him. We quickly threw our belongings into our bags and ran to the bus station. Thankfully, the bus company allowed us to exchange our 5:30AM bus tickets for the 8:30AM bus. So we boarded and left around 9:00AM.

Broken bus

One hour into our bus ride the bus starts to make a strange noise. The bus driver pulls the bus to the side of the road and asks us all to get off. He explained to me that two main pipes came loose and must be reattached. Unfortunately, the mechanic was still in Livingstone so we had to wait for him to take a taxi to us and repair the pieces. This took close to two hours. Finally, we were back on our way, but not for long. Within 30 minutes we were back on the side of the road checking the parts. Thankfully, they just needed to be tightened and this was able to be completed by the driver. So, we started off once again.

Usually this bus ride takes about 6 hours; however with all the problems that had happened it took about 9. By this time Zack and I are exhausted and tired of traveling and we were just arriving in Lusaka! A solid 8 hours from Mpika. So we quickly unload and run to the ticket offices to try and find a bus to Mpika. To our dismay we found that all the busses to Mpika had left. Furthermore, most busses on Sunday were already booked. Realizing our defeat we walked the bus terminal for any bus that would take us to Mpika on Sunday. Luckily we found two tickets. So after purchasing them we set in for the night. We walked to the nearby mall and bought some bread, peanut butter, and water. This would hold us over for the next day.

After the mall we walked to Br. Placid’s university. Of course, with how our luck was going, he was not there. He had left for Mpika THAT day! No kidding. So here we are stuck in Lusaka all alone. So we decided to stay on campus and post up on the third floor of the main building and try to catch some Z’s. You probably think we are morons, but we truly did not know what else to do. Also, if you were in our situation you would have done the same. It’s either sleep outside or in this building.

We were able to sleep for close to 5 hours until the universe threw us another problem. We woke to two security guards questioning us on why we were there. After 30 minutes of explaining who we were, why we were there, that we knew Br. Placid, and that we obviously weren’t from the area they still wanted to call the police. However, I could tell that they didn’t want to involve the police as well. They were using it more as a threat. After explaining that we were volunteer teachers and that we are just waiting for the next bus out of Lusaka they finally let us walk. This was the worst and most frightening part of our travel. Getting arrested in Zambia is one thing that is not on my bucket list.

Lusaka's Inter-City Bus Station

So, now it was 3:00AM and we were back on the streets of Lusaka. It was also pretty cold. Our next best idea was to head to the bus station and find a spot to post up. When we arrived we found close to 200 hundred other people sleeping outside the station. So, being in the situation that we were in, we joined them. We huddled up, used our bags as pillows and attempted sleep. To my amazement I actually slept for about 2 and ½ hours. Around 5:30AM we woke and decided to walk around. Luckily, the mall opened at 6:00AM so we went to sit there. We sat there and read until noon. At noon we walked back to the bus station to get ready for our bus. We asked the ticket office if our bus would be on time and guess what…it was going to be two hours late. At this point I was ready to throw myself off the nearest building. I am a pretty calm person, but now I was getting upset.

So, our bus would be leaving at 4:00PM instead of 2:00PM. That’s when Zack and I went searching for two new tickets that left earlier because we just wanted to leave this city. Luckily, we were able to sell our tickets and buy two new ones for a bus that was leaving at 2:00PM. The reason we were able to get two tickets for this new bus was because it was going to the border of Zambia and passing through Mpika. They told us that the bus would be stopping in Mpika, though, and that we would be able to get out there.

So we boarded and were on our way by 2:30PM. The bus was packed to the brim. I was squished between Zack and a lady with her daughter on her lap. Both were coughing terribly the entire bus ride. However, I was willing to deal with it as long as we were heading towards Mpika. We were on the bus for about 8 hours until we came up on Mpika. At this point it’s about 11:00PM and pitch dark out. We had to keep our eyes peeled for the stop in Mpika while fighting off sleep. Thankfully, we didn’t goof this up and got off in Mpika. However, Mpika still sits an hour away from Katibunga.


So we had to get a taxi to take us there.

Like I’ve said before the road to Katibunga is terrible. So terrible that I think God may have created it to scare sinners straight because riding on it is like traveling into Hell. Furthermore, I’m almost certain AC/DC created the song “Highway to Hell” after hearing of this road.

After driving in a very small car for an hour we finally arrived back at the monastery in Katibunga. We crawled into bed and feel asleep around 2:00AM on Monday morning.

Wow! So that was our travel back. Like I said, the vacation was worth it, but doing another one may be too much. Whenever we feel like leaving Katibunga we will think of the travel back from Livingstone and then reconsider.

Well…as for some other things…

It’s nice to be back in Katibunga. We started teaching which is great. I enjoy teaching a subject I like. That helps a lot. The schedule for classes is still being worked on and not all the teachers and students have reported back to school yet, but once they have things will be up and running. Many kids miss school and what doesn’t help is that even teachers skip as well. It’s really too bad. Zack and I think we will be teaching Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays so we will make sure to be there. The term will run from now until December. I will be administering my final exam in biology the first week of December. It’s crazy to think that I was just the student taking finals in May and now I am going to be overseeing them.

Zack and I have begun to run every morning. I had a shin splint/stress fracture in my right leg before leaving for Africa, but I think it’s better now. At least there is no pain while I run. We are starting slow, but hope to be running a few miles by the time we head to Tanzania. Cardio can be extremely beneficial for mental health as well as physical so it will be good to run each morning.

I think that’s all for now. I better get going!

Thanks for reading!