Interesting road logic

Over the weekend I travelled north to the Copperbelt using the Mazhandu bus company who in terms of reliability, timeliness and safety tend to be the best in the country. At one point, just outside a town called Kapiri Mposhi (approx 3-4 hours from Lusaka), all heavy vehicles are forced to enter the weighbridge to be weighed. We queued up in haphazard fashion along with tens of other buses and trucks with each driver trying to manoeuvre their vehicle through the smallest gaps in order to get ahead in the queue. When it was our turn to pass through the weighbridge the officials found that the bus was overweight. In fear of being sent all the way back to Lusaka the solution was simple. The bus drove a few metres up the road, half the passengers were asked to depart and wait by the roadside, whilst the bus went through the same time consuming process again at the weighbridge. This time the bus passed the weight restrictions (possibly with something exchanging hands), we picked up the waiting passengers and continued to travel northwards. Now the point of the weighbridge is what exactly . . .?

Introducing baby Robert

As promised here is a photo of Robert who his mother Beauty says is absolutely perfect - so far a happy, hungry little chap. Must be something to do with the name of course . . .

In limbo

We are sitting by the phone waiting for it to ring. I am exaggerating of course but at the moment I am unsure whether I should be packing my bags, pots and pans, and everything else in the house, and getting ready to move to Lusaka, or continue twiddling my thumbs in the DATF office in Mazabuka. Since the start of the New Year we have had a number of meetings with NAC, the World Bank and UNAIDS, which have all been perfectly useful, pleasant conversations but progress remains slow and why there is a delay is not completely clear. The limbo is compounded by friends, many of the Italians, sadly leaving Zambia and therefore it feels like a good time to change and leave sweet Mazabuka behind for something new. A move to the big city awaits, I am just not too sure when exactly at the moment.

The last stakeholder's meeting

My last Mazabuka DATF stakeholder's meeting and it was a pretty good day. The vital statistics: well attended with over 40 people there; we started fairly close to time (maybe 20 or so minutes late which is excellent by Zambian standards); and the presentations and discussions were all well received. Now as I exit I hope that these quarterly meetings continue. They require a bit of planning, time, convincing people to present and pushing people to attend, but this is nothing that others cannot easily do themselves. The next meeting is due to take place in April or May. I want to be hearing about it and not excuses concerning why the meeting has not taken place.

Burgled (again)

This was burglary number three I think – frustrating but in the scheme of things minimal damage was done. To back track Abi, my neighbourhood, contacted me sometime around 28th December to say that the house had been broken into and that things were missing. My immediate panic concerned my laptop and hard drive but Abi reassured me that no one had actually got into the house, which left me somewhat confused. The story goes that either the night guard was asleep, he had wandered off somewhere or he let the intruders into the plot of the house. Then the intruders proceeded to prise open the windows for the bedrooms and as they cannot climb in due to the metal bars on each window they must have used a hook or claw to drag things to the windows and out. In the end they took a duvet, some pillows, sheets and bed sheets, and ran off when the night guard started screaming to Abi around 4am that someone was stealing things from the house. Now I have another new night guard and the security company are begrudgingly going to pay for the stolen items. So annoying but it could have been worse and the items taken can easily be replaced.

A long journey back

A quick summary of the transport that we used to get back to Mazabuka from Tofo:

1. Local bus (very uncomfortable) at 0400hrs in the morning from Tofo to Maputo – 9hrs travel
2. International bus (luxury and I was so comfortable that I talked in my sleep and woke up half the bus at one point) at 1900hrs from Maputo to Johannesburg – another 9hrs
3. Commuter train and then shared taxi to get from the intercity bus terminal at 0500hrs in Joburg to OR Tambo airport – took a bit longer than it should have done but was good fun
4. Plane of the Easy Jet kind from Joburg at 1000hrs to Livingstone – less than two hours
5. Bus (semi luxury) from Livingstone at 1330hrs to Mazabuka - and 6hrs later back in Maz

Then time to sleep.

Tofo and Tipo Tinto

A piece of advice on how to end the New Year and then start the new one – be near a beach. Zanzibar last year was wonderful and Tofo, sitting on the Indian Ocean, was pretty good too. Our routine for days on end was to hit the beach, run across the beach to avoid the hot sand, cool off in the sea and jump into the waves, beach sleeping to catch up after a late night or two, search for some food and then head out for some more dancing and drinking. The drinking at times included some strange and scarily looking cocktails, and also on one night a wee bit too much of the local rum, Tipo Tinto. Happy sandy days.