The children who live next to lodges or parks always ask for something, the contact with the musungu tourist has erased that purity and curiosity which is there in their peers whom I find in the villages far from amusing places. Next to lodges they ask, or better they say: ‘Give me a sweet!’, ‘Where is my pen?’, ‘Where is my exercise book?’, ‘Give me money’. In other places there is more curiosity: ‘Where are you from?’, ‘Where are you going?’, ‘Why is your bike made out of wood?’, ‘How come you speak Nianja?’. The saddest thing is that these behaviors, which we have introduced, are encouraged by the parents. It is also in this way that the business of the dependency culture starts.
After the mental wank, the stage.
Finally the sun is shining, there is no wind and Mozambique is on the opposite bank, I think you could manage to cross the river Luangwa even walking as the water is very little and many sand banks have emerged, my friend Moses comes to my mind whose grandparents were killed by Mozambican rebels who plundered Zambia. Immediately after the bridge, as envisioned, the road starts going up for a few kilometers, the drops of sweat fall on the road, following the same path forehead, sunglasses, nose. There are many monkeys, no villages only houses scattered here and there. No kantemba. When the water finishes, the only thing I find which could resemble it is a sugar cane whose diameter is triple the one found in Kafue. Tearing a piece off with my teeth, sucking it, feeling the water come out and finally spitting the fiber makes me go back to childhood.
5 km from Nyimba I met two charcoal burners, that is charcoal sellers, who use as means of transport bicycles. A bag weights 30/40 kg, those of today were carrying two each, we chatted a second, took some photos and headed towards my destination. All of a sudden taking advantage of a slight downhill one of the two charcoal burners sprints ahead like mad! We are by now at the end I cannot not react … I go back behind with my speedometer indicating 45km/h … I come abreast of him, we look at each other, we start laughing like crazy and keep telling each other ‘you are strong’.
Luangwa S 15°.626 E 30°.404 – Nyimba S 14° 33.473’ E 30°49.468’
105 km