Happy Birthday to Dave! It was not the most exciting day as we spent most of it in the air or on a small bus, but on the other hand, we spent it in Africa! And to top it off - 3 different countries: South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Botswana! We had breakfast at the hotel and met our driver, Adelaide, in the lobby. We also got to meet the new folks - those who did not go on the pre-trip - Suzann and Dennis from WI, Dan and Carla, also from WI (they did not know each other before this trip), Jan (Dennis’s sister from MO, and Kitty from HI. When we landed at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, we had to wait an hour plus to get through the visa lines. Victoria Falls was named by Dr. David Livingstone after his queen, Queen Victoria. The natives had another name for the falls, which translates to “the smoke that thunders”. The population of Victoria Falls is 50,000. We will come back here later in our tour.
After we picked up our luggage, we got to meet our lovely guide, Vimbai. She will be with us the rest of the trip. We loaded up the van and were on the road. When we got to the border crossing, we could see miles of semi-trailers parked on the side of the road leading up to the crossing. Apparently, the paperwork process for truckers to cross the borders can be extremely slow. Some of them wait for up to a week before they can cross. We passed many trucks loaded with copper (some of it in a fairly raw state). The copper is from Namibia and is trucked all over.
The road we traveled on was a dream of John Cecil Rhodes (of diamond mine and Rhodes Scholar fame) and runs from Cape Town at the tip of South Africa to Cairo, Egypt (approximately 4000 km). Vee (Vimbai’s nickname) gave us a little talk about the people of the area and their relationships with the animals of the region. Many people keep their wealth in the form of cows and if the lions come close to the village and eat the cows, they lose their savings. Others are subsistence farmers and elephants would be their main problem as they can very quickly trample and destroy field of crops. Again, if that happens, the farmer is out of luck and will have a hard time surviving.
Tidbits from Vimbai: Botswana is known for its diamonds, agriculture and tourism. Zimbabwe has 90% literacy, but also 90% unemployment. In talking about the long lines at the border crossings, people start standing in line at 7 PM at the ATM so they can be there when it is operational in the morning. You can only withdraw $50 per day.
The border crossing that we came to is near the Zambezi River and is a major crossing for South Africa, Zimbabwe, DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo), and Botswana. There was a long line of trucks waiting to cross from Zimbabwe into Botswana. The rule is that the trucks are parked on both sides of the road and the driver is supposed to walk to the border station and process (or begin to process) the paperwork. Three semis decided to skip this first step and drove right up to the station. They had been waiting there for hours and were getting a bit fed up and feisty. We heard one of the drivers say that if they wouldn’t let them through, he would back up and block all of the lanes. He made good on his threat and everything was stopped. We walked through the station, got our visas stamped on the Zimbabwe side and then walked a bit through no-man’s land and got our stamps on the Botswana side. Not a problem as we were on foot. Our van driver, however, was stuck on the Zimbabwe side behind the semis. We waiting in the shade of a tree for quite some time and eventually our driver came through. We then had to walk through a disinfectant bath for our shoes (to prevent hoof and mouth disease from spreading to the cattle in Botswana) before board the van again. Vimbai found out that the authorities clamped the wheels of the semis and wouldn’t let them go through until they paid a fine for parking in front of the border gate and another fine for causing a blockage. After about an hours delay, we were on the road again, but this time we were in Botswana. Vee called ahead to Chobe park to let them know we would be late as they lock the gates in the evening. We finally pulled into Baobab Lodge about 7 in the evening. The staff was out from waiting for us and serenaded us with a welcome song - very beautiful! We had dinner first all wonderful food made by our chef, Oscar. He jokingly said we were having elephant dung for dessert, but when the time came, he presented Dave with a beautiful chocolate and vanilla bundt cake with four candles on top. We all sang Happy Birthday and very much enjoyed the cake. We got to our rooms, which are raised chalets. We are not allowed out until we get the wake up call at 6 AM (a staff member beats an African drum outside your door).
To digress: 60% of all AIDS victims are located in sub-Saharan Africa. When the Africans first heard of AIDS they thought it was American propaganda. In fact, they thought it stood for American Ideas for Discouraging Sex. When we crossed the border into Botswana, the van pulled into a shopping center and Vee had arrange for Matilda, a prostitute, to come on board to talk about how she got into the business. She was dressed in a leather fronted skirt and a leopard blouse. She then told us her story. Her mother mother died when she was still in school and she was then left in charge of 4 siblings and her grandmother. She dropped out of school to take care of them. She started in the prostitution business when she was 19 in order to earn money for her family and is now 27. She rents a room nearby and plies her trade from a bar with the truck drivers who are waiting to cross the border. She had her regulars who seem to be good to her, but sometimes they are not so nice. She has been badly beaten twice by men from Botswana, who seem to be abusive to women in general. Men from Zambia refuse to wear condoms. She has two daughters, 3 and 5, as a result of unprotected sex and is HIV positive. She is getting meds from a nearby clinic that deals with sex workers. She is very careful not to get arrested as prostitution is a crime here. There are 20 to 30 ladies working in this area and sometimes, if they are caught, they can bribe the police with money or services to avoid jail time. She pays a lady in her home village to watch her children and they have no idea what she does for a living. The truck drivers have to wait in line so long waiting to cross that they sometimes run out of money so when that happens, she goes home to see her family. She is paid $20-$40 per encounter. She is given a small stipend by OAT for coming on the bus to talk to us. I think she is very brave to open up to strangers about her circumstances. Later, Lana and I talked to Vimbai about taking up a collection for her. A few of us chipped in and Vimbai was able to get the money to her through another guide. I hope that she will use the money to take some time off from her usual activities or that she will use it for her children.
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