chicken bus

A chicken bus is what locals call the cheap seat buses because they jam pack people into them like chickens. Our 7 dollar bus ticket from Harare to Lusaka was not quite a chicken bus but it was pretty far from the greyounds that we got used to in South Africa. Let me begin a timeline of our trek, keep in mind that the total distance traveled is about half that from our 15 hour drive from Pretoria to Lusaka.

7:30 PM: Slyvester drops us off at the bus stop after escorting us with the protection of a slingshot. The bus is scheduled to arrive at 8. Nathan and I pop a few sleeping pills to help make the trip seem faster.

8:00 PM: People begin to form a line (a queue, as they say) at the gate. We are about 5th in line. We make friends with a Congolese guy named Moki and a local Zim named Rowan. Both are very nice guys.

8:40 PM: The bus finally arrives. Upon seeing the bus, people rush out of the gate toward the bus door. Why even form a queue? Then it is pure mayhem. Pushing, pulling, pinching, punching. People getting pummeled and trampled. Old ladies getting shoved. Then shoving back. I don't get it. There are just enough seats for everybody right? So what is the big hurry to board? It was literally a dog pile at the tiny door to the bus. We finally get on (almost last) but Rowan has saved seats for the three of us. The seats are tiny. The butt is about 12 inches wide, side by side, 3 on one side, 2 on the other. My butt is about 20 inches wide, which means I will only have one cheek on the seat for the entire ride.

9:30 PM: The bus leaves the gate. An hour and a half behind schedule. The congolese guy next to me has 0% body fat and is used to warm weather so the 80% temp in the bus makes him cold. He closes the window. The body odor in the bus is suffocating, but I haven't showered in 6 days and so I am sure that I am contributing to the stench.

10:00 PM: The sleeping aid is kicking in harccore and I am exhausted. My eyes literally hurt from being tired but I am way too uncomfortable to sleep. Both legs are numb. 11:00 PM: We stop at a "take aways." Take aways are Africa's version of fast food. But it is best compared to 7 Eleven food. I stay on the bus assuming that this is a 10 minute break.

11:45 PM: We depart from the Take Aways.

2:45 AM: We arrive at the Zambian border post. However, the post does not open until 6 am. Now, I am not sure why we didn't just leave Zim a few hours later but Rowan lets me know that we are here for 3 hours. I follow some people out of the bus and we all just lay on the ground, literally at the footstep of the border gate. Honestly, it was the happiest moment of the trip. It was Nathans birthday and I think that he was very bummed out about spending it in a chicken bus. He has certainly worn his feeling son his sleeve the last few days. For me, it is all part of the experience. I actually smile to myself right before falling asleep on the dirt thinking, this is bizarre, but something I will remember.

4:45 AM: I wake up shivering cold. Nathan is beside me sleeping like a baby in his blanket.

6:00 AM: The bus starts up, waking us all up and we get back on the bus.

6:15 AM: We form a queue at the "check out" point. Moki quickly hands me a bag of sugar and says, "here, put this in your bag and say it is yours. I', only allowed to take a few." I didn't want to agree but for some reason, probably sheer tiredness, I did.

8:15 AM: The queue of about 80 people finally makes it past check out. Since check out means a guy just stamps your passport, I have no idea how it could take 2 hours. But before we leave, every bag must be searched, which means for some, unpacking all together. Moki's bags are checked and the guy tells him that he cannot take sugar out of the country. He loses 3 big bags of sugar. Nathan and I aren't checked.

8:30 AM: We cross the Zambezi river and stop at the Zambia border post for check in. We form another queue.

10:00 AM: We finally make it to the customs counter. The guy tells us that it is US 100 dollars for a visa. We tell him that we thought it was only 25 us dollars. he gets angry and says 100! We say that we do not have that much (a lie) but that we were told that a one week visa is 25. He says, in a very angry, evil voice, "then we will send you back!" This is the low point of the trip. Paying this guy 200 US dollars, a price that I am pretty sure is not right. Nathan and I hadn't eaten more than a roll with peanut butter in nearly 24 hours, and no sleep. My back aches, my legs ache and it is starting to get hot again.

10:30 AM: Right before we leave, one of the girls from our bus gets robbed 100 US dollars. She is in tears.

11:30 AM: We get a random inspection by a police officer and we must show our passports. It is the 100th time I have shown my passport in less than 6 hours.

2:00 PM: We arrive at Lusaka.

Now, it is all something that I will remember, but to say that the last week has been fun would be incorrect. They have been rough nights, very little food, no shower, a lot of worrying, and in the end, a relatively expensive week. Nathan especially is upset. I think it is just the feeling of having your birthday and hoping for something nice and getting a chicken bus. So I will be trying to make it up to him in the next days. Not sure how yet, but Lusaka has already been a very friendly town, We will be here for about 4 days. Then.... another chicken bus. This time headed to Malawi. There is a couch surfer there that we will be stying with, hopefully.

Endnotes: I am going to try to play basketball today. I hear there are pickup games at a park nearby.

We will be couchsurfing with a guy named Topsy tonight.

Patrick - Thank you for the emails with links to youtube and other sites. Note that to pull up hotmail.com takes about 5 minutes and that each email I read is about 5 minutes to upload. A youtube video would take about 30 minutes. At nearly 4 dollars per half hour, there is no way I could watch the vids. But I do like getting emails and such. But I am in Africa. Youtube is impossible.

Thank you to everyone that has written me. I miss you all and am excited that it is almost half way!