Livingstone is a nice, small city in Zambia really close to Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Victoria Falls. It is ideally set up for parting backpackers and other travellers from their hard-earned money. I was there for almost a week. Here is what I did:

Victoria Falls
It is rather difficult to describe Victoria Falls. It is not one of the seven natural wonders of the world for nothing. The part I was able to see best from the Zambia side where I was was the Eastern Cataract. It was incredibly -- just seemed to go on forever. And the gorge it cut out was really deep and created some amazing rock formations. The spray from the falls on the Zim side rose way up above the top of the gorge. And it is the dry season right now. Truly amazing. This brief description in no way does it justice. So, keep reading...

Canoeing
Not surprisingly, Victoria Falls is part of one of the major rivers in Africa, the Zambezi. Most people staying in Livingstone went whitewater rafting, but having already done that on the Nile, I decided to see the Zambezi from a canoe rather than not see in while repeatedly flipping over in a raft. (As it actually turned out I was actually in a canoe-like raft, but that is not really the point.) The day on the river was really relaxing (except for the hard work of constantly paddling.) I got to see lots of birds and hippos as well as some impala, bushbuck, crocodiles, and elephants. Some hightlights included seeing a cormarant that had just caught a fish and a fish eagle flying through the sky with a fish in its claws. FYI - the African fish eagle is the Zambian national bird. And, we even got to go through some rapids, though none were more than a grade 2. In some ways I thought it was more fun going through the small rapids than rafting on the Nile because the rafts were smaller so you could still really feel the whitewater, but without much worry of capsizing.

Simonga Village
To get a little bit of local culture, I spent a day and a night in a village not far from Livingstone that has recently started a cultural tourism program. The village was very similar to other villages I have been to, but there were a couple things that stood out. Since their cultural tourism program has been taking off, they are building a couple of guest "chalets" which are really just mud huts. It was really cool to see the huts in various stages of construction, which is something I haven't seen much of. One was just a frame, made of logs. Another had a roof and some mud walls had been built. The third hut was actually being worked on while I was there. There were vertical logs as the frame with smaller logs (sticks, really) in front and behind the vertical logs, laid horizantally. This created a framework which was filled in with mud. Water would be poured on dirt and then a woman would soften/smoothen it into building mud by kneading it with her feet. Other women grabbed handfulls of the mud and put it into the framework by hand. Occasionally, they included rocks. Once the framework is completely filled in the walls will be "plastered" with mud and the roof frame will be covered with grasses. As nice as it was to see the huts being built, and as much as I like cultural tourism programs (ones that bring tourist dollars directly to the local people) I am not sure how I feel about the construction of the huts. One of the reasons I wanted to visit the village is that they have a fairly new cultural tourism program and the program description said I would get to stay in local accommodation. Well, since the program had been doing well they now had guest quarters in a nice (cement) building. So, I still have not managed to spend a night in a mud hut. The problem is that it seems that the more successful a program becomes the less authentic it becomes. A bit of a catch-22.

The other interesting part of the visit was the birthday party. One of the local kids was turning two. And wow, do they celebrate childrens' birthdays differently than we do. The kids of the village (of all ages) gathered in the late afternoon, eagerly anticipating getting juice (BYO cup) and bread rolls -- both treats. Not too different from at home. Later, however, the adults began arriving and it turned into quite a party. Loud music, dancing, and lots of drinking of the locally brewed beer. The kids were there, but pretty much forgotten. Later in the evening there were some speeches and people gave money, though I doubt any of the money reached the birthday boy, who really didn't get any special attention. People were kind of surprised when I said that at home, no, the adults usually don't all get drunk at children's birthday parties.

Horseback Riding
For something different I went on a very short horseback ride. I had never ridden a horse before and the experience was fun, but not quite what what I was expecting. I had a very well-trained horse (Willie), so it was fairly easy to get him to go the direction I wanted him to go and get him to slow down. It was really weird to be controlling an animal so very much larger than myself. The only thing I had trouble with was getting Willie to speed up. Two of us had horses that liked to lag behind the rest and our guide kept telling us to kick them to get them to speed up. This was a problem for me for two reasons: 1) I really don't like to kick animals. I just can't imagine they don't have a problem with it, even if they are really big and used to it. 2) If I kicked Willie softly he didn't see to notice. If I kicked him hard enough for him to acknowledge it, he started to gallop. Which was going a bit too fast for me. At least, at that point I could tell him to stop and he paid attention to that. The other thing that really surprised me about horseback riding was that Willie was not as sre footed as i thought he would be. A few times I felt like Willie just barely managed to keep standing upright. I had previously been under the impression that four-footed animals just didn't stumble the way we humans do. Turns out this is not so.

Why Africa Doesn't Work
After horseback riding and eating lunch, I decided that I wanted ice cream. I was in a reasonable sized city whose economy was largely based on tourism. This might lead one to think that getting ice cream would be farily easy, but, well, this is Africa. First, I stopped at Hungry Lion, the place that everyone says has good ice cream. Unfortunately, they didn't have any ice cream. Again. The ice cream machine was still there, but I guess it was just for show. So, I then went to the bakery where they have soft serve vanilla ice cream only. There are other flavors on the menu, but they don't actually have them. Ever. I had been to the bakery the previous day to get ice cream, but had failed. They had no cups of ice cream, only cones, which are not gluten-free and thus no ice cream for Jill. But this time I came prepared with my own cup and spoon. After explaining what I wanted (a cup of ice cream) to the people behind the counter a few times (and having had them give me a cone which I rejected) they took my cup and I thought I was going to get my ice cream. They then proceeded to serve everyone else and ignore me. When I asked after my ice cream - again - they said that they had gone to get the manager to see if it was possible to put ice cream in a cup. (I told them that indeed it was possible to put ice cream in a cup, but they didn't seem to get it.) After a bit of a wait the manager cam out and told that that it just was not possible -- they used the cones to measure. As if that is an exact science. I told him that he could give me a little bit less ice cream or charge me a little bit more (I REALLY wanted ice cream) and explained why I could not have a cone. This went on for a good five minutes or so. He eventully said hold on, disappeared through the back door for about five minutes, and then came back and filled up my cup himself. The regular ice cream servers, presumably, could not handle such a difficult task. I then asked the manager, "If I come again tomorrow, can I get ice cream in a cup?" He didn't know. He would have to ask the owner. The ice cream, at least, was really good. Some of the best vanilla I've ever had. I did not go back the next day, though.

This is a big problem all over Africa -- the people have no initiative or concept of customer service. This, presumably, is fine if one is living a traditional Africa lifestyle, but it really doesn't work in a Western setting, which is exactly what a lot of people out here are striving for. In African cultures, things are not done differently and authority is not questioned. Children don't generally get to ask questions in school and I remember when I had malaria and was trying to ask the woman at the clinic about the drugs she gave, she seemed offended that I was questioning her. (Of course, that is my impression while in a malaria fever, so take that impression only for what its worth, which may be very little.) But it is amazing to think that the simplest little decision - to put ice cream in a cup - that your average 16-year old in her first job in the USA probably could make on her own was a decision that a manager in Africa did not feel he had the authority to make.

Flight of the Angels
On seeing Victoria Falls, David Livingstone said "On sights as beautiful as this, angels in their flight must have gazed.”

Sometimes, you just have to buy the pictures. And yes, that is me in the back of the microlight.