Bond in Lusaka
Saturday, December 13th, 2008Day 257
The heavy rain that fell overnight helped both of us have restful sleeps, unfortunately it turned the much of the city into a muddy mess. Lusaka has a population of over 1 million but it looked more like an overgrown village. We had one day to kill in the city and without any real attractions it looked like a lot of internet time.
We walked from Kiboko Backpackers to the centre, less than a km away. Cairo Street is the centre of life in Lusaka and really away from this main street the city looks like a small town. Cairo Street is a bustling mess of noise and diesel fumes mixed with people selling pirated cd’s, clothing and food. Along the centre of the Cairo street is actually a tree lined walk which offers a much more pleasant place to stroll. We walked with little hassle here, it didn’t look like many tourists were around Lusaka. “White man!” A guy shouted and pointed at me as he walked by laughing. Why yes I am, at least they were good natured people here in Lusaka. Something that made up for the lack of beauty in the city.
We had a great indian lunch at a very small and informal restaurant. One half was a small shop where the husband took payment for food and sold spices and the like. On the other side the friendly wife dished out some great indian in stainless steel thali dishes. “Spain?” The man asked me after we ordered. Wow, all that Spanish I learned must have made me look Spanish. “No, we are from Toronto, Canada”, I responded. “Ahh Canada, do you know Mississauga? About 200 Zambian families live there”. Jordana and I both laughed, here we were in a small alley in Lusaka at the smallest restaurant I’ve ever seen and we were talking about Mississauga! The food was great, after paying we hit dusty Cairo street again searching for internet.
The internet was a challenge, it was painfully slow and eventually the power went out. After some coffee we decided to take a taxi out to a suburb to a shopping centre. We found an East Africa guidebook we needed and then found a movie theatre. Lucky for us they were playing the new Bond film. Decent film that was made more interesting for us since so much of it took place in Bolivia. Exiting the movie there was a large choir outside singing Christmas carols, African style. It was great, although it just made me miss home and I’d rather just forget about Christmas this year.
Back at the hostel we tucked in our mosquito nets and tried to cool off in our hot room. Once again heavy rain fell and the thunder shook the windows. I was excited to be moving on tomorrow to Lilongwe, Malawi. Although in the end Lusaka wasn’t a bad stop for 2 nights, it helped out that the people here are incredibly friendly.
Michael Coroneos